'I'm sorry, everyone… but… I have to go now…' Ashikunz was running towards the Earth while looking at the ground.
"Have you found him yet?" asked Garwhole to Leobruns and Litzawul.
"No… where did he go?" asked Litzawul, shaking. Leobruns, noticing his way of acting, positioned his hand over Litzawul's shoulder.
"Don't worry, I'm sure he's alrigh—" Leobruns couldn't even finish speaking before someone with a red armor and a spear passed right next to them.
"What's that?!" asked Litzawul, surprised, as he had never seen anything like that. Leobruns and Garwhole exchanged a worried look, as they knew well what that armor was.
"Was that…?" asked Garwhole, already knowing the reply as he noticed Leobruns's face becoming darker while he looked at the ground.
"The necrotic armor…" pointed out Leobruns. He was the one who took that from the race that gifted it to them.
"What is it?" asked Litzawul, scared, now knowing what had just happened.
"I still remember it well…" Garwhole, as someone who was around five thousand years old, could clearly remember the moment that armor was gifted to them. "And the one who took it…" Garwhole couldn't even return to look at Leobruns before he made a long sprint directly next to Ashikunz.
"Ashikunz?" asked the Krukin as he was running next to his brother. Ashikunz raised his head and noticed that while he was running, Leobruns had reached him.
"Go away… I have to go and end these humans," said Ashikunz with a cold tone. 'Legs, don't leave me now…' While walking on four paws, Leobruns was able to become faster than Ashikunz and positioned himself in front of him, blocking his path.
"Why did you decide to wear this armor, Ashikunz?!" yelled Leobruns in anger. "The war was going well! The humans haven't attacked us directly in multiple years!" Leobruns kept shouting, but Ashikunz, hearing his words, simply shook his head.
"It's a war… and as a war, it has to end with a winner…" Suddenly, Ashikunz positioned himself in an attacking pose with his spear pointing at Leobruns's body.
"Leobruns!!" shouted Garwhole, as he was the first one to arrive. Litzawul was slower, but still tried to reach them, even if it would take at least half a minute for him to arrive there.
"Ashi— Ashikunz…" said Garwhole as he landed on the ground with his hands over his small legs while breathing heavily. "Stop… we can still remove your armor from your body… you don't have to do all of thi—" Garwhole could barely finish speaking before Ashikunz slashed his spear towards Garwhole's wings, sending him flying away for multiple meters.
'Already all this strength?' Leobruns now gritted his teeth in fear. 'I knew it upgrades your physical stats… but did they already become this much stronger?'
"Can't you listen to me?!!" shouted Garwhole. Ashikunz simply turned towards Leobruns and pointed his spear towards him again.
"He can't!" shouted another voice that arrived. Everyone turned towards it and saw Rhihamr. "This armor makes everything you believe at least one hundred times stronger… because he wanted to kill all humanity, his feeling has become almost impossible to contest!"
'Almost impossible? Well, then there has to be a way to make him listen to us…' Leobruns now positioned himself in an attacking pose, too.
"I swear I'll make you come out of this, Ashikunz!" With that, Leobruns rushed towards Ashikunz by making a high jump; he was currently falling on top of the other Krukin by going at an extreme speed.
"I can see your movements without any problem…" whispered Ashikunz before passing under Leobruns like it was nothing, and he gave a small hit with the back of the spear to Leobruns, who wasn't even wearing his armor now.
The spear was able to send Leobruns flying multiple meters away; in fact, he crashed against Litzawul, who, not expecting that, was crushed against the weight of Leobruns and spat some blood in pain.
"Ash… Ashikunz…" said Rhihamr as he was able to dodge Leobruns's body and was currently behind Ashikunz while breathing heavily.
"Phocylides just tricked you! You were never supposed to have this armor! It's too dangerous!!" shouted Rhihamr, but Ashikunz gave his back to Rhihamr once again.
"Thank him… I'm grateful that he gave me this power… I'll return only once this war is completely over…" With that, Ashikunz began to walk again. "If you can't end this war because you can't go into the desert… I'll take the weight of ending this war… just wait for me." With that, Ashikunz kept walking until he disappeared on the horizon.
Rhihamr, who didn't know what to say, simply fell on his knees… "I don't want to lose you, Ashikunz… I don't want to lose anyone anymore…" In complete anger, Rhihamr smashed his fist on the ground. "This war has lasted for too long… when will it end?"
