local settlement date 35,993
You can not start with a lie then try to make sense of it.
King Namor Zujahrah
28 another city of god
Back along the coast, the 14 schooners and 36 ships sailed like a cloud over the ocean.
Passing the ruins of sun temple and Bavina before heading south with the metal island and the stars to guide them to Angel Island.
At the port of Adrone, damages were repaired and food, water and ammunition loaded.
The crew enjoyed three days of solid land under their feet before sailing again for Barbancor. North to the ruins of Bavina and then East along the coast.
They watched fishing boats disappear in front of them and reappear behind them.
"Thirty thousand years and many more. I'm certain always the same system. One bunch of killing beasts attack and kill another bunch of beasts until they are the power in the land. Then bleed land and people to have gold and fine wine. Till they are so drunk with it, the next bunch of hungry killers attack the tired system and make a new system to bleed the land and the people. A constant state of war. Beating the angel out of the beast. For no good reason. Simply madness. A mad myopic beast with far too many abilities with next to no wisdom. Philosophy only an old world patent. Sealed, never to be read. A lie propagated in its stead."
"So what do you want to do."
"Teach the world to think. Before we kill ourselves being ignorant lie loving slave beasts to the laws based on some kind of monitory monster God terror system."
They listened to the sounds. The symphony of sails singing to the wind, the waves slapping as the ship cut them neatly.
"Even if there wasn't a space ship, we would have the capability to build one if we weren't playing at war, building war ships and weapons."
"It's a test our short sighted condition has given us, Drave King. It is in our nature to want all we can get. Making others slaves to terror and lies is a quick way for a few to be the elite."
"And those elite will always be killed by the next bunch of mad men who see that the God owners are drunk on their spoils and have lost their talent to propagate terror laws to make their illusion of their monster God look real. And that is what we are doing now. Tearing down the castle and tearing down the temples. And if we don't want to be torn down we have to avoid our castles and temples. And I hope that the next things we load on these ships are books and teachers. The monster God won't die easy. The monster in the language, it is cursing through our blood. The war won't be over with the end of war. It will extend long into the future."
"If we don't stay busy, we fall asleep and there is no point to us."
Namor looked at Barbaralba and laughed. He loved her blunt replies. She seemed to make sense out of all his rambling better than he did himself.
"Maybe we were terrified of the rest of the universe and we chose to hide in our war game to make the universe go away. Ignorant children not wanting to take on the responsibility of being one of the, if not the most, brilliant conscious creative creatures in a hard and brutal universe. It's a big step from everything else that is to a creature that can look back at it."
"Yes, Drave King, it is a long was from bugs copulating on a rock."
"And bugs copulating on a rock is well beyond two rocks not copulating."
The Holy City of Dargadon caught the first rays of the sun as the fleet of white ships set anchor in the harbor. Other than fishing boats, the harbor front was empty.
"What do you want to do, Drave King."
"It seems awful quiet."
"They have a large enough harbour front for a fleet of war ships. They might be off attacking us."
"Or they might be attacking someone else. The Old Priest told me that Dargadon was often at war with their neighbors."
"Burn the harbour front."
"Not today. Let's wait until we are noticed, then blast the temple. Then we will see what awaits us at the Sacred City."
The white ships were arranged directly in front of the holy temple. They watched as the news quickly spread that the enemy of God had come. Those who did not believe in the ultimate power of their God left the temple. Namor watched. Many ran off with a few books. Many with nothing.
When the wind started to die down, Barbaralba started the count. 648 guns flared and sounded at once, pounding one side of the holy temple through to the other walls.
Walls were still falling as the more than a thousand sails fell and anchors were raised. Many watched as the white cloud faded slowly back to the ocean.
Six days later, the schooners sighted a fleet on their way to the Sacred City. It was a city of 20 million people spread around the harbor, up the river and on both sides of the mountains out of sight. The air was thick with smoke and the water thick with refuse.
The great temple ran half way up one mountain.
The schooners gathered their sails to remain invisible and wait for the 36 ships. It was half a day later that the white cloud of ships caught up to the schooners. The schooners did not drop their sails which was a sign for the thirty-six ships to gather their sails in and take anchor. The day was coming to a close and it made sense to wait out the night at a distance away from the crowded harbour.
In the early morning, the ships of Dargadon were engaged in a battle with the ships of the Sacred City. By mid day, hundreds of Dargadon soldiers had fought and killed there way to the walls of the temple.
They stood with bloody weapons of wood and stone. Glass and animal hair and tendons. Side by side with their enemies they watched a white cloud sail into the harbor of Sacred City and become large white ships that took up sail and anchored in a large half circle around the temple. More than a thousand ships between the temple and the white ships.
