The clouds in the sky blotted out the sun… or the moon. The time of day could no longer be accurately told be the world around them. The darkness shut out almost everything; sun, stars and moon. There would be odd glimpses of light that may point to it being the daytime, but that seemed to be all. Television sets in a close by shop window stated that the poor weather that had blanketed the city would be over soon. Even so, there was nothing about a dark invasion of monsters coming to an end. Not that it was expected.

The street between headquarters and the target building was bizarrely void of any life. Even the creatures were absent, with the people too frightened to leave their homes for fear of meeting them. Getting through the large glass doors of the building was surprisingly simple. However, Prince Rakond Yusak and Zon Kandon both knew that this did not mean they were able to relax. If anything, the creatures were more likely to be inside than on the streets. Especially since they would likely have been called back to deal with a certain intruder. An intruder who had been an ally moments ago, having now cast them aside in favor of pursuing whatever demented goal he favored.

The two man team walked past the reception desk and past the elevators up to the stairs, which led both downwards and upwards. “Okay, Zon. This is where we split up. You go downstairs and I’ll take the stairs up to the top. If anything, the boss should be at the highest point where he or she can survey the destruction and the production area should be down below, where the public would be most unlikely to discover it before these little bundles of fun were released. Good luck and I’ll see you after we’re done.” Rakond said and with that, he was gone. He had disappeared up the staircase. “Well then Zon, looks like you’re taking the stairs straight to hell, step by step.” Zon sighed uneasily, taking his first step downwards.

Rakond was steadily climbing the stairs, taking great caution with each step, when he heard something akin to someone coming down the same staircase to meet him. He stopped in his tracks and searched the walls around him for an alternative route. The last thing he wanted was a head on collision here. The creature ahead was alerted to a sound. There was a live one. It quickly scurried down to the source to find nothing. Yet, it could sense something living was near and began to call out to its friends. Rakond dropped down from above and silenced it with his dagger. I’m glad that trick worked, he thought to himself. If it had not, it would likely have been over before he had even started.

He quickened his pace, but still kept sound to the bare minimum. The staircase took a sudden change in design, now becoming a spiral to the sky. The spiral stopped at a door and seemed to continue no further. It was highly unlikely that he had already reached the highest point. He carefully opened the door slightly and peered through the open crack. The sight he saw was certainly not what he wanted, but his cover was blown. Several of the creatures inside had noticed him peeking through the opening, a look of hunger on their twisted faces. Rakond quickly shut the door and put his back against it, hoping that would keep it closed for at least a little while. A small ventilation shaft caught his eye. It was not exactly large, but he would be able to squeeze inside. The door would not stay shut long enough, though. He desperately searched the area with his eyes and noticed a pair of doorstops. They wouldn’t work, but they would have to do.

He broke away from the door, grabbed the doorstops and hauled open the grate on the ventilation shaft. One of the beasts swung open the door and let out its spine-tingling shriek-like hiss. Rakond acted quickly and jammed one of the doorstops in its mouth and kicked it back through the door, tumbling straight into the rest of the creatures crowding around the door and causing a domino effect. Rakond slammed the door shut again and rammed the remaining doorstop under it, despite how useless it would actually be there. He capitalized quickly, clambering into the shaft and crawling away from the scene. Once he managed to create some distance from the entrance to the shaft, he began to think about his partner. “I wonder if Zon’s got it any easier…” He whispered to himself.

In truth, Zon Kandon’s path was no simpler. A thud echoed throughout the vast room and silence followed. Zon slowly stood up from behind a crowd of barrels and looked across at a dozen lifeless, bullet-ridden monsters. He briefly looked over his shoulder at the corpses that decorated the bottom of the stairs, all who met the same fate. The arrogant scientist reloaded his trusty rifle and pressed on, stepping over several slimy bodies in his path. “That showed them. You don’t mess with a genius on the edge, it just is NOT a good idea,” He muttered to himself as he cautiously moved forward, the rifle shaking slightly in his hands. “And hey, there’s a point; I’m a genius. I’m the smart guy. You’d think that they’d have locked me in a laboratory and left me there instead of making me do what they do. Those muscle-bound fools, that’s their job. They’re the clear-out team, I’m just the guy that creates the high-tech gear and masterminds the plans. My job ISN’T this, not at all.”

