The first rays of sunlight illuminated the wisps and billows of smoke
that rose from the damaged city. With every passing minute the sun
rose higher into the morning sky, lighting the pole that was standing
at the head of the cobble walkway. Soon, there was enough light to
reveal the head that was on top of the pole, bringing out of the
mansion several dozen men including Boyce, carrying his cross bow in
his left hand. His left shoulder was in great pain but he was forcing
himself to make use of it.
He walked out tall and straight, and from somewhere above, Zoro flapped
his way down onto Boyce's other shoulder. It made no sound as the men
slowly walked towards the pole, with Lloyd's head mounted atop it.
There was an odd, colourful aura around the head, probably caused by
the play of the sun's light, but Boyce believed, with his whole heart,
that it was God's presence blessing his dead friend.
The sounds of battle started up again in the distance. Electrophora
blared and thunderous sounds followed.
Looking in the direction of the battle's origin, which was north, Boyce
and his men saw laser light being shot into the air, and they knew that
it could only mean one thing -- the second invasion wave had arrived in
Pomperaque, as planned.
Boyce fell to his knees and wailed, mourning his fallen friend and
teacher, while he still held onto his cross bow.
His cries rose above the thunderous clamour of combat that was drawing
nearer to the city.
The young sovereign finally rose to his feet again and looked at Halls
with an ultimate contempt that he summoned from his soul.
His eyes had tears in them, and they were red and painful looking. He
spat on the ground and took his sabre from its casement and lifted it
to the air.
Boyce took a few steps passed the head of his dead friend, and in a
voice that carried through the entire city, he yelled at those in Halls.
"Dirt of the world! -- Fornicators of men and animals! -- Oppressive
son-of-whores and satyrs! -- Welcomers of saturnine thought! -- You
foul children of Satan!" Boyce cussed at them. "Maybe you all die in
the most prolonged and torturous pain!"
The fighting stopped as the battalions came upon the centre of the city
and heard Boyce's booming anger shake all that was around.
Zoro quietly left Boyce's shoulder and then disappeared, unnoticed.
"Prepare yourself for damnation, Manguino. You will die, Orren!"
Boyce's hollering sounded like a promise, more than it did threatening,
and he slid his sabre back into its scabbard.
He began to walk towards Halls with the men that came out of the
mansion with him.
Those coenobites at Halls were all lined up on the wall of the
quadrangle looking towards Boyce, when he yelled.
Cardinal Orren stood in plain sight and watched Boyce slowly approach
with his men.
Manguino had listened to Boyce, also, from his office window and he was
discomfited by it. He waited for Orren to return to his office. He
needed advice on what to do with himself because he could not easily
think on his own.
Orren waited for Boyce to reach the wall where he stood and he had
ordered his guards not to fire at him. He stood on the wall dressed in
his chromium armour and impressive helmet and he stared at Boyce as he
stood at the base of the wall in his own majestic armour and helmet.
This was the first time that Orren actually had a good look at this
man's battle garb. This time he was certain that he saw on his
shoulders the black wing-like epaulettes bringing to mind the 'black
feathers' line, in Jessuum's prophesy.
"We had known from the beginning," said Orren. "that you were not to
be trusted!"
He looked at Boyce while he spoke and Boyce had a strange smirk on his
face when he responded.
"It only means your own downfall, and don't stay under the
misconception that you will live to see the end of this day!"
Orren laughed at Boyce, pointing at him, at the same instant.
"Your threats will lead you to the same end as your Bestenese friend!"
said the cardinal. "It is to our utmost disappointment that the
ArchBishop didn't let us destroy you when we first suspected you!"
Boyce shook his head in defiance.
"My uncle Manguino has never been very intelligent, and you can cease
that elitist way of talking because it doesn't become you!"
There was silence for a moment while they exchanged hate-filled glares.
Boyce took a deep breath and called Manguino out to fight.
"Manguino!" he called then waited. "Uncle! -- Come and we will settle
this war's outcome between ourselves!"
There was no answer and Boyce looked at Orren, laughing menacingly at
him.
"He will not answer you!" Orren told Boyce. "He will not fight
either, and why should he? He has hundreds of us to fight you for him!"
"Then let me fight each of you until only he remains!" Boyce said
provokingly.
Orren shook his head at Boyce and tisked at him.
"Don't you know about the laws of nature, son of Brook?" he tauntingly
asked him. "The strong survive while the weak die!"
" -- And my God's universal law says that 'good shall destroy evil'
-- so shall I destroy you, and all those who follow you!"
There was silence again, for a brief moment until Boyce yelled to
Manguino again.
"My uncle, ArchBishop! Coward of the world and Evil incarnate.
Come and do battle with me, alone!"
Once more there was no answer from within the cathedral. This time
Orren was bothered by it. The people could not be allowed to see the
ArchBishop as a coward. He looked down at Boyce then mentioned to some
of his high cardinals to come nearer.
