Chapter 1 Deadly Buffet of Forbidden Fruit

At the time of this occurrence, the human race was in its early years of existence and therefore, not anywhere near the era of civilization.

It all started at a weirdly expansive cluster of a Neanderthal settlement built tough in form of a maze to make it unattractive to the wolverine race, who once in a while visited the enclave with unrelenting assault. Today, their unyielding effort compensated them. The recalcitrant tribe broke the near century-old jinx by accessing the city.

On a routine patrol, Serenity Negrasario, the Oracle and spiritual guardian of the kingdom of Oud hover in the moonless sky like a Cirrus cloud just above the tallest building in the city near a wall bordering massive pathless forest where the enemy always launches its attacks from but saw nothing.

Away from the security hot-spot to the western entrance, where it was least expected to experience any form of security bridge, Serenity Negrasario noticed something out of place; guards that usually keep vigil at the entry barrier had deserted it, and the scene, quiet like a necropolis. She took a closer look at the situation and decoded a foul play.

She left where she was and comes to rest on the doorway like morning dew and barricaded it from the outside and then filtered through the edges of the gate and embarked on a trail of the possible intruders that may have compromised the safety of the city placed under her care.

To make the task easier for her, Serenity Negrasario sliced part of her with a sword of cloud and dispatched it on an errand to the residence of the strongest man in Oud.

The screaming silence that befell the city was alarming.

"Where have the city's ferocious canines that usually barks all night gone?" She asked herself. But a scene just beneath her answers her question. While a few unruly Barbarians throw around poisoned flesh on the street, scores of others kill and loots their victims silently.

The guardian of Oud took them unawares; knocking them off, five at a time with an invisible weapon.

Meanwhile, the delivery entity sent by Serenity had delivered its message in record time and its recipient was out with his men advancing full tilt towards the city centre but subsided in momentum on hearing whack noises coming from the Barbarians.

"Gilliad," said the commanding figure to his subordinate, "go with the rest of the team to the southern end of the city and comb it northwards, we shall meet at the city centre.

Now left alone in the thickest of darkness, the strong man of Oud has already fixed his sight on a huge Barbarian, heavily armed with a spiked ball and a sword and trailed him into a house he has entered to steal before decapitating his head.

From there, the warlord went on a killing spree, slaughtering the remnants of the thieving clan, leaving the streets littered with corpses, with the heaviest casualty coming from the marauders.

The Sorceress saw the warlord, Mariopole Barnaby at downtown Oud and saluted him even though what he saw was a ball of cloud, he recognized it was the voice of the undercover agent.

This uncommon feat was too large to go unnoticed by his imperial majesty, the ruler of Oud, Emperor Horowits Bachittar, who serenaded the nightwalkers with glowing tribute.

In the early hours of the next day, a roving soldier, who thought himself the bravest, caught sight of a teen right in the act of pilfering from a Barbarian corpse and hollered at him, "lad, drop those, they don't belong to you." The boy replied the guard tauntingly saying, "neither do they belong to you, soldier."

"How dare you talk to an officer of the law like that, you little filth; come over here and identify yourself!" The young man went about his business, not minding his bully. He hastily cut off a locket and a charm bracelet laced around the neck and wrist of the Barbarian before dicing off his hand, a finger carrying a signet ring that refused to come out and ran off as quickly as his permits him with the thick watchman thumping after his heel in hot pursuit. "Hey," he yelled, "come back here, am not done with you yet." In a desperate bid to shake off his pursuer, the bohemian scaled over a nearby perimeter fence with an Olympian capability and dashed across a colony of shacks in a tearing speed and tucked away neatly into his father's house.

The bulky serviceman arrived at his victim's homestead and paused at the door to catch his breath hoping that his prize comes out.

After a long wait, the lance man ran out of patience and couldn't endure the wait anymore, so he bleated: "produce that son of a bitch that ran into this house or risk the re-occurrence of event that took place on a day like this, ten thousand BCE." His utterances were so tempting that the landlord rose to the bait and said to him with a blistering voice, peppered with anarchy: "the son is not here but the bitch is around; come and get me if you can!" It was the voice of the father of his victim. Shivers ran through his spine in anticipation of the incivilities that may follow. But the soldier reinforced himself with more courage and said to him, "do you know what? Your problem is that, try as much as you can, you have no talent for lying. Release the nincompoop to come and atone for his sins."

"You are going to need serious therapy by the time am through with you, I warn you!"

"What are you waiting for, pumpkin? Walk your threats!"

The landlord rose to his feet and sat back again, his behaviour seems rather primal and animalistic. The intensity of his anger intensifies from powerful to overwhelming, transforming into explosive violence. He got his backside again off the ground and swung into action with the grace of a chimpanzee. In a lightning swoop, the man snapped a medieval sword hung on the wall of his lair and drags it on the concrete floor so that sparks fly in an excessive demonstration of raw might.

"Talk is cheap," he said, "but action is priceless." To prove to the visitor that his threats were not empty, he flung the barricaded door open and brandished the serrated sword at him saying, "prove to me that you are not a bush meat, soldier."

On realizing it was Mariopole Barnaby, the front row warlord of Oud, the obese guard proved to him that he was not a sacrificial lamb. This, to him, was like encountering a pride of lions in the heart of a jungle but somehow managed to escape. Such incidences arouse every nerve fibre in anyone's body in a brief wave of terror. On seeing the blood tasty knife about to be trusted in his direction, the soldier vaulted into a nearby thicket and never came back again.

