PROLOGUE; HIS ENDING.
"They're coming." Said Joyous- -The second king.
He was clad in an artistically sewed leather armor and red cape with and a thin golden crown on his head. His black eyes stared into the three figures coming in the distance.
When they reached the one hundred of distance form the kingdom's tall doors, they stopped.
A female red orc with Buddhist clothing and a human male wearing blue luxurious garment walked in the ground. They were the leader of two empires that occupied their three plane world. But the third came leisurely floating on a cloud slightly above them, wearing white and gold colors. A foreigner from the myriad cosmos. He alone subdued the other two empires then came knocking on the doors of the third.
The floating man glanced at the king. But seeing only calm solemness with no sign of weakness, he decided to go through with care.
'I nearly crapped myself.' Joyous thought while showing nothing but the solemness of the crown.
His entourage behind admired him.
"Before anything, my people need to know the terms of surrender so they can know what awaits in their future," Joyous said. Not too loud nor too shy, only enough to show no fear.
The floating man, in gold and white, squinted, but waved his hand, allowing a eunuch to read the terms aloud.
As the words were spoken in high pitched tone, Joyous thought of innumerable plans. Seeking for a way out of surrender. But as he did, his heart sunk deeper and deeper, and by the end, he understood that either they'd fight and be destroyed, or surrender and let the enemy to slowly turn their kingdom into the kind of place they ran away from. But at least then, a seed might survive from the thousands living inside the walls.
After half an hour the eunuch stopped.
Joyous then showed a cheap smile he learned from the first king.
"My friend, I'm afraid not all of us heard it, can you do it again?"
The floating man snorted "I mused you once, we already wasted enough time, I won't do it again!"
Joyous eyes went cold, He had to surrender, but if he took the rudeness of the enemy lying down, his people won't trust this judgment and will go to war in an instant, a basic level of respect is necessary. He opened his mouth
"Now, I'm afraid, my people won't understand unless it's recited two more times." He said and showcased the same punchable smile.
Laughs erupted around him, his people, the ones who got away from the moral laws and absurd traditions from the other empires would fight to the death to preserve their place, they couldn't care less to other thoughts.
The man in gold and white went eerily silent for a moment.
"This behavior won't be tolerated, if you don't get down from that wall and surrender, my people will find less of a waste of time to just destroy and divide what's left from this place."
His words had yet to finish when numerous wills rose high in the sky and birds flew away from the forest around.
The king widened his eyes menacingly.
"Now, you'll do it three times more"
The tension could be cut with a saber. Killing-intent, bloodthirstiness, despair, All kinds of emotions swirled on their chests.
The man in the sky with swaying white and gold robe snorted roughly, making the ground tremble. He was ready to go, then a voice reached his mind and he clicked his tongue in frustration.
"Three more times! We shall do it! if you don' comply then, consider your people dead!"
"AOOOOOOOOO!" The people screamed and their respect for the new king rose once again.
He delayed his ultimate decision again, he knows it's a dead-end, but irrationally he couldn't say it out loud. Joyous sighed inwardly.
*****
'I'm sorry, I've only come to say goodbye.' Thought Lazaro. but he didn't speak.
The morning sun rays invaded the luxury room through the slightly open crimson curtains, illuminating the face of the twenty-years-old sleeping beauty covered in messy silky sheets.
The disheveled haired man looked at her while seated on the edge of the bed with a smile
The calm wind moved the curtains softly as he got up towards the window.
"Seriously? This the way you want to part ways?" the lazy voice came from behind.
The man laughed and sat on the edge of the window, his eyes peered back on the beauty lazily adjusting her face on the pillow to meet eyes with him.
"You were snoring so peacefully that I-"
A soft pillow flew and smashed his chest, taking the air out of his lungs and almost throwing him out of the window.
The old man widened his eyes. "Lily! You mastered wielding something light as though it were heavy!"
She squinted her black eyes. "You were gone for five years, what did you expect?"
At the mention of his plight, he gave a half-hearted laugh.
"..."
"Are you going to die?" She suddenly asked.
For a few moments, only the sound of the swaying curtains could be heard.
The man only smiled gently.
She took a deep breath and turned her back to the bed, bringing her arm to her above her eyes. "I could stay behind with you, then you wouldn't be alone in the end."
His smile disappeared.
"You're the only one who lived through the struggle of building this kingdom with me and Lina. Although young, you're the queen of the beast people. And the strongest after me. Without you, the kingdom will crumble on its own. Don't worry about me I won't go alone, I'll be beside her."
She didn't retort, only moved her arm to hide her eyes better.
"The men of the kingdom will feel relieved when the wanderer who 'helps' women with household chores for 'food' suddenly disappear" She laughed with a trembling tone.
"That wasn't me though."
She snorted at his immediate denial.
Her eyes were hidden by her arm, but a drop of tear shone with the sun's rays of light and went down her cheek.
He sighed inwardly.
fwoosh!
The instincts on the woman ranged alarms on her core and she took a defensive stance. The pillow she threw at him smashed on her strengthened arms. The impact broke the bed under her. Sending splinters and feathers throughout the room.
"Take care." His voice reached her ears, and a letter floated to her hand but she couldn't feel his presence on the room anymore.
She clenched her teeth in rage as tears streaked down her reddened eyes.
"Lazaro, you petty bastard!"
****
The forty years old Lazaro stared at the top window he just left from afar.
The feelings of remorse and guilt rushed through his chest and into his throat, but he smiled in spite of it. He knew she'd be fine soon enough, that was the kind of woman she was.
