The body of the first slovesa emperor was huge, making Ceres wonder how such a gigantic floor could be contained within the crystal tower and remain standing. However, considering all the spatial distortions that the temple had made him suffer so far, he did not really question it at this point.
The floor, walls and ceiling were all carved with glyphs, telling the story of the Uniter. The glyphs glowed in golden colours that sparkled, unlike the usual blue glyphs he saw in the temple. Ceres did not dare to move a single inch further into the hall, lest he triggers another event. He had about enough with weird effects and unknown doors.
Instead, he took his time to read the story on the walls. It took some time to find the start of the story, as Ceres continuously had to backtrack when he realized it was not the start of the story.
Eventually, he realized that the beginning of the story was on the body of the first slovesa emperor itself, starting at where his core would have been.
He began to read in earnest, interested to know the origin of the temple and how was all of these implemented.
***
My name is long forgotten, lost in the sea of names others have made for me.
They first called me Disgrace – a weak lowborn slovesa, with not even the potential of a low-class. Not even fit to be a drone.
Born in the mass spawning caves where thousands like me lived, I was forced into slavery from the beginning, just like everyone else.
Deemed unfit to even serve as a warrior to fight for the local lord, I lived amongst my compatriot slaves, harvesting the best metals as penance for the sin of being born weak, giving tribute to those who originally spawned us.
No education.
No friendship.
No purpose.
Only scraps were given to me day by day, sustaining my weak body and core as I toiled every planet cycle. I had nothing to live for, nothing to gain until airs of an idea reached me one cycle.
Disseminated by local rebels who were dissatisfied with the lord, they planned to overthrow the ruling authority, spreading an ideology through the masses, hoping to overwhelm the garrison by sheer quantity.
“The strong shall serve the weak.” The concept of such a society enthralled me, a young and naïve slovesa who could barely keep his body together. Despite my lack of education, I instinctively understood the message.
How great must a society be to live for the sake of ensuring that the weak survive as well?
Fascinated, I joined the rebellion, feeling excited as I became part of a larger movement. There was education. Friendship. Purpose. Never before had I felt such a sense of community and direction.
However, the rebellion was crushed before it even began.
A mass purge swept through the slaves without restraint nor pity.
I was not spared either, my core pierced and my body thrown into a pit of rubble, made from the bodies of both rebels and innocents alike.
Another slave screamed out in anguish, asking the reason for such brutal actions.
“Why, tens of thousands of you are born every day across this planet! I can easily purge you all and get fresh slaves with just a snap of my hand. At least when you die, your body can serve as nutrients for the fresh ones!” The lord laughed as he watched hundreds of thousands of slaves dumped into a mass grave.
I was buried alive with the corpses of slaves. Doomed to die. Born from the earth, to die in the earth again. I closed my senses, half accepting my fate. But deep down in my core, I still held a strong belief in the idea – the message!
Despite the dire circumstances, somehow I remained alive. My core was damaged, and my energy slipping away, but I focused on one thing – survival. How could the idea be brought to fruition without staying alive?
I resorted to despicable methods, eating my brethren and draining their core’s material to patch mine. The cycle continued, as I continue to eat, and eat and eat.
Other survivors were alive in the mass graves too – only those with the will to live and take revenge remain strong in the face of such adversity. Instead of fighting with each other, we understood our true enemy – those above us!
Everyone who survived the mass grave was aware of the rebel ideology – this massacre only made us even more committed to the cause. Only a thousand of us survived out of the millions purged, feeding off the broken cores of our fallen brethren, boosting our power.
For ten years, we hid in the mass graves, witnessing the horrors and lack of empathy born by those above us. We suffered purge after purge, but it only steeled our hearts and minds.
Those who survived the subsequent purges joined us, only making our force stronger. But we remain hidden in the shadows, deep underground, biding our time till the time was right.
Infrastructure, logistics, guerrilla warfare – these were the skills drilled into me over the years.
