Chapter Nine

David's Army

Revolutionaries must inspire people to fight but they don't need to be great warriors

Elisium.

The Fifth Loop, Year 491, 7th January (5L/491/1/7)

Savior or not, my every breath from now is dedicated to Elisium and its people.

Wow! A hero's rising. It's giving me goosebumps.

Moses had visited different parts of the Refuge in his first week. During these visits, he realized that this place was brimming with despair.

Every alley, every corner, every house has its tales of miseries. People have lost their houses, farms, lands—and even lives.

So now you're going to shed tears for them?

Don't you have any emotions?

No, you're the emotional fool. I'm the smart guy within you.

I'll fight for these people till the last drop of my blood.

And that last drop will be spilled in the very first battle.

What? Why?

Idiot, this sentimental charade won't win you many wars. You have to understand this world and how this whole Transition works if you really want to do some good. So leave this crap and get to work.

Moses got the point and started spending a lot of time with Jacob and George. Arthur and Joseph also joined them in these chats where the two experienced men passed on their knowledge to the next generation.

"All your hopes are firmly based on this Dance of Two Sisters," Moses asked Jacob one fine morning. "But what happens if it's just a theory and there's nothing like a Transition."

"Well, we are two small worlds in this immense universe. Here we have a Dance of Two Sisters, maybe in some other place there could be a Symphony of Souls or a Twirl of Maidens. What I know is that Nature preserves balance and harmony in these systems through such processes."

What are you? A philosophy student?

Now what did I do?

You keep asking such dumb questions and he'll keep throwing more theories at you. Can't you ask something more practical?"

"Okay, let's assume that this Transition thing's true and this amulet's got real powers, but you can't rely on just some magical artifact to defeat such a powerful enemy."

That's better. Now this old man won't be shooting some mind-numbing supposition at you.

Don't underestimate his powers to bore the hell out of you.

George answered Moses's query before Jacob could bombard him with some more philosophy. "Son, you are not fighting them alone. After a few failed rebellions, we realized that the only way our world could come out of this crisis was to have faith in the Transition and fight a war at the turn of the Loop. A bunch of such honorable Elisians formed David's army "

"Unlike before, these men didn't want to fight headlessly and get massacred, so they started to train and build weapons," Jacob elaborated on his friend's point. "Slowly their numbers grew. David's army now has seven thousand soldiers. They are being trained by Nathan, a Solomon and a former Commander of Aden's army."

Moses shook his head. "I don't know how to fight myself and you expect me to lead an army?"

"You know, revolutionaries must inspire people to fight but they don't need to be great warriors." Jacob narrated a famous quote that many people credited to Solomon. "George will lead David's army, but you will be our sigil of hope because hope strengthens a person's will a hundredfold."

"As for your fighting skills," George said patting Moses on his back, "you have Solomon in you. You will surprise yourself when you take the battlefield."

Yeah, you're a gladiator. You'll chop down your enemies

We'll be fighting with guns.

That's even worse. You haven't even held a toy gun in your life.

You know I hate fighting. Even my juniors used to beat me up in school because my mind froze during fights.

And someone was talking about spilling his last drop of blood for Elisians.

"Since you mentioned Solomon, do you think I'm his reincarnation?" Moses asked to divert away from the topic of war.

Did you really have to ask that?

Damn! Nothing else popped up in my mind.

Now brace yourself for another long monotonous lecture.

"Well, I don't know about reincarnation but I can see that you have Solomon in you. And for that fact David, Abraham, Noah, and Adam as well. They reside within you. And to win this war you will have to bring them to the fore."

Moses was about to say something but Argus barged into the room and rushed towards George. "One of the survivors of the drowning has vanished."

"Who?"

Argus was sweating profusely. "Arthur, the one who looked like me."

"I had told you to confirm if all the survivors belonged to the Solomons," George shouted.

"We did that. And he provided us with a perfect link to the Solomons. There was nothing suspicious about him."

Jacob frowned upon hearing that. "You know, if he was a real Solomon he wouldn't have had his copy in this world. You missed the most basic rule of verification."

"And why is that?" Moses asked raising an eyebrow.

"You know, the lineage of Adam the First only exists in one world at a time, the brighter of the two worlds. One way or the other, it gets completely erased from the darker world. See, after Isaac's assassination, his family members loyal to him were systematically executed and those who had plotted against him were killed in the Catastrophe. No one from that lineage survived other than Solomon who returned to Aden and started a new family."

Argus hung his head. "Yes, I think I got carried away on seeing my duplicate and forgot the facts."

"But why would he disappear? Where he'd go?"

"Son, I assume he is Aden's spy and he must now be headed towards their base," George said springing into action. "If that is true then we are in some serious trouble."

George called his officers and gave quick orders. There was a sense of urgency coupled with panic. Moses was snapping his fingers, trying to understand the reason behind all this scrambling. "Why we're in such a panic? What did Arthur see in the last week that Adeners already don't know?"

