Today's chapter is a little bit shorter than usual. Sorry about that^^'
But I included the short Extra as compensation, I hope it's at least somewhat entertaining.
King of all Kings:
It was dark and cold where he sat. And lonely, so very incredibly lonely. Even the Great Flow couldn't illuminate his surroundings. So many had joined it in the last hours… too many.
But that was always the case when war was waged. People died and came to him, it was normal. But... wasn't someone missing?
Someone that died just a minute or two ago. Someone who hadn't fallen.
Where was that person?
Why did he feel sick? It wasn't the missing rukh, he knew that much.
|Who are you, deep inside that hole?|
That voice wasn't his yet he recognized it. Where was that? The rukh… The rukh from Magnostadt's fifth Level Authorization District? Why would they be sending someone's voice to him…
The unwell feeling increased, were the two connected?
But who said that? It wasn't anyone from the flow. And yet, and yet…
The Chancellor.
The Chancellor said that. He had fallen. Then the missing rukh… was Titus'?
Wait, how did he know them? Come to think of it, wasn't he somewhere else just mere seconds ago?
That's right, he was with the Kou forces, beside Alibaba. Alibaba? Balbadd's third prince, Alibaba.
How could he forget that, forget all his friends for a moment?
Now, why did he retreat to the flow again? He must have panicked because of something, but what. He felt something and whatever that was, was also responsible for the sick feeling he had.
He felt a familiar presence he knew very well. Someone he knew but hated.
It wasn't the hand he felt on his head, that was Ugo. He could never hate Ugo. It had to do with the Chancellor.
Deep inside a hole? Was someone sucking up their magoi? Yes, just before he retreated his mind he felt their magoi vanish, he also knew who did it.
…But who was it again. Why was that part of his memory wiped, dead?
Dead...
Dead?
David. It was David he felt. It was that-
'Calm. Calm down.' He needed to go back to Alibaba and the others.
Solomon was lying motionless in Ugo's hand as a quake shook the earth. Everyone looked towards Magnostadt as a beam of light rose to the sky. Solomon woke up to a dark sky and as he sat up, he could see the beam slowly disappear.
He looked at Ugo who had gone stiff in shock. It was the natural reaction, a medium was created and now, Il Illah was descending from the sky. A hole had opened up, surely it connected to the other dimension he sealed him in now.
He stared at it in fright "This is terrible."
"What is that, Aladdin?" Alibaba asked puzzled, regarding the black being poking out of the clouds.
"That." He pointed "Is the 'something' I talked about earlier. It doesn't matter if we stop the war or the black Djinn's, if that makes it here, it's all over…"
He jumped down from Ugo's hand and took his staff from Alibaba who had been holding it. They didn't have his 72 Household members here, only 6 if Muu was added and even those could only be counted as 4, seeing as it was impossible to activate multiple Djinn equips at once.
Even more of a problem were the other people present. Household members could somehow manage to defend themselves, he was sure but the soldiers of Kou and Leam as well as the Magnostadt citizens were a nuisance. They could end up as unneeded casualties!
"Sir Kouen!" He called out to the enemy general "Please pull back your troops! If they stay here, they will all die!"
"Lord Kouen, please disregard the inane prattle of this brat." Seishuu stated.
Okay, that was enough! He wasn't a child and this wasn't the situation to have anything like this go back and forth! If that guy thought he was that beneath his master he'd have to think again! This wasn't a child, a civilian talking with a prince! It was a King talking with a prince!
He hated to use his position like this but if it was the one way to get them to listen, so be it!
"I know I can hardly command any of you, it was simply a request meant to help, as I meant every word. And if anything," He stated calmly but with a foul mood, addressing Seishuu "You should stop talking down to me. I am the King of Alma Torran and not some grovelling insect that had its wings ripped off."
Kouen's retainers glared at him as he glared back, Ugo coming to stand by his side. Kouen seemed rather interested in what he said however.
"Alma Torran?" He repeated a portion of his words "Then I assume you're 'Solomon'?"
"That is correct." He confirmed unshakable "My name is Solomon Jehoahaz Abraham, King of Alma Torran and the leader of what was once known as the 'Resistance'. If you don't believe me, we can just ask the Djinn's you wield."
