Chapter Thirteen

The Catastrophe

Real fighters turn their problems into an advantage

Elisium

The Fifth Loop, Year 1, 7th January (5L/1/1/7)

"The moment has finally come. The time to create history. To decide the future of the two worlds and change their fortunes forever."

Thomas's prominent ministers welcomed Solomon at the Gateway of the Royal Mound. Solomon had asked his men to wear their armors and keep their weapons ready to strike. Although he was a guest of the King, and inflicting any harm on a guest was an unforgivable sin, Solomon didn't trust his father's murderer to abide by such trivial rules. Murder was the biggest sin but Thomas didn't have any qualms about it.

Thomas warmly greeted Solomon at the gate of the Grand Palace. "Solomon, my dear nephew! You were a naïve young man when I last saw you, now you have grown into a mature statesman."

How courteous. I must remind him that I left this world because he murdered my family and tried to kill me as well. "I was supposed to embrace my adulthood with a grand ceremony, but thanks to you Uncle, I was robbed of that. And a lot of other things for that matter."

"So much hatred in such a young heart is not good. Some unfortunate circumstances caused some unnecessary confusion back then. We have all the time in the world to discuss that but first, let us have some food."

Dinner. No way. I can't trust Thomas. He won't blink an eye before poisoning us all.

Thomas sensed his nephew's conundrum. "I have invited you into my house and I wouldn't inflict any harm on my guest. Don't you trust me to even abide by the basic values of this society?"

Solomon chose not to reply.

"Ah! You are just like my dear cousin Isaac, always suspicious of everything. Trying to find problems, when there were none. Anyways, I knew such a situation may arise so I have made likewise arrangements."

Thomas showed Solomon around the massive dining hall of the Grand Palace. "All the plates for the feast are arranged on that table. You choose the plate from which you eat, and you also choose the plates for me and my ministers. You choose what gets served to you, and the same thing will be served to all of us. We eat first and then you. If there is something in the food we all die together. My dear nephew, trust me, I am an honorable host."

Solomon looked at Aaron, who shook his head

"I am not convinced either but I can't find a flaw in this arrangement," Solomon whispered to his friend.

"Refusing to eat when invited to a feast will be a bad omen, and also show us in a bad light," Aaron mumbled. "We have to go with the flow, but keep our eyes open."

Solomon and his men sat down for dinner in their designated places. Once everyone had settled down, Solomon didn't waste any time. "Uncle, when will you surrender?"

Thomas leaned back in his chair. "Frankly you haven't left me much of a choice. Your troops look invincible and you have powers to control nature. I can't fight you, but I also have to look after my interests. A tough night of negotiations lies ahead of us, so we better fill our stomachs with this delicious food. A wise man once said 'Always talk to an intelligent person when his belly is full'."

"Tell me, what people will think about me if I strike a deal with my parents' murderer and let him walk away?"

"As per the records King Isaac was murdered by one of his bodyguards, the son of a commoner who was a vocal critic of the rampant corruption in your father's administration. I publicly executed the father-son duo to appease the masses and then organized a massive funeral for the king to show my respect and suppress any conspiracy theories. I am not a murderer in the public's eye."

"And what did you tell people about me?"

"My soldiers saw you jump in the Abyss, so I was pretty sure you weren't returning, hence I named myself King Regent, to look after this kingdom till Solomon the Lost returns. People have short memories, gradually I dropped the word regent and became King Thomas the Just."

"You are wicked beyond imagination," Solomon said biting into his lamb chop.

He may be a devil but he looks like a good host. He has laid down a large feast and the food is delicious.

Solomon and his men hadn't had a good meal since arriving in this world. They hungrily tucked into the feast. Aaron sat next to Solomon and kept a close eye on every tiny detail. Everything that Solomon chose was first served to Thomas and his ministers. They all ate it without a fuss. Nothing suspicious happened throughout the dinner.

The fatigue of traveling and battle finally caught up with Solomon and he felt a little dizzy. He tried to get up from his chair, as per tradition the guest of honor marked the end of the feast by standing from the table, but he couldn't feel his legs. His whole body went numb and he couldn't keep his eyes open. Solomon looked at Thomas, he seemed shaky as well but then he noticed something that sent a chill down his spine. His uncle had a malicious smile on his face.

