Yo, what's goin' on out there Fanfiction, Lord-of-Rhodor checking in here, and welcome back to Legacy of Rhodor. Sorry about the wait on this chapter once again, hopefully updates will be more frequent, school willing. A shout-out to gblack7, my newest follower too, by the way.
To answer a recent question from that incredible contributor, anonymous: No, there will be no sexual stuff between Araz and Elsa or Araz and Anna for several reasons. Firstly, it will interfere with the plot. Secondly, Araz has a girlfriend, and, as it says in my profile, I almost never deviate from canon pairings. And finally, Araz has no, ah, anatomy, to facilitate such a thing. Do with that what you will.
ANYWHO… on with the story!
Chapter 3: Let it Go
"Why did you tell us to stop?"
Elsa sighed and slumped in her throne.
"Because for one thing, he's a Rhodorian warrior, and for another, he was scared and cornered."
Elsa was in her throne room. It had been several hours since Araz's dramatic flight from Arendelle, and she was discussing events with her garrison commander, Garven.
"We had him outnumbered," he protested, "Rhodorian warrior or not, he couldn't have gotten us all."
"He fought his way through thirty of your men without drawing his weapons, Garven, you were overmatched."
"He only fought them two or three at a time."
"Look," Elsa sighed, "Araz Rhaudor is a legend among the Rhodorians. He's the youngest king in their long history, but he has had the longest reign of any king before him. And for good reason. He holds their respect as one of the most dangerous warriors in the world. They say that he once decimated an entire army single-handedly in under ten hours."
Garven scoffed.
"Blatant exaggeration."
"After seeing him in action today, I don't think so," Elsa said quietly, "He's an incredible fighter."
"Okay," grumbled Garven, "let's say, for argument's sake, that he's as good as you say. Why was he scared then? He could have slashed us to ribbons while we were down, but he ran instead."
Elsa had anticipated this question, however, and had her answer prepared.
"He wasn't scared of you," she said, "He was scared of himself. Remember when I ran off?"
"Vividly," said Garven, "When you fired off that one ice blast at the hall steps an ice spike nearly gave me a free face piercing."
"Well, I was scared because I knew that I would be persecuted for being a sorceress. I believe Araz is the same way."
"Should we go out and get him?" Garven asked. He was clearly still unconvinced, but he at least seemed to be accepting her logic, "I mean, under your own laws, sorcery's not a crime anymore."
"Right now what he really needs is some alone time. Maybe few days to calm down and maybe learn to control his powers without self-destructing. It made all the difference with me."
She glanced out the window and sighed.
"Wherever he is, I hope he's alright."
Araz drew in a huge, gasping breath as he hauled himself out of the ocean and onto the beach.
He was exhausted, aching all over, bleeding from a small shark bite on his left hand, and sopping wet.
The second he was entirely on the gloriously soft and warm dry sand, he collapsed and curled into the fetal position. He had never, never, been so exhausted in all his 781 years of life. Not even after he had single-handedly decimated the entire Taznian army in twelve hours.
His eyes drifted shut, and he fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
Araz awoke that night to the sound of something growling.
He struggled to his feet and peered around.
There wasn't enough light to see by, so he gritted his teeth and broke his most vital internal rule. Never play with your powers. He slackened his iron-hard arcane barriers and allowed a tiny sliver of his power to slip through.
His eyes and vine tattoos glowed, and he was once again filled with pins and needles. Bu however uncomfortable it was, he could control it, which was a massive improvement over what had happened last time.
His elation quickly faded quickly, however as he saw what the source of the growling.
He was surrounded by eyes glowing from the light he was emitting.
"Ah shlieg," he muttered, using the Ancient Rhodorian word for shit, "Wolves."
One of the wolves, clearly the alpha, advanced slightly.
Araz drew his broadsword, Ealdor, and produced a flask of mixed hydrazine and kerosene gel. He smeared the acidic, gluey substance all over the blade, and, once again broke one of his internal rules and allowed a spark to jump from his finger to the blade to the powerful magic sword.