On a day unrecorded in history, we hit hard, toppling the ruling authority in one fell swoops. Our agents were widespread, disabling the planetary government from within. The infrastructure of the planet’s capital was controlled, enabling our overtaking of the government.
No more shall we be ruled by oppressors – freedom, democracy for all.
Yet at the final moment, we were betrayed by our own brethren in the rebellion, those who had struck a deal with the true authority offworld – the lord of the star system.
They fled the planet in advance, claiming to be recruiting more comrades. Instead, they slinked under a new master, unable to shake off their invisible shackles.
The fleets carved away at our planet, glassing the surface with fire intense enough to burn metal. No city on the surface survived, levelled into rubble and lava, hardened lumps of metal and the gruesome lumps of loved ones protecting each other were all that remained to speak of.
In the end, the fleet left, leaving nothing but a scorched surface behind to be a lesson to those who would rebel against those above. No one survived, except me.
I remained alive, despite all the horrors and terrors I have been through. Even the orbital bombardment did not kill me, my comrades giving their lives up to continuously save the weakest, until only I was left.
It was then I had an epiphany.
Only with the ultimate strength can I achieve the ideal.
What good is it for weak individuals to clamour for rights, yet lack the willpower or strength to achieve them?
I began to focus entirely on gaining strength, yet again consuming the bodies of my comrades, gaining power.
Over time, my core evolved slowly as I traversed the planet alone, feeding off the bodies in cities that I came across. The number I have consumed was uncountable, close to a quadrillion of them. Even I have lost track.
With each core I gained a minute amount of power, each step I took brought me closer to the goal.
When an exploration ship thirty years later arrived on the planet, expecting to find loot deep underground, they instead found me and gave me a new name.
They call me Horror.
I killed everyone on the ship, controlling it to plan my ascension into the ultimate power. The revenge and scars of the decades before had never left me.
My strength was almost unmatched in slovesa society.
I easily beat anyone I came across, establishing my domineering presence and strength. Over time, I began to amass a force so strong that even the authorities did not dare to spark a war with me.
Soon, they called me Leader, then they called me Lord, and then they called me Ruler of the Star System.
Naturally, those whose clan has been dismantled by my hands called me Usurper, Criminal.
I began to plan for conquest beyond the Star System.
How many others were suffering from such slavery and terrible conditions? How many were repressed and under-represented?
Many answered the call to war, as I marched in fleets numbering in the trillions of ships – liberating slovesa system after system. The battle raged throughout the known stars, but my troops held strong, faithful to the cause.
Soon, my numbers began to build and my territory expanded.
Those of the old system tried to unite in an alliance against me, offering riches and gifts to those who would support them, but how could their bond compare to the fanatic belief of my warriors?
In every single confrontation, the alliance would crumble at the first sign of defeat, fleeing in all directions in the hopes of self-survival. They were mistaken.
We destroyed every opposition and crushed every opposing clan down to their last bones. Soon, there was only one clan left – mine.
At the end of it all, I declared a new title for myself – the Uniter.
For our race was one that has been divided since we reached the stars, now we have been reformed into an empire once more.
As my first motion, I immediately abolished slavery, cementing free rights for all slovesa’s in the empire. Finally, the message had been established.
A meritocracy, my empire was. Freedom for anyone regardless of birth or clan could achieve anything they set their hearts out to do.
No longer shall those from above limit the growth of others.
Resources shall be allocated to those who achieve them, rather than born into them.
A golden age ensued – technology improved in leaps and bounds, the living standards of every slovesa skyrocketed, and the people loved me. Or so I thought.
Behind my back, the same old poison that created the old system was flowing within the empire – currency.
Even the members of my clan who had been with me from the start began to change from within, power-hungry.
They called me Decrepit.
Whoever holds the wealth controls the planet, so they say. That adage held true for the stars.
Influence groups began to form, as disputes over the wealth that the empire has built up began to fester deep below, resulting in a deep network of espionage, betrayals and general insecurity among the population.