Not waiting for a reply, he stretched his hand out and called for his friends. One by one, three of the leaders emerged from their vessels.
"Our King and our great past past King!" Kouen's Djinn's chorused, bowing fully or slightly, depending on the Djinn.
"Agares, Astaroth, Phenex!" Kouen said surprised "Those are my Dinn's!"
Following his own, Leraje and Amon rose as well, this time fully addressing Solomon "You summoned us, our great King Solomon?"
"I see…" Kouen spoke lowly but firm "So King Solomon is really you?"
"Our Kings..." Amon interrupted him "Please seal off the Dark Spot. Otherwise, this world will be destroyed. A 'Hole' has opened up in the western skies. From there, an incarnation of evil will descend!" He looked at Solomon "Would it be rude to ask you to explain further?"
"Not at all." Solomon shook his head as everyone's attention turned to him "The hands of said being will rob everything he touches of the white rukh inside their bodies. People, animals, even plants. Even light and sound will die out, nothing will move and nothing will be heard. In it's wake would be… A black sun, shining down on a world devoid of life…" He inhaled sharply, it was hard to force all these words out.
"Everyone's gonna die, do you hear me?" Leraje warned full of worry "Don't let this world become another Alma Torran!"
"Leraje!" Astaroth stopped her and held an arm in front of her "That is taboo. The people of this world aren't supposed to know even of the existence of the 'Other World'."
"It's fine, Astaroth." The King explained "In times like these, there's no other choice."
"You Majesty-" Agares started but Solomon raised his hand to stop him.
"We have no options left, everyone. The situation is far worse than it seems."
"Whatever do you mean, our King?" Amon question interested.
"Not only are Arba and her followers back..." He pointed into Magnostadt's direction "But the Medium wasn't created just like this. Something pulled the rukh in. That something is none other than David, however he did it."
The Djinn's regarded him alarmed. How couldn't they? David was dead, he wasn't supposed to meddle with the living, never mind this world.
"David?" Alibaba wondered "You never mentioned someone like that."
"It wasn't important." Solomon shot back, perhaps a bit too sour as he noticed Alibaba flinch "He's dead but I fear of what he has planned. Getting rid of him is no small task and now we have to deal with a medium and Il Illah descending."
"How exactly can we stop this anyway?" Alibaba asked him.
"You have to destroy the Medium." Amon answered when Solomon didn't "The incarnation of evil, Il Illah… is a high-ranking entity from another dimension who normally wouldn't exist in a place like our world. The 'Power Spot' that serves to pull it down to this world… That's the medium. A vast amount of black rukh and magoi, crystallized. That is what Al-Thamen was trying to create by causing an Abnormality of the World. Their ultimate goal…"
"We just have to destroy it." Solomon spoke up, thinking deeply "So someone needs to distract it. If we manage that, I can seal Il Illah away again."
"Can't you just seal the medium, too?" Alibaba questioned.
"Yes." He answered "But the medium's core consists of two people from this world. One is responsible for the current situation but he never intended the formation of such a being. I can't let the two of them suffer, they are victims as well."
Alibaba thought for a moment "So all we have to do is attack it while you seal the big black thing up there?"
"..." Well, that was a very simple version of it "Basically, yes. But don't take it lightly if you help out, it will mass-produce black Djinn and most likely have a very powerful borg. You can't do it alone, absolutely not." He turned to Kouen "Would you mind helping out? You won't really be able to see tomorrow otherwise."
"Why would I?" The prince replied definite.
Solomon sighed again "You won't be able to see tomorrow." He thought for a moment and came up with an idea "You want to know about the 'truth' of the world, right? If you help us, I will tell you. But you have to pull back your troops and help us for that."
Kouen smirked in a scary way "Very well." He inhaled deeply before yelling loudly "Koumei! Hakuryuu! Hakuei! Kougyoku! Come to me this instant!"
Solomon stopped shielding his ears. This guy was positively scary. And loud.
"Hakuryuu, is he coming here?" Alibaba whispered.
"Who knows…" Solomon replied.