There was a huge whoomph as the volatile chemicals ignited, wreathing Ealdor's blade with molten orange flames.
He swung Ealdor a few times to add oxygen to the fire, and then pointed it at the alpha.
"Gédor bahad," he snarled. Get back.
The alpha hesitated. Wolves hate fire, and Araz had a lot of it. Also, the tone of command in his voice was unmistakable.
Then again, Araz was weak, he was alone, and the alpha had an entire pack behind her.
She snarled and took another step.
Ealdor suddenly pulsed in Araz's hand, and he felt his arm move seemingly of its own accord, delivering a devastating backhand blow to a wolf that he hadn't even seen lunge. The creature hit the ground, sliced neatly in two.
"Thank you," he told the sentient blade.
It pulsed again as if to say "You're welcome."
The wolves hesitated again.
"Well?" Araz jeered, grinning, swinging Ealdor around, and just generally being intimidating, "You want some? Come get some!"
The wolves charged.
"Furtak! I didn't mean to actually attack!"
He popped a small iron orb with a small pin stuck in it off of his belt. He pulled the pin out with his teeth, and as sparks flew from the pin's hole, he hurled the orb.
It struck the alpha on the head, stunning her. Then, a split second later, the grenade's volatile nitroglycerine and acetylene core detonated with a brilliant flash of flame and an earsplitting blast.
"Eat that, you son of a bitch!"
Suddenly, a wolf reared up and, with a startled yelp, Araz smacked it upside the head with Ealdor's pommel.
He lashed out wildly and two more wolves fell dead.
He felt the elemental felt the elemental energy straining to enter the fray, trying to break through the iron-hard psychic barriers that he'd put up.
Then a wolf sank its teeth into his left forearm and his concentration was destroyed.
Energy blasted through his veins, and electricity surged through his blood, up the wolf's teeth, and into its body.
The beast's charred corpse flew back, cooked extra crispy.
This time the wolves didn't hesitate. They flat out ran for it.
Araz followed, leaving a trail of burning trees and corpses as lightning arced from his body to anything remotely combustible.
He ran blindly, not focusing on where he was going. All of his concentration was focused inward, focused on trying to force the lightning back down. He couldn't understand why, but the energy seemed to be getting stronger with every step that he took.
Finally he couldn't hold it in any longer.
He let out a terrible scream, and a shockwave of crackling blue energy blasted out from him.
The trees nearest him were blasted to oblivion, and those further away were burned to charcoal by by the outpouring of energy.
As the attack faded, Araz stood up shakily. The mountainside that he was standing on was now a five-mile diameter expanse of absolute devastation. Everything was blackened and burned, even the rocks, and flaming bits of unidentifiable matter were falling, like hellish raindrops, from the heavens.
He liked down, and saw that his hands were smoking.
In the background, acres of trees blazed in a conflagration of biblical proportions.
Araz was shocked. He had never caused such widespread damage before. Not without a weapon and combustibles, anyway.
He sat down on a nearby rock and buried his face in his hands, ignoring the stench of ozone on them. This was what he had feared. He couldn't control his powers, and he had the destructive capability of a nuclear bomb.
He was an abomination. A monster. A dangerous beast that needed to be kept away from society.
Without meaning to, he began to sing. He hadn't sung a song for almost 300 years, and at first his voice was quavery and out of tune. But gradually it steadied and strengthened until he sang in his old, powerful baritone.
"Sparks rain down on the mountainside,
Not a whisper from the breeze.
A wasteland, desolation,
And of it, I'm the king."
He stared at the fires raging in the distance.
"The flames are roaring as the tempest pounds inside,
I had to keep it in. And gods above I've tried."
He stood up, understanding suddenly. He stared at his hands.
"Don't look within,
That was always my philosophy.
Conceal, don't feel. Don't try to know."
He clenched his hands into fists.
"Well now I'll know!"
He smashed the arcane barriers that were holding back all of his power. The energy surged through his veins again, filling his extremities with pins and needles. Electricity arced and crackled between his fingers and created thrust. He began to levitate.
"Let it go! Let it go!