Many tried to curry my favor, hoping to receive some reward or support – but I am impartial. Many were executed for trying to bribe me, even those who I had been comrades with from the beginning, but yet the problem still persisted.
Finally, I realized the root cause of all of this.
The finite resources of the empire were diminishing, our borders limited.
With no external enemy and treasures to plunder, my people became disunited, searching for outlets to exert their incessant thirst for conflict and battle.
How could I forget our roots as a warrior race?
I began to take the advice of my best advisors, starting a conquest against neighbouring alien races.
With just my declaration and the lift of a single hand, star after star fell, blotted out by the sheer might of our fleets, reunited and organized under one banner.
No one cares about the justification – it was ingrained in us to fight.
Yet soon the consequences of war became clear once again – alien races placed under slavery, forced to toil for the greater good of our empire.
No longer did the empire fight within, instead lunging out at nearby star systems to claim as much as they could.
The war served as a distraction, but to what cost?
Have I merely pushed the suffering to others? Do the slaves look to me as their oppressor? Must our empire truly be united by war?
As the wars continued on, despite our continuous victories, the idea of an external enemy began to lose its effect. We were the dominant species in our region.
The same poison rose again, sinking its fangs into battles between those who had claimed new territory and slaves and those who controlled the original territories. No one was willing to budge on what was rightfully theirs.
They call me the Uniter, the One Above All, yet I had no authority to stop any internal battles.
I tire of such disputes, seeking a way out from this madness. A way to reign in the competitiveness of our kind yet foster progress in the empire.
Hence, the temple was born, on the very planet that I started from – Xerros.
An empire-wide tournament, numbering in the billions of participants. Ranking monuments on every planet, for their honour and pride, to be shown to all.
A high-stakes battle for the top – I gave a promise that whoever reaches the top of the ranks shall have his chance to be the next Uniter.
Now, to you who reads this – you have overcome all obstacles and trials, surviving every ordeal thrown at you. I do not know when or how this trial will be cleared.
Perhaps the empire might no longer exist, perhaps those who seek to undermine me have sabotaged the tournament in the future.
Yet I leave my legacy to you, in the hopes that you may find the right solution.
There may never be a right solution.
But my trust lay in you, the winner. For you have overcome impossible odds.
May your names be many and of honour.
***
Just as Ceres read the story to the end, five pedestals suddenly rose up from the floor, frightening Ceres into a battle-ready posture.
All this time he had assumed he was going to fight the first emperor to the death. He was not even sure if he would be able to take down such a humongous slovesa.
Each of the pedestals featured an item, forming a cross pattern with something that looked like a badge in the middle pedestal. The other four each featured a different type of core, with glyphs engraved onto the pedestals.
Ceres warily stepped forward, pausing to see if any special event took place. He tried to scan for any living being but could see nothing. Each of the cores looked like a slovesa core but had different colours. Ceres carefully read the inscription on each of the pedestals.
“For those who believe in power.”
“For those who believe in stability.”
“For those who believe in progress.”
“For those who believe in chaos.”
Ceres had no idea what would happen if he took a core, but suddenly he heard a shout from behind.
“WAIT! Do not take anything!” Goras yelled from the entrance of the hall. Goras tried to sprint into the hall but a barrier blocked him from entering. It punched the barrier with incredible might and anger, shocking Ceres.
“Do not forget your promise, Ceres. I must take one thing first for guiding you here!” Goras shouted.
Ceres thought Goras was acting strangely. He could sense a strong killing intent from Goras.
If it was not for the barrier, Ceres might have been dead by now. Should he take everything? Ceres eyed the middle pedestal – a badge the size of his hand rested on it. The moment Ceres’s eyes landed on the pedestal, Goras slammed the barrier in fury.
“Don’t you dare take that item, Ceres! If you do, I will hunt you down for eternity! Everyone related to you will perish!” Goras raged.
