Chapter 2 Hargreaves and the Sorceress of Haaland

Serenity Negrasario, the infamous Oracle, landed on a balded field devoid of vegetation cover at the fringes of an extraterrestrial planet called Martian, Stirring thick red earth, like a scene at the wake of a rocket launch and remained there, lifeless, like a petrified tree trunk until every single grain of dust settled down.

Minutes later, the protective scales on her body began to fall off, blooming into the full blow Sorceress that she was. At the end of the ritual, she gracefully stepped away from the debris with her eyes prowling the spooky surrounding.

For the first time, she heard the whiff of wind blowing. The Sorceress stretched out her two hands and scooped some and brought it closer to her mouth and speak into it. From the right-hand rises an adorable genie. She was delighted at seeing another being of her kind for the first time after thousands of years, she then names it Voithós.

Again, she opened the other hand and a great horned Owl in a metallic blue plumage emerged from it. Its heavily feathered feet leapt from her hand and flies around, test running its broad wings.

"Come here, Kaur," commanded the Sorceress. Kaur glided down and perched on her right shoulder. Serenity quavered some strange words to the bird of prey and set it free again.

An hour later, Kaur winged back to its owner with a ticky-torch and a wet piece of clothing, clamped in its beak. Voithós leered at her mistress triumphantly and serenade into her ears saying, "life at last."

Seven hundred and thirty days into her hegemony, Serenity Negrasario called on her companion and said to her, "Voithós, walk with me to the confluence of the three rivers; I want you to witness the birth of a new dawn firsthand."

The flamboyant Sorceress led her to a heap of gemstones, weighing about a billion pounds and pointed at it with her sceptre and said to it, "fashion out yourselves into an upper-crust castle for me, of which none of its kind has ever existed anywhere in the universe." Voithós and Serenity Negrasario pulled back and watch the Blue diamonds, Jadeites, Pink diamonds, Red Diamonds, Golds, Taaffeites,

Serendibites, Grandidierites and the Black Opals rise and begin to take shape in bright twinkling pixie dust. All of these were bounties collected from the innumerable kingdoms she has invaded on her newfound planet. She was feared by these armies and she continues to take on them, one after another until she wipes out all but twelve of such kingdoms.

Now the remaining twelve, for fear of toeing the same clueless path that led to the annihilation of other kingdoms, came together to defeat their common enemy, the ruthless Sorceress, who will stop at nothing until she wipes them off their beloved world together with their children and their history. Serenity Negrasario then called on the three wise men from her legion who were carved out from the waters of the three rivers but has been awarded a permanent human body for their loyalty to the Sorceress and said to them, "I give you my blessings to lead the offensive in what promised to be the last battle of supremacy against mortal men. I shall be with you all the time to offer you support and guidance." She said and then dismissed them with the wave of her sceptre.

At the battlefield, Zuma sat on a white unicorn with a venomous snake at its tail and another in its mouth, all kitted in a golden breastplate.

Zuma held on his right hand a flaming sword and on the other, a black totem, bearing the symbol of a never-seen-before horned beast.

At his rear were simmering aqueous beings. The ones at his far left are brilliant blue liquid, taken the form of archers, and to his far-right is steaming waters, moulded in form of chariots and mounted by female warriors with heads of Lions, wielding Partizans. They are so huge and dominating that they could flatten thousands of Himalayan chains of mountains in seconds and make it look like it has never been there before.

They spread from horizon to horizon; to the left and the right of Zuma, the Field Marshal.

They were impatient, making a deafening sound like a splash of waves during a terrible storm, waiting to be given the order to go forth and cause collateral damage on the helpless dwarfs lined up before them.

The Empress and the Oracle, sat before a crystal liquid, together, they did not only monitor happenings on the battlefield but also controls it.

At the order of Zuma, a horn was sounded, creating a quake-like vibration on the ground, signalling the beginning of diabolic warfare. The aqua army flowed in a powerful current and then rises high in a wall of waves before pounding down on them, drowning their victims and dispossessing them of their weapons. The souls of the dead were carried along with the aqua soldiers where their spirits are interred temporarily.

Touch, not the kings, Zuma," warned the Empress, "their souls belong to me."

