A King's Legacy Ch. 40

Chapter 40

Taking his Place

"Beast-King Alocer Tonitrus, whatever brings you to my humble castle? Have you been enjoying your stay in Adamare so far?" Calium spoke with a mocking tone of grandeur that irritated the lion in a way Alocer would liken to a buzzing mosquito. As the human king stood to greet his guest with a smile, the beast came to a halt, stopping about halfway into the room before answering snidely.

"You know, speaking to you makes killing all of your people far more enjoyable in hindsight... But if you must know, yes, I'll truly relish every memory I've made here, however, I think it's time I return to my own home, so I came to thank you for having me in person before I took my leave."

Calium swiftly replied in kind, almost unfazed by the comment. "Pity that you're leaving so soon, I was really hoping you'd take a moment to join me for a drink." Alocer assumed this was more of whatever game this human was playing, but was actually a bit taken aback as Calium turned to head towards a cart of spirits in the corner of the throne room.

The lion spoke with an assured and smug tone. "Surely you are not so spineless as to start groveling before me now? You do know that wouldn't sway me towards sparing you, right?"

Calium laughed at such a bold statement, noting that the other king seemed to think rather highly of himself. The human answered the beast's question as if it weren't merely spoken as an insult.

"Grovel? No... I've just been awake for longer than I think I ever have before, I've said my goodbyes to my children along with the rest of my people, and I've been busy murdering your own forces for the last three nights straight. Between you and me, you really should get better assassins." Alocer bore his fangs at the human, but Calium's smile grew even larger in return, as if he were excited to be there. The human was done pulling punches, and continued taunting the beast.

"I am not groveling, I am not expecting a peaceful outcome, nor do I desire one at this point... I just need to have a drink. I think some whiskey will pair so nicely with the look on your face when you realize that I am still stronger than you are, even after enduring all of that." The storm outside dropped another flash of lightning, and the beast king drew his sword.

Calium simply kept pouring his drink, chuckling a little as he turned back towards the lion, and spoke once more in his calmer tone. "You certain you don't want a cup before we start? It is the best batch left in Adamare... I'll have to keep you here for a little while, and I think some spirits would probably make this all a bit easier for you to handle. You do seem a little uptight for the king that just won this war." Alocer shouted in defiance, already rushing towards the other king.

"You'll be dead within seconds!" Calium cracked another smile. Alocer found himself tripping over a smaller shield almost immediately. The large cat expertly caught himself on his free hand, and used his lower position to lunge towards the human, his sword swinging on one side, his claws bearing down on the other. Calium waited for the beast to close in, effortlessly brought a shield up on either side to counter both blows, and reared his shielded fist back as he aimed towards the center.

Alocer immediately tried to fall back, but a fourth, larger shield appeared right behind him, trapping him between the three just in time for the human to slam his attack right into the gut of the tyrant. All three shields fell away, and Alocer fell to his knees with them. Another rapid, shielded jab caught him square in his snout, and the lion fell backwards, feeling rather light-headed all of a sudden as his eardrums rang with that resounding shield's impact. Calium scoffed, turning to take a few steps away from the beast, climbing back up the stairs to his throne mid-way before stopping. He turned back to the dazed king, and spoke confidently.

"What's the matter? Somebody underestimate the weaker, smaller, human? In your defense, I've never used more than three shields in public before..." Alocer finally looked back to Calium, and was suddenly feeling far less confident in his victory.

King Calium had his drink to his lips, his sword sheathed at his side, and five golden shields forming an archway behind him, each one shining brilliantly in defiance of the tyrant's crusade. The human downed the rest of his drink, let the ceramic shatter on the floor where he let it fall, and spoke to the beast once more as he turned to stare down in disgust at the pathetic excuse for a ruler.

"You really should've taken that drink..."

===

"WAIT, I'M NOT TRYING TO INTERRUPT, BUT-" Calium finished his son's statement for him, chuckling at the evident excitement at the revelation. There wouldn't be much more joyful news for the boy, not in this place.