“What? Relax, I haven’t taken anything yet!” Ceres immediately put his hands in surrender, obviously realizing how badly Goras wanted that badge. It was not smart of him to make an enemy of a slovesa who could flick half a forest into ruin.
Goras remained slient, eyeing Ceres to make sure Ceres could not pull off any stunts. Ceres was not going to take the badge for sure, but he was definitely going to take the four cores.
“Well, it’s my reward for surviving this far, I’ll go with the power one. I need power to save my friends.” Ceres reached for the core, before suddenly being frozen in place. He tried to move his hand further, but the black scale armour locked him down in place, unwilling to budge.
“What the hell? Why do I have to let you choose? I want the power core!” Ceres roared as he strained his body to the limit, but he could not even make the black armour move.
“Fine, the stability one then! Aren’t I going to take all four cores regardless?” Ceres walked backwards, moving over to the stability one before the black-scale armour stopped him again, locking his limbs.
Giving up, Ceres finally was allowed to pick up the chaos core. “Oh so you like this one? Okay what’s so good abou…. ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH”
A sudden surge of pain blasted through his entire body as the black armour began to melt the chaos core through the palm, devouring it as Ceres held it in his hands, feeling like all his limbs were twisting apart.
A voice echoed in his head, reverberating throughout his skull like a large bell.
“To control is to oppress – to arrange is to resist. Let chaos reign, only you shall survive!”
The core slowly disappeared into the black armour, melting into the surface.
Ceres started to bleed from his eyes and ears as he continued screaming, black blood flowing down onto the floor like a viscous sludge.
Goras smirked as he saw the sight, assuming Ceres had triggered some sort of trap. “Serves you right, you dirty human - suffer for your greed!”
A series of crunching and flesh ripping sounds painted a gory scene right where Ceres lay twitching on the ground, lying in a pool of his own blood and piss.
He had already lost consciousness at the start, his body undergoing a severe transformation as his limbs continuously twisted in different directions, as though joints were not a real thing.
Goras started to frown as he watched Ceres twitch on the floor like a zombie. “This is not looking good. What kind of punishment is he receiving!?”
Soon, however, the flailing stopped after ten minutes – ending with Ceres lying motionless, but breathing.
The barrier dropped, allowing Goras to enter the hall.
“Finally, my prize is here!” It gleefully shouted as it ran towards the middle pedestal, which held the badge.
Suddenly, Ceres’s body jerked upwards, though he still remain unconscious. Goras froze on the spot, unsure of what was happening.
Did the temple reanimate Ceres’s body to serve as a defender?
However, it did not matter to Goras – he was the strongest person here. Ceres was but an ant to him, and now that Ceres had outlived his usefulness, Goras was more than happy to kill him.
Instead of waiting, Goras decided to take the initiative to attack. He fired off four energy beams at Ceres, but the black goo-blood composite that was pooled on the floor suddenly surged around Ceres, forming a shield and absorbing the beams.
The black goo suddenly formed into a spear, stabbing at Goras with high speed.
Goras immediately dodged, taking Ceres seriously as a true enemy. He did not know what substance the black goo was, only that it was extremely dangerous.
Nothing was going to get between him and that badge.
However, the spear swung around and stabbed repeatedly at Goras, forcing him back away from the middle pedestal.
When Goras finally was more than twenty steps away from the badge, the black blood lost its form and swooped back towards the badge.
“OH NO YOU DON’T!” Goras yelled, knowing that if he let the black blood touch the badge it may dissolve. He quickly fired off rapid energy beam shots while sprinting after the black blood, blocking off its path towards the badge.
Goras also fired a powerful beam at Ceres’s exposed body, who was still standing upright but unconscious. The black blood immediately rushed back to Ceres’s body, absorbing the energy beams and protecting him. Goras grinned as he found the weakness of the black blood.
“Should not have taught you how to absorb energy, but you’re dead either way!”
