Chapter 150

The Darkest Day

The sun shone bright and clear. There was a wholesome scent to the air, a thin crisp seasoning which invigorated Mesto as he took a long slow breath. The stadium filled steadily as more and more imperial subjects filled the arena. A palpable buzz steadily grew in intensity. Mesto could feel the energy vibrating within the ground.

He stood on the central stage accompanied only by the wooden stake. The black chains coiled around the beam like a slumbering serpent, waiting for its awakening, at which point it would bind its victim to the cross.

A trumpet sounded. The gates to the Church were being closed. The spectators hurried to take their seats as the number had finally been filled. Mesto looked up and saw his imperial guards funneling into the theater. His heart thumped heavily inside his chest. Mesto licked his chapped lips. He could already taste the smoke that was to come.

Mesto closed his eyes and focused his spirit. Excitement filled him with jittery energy, but he had to remain calm. This was his moment, his finest hour. Victory was a breath away. The tumult of a thousand voices reigned outside of his mind. Mesto ignored them and turned his thoughts inward. The noise deafened until Mesto heard nothing but the sound of his own slow breath. In a few minutes the princess would be paraded out. She would be bound to the stake and burned alive at Mesto's order. As her final breath left her body, Mesto would become the uncontested ruler of Soleanna. His reign would never be questioned again.

Mesto's hair stood on end. Goosebumps traced down his lower back followed by a cold anxious sweat. His heart raced in rapid succession. Mesto felt his throat constrict by a sudden wild terror. What he did today could never be undone. He would pass from the ranks of usual evil into a realm all his own. And why shouldn't I? He thought defiantly. Why should he restrict his ambitions, or place any limit on what he could become? I will become the world. My will shall be the arbiter of good and evil.

However, as it stood, Mesto was still flesh and blood. His mortal body cringed at the sheer scope of his desires. It caused him physical agony as if his spirit were slowly tearing itself away from his mortal coil. Mesto knew that this pain must come. It was the price of becoming more, and surpassing all limitations. His conscience belonged to his flesh, to the part of him that still remembered wanting to be loved. To actualize himself, Mesto had to tear that part away, annihilate the vestiges of weakness that still remained.

His heart and body were afraid, but that did not matter. Lord Mesto would not be bound to them much longer. Like a flame, he would soon be turned into pure power. His will would be absolute. This was merely a test, a crucible to prove that he was worthy.

Mesto slowly opened his eyes. The sound of the world returned in stages. First he heard the wind whistle through his fur, then the melody of the drums, and lastly the screams of the incoherent masses. A smile spread across his lips, stretching the illusion of burns that covered his mangled face. Mesto raised his hand and flexed his gloved fist. The Sol Gem sparkled as it was activated. Mesto squeezed his hand around his own throat. His voice magnified to a mystical pitch, booming to a volume otherwise impossible. When he spoke, Mesto heard his words bounce off the walls of the arena and rain back down onto the crowd.

"My fellow citizens, my brethren, gather yourselves for the dawn of a new era. Today, the final vestiges of the old world will burn away. Our future shall be purified in the heat, and we shall all emerge as a new people, cleansed from all previous stains. Humble yourselves before the manifestation of a new epoch. Embrace your fear, for today the world as you once knew it dies. Before creation there must be destruction, for the world, for our empire, for all of us. Destroy yourselves, pierce your innermost heart and find the hidden residue of doubt and reveal it to the fire."

Lord Mesto paused and waited for his echo to catch up to him. His heart was thundering inside his chest. This was his moment, he could feel his blood thumping in his ears. Pure energy rushed through his body, invigorating him, pushing him onward. When he spoke again, his voice boomed so loud the colosseum shook. "The disorder of the world has been unraveled. Seize hold of the emperor's truth, allow him to guide you out of the fog. Only by pain can we know pleasure, only by devastation can we experience abundance, we must destroy ourselves before we can be created anew."

The crowd responded with scattered applause. His words had gone over most of their heads. For the multitude, all that mattered was the frenzy of the moment, of the bliss of ceding your individual identity into the mass of hatred and emotion. The particular doctrines or creeds of the masters meant nothing. They were only the words, the harsh, incoherent noises that were made to champion a response in turn. This was all theater, yet everyone had convinced themselves that they didn't know it. It was not a trick to pretend that it was real, the real trick was convincing yourself that what you knew to be true was a lie. That inner change, that manipulation of the self was the final turn, that original sin that once transgressed could never be atoned for.

Mesto watched as that work repeated itself hundreds of times over. He felt himself growing giddy at the prospect of all the lies that were being repeated over and over again. They would believe him, even when they knew it wasn't true. Was that not the work of a god?

