Now then, here we are again after that last chapter. Moving on.

Chaos is the Prize Chapter 75

"Beware of destinies. They're rarely what you expect."

-Tol Braga

"If you do not win, you are damned."

-The Emperor of Terra

Everything had been going well before the Atlesians got their shit together.

Chromos and Ferro had been roaming through the crashed Atlesian airship, scavenging anything they found worth something and could carry. They had even built a makeshift shed from spare parts of the ship so that they could pull with them the haul they had acquired from the ship's armory. Unfortunately, beyond the hull of the ship, the fighting in Vale had started to die down. Creatures of Grimm were slain, rampaging androids were getting cut down one by one, White Fang was retreating. And thus some of the Atlesians had come to check the crashed Airship for survivors.

Chromos and Ferro had suddenly found themselves in a ship corridor, staring down the pulse carbines of Atlesian Fire Warriors. In their panic, the two Venatores had opened fire with the weapons they had scavenged, and a full-on firefight had ensued. The two Neophytes had been forced to abandon most of their scavenged loot and run from the Atlesians back into the depths of the grounded cruiser, trading fire with the soldiers on their tale.

And now, Chromos was trapped in some sort of computer room, taking cover behind a large table station fixed on the floor. He had no idea where Ferro was, but the occasional gunfire he could faintly hear echos from somewhere indicated the Iron Hand was still running around the ship.

There was a burst of gunfire originating from the door of the room, and Chromos lifted his own Pulse Carbine over the table to fire some blind counter fire in that general direction. There were no windows in the room, no other way out. He was with his back against the wall, the Atlesians had him cornered, and the only thing he could do was stop them from rushing in and gunning him down.

Chromos was cursing to himself when he heard a metallic clang ring out. He had just the time to see a small metallic object fly and bounce off the corner of the room to his left. He only had a second to throw himself to the ground before the grenade exploded with a deafening bang.

There was a long moment of daze, where Chromos could not tell what was going on. He could vaguely sense shapes moving in the room. Then someone grabbed on to him and turned him from where he was laying on his stomach. Chromos could see an Atlesian soldier crouching next to him, pinning him to the floor.

"He is… just a child…" Someone said. "Can't be older than fourteen at most."

Chromos closed his eyes. This was it. The enemy had him. It was over; the end of the line. Shit...

"From iron cometh strength…" Chromos started muttering. "From strength cometh will..."

"He is saying something," Another voice called.

"From will cometh faith. From faith cometh honor," Chromos continued with a quiet voice, not allowing his face twist from the stoic defiant look. He would not give this Atlesian scum to see any fear in him.

"Hey kid! Speak louder, we can't hear you."

"From honor cometh iron…"

The Atlesian that was crouched next to him leaned closer. "What is that? What are you saying?"

Chromos opened his eyes. He took in the Atlesian looming over him, his eyes snapping towards the soldier's belt, before casting a fiery gaze of hate up at the man's helmeted face.

"This... is the Unbreakable Litany… you worm," Chromos spat, his voice filled with contempt and hate. His hand flashed out with lightning speed, going for the grenades at the Fire Warrior's belt. With a swift move he managed to arm three of them before the Atlesian managed to stop him, but it was already too late. Chromos kicked with his feet, causing the soldier to lose his feet and fall. The man squirmed on the floor with a panicked cry, struggling for the explosives noiselessly ticking at his belt.

"And may it forever be so," Chromos whispered before the room exploded.

Azuhrius stepped over the corpse of a dead Atlesian soldier with a faint trail of smoke drifting from the barrel of his gun and finally reached the door leading to the command bridge of the crashed Atlesian ship. The doors were shut, and he had to release an emergency lever to pry them open. He stepped in and took in the space before him.

The crew members who had piloted the ship were all over the bridge. The corpses had been tossed around by the crash, and several of them had sprayed the bridge with their blood. Azuhrius offered them a cursory inspection before moving forward to stand before the upper consoles. He scanned the bridge from his vantage point, searching the thing of great value Ceruleon's visions had foretold of. And that was the moment he spotted the scroll.

Azuhrius circled the bridge and descended down to the lower front, coming to a halt before the console at the front of the bridge. There, mounted into a small port, was a scroll with a glowing red screen, and an image of a black chess piece.

Azuhrius observed the thing for a while, trying to decipher its nature. The cogs in his head ticked as he put events and facts together, and soon he had thought he had a pretty good preliminary guess about the scroll and its function. Those Atlesian androids had not turned on their masters by accident.

With a smile and gleaming eyes, Azuhrius reached out and carefully picked up the scroll. The thing could truly be priceless.

As Azuhrius held his prize in hands, taking it in and imagining the possibilities, there was a sudden voice from the back of the bridge.

"I will be taking that if you don't mind."

Azuhrius spun around, guarding the scroll with his hand as his other arm brought up his gun.

A silver-haired boy stood on the upper side of the bridge, looking down at Azuhrius. It did not take long for Azuhrius to dig up the boy's name from his memory. Mercury Black. A tournament competitor from Mistral. Mercury started taking casual steps to his right, moving to stand at the end of the stairs.

