Episode 28: Standing In Style

Fheniz summoned Griswa, Yesdar, and Malaes with a sense of urgency that was palpable even from within their cave home. The trio rushed outside, hearts pounding with a mix of excitement and anxiety. As they stepped into the open, they saw Fheniz hovering in the air, his expression grave and eyes blazing with intensity.

"Fheniz!" Yesdar called out. "What's happening?"

"No time for questions!" Fheniz's voice echoed with authority. "Follow me immediately. We can't afford to waste any time."

Malaes, eyes wide with concern, looked at Griswa. "What do you think it is?"

Fheniz turned north, flying with a speed that spoke of the gravity of the situation. Griswa, knew he could fly too, as he had undertook that as a part of training advancing as a God, yet he chose to summon Ferion, because obviously Malaes and Yesdar couldn't fly. Griswa had bonded with Ferion, mastering the dragon through their rigorous training as a part of Dragon Commanding all these years. He swiftly mounted the dragon, with Yesdar and Malaes climbing on behind him.

"Ferion, follow Fheniz!" Griswa commanded, and the dragon took off, its powerful wings beating against the air.

The trio clung to Ferion as they soared after Fheniz. The air rushed past them, the landscape below a blur. The trio exchanged worried glances, knowing that whatever awaited them, it was significant enough to alarm even their unflappable mentor.

Some hours would have passed in tense silence. Fheniz remained at the forefront, a solitary figure against the vast sky. Yesdar, unable to contain his curiosity, leaned forward. "Fheniz, can you at least give us a hint?"

"Just follow me and ask no questions!" Fheniz's voice was sharp, brooking no argument yet a little inaudible due to the roar of the winds. 

Malaes, seated behind Yesdar, whispered, "Why is he being so secretive? It's not like him."

Griswa, focused on guiding Ferion, said, "I sensed a massive amount of energy when he summoned us. It didn't feel like it belonged to just one person. It was distributed, like it was coming from multiple sources."

"Maybe some kind of enemy force," Yesdar speculated. "Something so powerful that it's got Fheniz rattled."

Griswa nodded. "It feels like a collective energy, Fheniz must be leading us to it."

As they flew, the landscape below gradually shifted from the bright, unending day of the first hemisphere to the dim twilight of the second. This suggested that they were never too far from the night side. But the real shock came when they witnessed the horizon. The sky ahead was a strange blend of day and night, a twilight zone where the light seemed to battle the encroaching darkness.

Emerging from this dim horizon were seven colossal alien warships. They loomed in the distance, their immense size making it hard to grasp their true scale at first.

Each ship was designed like a five-winged ceiling fan, positioned horizontally, attached to the sky as if the sky itself was the ceiling. Their dark metallic surfaces glinted ominously in the fading light, and the closer they got, the more massive the ships appeared—each at least 17,000 meters in length, 13,000 meters in width, and 8000 meters in height. The warships floated ominously, forming a hexagon with one ship at the center, ready for what lay ahead.

Griswa's eyes widened. "That's where the energy is coming from. Those ships are emitting an immense amount of power."

"Yesdar," Malaes said, her voice trembling slightly, "Are you thinking what I think you are thinking, that I am thinking?"

"Yes," Yesdar replied, his face pale. "FHENIZ'S GONE MAD!! HE IS LEADING US POOR CHILDREN TO A WAR!! THAT THOUGH THIS MASSIVE???!!!"

😂😂😂😂😂

"Hehehehe, seems like fun!" Griswa said with a grin.

As a God who wouldn't want to enjoy a fight?

"HUH?! WHAT THE HELL?!!!" Yesdar exclaimed even though he didn't need to panic.

"And anyways I am with you, Fheniz is with you, why are you panicking so much?!" Griswa continued.

"I AM NOT SCARED! I AM JUST NERVOUS! Malaes that is what you are feeling, right?!"

