Crownless Prince

"A Scarab…" Emile repeated under his breath, "how are you so sure?"

"This isn't the first scarab to wash up on our shores. Haven't you ever wondered what destroyed the old Black Gates, what sent them across the desert to the Hollow Mountains?" King Alexander replied.

"It was that?" Emile asked.

"It was four of them… back when we were just kids." Alexander's voice trickled off, he clearly wasn't comfortable talking about the fall of this land.

"Shouldn't we help him?" Emile asked.

"Old Ulmor?" Alexander clarified, "I guess it has been awhile since he's let loose—" Alexander's eyes scanned Emile momentarily, "and you look particularly young… just watch. Trust me."

Emile decided to listen to Alexander and forwent his remaining questions. Instead, he allowed his eyes to cross over the shore and into the ocean until they landed on King Ulmor's figure.

Emile had found it odd that Ulmor arrived at the banquet fully equipped in armor, maybe he knew something about today that the rest of them didn't.

King Ulmor, clad in dark steel armor, his black fur cape ruffled behind him in the wind, like a phantom he flowed across the body of the Scarab. As if it were choreographed, Ulmor barely scraped by each of its claws and narrowly dodged all of them.

Suddenly, the Scarab's single eye began to grow in brightness. The toxic green color illuminated into a neon prosperous and for the first time, Ulmor stood still.

An instant later, a screeching beam exploded from the Scarab's eye and barreled down towards Ulmor. The beam slammed into Ulmor, encompassing his figure in a blinding light.

For a few seconds, nothing changed. The Scarab's blast of energy continued to rain down onto Ulmor and Ulmor accepted it with open arms. The beam faded, but the brightness remained.

Standing tall, King Ulmor remained on the body of the Scarab. His skin transformed into pure brightness. He now looked like a person made of the sun, trapped in an iron suit of armor.

He raised his arm and an impossibly bright streak of light erupted from it and stretched across the sky. With his blade of light, Ulmor dropped his arm and the light crashed down onto the Scarab.

Its exoskeleton crackled as it sizzled, its body slowly melted and liquified beneath the incredible heat of Ulmor's blade of light. Watching from above, Emile noticed the light fade.

King Ulmor's energy dissipated, color returned to his body as his form reconstructed into that of a man. The manifestation of light, the impossibly bright white flames that were King Ulmor dissipated and with the light gone, Emile could see the state of the Scarab.

Separated in two, the Scarab's corpse slipped and crashed into the ocean. A vast explosion of essence replaced the sky and the swarm of white lights that were released swirled down and were sucked into Ulmor's soul.

Then, only the sound of the moving waves remained. The battle was over, but was it a victory, Emile didn't know.

"Ulmor's always been the strongest." Alexander commented from beside Emile, "Come on, let's go congratulate him."

King Alexander placed his palm on Emile once more and before he could react, Emile's shoes sunk into the gravel shoreline.

"That was quite the show!" Alexander yelled across the water.

Meanwhile, Ulmor trudged through freezing water and returned to the shore, the same indifferent expression shown on his face.

"It died so soon—" Ulmor said, "I had greater hopes for it."

"I know, I know—" Alexander hustled to Ulmor's side and, like a little kid, pushed Ulmor's back so he'd walk faster, "but at least you didn't get hurt. I'm sure those old bones aren't what they used to be."

"These old bones could bury you beneath the ocean." Ulmor replied.

"Oooh I'm so scared—" said Alexander, "come on. We have a meeting to continue."

Alexander grabbed Emile's shoulder, hung his arm around King Ulmor and waited for Zegris to join the teleport train. The moment Zegris touched King Ulmor, their scenery changed.

For just a moment, Emile recognized the skyline and found himself on top of the glacier, then a moment later he was standing in front of Victor's castle. King Alexander confidently strode towards the castle's main gates and burst them open.

He vanished once more and disappeared into the castle. Emile waited and stood beside King Ulmor, he wasn't sure if he should follow Alexander or remain by Ulmor's side. Luckily, King Ulmor began to walk into the castle as well.

"Go fetch Willow." He instructed Zegris, who obediently bowed and stormed off to find her.

"Tell me—" Ulmor continued, "what do you think of King Alex?"

"He seems—" Emile hesitated. He didn't know what to say, Alexander was slightly odd, at least, he was very different from Emile's conception of what a King would be.

But he couldn't say that, calling a King odd was surely an offense, but every word he thought of was like that: weird, different, unique, odd, they could all be construed in a negative light.

"He's friendly." Emile decided to go with.

"He's a lunatic." King Ulmor added without remorse, "But he's an excellent king and possesses an extraordinary intellect."

Emile and Ulmor slowly made their way through the grandiose halls of Victor's castle. They walked on velvety blue rugs through pristine white walls. Exorbitant chandeliers hung in every room and paintings of King Victor could be found all throughout the castle.

"He mentioned the fall of the old Black Gates, when he was a kid." Emile brought up.

"Yes—" Ulmor said, "he was just a boy then. The only survivor too. I think he tries to be so kind because he was treated so poorly for so long."

"Why was he treated so bad?"

"King Alexander. He used to be called the Crownless King. A boy forced to ascend the throne during a time of impossible circumstances. When the world was crumbling, what could a mere boy do to stop it?"

"Hated by his people. Ridiculed for the death of his father. Nobody believed in him. Nobody even wanted to try. But he persevered, he abandoned his royal title and joined the military to serve alongside his people. After years of war, he led the final battle to conquer the cave Fallen Sky resides in today. Overnight, he went from a despised prince to a worshiped king."

"I feel like I would be pretty mean and jaded after all that." Emile said.

"I'd be too, but maybe that's why he does it. He tries so hard to be so kind so that the people who belittled him have no choice but to wither in guilt and shame for the way they treated him."

"Do you like him?" Emile asked.

King Ulmor hesitated for a second, then said, "If I weren't a king already, I wouldn't mind serving beneath him."

Emile and King Ulmor arrived at a set of ivory doors. After pushing them open, they found King Alexander laid back, sprawled across King Victor's throne.

"I'm thinking of taking his throne back with us, what do you guys think?" Alexander asked.