Kairos 60: Trident's Heart

This was a disaster.

Queen Pallas of Orichalcos could only seethe, as her palace trembled and her city burned. Her [Scrying Water Mirror] gave her a front view of the devastation, pictures reflecting on an aquatic sphere swirling before her.

She had only ever seen flames on paintings before, and yet fires had started all over her capital city. Her magnificent royal gardens were ablaze, as were some of the algae farms, but the destruction they caused was almost laughable compared to the beasts invading the streets.

The Cetae were unusually restrained, focusing on taking over major landmarks and slaughtering her helpless guards, but mostly ignoring civilians. Still, the sight of these beasts rampaging through her city filled the mermaid queen with disgust. These savages tossed down monuments built during Poseidon's rule, ravaged the streets her kingly father had renovated, and cast down houses of royal officials. Did they have no heart at all?

And the humans...

She should have known these visitors were spies the moment she laid her eyes on that monstrous ship of theirs! That monstrous abomination was climbing up her palace's walls, fighting the few members of her guard who could operate on dry land. It was only a matter of time before its crew broke inside.

And the cries and screams of the useless brother on her lap didn't help matters. Shut up, Queen Pallas thought, as 'King' Triton tried to bury herself in her bosom. Your weakness disgusts me. Now is not the time for tears!

Now was the time for war!

"Your Majesty, how far are we from salvation?" her herald asked meekly, while guards had barricaded the doors. The human ambassador Absyrtus watched the scene like a shadow, not even lifting a little finger to help. "The trident—"

"Will save us all," Queen Pallas answered angrily.

But when?

As the blood of Poseidon and lawful queen of Orichalcos, Queen Pallas could channel the shard's power coursing through her throne. She sensed its magic channeled by her palace, a spear of the oceans. Once fully focused, this power could sink islands, raise horrors from the deep, and lay waste to the Cetae.

Yet the power maintaining the typhoon outside more than matched the trident's own. It was an ancient magic, she knew, a primordial power older than the Anthropomachia. Had the Cetae found a weapon capable of matching the legendary Poseidon's? She wouldn't believe it, couldn't believe it.

But her beliefs didn't change anything.

The trident's magic would tear down the air walls keeping the ocean at bay, but not quickly enough. By the time she did so, the humans and their monstrous allies would have invaded her palace, maybe even reached her throne room.

What could the queen do? Escape through the secret tunnels? No, the blood of Poseidon did not run. But she had no aptitude for fighting, and her guards couldn't hold back the tide on their own.

"Your Majesty." Queen Pallas glanced at the human Absyrtus, who obsequiously bowed at her. "May I offer a word?"

At least he had the sense to beg, the mermaid thought. "My patience with your kind is wearing thin, surface-dweller."

"Pergamon will always stand by your side, Your Majesty."

"Then grab a weapon and help my royal guard defend our home."

"I have no taste for weapons," the manling replied with an ugly look in his gaze, "though I can offer advice."

Queen Pallas laughed. "Can you slay the invaders outside with advice?"

"Mayhaps." The man put his hands behind his back. "However powerful, your shard's magic won't be enough to repel the army at your doors... at least not on its own. I have studied the lore of Poseidon, and I know why your royal family kept their blood pure. Because your blood has power."

"I know all of this." Only descendants of the mighty Poseidon could wield the artifact's full power. Others could only use a shadow of its potency. "What is your point, human?"

"A sacrifice might be necessary to hasten the process and strengthen the shard. And thankfully, you have a spare."

Queen Pallas' eyes looked down at the child cradling her bosom.

"You can't imply..." Her herald's eyes bulged out in horror. "Your Majesty, you can't possibly consider—"

"Quiet," the queen ordered, before squinting at the human ambassador. She couldn’t remember any case of a blood sacrifice in her family’s history, but then again, her ancestors never needed one... "He is my kin, my brother, and my husband."

"But young," the man replied bluntly. "It will take him years to father an heir on you, while it will take hours for the army at your gates to reach you and cut off your head. One heir of Poseidon is worth less than two, I will agree... but better than none. Your Majesty, I know the Travians, especially their leader. King Kairos may look charming, but underneath he is utterly ruthless. He has taken a Scylla into his bed, and made common cause with monsters. Once he gets his hands on you, Your Majesty..."

The human made a contrite face, as if afraid to go on. Queen Pallas found it particularly ugly. "Say it," she rasped.

