Fiction:Realities Altered/Emperor Kol

Prologue: Destiny Altered
There was a silence in the central laboratory-chamber, broken only by the sounds of laboured breathing and the unsettling hum of esoteric machinery and equipment at work. Two warriors stood at either end of the room, the corpses of physiologically-enhanced soldiers strewn across the floor and messily littered at the feet of their overlord. In the depths of the cosmic void of Andromeda, aboard the colossal super-dreadnought Canvas of Slaughter, a fated battle decades in the making was unfolding as those two souls bathed in the crackling aura of spite and hatred radiating off of one another. A moment of respite allowed them to view each other plain, a quiet pause giving way to embittered, burning stares.

Bruised and broken, the smaller of the two struggled to stand. His sword-hand trembled. Teeth glinting in the fluorescent light as he laid them plainly bare in his muzzle, grimacing with pain. Powder blue fur across a small, athletic frame was marked with spatterings of dried red blood, which also marked a long pair of hard wearing trousers somehow torn from the exertion. The vibro-katana gripped in his hand had its blade marked black and dented, damaged by the struggle that came moments before. A fierce glare directed at the last foe standing. More monster than man, the enemy took the form of something that, by all admission, should have been beautiful; a near-godlike marvel of form, supernaturally alluring and blessed with the gifts of both strength and cunning. A dark reflection of a specimen embodying what many would consider to be perfection.

“You were foolish to face me alone,” the enemy’s voice rang across the length of the chamber. Soft and smooth as silk, yet deep as an ocean trench, the abomination that stood before the young hero had no right possessing such a voice. One could wonder if it was even their own, or if it was yet another aspect ruthlessly stolen by this creature and torn from elsewhere. “To think I worried. Our destinies - our fates - inevitably intertwined and this is what I am met with on the eve of my ascension. Needless to say, boy, I am disappointed.”

Kol Daren rolled his shoulders, muscle, bone and flesh knitting itself together while white, burning scars across his front gradually began to lose their glow as the energy invested into them faded into non-existence. He stood before a thick glass cylindrical container that extended from floor to ceiling, filled to the brim with a viscous black and purple fluid with what seemed to be a metallic slab or chunk of debris rested at its midway point. The slab's surface was warped with a thin layer of a fleshy tissue stretched across its mass with black veins and tumours running and intersecting to meet an unsettling, bulging growth emerging from the slab like a cyst. The lids of a single unopened eye. Also like veins, wires and tubes fed into both the top and bottom bases of the container, extending from across the chamber like branches as they fed into sleek metal pods budding from the walls.

“You can stop this,” the warrior, Hachiman, spoke. A soft voice, much more befitting of his body than what came from his adversary. The stress coursing through his body did not give it the elegance Kol’s had, however. “No more murders, no more--” Hachi interrupted himself as a shooting pain caused him to clench his teeth. He bowed his head in pain before letting out a yell and almost fell over. Heavy breaths escaped his shaking body as his face contorted in a vicious struggle to compose itself.

“I can,” Kol said as he clenched a fist. He took a moment to savour the rush of vile power that flowed through his veins, watching as black ephemera gathered at his palm before he snuffed it out like a flame between his fingers. “But I won’t. Even if I should want to, I’ve come too far to turn away now. Though you are merely a child, I’d expect even you to understand my position: I stand at the precipice of godhood. My apotheosis, that which I have spent my life pursuing across the very ends of this cosmos and the next, is nigh at last.”

“I-- I understand alright.” With a palpable struggle, Hachi once more rose to his feet. “I just think… I just think this is all stupid.” He lifted his sword arm to point his katana at Kol. “One-- One last chance, Kol! I mean it!”

Hachi was met with laughter. What began as a chuckle soon grew into a chilling cackle as Kol wiped a tear from a dark, soulless eye. “One last chance? For me? You talk as if you have me routed, boy. Have I struck you so hard that you’ve fallen blind, or were you born to be so narrow? Look around! Look at where you stand! Your destiny, oh so carefully woven from Fate, has brought you here to die by my hand. It was entertaining while it lasted but waste your breath any further, scum, and your promised end shan’t be one so kind or merciful.”

Kol’s cutting words brought forth a seething response. Chest pumping, Hachiman started sprinting, his powerful thighs propelling him forward across the enormous room which he announced with a furious scream as loud as he possibly could. As he charged forward, his eyes emitted a blinding light, followed by it consuming the entirety of his body. The light emanating from him became so blindingly bright it not only completely hid the warrior, but expanded further, twice, three times the size, extending into several great wings of radiance. As this torchlight reached Kol, Hachi once again emerged, great angelic wings with feathers of purest white now sprouted from his back, muscles under white soft fur like a marble statue. All was beautiful but the face, a fierce, savage grimace, eyes milky and releasing rumbling roars. The emerging angel proceeded to plunge its fist right into Kol’s abdomen, fast enough to be missed in the blink of an eye.

