9: Facing the Conqueror

  Gabriel once asked Ares what he thought of Kendrick. Ares raised his sharp brows slightly and looked away to think a while. Then he answered with a neutral tone as if discussing the weather, "He is a sword that sharpens the more it breaks. But too sharp, and it cuts everything that even comes close to it. No matter his intentions, he has gone too far, and we cannot coexist."

  Whenever Gabriel would ask him a question, Ares would surprise him with thoughts nobody would've expected from him. Ares was a man of action, but he was supreme in his field only thanks to his capable mind. That is something few ever realized.

  Gabriel always thought of it as an advantage that Ares never spoke much. The memory that never ceased to amuse him was of when Ares had been set up to hold a speech for the army. He had simply looked around before thanking everyone for coming, telling them to fight hard, and walking off. Gabriel never figured out if he looked dumb on purpose.

  Kendrick never seemed to buy the rumors about Ares' intellect, however. He wasn't one to underestimate an enemy. Not after his fateful autumn at least. On multiple occasions, Ares and Kendrick had some communications. Their war was a kind exchange through actions.

  Whatever tactic Kendrick used, Ares seemed to hear him through it in a way nobody except maybe the emperor could. The specific camps he targeted, the way the soldiers were killed, and the way their own camps were set up are all a reflection of Kendrick's mental state. That or whatever he wanted Ares to think it was. Ares would in turn spare a soldier or two to send a message back.

  The one Gabriel remembered best was, "Have you ever killed anyone with your own hands?"

  There were tales of Kendrick's prowess, of course, but there were tales about anything you could think of when it came to him. Ares wanted to hear it from the man himself whether he knew what he was putting others through.

  The next battlefield they visited had been abandoned before they came. On a wall, there was writing in the blood of Zalfarian soldiers: "Only those I least wanted to."

  Kendrick had a truly special ability to put weight into an eloquent sentence that crushed the listener beneath. He wasn't just saying he had killed before but that he'd done so to his close ones, something even those at war did not have to experience. It was infuriating how every word of Kendrick's seemed to carry an air of supremacy.

  It was only during the Zalfarian War's tenth year that Kendrick sent an actual letter. Or at least it seemed like it was from him. The letter appeared in Ares' quarters while he was away. In it was a proposal disguised as a sentence.

  "Your home is safe if you return there."

  It had an obvious double meaning. It told Ares that he had a chance to leave the war while threatening his home if he didn't. He was a man of cruel economy, letting the reader agonize over the interpretation rather than stating it outright.

  Ares did not agonize. He reduced the letter into bits with his Divide. When he turned to me, he said only a few words with no double meaning, "War is my home."

  Indeed, Ares seemed to have gradually begun to doubt he'd ever see the calm, swaying fields of the tropics with his son by his side. The war had gone on a decade and was only intensifying. Even Kendrick, who was infamous for never negotiating, made Ares an offer. They were two men who never lost in a drawn-out battle.

  Gabriel knew the war would finally end soon, but nobody could've foreseen how that happened.

  Nobody but Kendrick.

  ***

  10: Operation Ultimus

  It began with an assault on Alexandria, the capital of Zalfari, in which Ares bled black.

  It was rare to see him bleed even from a cut on his finger. So to see him throw up blood while on enhancers was something of a shattering sight. Even the emperor turned pale when he saw. It just went to show what a god everyone saw him as, including his own father.

  The emperor used the opportunity to his advantage. In the chaos, he chose to fake his son's death. A master of information, he made the word spread while seeming to do his best to keep it from spreading. It was frightening to see his acting. It seemed like a waste for such a giant to have such an ability, but it was no accident the Alexanders had ruled for centuries.

  Then came Operation Ultimus.

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  It was a plan of which only the emperor, Alexander the 6th, Ares, and the captains of the Elite Troop were in on.

  For a plan of the highest echelon, it was fairly simple: destroy Gash, the military headquarters located in Holy Desdemona.

  If taken out, it would paralyze the army of Lundkirk and allow Zalfari to take control. Most importantly, Gash was where Kendrick was thought to reside. Obviously, it was not a mission the Elite Troop would come back from in one piece, but it was agreed on by everyone. A total of 200 enhancers of the highest quality was issued from the vaults of the emperor. Ares quite famously took three enhancers with him, an amount nobody ever survived. Not even the ancient thaumaturges. No matter what, Kendrick had to die for this to end.

  The Elite Troop took to Lundkirk as a group, moving through inconspicuous areas. They moved in groups but did not split up completely, as there was no obstacle they could not face together.

  They traversed the land for a week, gathering together when they crossed the thick forest to the north of Holy Desdemona. They were going to rush in, take the enemy by surprise while on enhancers, and destroy everything from the facilities to records to soldiers. Lundkirk would lose its sense of safety, its most treasured resource, and its renowned marshal. All at the hands of an enemy they thought to be dead.