"Yes, Solis, I could maintain five shields at a time. However, I bet you'll be able to hold even more than that." Aster answered truthfully, not so certain of that himself.

"I can barely wield my two correctly. I can't even do half the things you have! I can't form them beneath my boots, I can't balance in the air, and I've only managed to use a shield without my hands once. I don't know why you think I'll surpass you so easily." Calium answered this as encouragingly as the rest of the more defeatist statements his son had made.

"I don't remember saying it would be easy, but I bet you will learn to do all of that, and even more in time. Six shields is the highest amount we've ever actually recorded any bearer wielding at once, but there's an old family tale that seven may be possible with the right user."

Aster thought that seemed way out of his reach at the moment, but his father had assumed as much. The boy never truly understood his power without the proper guidance, after all.

"The shield you raised without your hands, back in the chasm, what do you think made that happen? What made you so desperate to call it into being? What made you do what you believed impossible in that moment?" Aster gazed off for a moment before he answered, finding it strange to actually want a break from a story for a change, but welcoming the distraction. He wasn't so certain he wanted to hear the end anymore...

"Stahl." Aster answered quietly at first, but his voice steadied itself more and more as he elaborated further. "I just didn't want to let Stahl go. He was falling, trying to give his life for mine, and I wouldn't accept it. He would die for me, father, even still after I had messed up, and that is why I so desperately had to protect him in return. My arm was hurt, so if I couldn't save us both, then I would rather accept that we went together... I would lose my life before I could ever simply watch him die... That is what was going through my mind back then."

Calium had another huge smile stretch across his face as he reached a hand forward, lightly tapping the spot on Aster's chest where the boy had taken his mark with the orcs. He spoke endearingly to his son. "Protector, right?"

Aster was a little astonished by his father's choice of words, but actually smiled some as he just nodded once in confirmation.

Calium continued on. "Back in that thicket, you didn't have the means to do what you needed to do, but you still wouldn't give up. Your heart made a desperate plea, and the shield reacted to save the one you loved, to protect them. You've been concentrating so hard when you use your power, but you never questioned the understanding you had of your own strength nearly enough... It does not come from sheer concentration, nor focus at all. The strength we wield comes from a heart, my son, and you only need to start using that giant one of yours if you want to reach your true potential. Call it with your heart, with your conviction and your desire to protect, not your hands, not your thoughts." Aster was quick to disagree.

"If I don't think about it, if I don't maintain that concentration, I can't make the shield appear. I've tried plenty ever since it first manifested, but I can only picture them as tied to my hands... well, hand, now." Aster looked away for a moment, feeling a little flustered about it all. Calium's chuckle in response may have almost appalled Aster at first, but ultimately, he found himself closely listening to his father's words once more, and really examining the weight behind them.

"You can definitely think of the shields as attached by arms, but I think that's leading you in the wrong direction, they aren't so set in place, more that the shield is always connected to you. If you move your arms, your hands move with them. They don't detach themselves..." Calium quickly looked away, kicking himself for choosing such at a poor comparison.

Aster couldn't help but laugh a little at the alarm, noting that this really did have to be his father once more. He started gently prodding his father after the abrupt stop. "It's alright, the unfortunate phrasing aside, I think I mostly get what you are trying to say. I don't have to lift my arm to ball up a fist, so in a similar way, I shouldn't have to try so hard to make my shield work, right?" Calium nodded, expanding a bit more.

"I think your real issue is your mind, it's usually clouded by something. More often than not, I'd wager it is doubt, or guilt. You had some issues weighing you down by the time your gift manifested, so you never felt how weightless those shields could be. You're trying to hold them like you're fending off an assault, like you're merely staving off blows in effort to keep from getting hurt again, but you need to hold them firmly with your heart, as if there were no force in the world that could ever harm the ones you are protecting on the other side of your barrier... Can we try something?" Calium looked to his son hopefully as he asked his question at the end.

