Chapter Twenty-One

Savage knew only one thing for certain: the singular hallway to his left went somewhere. Where it led or how he wound up here left him clueless but at the same time, curious to learn more. Perhaps it's a shortcut back up to the Temple and to that traitorous grandmother of mine he thought. And why not when one considered he had no other options lying around at the moment?

Still, even though he had dispatched the whore he now remembered had been called Charlotte and their bastard son Jonny, he still sensed something. He could immediately tell it wasn't his brother, his mother, or his grandmother but he knew it was something different from him. As he walked down the hallway illuminated for him by the death of the whore and their son, it became stronger and strong then he started hearing sounds. Then when he got closer, he began to hear a voice coming from the opposite end of a bulky door facing him.

He ran to it and put his ear against it to see if he could make out any words from the other side. It would give him an idea as to who or what he may be facing in combat or passing by. Already, he could hear one really gruff voice talking to several timid others and he could tell it was someone talking to his accomplices much like how Dooku would talk to him. And that was whenever Dooku was angered by a failure Savage had made such as the death of former King Katuunko on Toydaria.

Whether or not it was the best thing, Savage knew there was no other way to go forward but through the door. He pushed slowly and he found it was surprisingly easy to do that despite the size of the damned door. Opening it just enough to squeeze through, he then shut it again when he got through. "Who dares enter my chambers when not summoned?" asked the source of the gruff, angry voice.

"No one we know, my lord. But by the look of him, he may be a warrior come to kill you," one of the servants said. "Only if you choose to stand in my way," Savage replied menacingly. "Oh, you dare to address me in the manner which only I may address peasants such as yourself?" the man asked, revealing himself to be a massive human encased in grey armor.

The armor looked like it slowed him down but Savage knew better than to be fooled by appearances. His suspicion of the man's true power was confirmed when he leapt with ease from his chair and halfway across the hall between himself and Savage. "Do you know who I am, young man?" the king asked him. "You're the Blood-Handed King, famous for bringing war upon Dathomir when it was not asked for," Savage answered.

"Ah, my reputation precedes me! I like it!" the Blood-Handed King shouted. "I only ask permission to pass through your throne room without quarrel. If you let me then I will consider letting you live and brag of your reputation," Savage warned. "Nah boy, I think I'd rather enhance my reputation with your death rather than let you pass," the King said.

He swung the first punch but Savage intercepted it with his mechanical arm immediately. "Boy, you've got a special gift, care to use it?" he asked. "No problem at all," Savage answered with a smile. Then he slugged the King in the face with that same arm and watched as three teeth flew out of the man's mouth as well as a few ounces of blood.

When the King faced him again and smiled, Savage saw a fourth tooth barely dangling from his gums. "Not bad for a boy, you seem experienced in the art of hand-to-hand combat," he said. "I was trained from a young age to only fight so that one day, I would be selected by a Nightsister to be her mate," Savage told him. "I rebelled against the Nightsisters precisely because of such a fate as was selected for you," his enemy said.

The mad King lunged for Savage once more but the younger man was faster and more readily capable of dodging it. It resulted in him being sent right into the door, face first. "For such an infamous murderer, you're really pathetic in combat," Savage mocked. Then the King really got going and even managed to land a few punches on Savage though he only managed to hit him in the chest or on one of his shoulder pads. However, Savage gained the upper hand when he rammed the horns on his head into the King's gut and sent both men flying across the hall until they landed on the floor.

They briefly slid across the cold, marble floor which gave Savage time to pull his horns out of the King's skin safely. Then he used his legs to pin his enemy's legs and left arm just in time to intercept a blow from the right meant for his face. Savage grabbed the fist with his left arm, beginning a struggle of power between them. At first, nothing happened and neither side moved more than the other since Savage was also focused on keeping the pin securely intact.

It was after that brief moment that bones started to crack and they belonged to the King. His strength began to falter and Savage managed to push his free hand further back. Slowly but surely, Savage was triumphing over the Blood-Handed King and about to end his life. Then one of the servants intervened and threw Savage off his lord, frustrating Savage enough to mutilate him with his lightsaber.

"How dare you do what was my job!" the King boomed. Savage intercepted an attempt for him to reach for a battle axe by throwing his lightsaber at the warlord, severing his hand in the process. "I think it's time you learned why my left arm is different from my right. It's an artificial replacement for when my arm was severed off my body in the same manner yours is now," Savage explained.

Then he added that it was a shame medics had not yet invented artificial heads in the same manner or a way to reattach a head once severed. "You could survive for a few hours without the rest of your body since a lightsaber cauterizes the wound though I doubt you'd want to live that long as just a head," he mocked. But of course, the King didn't take his bluff for a second nor did Savage plan for him to. However, he did decapitate the King and tried to see if he really wasn't bluffing and the King could survive without his body for a few hours.

