Akhenamen stepped down the stairs. The two Felinid priestesses followed behind him. The travel was silent, with almost no words being exchanged between them except for a few words. For some strange reasons Akhenamen felt melancholy rise within his very soul.
?
And… fear? Not fear from a dangerous predator. Not fear from a powerful enemy. Fear of being revealed. The descent lasted for ten minutes or so in a straight line. Until they reached a strange-looking magic rune in an empty room.
?
“Step into the rune, my lord. It will bring us to Selinad.”
?
The two priestesses stepped forward, one chanting an incantation with her hand raised, the other staying silent within the circle alongside Akhenamen. With a bright flash of blue light, they disappeared from the room.
Reappearing in an unknown location underground. Deep underground. And swiftly, Akhenamen realised his link to Ascylla had been cut off. He could, however, still contact Syllena. This made him stop for a few seconds, staring at the priestesses calmly.
?
“Do not be worried, Lord Akhenamen. The entire Brightheart Covenant has, since its creation, built a formation of shields and arrays of magical nature to cut off any Cygilites trying to enter our cities from the hive mind.”
?
While calling the Cygilites a Hive Mind was completely incorrect, Akhenamen could understand why the Covenant would think so. While they did act similar to one, the Cygilites were simply far too loyal to each other to the point it might look like they had the same lines of thought.
?
“Smart. Cutting off our most-used line of communication would give you an advantage.”
?
“More like lessen our disadvantage, Lord Akhenamen.”
?
“Smart girl.”
?
Akhenamen laughed softly. Yet now, Akhenamen’s eyes were fully attracted to the city below. He had to give it to the Twin goddesses there… that was perhaps some of the greatest architecture he had ever seen. The city was shaped ON a pair of carved stone hands. And the tip of every finger was turned into a beautiful tower.
?
Carved by thousands of years of worship and work. Delicate yet prideful, the two hands were linked to arms and a bust of the two goddesses, one on each side. Roads of floating golden dust are waving between the towers.
?
Every tower seemed like a tower of Babel, made from a beautiful blue stone which was covered in softly glowing red veins, those veins coming directly from the wrist of immense statues of the two goddesses.
?
Rubi-Khion and Sapphyra’s statues stared down at the statues with a gentle smile, their eyes shining bright with a power so great contained within that there was no doubt those statues weren’t just there to be pretty.
?
The palm of the goddess's hands seemed to be carved into beautiful cities that made Akhenamen think of an underground ancient Arabic society. Round and soft. More like works of art than effective houses.
?
Every building could have been a temple, all looking so well-made that Akhenamen realised he had a lot of work to do if he wanted to make Oleron and Cygislax into something even more impressive. Not that beauty affected an effective defensive strategy.
?
Finally, his powerful eyesight allowed him to see the Felinids moving around one of the cities. No more than four or five thousand Felinids remained. This also attracted Akhenamen’s attention toward the small but carefully crafted statues. Millions on every finger.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
?
His body suddenly shattered the distance between him and one of the statues; he appeared softly, no big boom or loud crack. As if the world itself was answering to Akhenamen’s feeling of melancholy.
?
Each of those statues, each so lifelike they seemed to be Felinids turned into stone rather than carved from the rock composing the fingers, was a tomb. Sapphyra had said her children were dying without her helping her sister. But.. this wasn’t just a dying race, it was almost completely wiped out.
?
Millions of tombs carved into every finger.
?
And below the hands, millions of bodies piled up. Not Felinids. Cygilites. Millions of his brethren slept until eternity against the floor below the goddesses’ hands. A true cemetery.
He approached his people, his body appearing before them.
?
He kneeled before a random Cygilite. Softly holding it in his arms. Gently pushing his forehead against his. It was perhaps the closest a Cygilite could do to a hug. His nanites softly enter every Cygilite, as if hoping at least one would be alive.
?
But no. They had died long ago.
?
“Rest, my brothers and sisters. Now we have survived this war. That we have risen once more. You have fought for traitors, but you have fought for those you loved. Feel no shame. Your duty has been accomplished.”
?
Akhenamen stood back up. He could indeed take the Cygilites Liquid Silver body back, but… they had died fighting. Died fighting to protect what they believed loved them, he would not disrespect their bodies like that.
?