He came upon a door with ‘Employees Only’ plastered on the front off it and quickly found something else to have a moan about. “Ugh, despicable, the people in this place call themselves intelligent? One would have thought that someone with half a brain would have learned that when trying to dominate the very world itself, one should at least not make the important rooms of one’s base of operations so unimaginably simple to locate.” He complained, mostly to himself. He turned the handle and opened it, only to quickly close it once he saw what was inside.

“Right, let’s put this together,” He said to himself for all to hear, his heart thumping in his chest as he readied his rifle. “Employees only door, a large amount of unusual machinery and a horde of disgusting creatures covering just about every corner of the room. The place is very easy to find, unbelievably hard to leave alive. It’s very cliché, but that sounds like what I, in this position, would be looking for.” With no further hesitation, Zon booted down the door and charged in.

It took time, with Zon running around the room in an attempt to avoid harm, but he was eventually victorious. He dashed over to the control console of the machine in the center of the room, which was shaped like a large tube lying side down on the floor and with one end closed off. “I’m pleased I survived that; now let’s make sure there isn’t a round two.” He mumbled as he hammered on the buttons. After searching the system, he found an option that interested him. “Ah, terminate. Sounds like something that may take them ALL out. Let’s go with that one, Zon, shall we?” It took him little time to break through all the passwords and such, quickly finding the command to terminate merely a button press away. As his finger hovered over the keys, a low hiss caught his attention as he slowly gazed up at one more creature crawling down the side of the tube, its eyes locked on the saboteur. He pointed his rifle towards it and pulled the trigger. A click sounded, but nothing else followed. “Great, I’m out of ammo…” Zon groaned. He backed away a little before pulling out the throwing knife from earlier and tossing it at the beast. It screeched in pain. This was all he needed, taking advantage of the distraction and lunging for the keypad. If he was going to die, he was going to do in glory. He pressed down hard on the final button and the creature unexpectedly fell apart, turning to dust.

“Yes!!” He shouted in victory, raising his fists above his head. His victory celebration was short-lived. “You weel come weth me, or you can die that death right now.” A gruff voiced demanded from behind him as he felt a knife being pressed against his throat. The man never allowed Zon to see him, quickly pulling the fearful scientist over to a nearby elevator. Zon saw the man’s hand punch the command to take them to the top floor. He knew well that he was not going to die just yet. He was about to be used as a ‘security measure’… against Rakond.

It took Rakond a considerable amount of time to get through all the detours on his path to the top, but eventually he found himself standing before one final door. The stairs went no higher and there were no other rooms on this floor. This had to be it. The events of the past few days passed through his mind. The constant running and hiding, the lack of rest, having to survive on rations and all of the encounters with their dreaded enemy. Now he was about to face the one responsible. “Here goes.” He said to himself before he burst through the last door.

He stopped in the doorway, gazing across at the unexpected sight. In the center of a large, primarily empty room, was Zon Kandon kneeling before a body of a man. The man wore a white lab coat and certainly looked as if he had died a rather horrible death. He slowly walked towards his partner, smiling somewhat. It was over now, wasn’t it? The one in charge was dead. That may not have been what they had planned, but it Zon had to have done it as a last resort. As the Prince came closer, Zon turned to look at him with a look of worry on his face. “Turn back, quickly.” He almost whispered to Rakond. The King’s eldest son didn’t catch on to the problem until he was nearly at Zon’s side, when the problem revealed itself.

“All this trouble caused by such a tiny stone. I find it… amusing,” The voice of Zallon was unmistakable after having heard it so many times. “A man of such intelligence… drove insane by desire. The lust for power is a corrupting influence, is it not?” The familiar purple-coated figure walked causally around the edge of the room, beside walls not made of stone but of glass. “You speak nonsense, Zallon. Nothing you’ve said has ever made any sense and that side of you has remained untouched by time.” Rakond spat, clutching his family’s dagger tightly. Their former ally still walked beside the windows, looking out at the city below instead of towards Rakond or Zon. They knew better than to think of him as a former ally, though, as this was truly all he used them for; the location of this building and, primarily, the stone he now possessed.

