Chapter Nine

Othone heard the conflict long before he saw Coriolanus Draco attacking his own son with two swords stolen from guards killed in defending Laertes. "No Jedi, do not interfere in this matter!" Laertes shouted when he heard Othone ignite his lightsaber and prepare to lunge at the King's dangerous assailant. "He will kill you if I do not!" Othone shouted back to Laertes. "Better that than not having an honorable fight as the Code of Nyx requires of any King," Laertes replied before resuming the fight with his cyborg father.

It was while Othone was thinking about what to do that he felt slight vibrations under the earth. He wasn't sure what to make of them and decided to see if there was something underground that was moving. Placing his fingers on the dirt, he connected with the Force and used the nerves on his fingertips as substitute ears to listen to the ground. What he was hearing however, was beyond anything he could possibly comprehend.

The Monster revealed signs of life shortly after Archimedes gave the order for Coriolanus to kill Laertes. Smiling, he watched as red lines slowly faded to life across the beast's entire body and even saw the beginnings of movement in its red eyes. "After many years of searching and planning, at last, I will be able to use your power to take revenge first on Laertes then on the rest of the galaxy!" Archimedes declared with excitement. The beast made a low reverberating growl and Archimedes told it to feed on the souls of the rebels and use them to hasten its return to the world above until it obtained the soul of a King.

Using a device he had tinkered with and perfected over the years, the Monster was feeding on the souls of the dead at an excessively fast rate that impressed Archimedes. He was disappointed when even after the rebels had been pushed to their capital city and were being wiped out, he still needed the soul of a King to free the creature. Guess some things just can't be changed by a device you plug up to a beast thought to be of magic but is merely a machine fueled by the magic of the Mystics he thought silently. However, as he took a closer look at the beast, he noticed it was not mechanical but biomechanical, making it a cyborg like Coriolanus only much more massive.

Nonetheless, as more than three hundred thousand rebels were massacred, Archimedes managed to use their souls to free all but the creature's arms and he assumed this way it needed the soul of a King to leave its prison behind. With the strength of only a King's soul, it could pull itself out and threaten the world again and since Archimedes had pitched two against each other it would only be a matter of time before the victor provided the Monster with that one last soul. He decided to check up on Coriolanus while he waited for the delivery of that necessary soul and was impressed to see that the cyborg had pushed Laertes to the Lava Fields of Vulcan. Unless Laertes had something in mind, it looked like Coriolanus was going to push him into one of the lava pools and be the one to provide the soul of a vanquished King which put a smile on Archimedes' face.

Laertes had fought for his life thus far and managed to work up a plan to defeat his father. It was dangerous but he had faith that he could pull it off if everything went right as it presently was. "Father, I was not the one who betrayed you and tried to kill you! Don't you remember any of that?" he asked, hoping there was still a chance to stop this duel peacefully. "I do remember but I also remember who helped him pull off such a treacherous stunt," Coriolanus answered.

"I had nothing to do with Claudius' plot to kill you and leave the throne to me! If it weren't for him, I would have been content to wait until you passed away peacefully before ascending to the Throne you would've left," Laertes replied. Of course, the first part was a lie as he had helped Claudius set the traps months before Claudius launched the final stages of his plan to bring peace to the planet. Unfortunately, Coriolanus knew this too and called Laertes out on his bluff for all it was worth to either man.

However, Laertes did not lie about the second part and indeed would have been content to wait his turn were it not for Claudius' enticing plot. Had Coriolanus believed his first bluff, he would have added that Claudius was the real enemy and not him all that time. That would also have been true if revenge was what Coriolanus sought for their treacherous conspiracy against him. But he did admit that the reasons for his joining Claudius were nearly identical to Claudius' reasons for starting it.

As he now fought the man who helped conceive him in his mother's womb and had trained him how to fight with a sword from the time he could stand, he exhaled a sigh of regret as he prepared for the final part of his plan. Just before Coriolanus could slash across his abdomen with both of his blades, Laertes jumped over him and slashed him vertically across his back. Then he landed back on his feet and kicked his father in the same place, causing Coriolanus to trip over a rock and plunge into one of the lava pools that had been behind Laertes. As he watched his father burn and sink in the lava, Laertes looked back and apologized for his deed as sincerely as he could possibly do so.

Coriolanus Draco had been his son's hero as well as his father. It was this man who had taught him right from wrong, told him about how to rule wisely and gave examples of ancestors who had not. This man was the man who gave Laertes his own reason for loving his wife and unborn twins as Coriolanus had tried to take revenge against his own father on behalf of Laertes' mother. But most importantly, this man brought the one woman who kept the family united and happy when nothing else did: the late ex-Princess Ophelia.