Thomas struggled to speak but each word that came out of his mouth drove a dagger into Solomon's heart. "I don't... have to poison... you... I just had... to incapacitate... you and your men... for a few hours... even if... that meant ... I had to incapacitate myself and some..... of my men... Now I will have.... a peaceful sleep.... While my most... lethal men... will take care of ... you all... Rest in peace..."

"You... treacherous... monster." Solomon tried to leap across the table and grab Thomas, but his body failed to respond. He fell off his chair. At that moment, hundreds of Thomas's soldiers marched into the Great Hall. A couple of them pinned Solomon to the floor. He tried to break free but couldn't move a limb. A few soldiers held Aaron down to the ground, right next to Solomon. His dear friend's face, with anguish, pain, resignation, and despair written all over it, was the last thing Solomon saw before he slipped into unconsciousness.

***

A bucket of cold water, thrown at his face, woke Solomon. Aaron's face was again in front of him, but tears welled up in his eyes and his heart almost stopped when he realized that his friend's head was not on his shoulders—rather stuck on a spear.

Solomon howled like a wounded beast. Severed heads of all his other men were raised on spears. They weren't inside the palace anymore, but rather on the balcony above the gateway of the Royal Mound.

Thomas sat on a chair next to Aaron's head, calmly munching some nuts. "Our cooks made great desserts using the kheshish. You know kheshish right? The weed used by healers to numb the body parts and put patients to sleep while performing surgeries. A surgery had to be performed on Geoffrey today, due to the wounds inflicted by your men, and that gave me this brilliant idea."

"You venomous snake, you invite guests to your house and then murder them. You don't know how to play fair, all you know is treachery."

Thomas sneered, rolling his eyes skywards. "Look who is talking about playing fair. Sandstorm, cursed weapons, impenetrable armor, is that what you call playing fair? You used some magical power to incapacitate my men before butchering them, I used kheshish. Where is the difference?"

"The difference lies in the motives. I am fighting to free this world from evil whereas you are that evil."

"Right and wrong, truth and lies, light and darkness, good and evil, all these concepts are subject to interpretation. A matter of perspective, of how you look at things or how you project them. Your virtue could be my sin. One man's hero could be another's villain."

"You can't hide behind these sick notions of yours. Almighty's justice is never very far."

"I don't plan to meet him anytime soon. I want to rule this world for many more years to come and you actually might help me doing so. Your arrival was first a huge problem for me but real fighters turn their problems into an advantage. You are a gift for me, sent by Almighty. You don't believe in my perspective. Let me show you how I turn your army of angels into a gang of demons."

Thomas walked to the front of the balcony. Commoners had watched Solomon's army rout the king's forces, so when they entered the enclave, thousands of people gathered in the large clearing outside the Royal Mound in anticipation.

Thomas cleared his throat and began his well-rehearsed speech. The skies were still clear so his loud voice echoed in the calm night.

"O the people of Elisium, our beloved city had been put on the siege by an army of demons from Inferna, the hell above us." Thomas pointed to Aden hanging above their heads. There were gasps and murmurs in the crowd.

'Under the command of a devil, these demons found their way into our world. Don't be fooled by their appearances, they may look like us, but they are vicious monsters with dark souls. Their impenetrable armors and deadly weapons are made of cursed materials from hell. They came here to rule our world and turn us into their slaves. When we tried to fight for our freedom, the devil used his dark magic to summon a sandstorm and butcher our brave soldiers.

'To avoid any further bloodshed, I invited them inside the Royal mound to negotiate a peace deal. Once they entered our fortified enclave, these treacherous demons launched a surprise attack. However, our soldiers chose our beautiful world over their lives, they fought bravely till their last breath."

The large gate of the Royal Mound opened and some of the martyrs' coffins were carried out amongst the public. There were enough dead bodies from the previous battle to make people emotional. Grief melts people's hearts and blinds their brains, the more gut-wrenching the story, the more people will fall for it. Moist eyes and grim faces told Thomas that people were buying his story.