He turned and walked down the street, his tattered old rags gave him the image of a homeless man but there was not a spot of dirt on it, his weary straw woven sandals leisurely carried him as his golden iris observed his people.
The muscular Orc who should've been getting beaten up by his wife for losing money on gamble was handing over common swords like candy for the passing people.
Lazaro shook his head. Although he was proud of the man's initiative, he felt bad for letting their worries come to such extent.
As he walked down the road, the tenser and warier the people seemed to be, A dark ifrit bolted out of a house, followed by a high elf carrying a sword, they marched sternly. Two races that normally wouldn't allow the other near, were walking side by side. Only in the kingdom of debauchery, such a couple could be seen.
'These two should be annoying their neighbors with lovey-dovey couple stuff by this time too...' Lazaro thought and sighed
"You two shouldn't bother to go to the front gate, the king would never allow his country to be subjugated by another." An aged female dark elf said while sweeping the front of her house.
The ifrit stopped.
"Aunt, king Joyous has already spoken, the kingdom will surrender."
The aged dark elf smiled. "I don't know what the new king said, but as long as the first king; the one who built this kingdom, is not found dead, then this kingdom will stand as it is." She was smiling, she truly believed nothing would change.
The ifrit opened his mouth but closed it when he saw her assured smile.
He wanted to say, that the first king disappeared five years ago, and even if he suddenly appeared, he wouldn't be able to go against a force that subdued two empires without a fight. But he refrained. Why take other's hope?
Suddenly a homeless man passed by them. He looked at the aged dark elf, and his golden eyes shined to her with a smile.
She froze, her broom stopped moving, the memories of five years ago when she followed the young golden-eyed king against the two attacking empires surfaced on her memories again. The death of his loved one as well as the bestial way he repelled the enemy's leaders was etched on her mind.
Now, with the unease in her heart gone, she bowed to the homeless man walking away. "A lifetime of joy for the king." She whispered.
"And an eternity of pleasures for the kingdom." Came the firm answer.
****
The eunuch recited the same agreement three times more, as promised.
And by the end of the third time, came the end of his thinking time, Joyous, who became pale white from disgust, uttered the words. "Open the gates, I"ll go and sign the agreement."
But as sudden as lightning in a clear sky, a homeless man got in between the two sides.
His back was to the invaders while his eyes met the young king's and he smiled. "You did well."
The red orc and blue-robed men on the ground saw a glimpse of gold on the homeless man's face and their heart sunk.
But it was too late to act.
A blue light shone from underneath the homeless man and a circle enveloping the whole kingdom shone brightly
"This kingdom is now yours, make it strong."
The young king, Joyous, looked at the homeless man with complex feelings and as the blinding blue explosion happened, he bowed. and exclaimed
"A lifetime of joy for my king!" The spell light did not allow for more, as he disappeared praying that his mentor heard him.
The kingdom disappeared, leaving only a crater hundreds of meters deep. and the burnt marks of the magical circle on the ground.
The homeless man turned around slowly.
His upper body showed scrawny and debilitated physic. He seemed harmless as he smiled.
The floating man didn't bother with talk, he would beat the creature down and learn where he teleported the kingdom.
"By the will of heaven, I triumph!" The floating man said and
A phoenix burning in white fire emerged atop of him, it was two hundred meters long.
"By the will of mother sea, my enemies will drown!" Screamed the man in blue with three twenty meters tall swords of water floating freely above his head.
"By the divinity will of buddha, I punish!" The Fifty meters imaginary arhat shone on the female red Orc's back
Lazaro smiled. The gold on his eyes turned solemn and the smile disappeared from his face. " By my will, I, STAND TALL!"
"Blasphemy!"
"Immoral!"
"Humpft!"
The world trembled. Storms reshaped the surface of the plane, bright attacks that outshined the three suns orbiting above, blinded every living being near enough;
After two days, what was know as the Three plane world, became the two plane world.
*****
A solitary figure staggered down a lively and colorful forest and lay down beside a tombstone.
Barely breathing Lazaro caressed the name 'Lina' etched on it.
"I-I kept my promise, our kingdom, the land where starvation and misery are not problems is safe. I got to enjoy five years of it, I'm too tired... So I'll go there and tell you about it."
His breath became short and soft.
"I'm tired... "
The light in his blinded eyes dimmed.
'I can finally rest...'
..
....
"You cannot rest yet boy!" A voice woke Lazaro. His wide eyes looked up the chubby old man with dirty clothes laughing and letting the stench of alcohol escaped his lips.
'What is this!? Who's this hobo!? Why are you taking my coin sack you bastard!?'
The dirty old man snickered, "No need to rage, you won't need these anymore. Now, let me fulfill my divine duty HIC"
Before Lazaro could talk. The man raised a beautiful glass of translucid red liquid and tilted the tip to shower Lazaro with it, but he stopped mid-action.
"Wait... Why give pearls, when pigs are satisfied with leftover food?" He mumbled.
'Your mother is a pig! Leave me alone!" Lazaro couldn't move his body.
The man picked up another half-empty glass of murky red liquid and poured it over the unmoving Lazaro
"You'll learn everything from her later, Hic, For now, fuck off."
Lazaro felt an impact on his ribs and saw the clouds passing fast. 'He kicked me! the mothoer***** kicked me!'
The chubby man looked at the tombstone with a sigh.
"I'm sorry little lady, but he showed too much potential to die here. As compensation, your soul will be linked with his through this wine."
Seeing Lazaro falling into the portal. The chubby men laughed and gently poured alcohol on the tombstone.
"As your little husband says; live and let live!"
"HAHAHA!"