Dark Legacy: The End of the Kai

Chapter IV

Arkan moved with great haste as he carried his beloved Neva Yun Ra in his arms through the dark corridors of the underground labyrinth of the Tower of Drakul until a sharp pain crossed his chest. It was done. He knew what had become of his Kai-Minor guardians. He had betrayed his Order, and in doing so he had weakened the power of his Kai enabling Maniok's forces to exploit them. He stopped dead in his tracks for it was then that he realized that what he had done would forever haunt him, but he knew that he served a higher ideal, one stronger than the wavering power of the Atlantean Kai; he stood firm in his belief that the forbidden child that grew in the stomach of his precious Neva Yun Ra was the one child "born to none" as described in the prophecy of Artemis. Whispering to himself there in the shadows of an unlit passageway he reaffirmed his belief that his child was worth the death of all the Kai for it would be his child that would bring the birth of a new Kai Order by overcoming the darkness of the world, bringing back the light, and awakening the Age of the Lion. Neva Yun Ra began to stir in his arms. He looked at her knowing that she had never fully accepted or shared in his creed, and that she loved him far too much to have exposed his guarded beliefs to the High Kai Council; instead she had chosen to blind herself from the now fatal consequences of his self-righteous actions.

Exiting the damp tunnels, he entered a massive underground cavern and laid his priestess on the ground so that he could rest and look out in all directions. Seeing nothing of threat he relaxed and took a deep breath of the stale almost phosphorus air, but then he heard a soft familiar whimper and looked down at his priestess seeing tears flowing down her cheeks; he knew that her dreams were tormenting her. He closed his eyes and saw what she saw; images of countless guardian men–headless and limbless–all piled on top of each other in a lake of blood within a radiantly white chamber. Bitterness consumed his heart for he did not appreciate these horrific, telepathic images being sent from the High Kai Priestesses to his Yun as a desperate plea for her aid. He clenched his teeth in disapproval and looked ahead at the vast cavern and at the stalactites and stalagmites that surrounded him. Abruptly he felt as if a predator had just sighted him for its meal and stood still while focusing on the pool's moving surface where he heard water fizzing and something massive rising beneath its surface. His eyes widened, he knew what it was, and he bent down, lifted his priestess from the ground, and carried her into a dark crevice.

Three Aqua-Krotraks–heavy artillery transport submersibles–emerged from the water and rolled onto the cavern floor crushing hard stones and minerals while advancing toward the crevice where Arkan and his unconscious priestess were hidden. Without warning the Aqua-Krotraks stopped and released pressurized steam from their anterior–Arkan cautiously backed away from his thin view of the transports–infrared beams then shot out from the transports to scan the rough features of the cavern as hatches opened along their sides releasing small surveillance droids to hover and fly like buzzing flies. "They're looking for something ... someone," Arkan whispered to himself with unease as he peeked at the cavern scene. Pressurized air then spat out from the transport's posterior planks which lowered to the ground allowing heavily armed artillery droids to march out five across before breaking their formations to run out and cover the irregular walls and corners of the cavern.