The Rising Sun: Episode 5 (4 page)

“Ok. So I just get there, wait for this
hermit to find me, and then have him destroy the crystal?”

Mantra shook his head. “Let’s not forget the
second part of this entire operation: a mystical tablet. Nalzes
can’t destroy the crystal with performing the necessary spell for
it, with a mystical tablet. A tablet is needed before he can undo
the crystal’s power.”

“And where do we find one?” inquired Ion.

“I know the location of one close to that
planet.” said Mantra. “Very close, in fact. It is in the planet
Garnor, in the star system 385, just one star system away from the
planet where you’ll find the priest.”

“How do you know?”

Mantra let a moment pass in silence, seeming
to consider something, and then said, “Because this tablet is a
rather special one. And I knew it might be handy sometime in the
future. And so I kept my eye on it. Now, listen closely…”

He told Ion where to land when having reached
the planet, Velrox. It was at the outskirts of a scarcely inhabited
village the planet had. Once he landed there, Nalzes would reach
him there, having sensed the presence of one of the Nyon. Ion was
then to take the priest to the planet Garnor in the nearing star
system. Mantra gave him the specific directions to the place where
the tablet was found.

“Now, we’re running out of time.” Dantox
pressed, as Mantra finished giving Ion the directions. “And so are
you,” He added, looking at Ion.

Ion nodded to him, and turned to Mantra.
“Keep my master’s token safe.”

Mantra looked at the Grael conch held in his
hand, and then gave Ion a soothing smile. “I’ll have to … for the
hopes of the entire realm rest upon it as well.”

“What do you mean?” asked Ion.

“The conch is the instrument of controlling
the watchmen.” answered Dantox. “The entire army of them is under
the command of the one holding the conch … provided the one
wielding it is an initiated member of the Nyon, of course.”

“The watchmen can be summoned by sounding the
conch.” Mantra said, holding the conch up. “If we need the army to
re gather to where we are at a particular instant, we just need to
sound the conch.” He pocketed the conch, shaking his head. “But
apart from all that, my reason for keeping it safe … is because
what it is to you.”

Dantox stepped forward and clapped Ion on the
sides of his shoulders. “Good luck, Ion.”

“You too.” said Ion. He hesitated for a
moment, then burst out, “How’re you going to do this? Nine planets,
and they could be any of them!” He could hear the note of
trepidation in his own voice.

But Mantra gave him a comforting smile.
“Don’t worry about us. We can manage this better than you would
presume. And I have a few tricks up my own sleeve in case you
haven’t noticed off late.”

I noticed.
thought Ion.

Mantra pressed the crystal he had been
holding into ion’s hand. “Guard it with your life…”

“I will.” promised Ion.

Mantra and Dantox turned and walked upto
where Nano had been silently standing, feet away from Ion.

“Well, let’s head out.” Mantra told Nano, who
nodded in response.

The watchmen walked towards them, so that the
large mass of fiery soldiers spread across the land pressed closer
into a smaller group.

Standing feet away from them, Ion watched
quietly.

The space surrounding the entire group seemed
to ripple and shimmer, giving the strange impression that they were
standing inside of a halo made of a watery surface. The liquid
appearance of the halo wrapping them slowly thickened, and before
Ion knew it, the entire army of watchmen, who stood spread over the
desert lands, were standing inside of a giant bubble like wrapping.
It was a giant, spherical halo that seemed to emit a faint orange
glow from its surface. The entire army, along with Mantra and
Dantox, could be seen standing inside, their forms wavering
slightly inside of the glowing orange surface.

Then, without warning, the giant orange
sphere took off from the ground with the meekest impact left around
it, shooting into the skies like a bullet. Ion watched, awed, as
the giant spherical cage shrunk against the black sky rapidly,
turning into a minute orange speck, and then vanishing fully.

Ion turned and faced Flamebird. As if reading
his mind, a rectangular strip peeled itself off the bottom of the
majestic bird, landing over the ground right before him in a
ramp.

Steeling himself, Ion mounted the ramp,
boarding the ship.

The hull of the ship was crafted with a tinge
of elegance. But its build carried the same, fierce sense of
purpose that its mechanical eyes had burned with. About as large as
a living room, it had its seating spread over one side of the wall,
opposite to which, on the other side, stood a table with holo
screens floating over it. Each of them displayed the ship’s
surrounding from a different angle.

A large circular pedestal, raised a feet off
the floor, lay at the centre. A cylindrical, bubble like wrapping.
The atmosphere in the hull pervaded with a strange glow of warmth
and purpose. And it stretched to reach Ion too as he stood there.
For a few mesmerised seconds, he enjoyed the aura that was left to
resonate in the ancient ship. Its energy seeping into his bones as
he stood within it.

A few seconds later, as the daze faded and
Ion braced himself for what had to be done, he realised something
very strange.

Wait a second.
He froze, his eyes
carrying about the large hull. And then -

“There’re no controls!” He looked around, his
eyes flying over the entire hull, and pausing over the holo
screens. “How the hell am I supposed to drive this thing?”

He wasted a few seconds walking about the
hull, trying to find some hidden button or a trigger. But as hard
as he looked, there was nothing at all. The ship seemed completely
devoid of controls.

He was now beginning to feel a rising
frustration, mingled with panic.

Trotting upto the pedestal on the ground, he
slid through the bubble like wrapping, wondering if he would find a
button or some trigger on the pedestal. But it was empty. Just a
normal raised seat on the middle of the hull.

Exasperated, he slipped over the pedestal and
sat crouched on it.

