smorg30
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| Joined: 04 Oct 2011 |
| Total Posts: 4520 |
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| 01 Aug 2014 01:43 AM |
The patrol slowly made their way through the ashes of Strageath. They found it burnt down when they went to see what happened to the meeting, it appears it was too late. They found many things in the ash. SoManyCancers held up a spear completely made from copper, it was burnt as if it was set on fire but copper didn't burn. McLeet found the words "Hail the almighty Valerianus" written in blood across the back mountain, it did not make any sense. TheDivineBunny walked through what used to be the great hall, and he found a bunch of broken marble. They were busts, he didn't know what of, but they were pieces of faces he did not recognize. The most shocking thing found was 16 sets of bones, scattered around the place. One for each high rank, minus one. FlaviusAetitus worked it out, there was only one possibility. One HR murdered all the others. X~Legion was dead as they knew it.
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X~Legion Sword of the Emperor.
Chapter V
Broken Vows
Written by Smorg30
Edited by Shadow614
This is the end.
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Buck ran outside and into the great hall where he found Goat and Ultra talking.
It took a moment to take in, they couldn't comprehend it even after all the madness that had taken place. Valerianus was getting burned at stake. He was wearing his cloak of flesh, and was tied to a wooden pole. At his feat layed a pile of sticks, waiting to be set ablaze. Shadow filled that need as the others approached. "Oh, my lord Valerianus, I set you free from your flesh body! Be free, and bless our legion with your spirit!"
"Shadow, what the hell are you doing!?" Goat yelled as flames slowly engulfed the wood. It reached his cape, and fire started to bloom on the rotting flesh of their once beloved Imperator.
"My lord asked me to do this, he picked me, a humble servant, to free him of his flesh body."
"This is madness, cut him down!" Buck yelled, but it was too late. The flames had passed the cloak and now Valerianus was aflame. He started to screech, his face controlled by the pain he was facing.
"All hail the glorious Valerianus, the god who burns for the legion!" Shadow called out, but nobody chanted back. The flesh poured off of Valerianus bones as he slowly turned to ash. They can do nothing as Valerianus melted into nothing.
***
When the fire had finally finished its job, everyone was silent. It started to rain heavily, and thunder kept rolling making the sky flash every few seconds. Everyone's head was down, except for Shadow. "Praise the one who burns, praise him! We give our offerings to you!" Shadow called out, and he took out a knife. He sliced his hand off as if it were butter, and blood started to gush out. Nobody even said anything, this kind of stuff was now normal to them. Shadow took his blood drenched hand and wrote on the mountain, "Hail the almighty Valerianus!" When he finished, he said the words himself and smiled.
"This is enough, you've crossed the line Shadow. You burn our god down and you are acting like a drunk monster! Our friend were just murdered, and I charge you with that crime, how do you declare yourself? Guilty or not?" Goat spat out.
Shadow laughed, "Not guilty, and to prove my point I declare trial by combat! Valerianus will prove that I am his servant! I challenge you, with only one hand, what do you say?"
Goat drew his his sword and Shadow his. Shadow attempted to slash at Goat straight off and Goat simply knocked his sword out of his hand and kicked him square in chest and Shadow landed on his back. "Pathetic." Goat said, as he raised his sword for the finishing blow.
"Valerianus, save your servant!" Shadow yelled and suddenly a copper spear went flying straight through Goat's shoulder.
Goat laughed, "Your god missed idiot." He brought his sword up again but suddenly a flash of lightning struck the copper spear and let out a huge light. Goat screamed, but the pain was only for a second, he fell to his knees. Shadow stood up and grabbed his sword. He walked over and raised his sword.
"Valerianus is the true god, and I am his prophet. Now you must die." Shadow slashed his sword down and Goat's head rolled off its neck.
And then there were 4.
***
"So, who killed them?" Ninjaco asked at the NCO meeting. Nobody responded. "Come on, it isn't hard! Someone killed 16 high ranks, there has to be evidence somewhere!"
"We tried to look, but the killer burnt all the evidence down." Lao said.
"But why would another HR want to kill the others in the first place?" Ataphanes said. Nobody had an answer.
"Well, we did find something else. It was only for Praetorian eyes only, but I guess we can show you now." Sporebnb said, as he tossed a scroll onto the table. Vannarz walked over, picked it up, and began to skim through it. "They're war plans, set for after the anniversary." He noted.
Achilles sighed, "Maybe one of the High Ranks was working for the group to weaken our forces. They ended the war before it even started."
Felix stood up, "If they did this, then we have no choice. We need to salvage the men we have left and destroy this enemy. We must declare war."
