text in {} is in Arabic
The cold sea breeze encircled Sigmund as his trench coat lightly blew in the wind. The squawking of gulls and waves crashing against the rocky Berean coast filled his ears and the pronounced salt water smell overwhelmed his nose. Stood next to him was a somewhat tall young man in a black and white suit fixing his tie.
"Anyway, like I was telling you on the way here, you need to deal with the Al Shawani ships that are approaching then we will head towards the capitol for Grand Conference." the young man said as he fully adjusted his tie and had moved onto the sleeves of his shirt.
"Very well."
Soon a fleet of a dozen ships appeared on the horizon cutting through the waves, their flags proudly displaying a lion with three crowns, the symbol of their empire. At the front of their ships was the head of a roaring lion made of the same darkened wood as the rest of the ship. On each ship were hordes of soldiers with blades drawn and excited faces, however one ship was different. At the head of the fleet was a ship twice as big as the others with four flags each the symbol of Al Shawni and instead of a lion head was an ornately designed eagle. This ship held hundreds of soldiers on the main deck alone and even more below deck but among these was a large well built man who, instead of the green shirt and pants worn by the regular soldiers, was fully in black with medals from head to toe. He moved from among the horde and stood on an elevated part of the ship before beginning to speak.
"{Soldiers of Al Shawani hear me!}" he said his voice reaching even to the furthest ship.
"{Today we conduct holy war of this hedonistic empire of the west!}" "{Be not afraid for you are chosen mighty men.}" He then moved his right hand over his heart. "{Remember who you fight for! Fight for your wives! Fight for your children! Fight for Al Shawani! Let me hear you roar! Let me hear you scream!}" Just as commanded loud screams from their very souls erupted from each solider filling the waves with a mighty cry of war.
"Quite excited aren't they." The young man said inspecting his face in a mirror.
"It's the way of the weak. They assume loud muttering and screams of pride will overcome anything; all that disappears in the face of unparalleled strength." Sigmund raised his hand and black clouds began to cover the sea, rain coming down in a torrent. The sound of thunder echoed and the wind became violent, the gulls that once eagerly flew around fled en mass.
"Despair." he said swinging his hand down, as thousands of lightning bolts rained down on the fleet the heavens screaming out damnation to those who opposed their master. The Al Shawani soldiers were struck down, bodies burned, torn apart and disfigured, mere insects being swatted. To them time moved as though it was wadding through honey with shackles, light flashed and another one of their comrades dropped dead, another was destroyed falling into the ocean's inky grasp.
"{Lord why have you abandoned us!}" A soldier screamed out falling to his knees before being struck by lightning.
Those who escaped to the ocean were not any luckier; the sudden shift in weather had made the waves violent and unforgiving. If they weren't smashed into the side of the ship, debris was thrown into them or the waves simply dragged them below to meet a slow, painful end.
Soon it came to an end and what was screams of pain and desperation, muffled by the booming sounds of thunder. In its place was an eerie, uncanny silence, a place once teeming with life and sound was reduced to a desolate wasteland of corpses and burning debris. That once held fleet that so much power was thoroughly snuffed out. As he turned to walk away Sigmund stopped, the breath of a single soldier reached his ears. Electricity crackled around him and he disappeared a bolt of lightning taking his place moving towards the location of the breathing. It collided with the broken upper deck, leaving a large burn mark, Sigmund in its center. He walked slowly towards the barely breathing soldier, his hands firmly in his trench coat.
"{My Lord please protect me from the evils of the day, from the scorpions by night.}" The soldier said tears streaming down his face, his legs attached but non-functional. Sigmund drew nearer his trench coat flapping behind him with each step.
"{My Lord protect Al Shawani! Let it prosper and thrive, destroy its enemies. These blessings on my family. These blessings on my children. My Lord answer your servant!"} As he finished he was being held up by the neck, Sigmund choking the life out of him.
"The weak obey the strong, that is the primal, unchanging law of the world."
"{My Lord.. p-please protect me from the evil of the day, from from the scorpions by night.}"
"When the weak rebel, the strong destroy them."
"{My Lord.}"
"Strength is all that matters in this world."
"{My Lord! Close not Shantar's gates to your servant!}"
"And I alone-"
"{My Lord! Protect…Al Shawani!"}
"Am the strongest." As Sigmund said this the soldier fell limp, his eyes stained with fear. Sigmund dropped his body without care returning the way he came.
"Was that much necessary?" The young man asked dumbfounded.
"A dull sword that fails to eliminate those its master wishes, brings death to its master."
Johan cracked the reigns of the carriage, the horse speeding up in response. The outside world flew by, slowly becoming more decadent. There were rolling hills covered with crop fields and vineyards, all with dozens or more servants taking care of them. Strangely enough, as the carriage passed by, the servants turned their heads almost robotically to stare at the carriage their gaze never once averting.
"Are they looking at us?" Siegfried asked, looking out the window. However he was aburtly flung a few inches into the air, as one of the carriage wheels rolled over a stone. "Dammit Johan slow down!" he shouted clutching his seat for dear life, at some point he managed to turn his head to Dela only to observe her fast alseep on the chair. 'How can she sleep when this manic is driving!' He thought before closing his eyes and whispering a prayer. Eventually they stopped and Siegfried took a deep exhale, Dela however still hadn't moved. Before them lay a large iron gate with two servants standing in front, both unblinking.
