“Quick! A storm is brewing over there in the distance!” a man with a dark brown mustache shouted to his companion, Marcus, who wore a crimson cloak and was looking up at the dark sky above.
“Hurry up, it’s getting closer!” the man with the dark brown mustache yelled, pushing his companion away to the side and grabbing hold of the machine. He dragged his fingers across the multitude of buttons, attempting to revive the island’s storm shield.
Thunder cracked and lightning lit up the dark sky. The seawater came closer than ever.
The man with the crimson cloak stared at the wall of water just a few hundred meters away, gathering speed. He reached into his cloak and drew his saber.
The man with the brown mustache turned around and drew his two daggers. “You traitor!” he bellowed. “The throne is rightfully mine, I will not allow you to take it.”
Marcus shook his head. “You assassinated the prime minister and caused the entire empire to plunge into chaos. Now, with the fate of our nation hanging in the balance, I shall end your reign of terror! It is time for the ultimate affair of honor, here, at Ponterrado, where all tides are turned!”
The man with the crimson cloak took a step forward, and instantaneously, the two men leaped towards each other and clashed.
It was a fierce battle with hundreds of strokes each minute. Neither of them could get the upper hand as they dueled. They fought with such speed that a single hesitation could be fatal. A spectator could miss an important strike that might determine the results of the duel by just blinking.
Just then, the man with the brown mustache took a step back and stumbled on a large rock. As he fell, he made no hesitation and swung his two daggers together to protect him.
Immediately, Marcus struck with such force that both of the daggers shattered to near oblivion.
CLANG!
The man with the brown mustache picked up the shards of his daggers and tried to use them to fight, but it was hopeless.
“You may have won this battle, Marcus, but you will undoubtedly lose the war,” the defeated man snarled, panting heavily.
“I have hundreds of allies, but you have none. Why don’t you just give up? There is no point in trying to stop the mighty Pontellius Clan.
“Why don’t I just give up?” the man with the crimson cloak chuckled, lifting his sword into the air. “I have no reason to do such a thing. You have hundreds of allies, but they are incredibly unloyal and will defect to me when they learn that their leader has been killed. Your time is up, Amadeus. I don’t want to do this, but you have forced my hand. Any last words before I send you on a long journey?”
“No,” Amadeus defiantly replied. He then closed his eyes tightly and awaited his fate.
“Well, then, vfalon zenipithernomos! Goodbye forever!” Marcus yelled before stabbing his enemy’s chest and penetrating his most vital organ.
Amadeus stopped breathing and fell into an eternal sleep. The man with the crimson cloak reached into his pocket and pulled out a remote-like object.
He pulled a pin on top of the object, extending the device’s antenna.
Marcus wasted no time in pressing the large red button and immediately running for high ground, leaving the corpse of the murdered man lying on the beach.
Just as the colossal wave reached the shore, the island’s engines began roaring. The entire island was lifted out of the water, revealing its gigantic metal propellers. As these propellers began spinning, the barnacles and seaweed that had clung onto them for decades were thrust into the air.
The propellers spun faster and faster as the island ascended into the sky. White smoke rose from the boilers.
Meanwhile, the tsunami coming in from the north had just lost its target of opportunity. The wall of waves collided with the ripples formed by the island’s ascending and lost its momentum.
The man with the crimson cloak looked down at the lifeless body of his former companion.
“I’ll send you to the place you belong,” he said solemnly, lifting the corpse onto a stretcher and dropping it off the edge of the island.
Marcus watched as the body fell through the sky and disappeared beneath the clouds, satisfaction rising in his mind like the tide.
He clicked his heels and saluted his old friend for one last time.
The throne of a mighty empire was now truly his, and no worthy opponents could say otherwise.