"Nah ah, I meant that I am feeling excited." Malaes replied with the same kind of grin as Griswa.

🤣🤣🤣🤣

Yesdar with a sarcastic smile blending with anger, "WHY AM I STUCK WITH THESE TWO IDIOTS?!!!" 😊

Fheniz descended swiftly, landing on the sandy ground with a dramatic flourish. A cloud of dark dust erupted around him, his long ornate coat billowing in the wind as he emerged, an imposing figure against the stark landscape with a mass entrance.

Griswa guided Ferion down, the dragon's landing stirring up a swirling dance of dust. The trio dismounted, and Yesdar straightened his back with a crack. They stood next to each other, forming a formidable line—Fheniz on the right, followed by Malaes, Yesdar, Griswa, and Ferion.

Their long ornate coats flapped in the strong winds, hair billowing with style. The backlighting from the ships gave their eyes an intense glow, fixed on the alien warships and the dramatic scene before them. The horizon was filled with thousands of towering brown mountains, their peaks numerous and imposing. Above them, the sky was a canvas of brownish clouds streaked with gradient colors of neon, violet, red, green, orange and dark pink lightnings followed by super loud, heart-beating thunderclaps. ⚡

The ground beneath them was a vast expanse of sand, punctuated by distant sandstorms. 

"We've arrived," Fheniz said, his voice steady. "Prepare yourselves. This is going to be a battle unlike any you've faced before."

...

"Oii?!! Why are we standing in style? The situation doesn't even demand that!" Yesdar said with a face filled with concern, but it only made others laugh.

"You know what? You guys are insane! I get that very-very well, but I think I am the one who's gonna go mad! I mean, we were sitting in our cave home thinking or talking some non sense, and out of nowhere, with sudden surprise we are on a battleground?! And that doesn't concern you people even a bit?!"

"Blame your parents." Fheniz replied with confidence, in a simple-tone voice. 🤣🤣🤣🤣

There was awkward silence with only the sounds of rushing wind, suggesting that they were trying to digest the joke, Yesdar's jaw dropped, but then, due to strong winds, some sand went inside his mouth that choked his throat and he had to spit out with coughs. 🤣🤣

"What does that even mean?!!" Yesdar asked, after he cleared his throat as he couldn't make sense of what Fheniz said.

"As long as you are born in the world, life sets you with such uncertainties... yeah so blame your parents." 

Everyone laughed hard except Yesdar.

"THIS IS NO TIME FOR STUPID JOKES!!!" 

"It's you who's stupid, lol." Griswa took part in teasing Yesdar a little bit.

"Okay, enough of jokes, now listen up!" Fheniz demanded everyone's attention. The trio silenced itself and listened carefully.

Fheniz continued, "So, I have fought them before, they are part of the Brighter Dark Army."

"What?!" Malaes exclaimed.

"Brighter Dark Army?!!" Yesdar exclaimed.

"And you've fought them before?!" Malaes exclaimed again.

"Hmm, I thought this energy was kinda strange." Griswa said, adding up to the exclamations.

"Shhh, silence! Let me complete first at least."

"Oh yeah, sorry for the interruption, continue." Griswa said silencing the other two.

"Yeah, where was I? Yes, umm, I have fought them before, here itself, but they are all just talk, they are not very strong as they say. They have tried to invade the planet two times before, the only thing they do is come in large numbers. Every time, they come here increasing their numbers at the most, thinking it's the only way to defeat me. Shitty bastards don't give up, do they?" 

"Okay okay, so they just come in large numbers but are all talk, how large are we talking about?" Malaes inquired.

"The first time they came it was just one ship, I remember it would have been around 100 million roughly, the next time they came in four ships, so 400 million, and now they have come in seven so roughly 700 million."

Malaes and Yesdar's jaw dropped. Malaes was good in math which Fheniz taught her so she was terrified as she knew how large the number was. Yesdar was a sucker at math, so he couldn't even count how big the number was, which made him shit his pantsu. 😀👍 

"SEVEN HUNDRED MILLION!!!!!" both screamed their eyes out.