A splitting crack resounded throughout the chamber. Kol’s spine met the glass cylinder containing the bizarre fragment, the container’s reflective surface now marked with hairline fractures as the colossal Zazane warlord felt the wind rush from his chest. As if by instinct he swung an arm to backhand slap the newly-formed angelic monster across its face with all the might he could muster in that instant, desperate for a moment to recuperate as the pupils of his eyes turned to darkened slits. The angel grabbed Kol’s wrist as the hand flew at it. A fearsome growl rumbled from the diaphragm as the angel’s grip exerted enough pressure to start cracking bone, the beast used its free hand to pound Kol repeatedly. Chest, stomach, face, an unrefined series of blows meant more to damage than to counter. All before shifting its weight to toss Kol across the chamber.

“What… What foul trick is this?!” Kol exclaimed as his mass crashed into several of the pods jutting forth from the wall of the chamber. Their sleek surfaces smashed open like soft eggshells, filling the room with the stench of preservative fluid as it was allowed to flow from the broken pods. Several naked, unconscious bodies of Zazane spilled onto the ground with a splash, unreceptive to the reality around them as their minds were thoroughly locked away in whatever hypnotic torment Kol had placed them under prior to their internment. The tyrant-lord furiously exhaled before standing, the muscles across his body rippling with strength while he bared his claws.

“This… trick shan’t stop me, boy! You've made your last stand, but the time has come to end this pitiful game… Come at me!”

The angel took a flying leap across the room. Landing right in front with an arm to deliver a punch squarely into Kol’s jaw. The strike would not land as Kol ducked beneath the blow and shifted his mass to move past the angel, before locking his arms around the seraphim’s sides. Kol thrust himself backwards and slammed the angel’s head and neck against the ground before relinquishing his grip. Letting out a roar, the angel thrust its legs to deliver a powerful kick at his assailant. The more furiously the angel fought, the more intensely its body shimmered with light, causing Kol’s flesh - imbued with dark essence as it was - to bubble and burn in its presence and bringing the tyrant's fury to seethe through bloodied teeth.

“You fight as a child does. Unrefined and wild, with… no… focus!” Kol bellowed as he sent forth a kick of his own, a sickening crack as he thrust his knee into the angel’s own and briefly dislocated it to bend inward before the ethereal flesh could fix itself. Baring his teeth the monstrous tyrant-lord sent another kick to send the seraphim across the length of the room, gaining some distance between them in order to allow his body to recuperate. For a moment he glanced back at the shattered pods and the cracked container as the seeds of doubt, minute yet nonetheless tangible, began to fester in his mind upon seeing his laboratory become increasingly compromised.

A flash of light and the angel took advantage of Kol’s distraction, several blows were delivered to the demigod’s back, the light from its fists burning the skin they pounded. Following the flurry, the angel delivered another kick to send the monster to the floor. In spite of the pain coursing through his scales Kol would not keep himself low for long, as he met the angel with a powerful uppercut before grappling with it. His claws wrenched into the angel’s shoulders - burning his palms - he shoved it back into the wall, more pods smashing open as he butted heads with the seraphim again and again. Roaring in pain the angel fired a beam of pure white energy from its mouth, intended for Kol but poorly aimed as the beast was shaken by the tyrant-lord’s assault.

Kol had moved his head to evade the full brunt of the blast. He relented for a moment as the revelation that such an attack could have easily killed him had it met its mark was fresh in his mind, followed by the smell of burning flesh as his shoulder bubbled with white fire. Not one to take such an assault lightly Kol, embittered by not just his love for afflicting pain but by a deep-seated rage and desperation, met the angel with his own devastating series of blows: a punch to the head followed by his own flurry of kicks and rending claws to the torso and abdomen of his foe, concluded by the warlord casting the angel aside once more with a powerful strike of his tail. For the first time in a long time he felt his heart race in his chest from something other than sadistic glee. Fear.

“When will it awaken?” he thought, casting his eyes back to the fragment suspended in the container. The eye remained closed and the stock Kol was using to coax it from its slumber was very swiftly dwindling as the fight persisted. “''I am on the precipice! I, Kol Daren, know no fear: not of mortals, not of the gods! I have conquered all that has attempted to stand in my way… So why does Fate conspire against me now?!''” He shambled, attempting to move but found his own strength beginning to leave him. The angel’s assault and his doubt-riddled mind left him unfocused, only sloppily managing an effort to repair the damage done and empower himself.

With its white wings carving through the metal plates like razor-edged knives, the angel shredded the floor as it landed. In the final moments the angel was able to stand up, it released another laser-emitting roar that carved across the walls and containment pods before glaring with murderous, burning white eyes at Kol. Gathering a brilliant white light in each of its hands, the angel clapped to fire a burst of light that sent Kol flying towards the pedestal and the glass container. Black blood splashed through the tyrant-lord’s teeth as the container smashed, dousing the Zazane with its internal fluids and sending both him and the bizarre fragment to the ground in an almost pitiful display.

