Red Memory - Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten - Let My Body Burn

The courtyard of the Open Palace was filled with people who were standing around the Stone of Law, eyeing it and pointing out the recent infractions that offenders had committed. Kaiel was nowhere to be found, even after the attacks and the carnage. Akira walked up the steps to the Stone and quickly pushed the crowd out of his way. He turned to face them and clapped his hands together, causing a loud crack of thunder to scare the crowd back. He looked back at the Stone and then once again at the people. His smile was radiant and his charming malicious resonance was breathtaking. "Listen up!" he shouted. The entire area grew quiet as he began to address them. He spoke with a loud, authoritative voice and everyone seemed to recognize him in their minds as a man who took charge.

"As you all know," he started, "the Magistrates for the most part are gone, and Kaiel is missing and cannot get rid of some of these troublesome children. We innocent Murans fall victim to the assaults that these creatures are bringing forth," he stepped forward some and his robes slithered down the stairs with him as he moved. "I have watched this world grow from bad to worse in the past few months. Kaiel does not know how to manage this world, the city is in shambles, the people are dying... And I will no longer tolerate the shedding of innocent blood. So, from now on Muro will abide by these three basic rules." Akira swiftly pointed at the Stone and a bolt of black ejected from his fingertips and struck the face of it. A large black covering coated the face of the Stone and hardened over it like concrete. Akira then, with his finger, branded words into the Stone like a wand of fire.

You shall not harm, nor destroy, nor damage in any sort

You shall not mock, nor taunt, nor bully

You shall obey, always

Akira turned once more to the crowd, his eyes wide and excited. He spread his arms out as if to let them behold him. "Failure to abide by these new laws will result in a 'lynching'. In this situation we will assemble a group of Murans to capture and kill an offender." The crowd looked up at him in shock and a vicious murmuring stirred among them. He let his hands fall to his sides, but then gestured with a finger pointed at them. "Now, this is not my idea alone. This collectively is the will of many Murans who have come to me, begging me for guidance. I realize that this is not the most orthodox way of dealing with things, but it is all we have with Kaiel out of the picture and so many people being chased out, killed, and worse." He stepped down again and eyed them very carefully. "The committee which will be conducting these lynchings will be composed of various representatives of the community. Anyone may become a Lyncher, you need only come to me in secret. However, you must be willing to do some dark things..." he paused before going on, and it seemed that the skin of his face twitched in scattered spots.

"I fully support this," proclaimed Dospane, who stood amidst the crowd.

"As do I," said Cardiackid. Others began to follow in their footsteps, proclaiming their agreement with the new rules and the idea of lynching. Akira calmly smiled and walked back up at the Stone, feeling his new layer of darkness plastered over its surface. How wicked it was that he had covered over Castula's divine craft with a coat of his innermost desires. He had finally achieved it. Power. "But Akira," said Cardiackid. "How will you lead us without a Hammer of Power? Only one who wields a Hammer may, according to the Gods. One forged by them for the Magistrate."

Akira grinned cockily and held out his right hand in front of him, his palm facing the ground. "Heh. Who said a Hammer could only be forged by the Gods? It's a simple tool really, needless to say I have the power within me!" And suddenly a blistering black orb appeared just above the ground, floating upwards to him and letting off horrendous black smoke which twisted and molded into what looked like a three dimensional shadow. It was a rather large object which Akira took hold of with his extended hand, and as the smoke cleared all could see that it was a massive black Hammer, steaming black maleficence. Akira slammed its bottom to the ground, sending a boom through the air that silenced the whole area. It was in that moment that Doomsoul, accompanied by Superraptor, stepped out from the crowd.

"This is absurd!" Superraptor spat. "If you honestly believe I'm going to bow to you, you're crazy!" He yelled. Akira, with an angry expression, pointed the Hammer's head at him and a red bolt of light shot through Superraptor's entire form, bringing him to his scaly knees. "You... you bastard..." he rasped. Akira cockily cracked a grin and aimed it once more at the reptilian mutant. Doomsoul immediately intercepted and stood between them. Akira kept the Hammer pointed at the Lichlord's skull.

"Akira," said Doomsoul, "You have gone too far this time. I was more tolerant with you before, but this is downright unacceptable," he hissed, his voice warped like a true ghost's.

