Will of a Prince

Avala climbed out of the ground with the General and Gabriel close behind her. Looking at the area around them, all they could see were tens of thousands of dead monsters and Epigones. There were pools of magma randomly spouted across the ground and the air was hot and difficult to breathe in. She coughed and waved her hand in front of her face as she stared at a massive crater in the distance.

"You definitely bought us some time by burrowing us under that stone, General. However, it looks like it wouldn’t have even mattered if we got unlucky."

The General looked at the destruction and let out a hardy laugh.

"My, my. We are so outclassed it’s laughable! Are you both still sure you want to go through with this fight?"

Gabreil nodded his head.

"Do we have a choice?"

"There’s always a choice."

Suddenly, they all felt a strong pull on their souls. They dropped to their knees and grunted as a spectral line escaped each of their hearts and wrapped around a hooded figure walking towards them. Gabriel tried to grow large and send the first attack flying before the man could get any closer. However, his power refused to respond to him. Gabriel looked at himself then back at the figure.

"You think taking our Zalo’s will make us any less weak? They were merely an expression of our true power, Garno. Or are you really so weak that you don’t stand a chance otherwise?"

Garno took of his hood and revealed his disfigure face. Half his head was completely missing, similar to the state they had found Enki in when he took of his hood for the first time.

"I could give you every power I possess, and you still couldn’t lay a finger on me."

Avala slammed her foot in front of her and took a fighting stance.

"We’re not in the mood to talk."

Garno raised a finger and waved it in the air.

"You’re right, but now you should be. I think we should chat for a bit. Anyone else agree?"

Suddenly, Garno was strangely convincing. He didn’t even have to say much for Garbriel and the others to be immediately on board.

"I don’t understand why, but you make a good point. We’ll hear you out for just a moment."

Garno waved his hand, summoning chairs and a large table with an assortment of food. Everyone’s body moved on its own, sitting down in their respective chairs and moving themselves closer to the buffet. Suddenly, a foreboding feeling grasped everyone’s hearts. A middle-aged man pulled up a chair next to Garno while keeping a respectable distance. His eyes were sunken and grey, his hair was white and thin, his arms and legs were frail as if they were hardly used for anything, and his voice was colder than ice.

"Garno, this is a waste of time."

A woman sat in the last seat next to Ferro and crossed her legs.

"Isn’t this interesting? You three may be the only people in existence to have dinner with the Profane Trio."

Avala spat on Annis’ face and threw her plate on the ground.

"To hell with your stupid food. You all doomed humanity for good. There’s nothing to talk about."

Instead of getting angry with Avala, Annis began to laugh hysterically. Her laugh became so obnoxious it started to anger Avala. There was nothing in this situation that could possibly be funny.

"What the hell are you laughing at, monster?"

Annis cleared her throat.

"Monster? We doomed humanity? Oh, please. Do you not realize how ignorant you are? The Profane Trio had nothing to do with dooming humanity. We may have revived Zalo, we knew that the world’s greatest calamity would ensue, but you can’t say we didn’t give everyone a chance to survive."

"What are you talking about? You kidnapped people. You forced people to follow your screwed up doctrine and not everyone got teleported to your camps."

"Ahh, that teleportation would be the work of my second in command. He is a very unique individual, even among people like the Guardians of Zalo."

Avala kicked her chair away from the table.

"Stop talking! Let’s settle this right now!"

Gabriel stood up and grabbed her shoulder. Avala stared into his eyes hopelessly.

"You know we can’t do anything. The least we can do is just play their stupid game instead of dying right away."

Avala clenched her teeth. Annis raised her hand playfully.

"Pardon me, but I wasn’t done explaining why you were wrong before."

Avala crossed her arms and sat back down as another chair appeared underneath her.

"As I was saying, let’s say that we didn’t force anyone to do anything. We were still capable of carrying out our plan with little to no effort. Do you know why that is?"

Avala shook her head.

"It’s because humanity was too busy fighting itself. Don’t you get it? You all were your own downfall."

Avala shook her head.

"That’s madness. The only reason we felt the need to fight is to gain power to defeat you."

"So, humanity would rather sap their own neighbors’ power for their own rather than teaming up with them? And that is somehow our fault?"

Avala hesitated, allowing Annis to continue her lecture.

"Do you think of Zalo not beneficial? How else do you think you were blessed with such powers? The ’Sacred Trio’ as you call them utilize the power granted to them by Zalo himself."

"What are you getting at?"

"What I’m getting at is you all don’t know who your enemy really is. You can’t even begin to comprehend how some people have a different perspective on ’good’ and ’bad’. You need power? Fight the evil neighbors who took some of your land before to gain it! They took your land so they must be evil, right?! You never think past the initial action. You never question why they took the land in the first place. This is the same exact scenario with us reviving Zalo. Did you ever stop to question why we revived him in the first place?"

"We did, but it was a bit difficult to defend a world-wide genocide of our people."

Annis stood from her chair and point at Zalo’s gargantuan figure.

"Tell me, how many of your people has Zalo killed since his awakening?"

Gabriel spoke up.

"All the people of Iron Kingdom. The place was completely decimated when he erupted from the ground."

Annis looked over at the General.

"Are you going to tell him, or am I? We have eyes everywhere, you know?"

Gabriel looked at the General.

"What is she talking about, General?"

The General made a stern expression with his face, refusing to look anyone in the eye.

"Before our final fight, I commanded everyone to evacuate Iron Kingdom. However, almost all of them were too stubborn to leave. I had to reveal to them the dark truths of this world to get them to move. They knew about the dangers coming and all left."

"Then... that means-"

"Zalo hasn’t killed a single human, or at least he hasn’t tried to without good reason."

"That’s complete malarkey! What about those creatures stemming off his body all the time? All those things do is attack people!"

"If you tell a wild tiger to not attack it’s dinner, would it listen to you?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"If you beg a lion to not claw you to death, should it listen to you? Can it? If a mothers child murders your best friend, do you blame the mother for giving birth to the child?"

"No. But that’s not-"

"It is the same. Zalo has made many creations, many creatures and has blessed countless things with his power. That doesn’t mean he is in control of every single one of them. Also, the creatures attack each other too from time to time. If humans were their only diet, they would have starved long ago. They are no different from any other predator that already exists."

Avala wanted to argue, but she couldn’t.

"But Zalo does control things. With his voice he can control anything he wants!"

"That’s different. Just because he can control things doesn’t mean he has constant control of them. If Zalo did control each of them individually, they wouldn’t be creatures anymore, they would be puppets."

"I still don’t understand why you would decide to have dinner with us out of all people. That man who killed our friends, who is he? Why is he allowed to kill? Why did your epigones constantly attack?"

Annis took a moment to respond.

"The man who killed your friends is far gone. Corruption is an extremely beneficial power, but some get drunk on such power and crave more of it. He is one of those few.

"But who is he? Where did he come from? Why is he marked? Why kill our group in particular?"

Annis giggled.

"So many questions. This is going well. Are you sure you don’t just want to fight now?"

Avala frowned deeply.

"Just answer me."

"Fine. The man’s name, his true name, is Jacob Katra."