Not more than a split second passed…

And Ion’s eyes flew wide, as the world
suddenly twisted around him…

What’s happening?

He felt as though something had blasted out
the boundaries of his being … leaving him to float out…

What in the world’s happening?

Suddenly, Ion felt his mind merge with
another … He felt his spirit absorb another. His senses seemed to
have expanded, stretching to encase a new body … and a new
world.

Ion
was
Flamebird. He felt the body of
the war machine as sharply, and as clearly as he felt his own. He
saw through the magnificent machine’s beady eyes, and he felt the
covering of its skin wrap over him. He felt every lever and ever
inner intricacy of the machine which were suddenly alive with the
fuel of his thoughts flowing through them. The pulse of his energy,
his mind and soul streaming through them.

Ion
was
Flamebird…

His body was the magnificent mechanical beast
that sat on the expanse of desert soil. And his body was also the
fleshly, thin boy that sat inside of the hull. He felt his mind
hover over two bodies, one with both of them.

Realising that he’d been holding his breath,
Ion’s fleshly body exhaled, its stiff posture now loosening.

He was awed at the sheer ingeniousness of the
ancient machine’s make. There were no controls, because the ship
was driven through a far more efficient, and deadly means:
thoughts. The pilot’s thoughts infused through the body of the
machine so that he was one with it. And he would drive the machine
like it were his body, prompting it with the flick of a thought, as
he would his own body.

Steadying himself in focus, Ion drew in a
deep breath. Then, he sent all of his energy funnelled into the
ship.
Time to roll.

At the brush of a thought, he sent the ship
kicking into action: it took off the ground with a sharp blast of
wind. It floated metres above the desert sprawl for a second,
before twisting over and then rocketing off into the glinting night
sky over him.

Through the dull sensation stretching over
his body, there was a measure of peace … and yet, it was punctuated
by a silent cry of agony … as much as he tried to block it out, it
sharpened. Piercing through the veil of calm…

Fighting the mayhem within, Galinor slowly
moved.

His every muscle strained as he flexed them
in a slow, painful motion. The turf of greenery he was lying on
felt like a mattress to his aching body, lulling him back to sleep.
But he knew that the time for rest was far beyond over.

He shook his head to clear the grogginess and
looked about. A few feet to his right, lying in smoking remains,
was a hover car. The hover car he had managed to reach this place
in.

As Galinor sat up slowly, pain ripped his
spine. The pain of the fall’s impact. But the agony of his mortal
shell was nothing, nothing compared to the agony of the memory
…

The horrible memory of the event which had
just passed. The unforeseen, deadly event.

The Nyon were all dead.

For a second, Galinor couldn’t breathe as the
sheer gravity of the situation reached him.

The plague crystal … What happened to it?
Did they get it?

As the thought crossed, his blood coursed
with a new panic.

The last thing he remembered was the Nyon
temple being attacked by the Xeni. A sudden, ruthless attack … And
he knew the outcome as well. They were all gone. The Nyon were all
gone. Dead.

His mind raced back to remember how he had
managed to get to where he was now.

Two hours ago

The Nyon temple, Farnor

It happened right after Redgarn’s fury broke,
somewhere far up, on a floor much higher to Galinor’s.

The sudden, uncanny rumbling seemed to tear
apart the entire temple. Galinor felt himself soar back and crash
into one of the walls still standing. The opponent he’d been
fighting went sailing out of the structure, into the swirl of
debris that swum around the place.

Everything seemed to be falling apart. The
walls. The ceiling. The floor. The sudden whirl of mayhem swallowed
everything.

What’s happening?!
It felt to Galinor,
who was completely unaware of the real source of this new rage,
that hell itself had broken loose…

He knew, at that point, that there was
nothing else left to this battle. It was over. And anyone who
remained here, trying to fend off their enemies, would bite the
dust with the rest of the temple. It would be pointless to remain
here and continue trying to protect the temple … when it was far
beyond their area of protection.

There was only one, reasonable thing left to
be done. And it was escaping this madness.

Fighting the raging wind currents that
flooded the place, Galinor crawled his way down the structure. And
he reached the vehicle shed. There was only one vehicle left
intact, in one piece. A hover car.

The fight, all this while, had sapped him of
almost all his energy. He knew that he was teetering on the edge of
an approaching unconsciousness.

Without thinking twice, he climbed into the
hover car and set it roaring.

__________

Through the swirl of madness, through the
debris flying around the temple, like a shining ray piercing
darkness, a small hover car came shooting out. Galinor’s driving
was slightly hampered by the haze shrouding his mind. But he kept
the car steady, letting it streak out of the debris swimming around
the temple. He craned his neck back for a look at the wrecked
remains of the temple hanging in the middle of the sky. And as the
sight met him, shrinking as he flew away from it, Galinor felt a
sudden squeezing sensation clutch his heart.
And so, order ends.
And anarchy begins…

He fought back the heavy whirling sensation
through the space jump to a nearing planet. And there, as he
reached the planet’s atmosphere and glided right down its skies, he
gave in. As the hover car sank beneath its cloudy terrain, lowering
towards the planet’s vast green expanse below, Galinor closed his
eyes and slumped to the side of the seat.

As the car lost control and swung groundward,
the weight of Galinor’s body pushed the door he was lying against
open. Less than fifty metres from the ground, his semi conscious
body toppled from the side of the open car. Despite the soft, green
layer of the ground, the impact of his giant, twenty metre fall
came as a heavy slam, leaving his body to bounce once. The hover
car soared on for another ten metres before crash to the earth with
a loud blast, spewing its smithereened parts all over.