Intoxicated with the influence he wielded, Mesto held up his hand. The Sol Gem sparked and a bolt of pink lighting flashed into the sky. Everyone fell silent. Mesto waited. Three breaths later, he heard the trumpets sound for a third time. "It is time," He whispered. There was a clink of metal. The chains of the portcullis were being drawn. All eyes turned to the far end of the arena. The metal gate in front of the tunnel lifted. There was a faint spark of red mixed within the black depths.

Footsteps and the sound of dragging chains drifted towards the stage. Mesto felt his breath hitch. That single moment seemed to have contained an eternity. A horrible swooping fear pressed down on him like a carrion bird. Mesto felt the world rush forward while he remained still. He saw his whole life zoom past him in a flash. There was one moment, one

infinitesimal instance in which he could still turn back. Mesto's hand twitched as if to reach out and seize hold of time and bring it to a halt. However, he was held back by a prideful instinct to resist, to hold out against everything. The moment passed and Mesto filled his lungs with air.

The stadium erupted as the prisoner was brought into the light. Blaze's feet were bound together and dragged across the sand. Her head hung loosely on her once proud neck. Her face was covered in dried blood and colored bruises. Mud caked her tangled fur and her royal dress had been replaced with soiled brown rags. At the sight of the once proud princess brought low, the crowd transformed. They became even more incensed, their anger towards her inflamed to a new pitch of ferocity.

Mesto felt himself drawn by that same spirit. Seeing her now, brought low by pain and imprisonment, instead of pity, Mesto felt himself hating her more than he had ever done before. He glared down at Blaze as his soldiers dropped her at his feet. She collapsed onto her knees and spat out a glob of black blood.

A loud piercing hum filled Mesto's head. The crowd was screaming threats and abuses down at Blaze. They mocked her for trying to destroy the Church, for her arrogance in resisting the empire. Mesto turned and gazed out at the faces. His vision shifted, and everything became a blur. Faceless, and nameless, the crowd, the manifestation of Mesto's will called with one voice for her to die.

Mesto used his free hand to snatch Blaze by the hair and yanked her up onto her feet. She wobbled, by weakness and her binds. Mesto held her straight and looked her in the face. Her mouth was hardly visible beneath the swollen cheeks. One of her eyes was hidden beneath loose strands of hair, but the other was bright and staring right back at Mesto. Though Blaze had seemed to lose much of her vibrancy, her eye was as bright and yellow as ever. Mesto looked into that face and smiled.

With a mere nod, Mesto signaled his soldiers to take hold of Blaze. They dragged her over to the stake. Despite her attempt at composure, Mesto watched with satisfaction as Blaze's expression blanched as they began to wrap her body with the black chains. Her body winced as the cold metal was strapped tightly around her ankles, arms, and waste. Blaze's arms were raised above her head so that she could not guard her face. Seeing her once beautiful visage melted by the fire would be a gruesome sight, one that even Mesto dreaded. Yet it was necessary for all to see Blaze as she really was. Her death would be retroactive, distorting the past and staining all memory of her.

The crowd continued to scream and shout. They had risen to their feet and had begun to throw trash onto the arena. "They hate you more than they ever hated me," Mesto said quietly to Blaze. "Behold the true nature of those you wished to save." However, to Mesto's intense irritation, Blaze was not listening to him. Her head was bowed and she was muttering a quiet prayer.

Enough of this. Mesto raised his gloved fist. A bolt of energy shot into the sky and the crowds fell silent. Mesto walked in a circle around the wooden stake, his cloak trailing behind him. There were no more words to be said. Everything was ready. He felt the pressure of a thousand eyes upon him. The building sense of anticipation rose to its zenith. Mesto gritted his teeth. The surge of energy left him as a spark of pink lighting flashed from his glove and struck the black chains. Instantly, the cursed metal burst into flames. Blaze's head drew back as she let out a scream of pain.

Mesto's heart swooned. A palpable relief flooded through him. The arena stage trembled as Blaze thrashed against her restraints. Flames danced in Mesto's eyes and the light nearly blinded him. He covered his face and retreated as the roar of the inferno became deafening. Mesto didn't understand. None of the immolation fires had ever burned so hot before.

"Argh!" A soldier cried out as his cape caught fire. He ripped it off and the entire squadron ran away from the pyre.

Blaze's screams died in a high pitched wail. The flames around her bloomed beyond possibility. Mesto could no longer even see her within the depths of the inferno. Foreboding seized Mesto around the heart. He dropped to one knee as the ground beneath him wobbled. His teeth chattered and Mesto bit down hard on his lip. Was it his imagination or was the fire shaking the entire arena?