"And what will you do?" Akira cooed, his voice soft and creepy and the vocal embodiment of evil. "Kill me?" Akira raised the Hammer and narrowed his eyes. "Don't you realize that now I've won? I won't need to fight you because from this moment forth you're ruined. My followers now hate you and you will remain in torment for the rest of your life." Akira let out a snicker and tilted his head. "In fact, why don't you get to know them better now?" He turned and began walking past the Stone, moving to its side and moving off. However, from some unseen place above, a figure dropped down directly on top of it. The figure sat on its hands and knees and looked at everyone below. It let out a delicious laugh before jumping down and hitting smack onto the concrete ground.

A tall man who quite closely resembled a rock star. Long red hair and pale skin. He wore a long leather black coat and black pants, with enormous, thick soled black combat boots and dark gloves with the fingertips removed. The man was very odd. He had a necklace of bones and claws around his neck and several shrunken skulls pieced together on a long string that hung from his belt. A pentagram was freshly carved into his forehead and he wore spiked cuffs on each wrist. A long scar connected the corner of his lip to the tip of his chin and in front of his yellow teeth was wedged a particularly rotten cigarette, smoking like a burning house. He carried in his arms a large minigun and a machine gun was strapped to his back. He had many combat knives strapped to his belt as well and a gas mask hanging on it to his left. He grinned even more obnoxiously than Akira himself, but what was the most peculiar about the man was the strange bird that was sitting on his shoulder. A long-necked gray Heron with soul-cutting yellow eyes.

"Hey there everybody, what's up?" Said the man.

"Who are you?" Doomsoul asked in his bewilderment.

"The name's Heronlover, because I love herons." He turned his head and gently licked the feathery underbelly of the heron perched on his shoulder. It seemed to send cold chills down the bird's spine. He then turned his attention back to Doomsoul. "So much in fact that I've been mating with them for years, I'm pretty popular in the Underworld for it, I'll say. But don't stress dude, you can call me Heron. I'm your new commander in Lynching and I'm here to take care of everything so just lay back and chill," he said, making a wicked expression. He pointed straight at Doomsoul and outright said, in a commanding voice, "Akira's laid down the new law, so you scum bags better lay down with it or we're gonna have some fun with blood. Got that bro?"

"I will never bow to the likes of you," Doomsoul began. Without hesitation he had been blasted into the air, soaring far over crouching Superraptor and landing on his skeletal back, listening to several bones snap.

"Swap the dust outta them ear canals, Doom," Heron mocked, as Doomsoul stumbled to stand. "Maybe you didn't hear me. I said, lay down!" His minigun revolved and let off several more hurricanes of bullets, sending Doom even further down the staircase and on his back, all the while Superraptor flattened himself to avoid being hit by the bullets. Suddenly another figure approached from behind Heron. This one was female and had long blonde hair. She was rather voluptuous in form and wore a skin-tight black suit that was somewhat revealing. She had a grenade launcher slung over her shoulder and two thin swords dangling from her red belt. Her skin was a very fine tone and her eyes were a shimmering blue. She had a rather prominent display at the chest and wore deep red lipstick. She wore a black crescent moon locket around her neck and wore tall black high heels. She carried a handgun with a silencer on it with her free hand and looked rather stunning as she wielded it with such flare.

Heron stepped over a bit as she approached and gestured to her with his head. "This here's Senzi, she's my lieutenant and she'll fix you all up real fine. You shouldn't have that much trouble with her anyways! Just check out that rack! If I were you I'd submit just to check it out, bro. But that's just me, haha. Now... where was I. Oh I remember," he pointed the minigun at Doomsoul again and the barrel began revolving. By this time Akira had sat on top of the Stone of Law and was watching the entire fiasco. He seemed content with what was going on and watched hungrily as Heron tortured Doomsoul.

Akira was on the ground. A flash of green light broke the action and the Dark Lord suddenly found himself crashing to the stone stairs. His Hammer smashed like glass into a trillion tiny fragments and his body immediately boiled into a frenzy of black vapor until he was was completely burnt up. Heron yelled in shock and looked up from his fallen leader to see a small figure standing behind the crowd, green-haired and with an outstretched Hammer.

"Uhhhh, time to leave!" Heron fearfully stammered, and quickly dashed into the mess of buildings, followed by Senzi and the airborne bird. Kaiel stepped past the crowd and looked at the horrid defilement on the Stone of Law. In a fit of rage, he slammed the Hammer straight into it and causing the black surface to crack and smash like glass as well. The original Stone, still safely preserved underneath, had not been harmed.