New hope

As the sun was slowly rising in the distant crimson sky, its showers of light revealed the harrowing depths of the destruction the city had seen in the darkness of the night. Olive was being erased from history by the terrifying force of the three kings of Oakland. The once majestic towers and grand temples that took decades to build were annihilated into heaps of rubble in a span of just a few hours. It is indeed hard to build and easy to destroy. If the city was rebuilt, it would take a lot more time and effort to build it than when it was being annihilated.

Surrounded by a dozen men, two of them were carrying his lifeless body back towards the center of the city. It looked like fate had its fun with Kodesh and now he was to be sacrificed to their gods. That was what the men had sworn to do. Chosen as he was, he would make a really tasty sacrifice.

Some of the men however were unnerved by Kodesh. Especially the ones carrying him. For some reason they really didn't want to touch him or even cast a gaze at him. As if their lieutenant was reading their thoughts , he instructed the two of them to carry Kodesh back towards the city center and they reluctantly did so after they made a short prayer to their gods. One of the two men's name was Robert, he was frail and seemed a lot out of place. He just wasn't cut out to be a warrior.

The stern faced lieutenant was strongly built with dark sunken eyes, a well groomed goatee and long brown hair hidden with his silver helmet of blue plumes. He was in his forties, wearing a silver scaled armor and brown leather boots. His boots were still stained with Kodesh's blood.

Within his helmet, his ears were shining with golden ear rings worn by those of rank in the army. The two men carrying Kodesh were walking closely behind him while 9 others were at the back.

"Did you hear about the men who kidnapped someone chosen?"

A conversation broke at the back.

"Yes I heard that they returned the boy back after they were plagued with tumors and leprosy." The other man replied with an uneasy tone and he immediately raised his hand to check his skin of any disease.

"Do you think the stories are true?" Another asked in a wobbly voice.

"Well I guess we will find out."

"Anyway what happened to the men who kidnapped him?"

"I hear they returned him back and the tumors miraculously healed and their skin was cleansed."

The two men carrying Kodesh were already trembling tremendously. It seemed they too knew the stories about the chosen. That was why they were reluctant to carry his body.

As they were immersed in the conversations, Kodesh's pendant was reflecting the morning sunlight. When the rays illuminated it, a shimmering glow appeared and then it vanished as soon as they reached the shades. The tall castles cast deep and long shadows through out the city. The pendant was almost like it was charging whenever the light shone on it. Like it was absorbing the rays of the morning light. The same thing repeated again and again until the glow didn't fade in the shade. It had fully charged.

Oblivious to the danger, the men continued with their conversations and immediately the pendant exploded into brilliant white light, blinding the twelve men instantly. The light was so powerful that Kodesh felt it even with his eyes closed, instantly waking him up. In the next moment he crashed into the ground. The men carrying him were stunned by the light and they immediately forgot they were carrying his weight.

'Ouch.'

As he blinked his eyes open, he felt pangs of pain all over his body. Ignoring the pain, his eyes wandered around to glean the situation and to his suprise the dozen men were covering theirs, staggering around like madmen.

'This is my chance.'

Kissing the pendant, he immediately made a run for it.

"Not so fast." A voice echoed behind him.

It was the lieutenant, though he was blind, he could still sense Kodesh and he immediately chased after him. Kodesh had recuperated a bit from his induced slumber. The knockout actually did more good than harm. Except that he had a dented face. He wouldn't mind though considering that the one thing he needed most was at his disposal. He had the strength to run as fast as he could. And now with a blind lieutenant tailing him, he fancied his chances even more.

How ever good the sentience of the lieutenant was, the fact that he was blind was going to slow him down. Not so long after, the blind lieutenant plummeted face down to the ground. Kodesh had knocked a log on to the street as he was running and the man tripped over it, bruising his hands and knees. The stern faced man gracelessly let out a short shriek and almost instantly cut it half way. It was like the shriek escaped his mouth accidentally and betrayed the strong persona he liked so much to portray.

Lifting himself up, he continued chasing Kodesh down the street, but his speed was slow since he constantly jumped over imaginary obstacles.

It was just hopeless to chase after him. However, in a way, this was his mess. He kicked Kodesh, knocking him unconscious. And once in the spiritual realm, Kodesh replenished his strength and his injuries stopped bleeding. The shallow wounds even healed in that short time.

It looked like all was lost for the blind lieutenant because Kodesh was just about a hundred meters from the wall, exactly where he had kicked him.

Without any setbacks this time, Kodesh pelted to the wall. He held on to his pendant and uttered words. Immediately a golden lock appeared on the wall. Reassembling the pendant, it formed a key and he ran with all the strength he could muster to reach the wall.

Was that his plan all along? To unlock the golden lock?

A few moments later he was at the lock. Behind him, about 70 meters away, the lieutenant was readying his bow and arrow. He knew it was hopeless to chase after Kodesh so he opted to use his sentience to locate him and strike him with an arrow.

Carefully inserting the key, Kodesh turned it clockwise and nothing happened. The key however threatened to break. With visible panic he tried again and the key didn't move, but this time it almost shattered to pieces. He had just one last try left. If he failed, the key was going to shatter along with his plans of escaping.

'Think, think, think!'

Well he didn't have a lot of time to ponder because as he glanced back, and arrow was growing bigger and bigger and that only mearnt one thing. It was drawing nearer by the second and he didn't have any second to spare. He turned the key again, this time anti clockwise like he was locking the door and a sound he never thought he would hear echoed in his ears. He had finally managed to unlock the golden door. It was the most beautiful sound he had ever heard. Well it was mostly pleasing to the ear because his life depended on it. Nonetheless he loved that sound like music.

Without a split second to spare he opened the door and immediately a golden frame formed. He could see a vast expanse of grasslands beyond the door. Kodesh quickly jumped in but before he could an explosion rocked behind him, sending him flying.