The body of the first slovesa emperor was huge, making Ceres wonder how such a gigantic floor could be contained within the crystal tower and remain standing. However, considering all the spatial distortions that the temple had made him suffer so far, he did not really question it at this point.
The floor, walls and ceiling were all carved with glyphs, telling the story of the Uniter. The glyphs glowed in golden colours that sparkled, unlike the usual blue glyphs he saw in the temple. Ceres did not dare to move a single inch further into the hall, lest he triggers another event. He had about enough with weird effects and unknown doors.
Instead, he took his time to read the story on the walls. It took some time to find the start of the story, as Ceres continuously had to backtrack when he realized it was not the start of the story.
Eventually, he realized that the beginning of the story was on the body of the first slovesa emperor itself, starting at where his core would have been.
He began to read in earnest, interested to know the origin of the temple and how was all of these implemented.
***
My name is long forgotten, lost in the sea of names others have made for me.
They first called me Disgrace – a weak lowborn slovesa, with not even the potential of a low-class. Not even fit to be a drone.
Born in the mass spawning caves where thousands like me lived, I was forced into slavery from the beginning, just like everyone else.
Deemed unfit to even serve as a warrior to fight for the local lord, I lived amongst my compatriot slaves, harvesting the best metals as penance for the sin of being born weak, giving tribute to those who originally spawned us.
No education.
No friendship.
No purpose.
Only scraps were given to me day by day, sustaining my weak body and core as I toiled every planet cycle. I had nothing to live for, nothing to gain until airs of an idea reached me one cycle.
Disseminated by local rebels who were dissatisfied with the lord, they planned to overthrow the ruling authority, spreading an ideology through the masses, hoping to overwhelm the garrison by sheer quantity.
“The strong shall serve the weak.” The concept of such a society enthralled me, a young and naïve slovesa who could barely keep his body together. Despite my lack of education, I instinctively understood the message.
How great must a society be to live for the sake of ensuring that the weak survive as well?
Fascinated, I joined the rebellion, feeling excited as I became part of a larger movement. There was education. Friendship. Purpose. Never before had I felt such a sense of community and direction.
However, the rebellion was crushed before it even began.
A mass purge swept through the slaves without restraint nor pity.
I was not spared either, my core pierced and my body thrown into a pit of rubble, made from the bodies of both rebels and innocents alike.
Another slave screamed out in anguish, asking the reason for such brutal actions.
“Why, tens of thousands of you are born every day across this planet! I can easily purge you all and get fresh slaves with just a snap of my hand. At least when you die, your body can serve as nutrients for the fresh ones!” The lord laughed as he watched hundreds of thousands of slaves dumped into a mass grave.
I was buried alive with the corpses of slaves. Doomed to die. Born from the earth, to die in the earth again. I closed my senses, half accepting my fate. But deep down in my core, I still held a strong belief in the idea – the message!
Despite the dire circumstances, somehow I remained alive. My core was damaged, and my energy slipping away, but I focused on one thing – survival. How could the idea be brought to fruition without staying alive?
I resorted to despicable methods, eating my brethren and draining their core’s material to patch mine. The cycle continued, as I continue to eat, and eat and eat.
Other survivors were alive in the mass graves too – only those with the will to live and take revenge remain strong in the face of such adversity. Instead of fighting with each other, we understood our true enemy – those above us!
Everyone who survived the mass grave was aware of the rebel ideology – this massacre only made us even more committed to the cause. Only a thousand of us survived out of the millions purged, feeding off the broken cores of our fallen brethren, boosting our power.
For ten years, we hid in the mass graves, witnessing the horrors and lack of empathy born by those above us. We suffered purge after purge, but it only steeled our hearts and minds.
Those who survived the subsequent purges joined us, only making our force stronger. But we remain hidden in the shadows, deep underground, biding our time till the time was right.
Infrastructure, logistics, guerrilla warfare – these were the skills drilled into me over the years.