***
They thought there was no possible way for this blood fest to got even more insane, but it did. They all were at a lost of words, again. Nobody saw who threw the spear, or where it even came from. Shadow started praising Valerianus again, but no one was listening. Everyone knew that a god did not kill Goat, and now everyone knew what was already obvious. The killer was still out there.
Buck now knew for sure the killer was Shadow. He had no clue how he set up that spear trap, but however he did it it was murder none the same. He needed to end this, and he needed help. Everyone left Shadow behind outside to his mad chanting, and headed back to the great hall. When they walk in, there were even more broken busts. Nero, Carus, Libius Severus, Numerian, and Probus were now all broken. "This can't be chance that these things are getting destroyed, they must have something to do with the murders!" Buck exclaimed.
"There is enough broken statues for each of the dead person, and one extra..." Alpha noted.
"That must mean that the killer is planning to kill someone else, but who and how?" Ultra said.
"I don't know, but I think Shadow is the killer. He had the influence over Valerianus for him to go insane and he is insane enough himself to commit these murders!" Buck said.
"What about the spear, we all saw he didn't throw it." Ultra added.
"He may have set a trap or something, Shadow already predicted the behaviors of all the other people so why not predict where and when a person would stand somewhere?" Alpha explained.
"We need to kill Shadow, before he kills us." Buck finished, and as the words escaped his mouth a sword went through his chest. Buck looked down at the sword, wide eyed, then he fell to the floor. Shadow stood where Buck was, sword bloody.
"You will do no such thing, no one can kill a prophet!" Shadow said. Alpha and Ultra raised their swords.
"This ends now, Shadow. You've murdered most of your comrades but you won't murder us!" Alpha spat out.
"Murders? The murderer was killed yesterday by Valerianus! How can you be so stupid!" Shadow replied.
"You're the idiot, the evidence of the murderer is here in this very room. Think about the busts." Ultra said. Shadow lowered his sword and stormed passed Ultra and Alpha. He took a moment to examine the statues, broken all over the floor. Then his realization spread throughout his face. Alpha and Ultra went to approach him but Shadow raised his sword again and yelled, "Back, get away you monster! Flee before I have to kill you. Flee in the name of Valerianus!" Ultra and Alpha both looked at each other and ran out of the room. It was obvious by the way Shadow was acting that he isn't the killer, just insane. An insane man who needed some space.
***
Shadow sat down and started to sharpen his sword. He was alone, left in peace. Good, now he had time to think. Of course it was obvious that there was a murderer running about, but he to pretend like he didn't know who he was. He saw the murderer knocking busts over during the time they were skinning BlackPig, but he knew he couldn't confront him there, not with everyone thinking the murderer was dead. He knew about the busts before anyone else, but he didn't trust anyone enough to speak of it. If he accidentally told the killer that he knew the pattern, he would be the next to go. Sparks fell of the metal as Shadow kept attempting to sharpen his bloody blade with one hand. He thought Valerianus was the killer, so he agreed to help kill him but under his terms. He needed to appear crazy so the murderer wouldn't see him as a threat. He knew he was wrong when Goat was speared, and even better he saw the shadow of the man who did it and recognized him. Now all he had to do was finish the job, he stood up and turned around with his sword out. He deflected the blade of the murderer, that was about to stab him. "I knew you would come, I am not the idiot you thought I was. I assume I am the last one, but I will make sure that our numbers do not drop to zero." Shadow said with a grin, as he brought his sword down to commence the fighting. It wasn't a long battle, Shadow showed that he was stronger then his foe, even with one hand. Shadow always watched as people trained, he knew everyone's strengths, and weaknesses, and he used that to his advantage. The murderer jumped in the air to perform a jump lounge, but Shadow side stepped and knocked the sword out of his hands. The murderer fell to the ground, but quickly got up. Not fast enough to escape Shadow. Shadow had his sword against the murderer's chest. "Give up, you lost." The killer laughed at the thought, he quickly grabbed the Commodus bust from behind him and threw it at Shadow's head, knocking him down and making him dizzy. The murderer ran over, and knelt on Shadow's chest with his hands around Shadow's neck. Shadow tried to escape, but it was hopeless. His face contorted and turned blue, and finally he was still. The murderer smiled, stood up and walked away.
And then there were two.