Darius Othone remained at the camp and could not understand why the vibrations had increased instead of mellowing out. Again, he put his fingers to the ground but felt a presence moving and shaking its way free from the soft underground. He realized that this was something far bigger than a mere plate moving across the planet: it was the Monster Laertes said was mentioned by his spy in the rebellion. He wondered who this spy was and if he truly was loyal to Laertes alone or if there was some other reason he did all this.

Maul sensed the disruptions in the earth long before he saw the source of them. Traveling on his speeder Bloodfin, he saw a massive hand surge its way out of the ground and slap smack down near him and destroying entire mountains as it did so. In the distance, he saw yet another hand rise out of the mountain in that same exact way and destroy even more mountains and leaving only a couple dozen between them. This could only mean one thing: Archimedes has succeeded in releasing the Monster from its confines he thought to himself as he raised the speed on his speeder as fast as he could make it go.

Rocks more than five times Maul's size barely missed hitting him and one even managed to tear off bits of his cloak. However, he made it safely out of the danger zone and decided to inform Laertes that he was on his way to meet up with him. When Laertes finally answered the transmission, he reminded Maul about the flag he had given him before he left and told him to wave it when he encountered the soldiers of the King so he didn't get accidentally shot at by them. Maul nodded and told him he would be meeting him soon but Laertes warned him of the Jedi and added that Othone was presently in his company.

"Then I will try to avoid being spotted as best I can, I'll even see if I can find a way to your tent that involves going around where he will surely be," he said. "Sounds good to me but remember, I'm not helping you out if he decides to attack you if he finds you. I'm even pretending you came to kill me just so he doesn't suspect me of treachery if that makes it interesting for you," Laertes replied. "That will be the perfect excuse for me to have some real fun instead of more rebel rabble," Maul stated before disconnecting the transmission.

Laertes chuckled at Maul's reply about how they would deal with the Jedi Master Othone. Why Maul had such an interest in killing Jedi remained beyond the King but he had no doubt that it had at least partly to do with Ophelia. He had seen the way Maul held back in telling him about her death and Claudius' confinement on Coruscant until Laertes insisted for long enough and patiently enough. Laertes even took it a step further and guessed that since the Jedi Codex strictly forbid love, Maul also was angered by how she could not explicitly express her love for him.

Laertes could understand that very well as he was sure there was no way he could live with such a rule intact and enforced in his daily life. "Your Majesty, something has risen from the ground with dark intentions for this planet. I can feel it through the Force!" Othone said, interrupting his thoughts. "If you can feel it through the Force then you are sensing what we know only as 'the Monster', an elemental, biomechanical beast created by the Mystics in the Forgotten Times of our history," Laertes explained.

"What can it do?" Othone asked. "Long ago, when it was created, the people of the neighboring moon of Ares attacked our world and were on the verge of conquering us when the Mystics created a weapon meant to counter their seemingly invincible armies and armadas. Instead, we created a being that wiped out their entire race, destroyed all of their artifacts, and left their moon a lifeless husk of what it once was before it turned on us also. Thirteen Mystics gathered and twelve sacrificed their lives to give their Master immortality as well as the power to seal the Monster away forever.

"For more than a decade, Archimedes has been obsessed with releasing it for the sake of finding out whether its power would be of use to him in his plot to avenge his exile by order of the Supreme Chancellor. From what you're saying and if the earthquakes are signs, it would appear that Archimedes has succeeded in his life's greatest dream," Laertes answered. "The beast will be coming out of the ground at any moment, won't it?" Othone inquired. "Thanks to the death of my father, as the soul of a King is required to completely free it, it will be if it's not a myth as he believes," the King replied grimly.

Just then, a soldier came in and told Laertes that something had burst its way out of the mountains and was climbing out of the ground as they stood speaking. "Looks like Archimedes was right when he said it wasn't a myth. Lure the Monster toward the rebel capital, maybe it can do our work for us before we have the Mystic destroy it," Laertes ordered. "Are you mad?" Othone asked, bewildered.

"Why not? If what the Mystics say about its powers is true, it could take the chore of finishing the rebels off our hands. Besides, our remaining Mystic will need to be able to attack its supposed weakness on the back of its neck after it destroys the rebel city," Laertes asked back at the Jedi. "You are a fool if you believe you can destroy it if it feeds on destruction as is demonstrated through it absorbing the souls of the dead and making them its fuel," Othone stated.

"It's not a deity of destruction otherwise that would be true therefore, it only feeds on the souls of the dead rather than the destruction it causes. We can defeat it if we can just get to its weakness in the back of its neck then let the Mystic have at it," Laertes replied. Othone was about to storm out but he stopped in his track and groaned in pain, saying it was due to him sensing a dark presence through the Force. "I think it's time you met my spy without whom none of this would have been possible," said Laertes with enthusiasm.