On a day unrecorded in history, we hit hard, toppling the ruling authority in one fell swoops. Our agents were widespread, disabling the planetary government from within. The infrastructure of the planet’s capital was controlled, enabling our overtaking of the government.
No more shall we be ruled by oppressors – freedom, democracy for all.
Yet at the final moment, we were betrayed by our own brethren in the rebellion, those who had struck a deal with the true authority offworld – the lord of the star system.
They fled the planet in advance, claiming to be recruiting more comrades. Instead, they slinked under a new master, unable to shake off their invisible shackles.
The fleets carved away at our planet, glassing the surface with fire intense enough to burn metal. No city on the surface survived, levelled into rubble and lava, hardened lumps of metal and the gruesome lumps of loved ones protecting each other were all that remained to speak of.
In the end, the fleet left, leaving nothing but a scorched surface behind to be a lesson to those who would rebel against those above. No one survived, except me.
I remained alive, despite all the horrors and terrors I have been through. Even the orbital bombardment did not kill me, my comrades giving their lives up to continuously save the weakest, until only I was left.
It was then I had an epiphany.
Only with the ultimate strength can I achieve the ideal.
What good is it for weak individuals to clamour for rights, yet lack the willpower or strength to achieve them?
I began to focus entirely on gaining strength, yet again consuming the bodies of my comrades, gaining power.
Over time, my core evolved slowly as I traversed the planet alone, feeding off the bodies in cities that I came across. The number I have consumed was uncountable, close to a quadrillion of them. Even I have lost track.
With each core I gained a minute amount of power, each step I took brought me closer to the goal.
When an exploration ship thirty years later arrived on the planet, expecting to find loot deep underground, they instead found me and gave me a new name.
They call me Horror.
I killed everyone on the ship, controlling it to plan my ascension into the ultimate power. The revenge and scars of the decades before had never left me.
My strength was almost unmatched in slovesa society.
I easily beat anyone I came across, establishing my domineering presence and strength. Over time, I began to amass a force so strong that even the authorities did not dare to spark a war with me.
Soon, they called me Leader, then they called me Lord, and then they called me Ruler of the Star System.
Naturally, those whose clan has been dismantled by my hands called me Usurper, Criminal.
I began to plan for conquest beyond the Star System.
How many others were suffering from such slavery and terrible conditions? How many were repressed and under-represented?
Many answered the call to war, as I marched in fleets numbering in the trillions of ships – liberating slovesa system after system. The battle raged throughout the known stars, but my troops held strong, faithful to the cause.
Soon, my numbers began to build and my territory expanded.
Those of the old system tried to unite in an alliance against me, offering riches and gifts to those who would support them, but how could their bond compare to the fanatic belief of my warriors?
In every single confrontation, the alliance would crumble at the first sign of defeat, fleeing in all directions in the hopes of self-survival. They were mistaken.
We destroyed every opposition and crushed every opposing clan down to their last bones. Soon, there was only one clan left – mine.
At the end of it all, I declared a new title for myself – the Uniter.
For our race was one that has been divided since we reached the stars, now we have been reformed into an empire once more.
As my first motion, I immediately abolished slavery, cementing free rights for all slovesa’s in the empire. Finally, the message had been established.
A meritocracy, my empire was. Freedom for anyone regardless of birth or clan could achieve anything they set their hearts out to do.
No longer shall those from above limit the growth of others.
Resources shall be allocated to those who achieve them, rather than born into them.
A golden age ensued – technology improved in leaps and bounds, the living standards of every slovesa skyrocketed, and the people loved me. Or so I thought.
Behind my back, the same old poison that created the old system was flowing within the empire – currency.
Even the members of my clan who had been with me from the start began to change from within, power-hungry.
They called me Decrepit.
Whoever holds the wealth controls the planet, so they say. That adage held true for the stars.
Influence groups began to form, as disputes over the wealth that the empire has built up began to fester deep below, resulting in a deep network of espionage, betrayals and general insecurity among the population.