One flash of lightening came from the ships, followed by the exploding of rock and wood. The temple ripped open in an instant and the thundering voice of an angry God behind it. A second flash of lightening from the white ships and more exploding of walls, roofs, bridges, alters, sanctuaries and the rest of the luxury accumulated over thousands of years.
In the harbour, ships exploded. Twelve flashes and twelve screaming sonic thunders tearing through the valley. Then there was a temple no more. In the harbor, sat 36 silent white ships. Soldiers, not dead, swam from their wreckage toward the shore.
"Unfortunately, there is one more city we must visit in this campaign. And it is up that river."
They sat and waited.
Namor looked at the map one more time. It was practically impossible to attack the city. It was impossible to ignore the city for it was the holiest of all cities on the planet. It was a vile cesspool of deceit and terror.
According to the high priest Myast, Magalax was the city that raised and bred both priests and killer dogs. It was the city that claimed ownership of almost every legal business and most of the land on Barbancor. Even the poor gave their money willingly to the houses of God so that they would have the blessing of the holy city of Magalax. The city that propagated fear of life and worship of death. As the Old Priest said. The Laws of Moses. Seventy thousand year dead terror dictator and likely a myth at his reputed life time.
"Well, Barbaralba. I think it would be better for protocol if we wait for them to ask us what we want. Let us show a little patience."
"And then."
"Then take an army of 600,000 soldiers to Magalax."
"That's a great number of soldiers. How many are in Magalax."
"The Old Priest remembered it to have less than 200,000 but that was many years ago."
"I find it hard to imagine taking 600,000 soldiers the distance to Magalax."
"There will be no need to imagine it. We must make it happen. Magalax must come down like the castle must come down. And it must stay down."
Barbaralba smiled. It had become Namor's war. It likely was always Namor's war. She was the mirror that showed him what he was and what had to be done.
Namor did not ask her why she smiled at him like she did when she did. He saw that she loved him and more information than that was not needed.
Shortly before nightfall, a fishing boat approached the ship named Barbaralba. The name had also reached their city.
A rope latter was thrown down when the fishing boat was close enough to see the gesture.
Seven priests climbed the rope latter and threw themselves on their faces before their over lords.
"That is not what we have come here for."
Namor waited and Barbaralba watched him. Smiling.
"Get up. What do you think we are. That we come to talk to your backs."
They stood. For them, it was judgment day.
"We are not Satan's or God's army. We come from a not far away land where we hold thousands of years of knowledge and technology. For the cultures of Barbancor, it is either sorcery or the work of God. It is neither nor. It is the work of men and women of many generations, thousands of generations ago. It has been stored by the royal family. The royal family, like the family of priests, must step down from their position of the elite. The elite is a dangerous game that has cost us far too much all the way from our enslaving of most of our own species and the brutal abuse of countless other spices all the way to the depths of the ocean.
As is the royal family, you are found guilty of reckless abandonment to the responsibility to your own species and all the other creatures that share this planet.
Now you are given the choice."
Namor looked at Barbaralba for a moment to think about what the choice might be.
"There is no choice. Perhaps in the future we will have choices to make. We find ourselves in a critical position and must act upon it for the sake of our children and the fish. You will give us an army of 600,000 to march with us on Magalax. They will be revoked of their power over Barbancor."
There was no question so the priests stood silent.
"When the rule of terror has been put to an end, Angel Island will assist with knowledge and technology and wisdom to make the ocean again safe for the fish and put the life back on the land. Freedom will return when you accept your responsibility to the world you are part of and not the owners of."
Namor made it clear that he had no more to tell them.
They all bowed to Namor.
"Don't bow to me. We have not come to be your over lords."
They bowed to Barbaralba. Then straightened.
"My Lord."
"Speak Priest."
"Forgive us."
"I am not here to hand out forgiveness. I am here to tell you that we are changing our way of approaching our world. We are what we are. We have acted the role we have been given. That theater is over. We must write a new theater. Forget your fears and your sins and put together an army of soldiers that are ready and willing to put an end to Magalax and the theater of world destruction."
"They will be ready at Dawn."
"Good. How long is the march."
"Forty days."
"Bloody Beast."
Barbaralba managed to contain her laugh from the priests. Namor showed them the rope ladder.
In the morning, Namor and Barbaralba and their army of Draves, Tax collectors, Royal Family and Adronians joined an army of 670,000 soldiers and started their march on Magalax. Coming after twelve days to the mountain Ukilus. A mountain that gave forth a river of drinkable water.
There they camped three days.
chapter 29
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