"You are here for this?" Azuhrius asked, shaking the scroll in his hands.

"Yes. It is something we can't really leave behind to be found," the Silver-haired boy said. "So I am here to take it."

"Understandable," Azuhrius said. His mind was in high gear, taking in the situation and boy who had just presented himself. Azuhrius had seen some of Mercury's skills, and he did not like his chances against him. "This is not something you would want the Atlesians to find. By the way, is Mercury Black your actual name?" Azuhrius asked.

Mercury narrowed his eyes. He looked at Azuhrius with a new look in his eyes. "It is." he replied. "You… you are not with Ozpin, are you? You were… Azuhrius something or other? Or is that your actual name?"

"I guess one could say that," Azuhrius replied. He felt a bead of sweat run down his brow. "I am Alpharius."

Mercury took in Azuhrius with his gaze for a moment longer. "Hand over the scroll," he said finally with a voice that brooked no resistance.

"Shame. I was hoping to take it with me," Azuhrius said.

There was a long pregnant pause between them. Then Mercury's boots echoed with a boom, and the boy was shot towards Azuhrius, even as the Venatore opened fire with his bolter.

"CHROMOS! HEY CHROMOS! GET UP!"

The Iron Warrior neophyte managed to open his eyes at the call of his name. First thing he could perceive was Ferro crouched over him. The second was pain. Pain, worse than he had ever felt since his elevation into the Legion.

Chromos let out a bestial cry of suffering as the sudden sensation of agony he felt. He struggled on the floor, squirming and spasming for a moment, uttering out any and all Legion curses that came to him. After the initial shock after regaining his conscience, he stopped crying in pain and with hard breaths, he managed to regain some composure. Hazily and groggily he located the source of his pain radiating into his body and turned to his left side.

His right arm was a horrible mess of broken bones and shredded flesh. He lifted his arm, and his elbow connected to his wrist only by loose strains of bloody meat, with the bone shards poking out of the skin. Everything below the elbow was a total ruin, and totally beyond salvage at a first glance.

Chromos beheld his ruined limb for a moment. He noticed Ferro had wrapped a long and durable cord around the arm above the wrecked flesh, so the bleeding was very limited. Chromos looked around. The corpses of the Atlesians littered the room, shredded by grenade shrapnel. One of them was lying between Chromos and the soldier who's grenades had exploded, and it seemed the body had taken most of the detonation, resulting in Chromos still drawing breath.

He was alive. He was alive! Chromos would have laughed out loud had he not been in excruciating pain.

"CAN YOU WALK!?" Ferro asked. Not waiting for the response, Ferro grabbed hold of Chromos' intact arm and pulled him up from the floor, proceeding to hoist the Iron Warrior over his shoulders. "LET'S GET OUT OF HERE! MORE OF THEM ARE COMING!"

Chromos tried to speak but was not able to say much. His voice came out as an incoherent gurgle.

"DON'T WORRY, YOU WILL LIVE! WE ARE GOING TO GET YOU FIXED, AND GET YOU A SHINY NEW ARM!" Ferro yelled as he dragged Chromos away on his back. "ONE BETTER THAN YOUR LAST ONE!"

"With… hazard stripes?" Chromos managed to gurgle as he was dragged away by Ferro.

Azuhrius was getting demolished. The Mercury kid was better. Way better. The bridge was filled with the results of their fight from their weapons, with impact craters littering the walls and windows. Azuhrius had no close combat weapon, and he was constantly on the defensive trying to avoid the wrath of the shot boots.

Panic was starting to slip into the usually composed and disciplined mind of Azuhrius. Dread was starting to creep into his veins. He was losing, and he knew it.

Azuhrius rolled aside from another attack and managed to grab his scroll. His fingers worked the device and started a call. It took only a moment for Orchid to respond.

"ORCHID!" Azuhrius cried out. A white ball impacted him on the back and he was tossed to the ground, where he rolled sideways to avoid further hits. He had to get crouched and jump when Mercury came forward in a great leap, smashing his leg to where Azuhrius had been a heartbeat ago.

"I am on the bridge of the downed cruiser!" Azuhrius yelled into the scroll. "I am under assault!" Azuhrius tried to run for the door, tilting his hand to empty the rest of his magazine at his assailant. None of the shots landed, and in the next moment, Mercury caught up to him, and with a spinning motion kick sent Azurhius reeling to the side and into a console. Azuhrius tried to reload his gun but Mercury kicked the weapon from his hands. Without hesitation, Azuhrius pulled forth his pistol and emptied into the Aura of Mercury, who still kept coming.

"Orchid!" Azuhrius cried out. "Help me… help me…"

The pistol was kicked aside, alongside the scroll. The communication device scattered to the floor and another kick send Azuhrius back towards the front of the bridge, where he hit the central console and tilted over it to fall to the lower half of the bridge. He could feel the state of his Aura.