  When the troop crossed the forest, however, they were ambushed.

  Ambushed... by an enemy whose forces were supposed to be concentrated at the borders of Zalfari, recovering from the failed assault.

  Then it clicked. Kendrick hadn't simply seen this coming. He had arranged it. Ares had been targeted because he knew what the desperate emperor would result to. The earlier communications had been designed to have Ares commit fully and agree to such a mission.

  Zalfari had stretched out its neck, and Kendrick was waiting with an axe in hand.

  To describe Operation Ultimus as a nightmare would've sold it short. There were ten thousand of them. The greatest of Lundkirk's warriors pitted against the Elite Troop. The sky seemed to turn red and the forest into a deep black that swallowed the wounded.

  Gabriel watched as comrades were slaughtered at odds of 1 against 100. Nobody seemed to be themselves except for Ares, but even he was ragged with exertion.

  On two enhancers, the man moved like nothing else. His blue eyes gleamed in the dark, his golden hair blowing behind him as he flew through rows of soldiers, tearing them apart in droves. He killed thousands that day.

  Gabriel fought the best he could before he got a spear into the eye. When he was about to die, he heard Ares roar, "Gabriel, down!"

  He pushed himself away from the enemy and collapsed into the mud. The soldiers of Lundkirk thrust down their spears of essence. Then Ares bolted over him. Gabriel saw only the trail of his eyes. Then the soldiers of Lundkirk simply came apart.

  His eye lit a fire in his skull, and his throat was filled with blood. He thought that was where he would die. The last thing Gabriel remembered before passing out was praying for his comrades to survive.

  He woke up to a horrid silence. Essence rushed through his body. It wasn't his own. He jolted and saw Ares.

  Gabriel struggled to get a comprehensive question out of his mouth as he looked around. It was pure darkness.

  "Everybody's dead," Ares said, deep, dark, and monotone.

  "What?" Gabriel shook his head. "No... no, no, no."

  Ares stood and lifted his uniform to reveal his torso. He was riddled with wounds, horrible slashes crossing over his chest and abdomen. They seeped with a purple pus.

  "They had poison on their blades. I'm not sure what it is. I've never seen or felt any effects like this before."

  Gabriel sat there quietly, breathing even though it nourished the flame in his brain. It didn't seem possible. Ares was mortally wounded.

  "What now?" Gabriel asked as a soldier. It was all he could be at that moment.

  "Carry me to the nearest base. I'll resist the poison for as long as possible."

  Gabriel got up on his feet and eased his aching body before carrying on with the order.

  "Listen, Gabriel. These ten thousand were Kendrick's best, most loyal soldiers," Ares said hoarsely. "We won. Even Kendrick will face rebellion after a loss like this. My father will be able to negotiate a temporary truce. Hopefully it will become permanent. Either way, our job here is done."

  "Do you think he could be thrust out of power?" Gabriel asked hopefully.

  "No." Ares rejected wishful thinking. "My son will be of age when the war begins again. I need you to promise me. Promise me that you won't let them use my Aurelius in this war." Ares grasped Gabriel's collar from behind. "Promise me."

  Gabriel's lip quivered. He wanted to tell Ares to do it himself but hung his head and conceded, "I promise."

  Ares' grasp weakened, and he fell unconscious.

  They made it to the military base, and the medics did everything they could. They identified the poison at last. It was from Lundkirk. Not the empire it had become but from the small oppressed nation in the southeast. It came from a purple flower that bloomed for a single day in autumn. It was named God's Misery. There was no antidote.

  Gabriel stayed at Ares' side until the end even while his eye was operated on. There he wrote to help the incapacitated Ares write a letter that his son was to receive when he had grown up. When Ares passed, Gabriel closed his eyes.

  Meanwhile, the emperor was poised in his home at the same time. Kendrick had managed to get people on the inside decades ago and had preserved the opportunity for an assassination until it was necessary and used it in the fear that the emperor would be able to conquer Lundkirk in the following chaos.

  Alexander the 6th stepped into power, showing his capacity for leadership in stabilizing the Great Zalfarian Empire even as its two greatest heroes had been killed in close succession.

  Gabriel took on the duty of delivering the news to Ares' family. There he met his son, Aurelius, whom he got the privilege to tutor. He could not stay for long due to Aurelius' mother's wishes, but he caught a glimpse of Aurelius' limitless potential.

  He had a truly extraordinary connection to nature. It gravitated to him. On multiple occasions, they were unable to train due to butterflies flocking to his shiny golden hair. He would just sit there, kicking his feet with a big grin.

  Beyond all bloodshed, that boy was the true legacy of Ares. His last and greatest gift to the world.