Kismet’s Tale

      Mavin drove to the lighthouse and sat on the top cross-legged. He saw the gigantic Holmian-made plane that carried the Storm Vanguards. He couldn’t go to the place where Robert would go. He couldn’t even ride a boat to the island to see the death of the nest.

Mavin felt something dearly empty inside his chest. Robert was one of the few people who he found in Jorvi when the tragedy happened. He was a young man who was swallowed whole inside a frog-like demifiend. When they opened up the insides of the demifiend, they saw Robert barely alive. He had offered his hand to Robert, granting him salvation, turning him into the loyal confidant that could do what he couldn’t.

Robert became the hidden sword that Mavin wielded. He was only one person and so he had to rely on the Hounds he could order.

There were many individuals who would cause the fall of Lazon and the civil war of the Empire. In the ‘memories’ he saw their faces clearly, their portraits making expressions as they watched Lazon fall.

Mavin knew that the fall of Lazon would happen because of his negligence. In those ‘memories’ he ran away with Princess, leaving Lazon to its fate, his cousin barely scraping by as he gathered people to his cause. He saw it clearly. How his Cousin was able to solidify his power, gather people and fight despite Lazon falling in the end. If he could salvage the situation when things are beyond salvaging. There was no reason for Mavin to hold on to the rule of Lazon either.

However, he held on to the power that his Cousin allowed him. To hold on to the chains of the Hounds of Lazon. The faithful servants who carried his wishes in the past years.

All for the sake of carrying out a revenge. Mavin hated the demifiends, and yet at the same time he needed the Empire to survive. But he alone could not do it. There were many factors needed to win and some of those needed to be weeded out before they grow.

He was not all-seeing. Time moves without waiting for anyone if he couldn’t take care of these individuals. They would become trouble. He knew that they were troublesome and they would make a mess out of this world. He had power and the influence and so he didn’t let himself become a passive watcher. He sought out these individuals and solved whatever that needed to be done. Perhaps Rose was right, that he viewed everyone as nothing more than a face he could cross off on his list. Another person that needed taking care off before crossing them and throwing them in the back of their mind.

There were too many of these people that wanted the Empire to fall. Each pursuing their needs and ambitions. Mavin couldn’t care about what they needed, but he needed them taken care off if he wanted to peacefully send people like Robert to die in that nest.

The war was a distraction that he needed to attract the attention of the Holmians. When the Holmians were attracted to the resources that they offer. The Empire was busy fighting a war while the Holmians reaped benefits from the South of Lazon. If there was no one to watch the people of Lazon, if the war continued, then he would spend more time cleaning up the mess. By that time it would have been impossible to take care of the interconnected tunnels spread across the Empire. He had received help from the Emperor and although he had destroyed every vein that was connected to the demifiend nest.

It wouldn’t matter if the nest itself was still active. To gather forces and continue dangerous research he needed the Emperor and the Empire busy and accommodating. He had reasoned out to the Emperor, and had done everything to allow this to continue.

The Emperor would gain advantages. The Empire would gain new technology with the agreements with the Holmians. He was willing to sacrifice his own hounds for the sake of his own ambition. The Emperor wanted to benefit from his ambition and allowed it. To get rid of a threat that might become a big problem was beneficial to the Empire. Mavin was using and was being used. He knew that the Emperor had attached strings on him. Strings that he could not escape unless he wanted this wish to succeed.

But those strings had cut and he still stood. Mavin was allowing the Emperor to use Natalya’s blood to gain advantage on the resources of the Wilde territory which had materials that they could use to create the hydroelectric crystals. Mavin knew that the Emperor would be wary of how the Great Silence dissolved the spark-enforced contract between Lazon and the Empire. They could leave the Empire at any moment and the Empire could not afford to fight a war with its recent tragedies. Not to mention that there would be opportunists who would jump into the bandwagon the moment a ‘secessionist’ war would erupt. The mountains and valleys of Lazon were naturally defended by the mountains walls and the hidden artillery emplaced in vantage points. There was no way for them to march their infantry with the artillery and cannons of Lazon pointed at them. Not to mention that even if they pour infantry on the roads of Lazon. They would be hunted down by snipers and anti-air batteries that they had placed on hills.

Mavin made sure that his home was defended. Even if they do cut them off from the world, they would still have the south provide them and the demifiends they turned into cattle as food source.

Call him paranoid but Mavin wasn’t going to let Lazon fall. And they would have to face the wrath of the battle-hardened and well-equipped forces of Lazon who had been fighting monsters ever since they had been young.

