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Science Fiction Suspense Speculative

This story contains themes or mentions of physical violence, gore, or abuse.

In a world full of warring nations, the advanced civilizations of the Mortallis species developed a new way of conducting espionage and warfare. This new avenue is through something called the Bellator Project. The results of the project are... mixed. In terms of what was expected, the nations of Helia, Celia, and the Megalachorin Alliance have developed a very robust system and maintain 'somewhat' fruitful relations with one another. The Utanic Empire, on the other hand, controls an entire super-continent and they believe they have a superior culture, economy, and overall mindset within the Mortallis species. They are highly obsessed with themselves and it shouldn't be a shocker, they have the longest standing empire in Mortallis history.


This new project was developed during one of the Great Wars and at first it was highly unethical in nature. Many people were augmented with these Bellator abilities without consent. The original few volunteered, but the wars placed the governments into dire situations. The Bellator Project was not specific to a single country. It was developed by the Royalist Church Foundation, which is a border-less religious community that attempted to end warfare, or atleast end it in the way it has been conducted for so long. For a brief time it did end the large scale conflicts. The idea was to establish a way to balance the power dynamics between the nations. Bellators have been used for espionage due to their specialized abilities, which are attributed from a computer chip installment. This chip is called a NONA, which stands for Neural Optimum Networking Apparatus. It allows the user to manipulate a form of energy called eco. Eco can occur in several forms, each of which serve several functions. Blue pertains to speed, red to strength, yellow to ranged combative techniques, orange is a combination of yellow and red and pulses like a visible electrical charge.


There is an eco that has been created and it is quite destructive. It is a byproduct that the Royalist Church Foundation and the scientists of the Bellator Project did not anticipate and many would rather it not have existed at all. This form is Dark Eco. It is a combination of all ecos and is the most difficult to use and control. Not many Bellators can use it. There is even an advanced form of Dark Eco, this form is called "Rho." This one is even more rare.


Rho is a Necromancer's enhanced dark eco. Its properties are a huge question mark as it's relatively new compared to all other eco forms and there are very few who can use it. Necromancing is a taboo practice, and believe it or not, it involves more than just manipulating the relationship between life and death as the name suggests. Necromancer classes are very underground and several Bellators steer clear of them. Necromancers choose not to show themselves as they are all rogue Bellators. There are no official programs that sponsor the teaching of the use of Rho. There isn't even a definitive answer on how to attain knowledge on the technique, yet these necromancing classes are alive and well... somewhere. 


The world governments have several concerns about the Necromancers. Any rogue Bellator is assumed a threat by the International Arms Committee (IAC). With these concerns, it is also necessary to mention the various factions that have arisen outside of the governments and their intelligence/military communities. There is a faction called Virgo, they are regarded as the most dangerous non-governmental Bellator faction in existence. Then there is an international revolutionary wave that is unified by a group called the Cobras. They are led by rogue Bellators from various nations, but there are several non-Bellator members residing in their ranks. They have a history of internal power struggles. There is a smaller group generally referred to as “The Guild” and they have an alliance with “The Atronarchs,” but these groups only pose a serious threat within the Megalachorin territories and they lack a proper dominance hierarchy within their ranks due to several disagreements among the members. 


There is, however, a former member of The Guild who has made a name for himself in recent days. He is referred to as The Owl, but his real name is Kodeka. He has been a member of Virgo for a while now and he is an extremely powerful necromancer. 

Virgo’s mission is to have its members move up in their hierarchy of Bellators by competing through several missions that usually have extremely felonious implications. The reason for its competitive nature has been recently revealed to many that they intend to overthrow every government and install the strongest Bellators within their hierarchy to govern with an “iron fist” and to unilaterally rule according to Virgo’s vision. It shouldn’t be a surprise that out of the top 3 members of this group, 2 of them are necromancers. They are extraordinarily powerful even compared to the strongest of fighters within the governments. 


Kodeka the Owl, the powerful Necromancer whose intentions have been kept to himself for so long, is making his move now, which isn’t in direct obedience to Tiberius’s orders. Tiberius is the leader of Virgo, but his abilities are unknown even to the strongest members of the group. See, when Kodeka was infiltrating a heavily fortified base of the Megalachorin military, he was assigned to attaining military airship parts for a large airship project Virgo has been working on. He waited long enough and his motivations are driven by his emotions. He’s kept in his pent up aggression for long enough.