"Yeah? That's all? Chickened out? I remember when you shared your stories, you said that you wanted to free Aeartha from the Yahunyens, at my time when I was on Aeartha, consider that 50 years ago, I remember the radios and news used to say that the Yahunyen Army consisted of 20 billion soldiers, I repeat 50 years ago.... now what do you think the strength would be in the present? Huh?"

(Fheniz was 10 years old at the time of 'Black Day of Gerwanis' incident, he traveled the lands of Aeartha in search of knowledge for 10 years and he spent the last 40 years on Ehayor, thus justified. He's now 60 years young.)

Yesdar and Malaes silenced themselves to realize the gravity of the words Fheniz spoke.

"Are you ready to say, you can face them?!... Let me tell you one thing, actually am alone enough for them, I don't even need you three, but I asked you to rush here with me so that I could let you get some battle experience, and this is the best chance, you can kick these loafers' asses. They are weak, the massive energy you can sense is because they are just large in numbers, that's all the logic it has. And these morons are no less than Yahunyens, actually consider them, they are the Yahunyens, as they are indeed a part of the Brighter Dark Army." Fheniz exaggerated his speech with hand signs and widened eyes to boost their hormones a little, to give a rush to their blood.

"I guess you are right. We have no right to say that we are going to free our world if we remain so weak by will and undependable." Yesdar said in a tone of both understanding and regret. He also felt a little frustrated as he clenched his fists.

"I agree to that too. No matter what, we'll give our all, if we could help you bring down even one with our strength, we will not back down." Malaes said looking at the ground with fierce determination.

"Don't worry, this might be your first battle on a very great and unexpected scale, but I am going to keep my eyes everywhere, you are worthy allies, so I'll protect you. Now that I realize after what Fheniz said, I can too sense that they are quite weak. So opponents like these, let them be any number, I'll easily, definitely win!!" Griswa said, as his young God blood rushed in his veins. 

"Sure. But I just want to ask you one thing, just for confirmation." Fheniz looked at Griswa.

"I know what your question might be, if I were to fight alone, could I bring down these 700 million enemies by myself?" Griswa replied.

"Indeed." Fheniz agreed that he was going to ask that question.

"Even though I have tried to achieve power control to not let my subconscious take over me, I still have a long way to go because my power might be perfect, but my body and mind ain't, maybe that's why they say, a God can make a mistake too."

"And that's why.." Fheniz didn't complete because Griswa was still speaking.

"And that's why, of course I can bring them down alone... but that's the exact reason why I shouldn't." Griswa completed his answer that satisfied everyone as he looked at the enemies descending on the ground as thousands of orangish tractor beams dropped down from the warships.

"Don't let your guard down, the whole battleground which stretches hundreds of kilometers including the mountains ahead, everything is going to be filled with enemies and enemies only, counting Ferion, it's five against seven hundred million." Fheniz remarked asking them to remain attentive.

Fheniz continued. "Remember what all you have trained, remember your practical, remember your movements, techniques and eventually, remain calm. I understand you might be nervous as it doesn't depend on the strength of the enemy, but lack of experience... yet you'll never give up. In any predicament, either Griswa or me, will save you, but first try to be dependable on yourself, you can protect yourself." 

The trio, now fully aware of the scale of the predicament, stood ready. Their journey, filled with training and preparation, had led them to this moment. The alien warships, the stormy skies, and the rugged terrain with descending of the descendants, all set the stage for the epic confrontation that awaited them. The anticipation of the coming battle hung in the air, thick and electric, as they stood styled, prepared to face the war that was upon them.

"Hey by the way, where's Master Ehayor? Shouldn't he be here to protect his own planet?" Yesdar asked in curiosity.

"Guess he might be busy." Fheniz replied.

"Doing what?" 

"Sleeping."