A shadow covered Mesto. He looked up in surprise and saw that the sun had been veiled by a sudden barrier. Day had transformed almost instantly to night. The crowd sensed the change and started to panic. They left their seats and started to run. Enraged, Mesto tried to call them back, but when he tried to stand, the floor moved again. Mesto fell and this time he knew it was not his imagination. The entire arena was vibrating. Mesto clung close to the ground and felt his skull jostle inside his head. An earthquake?

Hands seized him by the arms and lifted him up. His soldiers were screaming at him, urging him to run. Mesto shook them off. He turned back to Blaze. The flames around her had not been quenched. They burned hotter and higher than ever until a cyclone of flame swirled to life. The tornado reached all the way to the sky causing a black wall of smoke to cover the arena like a bubble.

BOOOOOM! The sky exploded. Tongues of red fire streaked down from the heavens. The flash of light was so intense, Mesto was temporarily blinded. He threw himself to the floor and covered his face. His yells of pain and terror were drowned out by the cracking of the ground beneath him. Mesto rolled over to his back just in time to see a spray of flame gush into the sky and be absorbed into the cyclone around Blaze.

Wait…Mesto staggered to his knees. He watched in awe as the world turned inside out. Darkness descended, the sky burned and the ground belched forth fire. Something stirred inside him, some memory he had long neglected. A fear deeper than any he had ever known woke inside him. Mesto knew what he was seeing. The judgment of Solaris had come, the Flames of Disaster had been unleashed.

No…He dug his claws into the dirt. Tears burst at the corners of his eyes. He gnashed his teeth in bitter resentment. It had come too soon. Iblis was not ready, the trigger had not happened yet. All the same, Mesto watched as fire and brimstone continued to gather into the expanding cyclone. Soon, Mesto knew it would burst and the explosion would turn everything into dust. There was no point in trying to run. He faced the firestorm and pushed himself up onto knee.

However, the cyclone did not burst. The flames burned hotter and brighter than ever before, but the tornado was shrinking. Comets of fire spewing down onto the arena were contained within the dome above Blaze. Even the fires gushing out of the cracks in the ground were lassoing themselves around Blaze. It was as if every fire that ever existed was being poured down on Blaze. WHOOOOOOOSH!

A sound like the clap of a thousand bolts of lightning echoed through the stadium. Mesto was knocked backward by the force of it. All at once the fires roared with one final breath before vanishing in a puff of silver smoke. A profound silence followed. Mesto crawled uncertainly to his feet. He was the only one close enough to the stage to see through the barrier of smoke which enveloped it.

Blaze was strapped to the stake. Steam rushed off her body, but her flesh was unburnt. Her head slackened to one side, and driblets of blood pooled out of her mouth. "It is finished," She said faintly. No one heard her except for him. Mesto felt a rush of wind against his face. Blaze's eyes closed and she moved no more.

He approached her cautiously. Mesto needed to make sure she was dead, but it was as if some barrier prevented him from touching her. Suddenly, the wall between Mesto, Blaze, and the rest of the world crumbled away. The sound of the arena fell on him with full force. There were cries of shock and confusion. No one seemed to understand what had just happened. Mesto had only a few seconds to salvage the moment.

"Make sure she's dead," He barked at the nearest soldier.

A brute faced wolf looked at his fellows for support, but they all stepped away from

him. With a gulp, the wolf ascended the stage, spear in hand. He placed a shaking hand near Blaze's neck and waited.

"No!" Mesto snapped. "Make sure she is dead."

The soldier hesitated. His eyes were suddenly wide with fear. "Do it, or you will share the same fate," Mesto warned.

That was all it took. The soldier raised his spear and drove it into Blaze's side, just above her rib. He drew back in shock as a river of blood spilled out of the wound like water out of a bursted pipe.

Blaze did not stir or move. Mesto forced a wide grin onto his face. It was over. Blaze, his great enemy was dead, and there was no one left to stop him. Iblis would fail, but that was the emperor's project. Mesto would be content to reign on Arvana. He raised a triumphant fist into the air. If he had been wise enough to notice it, he would have registered that there was no applause, no cheering from the crowd. A heavy despair had fallen over all of them. Mesto did not see, Mesto did not care. This was his finest hour, his ultimate victory.


Far away, heedless of the actions of his chief lieutenant, Doctor Robotnik dropped the glass he had been holding. His mind seemed to split in two. For a moment, he registered a pain so acute he was temporarily removed from his own body. He dropped to his knees and screamed.

AN: This is the end of Part V! It will be another extended break before I start uploading for part VI. The plan is for Part VI to be the final section. I hope y'all have enjoyed the story so far! Thank you for reading! (I realize this project has ballooned past even the longest of novels so those that have kept up with it, I really really appreciate it!)