The armor had now completely taken over Ashikunz's wishes, and he was currently running on the Earth searching for the desert.
"I have to go… it's the only way to finish this war…" Now Ashikunz had a clear goal in mind: to go and destroy a city.
As he kept running, he arrived at the end of the mainland, and that is where he noticed a city that had risen nearby the mainland. Ashikunz had started to spy on it, and the night had just fallen.
'Let's see… there are countless cities, but only three are the most important ones…' During this time, Yalemba had yet to rise, and so there were only Therya, Skar-Zhul, and… 'Karyuz…' Ashikunz finally remembered the name of the last city.
"The first city that I'll attack…" Ashikunz took some steps and arrived in front of the river between the desert and the mainland; he was currently breathing heavily, as no Krukin had ever taken a step into the desert.
"Will it be alright?" Ashikunz in fear had started to walk through the river, and he could already feel the strength leaving his body. 'It hurts…' Ashikunz felt like his new skin had begun to burn; in fact, the moment his whole body was in the desert, he immediately fell on the ground in pain.
"ARGHHH!!" yelled he. 'It hurts… it burns…' For Ashikunz, it was like he had already been put in an oven of a really high temperature; in fact, even if it weren't like that because the armor was protecting his body, he would have already turned into ash and he would have disappeared.
"It hurts a lot…" Ashikunz, still laying on the ground, looked behind him at the mainland and he remembered how well he was doing; his skin wasn't burning, and it didn't feel like his own blood was slowly melting.
'I know that it isn't happening thanks to the armor…' whispered Ashikunz. He knew well that as the armor removed the main weakness of the creature, he wasn't actually melting. 'But the pain is there… and… arghh!!!' Ashikunz kept feeling countless other strong pains; it was like his own blood was being pulled away in multiple directions, it was like his own organs were being thrown into the lava and then positioned back into his body.
'But…' Every time in Ashikunz's mind the thought of going back returned, the armor fought back this urge with the thought of destroying humanity. 'I can't back down now… I have to resist this pain…' Ashikunz looked at the walls of the city; as it was night, there wasn't anyone nearby, so no one was seeing him crawling on the ground.
'I'll arrive soon, Karyuz… I swear I'll turn you into ruins…' Ashikunz was able to arrive in a small cave, and right before he was about to enter, the whole night had already passed. In the ten hours since the sun had set, Ashikunz had only been able to make 5 km, and the moment the sun rose, a ray of light was able to hit Ashikunz's legs, and that was when he felt a huge pain all over his body.
"IT'S SO HOT!!" shouted he before, with the last strength remaining in his body, launching himself inside the cave. As his body smashed against the rock, Ashikunz spat some blood.
'I feel like my stamina…' Ashikunz, who couldn't resist anymore, had slowly started to close his eyes, 'has been completely drained…' With that, the Krukin lost consciousness, as the last bit of stamina remaining had been consumed by that last ray of light.
A full day had passed. Ashikunz had woken up when the night had fallen, and he found himself with the pain still hitting his body, but it now had become supportable.
"For how long was I asleep?" whispered Ashikunz as he could finally walk on his feet without any problem. The moment he came out, he felt another huge wave of heat crushing against his blood and organs that made him fall on his knees.
'I can resist for longer… but…' Ashikunz tried to slash his spear forward, but because of the movement, a huge pain rushed all over his body.
'I don't have enough resistance…' Ashikunz glanced back into the cave, and the moment he entered, he began to slash the spear forward against the rocks.
"I don't care how long it will take… I'll come out… and destroy humanity…" Driven by this wish, Ashikunz spent the whole night slashing the spear against the rock. 'It hurts… I'm sweating so hard… it feels like my own blood could explode at any time…' Ashikunz was in constant pain, but there was a reason why he never backed down: his wish to destroy humanity. In fact, the armor with the wires that were connected directly to his brain kept sending multiple impulses to keep going, to make the Krukin remember what he was fighting for.
'How many days have passed?' Ashikunz looked at the sun setting in front of him. He had spent the last two weeks training inside the cave. As he walked outside into the desert, he could still feel the pain hitting all over his body, but he had learned to resist it; he wasn't falling on his knees anymore.
