The Guardians' Pendants (The Zor Chronicles Part I) (22 page)

“Come on!” Ikani
barked, charging.

***

“Come on,” Kaho
murmured, gritting her teeth as she scanned the cityscape below for
any sign of the Resistance army of which Lanaru had spoken – the
one that was supposedly making its way to the Hub City
tonight.

“Do you suppose they
may have been stuck down in the Web?” Enoke mused from beside her.
“Perhaps they didn’t make it out… before it went
up.”

“Let’s hope not,” Kaho
replied somberly. Below, the waters surrounding the city were
churning violently as the weather continued to grow stormier. Waves
washed up onto the city borders, flooding the streets between the
many towering edifices that spanned out in every direction.
Suddenly, between the buildings at the eastern end of the city,
Kaho caught sight of a great mass that was gathering together
between the quivering and crumbling buildings.

“Down there!” she
exclaimed. The Kanalevai beneath her let out a cry, taking off in
the direction of the crowd.

“Let’s just hope that
they’re the good guys,” Enoke mumbled uneasily under his breath as
they closed in. As they drew nearer to the ground, Kaho stood up
and leapt off of her bird, landing effortlessly on the ground
below. She was soon joined by Enoke, who fell over while attempting
to gain his balance on the shaking ground below.

“They’re up ahead!”
Kaho declared, heading in the direction of the gathered mass,
hoping that it was the group that they had been looking for – not
that which was almost certainly searching for them. As they rounded
the corner, dashing past the towering city structures around them,
Kaho and Enoke came to a quick halt as they were faced suddenly by
a sea of Zor coming from all of the Five Islands. The crowd
appeared to be composed mostly of Zor from Af’One and Zor Mara,
their fiery red and brown skin markings standing out in large
numbers amongst the group, who had all stopped now in the face of
the two Veha. Amongst them, standing further back, were several
packs of Zor Lanaru and Lagi, and as a scattered handful of Hub Zor
were amongst them as well. Kaho’s eyes were wide with shock. Their
numbers appeared to climb into the thousands. All of the Zor were
armed with swords and other close-range weapons.

“The Veha have
arrived!” exclaimed one Zor suddenly. There was a chorus of
murmuring that echoed from the army, gradually turning into hollers
and cheers as the news spread further back through the
crowd.

“Where are the others?”
a Zor from Af’Lagi questioned suddenly. “Aren’t there supposed to
be four of you?”

Kaho hesitated. “The
others are… fighting already,” she stammered, biting her lower lip
as her haunting last memories of Lanaru passed through her mind
once again. “Ikani has met Remula atop the Mafa tower,” she stated.
“Where are your leaders? Have Arkem and Fau not joined you
here?”

“They
were
here,” replied a Zor One
from the front. “But they left a shortly after our arrival here,”
he recalled. “They took one of the airships… said that there was
something they needed to tend to.”

“Seems like a great
couple of leaders,” Enoke scoffed. “Lead an army into the city and
then leave them there to fight on their own!”

“Enoke!” Kaho hissed, feeling the eyes of the Resistance
fighters glaring. “I have faith that your leaders are tending to
truly important matters at this time, and hope that they shall
return safely soon,” she reassured them, offering a weak
smile.

The Zor One nodded. “In
the meantime, however, we must hurry to the heart of the city!” he
urged. “Remula’s army is gathering; your brother Ikani will be
needing our help.”

At that moment, there
was a great rumbling noise emitted from behind the Veha. Kaho spun
around, her eyes shooting upward just in time to see the buildings
before them begin to shake violently. Suddenly, there night was
filled with a deafening groaning as the structures gave way,
crashing to the ground before them, filling their air with thick,
billowing clouds of dust and debris. Enoke coughed, shielding his
eyes from the airborne rubble whilst attempting to see beyond the
opaque clouds. From beyond, the silhouettes of another great mass
of Zor began to come into view.

Remula’s army had
arrived.

***

Ikani moved swiftly,
swinging ruthlessly at Remula with his Fireblade. The later was
quick to defend, raising his own blade to halt the former’s strike.
Before Ikani even had time to react, Remula delivered a sharp punch
to Ikani’s midsection, sending him staggering backwards, hunched
over and gasping. Ikani gritted his teeth, staring down Remula as
he struggled to retreat, keeping his sword at the
ready.

Doubt filled Ikani’s
mind as to how he could stand against the Chief of Security. Not
only had Remula’s punch been strong enough to pierce the protection
of his armor, but the armor that Remula wore himself, Ikani could
tell, was made of the very finest of materials, straight out of his
own Af’One Village. The only part of his body that was exposed was
his face.

Remula chuckled. “Do
you honestly believe that you can defeat me, Ikani?” he asked
haughtily.

Ikani, having caught
his breath now, stood tall anew. “I know one thing, that’s for
sure!” he snapped. “Only a coward would hide behind his army of
Sirens and Guards for this long before showing up to fight. If
you’re really so tough, then why hide behind others and rely on
them to carry out your dirty work?”

Remula smirked. “Oh,
but shouldn’t I be asking the same of you and your friends?” he
questioned tauntingly. “After all, why wouldn’t dear Kaho and the
others stay beside you to fight?” he continued. “Unless they don’t
believe in you any more than they likely believe in themselves!
They’d rather hide behind your pathetic little army down below and
watch the action unfold from the shadows, looking on as Paradius
crumbles before the almighty new Veha who failed to save the
day!”

“They will fight with
honor!” Ikani retorted. “Just as I shall against you! And when you
fall alongside your army below, Demias will be
next!”

Remula scoffed. “You
honestly believe that?” he spat.