Many tried to curry my favor, hoping to receive some reward or support – but I am impartial. Many were executed for trying to bribe me, even those who I had been comrades with from the beginning, but yet the problem still persisted.
Finally, I realized the root cause of all of this.
The finite resources of the empire were diminishing, our borders limited.
With no external enemy and treasures to plunder, my people became disunited, searching for outlets to exert their incessant thirst for conflict and battle.
How could I forget our roots as a warrior race?
I began to take the advice of my best advisors, starting a conquest against neighbouring alien races.
With just my declaration and the lift of a single hand, star after star fell, blotted out by the sheer might of our fleets, reunited and organized under one banner.
No one cares about the justification – it was ingrained in us to fight.
Yet soon the consequences of war became clear once again – alien races placed under slavery, forced to toil for the greater good of our empire.
No longer did the empire fight within, instead lunging out at nearby star systems to claim as much as they could.
The war served as a distraction, but to what cost?
Have I merely pushed the suffering to others? Do the slaves look to me as their oppressor? Must our empire truly be united by war?
As the wars continued on, despite our continuous victories, the idea of an external enemy began to lose its effect. We were the dominant species in our region.
The same poison rose again, sinking its fangs into battles between those who had claimed new territory and slaves and those who controlled the original territories. No one was willing to budge on what was rightfully theirs.
They call me the Uniter, the One Above All, yet I had no authority to stop any internal battles.
I tire of such disputes, seeking a way out from this madness. A way to reign in the competitiveness of our kind yet foster progress in the empire.
Hence, the temple was born, on the very planet that I started from – Xerros.
An empire-wide tournament, numbering in the billions of participants. Ranking monuments on every planet, for their honour and pride, to be shown to all.
A high-stakes battle for the top – I gave a promise that whoever reaches the top of the ranks shall have his chance to be the next Uniter.
Now, to you who reads this – you have overcome all obstacles and trials, surviving every ordeal thrown at you. I do not know when or how this trial will be cleared.
Perhaps the empire might no longer exist, perhaps those who seek to undermine me have sabotaged the tournament in the future.
Yet I leave my legacy to you, in the hopes that you may find the right solution.
There may never be a right solution.
But my trust lay in you, the winner. For you have overcome impossible odds.
May your names be many and of honour.
***
Just as Ceres read the story to the end, five pedestals suddenly rose up from the floor, frightening Ceres into a battle-ready posture.
All this time he had assumed he was going to fight the first emperor to the death. He was not even sure if he would be able to take down such a humongous slovesa.
Each of the pedestals featured an item, forming a cross pattern with something that looked like a badge in the middle pedestal. The other four each featured a different type of core, with glyphs engraved onto the pedestals.
Ceres warily stepped forward, pausing to see if any special event took place. He tried to scan for any living being but could see nothing. Each of the cores looked like a slovesa core but had different colours. Ceres carefully read the inscription on each of the pedestals.
“For those who believe in power.”
“For those who believe in stability.”
“For those who believe in progress.”
“For those who believe in chaos.”
Ceres had no idea what would happen if he took a core, but suddenly he heard a shout from behind.
“WAIT! Do not take anything!” Goras yelled from the entrance of the hall. Goras tried to sprint into the hall but a barrier blocked him from entering. It punched the barrier with incredible might and anger, shocking Ceres.
“Do not forget your promise, Ceres. I must take one thing first for guiding you here!” Goras shouted.
Ceres thought Goras was acting strangely. He could sense a strong killing intent from Goras.
If it was not for the barrier, Ceres might have been dead by now. Should he take everything? Ceres eyed the middle pedestal – a badge the size of his hand rested on it. The moment Ceres’s eyes landed on the pedestal, Goras slammed the barrier in fury.
“Don’t you dare take that item, Ceres! If you do, I will hunt you down for eternity! Everyone related to you will perish!” Goras raged.
