10 The Last Dance of Autumn

I'm sitting on a chair in a blank room.

My hands are tied behind me, my legs are tied for the chair.

Lox is standing in front of me with a cigar in his mouth and a baton in his hand.

The room is dark, there's just this chair and a pile of shit under it.

If I had to guess, I would say it has been a month since I last saw the sunshine.

Or felt the light wind breeze over my face.

The air here is stale, moldy. It can't even be called air. A better name for it would probably be vaporized shit.

"Ain't this beautiful, Shorty?" Lox asked me. He is a quite old-looking bastard, he is of average height and below average IQ index.

"That new pile of shit you made looks just like you. Did you give birth to a kid?" He then started laughing his lungs out.

I laughed too.

And I laughed last.

~Feed, feed, feed~

A voice that I hear for the first time appeared. I felt the urge to plant his head into that pile of shit.

And I did it. My last visitor before him was a rather small humanoid creature that used a hood to cover its appearance. It gave me a blade. Too small to kill, and just enough to cut the rope binding me to the chair.

I planted my heel into the back of his head. He hit the pile of shit with his nose. A pleasurable sound of bones crunching and a shitty *squash* rang out.

While he tried to get up I checked out the little knife I had in my hand.

Button. My greatest friend.

I transformed the little knife into a sword that nicely sunk into Lox's skull. I left through the only door in the room.

'I look like shit, I smell like one. I probably taste like one too. Maybe I should just keep my mind in check. If I always let them loose like this...Tsk, I might lose it.' I whistled a tune and walked down the hallway.

'Why is it always so empty? There should be more guards for a guy that threatened the Imperial family, right?'

"You seem to be pretty lively for a dead guy." I heard Aurelius' voice from behind one of the many doors that could be found in this hall.

"Aurelius, you were a good brother, why did you have to betray our family?" Another voice could be heard. I approached the door and started listening to the conversation inside.

"Heh. You say I was good? I will tell you this only once, and then you die. Our father has never been enthusiastic about me. He didn't even want me to be born, he told me that himself. He was always blunt with me, and when I was younger I thought it was to help strengthen me. But now I know he just hated me." Aurelius opened up to his brother. I couldn't believe what my ears are hearing.

I barely succeeded in stifling my laughter.

He makes my story more tragic and then pouts about his own? What a bitch. I continued eavesdropping on their very private and brotherly conversation.

"You didn't need to butcher half of the family because of it, Aurelius. You could've just vented on father, there was no need to kill everyone's families. You even brought down our glorious cousins, the Kleemans. I was the designated heir to their lands. You know that I was always saying that brothers always share? But it is impossible now because the Empire takes all belongings of convicted nobles."

His brother talked and talked and talked. From asking why he did it, all the way to self-pitying and crying.

Such a weakling.

~Leave, leave, leave~

A voice resounded in my head. I grew angry at the feeling of urge to leave them alone and go harass somebody else.

I kicked the door with my leg. They fell in, poor wooden door.

"Hello. I'm here to say goodbye to my old 'friend'." I scoffed.

"So, you killed Lox I suppose?" Aurelius turned around and said. In his hand was a pair of pliers. The man in the chair behind him misses some nails and teeth. He also has some burn marks on his skin, he has no hair, only one eye and his nose were little more than a hole in his skull.

'Now I'm glad I ended up with Lox.' I thought after seeing Aurelius' brother.

"Yeah, I did. So what now?" I smirked.

"I guess I will have to end your story now instead of tomorrow. It's a pity." He looked disappointed because of that. He took out his pen and asked:

"Shall we go outside to fight, or do you want to fight me here?"

'His weapon of choice is a warhammer. Not very effective in small spaces like this one. Then again, if he wanted to be in SF and then the Imperial Guard he would need to master nearly every weapon available to Pangrasian troops. So it wouldn't surprise me if he was even more skilled with a short spear or a sword.'

"Let's go outside. But no snipers and guns allowed in the mass. I don't wanna go play fairly just to be put down by unfair play." I said.

"No guarantees. You are a dead guy anyway, so what does fair play mean to you?" He smirked.

"It means life." I shrugged.

"Kid, don't forget who he is while bringing him down." The broken man from a chair said.

"And who I am, brother?"

"You are a traitor of your own kin. You are nothing but an Exile of Kin." His brother spat on the floor and said something that one does not hear a lot. It's an extremely private and shameful family business. Exile of kin is a person who completely betrayed and destroyed his own family, personally. There is no place for a person like that. Especially if he betrayed an influential family.

"Well, we'll talk about it when I get back, brother." Aurelius smirked.

