18 Years Ago –
"Milan… be strong my beloved son," a woman with long jet-black hair, piercing green eyes, and a thick accent says with a frightened and shaking voice; her hands pulling a bedsheet to cover a boy's chest in a small dimly lit room. "It's okay, go to sleep."
"I hate this place momma, I hate it!" Milan screams with tears gliding down his face.
The woman picks up Milan's hands and holds it tightly whilst on the bedside, "Listen to your mother okay. Everything will work out, trust me," she says with a little smile growing on her face whilst tear droplets slide down her cheeks.
Knock! Knock! Knock! Loud knocks on the door behind the woman sounds.
"Your time is up Svetlana, come out or else we will have to come in," a male voice says behind the door.
Svetlana quickly turns back to Milan and hugs him snugly, "Your momma loves you," she says with tears rapidly pouring down her face.
Knock! Knock! "Come out now!" the male voice screams.
As Milan sobs on his mother's shoulder, the door handle begins to rattle relentlessly.
"I will kill them all momma," Milan mutters with an intense gaze pointing towards the rattling door handle.
Svetlana quickly releases her hug and moves inches away from Milan's face.
"You mustn't say such a thing, you are just an 11-year-old child. Remember the book I always read to you, love your neighbor as yourself Milan," she softly lectures to Milan.
Bang! The door gets kicked open and 3 male individuals adorning gold armbands swarm the small room and aggressively pull Svetlana off Milan.
Svetlana reaches her arms out towards her son as she gets dragged out of the room and watches him relentlessly lament and scream.
-
Scratch, Scratch, Scratch!
"It's been a month; momma, where are you?" Milan mutters as he scratches the wooden floor of the small room with his fingernails and lies down with his face flat on it.
Creek! The door of the small room begins to slowly open up.
"Momma!" Milan shouts out with a tone of joy as he lunges off the wooden floor towards the door. z
Thud! Svetlana quickly falls onto her knees with her face looking down and her arms crossed as if she is hugging herself.
"Milan, have you talked to your bigger brothers, Zannat and Brabat?" Svetlana asks.
"Are you okay momma? You look pale and your hair is thinner." Milan states.
As Svetlana raises her head up, she raises her hand and places it on Milan's right cheek. "Answer my question!" she aggressively shouts;
causing Milan to run onto his bed and begin crying.
"No, no, I am so sorry my son, I didn't mean to shout at you," Svetlana softly whispers as she crawls towards the bed and places Milan's head on her chest. "It's just… if you don't get along with your brothers, you can't meet with your father – and you must meet your father at any costs," she says.
"Why do I need to meet him? I want to see you every day, why can't that happen?" Milan asks whilst he still sobs.
"It is so that we can get a better life my son," Svetlana responds.
Knock! Knock! Knock! Loud knocks on the door of the small room sound.
"Your time is up Svetlana, come out of the room," a male voice states behind the door.
As she gets off the bed and walks towards the door, Svetlana turns her head and gazes at Milan for a few seconds, "I am so proud of you Milan, but be more extroverted, leave this room and find your big brothers," she says whilst slowly closing the door.
-
With pace Milan abruptly wakes up and walks towards the door of the small room and slightly opens it.
"He is a disappointment. It's been a month and he still hasn't come out of that room!" A man screams out within the house of the small room.
Milan opens the door up slightly wider, and as he looks at his bare feet they begin to shake relentlessly.
"Why did I have a useless child with a common maid. What came over me," the man continues to scream in the house.
"I am sorry Lord Ven Antony Lonares – I thought we were in love," a woman timidly says.
Slap! A loud slap echoes through the house.
Milan's feet continue to shake as he hesitantly places his entire leg out of the frame of the small room's door.
"You stupid girl – I seduced you only because you are from the Alzarec clan of Rushia. I wanted a child with some of the different Meraki's your clan possesses so that my family will have the ticket to the Upper Echelon of the Motherland. If that stupid son of yours had something, my way to the top wouldn't be this complicated!" the man harshly exclaims.
As Milan runs in the hallway and looks down at two flights of stairs, there Svetlana sits; with her hand holding onto her face. Ahead of her, a bald man stands looking down at her.
"Momma!" Milan screams whilst stretching his right arm.
Within a second of this, as if Antony Lonares's arm has a mind of its own, it rises up and a navy-blue obsidian armband slides off his long black sleeve uniform towards Milan's hand.
"Huh, what was that? Don't tell me…" Antony Lonares whispers whilst gazing up at Milan who holds his armband. "Your son may have awakened his Meraki after all. Come down here," he commands whilst still looking at Milan.
With frantic pace, Milan runs down the flight of stairs while tears continuously drip from his eyes. As he finally reaches the floor, he falls onto his knees to check on his mother.
"Momma, momma!" Milan howls as his mother holds her face.
Slowly, Svetlana begins to raise her head up, and with her dried out messy black hair, she pulls Milan and hugs him tightly.
"I am so proud of you my beloved Milan," Svetlana sobs with laughter backing it.
Antony Lonares whilst stroking his black beard with slight strands of grey, starts stepping closer towards Svetlana and Milan,
"I can't be sure," he mutters, "but you may not be a disappointment after all."