The priestesses soon appeared behind him and saw him put down the body gently to the ground. Unknown to him, this action had been observed by all Felinids who had rushed to the edge of the hand, looking down at their ancient enemy.
One that was responsible for their near extinction. But what they saw wasn’t some monsters resurrecting his army. Not some destroyer coming to finish the job. Just one old Cygilite feeling sorrow and hugging those he had lost.
?
They understood simply that… they were just one side of this conflict. Akhenamen’s people might have come back. But they weren’t that much more numerous than the Felinids.
?
He appeared back in front of the survivors of the Felinids, all looking at him with fear, pity, and a few hateful stares. Akhenamen did the only thing he could think of; he did not say sorry, he did not bring a gift basket to excuse his people for almost ending their kind, he bowed, he bowed silently before them.
?
But he had come here to fix his people’s mistake. So he rose back to his full height and walked in the middle of the thousands of Felinids. All were shocked to see this. He could have just appeared in the middle of Rubi-Khion’s temple, but instead, he chose to bow to them and walk amongst them. To walk amongst the silent and desolate city.
?
His walk took him a few hours. But he didn’t mind, he wasn’t in a hurry. At least not in that much of a hurry. This silent and almost fully empty city made Akhenamen realise something he had willingly ignored. His new role.
?
He was an executioner now. One that would end entire civilisations. Yes, maybe some would be mindless hive minds eager to devour the whole universe. But some would simply be no different from humans; they would have family, lives, friends, loves… children.
?
He would be the one to create those cities of silence soon enough. That was the duty he had accepted to protect his world. Akhenamen hadn’t even realised he was now in the middle of a grand temple. Located at the very center of Rubi-Khion’s palm.
?
The two priestesses who had followed him until now were looking at him strangely. But to their eyes, he was the strange one. When he stopped walking, a tear in reality appeared, as if slashed to pieces by a feline’s claws.
?
Rubi-Khion stepped through the crack. It had actually been almost fully silent. And overall, a bit lackluster compared to what he had expected of the arrival of a goddess. Even if he doubted, Rubi-Khion was currently in the mood to be dramatic.
?
No words were exchanged. Akhenamen could see that her eyes were looking at his hands, not even at him. He waved his hands, and the items he had collected for Sapphyra all reappeared in front of the last remaining twin.
?
Bulb from the Corphex Verrator filled with Sapphyra’s divine energy and even some of her soul remaining inside, and most important of all, Sapphyra’s Blue Sapphyre.
Rubi-Khion instantly focused on the bulb containing a bit of her sister’s soul. She reached for it but stopped herself at the last moment.
?
Her sister had died for a reason. She would not allow herself to have any hope or to even shed a tear until her children were safe. Her hand moved toward the jewel that she held gently, and swiftly started to move toward Sapphyra’s statue. To the head precisely.
?
Akhenamen followed behind, led by his curiosity. Neither the priestesses nor the goddess stopped him. Akhenamen soon reached Sapphyra’s head. He saw a path carved inside her eyesocket, giving access directly to the inside of her head. Rubi-Khion had gone inside.
?
He moved forward; the path leading into the statue was rough and clear, done swiftly without much care for beauty this time. It was never meant to be used. When Akhenamen reached the end, he saw a hundred magic arrays, all linked together, pulsating with magic as Rubi-Khion stood in the very middle.
?
A strange shape built in the stone, looking like a tree of stone with all its branches gathering in a single receptacle where Rubi-Khion gently deposited the sapphyre, speaking a strange language unknown to Akhenamen. He couldn’t even ask Ascylla for a potential translation as he had been cut off from her.
?
The Sapphyre started to glow for a few seconds, and a loud pulse of power blew Akhenamen back, sliding a few feets, the two priestesses, however, would have been turned to dust if not for a shield being summoned to protect them at the last moment.
?
Immediately after, the tree started to glow, slowly being turned into an actual tree whose branches were covered in gentle and beautiful blue leaves with a soft heartbeat coming from it as all saw millions of souls suddenly rush through the tree’s branches and roots.
?
It was a slow process, and would take days, no doubt, for every soul to be thrown back into the Felinid’s reincarnation cycle. But this much soul energy could not go unnoticed. Deep below Felinad, a beast that had been asleep since a time long forgotten by even Zenthia’s first inhabitants woke up. Years earlier than it should have.
?