***
War devastated the lands of Rome, without strong leadership they lost raid after raid. They tried to best, and elected new leaders but it was really unstable. The courts of X~Legion were almost as bad of a bloodbath as the war front, with assassinations and civil war. People were power hungry. 70% of the legion was dead, and 10% left to join the other side due to corrupt leadership. X~Legion had fallen, but they wanted to be remembered. X~Legion stood strong for 4 years and it took a cowardly move of killing all the leaders in order to not meet them in battle and lose, they wanted that to be what they were remembered by. A war horse. The men knew that this day was the last, defeat was current, they were holding up at the ruins ready for their enemies. They saw the enemies approaching, and then someone stepped up from the back. "This is not the day we lose, today is the day we get a victory so strong people will never forget it. So pick up your damn weapons, and be ready to fight." It was one of the High Ranks, the one who survived.
***
Ultra and Alpha found Shadow's body. It was only then did they realize that they were the last two, the killer was one of them. There were two more busts broken, Commodus and Constatine II but it did not matter. Alpha did not understand why Ultra killed everyone, but all he knew was that there was no in hell that he was going to die. He was the better swordsman. Ultra looked at Alpha's calculating eyes, eyes that could have easily planned all these murders, and drew his sword. Alpha drew his and took a step back. It was time this ended. Ultra moved force, a quick stab towards the belly and Alpha simply side stepped and knocked his sword back, however Ultra maintained his grip. Ultra tried again and then they were in a blaze of metal and flesh. They were pretty evenly matched, Alpha didn't expect that but he guessed that he must have trained for this one moment, as the killer. They continue the battle and then Ultra finally got a stab in, piercing Alpha's said. He let out a cry of pain, but did not fall. Ultra smiled, this murderous traitor will be easy killing. Alpha and Ultra battled for many minutes a more. They fought for more then their lives, they fought for the legion. Ultra was going full out, but Alpha was pacing himself. This gave him the advantage as he sliced off Ultra's head. He sighed, he had won. He then laughed, he not only won, he survived. He survived the crazy plot of this insane murderer, but then he felt a sharp strike of pain on his side. It was the wound Ultra gave him, it was bleeding out buckets. Alpha couldn't handle it, tears of frustration started forming in his eyes. The murderer had won even now, killing him with a wound! He had failed X~Legion, he only had minutes left.
Alpha sat there, bleeding, pondering about the events of the past few days. He looked around to see the bodies of Buck, Shadow, and Ultra. 3 of his friends, dead. No, only 2 friends. He was not the friend of a murderer. He took a closer look at the statue fragments that sat beside him. It was the pieces of Constantine II, he remembered. Constantine II died in battle, it was quite ironic that the killer also died in battle. Wait, was it? It all made sense now, this wasn't a rash of brutal murders. It was a poetry. Each death related to the death of an Emperor, hence the broken busts. He smiled, but then he thought of something. He was wrecking this beautiful story, he did not have a broken bust yet. Alpha painfully got up, and slowly limped over to one of the busts. It was of Juillian II, who died of battle wounds. Alpha looked down and smiled, I guess this fits close enough. With the last remaining energy, he pushed the bust on the ground and it shattered into a million pieces. He started to smell smoke, he turned around and the hall was on fire. It must be the gods agreeing with his choice. I hope he proved himself to be a hero in their eyes, because he defiantly fought hard for it. AlphaBlackout finally died, after a few more minutes of pain. The fire spread across the fort, eating away any evidence. The last thing Alpha saw was the torch leaning against the doorway, Ultra must have done it. That clever man, that clever terrible man....
And then there were none.
***
Against all odds, the lost Centurion lead X~Legion to an amazing victory. They were fighting outnumbered 100:1, but still they won by a landslide. They cheered as the enemy surrendered, but the celebration was short lived. They brought the burnt Centurion to court, and he was declared the official murderer and traitor to X~Legion, even after he had saved them from certain defeat. The Centurion kept pleading innocent, but the fact that he survived was all the evidence they needed. They gave him a brutal death. First they cut of his hands, the punishment given to thieves. They felt right to give it to him for punishment for stealing their leader's lives. They started whipping him, poking him with spears, but they did not kill him. They put him on a donkey, and carried him around Rome, not even feeding him. Everywhere he went, the people of Rome spat harsh words tried to stone him to death for his actions but the Praetorian did not allow his death. The last spot on this trek from hell was Dmaster's very own house. They brought him inside, and tied him up. They walked outside and then set fire to the the house and left him inside to burn. As the fire were about to reach him, he noticed something on his self. It was a golden bust, of an Emperor. It was Joannes, it made no sense. Who would bother to give him a gift like this, after being named murderer of many? He pondered this as the flames finally reached him, and as the pain finally came to an end.
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And that's the end, who did it? There are many close guesses, but only one is right.
Previous Chapters: http://www.roblox.com/Forum/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=141355214 http://www.roblox.com/Forum/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=141523542 http://www.roblox.com/Forum/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=141651399 http://www.roblox.com/Forum/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=142124449
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