Boyce raised his cross bow at Orren, and Orren's men did the same
directed back at him.
"I will see him, Boyce. We will speak again within the hour!"
Orren and two of his high cardinals left the wall and Boyce waited for
Orren to return.
Before Orren went into the cathedral he told his high cardinals to
watch Boyce from another vantage point in insure that he doesn't attack.
"If he attacks, destroy him!"
The order was plain and simple, but Boyce didn't attack. Even when his
men suggested to him that they charge all of them with surprise.
Boyce didn't want to. He knew that something grave would occur if he
did something. Anyway, he had come too far to let stupidity ruin all
the sacrifices that he and his dead friend had made, in order to regain
the Blue sovereignty.
Orren entered the ArchBishop's office and saw him standing at the
window dressed in a purple robe with a scarlet surplice thrown over it.
He didn't say anything for the first while but he eventually glanced
over at Orren then looked out the window again.
"I wonder what it would be like, to be killed by a relative?" Manguino
asked but not looking for any answer.
Nevertheless, Orren moved closer to him and asked a question in the
same manner. "How did it feel to kill a relative?"
Manguino grinned and slightly turned to the cardinal.
"I've wondered that for ten years!" he said to him and he snickered
under his breath.
Cardinal Orren went over to the window and faced Manguino peering
through the window.
"You don't want to fight him?" Orren stated to him.
Manguino just looked at him and whimpered.
"Where can I go, or what's more, when and how?"
Orren thought for a moment then sighed.
"The old place ... the citadel at Tannisea, but you will have to go
alone and around the southern coast."
"The route to Tannisea is long and dangerous, Orren. Especially is the
southern coastal loop is taken."
Orren touched Manguino's shoulder.
"It's either that or you have to fight Boyce!"
"That's quite a choice!" said Manguino.
"I will take your place while you get along to Tannisea." said Orren.
"I'll send you word when to return. That son of Brook Scullion-Blue
cannot win."
Manguino took a deep breath and looked out the window again when he
heard Boyce's voice calling him out to fight.
"Your time is running out, Manguino. Come fight me or Halls will
crumble, never to rise again!"
Orren looked out of the window, too.
"I told him, an hour." said Orren. "I think that he is trying to
frighten you!"
"He's his father, all over again." Manguino stated to Orren then
leaned his head against the wall by the window.
"Prepare yourself to leave. When I fight him, all will watch and you
will be able to get away."
It was strange that Orren was seemingly guiding the ArchBishop's life.
After all the years that Manguino, as ArchBishop, was the undisputed
ruler of Phoride, he had fallen to a level of mind that very closely
resembled that of an idiot.
Orren has really been the one man, who had been controlling Phoride
since Manguino's marriage and unending fornication with Eckma.
Orren didn't care on way or the other about his idea that the
ArchBishop's unending years of debauchery and perversion had effected
his mind. Whether or not that was true was beside the point, right now.
This god's survival was at stake. He couldn't let someone like Boyce
show that he was nothing more than a physical and mental weakling.
Orren helped Manguino pack a survival travel bag and saw him off at his
personal tunnel that exited, at an isolated cove, on the southern most
part of Pomperaque.
With good-byes that were neither sad nor elated, the Cardinal Orren
closed off the passage and went back to the courtyard, in front of the
chapel. He was dressed in his same battle armour and before leaving
the safety of Halls' enclosed quadrangle he instructed his high
cardinals to destroy Boyce and his men, if he is beaten. He also told
them to destroy the entire city of Pomperaque is he doesn't survive the
combat with Boyce.
Boyce had given Tucker and Empal similar instructions, as well, but
Boyce's instructions didn't call for the total destruction of his city,
if he lost against Orren. His instructions only called for the
destruction of the Halls Cathedral.
"Let not one stone remain standing on this butte!" he told them and
waited until his rival came to him.
He finally heard the heavy gates of the wall clang and screech open.
He watched the huge doors swing inward and soon after they stopped
moving, he saw his personal rival come out ti fight him.
There was a great disappointment and feeling of being cheated in
Boyce's heart when he saw that the man he was about to fight was the
Cardinal Orren instead of the ArchBishop Manguino.
"What's this, Orren? I had called on Manguino to fight with me." Boyce
said in anger.
Orren drew nearer, his chromium armour reflecting the morning sun.
He was carrying a cross bow in his left hand and he looked as if he was
equally matched, weapon-wise, with Boyce.
Many of those watching Orren slowly walking up to Boyce were frightened
that Boyce would not survive.
Orren looked ominous and indestructible and even though Boyce looked
like a formidable opponent, his friends were not certain that he would
be victorious.
"I want Manguino here before me, immediately!" Boyce demanded and then
took a few steps towards him.
