Bearing dark, bluish-green skin with a wide, flat-topped head, two silver dollar-sized eyes, and a hunched over, almost ‘squatting’ posture, the twenty-four-cycles-old, ‘ratty cloaked’ Jorrakan pleaded desperately for aid whilst wandering about the crowded Keld Village Marketplace.
“WARRIORS, I SAY! I seek BRAVE, COURAGEOUS, and NOBLE warriors to help aid me in an attempt to free my people and COUNTLESS other people from the bounds of enslaved rule,” the Jorrakan explained as he particularly pleaded to a band of ‘Starstriding Mercenaries’, who populated the outside of a local ‘alcoholic watering hole’ called ‘Rharo’s Astro-Port Cantina’.
Approaching a group of nearly seven and a half feet tall Thundrukii Mercs, the young and desperate Jorrakan said, “Grand men… My GRANDEST apologies for my disturbance, but I am in need… DESPERATE NEED of…”
“Warriors?” one of the spike-riddled, scaly-skinned Thundrukii Male’s asked the Jorrakan.
“Why, yes… YES!!!” the Jorrakan stuttered with lit up eyes. “I need warriors! NOBLE AND FEARLESS WARRIORS!”
“Well, Childling… You have found us,” another Thundrukii Male said, causing the Jorrakan to smile widely.
“YES! PRAISE BE TO THE GODS ABOVE!” the Jorrakan rejoiced as the band of Thundrukii Mercs all smiled devilishly.
“Our price is four hundred thousand currens,” the same Thundrukii Merc said.
With his smile now instantly faded, the Jorrakan stammered, “Whu-What?”
“FOUR HUNDRED THOUSAND CURRENS, BOY,” a third Thundrukii restated. “EACH.”
“AND UPFRONT,” a fourth thundered.
Looking at the Mercenary Band in TOTAL SHOCK now, the Jorrakan stuttered, “Fuh-Four hundred thousand currens? But… But I have no currens.”
“No currens? NO CURRENS?!?!” the head Thundrukii blared. “RAXX! THEN WHAT ARE YOU THRACKING DOING HERE, YOU PITIFUL WRETCH?!”
“Suh-Seeking warriors…”
“Free warriors??? PFFT! THERE ARE NO SUCH THINGS!”
“And if there are these supposed ‘free warriors’ that you speak of with such desperation, boy,” another one of the Thundrukii Mercs continued. “Then they must be thracking SCROTELESS kroones.”
The band of Mercenaries then all began cackling ravenously, unnerving the Jorrakan Male grandly.
Lowering his scaled brow beneath his hood, the Jorrakan narrowed his eyes whilst he stated, “There is more to existence than ‘currens’.”
“More then currens???” one of the Thundrukii asked. “What’s more than currens?”
“Honor,” the Jorrakan thundered. “Service. Justice…. GLORY.”
“All of which can be obtained with currens… YOU JORRAKAN KROONE,” another Thundrukii snapped.
“They can also be obtained WITHOUT payment, you greedy thracker,” the Jorrakan barbed, causing the Thundrukii Band to cease their laughter immediately.
With their Leader rising up from his barstool, the Thundrukii towered over the Jorrakan like a giant.
Frightened, but standing strong, the Jorrakan stood toe to toe with the Thundrukii Merc Leader with his chin up and chest puffed out.
“What did you just thracking call me… JORRAKA-THRACKA,” the Thundrukii Merc Leader asked angrily.
“You heard me… THRACKER,” the Jorrakan shuttered.
“URGH… WHY YOU! RAH!!!!”
Kicking the Jorrakan in the center of his chest with the bottom of his heavy combat boot, the Thundrukii Merc Leader set him FLYING across the dirt-covered street over into a stacked pallet of crated goods.
As the Jorrakan laid in the wreckage, the Thundrukii Merc Leader let out a ‘war cry’ in his own native tongue, to which the rest of his crew joined in happily.
While the Mercs all laughed and drank ale back at their table outside of the Cantina, the Jorrakan managed to pick himself up from the wrecked crates.