"Well, I'm afraid your brother will die for a start, and you will probably follow. He understands he cannot hope to rule the sea as long as the royal line endures. At best you will spend the rest of your days in bondage in his harem, as he fathers a half-human whelp on you. Your people will live in shackles under an army of monsters. A dark age will dawn on Orichalcos... unless you stop it now."

Queen Pallas slouched on her throne, a hand on her brother's head.

She closed her eyes, and when she did so, she imagined that vile human king's hands closing around her neck. The mere idea of suffering his impure touch made her recoil in disgust.

This is why they will all die when the second sun rises, Pallas thought. She had looked forward to that day, when the surface-dwellers would finally learn their place and atone for murdering the old gods. The royal line descended from the Oceanids and the descendants of the great Poseidon, those who had not betrayed Olympus. Never once had they wavered in their loyalty, knowing that one day, the ancient order would be restored and peace returned to the universe.

She would live to see this moment. Queen Pallas was certain of it.

"I understand how painful and terrible this might seem, but you are a strong ruler, Your Majesty," Absyrtus continued, his words as sweet as honeyed milk. "It takes a great force of will to make a sacrifice for the greater good, and you have that strength."

Yes, she did. Pallas had been her father's true son, not the crying, useless whelp on her lap. If she had been born a man, she could have fully ruled in her own name rather than needing to share her power with this waste of skin. Now would be the perfect opportunity to get rid of her weakling brother and receive the people's acclaim.

But, when she opened her eyes and looked at the terrified child on her lap, Queen Pallas realized she didn't have the strength to do it. For all his weakness and idiocy, he was still the little brother she had nursed in the cradle.

Pictures shifted on the scrying pool, showing the humans' monstrous ship breaking down one of her palace's walls. Water flowed out of the hole, while that wretched Scylla and a Cetacean halfbreed swam up against the current. The vile Kairos circled above her fortress, riding on the back of some ugly, winged abomination.

"The enemy is inside the palace, Your Majesty!" one of the guards warned her.

I am not blind, she thought. "Fetch me a blade," she said.

"Your Majesty, no one is more accursed before the gods than a kinslayer," her herald protested.

"I know," Queen Pallas agreed, before glancing at the worm. "Which is why you will do it."

The herald paled in fear, his hands quivering on his sounding horn while a guard offered him an obsidian knife. "Y-Your Majesty," he stammered, "striking a person of royal blood—"

"Will cost you a hand. Not doing it will cost you your head." She grabbed poor King Triton in her arms, as if he were a baby. "Cut off his palm. With luck, a pint of blood will suffice."

The herald took the blade before glancing at the guards in fear. When some pointed their spears at him, the coward sobbed and didn't even dare to touch the king. "Do it!" Queen Pallas snarled with impatience.

The herald closed his eyes, gently grabbed King Triton's left hand, and slashed his palm with the knife.

His scream chilled his sister to the bone, and the pale red fluid rising from his wound all the more. Shut up, Queen Pallas thought, as he wriggled in her arms. You are doing your kingly duty for the first time in your life.

His screams and tears didn't help though. Queen Pallas swam above the throne of Orichalcos before applying her brother's bloody hand to it. The coral seat thrummed when his palm brushed against it, the trident shard embedded within reacting. The throne shifted like algae with the current, before releasing a sound as beautiful as it was haunting. It reminded Pallas of the song of dying whales.

"It's..." one of the guards rejoiced, his colleagues raising their spears. "It's working!"

"The blood has power," Absyrtus replied with a soft face that Pallas found eerily soothing.

Only Triton didn't rejoice, as the coral grew on his hands and arm, swallowing them. Queen Pallas had to release him when the growth continued to progress, and he tried to reach out to her with his weak, tiny right hand. The sight drew a brief moment of regret from the mermaid ruler.

Curse you, Kairos of Travia, Queen Pallas thought, trying to bury her guilt beneath the anger. You forced this crime on us. You might not have wielded the blade, but you guided our hand.

The coral throne consumed her brother whole, but didn't stop growing.

Queen Pallas blinked, as events unfolded beyond her control. The throne reached out to the ceiling and spread to the pillars supporting it, and the scrying water mirror turned into a bubble of sick, pale pink blood. The spot where her brother had been absorbed took a bright red shape, before spreading to the coral like an infectious growth.

"What's happening?" the herald asked, his voice breaking. His queen had no answer, the waters in the room gaining an eerie red afterglow.