She hailed her army for a spectacular show of force with a thunderous voice saying, "well done! But there is one more thing that I would like you to do for me before you go to rest: "split yourselves into three groups, each group will take four cities of the twelve Kings; move into these cities and flatten them, but not before looting them of their valuables; living no traces behind that will indicate that humans have once upon a Time lived in this place.

Zuma in turn ordered his two lieutenants: Dashe and Viafiang, to go to the west, and the other, to the east. "I will take on the four cities to the north; we all have seven minutes to wrap up whatever chores have been given to us by the Empress within the stipulated time and converge at the same spot."

Zuma and his men climb onto the valleys of the mountains of death and then falls from the highest peak in a huge cascade. They rattled through the wild, knocking down trees and boulders standing in their way and went into the city they came in contact within in a hostile manner and plundered it, sweeping away coffers', chests of precious stones and metals stored by the wealthy, including the ones buried beneath the earth.

At the western end of the campaign, Dashe was met by stiff resistance from Woulf, the second-largest kingdom on the Martian planet that boasts of a number of its citizens like the Sands of a dune in a desert, where dark forces also abound.

The guardians of this city compelled the sky to produce a cumulonimbus cloud, rendering the city dark and impenetrable. Seeing this, the Sorceress of Haaland countered the opposition by creating two giant men in the image of a thick white cloud. One came from the east, and the other from the west and they met at the centre of the Martian sky. They hitched mighty chains to the thick layers of clouds and pulls them apart so that the sky regains its light. "Carry on!" Bawled the misty men and then fades away.

The army of Haaland tried another vicious attempt to penetrate the city of Woulf but was again barred from it by a howl from a strong sand storm, carrying strange images of beings never seen before with their shields and spears and blew away the Empress' war machines; beaten and forced them into retreat.

"Is that so?" Retorted the Sorceress "Since you refused death the simple way, you must accept it the hard way. Wait and see if you can handle this."

She ordered the withdrawal of her regiment and then cause outer space to vomit thousands of cosmic dust and blanketed the entire kingdom of Woulf.

Lastly, the mission with Viafiang saw him drown a whole city until the highest rooftop was submerged in water before solidifying it into a massive iceberg.

Empress Polyandry Negrasario, the Sorceress of Haaland received the victorious army outside her celestial Castle and celebrate them by temporarily turning them into humans.

"Zuma," she said the Empress, "bring forth the twelve Kings and let them stand before me."

In a ceremony that lasted five minutes, Zuma arraigned them before her majesty seated on her glorious throne, fully dressed in her royal regalia and a sparkling crown of hallow on her head.

Her assistant, Voithós was at hand, sitting comfortably on a virtual chair.

"Let the ritual begin," announced the Voithós. The Empress rose to her feet and approached the twelve Kings. Between her and them was a golden kettle named, Tuulu, placed on a raised platform. She then stretched out her Sceptre towards them and begin to chant incantations. Her eyes turn into blue flames and her body transformed into a blazing fire. In one last gasp of a spell, she cursed the twelve and banished them to the underworld where they will lead other twenty Kings and their subjects to oversee the ambitious projects of the Empress of building a sophisticated world where she intends to make it her operational headquarters to take over other worlds whose technological capabilities are second to none and conquer them to further expand her territory to other worlds.

"Go forth and make me proud; manufacture the best of all weapons that could send shocking waves to whomever I decide to fight and stamp my authority in that land." She coroneted seven out of the twelve Kings to command a powerful army of the seven tribes. Two others were to head the air and the Navy. The remaining three are to head the departments of aeronautical engineering and space science, Education, Technology and future architecture.

After the apportioning of duties to them, the golden Tuulu begins to rattle as if it were going to fall off the platform. A strong tornado swirls out of its nozzle and begins to extract the souls of the kings out of their bodies and into the Tuulu until the last corpse of the King fell before the Empress.

"Flawless!" Said the Sorceress as she gradually returns to human form. "I am now the God of the Martian Planet!" She declared in a bold statement, and all living things gathered before her kneel and chants: "all hail the God of Martian!" Except for one important person who refused to kneel.