No holding back any more!
Let it go! Let it go!
Turn away and slam the door!
I don't care if they come for me!
Let the storm rage on,
The stares never bothered me anyway."
He angled his hands and feet in a manner reminiscent of another man with propulsion in his hands and feet. Just as he had hoped, he began to drift forward. He leaned forward some more and he flew faster.
"It's funny how some di-istance,"
His voice wavered as he wobbled, then steadied.
"Makes all those threats seem small.
And the fears that once did bind me,
Will shackle me no more."
He eventually reached a small knob on the mountain's arm right next to a lake. A perfect, defendable location. It was on high ground but still offered plenty of decent fallback points and other second options. It had a nearby water supply, and with all of the burned trees around the soil was plenty fertile.
He cracked his knuckles in anticipation.
"It's time to see what I can do,
To test the limits and break through.
No right, no wrong, no rules for me…"
Araz knelt in the still-warm, carbon-covered earth and pressed his palms against the ground.
He was attempting the only lightning trick that he had ever allowed himself to learn before. He sent a blast of lightning into the earth, piercing the mantle and drawing up a glob of magma.
"I'm free!"
He swept his arm up and the lava surged out of the ground, surrounded by delicate retainers of lightning. At his command the lava swirled and formed a pair of huge stone gates with the beginnings of a wall on each side.
"Let it go! Let it go!
I've tamed the earth and sky,
Let it go! Let it go!
You'll never see me cry!"
He darted through the gates and looked around the hill, mapping out his fortress in his head, and then he slammed his boot into the ground, sending the most powerful blast of lightning he had ever summoned into the earth.
"I'll make my stand
If they come for me
Let the storm rage on."
He raised his arms. Lava coursed from the earth and formed the rest of the outer wall and the central keep. He rose into the air as the keep's round antechamber walls grew, and the domed ceiling began to form.
"My power surges through the air into the ground.
My soul is burning like a flame among the ash
A single thought burns through my mind just like a fiery blast:
There is no turning back. The past is in the past!"
Lightning sizzled up and down his body, burning away his old clothes and replacing them with a new set of garments woven from titanium threads. He was wearing a blue tunic, a new pair of olive green trousers, and steel-toed boots.
However, unlike before, he had also given himself armor. He had a chest plate with spidery veins of gold like lightning bolts, reinforced steel bracers, spike-knuckled gauntlets, a leather and steel-scaled kama, thigh plates, combined greaves and knee plates, cleated steel boots, a thick steel gorget, and his leather bandoliers.
"Let it go!"
Araz flung his arms wide and energy exploded off of him in a huge shockwave, and he shot through the dome's apex.
"Let it go!
Like the phoenix born anew!
Let it go! Let it go!
The old Araz is dead!"
He plummeted back through the dome just as it was closed by lightning-tempered glass, and slammed into the floor. The fall would have killed a normal person, but Araz had specially enchanted his armorto survive extreme falls. It sent the shock of the fall out in the form of lightning energy and cracked the solid obsidian floor.
"Here I stand
In the light of day!
Let the storm rage on!
The stares never bothered me anyway."
Araz flicked his wrist, and a tendril of lightning slammed the doors shut with a concussive boom.
Safe within his new fortress, he allowed an exhilarated smile to split his features.
Now that he had tamed his powers he had access to nearly eight hundred years of potent magical energy. He could finally experiment and practice to his heart's content with no fear of persecution. He was all but invincible.
And he loved it.
All right. So before you start whaling on me, I know that I said that I wouldn't do songs in my profile. But this was something that needed to be done for the plot and for convenience. I wrote this scene to the original Let it Go, and I couldn't think of how to do this without putting in the lyrics to a "parody" that I had subconsciously created. Also, I felt that it would be an interesting plot point to have him singing this song about self-discovery and liberation at a time when he is vulnerable and frightened.
And remember: if you want to hear some answers straight from the horse's mouth, I have an ask/dare story up, and you can go ahead and ask any of the characters whatever you so desire.
This is Lord-of-Rhodor signing out for now, and wishing you a nice day.