"What I suspected." Queen Pallas turned to face Absyrtus, finding the human ambassador brushing the necklace around his neck with his finger. His eyes were full of a cold, dreadful curiosity. "I wanted to test my hypothesis before we used our own shard in the field, but I never dared. Well, this is good to know... for us. Thank you, Your Majesty, from the bottom of my heart. Your sacrifice shall be celebrated forevermore."

Queen Pallas' eyes widened, upon realizing she had been had. "You treacherous—"

"If you would kindly kill the Sellsword King on your way out, that would help my liege greatly." And after saying these words, Absyrtus of Pergamon vanished from her sight.

A loud crack echoed behind Pallas, and her panicked guards all raised their spears. The herald screamed and attempted to escape through the warded doors, his hands banging helplessly against a magical barrier. The queen of Orichalcos looked over her shoulder, noticing the cracks in the coral throne, and the pulsating redness below.

Flesh, she thought, putting a hand on her mouth to avoid vomiting, this is flesh.

And after the flesh, came the fangs.

I should never have trusted humans, Queen Pallas of Orichalcos lamented, as the jaws closed on her and all went dark.

------------------------

The attack was going better than expected.

Flying on Rook's back, Kairos battered sea spiders and giant crabs with winds. These creatures were among the few capable of fighting without water to support them, and had immediately moved to intercept the Foresight's advance as the living ship climbed the palace's oblique walls. Kairos' vessel kicked away a few and devoured others with its fanged jaws, but more managed to climb on its hull.

The Foresight's crew had adapted the best they could to this strange battlefield, using ropes not to fall from the deck and hacking the attacking crustaceans when they reached them. Cassandra charbroiled a horse-sized sea spider with ghostly flames, while Nessus and his archers struck the eyes of a giant crab engaging Agron in a bloody melee. Thankfully for Kairos, Orichalcos lacked an air force, leaving the skies to Rook and him.

"Bird claws to the face!" Rook said, his talons turning into silvery blades. He dived down on a monstrous lobster pinching one of the Foresight's legs, his claws and Kairos' spear tearing through the monster's carapace like butter. The respite allowed the Foresight to kick away the creature.

There is no end to them, Kairos thought, as another swarm of crustaceans emerged from the palace's water gates.

Hybris wouldn't help much either. The Sea Serpent was engaged in a titanic clash of his own near the temple district, dueling the strange white whale [Demigod] oracle that Kairos saw preach of the second sun's return to the merfolk. The absence of water hadn't inconvenienced the creature all that much, the monstrous whale's tail tossing down buildings while Hybris coiled around it like a giant snake around a pig.

It didn't matter. The city would fall once Nausicaa and Andromache captured the royal family. The two had entered the palace through a hole the Foresight dug into its facade, water pouring out of it onto the street below like a waterfall. The mermaid [Assassin] had proved an eager recruit, though unfortunately mute. Thankfully, Chloris knew sign language enough to serve as the mermaid's interpreter. Between her [Rogue] skills and Andromache's invulnerability, they shouldn't have any trouble reaching the royal family.

Elsewhere, the Abyssean army had divided into smaller contingents, focusing on destroying the royal army's forts and massacring helpless soldiers before the waters inevitably returned. Thankfully, Kairos had extracted oaths to Hybris before signing on with the assault, including limiting civilian casualties whenever possible. The sea serpent [Demigod] had been true to his word, his armies focusing on securing the city rather than massacring the population. The Sellsword King knew from his own experience that some Cetae would disobey their commander's orders, but most stayed true to their discipline.

Thousands would still die, but at least Kairos could lessen the blow.

A part of him, the coldest part, tried to justify himself by saying it would serve Travia's and his colony's interests. The wealth of Orichalcos would fill their coffers, and the Cetae would make peace with the surface. The merfolk had plotted to support the old gods' return, and paid the price for their treachery.

But no matter what Kairos told himself, this assault left a bitter aftertaste.

War. War was always such a bloody affair, sparing neither the guilty nor the innocent.

What is done is done, Kairos thought, as he cast down a crab to the ground with a blast of air. The animal crashed on the solid ground beneath the palace, its body snapping in half from the impact. The [Anemoi Spear] within his hands still brimmed with power. The entire ritual had been a taste of its true power, which Kairos couldn't access without a higher Rank. With luck, this battle might help him ascend to [Demigod], and get closer to divini—

Andromache swam down from the palace's waterfall, followed by Nausicaa. "So soon?" Kairos shouted from above. "Do you have the trident’s shard?"