__________________________________________


The events happens as such:


An infiltration has been detected within the base known as the Krimson Defense Armory. Alarms are sounded and several Megalachorin special forces are responding accordingly. Kodeka has been waiting in the shadows, assigned to make a move in order to escort his comrades to safety in the event that they are pursued by the special forces. He is not supposed to take on any of the “Big 3” who are the new gen Bellators of the Megalachorin military. The Big 3 Bellators of the Alliance pretty much skyrocketed through the ranks and are now major players within the military and intelligence communities of the Megalachorin Alliance government. Kodeka’s hate for these people has boiled over and he makes a brash move, one that none of his comrades were expecting. 


On top of a cliff, Commander Stirn (one of the big 3) observes the facility as he orders his special forces unit to secure the perimeter and await further instruction. Lurking behind him is Kodeka the Owl, waiting for his chance to pounce and the opportunity is here. He was ordered to warp into the facility using the Shadow Containment technique and bring his Virgo teammates through an escape route in the event of a contingency.


Instead, he stares at Commander Stirn’s back, pulsing with anger. He charges his left hand up with purple electricity, this is a technique known as “Phantom Arc.” Kodeka, fueled with anger and explosive dark eco, swings his electrified left hand in and out, penetrating a large rock on his left. He lets out a deep, hate-filled roar and hastily dashes forward at the speed of sound. There is a large line of missing chunk of rock where his hand penetrated and advanced toward his target. Commander Stirn hears a loud tone, ramping up like the bass of an aggressive rap song mixed with the destructive electronic properties of the stray bolts shooting from the current. Stirn begins to turn his head and a harsh collision is felt. Stirn’s eyes widen as his body jerks forward. He hears the rapid flow of this explosively static electricity like a high pitched tesla coil surrounding him. He immediately coughs a gurgle of blood and looks down. He sees the dark hand, charged with hatred, sticking right out of his chest. 


[A necromancer?] Stirn thinks as the hand is abruptly removed, causing him to collapse and visit his final thoughts. He wants to communicate to his spec ops team, but doesn’t have the energy left to stay conscious. 


“One down.” Kodeka says aloud, with his face shrouded in a dark aura. The bolts of his left hand sporadically tap the ground in a nonrhythmic pattern.


A conversation can be heard on Stirn’s radio.

“Commander. Come in. We have eyes on the hostiles…”

“Commander?”

“He’s unresponsive.”

“I’ll check it out.” 


Kodeka calms his eco and starts making his way down the cliff. With his head still filled with hateful thoughts that are overwhelming his actions, he looks around for his next victim. He sees one of the special operatives that report to Stirn and begins to flare with dark eco again. Kodeka hops up and aggressively propels himself to the operative. Just before he engages with her, a yellow flash is seen in his peripheral. Right before making contact, he stops himself and dashes backward. Kodeka is immediately confronted by Colonel Marx (The strongest of the big 3).


Marx is regarded as the strongest yellow eco user of the modern day and has never lost a battle.


“Perfect. You’re exactly the man I want to fight.” Kodeka confidently relays to the colonel. 

Kodeka charges his hand again and dashes at the colonel. The colonel is hit immediately and Kodeka feels the thrill of taking down his strongest opponent yet. Then the colonel seemingly dissolves before him and as he registers what’s going on, a destructive yellow beam shoots in from his right. He almost completely dodges, but some of his body is burned from the intense energy released from the beam. Kodeka dashes away with blue eco and watches Marx from a safe distance.


[He echo phased and I hit the phase copy he used as a diversion.] Kodeka thinks to himself, then says, "Let's see you counter this."


He lines his right palm with his eyes and a glowing, black streak appears on his face. He has activated a mysterious ability that gave him his nickname. His cloak turns dark brown and his face is pale-white, aside from the strange black markings surrounding his eyes and forehead. Wings grow out of his back and he lunges upward. He begins to take flight and watches Colonel Marx who patiently stares back at him. Kodeka flies around with the appearance of a large, brown owl with predatory intent (like a Barred owl). He begins to roar with more purple electricity, much more than before and violently swoops down at the colonel. He dodges Marx's yellow bolt, then another one, and just before making contact, Marx flickers away. Kodeka hits the ground with the thunderous electronic pulse. It devastates the ground that Colonel Marx was standing on just a moment ago. Kodeka quickly looks to his right, then his left and hops up to take flight again and begins to scan the area. 