"As far as you should be concerned, I am the ArchBishop!" Cardinal
Orren told him calmly.
Boyce slowly came closer to Orren and he prodded him with his cross
bow, and with a strangely provoking little smile on his face.
"Am I to take Manguino's cowardice as the surrender of Halls and
Pomperaque, to me?"
Orren was somewhat disturbed by what Boyce said to him and he pushed
Boyce's bow away from himself.
"You are out of your mind." said Orren. "Halls will never surrender
to you, or to anyone else. So long as I live, so long as anyone within
those walls lives, Halls will not surrender!"
Boyce glared right into Orren's eyes and spoke to him as if he was a
little boy.
Orren was annoyed by it all but it helped to build his hostility
towards his young opponent.
"I like watching grown men like you and Manguino throwing little
tantrums of temper. What is interesting is that these tantrums affect
the entire state; where, to relieve your own tension, you have innocent
men, women and children murdered."
Boyce stopped for a moment, watching Orren's reaction to what he had
said and saw that he was irritating him.
"You and my uncle put my mansion under siege and yet we left Halls
alone. We could've destroyed Halls before this war even began!"
Orren interrupted Boyce's momentum by showing his hostile nature.
"You did have Halls under siege!" hollered Orren. "That friend of
your, that Bestenese, Bartlett ... he had come into Halls and had
brutally murdered the ArchBishop's wife and son. That is why I must
kill you. I have to avenge their deaths for him as I have avenged the
death of my father, Cardinal Allen, by killing his murderer!"
He pointed down the road towards the Blue Mansion and the pole with
Lloyd's head on it.
"You prepare yourself to die, then!" announced Boyce. "I have to
avenge deaths, as well. I must avenge the deaths of Brook and
Dearborne and my friend, Lloyd!"
He threw his cross bow to the ground and drew his sabre from its
scabbard.
"Senseless bloodshed is not the way to fight a war, Cardinal Orren.
Battle, like this, can be the only way!"
They circled around one another, their eyes locked together in an icy
stare.
"I take a different view, young Scullion-Blue!" blurted Orren.
"I know -- so much is the shame!" replied Boyce just as Orren swung
his sword down at him.
Boyce caught the attack with his sabre and he spun around deflecting
Orren's sword out and away from him.
Orren momentarily lost his balance but regained it in time to defend
himself against Boyce's attack. They moved around a large area while
they brandished their blades at one another.
Boyce's men watched-on in worry and with heated excitement, many of
them twitching and grinding their teeth with each whiz and clang of the
blades.
The coenobite army watched-on also but they didn't display concern for
Orren. Each man's face was expressionless, and they made no movements
throughout the fight.
"You fight well!" Orren complimented Boyce.
"Thank-you ..." Boyce grunted. " ... and you fight, like a pregnant
old woman!"
He hurled his sabre horizontally at Orren, but Orren came down on it
sending the end to the ground and slashed-out at Boyce.
Boyce lurched back in pain. The armour plating on his chest had a
large gash in it and blood was spurting out from the cut.
"You will soon die, Boyce. Be still and I will end it painlessly!'
Orren offered to him.
They stood there gasping for air, hunched over a little as they just
stared at one another.
"So long as I have breath, I shall fight you!" Boyce promised to his
opponent.
"Suitable!" Orren agreed.
Orren stepped closer and lunged at Boyce.
Boyce shrank backwards, out of the way and managed to land a blow over
Orren's back, with his damaged sabre, but all that happened was that
the blow dented and cracked the armour. The force of the blow,
however, was enough to send Orren toppling over. He landed face down
and Boyce went over to him.
He stood over Orren for a moment then helped him t his feet only to be
pushed away by him.
"You are a stupid young man." Orren commented. "I would never have
helped you!"
Boyce, holding his side with one hand, smiled and staggered backwards a
few steps. "Yes, I know!" he added.
Boyce now attacked, brandishing his sabre over and over, rotating it
fervently and not giving Orren the chance to make a good swing back at
him.
Orren fell back to the ground several times, and Boyce chopped at him,
then stepped back. The rhythm of his movements were monotonous and
anticipatory, making Orren to constantly step backwards. It was all
Orren could do to defend himself.
Then, Boyce stopped and squatted, and glared at him.
Orren slowly made it to his feet, the armour from his own left arm
totally ripped off of him and the bloody flesh just hanging off of the
bone.
With great pain Orren forced a smile at Boyce clutching his profusely
bleeding abdomen.
"You are getting better!" Orren said to Boyce. "But why didn't you
finish me off?"
Boyce smiled. "I am having too much fun ... besides -- I am giving you
the chance to live and to surrender!"
Orren shook his head and Boyce knew that he could not reach a
compromise with Orren. Now, he had to try his hardest against this man.
