Chapter 9

Head of Monad

“How is the preparation going on?” a deep, sepulchral voice hurtled across the room from one of the many doors in the throne room. General Luft was holding his hat in one hand, stood nervously in the middle of the room. He was a hefty man with heavy jowl, used to serve in the military before he became Lord Gua’s right hand man to help executing his plans. He was not a very clever fellow, but undoubtedly a sycophant. That was why Lord Gua kept him, to assist in his complicated political-war machinations. He preferred to have a dim-witted man over a smart man who could possibly revolt his monarchy one day. Gua was extremely protective of his sovereignty and power, to the point of paranoia. A sensitive man like him should know any better that being overly suspicious and mistrust his own men led to sleeping disorder. Popping pills every so often wasn’t going to get him anywhere near being secure.

“Everything went well, my Lord,” General Luft said. “The new breed should be able to be released any time after tomorrow.”

Heavy, percussion of consistent footsteps became more audible. The figure of Lord Gua in his sleek, black military suit emerged at the hall, approaching to his throne. Slowly, he sat down and cleared his throat, fixing his gaze at General Luft. He was a tall man with pale skin and thin lips, looking well preserved in his late forties. His long neck with protruding Adam’s apple jiggles every time he speaks. Behind his golden brown bangs hid a prominent scar on his left temple. He hates anyone who stares or mentions about it. He got it during a fight with Commander Onyx years ago, wounded but managed to escape and recover.

“No weapon can destroy?” He asked in his usual deadly manner.

General Luft swallowed hard before he made the reply. “Yes, my Lord. No weapon can destroy them, completely resistant to ximeon too. They are the newest breed.”

[Ximeon is a type of ammo with different sizes and power levels. It can be as small as a bullet and as large as a missile. Some ximeons could be deadly, and some with lower elements could hurt the body but not to the point of destroying it. Mild ximeon can cause first and second degree skin burn. Medium scale ximeon may cause bone fracture, displaced or concussion. Medium to high ximeon fires ammo that raptures, causing injury or death. High ximeon has even greater force, used for heavy battle, typically blowing up military vehicles. Eli shelter is resistant to ximeon’s. However, Eli shelter may not be able to hold much longer than fifteen seconds if medium to high ximeon is fired in chain.]

Lord Gua nodded his head.

“My Lord, what should we do with the previous breeds?” General Luft asked.

“Destroy them.” Lord Gua answered briskly.

“Are… are you sure, my Lord? It took Brocos years to rear them.” General Luft’s voice trembled a little.

“You heard me, General.” He seemed to be nettled by General Luft’s nosy remark, shooting him with a did-I-ask-for-your-opinion look with his hooded grey eyes.

“Yes, sir.” General Luft put his hat on, gave a quick bow and scuttled out of the throne room.

Lord Gua watched General Luft disappeared from the room.

“A fool,” he mumbled under his breath. Hemance Gua was the fourth successor of the Gua’s family. He had always been a defiant and recalcitrant boy among his brothers. Hemance Gua was third in the line, and he clearly understood he will never be able to become the next successor after his father. Unhappy and despised at his useless birthright, he dreamt of something impossible to reach. He fancied being the first-born son, entitled to his father’s wealth, heir to the throne, and ruler of the country.

He loathed being the tail. He wanted to be the head.

It is impossible to disentangle himself with the thirst for power if he wants to be the head. To be the head, all nations have to submit to him. He would have to earn it. He would have to earn the birthright for himself. The only way is through perfect scheming and planning. He had been planning for a bloody turn over for some time, gathered a number of armies who had been sidelined because of their previous mistakes or other various reasons, and waited patiently for the right timing. All his siblings, including his close relatives who showed their support to the eldest son of his father were murdered right after his father’s death. To him, it was an imperative action to take to consolidate his own position as the country’s new leader. There were rumours saying that he poisoned his own father. Needless to say, there was no witness or evidence.

Although Hemance Gua was merciless and ambitious even in eyes of his men, but he was also smart enough to understand that he needed to have loyal acolytes to keep his position firm and solid. Speaking of having devotees, Hemance did excellent job in keeping his men to stay loyal to him; even better than his father.

A distressing ground of why the civilians were submissive to Gua was because of the sabre-rattling by the military forces. His men would viciously put an end to those who oppose him. The commoners were terrified of his men, for they were awfully brutal and aggressive. Beside his vile practices, Hemance Gua made great contributions to keep the country’s economy strong. In which, was exceedingly important as it helped to create more armies and fighting equipment. Seeing consequential changes and positive progression over the years, the Monad civilians had been quiet and did not rise up to revolt Gua’s monarchy. Living standard had been significantly improved under his reign.

Hemance Gua’s forefathers and had been in war with Velvet for more than a century. Velvet, the country, was named after the Velvet tree. The Velvet trees have great amount of blue zinc in each leaf. Blue zinc was able to rebuild and reproduce damaged cells thirty times faster than normal zinc. The leaf itself was slightly bigger than a human’s palm, smooth on one side and tufted on the other side, just like the fabric of velvet, very unique. Blue-ish zinc fluid (or sap) flows out when the leaf is torn apart.

During the nights, the Velvet trees produced their own fragrance. Highly therapeutic fragrance that was able to calm a person’s mind, and put him in a state of mild ecstasy. That was why the armies avoided fighting in a forest that was full of Velvet trees, unless they were given breathing apparatuses. The Velvet trees are not very tall, as compared to other trees. They normally grow up to three hundred centimeters at the most, and they have perfectly round trunks. Their leaves change colours according to the weather. During winter they turn mild pink, and gradually became more to purple-ish when the weather becomes hot. They became fully grown in fifty to sixty years’ time, a lot longer compared to normal trees. The Velvet trees were rare, and could only be found in certain protected forests, and the country provided vigilance protection to the trees.

Velvet was made of twelve states, with Seven as its capital city. The western states of Velvet are the states adjoining the west coastlines of Velvet. These are the six states from the biggest population to the smallest: Seven, Green Sand, Pearl Gates, Weatherspoon, Bossell, and Knightsland.

The eastern states are Jumberack, Grand Oliver, Twin Canals, New Ancients, Johannes, and Northbelt.

The Velvet Military main camp is based in Green Sand. Green Sand sits at the southwest coast, with a large part of beach. It is the nearest state to Monad, making it the perfect point for defense area.

Monad was made of ten states, with almost three quarters of population of Velvet. Gua aimed hungrily for Seven ever since he took over his father’s place. The capital city of Velvet, Seven is known for its advance vision of technology. Jade’s Aqua Bow, for example, is made of liquefied Aquamarine stones, molten by high temperature to foster heavy duty shooting. Of course there were other cities in Velvet which were plenteous with natural mineral resources like coal, iron, oil et cetera, and a great deal of resources for making weapons and machines, which Gua had been coveting to take control of.

The rain stippled the windows. Lord Gua looked outside the window with his hands at his back. The last time he engaged in war was six years ago.

Six years, he thought to himself. What have you been doing for six years?

Nothing.

He raised his finger and touched his scar, the one on the temple, lightly.

“Rhu Onyx,” he said, with bloodshot eyes. The memory of how he got the scar still vexed him. It made him squirm with shame every time he thinks about the defeat.

“You… obnoxious insect!!!” He drew his sword out and started swinging and hollered dementedly in the room.