Fortunately, he didn't and Savage ordered the servants to clean up and let him pass or else they would suffer a similar fate to their king. They agreed immediately, worshipping Savage in the hopes he chose to spare them while they obeyed his command. When they gave their King proper rites to whatever afterlife he believed in, they turned to Savage for new orders. Instead, he slaughtered them all the same way he had slaughtered the servants of the Brotherhood of Darkness.

When Maul and the apparition of Ophelia reached the end of the tunnel, he asked her what would happen next. If you can face down the guilt of your past and destroy the symbol of that guilt without becoming it, you will be allowed to escape this pantheon and proceed to the tower she said. "So I am in a structure of the city indeed. I had suspected as much when you lit up the darkness I was surrounded in when I awoke," he replied.

Beyond the gate lies only what you take with you. This is as far as my power allows me to go and from here, you must fight alone she stated. "Only what I take with me: shouldn't be too hard to remember and besides, I always fight alone in the end," Maul said. All say that but none ever learn the true meaning until faced with what they've taken with them Ophelia said before vanishing again.

"But wait, will I see you again?" Maul asked her. I cannot say for certain Maul but I have done my duty and guided you here. For now, we must part ways once more she answered. Though reluctant to let her go, he understood what she meant and opened the gate to continue his journey alone.

At first, there was nothing on the other side except a rather extravagant chamber that looked like a place for royalty to be occupying. The other side was masked in pitch black and Maul recognized it was a sign of something that might be his next test in this hell. His suspicion was confirmed when the dark hole fell out of the wall, slithered toward him like a snake, then began to take a human form. When Maul first saw it, he felt no concern although what followed changed that very quickly.

Plates of armor began to bulge out of the dark shape and a silver liquid led over them until they became a suit of armor Maul recognized from his past. He didn't need to see the face to know that it was forming into the deity behind the death of Ophelia. Claudiate, the result of Claudius Draco and Darth Vitiate of the old Sith Empire combining body and soul at Heraklion Prime was back from Oblivion. Maul knew this was true when his enemy's eyes opened to reveal two glowing ruby-like orbs in the sockets instead of human eyes.

Claudiate's hands were the last to form but with them came the lightsabers he once wielded in combat against Maul and Ophelia. When the form was completely created, Claudiate smiled, ignited both lightsabers, and greeted his old archrival like he had never died. So this is the guilt that I took in with me, I think I understand now Maul thought. Then he ignited his own lightsaber to fight the being that had robbed him of Ophelia's life and plunged his own into darkness until now.

Kycina had long reached the end of the lights that had helped her through the darkness. Now she came upon a massive gate and seeing that the darkness had reclaimed her previous steps, she opened it and went into whatever peril lied behind it. Using the light of her staff to illuminate the way, she was surprised to see how quickly the room on the other side filled up with light as if her staff's light had been the key to the darkness' heart. Unfortunately, her awe at the flight of the darkness did not prepare her for the Zabrak man waiting in front of her.

With a zhaboka in one hand and a sword in the other, she recognized who this was immediately. It was the father of Savage and Feral, returned to her after many years apart from each other. At first, she ran to embrace him but the look on his face told her that was a bad idea and the glow in his eyes all but confirmed that. It was then that she realized that the life in the city was tricking her, playing with her fears and anxieties and presenting them in the form of the man she had once loved.

"Deimos, it's good to see you again, it really is," she said. She meant it seeing as he had been forced to raise their children by himself shortly after she was sentenced to exile by Talzin for sending Maul away. "If it's so good to see me now, how come you didn't see me when Talzin ordered my decapitation for your crime?" Deimos asked. "But Talzin told me you would be taking care of our children!" Kycina answered.

"If she told you that and you believed her, you are an idiot! Shortly after you were banished, my execution was ordered and both Savage and Feral were left to rot alone," Deimos replied. "I'm so sorry Deimos, please forgive me for what happened to you!" she said. "It is too late to beg forgiveness but not too late to die before my blade," he replied.

Hearing that comment, she begged him to remember the love he had for her and how no one had loved like him. "That's because no one was a bigger fool than I had been to love the daughter of Talzin! Now just die so I can move on to killing her alongside my son and against that bastard you mothered before him," he shouted. Hearing Maul called a bastard was unacceptable to Kycina since both of them knew he had been legitimate at the time of his birth.

Quickly, she rose up from kneeling on the ground in tears and held her staff out in front of herself. "That is something I cannot do, Deimos. It is something I will not do!" she shouted before she attacked him with her newfound magic. She vowed revenge on him before seeing him charge with zhaboka in front and sword behind for defense as was typical of his style. "Think you can trick me with that attack again? You thought wrong, you fool!" she shouted before destroying his staff with her magic and transforming her staff into a spear to counter his sword.