Orren felt the same way. He now realised that Boyce was trained very
well for this kind of fighting. It was then that Orren's mind was
illuminated to all that has occurred up to this moment. He understood
the prophesy and he could see the truth behind his killing Lloyd. Yet,
he also understood that there was now no turner back or reconciling.
"Be on your guard!" Orren warned with a hint of affection and
admiration in his voice.
"And you!" echoed Boyce.
Orren lunged at Boyce but quickly withdrew as Boyce pitched forward at
him.
The move momentarily confused Boyce and catching him unaware for an
instant, but he quickly fell to the ground and rolled forward a few
times to escape the deadly reel that Orren had followed him with.
Dust flew up from the ground as Orren gouged the earth with his sword,
again missing Boyce.
Boyce came to his feet slowly and was smiling, and Orren nodded
complimentarily to him for anticipating his tactic.
They continued to fight and the time passed. Soon it was an hour
passed since they had started to fight.
They hadn't said very much after the first hairy tactic that Orren had
tried on Boyce. The rest of the time was spent in offensives and
countering, each man trying to out-think and out-skill the other.
Boyce would wave his sabre at Orren only to change his direction at the
last second, while aiming at a totally different part of Orren's body.
Orren soon caught on to it and he played the game according to Boyce's
rules, but both men
were exhausted and weak from a loss of blood.
Boyce's men were extremely worried about him and throughout the hour of
combat they winced and cringed with each grind on the bashing blades.
Each of the men had scored blows against the other, but none of them
were of sufficient force to do much else than dent their armour.
Just as those warriors, that were watching, thought that their leader's
fight neared an end, and an end for Boyce especially, Boyce pushed on
and disarmed Orren.
He stood there feeling stark naked and he waited for Boyce to run him
through. Instead, Boyce slackened his sabre off to one side.
Breathing heavily, Boyce lifted his sabre to Orren and asked him if he
wanted to continue with bare hands.
"You are mad!" Orren answered him then got to his feet.
Orren was first to charge head-long into Boyce's stomach, the top part
of his helmet gouging into Boyce's wound.
Boyce grabbed Orren's helmet and twisted it until Orren sank to his
knees and pulled himself away. The helmet came off and Boyce threw it
off to one side. Boyce then took his own helmet and threw it beside
Orren's.
Orren looked up at Boyce who was now bowed-over, and while breathing
heavily he held on to his injury.
"Maybe we should stop now and pick up where we left off, tomorrow!"
Orren joked.
Boyce shook his head. "So long as we breath, we fight. We agreed,
Orren!"
Boyce ducked as Orren came upon him, and he was sent flying over
Boyce's back.
Boyce caught Orren's injured arm and pulled on the flesh that hung from
it. Orren screamed in his utter agony, rolling on the ground with his
gauntlet clutching his totally damaged arm.
Boyce was in great pain, too, but he stood on his feet and approached
Orren, still on the ground.
He was entirely covered in a coat of dust and his face and hair was
caked with dirt and partially drying, clotted blood.
He was coughing mouthfuls of dust that he had sucked up in his painful
gasps while rolling around on the ground, and Boyce threw the handful
of flesh to the ground beside their helmets.
Boyce looked down at Orren, now breathing steadier with cleaner
mouthfuls of air.
Their eyes welded their gazes together and boyce felt sorry for his
adversary. He saw that Orren could not speak from the pain, but he saw
in his eyes the unmistakeable plea for mercy -- the mercy of being
totally released from the pain and agony wrought by an injured body,
and mutilated confidence.
Boyce knelt down and took Orren about the head, embracing him.
"Somehow you seemed to be more different than any of the others at
Halls!" he said to Orren.
Boyce then quickly stood up while still holding Orren's head tightly in
his arms. He made a very quick jerking motion and spun around
simultaneously. By the time Boyce was fully on his feet Orren's neck
was snapped.
The act was painless and quick, and merciful, and Orren did not
struggle while it happened.
Boyce gently lowered Orren's limp body to the ground by his feet. He
bowed his head to look at his dead opponent and he preyed to the true
Living God to forgive both him and Orren for their transgressions in
life. He then looked up at their two helmets and at the three birds
that picked at the flesh that he threw to the ground beside them.
Suddenly, Boyce heard a muffled whistling sound and a cold stabbing
pain penetrated him from the back.
The high cardinals were carrying through with Orren's final wish, to
destroy the city and all those who lived therein.
One of the archers shot Boyce through the back with an arrow, from a
cross bow.
Tucker led a charge of the cathedral forcing the guards to withdraw
into the chapel itself.
Empal ran to Boyce's limp body and pulled the arrow out, breaking off
the point.
Cavander soon came along after seeing, from the blue Mansion, that the
fight between his master and the Cardinal Orren was over.
He helped Empal take Boyce back to the blue Mansion, leaving behind the
two warriors' battle helmets and swords, and the three birds that
picked at the flesh that was once part of the living Orren's arm.