Hakuryuu wouldn't be coming. All this happening today was a nuisance but who could have known so much would happen on this very day. But Hakuryuu had his own mission and Solomon was sure he would see through with it.
After everyone changed into their Djinn Equip and Solomon recalled Ugo, they flew towards Magnostadt.
"I will leave the fighting to you, okay?" Solomon said.
"Does the sealing spell take that long?" Alibaba questioned surprised.
"Not really." The King admitted "But I will try to make it last longer if not permanent this time. So nobody can break through or call it anymore. However, I will need time and energy for that which means that I will have to gather a lot of rukh. Think you can handle it?"
"Of course!" His friend replied confident "You can count on me!"
Solomon smiled gratefully "Thanks."
Unlike Kouen, Kouha and Alibaba, he stopped when they arrived at the outskirts of Magnostadt and started to concentrate. With all the black Djinn he felt guilty, not really helping out but if he didn't do this it could end worse than if not.
He put up a borg around himself, just in case any Djinn would try to attack him.
'If only things like this didn't happen.'
But the world could be a cruel place. He clutched his staff tightly as he called every rukh to him, the ones in Magnostadt, the ones in the neighboring lands, every single one.
The area around him started to be bathed in gold as the light illuminated the darkened world a bit. But exactly because of that he couldn't loose focus. If all those rukh were to scatter now and the medium could grab hold of it... He didn't want to imagine the horrifying results.
The spell was complicated as it freely made use of every concept of 'strength'. And terrifying should he loose focus. The scale on which it could bend the laws of physics in this country, no, this world, was not to be discussed.
He looked at the medium which had changed its form by now. Of course the Djinn wielders would have problems but he was glad they were holding their own and not only that, he felt Sinbad's rukh.
He was still quite a bit away but he was nearing them quickly. There were other wielders with him as well, members of his Alliance.
He panicked as he saw the medium suddenly grasp one of Il Illah's 'arms'. He poured every present rukh into his spell and released it, the light engulfing everything from the city to the coast and beyond.
For a moment everything was bathed in a chilling white light that blinded them. Solomon fell to his knees and and held his staff close before he collapsed.
Il Illah was gone.
Mere moments after the light subsided, a flash of lightining rained down on the medium before another with a much larger spectrum followed. It was only after the first attack of the five Household's that Sinbad flew towards Alibaba and explained how they arrived so quickly.
He was glad that reinforcements arrived but was too weak to keep his Equip up and started to fall backwards. Morgiana managed to catch him and brought them both safely onto the ground.
"Where's Aladdin?" She asked worried, not seeing him.
Alibaba stood up "I don't really know. He sealed away that black thing just now but... he hasn't joined up with us yet. Maybe he needs to catch his breath?"
Meanwhile, Solomon was still unconscious. The release was too sudden and used up too much of his own magoi. Luckily, not as much as in Alma Torran's battle or he would have died. Again.
All of a sudden, his magoi replenished a bit and he slowly woke up. Tired, he blinked and sat up. How much time had passed since he was last awake?
In the ocean's direction, the battle still raged on but he noticed that everyone had too much magoi.
'And Lady Scheherazade is gone.'
She must have sacrificed the rukh inside her body to save this world. He let himself fall backwards, he would only get in the way of their final attack and without a teleportation circle he wouldn't even make it in time.
He only picked himself off the ground and flew towards his friends as the medium started to act weird.
"The medium is hesitating…" The Magi, Yunan, explained for everyone "Or to be more precise, the rukh of the person who's become the core is. I wonder who it is…"
"Matal Mogamett." Solomon answered, his voice only a bit above a whisper.
"Solomon!" Alibaba and Morgiana shouted happily.
Alibaba went up to him with a slight smile "What took you so long?"
"I passed out." He admitted quietly "Even with the extra rukh, I used too much."
"It's not hard to notice." Yunan commented as he looked at Solomon "It's not much but you have dried blood on your face."
Solomon glanced at the ground next to him, not wanting to meet their eyes "That's not important now. The rukh of someone who hasn't fallen yet, Titus' rukh, is stopping the medium." He looked at Yamraiha who was standing nearby "I'm going inside to see Sir Mogamett's rukh. His hesitation is the hesitation of the world itself. You know him well, do you want to join me?"