The Emperor knows how dangerous and autonomous the region was. He could control Mavin because the Emperor had a deal with the Emperor and he was letting him control him in exchange for this ambition of destroying the nest.

Three hours had passed since the Storm Vanguards left. From the distance his sensitive hearing could make out the heavy bombardment and bombs that were dropped by the airships commissioned by Lazon to offer support.

Mavin could only imagine the battle that Robert would be fighting. The numerous monsters and the harsh terrain was going to be their downfall if they don’t make it down the underground tunnels if he entered the nest and would use the armaments.

It was a secret mission that was made entirely out of his own memories. Mavin knew they would win, but there was something in his heart that held him that he wanted them to fail. That he would be given a chance to do it himself. Robert and the others were great vanguards. They were his tools that he could nonchalantly throw away. He treated them like replaceable pieces because that's what they were for.

The rest saw him as ‘noble’ and ‘selfless’ for taking time to get rid of the nest. But Robert knew the truth about him and it was a good way to send him to die.

He was killing two birds with one stone. He would get rid of what Robert had done to fulfill his objectives and at the same time use him to destroy the nest that was occupied with the demifiends.

This wasn’t the end. The nest was dangerous and he had anger over the demifiends. Mavin personally hated the existence of the demifiend nest to the point that if his Cousin and Old Fred had allowed him. He would have fought in the nest and led the purge himself.

It was a burden that he had to carry. The nest itself wasn’t the end. There were complications regarding Natalya’s unpredictable behavior, but everything was going smoothly. Once the nest was taken care of by Robert. He would be able to rest easy knowing that he had crippled two of the major problems of this Empire.

Mavin thought to himself that it was not his style to be passive. He preferred to proactively prevent any incident before it would happen.

He couldn’t understand why anyone would not try to change anything. He had his reason to change what he saw. He had the means to do it and even if he didn’t like it. He needed to do it for the sake of those who he appreciated.

He was not shameless enough to think that he was doing this for the good of the world. All that he had been doing was for the sake of his own selfish thoughts. A choice that was made out of anger and fear of the future. Mavin had chosen to abandon many things he had loved for the sake of changing things. To change what he saw with endless determination. He wanted to believe that such tragedy could be avoided.

The culmination of his hard work and sins was all for this moment.

Then before him there was a mushroom-shaped light that bloomed. He felt an intimidating shockwave that pushed off the waves and shattered the glasses of the lighthouse. He saw what seemed to be a light, a hammer made of burning gas splitting the sky and clearing the clouds.

The hammer of light didn’t stop. Three more of these bombs went off and they repeatedly split the sky until the horizon became the color of blood.

Mavin was far enough to avoid going blind. He noticed that there was a shard of glass that scratched the top of his head. He plucked the glass shard and dropped it on the floor. He placed his palms on the cold metal railing and arched his back laughing like a madman until his throat became dry.

His crazed laughter became a mournful sobbing. His eyes widened. Tears flowed out of Mavin Tomas as if he had seen salvation from the suns that were dropped on the island. There was another silence before he heard the waves violently pushing against the coastline.

The earth seemed to shake as then another one of those bombs he had let the storm vanguard carry exploded once again. This time the  blast could be seen clearly with the naked eye as it climbed the sky.

The sky became reddened. Mavin predicted that after these explosions there would be tidal waves in low places. The Capital wouldn’t be affected because of the geography of the Empire and its natural shield against the sea. The bombs that the Storm Vanguard carried were meant to uproot the surface of the demifiend nest while the bomb that Robert carried would destroy everything.

Robert and the others believed that they would have a chance to kill the demifiends. They were led to believe that the Vulcans and the exoframes they equipped would allow them to kill the enemies and before their death, detonate the bombs.

Perhaps it was their last wish. But Mavin couldn’t allow them to have that. It was the Holmians who suggested that such plans had many flaws and he listened to them.

What if they died before they could detonate their bombs? What if something goes wrong and they are not able to proceed as planned?

So he had the bombs detonate within a specific limit of time. He believed that they could at least enter the nest. And  before they could even notice what’s wrong they would have been burned and disintegrated by the blast.

Mavin thought that maybe Robert suspected it. That a great liar like Mavin would still lie to him about the purge of the great nest.

Mavin never intended to make them fight. Why would he when he could use the bombs developed by the Holmians do the work for him?

They were carriers of the bombs. The Vulcans were nothing more than coffins with the bombs attached to it.

So that when after the few hours they enter the nest, the bombs would be detonated.

“Goodbye Robert,” the liar said to no one. 

He sat back down and stared at the fading shape of the mushroom cloud that had split the sky.

The demifiend nest island had been wiped from the  face of the map.