Mariopole Barnaby backpedalled into his house and announced to his son how the supposed defender of Oud ran off like a chicken at the sight of a sword.

"Have you found what I asked you to fetch for me, son?"

"Yes, father," Gory handed his father the trinkets in his possession without hesitation. He then rubbed his son's head with his fat hand in appreciation and pops open the locket. In it, lies side by side a masterfully carved image of himself and that of his deceased wife, Marilyn, who was gruesomely murdered by the Barbarian guerrillas.

Mariopole was approaching the point of shedding tears but quickly assume the tough guy at recalling what he once told his son about soldiers not to show their weak side no matter what the situation they found themselves in, especially if one was a combatant of Oud.

Mariopole mustered bravery to disclose to his son the beautiful image of his mother. Gory gape at it with delight, "it's my mother," Gory confessed.

"Good boy, would you hand them over to me. Mariopole removed the signet ring and slotted it into his finger and the charm bracelet laced round his neck. "I am off to a special do and will be back soon, wish me luck, son." "Good luck father."

An awaiting chariot of four black horses carted Mariopole Barnaby away to greater Oud, the headquarters of his imperial majesty, Emperor Horowits Bachittar.

One sees nothing tens of miles into the melting point of greater Oud where its rulers reside but a grievous peek of cloned human-bull, mounting guard at intervals of hundred metres, enough to throw anyone with the bad intention off balance, even Mariopole the great is not speared the luxury of passing through a checkpoint unchecked. Here, the army is not a respecter of no one; they give in their all to the business of securing the Empire and its people the pedestal treatment. No man hails another, no matter what heroic deeds he does but his imperial majesty. With this in mind, soldiers and none soldiers alike freezes for at least, three seconds in recognition of Mariopole Barnaby, who cruises through a boulevard saturated with onlooker on either side with an escort of hefty horned orderlies en route to the statehouse.

He arrived at a wall of bachelorette at the palace's courtyard and was given a rousing welcome by the palace courtiers and offered a seat beside the angelic Oracle, Serenity Negrasario.

A while later, members of the ruling council begin to trickle out of the cabinet room, an indication that the Overlord will be featuring sooner than later. True to this, the sound of horns was triggered from a by-standing regiment of horn bearers. Everyone, including members of his cabinet, rose to their feet.

Emperor Horowits walks in amid flattering acclaim from his subjects of which he enjoyed every second of the attention.

"Fellow countrymen," he intoned, "I present to you, Mariopole Barnaby and Serenity Negrasario, the defenders of the Empire of Oud, whom I christened, Dooms Day Machines." There was a sporadic clap across the crowed and the Lord paramount paused a bit for it to die down.

"These delectable pair have once again justified to the citizens of this Empire that their abilities to quell uprisings, both within and outside the fortresses was the reason why they were given those coveted positions. Because of this, I found it binding on me to make it a lifetime title to the duo. To qualify for this new office, Mariopole Barnaby must pick a companion from the oversupplied number of Mesdemoiselles. Over to you, Mariopole."

Mariopole Barnaby erected on his feet and cast a stony look on the ever-smiling Rose flowers before him and began an hour-long inspection of a thousand able spinsters in the Empire of Oud.

At the end of the search, Mariopole failed to bring before his majesty a worthy companion. The perplexed Emperor asked, "why?" Barnaby answered: "my Lord, all of the ladies flaunted before me are found wanting in one way or the other. However, there is an angel not in this clique but in this gathering that I found at home."

"Who could she be," asked the supreme ruler. The warlord pointed in the direction of Serenity Negrasario. A wave of exclamation ripples across the crowd.

"You, of all people, Mariopole Barnaby knows very well that the beautiful guardian of the Empire of Oud was designed not to be any man's property, no matter their social rank in this Empire and beyond. Why then do you want it otherwise?"

"Your majesty, only Serenity Negrasario operates at my wavelength; others struggle to attain this standard. Mariopole will be a happy and fulfilled soldier if his majesty grants his heart desire."

To pacify his general, Emperor Horowits Bachittar ordered to be brought before him, the mighty book of the laws of the Empire of Oud and got the clause that offered such immunity to the Oracle from marrying manipulated to suit the moment. Everyone foresaw the goddess of charm and beauty to lose her cool, but to their dismay, maintained it.

The Emperor made a proclamation that will forever change the course of affairs of the Empire. "Serenity Negrasario," he said, "from this moment henceforth, you are now an exclusive property of Mariopole Barnaby, the warlord of the Empire of Oud with no option or rejection."

"Objection, your majesty! Screamed the Oracle in a feat of paranoia. "You and your cabinet lack the jurisdiction to impose such draconian rule on me, the Oracle decides for itself what happens to her."

"How dare you, Negrasario! Challenged one of the key cabinet members. "The Emperor decides who is to have what in this Empire with no exceptions."

The unguarded utterances of the council spokesman once again push further, the entire planet in the Oracle's firing line. "Let's see how that works for you, royal pet!"

The Sorceress raise a clenched fist and bumped it into the ground so that it bounced off like she hit a trampoline. Suddenly, she began to soar heavenward in a cloud, casting a plethora of spells upon the land and continued to do so until the whole planet de-escalated fast into a downward spiral like defecation flushed out of a water closet. All they did was gaze at one another across the great divide of deep space before ramming into the sun to be fried by it.

The Sorceress loved the liberating feelings and then vowed to tear down and take control of any male-controlled world she comes in contact with before setting sail into the unknown.