Aster did not disappoint with his reply. "If it can make me stronger, if it can make my shields stronger? Absolutely."

The boy watched his father stand excitedly, and Aster soon reached up to take the hand that was being offered back down to him. After taking a moment to adjust to how light everything was feeling, Aster just watched on curiously as his father took a few paces away, and turned back towards him with a plotting smile.

Calium raised his right arm above his head, called forth a smaller shield just above his finger, and reared back, shouting to his son as he took a step forward to fling the disc towards him at alarming speed. "CATCH!"

Of all the things Aster was expecting to happen any minute now, that one certainly hadn't even crossed his mind. Nevertheless, before he ever had time to question whether or not he could catch someone else's shield, Aster had reached a hand forward, and effortlessly stopped the golden disk mid-air. Aster held easily, it as if it were his own, keeping it just a few inches in front of himself while he felt the strange sensation of the shield spinning in place. His mind was still racing to figure out what was happening.

Calium spoke meekly, chuckling a bit as he muttered under his breath. "Surprised you actually caught it... My father nearly broke my nose the first time we tried that."

Aster was quick to question that comment. "Wait... DID YOU NOT KNOW THAT I COULD CATCH THAT?"

Calium laughed sheepishly, grinning that same smile he had always used to get out of trouble with Queen Vera. He answered honestly, if nothing else. "I was entirely uncertain, but that kind of proves my point from earlier, the dirt you're shouldering is definitely hampering your progress and control. To put it simply, you have the heart for the power, but your mind is getting in the way."

Aster let the shield fade away, prying curiously, and, (admittedly,) a bit defensively. "And you came to that conclusion how?"

Calium raised another shield, readying to toss it back towards his son as he answered. "Because that darkness isn't suffocating you here, and I'm not talking about the blood magic sealed inside of your body either. You're able to see things a little more clearly in the afterworld, you're able to accept things you never would before, to not be so angry or ashamed about them." Aster caught the shield once more, and Calium added a little instruction there as well. "Don't let it fade this time, throw it back."

Aster replied warily. "Well, I can't promise that I'm not angry, especially after everything lately... Also, I uhhh, I can't throw these things."

Calium answered matter-of-factly. "I'm talking about things that you've been angry about for a long time, stuff you've been denying for years, not so much the recent events. You'll have to stop carrying the weight of that guilt, or it'll keep making your shield harder and harder to hold. Hearts may be made to take a beating, but they can grow unbearably heavy as well." The king paused for a moment, adding more to their secondary conversation.

"You can tilt your shields, correct?" Aster nodded, his father continued. "Then you can throw it. Just imagine moving it with your will, not your body. Think of the path you want it to take, and give it a little push. If you're having trouble letting it go, try spinning it for a moment first."

Aster only deflated further as he lowered his gaze, feeling embarrassed at how little he seemed to know about how to use his own power. He croaked out his response with both uncertainty, and humility. "I just now learned that it can spin, I don't think I have that down yet..."

Calium smiled, reassuring his son with a soothing tone. "It is not your fault, You'll get the hang of it. We still have some time, so, just focus on catching the ones I throw towards you for a while instead. Feel how they move. I still need to finish my story, but if you'd like something to keep you distracted, we can continue doing this in the meantime?" Aster smiled, welcoming the suggestion. Looking back, that moment would be the last truly happy one Aster would have with his birth father.

Calium continued, raising up another shield to toss to his son as he picked back up from the latest interruption. "So, I was fighting in the throne room..."

===

Alocer lunged into another assault, his sword and claws meeting with the warmth of Calium's shield time and time again. The beast king half roared in frustration, speaking out with every deflected blow. "To think you were this capable all along, yet still, you would hide away as your people were slain outside your very door. You die here as the coward you are, no amount of your stalling will ever change that."

Calium effortlessly deflected another blow with a flick of his wrist, sighing in response before he answered flatly. "You're still stuck on that part? I figured that was a given, I have no intentions of living to see another sunrise... I was just hoping you'd put up a better fight. I expected more."