"We've come to see Sir.Cramlin." Johan said with conviction.
"Welcome." They said in unison each opening their respective side of the gate.
'Creepy' Johan thought as they rode past fully entering the manor. This manor, however, put other manors to shame. The ground the mansion stood on alone was over twenty five acres, if all the land surrounding it were to be added then the entire property would near eighty acres of land. The mansion was five stories tall several smaller buildings dotted around, presumably servants quarters. It was chiefly comprised of mahogany, quartz pillars and trim topped of by black tile shingles. The buildings many windows were preventing intruding eyes with thick burgendy drapes flowing from top to bottom. The lawn in contrast was pristine, it was completely level with the groundskeepers maliciously maintaining this. Johan brought the carriage to a stop causing the passengers to disembark; two servants stood on either end of the large cedar double door and opened their respective side in unison. A long hallway stood before the trio with a grand staircase at the end. Innumerable servants flanked the sides of the hallway standing in perfect lines shoulder to shoulder, not breaking formation. Despite having individual differences in their appearance, They had ghostly pale skin and their eyes were empty? Or were they focused? None of the three could tell as they walked down the hallway.
"This is unsettling." Johan said as the hairs on his neck stood at attention.
"They're like soldiers." Dela said observing the servants closely, as they continued down the hallway. Although the direction they had to go down, was forced on them as the servants prevented them from entering any rooms or straying from the path.
"I don't have a good feeling about this." Siegfried said gripping the gun in his holster, the others readied themselves in the event of a battle as well. Eventually they reached the end of the hallway and were surrounded by servants and behind them were many closed doors, there, however, was a window directly in front of them.
"Welcome!" The servants all said in unison as they all slowly walked towards the trio.
"Don't come closer!" Siegfried exclaimed drawing his gun and spinning in a circle sweat beading down his face.
"You heard him no closer!" Johan shouted however the servants paid him no mind however and kept moving forward regardless. 'BANG!' smoke exited Siegfried's pistol a hole appearing in one of the servants' heads, purplish-blue blood streaming down. He fell on his back and the servants stopped and looked at the servant who was shot.
"That's right we aren't playing! I swear I will shoo-" Siegfried stopped at the sight occurring before him. The man he just shot in the head legs began to shake before he put his feet flat on the ground and rose to his feet. He then raised his hands and stuck his fingers in the hole in his head and removed the deformed bullet before letting it fall.
"That stung." The servants said in unison before they al lunged at the trio. Dela grabbed the two of them and quickly looked out the window, teleporting the trio onto the backyard, rolling as they hit the ground.
"Run!" Dela screamed as she got up and started running, the other two didn't waste a second in following her example. This was correct as the servants flung themselves out the window even broke through the wall. Falling down three stories was nothing to them as they got up almost immediately after falling and started sprinting towards the trio. Siegfried turned his head and saw at least a hundred servants sprinting towards them.
"WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL IS GOING ON!!" he screamed, Johan's hairs stood at alert and time stopped for him, his younger self sitting on the ground in front of him.
"You feel the metal right. it's all concentrated in one place."
"Yes I can feel! So what could be so important that your appearing now!"
"I'm essentially your subconscious," he said standing to his feet walking towards Johan and putting his index finger on his forehead. "So you subconsciously know why I'm here, why?"
"Because I am you, and you are me!"
"So Johan think, why would there be so much metal in one area."
"There can be many, a container maybe?"
"Good start." His younger self said walking away from him and waved his hand a massive steel box appeared in front of him. "Is it this much?"
"No about twice as much." his younger self waved his again and the box double in size.
"Realistically, there wouldn't just be a giant metal box in the middle of a field, so it's in another form."
"Is it steel you sense? Focus." Johan closed his eyes for a few seconds before reopening them.
"Lead. I mainly sense lead, they seem to be balls. There also steel in complex shapes." The steel cube suddenly turned into a downpour of lead spheres.
"Don't these look familiar Johan?"
"Yeah they look like, bullets." Johan said picking one of the spheres off the ground and came to a sudden realization. "They wouldn't have so many bullets just for regular guns, it's a!"
"Machine gun."
"How far is it?!"
"Only you know the answer Johan, although I guess I know as well."
"Because we are Johan." they said in unison, time began to flow again and the spheres disappeared.
"Dela, Siegfried there's a machine gun in front of us about four meters away!"
"A machine gun!" Siegfried shouted as he was shooting the servants chasing them, only for them stay down for a few seconds. "Dammit!"
A 'Whir' sounded infront of them and Johan's eyes widened. "DELA!" he shouted as she took a deep breath and grabbed the two of them and closed her eyes. 'BOOM!', Dela teleported as a hail of bullets were shot in their direction, the servants behind them falling as they were filled with bullets holes. They reemerged a few feet from where they were.
"Split up!" Johan shouted as all three each ran in different directions, the bullets following Siegfried who chose to run to the right.