With the Rannukan owner/seller of the crated goods screaming curses at him in his people’s native language of ‘Ranna’, the Jorrakan let out a hot and heavy huff whilst he glared at the Thundrukii Mercenaries in sheer anger.
Watching this all play out from afar on the other side of the Marketplace was Magnus.
Sporting his own ratty cloak with its hood drawn over his gaunt and bearded face, the ‘incognito’ World-Breaker briefly spectated the Jorrakan’s ‘aggressive interaction’ with the Thundrukii Mercenaries.
Overhearing the Jorrakan’s cries for warriors, Magnus, for a moment, became curious by this, but ultimately went on with his business.
Planning to sell an assortment of freshly caught fish and game that he hunted early in the morning-cycle out in the Woodlands, the World-Breaker was having a regular repetitive day-cycle until…
“MAGNUS…” Little Jaiya whispered to the World-Breaker, causing him to raise his brow upwards in alarm.
Looking around at the several Commerce Stands that surrounded him in the massive Marketplace, Magnus tried to pinpoint who had just spoken to him, but he simply could not.
Brushing it off, Magnus went on with his day-cycle until she called out to him again.
“MAGNUS,” Little Jaiya whispered once more, causing Magnus to look onward to see the young Crixan Girl sitting on a crate alongside the Fish Stand that he was planning on doing business at first.
Eyes widened and blood running cold within his veins, the World-Breaker stared at Little Jaiya as she stared right back at him.
Gulping in fear, Magnus quickly turned away from Little Jaiya and headed towards the Hunting Goods Stand.
In his trek towards the Hunting Goods Stand, Magnus tried to ignore Little Jaiya until he found
her spirit standing before it with her little stuffed toy, Janx, clung tightly to her chest.
Wanting all of this torment to end, Magnus did what he always did whenever he was faced with problems… HE RAN.
Turning away from Little Jaiya, Magnus increased his pace and scurried out of the Marketplace in an effort to head back to his Hut out in the Woodlands.
All the while Little Jaiya kept on chanting ‘ALL OF US’ inside of his head, causing the World-Breaker to become more and more increasingly nervous and skittish by the milli-cycle.
With everything beginning to swirl, turn, and close-in around him, Magnus was about to scream until someone else’s screams caught his attention.
“AAAAAHHH!!! STOP! UGH! UNHAND ME! URGH… UGH! UNHAND ME!!!” a Rannukan Barmaid at the Catina cried out in ‘Reg-Speak’ after one of the members of the Thundrukii Merc Band wrapped his arm around her waist.
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Magnus, along with a few other bystanders, watched as the Thundrukii cackled at the Barmaid’s distress.
“NOT UNTIL YOU GIVE ME MORE THAN JUST ALE, GIRL! HA-HA!” the Thundrukii cackled. “COME NOW! I ain’t neva had a Rannukan before! Ha-ha-ha!!!”
“Ugh! Let me go! Please! I beg thee! LET ME GO!” the Barmaid squealed as the Thundrukii went on to bellow and laugh ravenously at her helpless plight.
While this went on, Magnus watched from the middle of the street that ran past the Cantina.
As the World-Breaker watched the Thundrukii terrorize and assault the helpless Barmaid, Little Jaiya’s voice whispered into his ear, “Aid her, World-Breaker… AID HER.”
Magnus did not respond.
He merely closed his eyes and waited for the disturbance to end… But it did not end.
No, the Barmaid’s cries and pleas for help only grew louder and more terrified, which racked Magnus’s ears IMMENSELY.
As Magnus did his best to ignore the Barmaid’s distress the Jorrakan came rushing past his right.
Feeling the Jorrakan’s cloak brush past his arm, Magnus opened his eyes and watched as the young Jorrakan dashed over to aid the helpless Barmaid.
“UNHAND HER! UNHAND HER RIGHT NOW, I SAY!!!” the Jorrakan demanded as the Thundrukii continued to cackle whilst tossing the Barmaid around as if she were some kind of ‘toy’.