The panic in his concubine's eyes told him otherwise... as did the bloody stump that wriggled where one of her tentacles should have been.

"Run!" Andromache commanded, while both she and Nausicaa leaped on the Foresight's deck. "Run—"

The monster burst out of the palace's roof, like a lizard from an egg.

His emergence sent chunks of the building erupting in all directions, and Rook hastily flew away to dodge the debris. The Foresight and its foes almost fell off the wall, but the living ship managed to stab the coral facade before it could descend more than a few meters, anchoring itself.

"What is this thing?" Kairos whispered, as a colossal monster emerged from the palace's top.

The beast was more than three times longer than the Foresight, and a true terror of the deep. The sea chimera had the head and front arms of a crocodile, the hind legs of a salamander, and the tail of a fish. Its scales were iridescent blue, its fins translucent red. Besides its gargantuan, toothy head, additional jaws snapped at each of the creature's joints, neck, and tail. Their sharp fangs cut through the air with a sinister ‘clack’ sound, while the monster's two black eyes reminded Kairos of a starless night. A strange, golden metal shard glowed between them, like a royal crown.

The creature was not without a certain bestial beauty, the cruel majesty of a lion on a hunt. This was a primeval predator nobler than the Cetae, a true dragon of the deep. The severed tail of Queen Pallas, caught between two of its main maw's teeth, showcased its indiscriminate hunger. To an almighty beast like this one, kings and commoners were nothing more than food.

And its song... when its main mouth opened to let out a bellowing cry, Kairos wondered if he had ever heard a sound more haunting and melodious. The Cetae stopped their rampage to look at this primeval entity, and the crustaceans that had harassed the Foresight's crew fled.

Even Rook, who loved fish above all other food, looked intimidated at the creature's sight. Its shadow loomed over the duo. "This is a very big fish..."

No. That wasn't a fish at all, and [Observer] quickly confirmed it.

Triton the Kin-Eater

Legend: Dragon of the Trident (Demigod)

Level: ???

"The merfolk king?" Kairos choked, before flying closer to the Foresight to check up on his crew. Impossible, he was no more than an upjumped [Elite] last time the Travian saw him!

"Those fools..." Kairos heard Nessus mutter to himself. Thankfully, the ropes had prevented the crewmates from falling off the deck, though some broke a leg or took wounds from the impact. Andromache herself had grabbed the mast with her tentacles, Nausicaa hanging on to her back.

"What's happening?" his captain asked his satyr ally, while the giant creature glanced at the devastated city with the curious innocence of a newborn animal.

"Unworthy mortals can't directly wield a godly weapon without a ghastly price to pay, captain!” Nessus shouted back. “If you can't master the weapon—"

"The weapon masters you," the pirate guessed.

The trident's power had taken over the boy-king's flesh, and used him as a vessel to take physical form.

Worse, it was naked, indiscriminate power. The monster leapt on a devastated street near the palace, creating a small crater upon landing. Its amphibian hands immediately grabbed a dying whale and a group of merfolk, feeding them to its various joint-jaws while they screamed. A cetus let out a roar, but the far larger Triton quickly swallowed it whole with its main toothy maw.

Cetus or merfolk, they all tasted the same.

It took the creature less than a minute to clean out the street, but it didn't satisfy its hunger; and maybe nothing would. The monster trampled houses beneath its hind legs as it moved on to search for more food, its tail shattering buildings.

I created this thing, Kairos realized with sorrow. I unleashed it, and now it will devour everyone inside this city.

"Kairos, what do we do?" Cassandra asked, as the Foresight climbed down from the palace's wall and landed on the ground. "Do we engage that monster?"

Nausicaa, who had watched the scene in silence, grabbed her obsidian spear. Water surrounded her like a shroud, before propelling her across the air like a liquid arrow. The [Assassin] formed an arc into the skies before landing on the giant sea dragon's back, stabbing it between its scales. The creature didn't seem to have noticed, but the mermaid fearlessly hung on to the colossus.

Kairos couldn't help but whistle at her brazen action. The path was clear.

"What else can we do, but become [Legends]?" the Travian captain replied, spear raised. "Forward!"

The Foresight's crew shouted as one, and the living ship charged after the larger beast.

---------------------------------------

A/N: chapter made possible by you, dear patrons.

Considering the results of the poll, there won't be a Kairos chapter this Saturday; instead two chapters of the Perfect Run will be published, to make sure I can post that story's final chapter on Tuesday 31st. In return, two Kairos chapters will be published on  September 4th.