"Blinded by the over-confidence from yesterday's victory they thought they could easily roll us over but they were wrong," Thomas continued. "The devil's dark magic failed him at a crucial point, and without it, these demons began to fall, one by one. Their leader, the Devil of Inferna was captured. We lost many courageous heroes in this fight, but in the end, righteousness prevailed. Our brave soldiers earned a hard-fought triumph."

It was time to put the icing on the cake. "To remember the steadfastness of your king who looked into the eyes of adversity and pay tribute to the valor of our soldiers who sacrificed their lives to protect your freedom, you must see demons from hell yourself. Remember, they may look like us but they are the monsters who wanted to destroy our world."

A hundred soldiers walked out of the large gate carrying a spear with a head on its tip. Aaron's head was in the front.

Thomas wanted this to become a spectacle. He wanted every Elisian to vent their anguish and frustration over the regime on these aliens. But someone had to trigger the emotions and Thomas never left anything to chance. One of his men amongst the crowd spitted on Aaron's forehead while another slapped a martyr's face. On cue, people started slapping, spitting, and cursing. Elisians were disgracing the very saviors who had come to liberate them.

Thomas came near Solomon, who was bound in thick iron chains, and kicked him in his gut. "Did you really think that you could snatch this world from me this easily, with just a hundred men? I can stoop to any depths to protect my throne that I earned after conspiring for years against your father. Now I will behead you in public to add to the drama. But before that, tell me where your famed amulet is. I am quite flattered by its powers. It will serve me very well."

Solomon could feel the icy touch of the amulet against his skin.

It is right here around my neck. How in God's name he didn't find it?

He was still trying to figure this out when Thomas dragged him by his hair to the front of the balcony.

"Look how I turned heroes into villains, good into evil." Solomon looked at the scenes below and felt like throwing up. People were hurling abuses at the severed heads, spitting on them, slapping and punching them. Some of the heads had fallen off the spears and people were kicking them around.

Solomon had buried the grief of losing everything dear to him deep in his heart but that anguish was like smoldering lava bubbling within a volcano. He bellowed like a man possessed. "All the nobles, ministers, and soldiers have also become monsters like you, rotten beyond repair. You all conspired to murder your guests and now you are dishonoring them after their death. You all must be punished."

Thomas broke into demonic laughter. "And who will punish us? You, bound in chains or these heads on spears? I don't know how you managed to recruit all these brave men to fight for you, however, the one thing I know for sure is that you are nothing but a coward."

Solomon's muscles tensed, his face turned crimson. He furiously snapped his fingers in quick bursts.

"Yes, a coward who ran away and left his mother to be disgraced and humiliated in a sea of enemies. Do you know how some ministers slapped and thrashed her to vent their frustration? Or how some nobles groped her? A few wanted to do unmentionable things to her in the courtyard, I was secretly in favor of that but unfortunately, one of our cousins had pity and put an arrow through her heart. This happened because you ran, and now you talk about punishing me? Come on. Punish me. I am right here, in front of you."

Thomas had taken it too far. He broke the barrier of conscience that had kept Solomon's fury buried underneath. The volcano of hate and rage finally erupted.

Solomon let out a primal roar, the amulet twitched, and the heavy iron chains around his body melted like wax. He raised both his hands towards the heavens and his ominous voice echoed around the Capital. "You all don't deserve to live. You must be uprooted from your origins so that you no longer pollute this world with your sins. O Almighty, the Supremes, the Lords of Nature I urge you by the virtue of my forefathers to open the skies and annihilate these criminals."

Solomon moved his lips. The amulet shone like a bright star. The large pink ruby at its center emanated a crimson glow. The diamonds around it shot jets of light towards the sky.

And the skies opened.

People who were dishonoring the martyrs paused to see what was happening. The sky rumbled and the ground shook violently. A dark ominous cloud appeared over the Capital. Bright flashes of lightning streaked across the sky. And then it started to rain—but without water.

Large fireballs pelted down and exploded when they came in contact with any surface. The burning rocks annihilated whatever it touched. Star-Rocks of varying sizes battered the Royal Mound. The opulent monuments and the lavish palaces inside the enclave got blasted. Elisians, who had gathered outside the gateway, ran for their lives.