He flies around for a few seconds and suddenly a series of yellow beams sporadically shoot at him. He swiftly evades and doges each one of them and hears a faint rush before himself. Mid-flight, he looks up and Colonel Marx is directly before him. Marx is seen reaching the peak of a very high jump. His legs slightly bending as if he just bounced straight up and perfectly matches Kodeka’s height. A flash of eco is seen in Marx’s right hand and a deafening, vibrant yellow beam erupts as he forces his hand forward. The beam, crackling through the air and leaving behind segments of massive yellow rings, makes contact with Kodeka as it roars him downward into a rock-hard wall. 


Smoke emits from the crash site and Kodeka crawls out. His odd owl-esq ability dissipates and he changes back to his normal form. He spits out some blood and says, “That was a good hit.” Then proceeds to form a black and purple barrier around himself, this is known as a “Shadeforge Barrier” and has historically only been used by masterful dark eco users. 


He activates Phantom Arc again and speedily dashes at the previously mentioned operative who has just been observing up to this point. Kodeka almost gets to her as he is disrupted by Colonel Marx. Kodeka swipes his hand right at Marx as the colonel barely dodges. Then points his palm at Marx and shoots out a purple beam. A vibrant dash of bright-red is seen (the color of Marx’s armor) and Kodeka swings the still active purple beam into the evading operative. It cuts her left hand off as she lets out a pain filled gasp. In the next moment, Colonel Marx flickers directly behind Kodeka as his statically pulsed, orange and purple hand meets the necromancer’s right arm. It ignored the properties of the barrier protecting Kodeka's body as the impact of the powerful hit throws him to the left and his body bounces off the ground like a rock skipping the surface of a still pond. 


Kodeka catches himself with his left hand scraping the soil. He stands up and looks at Marx from a distance. He grips his right arm, or what’s left of it, as it slowly melts off in clumps of flesh and eco. 


Kodeka the Owl stares Colonel Marx down. The nemesis he had nightmares about as he trained and trained his whole life. He vowed to destroy the very war machines of the government that he blames for destruction of his family, his childhood, his people. He pursued harsh training from the strongest, darkest Bellators and Necromancers. He sold his life, his soul, to their cause so he could get stronger and stronger at a rapid pace. He did all of that so he could confront the horrible Bellators before him. He breathes slowly and heavily, thinking about his life as it flashes by. All of those memories of training, plotting, and killing come to mind. 


“I should have known…” He states as the wind howls, blowing his darkened silver cloak with neon orange outlines. The sounds of combat are heard from the facility as Virgo continues to get itself out of their predicament, without Kodeka’s help. 

“I should have known better. I let my guard down. You are too strong, Marx. People like you and I shouldn't exist.” 

Marx begins to channel astronomical amounts of red, yellow, and orange eco. He plans to finish this off right here, right now.

Kodeka exhales a strange, black steam from his nose and lets out a painful grunt. A scaly layer of black-ish energy sheds from his upper body and his right arm is reformed in his newly developed body that resided under the black layer of eco. He feverishly laughs and yells, “This isn’t over, yet! You are now my arch nemesis!” Then he claps his hands together, interlocking his fingers.

Marx says nothing as he cocks his right arm back and right before shooting an explosive beam of various eco forms at Kodeka, he distantly hears the words, “Lockpoint. Shadow Containment.” Marx shoots out a massive crackling beam of devastating ecos of several vibrant colors. Kodeka seemingly phases out of existence in an instantaneous fashion just as the beam reaches his position. 


This is only the beginning of a rivalry between these extremely powerful Bellators. Kodeka the Owl has been underestimated for a very long time and even the Megalachorin military lacked intel on his true levels of power.

Now they will be on the look-out for him.

Kodeka isn't finished.

August 12, 2024 21:33

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1 comment

Branson Kennedy
19:22 Aug 13, 2024

This story was inspired by a song titled "Big Dawgs" by Hanumankind & Kalmi.

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