Angered with how the Mercenaries were ignoring him, the Jorrakan balled up his right fist and shouted, “URGH… I SAID THRACKING UNHAND HER, YOU BIG PIECES OF RAXX! RAH!!!!”
Punching on the Thundrukii in his ‘shell-like’ back, the Merc lowered his brow and gritted his fanged teeth.
“URGH… THRACK OFF!!!” the Thundrukii Merc blared as he hit the Jorrakan in the face with the top side of his right forearm, sending him flying backwards once more.
The Jorrakan braced for impact until he was suddenly… CAUGHT.
Opening his eyes, the Jorrakan huffed in confusion as he looked upwards to see Magnus looking back down at him with his heavy, brooding bloodshot eyes.
“The thrack???” the Jorrakan uttered as Magnus, whose brow was lowered beneath his cloak’s hood, continued to look down upon him.
“STAND ASIDE,” the World-Breaker sternly ordered the Jorrakan after he had grown tired of the Barmaid’s CONSTANT cries.
Unhanding the Jorrakan, Magnus brushed past him as the young drifter stared at him in confusion.
“Grand, Magnus… GRAND,” Little Jaiya continued to whisper in his ear as the World-Breaker crossed the street and approached the Thundrukii Mercs outside of the Cantina.
As the Mercenaries hooted and hollered whilst they continued to terrorize the Barmaid, Magnus ordered in a calm tone, “Unhand her.”
The Mercs all ignored him, causing the World-Breaker to say in a louder tone, “UNHAND HER.”
The Thundrukii still did not hear him.
“Aid her, Magnus… AID HER,” Little Jaiya continued to whisper, angering Magnus even more than he already was.
Tightening his fists, and clenching his teeth, Magnus blared, “UNHAND HER!!!!”
In a voice that echoed all across the Marketplace, Magnus stood motionless with his brow still lowered and fists clenched as the Thundrukii Mercs ceased their terrorization on the Barmaid and turned around to face the former Galactic Decider.
“Huh? What the thrack?” one of the Thundrukii huffed in confusion as he looked down upon the cloaked World-Breaker in utter confusion.
“Unhand her,” Magnus ordered again. “The girl… UNHAND HER . She has no quarrel with you…. Nor do I, for that matter. Now… UN-THRACKING-HAND HER.”
“What?” another one of the Thundrukii asked.
“You heard me,” Magnus replied.
“This thracker for real?” the same Thundrukii asked his kinsmen.
“If he is, then he must be thracking insane,” another said.
“OR he has a thracking death wish. Heh, heh,” a third Merc chuckled.
As the Rannukan Barmaid desperately tried to escape, the Thundrukii who held her ripped her back into his arms and cackled.
Hearing the Barmaid’s helpless cries, Magnus ordered AGAIN, “Unhand her.”
“And what if we don’t, eh?” the head Thundrukii asked the World-Breaker. “What if we don’t unhand her? What will you do to us? Hmm??? What will you do, you thracking skogger?”
Trying to keep his emotional level stable, Magnus pleaded, “Please. Just let her go. I have no quarrel with you.”
“Oh yeah?” the head Thundrukii asked. “Well, thracker, you shouldn’t have gotten yourself involved then…. RAH!”
BASH!
Kneeing Magnus in his chest, the head Thundrukii sent him rolling back into the street.
Landing on his belly, Magnus gasped for air as the head Thundrukii stomped over towards him.
“HOW DID THAT FEEL, SKOGGER?! NOT TOO GRAND?! HA-HA!” the head Thundrukii cackled as Magnus attempted to push himself back up to his feet. “WELL, HOW ABOUT THIS?! RAH!!!”
The Thundrukii then slammed his BIG, heavy-booted foot down in the center of Magnus’s back, causing his face and body to slam back down into the dirt.
As the head Thundrukii continuously pounded him into the street, everyone else in the Marketplace, including the Jorrakan, all watched in shock as the World-Breaker tried to keep his raging emotions at bay.
“You can stop this, World-Breaker,” Little Jaiya whispered into Magnus’s ear as the Thundrukii continued to pound him into the street. “You know what you must do…. SO DO IT.”