Massive explosions shook the Capital. Everything was ablaze. Thomas's men tried to evade this Rain of Fire, but there was no escape for the treacherous nobles, the corrupt ministers, or the despicable soldiers.

However, when you unleash death be prepared for the worst because the angles of doom don't differentiate between men and women, young and old, innocent and guilty. Death punished the criminals but it didn't spare their clueless families. Hundreds of innocents were ensnared in those burning buildings. Children cried for help, and women screamed in agony—their blood-curdling shrieks intercepting the loud explosions. Every structure inside the enclave was on fire. The Royal Mound had become a raging trap of death.

Solomon looked at the carnage around him, his chest still heaving. The balcony he was standing on was the only structure untouched by the Rain of Fire.

Thomas shrunk away in a corner. "Spare me, my dear nephew." Thomas pleaded in a last-ditch attempt to save his life.

"Spare you? The main culprit, when I have punished every other," He said grabbing him by his collar.

"Punished the culprits? Is that what you think you did here?" Thomas smirked. He decided to show Solomon the mirror before he met his death. "Just look around you. You slaughtered my men although you knew they were just following orders. You annihilated their families—innocent women and sinless children. Tell me, you burned them alive for what crime? I did murder your father but to avenge him you have killed thousands of innocents. I may be a criminal, but you are a monster. A real demon from hell..."

"Shut uppppp!!!" Solomon put his hands over his ears and screeched. "Just Shut upppp!!!" He glared at Thomas, cowering under his eyes burning with fury and the next moment a fireball dropped on him from the sky. Thomas, like many of his men, was blown to pieces.

The mist of anguish lifted from Slomon's mind when he was finally done with Thomas.

I have delivered justice. I have punished the culprits. But what have I done?

The fireballs had turned the Royal Mound into a giant funeral pyre that was burning people alive, now they were destroying the houses in the narrow lanes of the Capital.

This is a disaster. A Catastrophe. I have to end this. I must regain control.

He clutched the amulet, closed his eyes, and prayed. The rain of fire gradually stopped. He loosened his grip on the weather. The thunderstorm reappeared and the torrential downpour lashed out at the Capital and began extinguishing the fires. Solomon kept praying till almost all the blazes were out. His heart sank when he looked at the rubbles. He had turned the magnificent Capital into ruins.

Solomon walked out of the gateway. A few people who had returned to the clearing to take stock of the situation backed away the moment they saw him.

"He is the devil who burned our city."

"He is that demon from hell. He caused this catastrophe."

"Run. Get away from him before he turns us into ashes."

People scampered away from him as if they had seen a ghost.

Solomon stood there, all alone and drenched in rain. Adam's words echoed in his mind 'A moment of madness turns an angel into a demon.'

I came to free this world from a monster, but instead, I turned into a demon myself. I wanted to save Elisium from deteriorating but almost ended up destroying it. I wanted to unite the people of the two worlds but now Elisians will never trust Adeners again. Maybe destiny doesn't want to unite the two worlds. Maybe this dance must go on.

Solomon had failed to understand that some phenomena are beyond human understanding, they should not be messed with. This Transition was one such phenomenon.

Wars do claim lives.

But this war was unnecessary and you started it.

I was bound in chains, my men were all killed. I had no other option.

You don't burn down a city in self-defense. It was a fit of fury. You lost your head

Maybe the effects of the Transition caused this havoc? Maybe it's just another cruel twist of destiny.

You know the truth Solomon and there is no escaping it. You have to carry this burden on your soul forever.

Solomon tried reasoning with himself but the Transitioners inside him didn't let him come to peace with his guilt. Didn't let him justify his actions

I am not destined to rule the two worlds. My misadventure in this world has reached a tragic end. It is time to return. But as repentance of my sins in this world, I vow to devote every minute of my remaining life to developing the other world in a way that no one had ever done before.

Solomon reached the bridge of faith and had one last look at the world of his birth. For the second time in his life, he jumped into the Abyss of Unknown after his life had taken a drastic turn.