Azuhrius got shakily to his feet and lifted his hand. "Wait…" he said with a weak voice to the approaching figure of Mercury. "Wait…"

Orchid rushed through the corridors of the fallen Atlesian airship. His drawn sword was coated by some blood, originating from a couple of Atlesians he had run into. He had also encountered That those Iron Hand and Iron Warrior Neophytes, latter who had been wounded. They had possessed no knowledge about Azuhrius, so Orchid had disregarded them and pushed forward.

Orchid headed along the way that he knew would lead to the bridge, but as he turned the corner he could see someone at the other end of the new corridor. He pulled to a halt, just as the silver-haired buy pulled to a halt. The two stared at each other for a moment with measuring eyes.. Orchid noticed the boy had a scroll on his hands, one that he instinctively protected as he saw Orchid. He had seen the boy before. He was that guy who had challenged Pyrrha Nikos, and he had also fought Yang Xia Long in the third stage of the tournament. His name was Merc- something. Black?.

Before Orchid could decide what to do, the silver-haired boy picked a crossing corridor on his left and disappeared from Orchid's sight in the next moment. Orchid started instantly running again, glancing at the now empty crisscrossing corridor as he passed it, and in the next moment, he had forgotten about the boy. He focussed on making his way to the bridge and finding Azuhrius.

After some time, Orchid finally reached the doors of the bridge. He stepped in, taking in the clear signs of combat around the room. He could recognize some of them as caused by boltgun. Orchid moved to the center of the bridge. It was there he finally saw Azuhrius. His blood froze.

Azuhrius was lying on his stomach, face against the floor, in a pool of vividly red blood. His weapon was lying nearby, without a magazine. By the motion of his body, Orchid could tell he was still breathing.

Orchid jumped over the central console and sheathed his sword. He crouched by Azuhrius and turned him over, holding the Alpha Legionnaire in his arms. Azuhrius' chest armor was a torn mess, and blood dripped from the center of it. Azuhrius opened his eyes narrowly as Orchid inspected him.

"Who did this?" Orchid asked. He grabbed a small vial from the side storage of his backpack and injected it into Azuhrius. "Was it the silver-haired guy?"

Azuhrius did not manage to reply. Orchid scooped up Azuhrius' gun and then grabbed a hold of the wounded Venatore and lifted him up in his arms, carrying him towards the bridge door. "I am going to find Ceruleon. He will fix you up," Orchid said as he started running down the ship corridor, bleeding Azuhrius in his arms, and prayers to the Dark Prince on his lips.

It hurt so much. The pain Azuhrius felt in his ruined chest was agonizing. Orchid carrying him caused constant spikes of pain. It was hard to breathe. It was hard to think. Azuhrius could feel the last of his strength getting drained from his body. There was nothing he could do but slackly lay in Orchid's arms as the other Venatore roughly carried him.

Azuhrius was starting to feel cold. His feet and fingers had grown numb from blood loss. The coldness was spreading, following after the weakness and numbness. His heavy green eyes looked up at Orchid, who was focussed on finding a way out.

Thinking was getting even harder. Azuhrius could no longer perceive where he was. Then he could no see. He could only feel a vague sense of motion, as he was dragged along by force. He could not feel much anymore. He could feel darkness and coldness overtake him.

Then it all gave away into something that was not dark.

And the Gods were there.

Orchid pulled to a halt suddenly. His sharp senses could no longer detect the heartbeat of Azuhrius. He looked down with wide eyes at the pale face of the body in his arms. The breathing had stopped as well.

Orchid stood frozen for a moment, and then he tilted his head back and let out an ear rupturing scream from the bottom of his lungs.

Kaltrina ran, and doors and corridors of the Legion airship flew by. She was heading towards the hangar, where the shuttle was about to land. Her heart was beating madly, her blood was drumming in her ears. In her hand, she held her scroll, and she spoke to it while she dashed on.

"Did you say Orchid?" she spoke to the device. There was unspeakable dread in her voice, and it was as if her heart was frozen while her blood burned. "...Where is Azuhrius?"

The doors opened before her, and she was greeted with a sight of the shuttle just making its way into the hangar of the cruiser, tilting in the air before finally settling down. Ceruleon was standing by the doorway near her watching the shuttle come in, his face stiffly blank and unreadable. The engines sound started to die out, and the back hatch started to open. Kaltrina took some hesitant steps forward before pulling to a halt.

Orchid walked down the now descended ramp. And in his arms, he carried the pale and blood-stained corpse of Azuhrius.

The scroll fell from Kaltrina's hands, she collapsed to her knees and started crying hopeless tears as her world came crashing down on her.

"We are the playthings of the gods."

-Roger Ebert

"If you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans."

-Woody Allen

"Most gods throw dice, but Fate plays chess, and you don't find out till it is too late that he's been playing with two queens all along."

-Terry Pratchett

What happened here and in the last chapter have in the plans since the very beginning. It has been years, and finally, I have done it.

Say, did any keen-eyed reader notice something particular about the last POV's of Azuhrius?

We should have two short-ish chapters left before the end of Volume 3. Hopefully, they don't take too long.

Leave a review if you feel like it, and have a nice day.