There once was a saying in the land of Medietus: “What is neither possible nor impossible is neither achievable nor unachievable. All of it simply depends on the individual’s point of view.” It was a fine morning on the industrial mountain of Lagoda. Grimy factories and their smokestacks— smeared charcoal-black by the fumes rising from them— took up almost all the land on the crowded mountain. Below the factories were residential areas. One side of the mountain was uninhabited. There, a handful of rusty, rundown factories stood in solitude. At the foot of Mount Lagoda was a small river that woun
Instead of finding an old factory with all sorts of debris on the ground, Ishida found that the building was completely new on the inside, with dozens of machines constantly working.The machines were producing guns, ammunition, and explosives at full capacity. Bright fluorescent lamps hung down from the ceiling, illuminating the entire building.The floor was littered with a multitude of unlabeled crates, many of which were open. These contained automatic guns, shotguns, pistols, sniper scopes, bullet cartridges, hand grenades, land mines, and anti-tank rifles.The sight of these weapons of munitions completely terrified Ishida.“Why are all these weapons being made?” he said, slowly backing away. &ldq
Once Ishida reached the gate and the barbed wire fence, he stopped to wipe the sweat on his forehead. He sighed in relief— no one had tried to chase him.Ishida was still breathing heavily from the terrible fright the incident had given him when suddenly, he heard a distressful call for help from somewhere in the distance.The voice did not sound like that of anyone on Mount Lagoda. It was a rather pleasant voice— a voice that resembled the sound of a small stream of fresh mineral water slowly trickling down a hill.“Help!! Somebody, please help me! I’m drowning!” the voice called ov
Soon, an inky black object emerged from the water. It was Ishida’s head.“That was fun!” He laughed as he waded through the shallow water.Rhina smiled in relief. She stepped back onto the sand and tapped her earrings once again. This time, when her foot touched the water, it did not float.“How is it that you were drowning just earlier, even though you had these magical earrings?” Ishida asked.“I wanted to know what it feels like to swim in the water. To tell you the truth, I have never done it before. That’s because my father hasn’t let me go outside in a very long time,” Rhina answered. “I didn’t think that water, the very substance that gives life, could al
It was a cold evening with heavy snowfall and long dark hours. After having dinner, Ishida offered Rhina his bed and slept on the couch.But a few hours later, he was still awake. As it turned out, he had not entirely forgotten the discovery he made at the ammunition factory that afternoon.I wonder what kind of people are operating the place and why they want to produce weapons, he thought.Perhaps another war is coming...?Ishida shook his head. No, it can’t be! The last war we had was over a thousand years ago! Still, what about those mosaic paintings?What do they represent? That mountain lo
"What's going on?" Ishida asked an elderly man who was limping by on a cane. “Get away from here as quickly as possible! There’s no time to waste!” the man warned him before hurriedly shuffling away.This was the first conversation Ishida had had with a person other than Rhina in years.Ignoring the warning, he did not head away from the town, for he needed to know what was happening.“What’s going on? Why is everyone in such a hurry?” he asked as a soldier with a rifle strapped to his back rushed by.There was no answer. The soldier, who wore a long white winter coat, continued marching. Following him were many more soldiers. They were all hurrying down the ridge.“
The villagers were evacuating the town when Ishida and Rhina arrived. Men took up their guns and prepared to defend their houses as women and children headed further up the mountain to seek refuge.As they were walking in front of a doorway, Ishida and Rhina were grabbed and pulled into a house by an old lady.Inside the house were a number of grandmothers who had armed themselves with wooden rolling pins and whisks.“You children can hide in our house,” one of the elderly ladies said kindly. “We’ll protect you from those nasty Medietans.”When Ishida turned around to thank the lady, she dropped her rolling pin and shrieked.“It&rsquo
The man droned on and on in an increasingly monotonous tone. Ishida was too tired to listen and eventually fell asleep. A while later, he felt a sharp pain on his shoulder.He was about to cry, “Ow!” when he remembered that they were prisoners and tried his best not to make a sound.“What is it?” he whispered to Rhina. “Listen! This is important,” the girl whispered back.“We have lost, according to our very precise and accurate estimates, one hundred and twenty tanks, five hundred and thirty-three soldiers, eighty-two rifles, one hundred and eighty pistols, ninety-seven assault rifles, ninety-nine daggers, fourteen bayonets, and seven