The lion snarled as he rushed into another assault. Calium stopped him before he ever even got close. The human king spoke with little regard or sympathy for Alocer's humiliated pride. "Really? That again? You do realize that I'm not even trying here, right? Is this really the extent of the beast king?"

Alocer was furious, his wounded hubris getting the better of him. He abruptly raised a hand forward, bracing with his other as he shouted his trigger. "CONSUME!"

Alocer simply raised another shield before himself, settling the matter once and for all. The lion could not breach that shield, nor could he drain the human through it. With hitched breath and trembling fingers, the beast king finally realized the truth, he could not best this man alone.

Calium took a moment to bask in the smugness of it all, and then spoke firmly, gazing towards the trembling beast with a gleam in his eye. His words taking on the same taunting tone as before. "Yeah, there it is. That's the look of realization I was waiting to see. Now, it's my turn."

Calium rushed forward without warning, taking three quick steps before he braced himself and jumped, planting two shielded boots into the stones of his throne room. The king kicked off with all his might, and the result made for a lunge backed with quite a bit of power, accompanied by a shielded fist aimed directly towards the lion's face.

Alocer raised his sword in time, laying it between his shoulder and wrist as he turned in attempt to parry the blow. His aim was spot on, but his paws were nowhere near braced enough to take the impact. Alocer was knocked to his back, and immediately leaned into the force of the blow to roll over his shoulders, righting himself and laying eyes on the human without ever missing a beat. He was finally accepting that Calium meant business, and Alocer was finally getting back into his rhythm because of it. Calium, however, wasn't following up on the openings he made. Something that seemed rather strange to the beast king. The truth behind that was for far simpler reasons however...

Calium was at his limit, Calium was still uncertain if he had just broken his left ankle or not. He had as good of form as ever, but his edge and aim were slipping, his weary arms were trembling ever so slightly, and using his power to the extents he had over the last few days should have been impossible. Calium was truly exhausted, but the king had not heard the word from Death yet, so he would have to put off his sleep just a little longer as he continued stalling. That didn't stop the human from asking for a time frame, however.

'I know this is going to sound horrible no matter which way I word it..." Calium passed the thought to Death regardless. 'but how long does it take these furred fucks to raze a damned castle? It's been a while since he's given the order. I am running out of strength, so a good estimate would be appreciated, if you get a moment...' The human jumped back into his battle with Alocer as silence was the only answer he received for a few minutes.

'You can start wrapping it up now, it's nearly over.' Death casually dropped the cue, bringing another faint smile to the human once more. Calium felt guilty for smiling at such a thing, for that to be his response for learning nearly all of his people were slain, but he so desperately just needed this to end... He just needed to stop, he needed to rest...

'You know you won't ever have any true rest again, right? Not after this.' Death was doing his best to sway the human one final time. 'You still have time to change your mind, to simply have the sword. We don't need the added strength, and it certainly doesn't make anything easier when it comes time... What remains will level entire towns while your son one day attempts the trial of the shield. Do you think he will want that?'

Calium was the one to answer the deity flatly for a change. 'You'll figure something out, you have this far anyway. I know what my choice means, I know the suffering to be endured, but that is why it has to be me to endure it. That is why you have to bind me to him in the first place, isn't it? Rest can wait.'

Death went silent again for a while, but finally gave his answer, albeit, very shortly. 'You know what to do from here. Less than three minutes to live, enjoy them while they last.'

Calium sighed in response, reminding himself he was about to be in potentially eternal servitude to this depressing god because of that lion, and giving himself a final kick in the ass to make the most of his final assault. He locked eyes with his opponent, gazed at the snarl over the intimidating beast's maw, and flashed the most dazzling smile in response. He was going to give this last bit everything he had, Alocer needed to be sure to remember this fight, after all... The human king would just have to be certain not to aim for his head too much.