“Urgh… Nuh-No,” Magnus grunted as the head Thundrukii kept on beating him down, not realizing that he was causing him little to absolutely NO damage at all.
Desperately keeping his rage subsided, Magnus clenched his jaw and waited for the attack to end, but it wasn’t going to end.
No, not until the Thundrukii Mercenary Leader had ended the World-Breaker’s life-cycle.
So, since this was not going to happen, Magnus closed his eyes and tried to think of something else.
All that he could think of at the current time being was his last experience on Voltaira.
Magnus remembered Lero being gunned down in his Private Chamber…
Magnus remembered almost being unknowingly executed by the Voltairan Knights…
Magnus remembered the truth… THE TRUTH!
The TERRIBLE truth that had been kept from him, and the other nine Galactic Deciders, since they were infants.
A terrible truth that was hidden by one man and one man only: Emperor Alixandr Corvinux Voltair.
The thought of Voltair angered Magnus… GRANDLY.
Along with his memories of his escape from Planet Voltaira, and how he had been duped by the Emperor himself, Magnus recalled back to the day-cycle when he broke Crix.
Magnus watched in his mind as Little Jaiya faded away from existence, along with the rest of their species, as he BROKE their world all with one single thought.
This angered him even more.
It angered Magnus so much that for a moment, the ‘stoic being’ that was Magnus ‘left’... And the DESTRUCTIVE, ‘dark being’ known only as the ‘BREAKER OF WORLDS’ ‘returned’.
Opening his eyes, which were now glowing bright, stark white, the World-Breaker locked onto the Thundrukii’s foot at mid-stomp and stopped it with his telekinesis.
Confused, the head Thundrukii huffed, “Huh? What thra--”
SPLATTER!
Before he could even finish his sentence, the head Thundrukii Merc exploded into SEVERAL bloody chunks.
Everyone in the Marketplace froze up in shock as they all watched the World-Breaker levitate from the ground and hover in mid-air.
The rest of the Thundrukii Mercs, along with the Barmaid, all watched in utter bewilderment as the World-Breaker glared at them whilst keeping his fists clenched TIGHTLY.
Locking onto the rest of the Mercs with his mind, the World-Breaker unclenched his fists, causing them all to explode… IN THRACKING UNISON!!!
GREEN, GOOEY BLOOD now laid splattered all over the outside of the Cantina, and partly on the street, as the Barmaid stood all by her lonesome, COVERED head to toe in it.
With his cloak having fallen off his frail frame, the World-Breaker remained hovering in mid-air for a few milli-cycles more as everyone continued to stare up at him as if he were some kind of disheveled-looking god.
“Welcome back… WORLD-BREAKER,” Little Jaiya whispered in Magnus’s Ear, causing him to snap back into reality.
Blinking his eyes back to their regular color, Magnus resumed control over his emotions (and body) once more and returned to the ground.
Looking down at his chest and hands to see that they were SOAKED in the head Thundrukii Merc’s blood, Magnus gasped in shock as he then rose up his head and looked all across the Marketplace.
Everyone stared at him still, not knowing what to think, say, or do, causing Magnus to feel a sudden rush of crippling, heart-clasping dread.
_
You kroone.
You have killed not only yourself, but every single life-form that currently exists upon this world.
You kroone… YOU THRACKING KROONE!!!
_
“MURDERER! MURDERER!!!!” one of the customers in the Marketplace cried out, causing everyone to finally freak out and frenzy.
Realizing that he had just blown his cover, Magnus quickly picked up his cloak, draped it over himself, and launched up into the sky with use of his flight ability like a Pulsar Missile.
As the World-Breaker flew back towards his Hut in the Rannukan Woodlands, the young Jorrakan watched him go.
Amazed… AND FRIGHTENED by what he had just witnessed the seemingly ‘normal’ trader do, the Jorrakan briefly smiled.
“Thracking finally,” the Jorrakan then said in relief as he squatted downward and leapt into the air at a remarkable FIFTY FEET… CRACKLING the ground beneath himself in the wake of his incredible launch.