After such a delightful conversation we went outside. I expected to see the city or its walls. But all I see is a field with yellow grass.

'We're out of the city. And, as expected, the whole building is underground. Nice. We are at least two hundred kilometers away from the city.' I sighed.

"Okay, ready?" Aurelius asked when we got about fifty meters from the entrance into the dungeon.

"I was born ready to kill." I smiled like a madman and started running backward.

Aurelius thought I was trying to escape and chased me.

"Last time when we fought, you lost Imp. You think you can beat me now?" I started provoking him.

"That was luck back then. And I had just killed a bastard who challenged my authority three days before. So it wasn't nice to kill a wanna-be soldier every day, right?"

"Well, that's a good point." I said while abruptly stopping my backward running and jumping for his head. He didn't expect my move so he didn't stop and got hit by my sword. Actually, he moved his head out of the way so I stabbed him into the part where his shoulder and neck meet, a hit that kills most people instantly.

A gruesome sound of metal grinding over metal and flesh rang out.

But Aurelius only scoffed:

"You probably remember that I don't mind scratches and slight stabs, don't you?"

He then grabbed me for my throat and slammed me into the ground. Air left my lungs as I coughed out a mouthful of blood.

"Hurts, doesn't it? That's how a real man hits, not that tactical way you use. I'm bigger and heavier than you boy. You're out of your league here." He mocked while lifting his hammer.

'I can't move much. Still no air. I'll use this to buy time.' I thought while grabbing a stun grenade I had in a very hidden place. Ouch. I pulled the pin out and threw it in his face while closing my eyes and one ear. The bang disoriented him so he fell backward losing the grip on his hammer which fell next to him.

I got my hearing damaged on my right ear because I didn't cover it on time.

But hey, the Core promised to repair all damage done to me as long as I finish the mission it gave me, so no pressure at all.

I tried getting up, but I fell back at my butt.

'Looks like I'm still dazed from the toss.'

I tried getting up again and this time I succeeded. And so did Aurelius.

He got up faster than me and grabbed his hammer. He forcefully swung it at my head that I had just lifted from the ground.

I rolled to the side. As I did that I noticed that there's some blood dripping from my ear.

'It seems that the damage is greater than I first thought. Not good.'

"HA! If I didn't know better I would guess that you wanted to hurt yourself with your attacks. You really didn't grow for those fifteen years outside, eh?" He mocked me.

I do not like being made fun of. When they use me as a joke, I use them for target practice. But these fucked up centurions are tough as shit. Especially Aurelius who was being abused by his father. Actually, that abuse could be called torture and it wouldn't be a lie.

Aurelius followed up behind me and smashed his big hammer near me a few times. I evaded like a snake. Until I got to a position that allows me to jump up and kill him.

He stopped right before I jumped up and said:

"Nice day, huh. Who could say that it's the last day of autumn?"

I didn't expect this and continued lying on the ground. I looked towards the horizon and noticed that the sun is about to set.

"Such a nice view." Aurelius said. "It would be a pity to stain it with the blood of a friend, wouldn't it?"

I extended my hand and he grabbed it, lifting me off the ground.

"Yeah, it would be a shame. So I was down there for a month, and received a beating for nothing?" I asked skeptically.

"It was necessary for my cause." He shrugged.

"What cause? For what are you fighting, Aurelius?" I asked curiously.

"You wouldn't get it anyway, Shorty. There's no point in telling you yet." He said seriously.

"Why? You think I'm not mature enough? I've seen things that most people here never will."

"I know, I know. But you saw things as they are or will be in the outer space, from a perspective of the Core. Gronos is different in many ways. We do things differently from the Core. The Core is a single country on a single planet, while Gronos has hundreds of variables because nobody is of a single mind." He explained.

"Well, then I guess I'll just have to wait."

I sighed. He laughed and said:

"Actually, I have something that I think belongs to you."

He then pulled a pen out of his pocket.

My pen.

"We tried to analyze its design since it's different than ours. But we couldn't get anything out of it. So I'll just give it back to you." He smiled.

"Well, it would be the right thing to do."

I took it and pressed the button. It transformed into a sword.

"It would not be good if you go back without a wound that would explain how I ran away, would it?" I grinned.

"You know how to hold a grudge I see. Good. But you know, I will be grounded by papa Sebastian for it anyway. He knows my secret."

"Before I go." I said while pressing the button and pocketing the pen.

"Why are you so nice to me? Ever since we met you had it easy on me."

He smiled nostalgically and said:

"Another story for another day."

I laughed.