“Prince Karakondus, it is not nonsense that I speak. Although to some, the truth is hard to take. Many write off what is true as the ramblings of a madman, opening their minds to little knowledge and yet closing them to so much more,” Zallon responded, acting as if he were explaining the very meaning of their existence. “I would wager that your mother told you stories as a child. I wonder; how was it for you to wake one day and discover all you had ever been taught by the person closest to you was in fact all lies? Destroying, I’d imagine. You will have no doubt denied the truth, wishing to cover it and hope it all washes away.” Rakond moved over to Zon and checked for any injuries. He was unharmed, but the Prince feared it may not stay that way. “Man ages, matures but still so few can handle the truth. In this case, the truth before you is clear; the wretched creature who lies dead before you was a man who let his dreams of conquering the world conquer him. Though I dealt the final blow, his assassin was not me but instead the very jewel I now possess.” Their power-obsessed foe continued. “One can be blinded by their goal… so much so that they never know they have crossed the line between life and death until the inevitable end. What consumes a man’s life will surely be that which ends it. These past days you have spent chasing down he who now lies still. Your mission is done, but I expect you are not finished. You wish to stop me. Do not deny it, I can feel it. You hope to follow in your father’s footsteps and be the hero, but know this; your path will not end well. There are no glorious victory celebrations, not for fools.”

Rakond stepped away from Zon and closer to Zallon, summoning up all the courage he could find to say what he wanted. The man before him was powerful beyond that of even his father, yet he could not stand idly by as that very same lunatic contemplated the method of their execution. “If that is what I shall be for standing against the evil in this world, then a fool I am.” Rakond stated defiantly. An awkward silence fell upon the room as Zallon came to a stop. Rakond stood his ground, waiting. What happened next would determine how long he had left. If his enemy wished to, he could kill them both in an instant. But would he? Or would he savor the moment, drawing out their demise slowly to bask in the glory of their deaths?

“Karakondus, know this shall be your final stand.” Zallon said as he swung round to face the Prince, his coat twisting in the air and slowly coming to rest upon his legs once again. A hateful fire burning in his eyes as his unblinking glare pierced Rakond like a blade. Yet the same confident but vile and twisted smirk still graced his villainous face. “I hereby relieve you of your future duty as King of our land. After all, no matter how royal your blood, the lifeless shall never take root to the throne. A Prince you will cease to be, for your existence shall continue no further. It is fitting that you who hope to follow his family will fall to a family member. Feel honored, as you shall grace the pages of history as one of many to be crushed by my might… the might of the Legendary Zallon!”

The self-proclaimed legend casually approached Rakond, who stood his ground. The Kazark Prince knew what was going to happen next, for he was no threat to Zallon. He was afraid, but he could not allow himself to back down. His father would never do it… so he wouldn’t either. Step by step, Zallon came closer. Step by step, Rakond felt his time running out.

Then, Zallon stopped. The sound of his brown shoes no longer echoed throughout the room. Something wasn’t right, at least not from Rakond’s perspective. Zallon had stopped and he was still alive. An eerie silence filled the room, soon broken by Zallon himself. “Your son and I were just having a little conversation. It’s interesting what one can learn from a few short words.” Zallon said, his chilling voice running down Rakond’s spine. Wait, son? The young Prince spun round to see his father, standing in the doorway. He was suddenly overcome with the desire to call out to his father in happiness, but the presence of Zallon brought him back to the hard reality of the stand-off. “Zallon, words or not, leave my son alone or the you WILL feel the wrath of the homeland you abandoned. I give you my word.”
“No welcome for a family member? How sad.”
“Leave. Now.”
“Karak, you cannot simply command me away. You should know better.”
“And I do, but as a… ‘family member’ I’m giving you the chance to walk away with your life.”
“Are you going to take it, my brother? Well? I give you the honor of trying, pitiful fool.”
“We are not brothers. We share the same father, but the Yusak family will never accept you as one of our own. You are a disgrace to our land and to the man who brought you into this world.”

Zallon laughed and walked over to the window he paced alongside moments ago. With one swift blow, he smashed it to pieces. Shards of glass fell down onto the city floor, royal blood decorating a few select fragments. “Ah, but Karak, you failed to answer my question. Another flaw of yours… dodging questions which you cannot answer for pride’s sake,” Zallon mocked. “Though I should alter my question and upon our next meeting, I shall ask you it once more; CAN you take my life? The task is great; perhaps greater than even the beloved King of our people could ever live up to.”

There was no reply from Karak, who merely stared on as Zallon leapt out of the broken window and out of sight. The half-brother of the King escaped, trophy in hand, but it would not be the last of him. Karak came up beside son, relieved to see him relatively unharmed. “You have made me proud.” Was all he said, yet it was more than enough to put a smile back on the Prince’s face. For the first time in days, he could be happy again. Not only that, but for the first time in days…

…the sun shone in the sky once again.