"Boy, I have a list of such things. For starters, they don't know that for the first time in four decades, the people sentenced to Drowning didn't drown. And the reason behind their miraculous escape is a certain amulet that the regime has been desperately searching for for the last century. This information is enough for them to trigger some dramatic response."

"So they'll come after me when Arthur tells them about the amulet?"

"Well, there is a lot more at stake," Jacob elaborated further. "The Refuge is built inland, way off the roads, and the looters don't know that all the exploited have gathered in a single place and are planning a rebellion. They have no idea about David's army or the weapons. Blinded by overconfidence they have become too lousy in their surveillance."

"But if we're preparing to wage a war against them, sooner or later we'll have to face them. So why not now?"

George sighed. "Because our biggest weapon is not yet ready."

"And what's that weapon?"

"You, my son. You still need time to understand the powers of your amulet. During the turn of the Loop, its powers will be at their peak. We need to play a waiting game because we can't win this war right now."

He's right. You don't know a damn thing about how this amulet works. You almost drowned despite it being in your neck.

But the only way I learn is by putting it to the test.

Idiot, you don't practice your skills on a battlefield. If you go to a battle right now you'll only end up with a bullet in your head.

Jacob raised another concern. "You know, we can't fight this war inside a settlement filled with innocent people. Elisians have seen the demonic form of Aden's army a century ago and they don't want more rivers of blood."

George bit his lips. His whole world was at stake. "We can't let them find the Refuge. We have to stop Arthur at any cost."

***

Arthur looked over his shoulder to check for any movements around him. He swiftly moved into the shadows, rushing towards the nearest check post of Aden's army.

He had a quick mental recap of what happened during the Drowning. He will have to narrate it to the officers. He remembered how he was seconds away from using the key provided to him to unlock his chains when he saw jets of fire. Then Moses kicked the door open.

During his training, he was told that nothing unusual had happened in the last four decades and all previous spies had used their keys to set themselves free. His mission briefings were very precise. If something extraordinary did happen this time, he must go with the flow, gather as much information as he can, and return to the base before the tenth Day of Darkness. He was even given a fake identity to prove that he was a Solomon if the need arose for that.

Initially, Arthur had felt that this was a useless mission, but luck shone on him and he hit the jackpot. He not only ended up locating the amulet and the apparent heir of Solomon, but he also unearthed the largest unauthorized settlement of Tenebrians and the epicenter of their rebellion—the Refuge which was not marked on any of the maps of Aden's army.

Arthur was brimming with excitement. This vital information would fetch him huge rewards. He was going to be a hero and might even end up getting a ministerial post. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Gateway Three, the outermost checkpoint of Aden's army. Arthur dashed towards the post, overjoyed at finally reaching his haven.

One of the guards at the gate asked him for his identity and he showed them the ring on his small finger. The large gate started to slide open.

Just when Arthur was about to enter the gate, he felt a sharp pain coursing through him, as if he was stabbed in the back. His body burned from within. He instinctively turned around but saw nothing. The two soldiers, who had let Arthur in, saw a stain of blood spreading on his shirt. Before anyone could understand anything Arthur exploded. The soldiers around him were thrown off their feet due to the impact of the explosion.

"Close the gate." A soldier shouted into the radio. "Close the damn gate."

The gate was quickly sealed and Aden's soldiers took their positions to counter any further attacks, but all that followed was a spooky silence. This first-ever assault on an army post in Elisium lasted a single shot but had a resounding impact.

***

The commanding officer of the Gateway Three stood in front of Christopher Emmanuel, the HighCommander of the Tenebra base.

"Are you sure that the person who was blown up at the checkpost was our spy?" Christopher asked.

"Affirmative sir," the commanding officer replied, "our soldiers confirmed his identity before opening the gate."

"Was he able to pass on any information?"

"No sir. But since he reached the post nine days after his arrival, we can presume that he was on to something big. Tenbrians wouldn't have risked killing him at our doorstep unless they were desperate."

"Is there something else? You look shaken."

"Sir the spy was sniped out by some mysterious weapon. He just exploded from within. This was like none of our ammunition."

Christopher gawked at him. "Are you implying that Tenebrians have somehow weaponized the Star-Rocks?"

"Yes sir, I think that is possible."

"That's rubbish! We haven't been able to do that after a hundred years of experiment," Christopher said running his hand through his hair. "Tell me, why didn't you go out to check who killed him?"

"Sir, with no info about the number of attackers out there and what kind of weapons they have, it could have been a very risky mission. Hence we sealed the gate to safeguard our post."

Christopher nodded. "A wise decision, I must say."

He then turned to one of his subordinates. "The last batch of officers returning to Aden will leap in a couple of hours. We must send this information to Aden because, after the sunset, we will be disconnected from our world for a decade. The next Crossing will be the turn of the Loop and we must warn the authorities that a storm is brewing here. Our enemies are preparing for war and we must embrace ourselves for the mayhem. The time has come to ring the Bells of War."