A flash of white light and the angelic beast vanished. Hachi, his physical body partially restored, emerged from the light where the beast once stood. Drawing his katana with a twirl he paced with purpose in Kol’s direction. That fierce glare still there, that determination for a conclusion.

“It’s over, monster,” he snapped. “One last chance to rethink everything, because I will kill you for everything you’ve done.” He pointed his sword at the tyrant’s throat, the blade still faintly luminous as Hachi’s fur, clean of blood, was now a brighter white than before.

Kol was splayed across the ground. Pained breaths heaved through his burnt chest, struggling through the blood flooding in his throat. Every effort to move was agony both for his body and his ego, for never before had the tyrant lord felt so small before a seemingly insurmountable enemy. His vision blurred, his focus shattered by the onslaught of light and pain that riddled his monstrous form while his eyes faintly burned and sizzled in their sockets from Hachiman’s assault. To form words was to feel the heat of a sun wash across his lips, to move his claws was to experience a roiling magma of divine energy boil through every nerve within his body.

“SAY IT!” Hachi shouted at the top of his lungs, right into what was left of Kol Daren’s face.

“You…” the monster began, spluttering between coughs to clear his throat of blood. He tried to match the warrior’s eyes but found vision was broken like cracked glass, glaring at distorted images and reflections. “You… cheated... “

In surprise at such a suggestion, Hachi lowered his sword, looking at Kol incredulously. “I cheated?” he scoffed. “All that you’ve done, all you’ve hurt for your stupid goals and I am the cheater?”

“You… couldn’t beat me…” Kol continued, his voice once smooth was now raspy as if his lungs and throat were clogged with ash and smoke. “You… you used a… a trick. That… That was not you behind that monster… You were controlling… n-nothing… What shallow victory, for such… scum as yourself…”

Hachi rolled his eyes. “You’re bleeding, you’re broken. I could leave you to die slowly and painfully or I could slit your throat right now. Either way, it’s over. This thing of yours did nothing for you, your insane life goal won’t happen anymore. You’re done!” In his anger, Hachi pointed at the shard with his sword. “Whatever you tried to kill hundreds of people for this time, it won’t help you.”

“N-No…” Kol spoke, his trembling voice now an agonized whisper. His eyes closed and Hachi could see the glimmer of tears begin to roll down the tyrant’s cheeks, followed by Kol heaving a noise that seemed a cross between a wheezing cough and a sad, distressed yelp. It was almost unsettling watching what was once a twisted yet beautiful monster be reduced to a sobbing mess. “It… It cannot end like this… My life’s work, a-all… for this…?”

“I’m done Kol.” Hachi snapped, growing irritated. “You’ve hurt too many for me to feel sorry for you. You don’t care about anyone, you torment whoever is in your way, you’ve hurt too many to see anything in you. I don’t even know if there’s even a word for the evils you’ve done. The universe doesn’t care if you bleed out here, and I did my part in making sure you did.” Hachi leaned lower, scowling. “Me. The pond scum you thought you could brush aside because I started out barely old enough to have any idea anyone could be so… evil!” Hachi waved his hand in callous dismissal as he turned around. “Just… just lie here and die!”

The whole world suddenly became a blur. Through the agony writhing and coursing through his body Kol had managed to extend his reach to the artifact that rested lifelessly beside him. For a moment Kol considered cradling it as he was near to accepting this fate set for him by his nemesis, seeing the eye of the bizarre slab still closed. As Hachi’s words echoed in his mind, at his lowest point, Kol knew there was little else left to lose for his life’s work had amounted only to disappointment. If these were to be his final moments, no matter how painful, he would spend them doing something so pitiful as wallowing in his own despair.

Hachi had his back turned when everything changed. The tyrant-lord’s body was overwhelmed with fire, springing suddenly to action. Every vein, every muscle, every tendon, bone and sinew, even the very depths of Kol’s darkened soul combusted with excruciating torment as he used the last of his strength and energy to bring himself to his knee. In the moments before Hachi could turn to slash the tyrant’s throat, Kol brought the fragment down to the rear of the rianth’s skull in a last ditch attempt to bring his opponent low. It was a force unlike any other, empowered not only by what remained of Kol’s raw strength but also something else - something unseen, something violent and malign, as if the two warriors were no longer alone in the chamber.

Whatever it was, Hachi was sent tumbling downward. Barely conscious after hitting the floor form the blow, he scrambled to reorient himself to see what just hit him. Instinctively rubbing the back of his head as his face contorted in confusion as to what just happened. Taking a good look at the man he thought he heard screaming in excruciating agony, only to be met with another blow to the skull as Kol gripped the fragment tightly.