-
Present –
"Milan, stay with me!" a soft female voice yells out in Milan's ear; it's as if the voice is a far distance away from him.
"Antony Lonares, you haven't seen your son for eleven years, he's finally brought himself to you. Now, he ought to be punished," many voices say around the colossal oval wooden table.
Antony Lonares slowly walks towards a chair at one peak of the oval wooden table and eases himself into the seat. "You shall not command me on what to do with my own flesh and blood," he says in a soft tone, yet an authoritative manner.
"Zannat, Brabat, what should we do to your brother?" he asks
"Do as you please father, it is of no concern to us," Zannat and Brabat state in unison.
"Watch what you say, his temper might flare up," Antony Lonares states.
Estrella stomps her heavy-duty boots on the shiny brown marble floor. "All of you shut up! He's not your son, he's not your brother, he's nothing to you," she shouts out.
As she softly touches Milan's head, she gets close to his ear and starts whispering, "Wake up my beloved Milan. Don't let them get inside your head."
"Whoever you are, I suggest not uttering another word. It is because his lineage derives from father that's why you are still alive in a room… no, a nation you shouldn't be in," Zannat states.
"You look awfully close to his dirty mother, where are you from?" Brabat asks whilst looking at Estrella.
Estrella places her forehead onto Milan's, "Are you going to let them talk about your mother and I like this?" she whispers with her eyes closed.
As soon as she says this, Milan's eyes begin to gradually open with a certain intensity within them. He kisses Estrella's forehead, "Move to the side Este," he demands. Milan then turns his gaze slightly towards Boz and Malik and nods his head.
For a millisecond, Boz disappears, and as the bald robe wearing men frantically look around the room, his blurry figure suddenly appears behind one of them who adorns a red robe and purple stole with a fox-butterfly hybrid animal stitched onto it.
"Be still," Boz chillingly says as his hand stays just a few inches away from touching the individual's shoulder.
Malik walking closer to the oval wooden table grabs two pistols from the pouch on his waist. "All of you, don't give me anymore reasons to blast your heads off, the things you've heard you do is enough," he states.
A slight giggle suddenly begins to sound within the room, "This is adorable, the entire Motherland is on the lookout for you, and this is how you treat its head pupil. So, you are not only a disappointment, but stupid too," Antony Lonares states
Milan clenches his jaw and fists, "I swear to you, this same disappointment will annihilate this nation, and anyone allied with it," Milan yells out whilst slightly tilting the colossal oval table.
"And how exactly do you plan to do that, your group of rebel thugs and you are not enough to even lay a finger on the Motherland," Antony Lonares responds.
"Where are the Gospels?!" Milan yells out.
"I always taught you to ask reasonable questions, did I not," Antony Lonares says, "Do you think we would've been so careless to lose the Emperors Meraki if we had even just a little piece of the Gospels," he claims.
Milan immediately looks behind his shoulder towards the Elevator.
"Our nation is scouring the entire earth for those Four Gospels, and the purple haired boy who adorns the Emperors Meraki – in fact, I have been told we are getting close to a cave near a waterfall," Antony Lonares says with a slight smirk.
"Wait, how does he know where we are?" Malik asks Milan whilst still aiming his two guns.
"Damn it!" Milan screams whilst punching thin air. "Let's go now!" he yells out.
Crack! As he turns towards the elevator, a crack starts appearing within one panel of the window overlooking part of the Motherland.
"May your mother continue to rot in whatever grave she's in. All that power, just to brainwash you into becoming a rebel," Antony Lonares mutters.
As Milan sprints to the elevator, followed by Estrella, Boz and Malik, he relentlessly presses on the button labeled level one.
Ding! "Going down - level one" the robotic female voice announces.
"Hurry, hurry before your made-up family perishes," Antony Lonares states with a slow tiny smirk seeping through.
As the door gradually closes, Milan with a sharp intense gaze, stares at Antony Lonares until the very shutting of the elevator door.
-
"Forgive me for disrespecting you, if I had known you were of an Upper Echelon family I would've –," Jonathan states with a tone of reverence as he bows down facing Milan.
As Nero interjects, begins walking towards Milan, "Forget about all that, what is going on Milan, where is the Gospel?" he questions.
Milan doesn't utter a word of response but continues to blankly stare at the elevator door.
"How do they know we are held up in a cave! You must've told them something" Boz yells out as he pushes Jonathan up against the elevator.
"I was with you all the entire time, when would I be able to say anything, unless…" Jonathan argues.
"Unless we forgot that we put Blake in the trunk of the truck – damn it!" Nero shouts out as he cuts Jonathan's sentence off.
"Who the hell is Blake?" Malik asks.
Providence begins to convulse abruptly with his head shifting upwards, "Milan, the situation back home may be worse than what we are in now," he states.
Even to this, Milan does not react or say a word and continues to gaze at the elevator door.
"What do you see Providence?!" Estrella asks whilst shaking Providence back and forth.
"I see Motherland soldiers leading umbra's from the woods towards the waterfall and cave. There are too many umbra's for them to hold off and Oldman has no clue," Providence responds.