'It still hurts…' Ashikunz now looked at the walls of Karyuz with a serious expression. "Tonight… I'll conquer you." And so it was. The moment the night arrived, Ashikunz arrived in front of the city, at the main entrance.
"No guards?" whispered Ashikunz with the spear in his hands. "It will be easier than I thought." In complete anger, he kicked the door with a lot of strength and the door collapsed.
"Meh… I wonder why nothing important actually ever happens," said a guard to his friend. Both of them were in front of the main entrance, and he had just yawned.
"Well, I'm glad we can be inside the walls… at least we're safe from any—" The guard couldn't even finish his sentence before the door behind them collapsed right on them, crushing them.
Ashikunz passed on top of this fallen door. "I already killed some of them…" As Ashikunz walked, he noticed that some blood had been splatted right below the fallen door.
As Ashikunz raised his head, he noticed that some guards were looking at him in fear. "An— AN INTRUDER!! RING THE BELL—" The guards tried to speak to the other guards that weren't far from them, but Ashikunz with a clean rush sliced their bodies in half.
"We have to ring the bell… you try to block him!" shouted a person with a white dress. He was one of the alterids of the city, and his power consisted in making white wings grow behind his back whenever he wanted. Differently than Catripple, who always had them, this alterid could only make them grow on command, and he couldn't throw them to make them explode; he could only use them to fly.
"It will all be useless…" With that, the guards rushed against Ashikunz and did everything they could to stop him, but the moment he killed the guards, the city's alarm began to ring.
It didn't take long before Ashikunz killed everyone rushing at him. The civilians were hiding scared, and even if one time over one thousand guards came to kill him, Ashikunz didn't make even a single bad movement; he made the spells of the guards hit each of their companions, he dodged their attacks like nothing, and the injured guards who talked to the others said that it was impossible to defeat him.
As the night passed, Ashikunz finally found himself in front of the dying Zrelekai.
'I should kill him…' thought Ashikunz in front of Zrelekai, who was barely breathing. 'But he is so useful… I'll be able to…' And that is when a light turned on in Ashikunz's mind, 'to use the same weapons the humans were about to use against us…'
And this was the moment the armor made Ashikunz's wish completely change and evolve: rather than simply destroying all humanity, he would rule them, use these same weapons that humanity was about to use against the Krukin… and use them against humanity.
As the years passed, Ardoris rose from nothing, and the humans that were able to survive the night began to live enclosed, without any freedom of speech, and Ashikunz talked with Zrelekai about the weapons Phocylides had described, the weapons that humanity was about to use.
"There was this weapon that was really common… in fact, it had been created a long time ago… if I remember correctly, it was in 2020… but I'm not exactly sure…" whispered Ashikunz as he tried to remember what Phocylides told them.
"Mhm, I've studied a lot the weapons of this time… what are you talking about?" asked Zrelekai, confused.
"He told us that humanity was already preparing for the conflict against us Krukin… and they had created this weapon that would release a gas that would kill all of us immediately," said Ashikunz. Now Zrelekai looked even more confused.
"Hey, that isn't possible… from what I've read, humanity hadn't progressed that much… and in no record have I ever found them talking about Krukins," pointed out Zrelekai. Now Ashikunz was the one who looked confused.
"What are you saying? Humanity has prepared this war for over 60 years… they did everything they could to move their planet against ours… and if Phocylides wasn't there warning us, we would have been killed," said Ashikunz.
"Mhmm, interesting…" Zrelekai remained silent for a bit before taking a book that talked about the years from 2020 to 2030. "I've read this book countless times… but I've never read anything about this… maybe it is outdated?" pointed out Zrelekai.
"Hey, not to say anything… but are you really sure you can trust this Phocylides?" asked Zrelekai. Ashikunz, without any hesitation, nodded with his head.
"Obviously! It's thanks to him that we were able to survive the start of the war; if we wouldn't have attacked the cities on the mainland, they could have attacked us… at least, that's what Phocylides told us." Now even Ashikunz was looking slightly confused.
"I guess I'll have to search more about this… can I go looking for some books in the ruins of some old cities?" asked Zrelekai, and Ashikunz nodded with his head.
'I wonder why these memories only returned to my mind now…' thought Ashikunz with the water still inside his armor. With a jump, he rotated mid-air, and all the water came out of his armor.