“What? Relax, I haven’t taken anything yet!” Ceres immediately put his hands in surrender, obviously realizing how badly Goras wanted that badge. It was not smart of him to make an enemy of a slovesa who could flick half a forest into ruin.
Goras remained slient, eyeing Ceres to make sure Ceres could not pull off any stunts. Ceres was not going to take the badge for sure, but he was definitely going to take the four cores.
“Well, it’s my reward for surviving this far, I’ll go with the power one. I need power to save my friends.” Ceres reached for the core, before suddenly being frozen in place. He tried to move his hand further, but the black scale armour locked him down in place, unwilling to budge.
“What the hell? Why do I have to let you choose? I want the power core!” Ceres roared as he strained his body to the limit, but he could not even make the black armour move.
“Fine, the stability one then! Aren’t I going to take all four cores regardless?” Ceres walked backwards, moving over to the stability one before the black-scale armour stopped him again, locking his limbs.
Giving up, Ceres finally was allowed to pick up the chaos core. “Oh so you like this one? Okay what’s so good abou…. ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH”
A sudden surge of pain blasted through his entire body as the black armour began to melt the chaos core through the palm, devouring it as Ceres held it in his hands, feeling like all his limbs were twisting apart.
A voice echoed in his head, reverberating throughout his skull like a large bell.
“To control is to oppress – to arrange is to resist. Let chaos reign, only you shall survive!”
The core slowly disappeared into the black armour, melting into the surface.
Ceres started to bleed from his eyes and ears as he continued screaming, black blood flowing down onto the floor like a viscous sludge.
Goras smirked as he saw the sight, assuming Ceres had triggered some sort of trap. “Serves you right, you dirty human - suffer for your greed!”
A series of crunching and flesh ripping sounds painted a gory scene right where Ceres lay twitching on the ground, lying in a pool of his own blood and piss.
He had already lost consciousness at the start, his body undergoing a severe transformation as his limbs continuously twisted in different directions, as though joints were not a real thing.
Goras started to frown as he watched Ceres twitch on the floor like a zombie. “This is not looking good. What kind of punishment is he receiving!?”
Soon, however, the flailing stopped after ten minutes – ending with Ceres lying motionless, but breathing.
The barrier dropped, allowing Goras to enter the hall.
“Finally, my prize is here!” It gleefully shouted as it ran towards the middle pedestal, which held the badge.
Suddenly, Ceres’s body jerked upwards, though he still remain unconscious. Goras froze on the spot, unsure of what was happening.
Did the temple reanimate Ceres’s body to serve as a defender?
However, it did not matter to Goras – he was the strongest person here. Ceres was but an ant to him, and now that Ceres had outlived his usefulness, Goras was more than happy to kill him.
Instead of waiting, Goras decided to take the initiative to attack. He fired off four energy beams at Ceres, but the black goo-blood composite that was pooled on the floor suddenly surged around Ceres, forming a shield and absorbing the beams.
The black goo suddenly formed into a spear, stabbing at Goras with high speed.
Goras immediately dodged, taking Ceres seriously as a true enemy. He did not know what substance the black goo was, only that it was extremely dangerous.
Nothing was going to get between him and that badge.
However, the spear swung around and stabbed repeatedly at Goras, forcing him back away from the middle pedestal.
When Goras finally was more than twenty steps away from the badge, the black blood lost its form and swooped back towards the badge.
“OH NO YOU DON’T!” Goras yelled, knowing that if he let the black blood touch the badge it may dissolve. He quickly fired off rapid energy beam shots while sprinting after the black blood, blocking off its path towards the badge.
Goras also fired a powerful beam at Ceres’s exposed body, who was still standing upright but unconscious. The black blood immediately rushed back to Ceres’s body, absorbing the energy beams and protecting him. Goras grinned as he found the weakness of the black blood.
“Should not have taught you how to absorb energy, but you’re dead either way!”