"If a single person is injured, you will wish never to have met us," Milan mumbles.
Ding! "Level one," the robotic female voice announces as the elevator door sluggishly opens.
Core soldiers adorning different color armbands, rally up with their black batons all the way towards the sliding door of the Tower of Babel.
As the rally begins to make space, steps begin to sound. "We meet again Boz, we are on our way to take back what is ours. My job is to keep you from interfering," a deep manly voice states.
"I should've killed you back then when I introduced myself – Ven Javos," Boz mutters.
"Well, its too late for any regrets now," Ven Javos mutters. "If any form of resistance is displayed, with my authorization, you are permitted to kill," he asserts.
"Yes Ven Javos!" the Core soldiers respond in unison.
"No one will die on my watch so get out of my way," Milan whispers softly as he gets into his fighting stance. "Let's get going," he says as he looks back into the elevator at the others.
With pace and aggressive yelling, the Core soldiers raise their black batons and charge towards the elevator.
Bang, Bang! Two core soldiers instantly drop onto the floor with blood gushing out of a hole in their heads.
"Come get some!" Malik yells out as he reloads his dual pistols.
Chaos erupts, the screams of Core soldiers soaking the entire first level of the Tower of Babel.
"Estrella, heal Silas," Milan softly says as he steps out the elevator.
Immediately he gets into a sumo wrestling stance, and as he reaches his arms out towards the Core soldiers charging with intense speed, an invisible force and air push them backwards which causes them to tumble over one another.
As Boz sprints through some of the fallen Core soldiers, he tags them and instantly, the part of their uniforms he touches begins to sizzle and melt. Loading his hips, he unleashes a roundhouse kick which swipes the faces of two Core soldiers.
"Aaaah!" both Core soldiers shout in agony as their faces begin to thaw.
Ven Javos begins to take off his brown leather trench coat and place it on the ground, "Pick someone your own size to fight," he says as he starts to step towards Boz.
"Don't tell me what to do!" Boz yells out as he fiercely lunges with speed towards Ven Javos.
With a dip below Ven Javos's waist, Boz stretches out his palm, but with swift adjustment of his body, Ven Javos twists his body and throws a devastating punch right onto Boz's left ribs.
Boz immediately jumps backwards holding his left ribs, feeling breathless. As a Core soldier bumps him from behind, he slightly touches them causing their body to start deforming. Right after this, he begins charging towards Ven Javos once again as he lets out an aggressive yell.
-
Towards the right-hand side of the elevator, Core soldiers relentlessly charge at Nero, pinning him into a corner. "You all leave me no choice…" he says whilst grabbing his cross necklace tightly and kissing it. Right as he gets into a fighting stance and squeezes his fist, he frantically glances at each Core soldier in front of him, but not a single movement is made from them.
"Well come on then!" Nero shouts out.
But for some reason, the Core soldiers couldn't move as if a heavy rock was chained to their waist.
"Don't touch my new sniper," Milan asserts; his right arm reached out, and his hand squeezed as if he is holding something.
With smile growing on his face, Nero approaches the Core soldiers and mercilessly pounds their faces.
-
Within the elevator, Estrella gracefully exhales luminescent golden amber spores onto Silas's entire body.
"Oh, my goodness, the spreading has stopped sis!" Esmeralda ecstatically shouts out with her hands cupped over her mouth.
"I can't promise anything Esme, but that should slow down whatever process he is going through right now," Estrella says.
As Silas attempts to sit up, his pale skin regains its color, his dry lips soften, and the grey scaly texture spreading from his arm onto his chest seizes, but a vibrant green light begins to pulse under the cracks of the scales.
"I have no idea what you did, but I feel good!" Silas blurts out, his upper body void of clothing. "Now please listen to me – you too whoever you are," he says whilst pointing at Jonathan who is feverishly shivering and cradled up with an unconscious Truth in the corner of the elevator.
"You all don't have long before here is swarmed with Core soldiers, and you must get back to your people. Please get out of here alive and leave this area to me," Silas states.
Esmeralda's giggles and ecstatic tone, quickly shift into intense wailing. "We are not leaving you here!" she shouts.
"Look Esme, you are not the little girl that needed me in the ascendenatry. You are a strong girl now," Cough! Cough! Silas's deep coughs echoing through the elevator. "And from what I have seen, no one will look out for you like your big sister. She's as caring as you always told me she was," he says with a tear dripping down his cheek.
As the level one sliding door opens, more Core soldiers wielding black batons swarm and crowd the entire level.
"As I said, please leave here alive and forget about me, for I am a dying man," Silas wheezes out in agony as the grey scales spread from his arms onto his neck and chest.
"For I am a dying man!" Silas repeats in a devilish hollow tone whilst scratching the scales with a rapidly pulsating vibrant green light underneath it.
END OF CHAPTER
THEORIES MERAKI – WITH THE GROUP GETTING SWARMED WITH CORE SOLDIERS, AND SILAS LOOSING IT, HOW WILL THEY MAKE IT BACK TO THE WATERFALL CAVE IN TIME BEFORE THINGS GET OUT OF CONTROL?
NEXT CHAPTER – TBD