“I do,” Ikani replied
somberly. “We are done doubting ourselves. We are through with
fighting selfishly!” he exclaimed. “I was enlightened… by a great
hero and friend of mine,” he added gravely, thinking of his fallen
teammate.

“Then prove it!” Remula
cried. “Humor me!”

“By
all means!” Ikani shot back, sending a vortex of flames hurling
towards Remula, who stealthily and almost effortlessly leapt out of
the way.

He grinned, readying
his own weapon. “Doomscythe,” Remula stated. “Infused with the very
shadows that created it… Lord Demias’ tool of
choice.”

With that, Remula
charged. Ikani tensed up at the sight of the massive blade heading
towards him. He swung, barely missing Ikani, who rolled to the
right and hurried towards the other end of the tower top, leaning
against the rail behind him and breathing heavily, trying not to
think of what lay behind him, hundreds of feet
below.

Remula hurled himself
toward the Veha again now, but this time Ikani was prepared. He
readied his own sword, blocking the blow and sending a strike of
his own back at the Chief. It struck Remula on the side, though it
directly hit armor, charring it significantly. Remula started,
taking a few steps back and clutching at his side nonetheless. It
was inevitable that the sheer heat of the blast had injured him
still. “That sword is quite powerful… it reminds me of the last
great Veha sword against which I fought,” he recalled, a grin on
his face.

“What do you mean by
that?” Ikani snapped.

Remula chuckled. “I
simply mean that – exactly as I said it,” he replied. “I’ve even
got a little souvenir to remind me of that
glorious
day!”

At that, Remula reached
beneath the collar of his cape, revealing an object that made Ikani
instantly freeze in shock.

“Look familiar?” Remula
taunted.

It did look familiar.
While Ikani had not seen this one before, he had seen four others
nonetheless.

It was the fifth
Guardian’s Pendant, belonging – once – to Veha
Oren.

***

Kaho and Enoke stood
frozen before the gathering army before them.

“Hub Zor,” Enoke
breathed, astonished at the size of the opposing army that was only
continuing to grow in size. “But… I don’t understand. Why would
they betray their home? Why fight for Remula?” he asked,
puzzled.

“I don’t think they had
much of a choice,” Kaho muttered somberly in reply. “Look at their
necks.”

Enoke did. His eyes
fell upon glowing red marks that looked all too familiar to
him.

“Marks of Command,”
Kaho elaborated. “Much like the Mark of Silence that had been cast
upon Kahla back in Af’Lanu,” she added, suddenly overcome with
renewed worry for her former colleague back in her homeland. “And
the Marks of Dominion and Rest that were inflicted upon Nuraka by
Demias in the days of Distant Past.”

“So they’re possessed?”
Enoke asked.

“Not quite,” replied
Kaho. “The infected Zor is given a single command by the inflictor,
and is forced to obey this command until the inflictor either dies
or lifts the curse,” she explained. “It explains the peculiar
behavior of the Hub Security guards perfectly. And in this case, I
can only hope that Ikani can finish Remula off
soon…”

“And until
then?”

“Kaho tensed up, eyeing
the army before her. “We fight.”

“Everyone!” Kaho
exclaimed. “The time has come for us to stand against Remula’s
army, and vanquish his rule over our people once and for all!” she
declared. “These Zor are not as they seem, for they are but shadows
of those whom you once knew, bound to Remula’s dark desires by an
evil curse. Until they are freed from his grasp, we must advance
and fight to save Paradius!”

There were resounding
cries to arms from behind the two Veha. Simultaneously, the two
sides began to charge, weapons at the ready. Kaho shot towards a
Hub Security guard, who leapt over her head. She was quick on his
trail, though, swinging around and making contact this time. There
was an agonizing cry emitted by the Zor followed by a flash of red
light as the curse was released. The Zor slumped to the ground,
unmoving.

“Forgive me,” she
breathed.

Enoke, meanwhile, was
circling the attacking army, channeling his energy into his fists
as he jammed them into the wall of a nearby building. With one last
groan of effort, the edifice gave way, collapsing into the crowd of
the opposing army, forcing those that had not succumbed to the
attack to scatter and spread outwards. Enoke hurried behind another
structure, avoiding the sight of four approaching guards, swords
drawn. It was then, however, that there was a great explosion
coming from several feet in front of him. Enoke fled the sight of
the explosion just in time for another blast to occur, this one
falling even closer to him. The Veha’s eyes shot upwards. High
above, standing atop the surrounding buildings were members of
Remula’s army – Sirens, mostly. Suddenly, another explosive was
hurled toward him. Enoke quickly rolled out of the way of danger as
one blast after another continued to rock the scene around
him.

The fire from the
explosives was spreading now, climbing from the streets to the
surrounding buildings, eating away at all that stood in its path.
Enoke watched on as the city that his very people had built slowly
began crumbling to the ground. Up ahead, he caught sight of several
Resistance fighters caught by an approaching back of Hub Zor.
Growling, Enoke charged, channeling all of his strength as he
whirled the rubble from the destruction around him towards the
opposing army. They crumbled, just as the buildings had before,
trapped by the debris from the fallen city.

“This is the end of the
line, hero!” A guard shouted suddenly from behind him. Before Enoke
even had time to react, he could feel the force of power ties
locking his arms behind his back, binding them with cords of the
guard’s own energy. Enoke struggled, but it was no use. He tried to
run, but fell to the ground upon coming to the realization that his
legs, too, had become bound by the guard’s channeled energy. He was
completely trapped, unable to move a muscle.

Suddenly, through all
the commotion of the fighting around him and the constant sound of
explosives and falling structures, Enoke heard the sound of the
guard’s pained cries coming from behind him, followed by the
snapping of the power ties around his limbs as the Zor’s hold on
him was broken.