Hi Everyone,

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Gravitas

For a long moment it seemed as though time stood still as the intense standoff persisted. From the bewildered bystanders to Gravitas to the two giants, all characters seemed unwilling to break the profuse silence. In their immoral clamor, the depraved hyenas had awoken the sleeping lion, and now he stood before them. At the head of countless scared faces, Gravitas Nerol waited for the two Imperial First Class soldiers to break the hush.

The two giants looked back at him, standing shoulder to shoulder, each with an equally mystified expression. The mangled Jeep that had been thrown was crackling and sizzling on the sidewalk, emitting an acrid stench of melting plastic and upholstery. In the corner of his vision Gravitas was aware of a helicopter thumping over the trees of the park and recording every second of the standoff, the sound of its presence barely perceptible over the roar of the panicking masses in the streets and avenues.

At last the slightly larger of the two behemoths stepped forward, his leg the girth of a tree trunk. Gravitas could see from the insignias on his armor that he was high ranking, not an average grunt of the Imperial First Class ranks.

"Do you remember me?" the giant soldier asked, his voice baritone and harsh.

Gravitas looked at him with repulsion. Over the years he had almost willed himself to believe the soldiers of the Imperial Army were not as monstrous as his memory would have him believe. He let out a frustrated and pained sigh, and for the first time in many years he spoke his native tongue.

"Yes. I recognize you, General Hoff." Gravitas spoke slowly, and drew his gaze to the other, younger, giant. "I don't know you."

The closer soldier nodded his grotesquely thick neck and placed a hand against his broad chest. "It's Lord General Hoff, now. This is Royal Guard Krell Darien. I must say I was not expecting to see you again . . . Nerol."

To this, the other warrior, Darien, looked from Gravitas back to Hoff with an incredulous expression. "This is the Nerol warrior? How?"

"Quiet. Stay on your guard, he is no ally," the Lord General growled, not taking his eyes off Gravitas. "What are you doing here, Nerol?"

Gravitas raised his arms to his sides, and his crimson cloak shifted in the cool air. "This is my home, and you have come unwelcomed."

"Anthem is your home," Hoff called back. "Your people need the help of a soldier such as yourself in this dark hour, assuming you are even half as powerful as you were on Orion. Come, we must speak with you."

"No," Gravitas shook his head definitively. "This is my home, and these are my people. And you are correct, they do need the help of a soldier such as myself. The troubles of my vile native race are not my concern. I am ashamed of my connection to you. Nothing more."

The Lord General was obviously holding back anger as he reached his hands out imploringly. "Emperor Faris has been murdered. His son Vengelis Epsilon wears the Blood Ring now. I suspect he will pardon you of the charges made against you by his father if you come with us willingly."

"Faris is dead?" Gravitas repeated. "Good. My only wish is that it could have been by my hand. I don't know his son, but I would imagine he is hiding in true Epsilon form on the throne in Sejeroreich and letting others bloody their hands in his name."

"My, don't we have nerve." Hoff shook his head, his expression unreadable. "No, Nerol, the high Epsilon is not in Sejeroreich. It might interest you to know that he is here on Filgaia. As such, I entreat you to not act imprudently here."

Gravitas felt his heart rate quicken as this truth crashed over him. If the Epsilon Emperor was on Earth, there were surely hundreds and hundreds of soldiers with him. Gravitas swallowed hard, recognizing at once that his fight would not be a winning one. It would now simply be a matter of how many he could kill before exhaustion set in. He tried not to give in to desperation or panic as he clenched his fists.

"I will be sure to assassinate him for this disgusting treachery."

Darien suddenly joined the conversation, his deep hearty laughter echoing off the buildings around them. Yet as he laughed, Hoff remained steady, never blinking his attention away from Gravitas. Gravitas examined each of their body language, hoping one of them would surrender something to indicate which of them was more powerful.

"You think you can defeat Vengelis Epsilon?" Darien called out with amusement.

"Think? No. I'm quite certain of it."

"Well, you may get your chance to challenge him. He's in this city as we speak."

Upon hearing this, Gravitas immediately turned to the mob of people cowering behind him, careful not to take his eyes off the two giants, and roared out in English, his voice barely carrying over the tumult of the surrounds. "Get out of the city! Now! Swim if you have to!"

The mob did not need telling twice.

As though his words had the effect of a starting whistle, bedlam erupted around the three otherworldly warriors. Men and women scattered. As people rushed by him, Gravitas saw that some were clutching the hands of petrified children and pulling them practically off the ground as they fled the bizarre standoff and joined the thundering stampede of an exodus. He tried to phase out his surroundings, to focus on his actions; he could not allow himself to consider how much Ryan Craig's world would never be the same—at this moment these people needed Gravitas Nerol. Hoff smirked cynically at Gravitas as the plaintive horror rose to a deafening pitch around them, as if the terror was proving some sort of point he was trying to make.

Gravitas narrowed his gaze dangerously at the giant Lord General. He knew the mindset of these soldiers. They saw this display of fear only as a pathetic weakness. The evacuation around them was due to a lack of resolve, the lack of will to fight as mere cowardice despite their incomparable superiority, even the carrying of children was scorned as a coddling indulgence to these deluded minds. The two soldiers before him had likely never been the recipients of a kind act in their entire lives, never been shown the keystones of morality, fortitude, and respect. Since birth these giants had been used and manipulated by those more powerful to be mere blunt instruments—unthinking weapons of war. Despite the awareness that it was not entirely their own fault, Gravitas realized he truly hated them for their ignorance. He also realized Hoff would not be the first Lord General to fall before him.

If the emperor himself was indeed in the city, it did not bode well for his chances. The emperor never came along on extraction operations. What possible reason would he have to come all the way here? Gravitas shook the thought from his mind. It did not matter. The new emperor would fall unceremoniously alongside his brutish ranks, or Gravitas would die seeing it attempted. Gravitas calmly untied the knot to his cloak and let it fall to the pavement. This was about saving these people, but as his cloak shifted to rest against the ground, Gravitas knew it was also about revenge. He was finished with words. As the cloak fell from his shoulders and revealed the ornate glimmering Imperial First Class armor he had been given when he was sixteen, he cast aside the cautious intellectuality of Ryan Craig and allowed the raw adrenaline, the sheer competitiveness, and the absolute fury of his warrior side to spill through him.

"I would be following them if I were you. Run and hide like these pathetic fools. I've beaten sons of Royalty before. Skinny, small, like you are," the Royal Guard Darien called. The giant began to pull out a ship remote from within his armor, perhaps to call for reinforcements.

This, Gravitas could not allow.

Without a trace of warning Gravitas erupted toward him with dizzying swiftness. Before Darien could even flinch, Gravitas buried his fist into the giant's face with a connection that reverberated through the city like a crack of resounding thunder. The Royal Guard launched backward as though he had been shot out of a cannon, tumbling and flipping down the length of the avenue. The ship remote fell clattering to the pavement and the screen shattered at Gravitas's feet.

Gravitas Nerol turned to the Lord General of the Imperial Army.

"You don't want to do this. There is too much you need to hear, Nerol!" Hoff warned, talking fast. "Sejeroreich lays in ruin!"

"And now so does Chicago because of you!" Gravitas said, "And this city is doomed too if I don't intervene, is it not?"

"You don't understand!" Hoff spat.

"Stop talking and fight an equal for once, coward."

"Coward?" Hoff screamed, his face turning beat red. "Bronson Vikkor was my mentor you little snake! I'm going to enjoy beating you to death in his honor."

"You're soft from preying on the weak," Gravitas said with cold fury. "Come. Try to rival a fellow predator."