It was clear from the way Kol’s body shuddered and quivered, juxtaposed with the fluid motions in his assault, that his movements were not entirely his own. He gasped and wheezed, struggling to form words before his eyes were drawn to glance upon the surface of his murder weapon. The tumorous growths emerging from the slab writhed and flowed and the eye at its centre had, at long last, finally opened. What glanced back at Kol was the infuriated gaze of a god, piercing through his soul with an ancient, primordial rage, yet all the tyrant-lord could do as he saw this shattered fragment of deity glare into his very being was crack a tortured, crooked smile.

“I am… complete... !”

Hachiman had yet to slip completely into unconsciousness. Groggy, with his head sore, he exerted effort to push himself backwards from Kol. Keeping as firm a grip as he could on his katana and doing his best to keep his gaze on the tyrant-lord in front of him. Summoning what strength he could, Hachi stood up to wave his sword, hoping to strike a gash into Kol Daren’s side. But the tyrant was like a man possessed. His body threw itself back from Hachi’s blade across the length of the chamber, landing with a thud at its heart where the glass cylinder used to stand before its destruction.

Lashes of black lightning struck Kol’s flesh, dark vapours forcing themselves from the god-shard clasped in his hand into every imaginable orifice across the tyrant’s form to fill itself into his body - his wounds, too, were flooded by this sudden corruption. Flesh tore and warped while Kol dropped to a knee, his deathly screams and shrieks filling the chamber between bouts of triumphant, sickening laughter. Never had Kol imagined such pain, either afflicted upon one of his many victims or himself, but it was a pain to be celebrated.

“Ahaha… Ahahaha! It awoke… It finally awoke!”

Kol’s screams and laughter were soon joined by an onslaught of shrieks that escaped the artifact; the sound of several thousand Zazane souls ripped from their mutilated bodies being forcefully melded and woven into the essence a single, greater being. It was a sound that caused what pods remained to shatter as the metal twisted and became undone, the hollow corpses of those Zazane entrapped within collapsing to the floor in gruesome heaps as they piled on top of one another. To Hachi’s eyes Kol’s immense dread-aura fluctuated wildly, folding into itself several times over before expanding outward like rhythmic heartbeats while the tyrant himself struggled to stand on both feet. For a moment, it seemed he forgot that his nemesis was still within the chamber.

“You… You should feel honoured, boy… For today, you bear witness to my apotheosis! My gift to you, for your role in my destiny… is this opportunity… The chance to watch the birth of a new god!”

 Hachi shook his head erratically, With all the strength he could muster, he lifted his sword and sprinted, stumbling as Kol’s aura pulsed the air around it, ending his run with a leap to plunge his katana deep into the Zazane monster’s chest. Hoping, pleading, this last-ditch strike would be enough to end this new god prematurely. Once more Kol dropped to a knee, the length of the sword penetrating past his ribs to near his beating, erratic heart. With a wild, joyous look through tearful eyes, Kol grasped Hachi’s throat with his free hand and gazed longingly at the expression of terror on his face.

His hands trembled as newfound godly strength flowed through them and soon Kol gathered the will to stand again, a monolithic entity that towered over all others in this one triumphant moment with only the greatest of his enemies to watch. Licking his teeth Kol glared intently at his nemesis, who now tried desperately to pull the titanic hand from around his neck, the sword sticking out from the centre of the heaving, warping mass that was his chest.

“You should have finished me, boy… You were so, so very close, closer than you could ever truly realise, but alas you do not earn the chance to walk among gods by acting the fool. … I am indebted to you, however. You brought me low. You made me realise that even at my lowest, at the very brink of death and failure, I should never allow myself to surrender. Never to conceive even the very thought of such! For that, I shall grant you a kindness…”

Hachi, knowing this could not be a good sign, flailed his legs to kick Kol repeatedly in the stomach. Using what strength he could muster to do this and continue a vain effort to release the monster’s grip around his neck, all he could do was squirm like a stuck weasel in the titan’s grip. Kol brought him close, face to face, and in that moment Hachi’s gaze was overcome by the glare of the newborn god as Kol narrowed his eyes. A deep chuckle as his grip tightened around the boy’s throat, before Kol spoke seemingly in a whisper that rang through Hachi’s mind like an echoing song.

“I will not kill you. You will be spared, I will preserve the memory of your name and your actions here this day and you will serve as a reminder to all those who would seek to step into the way of Kol Daren. I will grant unto you the same kindness you sought to grant unto me in the last moments of my mortal life; I shall allow you to live in this moment, the most agonizing moment of your demise, and you will never forget the revelation of your failure and the weight of all the dread that has befallen you. … This is your destiny, this was always your destiny, and it is time for you to claim it, boy.”