She nodded and took his hand as they went inside his rukh. The inside was like a giant tower and the two of them were floating downwards towards Sir Mogamett's and Titus' rukh.
In his conversation wíth the Chancellor, many dark, fallen, people assembled around the windows of the tower like structure. And he had to admit, even he couldn't save them.
But he would find a way to do so.
It was finally over. If only these blockheads called rulers could stop butting each others heads in. He saw the good in multiple rulers existing but that they always had to antagonize each other!
He didn't pay much attention to Kouen's and Sinbad's conversation, so he flinched startled when Kouen grabbed his arm and pulled him towards him and his siblings.
"Well then, I'll be claiming this King!"
The grip on his arm grew stronger and Solomon winced 'That hurt!'
"We promised, right?" Kouen asked, his face scaring the King slightly.
"Y-yeah…" He had no intention of going back on that.
He looked at the ground as Kouen released him and nursed his arm as the magician's joined them. He smiled slightly when he felt Titus return to their world. The other dead wouldn't come back but at least one returned. Looking at the far off sky he mentally nodded towards his black-haired friend.
Everything concerning Al-Thamen would come to an end soon.
It took a while to return to Sindria but it was nice to be greeted by the eight generals. Solomon turned to greet Sinbad when he paused, his smile shifting into a frown.
Sinbad may be half fallen but what the hell was up with him? Something felt off and... very, very wrong.
He just couldn't put his finger on it. Was he getting paranoid? He hoped not, that would be annoying.
They had two months until the summit and yet half a month passed so quickly. Alibaba would be safe on his own on his way to Balbadd and Solomon had stuff to look into.
While in Magnostadt, he already found out a lot to help his research but sometimes in moments like this, he wished Ugo was with him. He was way smarter.
Now if only his study sessions wouldn't all get interrupted!
He wasn't really surprised to see Yunan, he had felt him coming a long time ago. The Magi promptly got into an argument with Sinbad and built a house with Alchemic magic to escape the High King.
A bit much, in Solomon's mind but he wasn't going to question it.
"Hey, what do you think of Sinbad?" Yunan asked as they both sat down with snacks and a chess board in front of them.
"Sinbad?" The King repeated a little sluggish "There's no doubt that he's incredible, has a lot of magoi and can attract all kinds of people to him. His rukh is bright and strong. It fits a King like him."
"'It fits a King like him'?" Yunan echoed as he moved one of his chess pieces "Then why did you seem to keep a distance from him? You haven't exactly said something negative."
"Oh, it's about that." He perked up "I really like him, I won't deny that but... He's a little too perfect. Too much of a perfect King Vessel, even. And since a while I have been feeling wary of him. Something's just rubbing me the wrong way since the incident at Magnostadt."
"What happened?"
"I don't know." He replied honestly "It feels familiar but at the same time like it's not there at all. Whatever it is is making me uneasy and feel sick. Like a terrible nightmare."
Like a disaster waiting to happen.
Extra:
Shortly after the funeral, Hakuryuu went up to one of the palace magician's, making sure it's one of the few not belonging to Al-Thamen.
"Can I help you, my prince?" The magician asked while bowing.
"Yes, I have a request actually." Hakuryuu answered as he pointed at the magician's staff "Could you perform a spell for me?"
The other smiled, happy to be of service to his prince "Of course, what do you need?"
"It doesn't really matter." The black haired youth stated excited "Just make sure it uses around 1 Million commands."
…
"Uhm… Are you... still with me?"
Feeling uneasy, he slowly backed away from the unmoving form of the magician step by step before turning around and running towards the place where he last saw one of his cousins.
"Help! I broke someone!"
Sorry it wasn't much of a chapter. I'm really tired.
The next chapter will be longer again, I promise!
Guest: Thank you! I will do my best!
madmissY01: If it was all the same, it would just be boring. I'm glad you like it as it is. Solomon's memories, well, let's see how that will play out~
I hope to see everyone next time, have fun and don't hesitate to leave a comment on your thoughts!