ACT III: ONSLAUGHT

Scene I: Open sea near Leifi's Shore - DAY

THE CROWN PRINCE:

(clinging to rope)

Hard to port!

SEAMASTER 2:

We have lost another ship, my prince! We cannot sustain this!

THE CROWN PRINCE:

Lord Seamaster keep us alive!

Lightening struck the sea next to their ship, the force of the strike reverberated through them all. Not even the Crown Prince was immune. Soaked in blood and water he steadied himself as he waited for his hearing and sight to return. The sounds were first, blood curdling screams rung out through his skull. Between the shrieks, orders were barked out with command. Next his sight returned, the boy opened his eyes to see carnage before him. Ships both of Ilian colors and of the Storm Islands crashed into each other as the sea thrashed them about. The very waters mimicked the fiery rage held by both fleets as they clashed in wondrous delight. Above head in the skies thunderstorms lashed out as the Islanders wielded their ancient powers to fight back. fifty foot waves flung ships over great distances and the soldiers on them even further. Thousands furiously swam against the restless waters meeting their doom. The red dye of warfare stained the ocean a terrible color. It had only been the second day and already the Crown Prince had lost a third of his ships.

THE CROWN PRINCE:

Forward, we must make it to shore! I will go forth again and clear a path!

SEAMASTER 2:

Wait young prince, for two days you have fought like a wild serpent, worthy of your titles! But we must pull back, you must recover!

THE CROWN PRINCE:

Can you not hear them, Seamaster? The cries of my men, their death wails in the face of their demise? I will save them all!

The Crown Prince once more jumped into the fray of battle armed with his legendary spear, White Fang and his Inherited Treasure. He continued to carve his name into history. The skilled Islanders who fell by his great spear numbered in the many. Snori "Iron Claw", Jorund "Thunder Spear", even the famed shieldmaiden Asny Solvidottir met her end by the prince's blade. Countless others fell in his wake.

Scene II: Open sea near Leifi's Shore - NIGHT

Alas none of it was enough to snatch victory, nor save all his men. The boy prince was sent back into the fog with what remained of his forces. Already he had lost a third and what remained grew considerably weaker by the day. To make matters worse, neither twin Storm Lords graced the battle of ships, they watched on from the shore with fifty thousand strong at their side, fresh and ready.

As night fell and the waters calmed. The prince sat off to the side, licking his wounds.

SEAMASTER 2:

(approaching with wet bread and mead)

It may not be the Stygian wine you are accustomed to from the royal stock. But seafarers drink mead and it is good enough.

CROWN PRINCE:

I thank you Seamaster for the food, but I am no seafarer. I only visit your domain.

SEAMASTER 2:

And still the sea serpent moves within you all the same. You have proven yourself to the ancestors these last days.

What the Seamaster spoke was true the Crown Prince had honored the ancestors with his performance, any who doubted his claim to the throne were silenced.

CROWN PRINCE:

It matters not, look how many I have lost.

SEAMASTER 2:

Careful, do not forsake the ancestors' blessing. What you lose they will replenish for your efforts to honor the old ways are admirable.

CROWN PRINCE:

(Looking out to sea)

I fear, Seamaster, the blessing I require is too great.

SEAMASTER 2:

Are you that eager to meet your end, so you can ask them personally? Speak what you wish so that I may know your heart's desire.

CROWN PRINCE:

To reach shore, to face my uncles. To bring an end to this madness.

SEAMASTER 2:

They number fifty thousand strong.

CROWN PRINCE:

I only need twenty thousand of my own.

There was a long silence between both warriors as they replenished their strength with what little food was on offer. The Seamaster was first to rise, retiring to his room.

SEAMASTER 2:

Unfortunately I do not have the power of the ancestors my prince. So I cannot make true all of your desires. But I will grant you one. I Basileios, father of Typhon of House Xerxes, Seamaster and Lord of Larsa will get you and twenty thousand to shore. Let it be my gift to you, for all you have done for my son.

Scene III: Open sea near Leifi's Shore - DAY

The day brought with it a ferocious intensity to sea battle. Lord Basileios Xerxes had declared that he would get his Crown Prince to shore and so far it had proved just as difficult as the two days before. The relentlessness of the sea coupled with the mastery of the Storm Islands ships proved a terrible combination. The twin-headed black wolf flags of House Stormborne circled around like a wild pack smelling prey. Basileios used centuries worth of experience to maneuver not only his ship but his allies as well, avoiding fatal blows by either lightning, flames or Ballista arrows. Or on rare occasions a combination of all three at the same time.

Whirlpools had begun to appear and all ships looked to navigate the new added difficulty to their terrain. However it was in this calamitous occasion that their salvation emerged. None can say who was first to notice it, truthfully it did not matter. All that did was that Lord Basileios and the Crown Prince were of the same mind when within the whirlpool they saw salvation. So many times had their pointed attacks been repelled, unable to break through the enemy line. However within the whirlpools they saw a different approach, one that offered them a breakthrough. Rather than hit the enemy's line from a single point like a spear, they would do so in spiral waves, like a vortex.

BASILEIOS:

Sound the horn my prince, get them to follow us!

CROWN PRINCE:

As you command Seamaster!

All allied ships turned hard to port, following along the leading ship as they used the momentum of the colossal maelstrom that had formed in the center of battle. Allied and enemy ships alike, spun around and around the growing swirl, many ships from both sides falling into the dark abyss. Lord Basileios and those vessels closest to him carried the momentum they generated and escaped the vortex, crashing into the enemy line with incredible force. Their speed was enough to finally break through the enemy barricade.

However they did not stop there, the boats mimicked as the maelstrom had done and spun in a spiral on their approach to shore. They would not allow themselves to be surrounded on either side. As they spun they fired volley after volley of ballista arrows, laying devastating waste to those ships that carried Stormborne colors. The enemy vessels had not expected such a penetrating breach through their line and was caught unawares. Their only option to stop the onslaught of ballista arrows annihilating them was to crash directedly into the allied ships pinning them against each other.

This had effectively ended much of the battle as multiple vessels had crashed into each other creating a makeshift stable ground allowing for close quarters combat. Ice as well as fire and lightning flashed across many ships as warriors engaged in battle. Some of the Stygian warriors had frozen the surrounding waters creating another platform to duel on. The violence that followed was animalistic. Those that rebelled knew the penalty for their defeat and saw to give everything they could to stop it. Many believed that they were on the cusp of victory. Credence would have been given to such an outlandish claim, but the ancestors sought to bless only one that day.

From the red sea the Crown Prince emerged, twenty thousand strong at his back. Personally delivered by Basileios Xerxes.

Scene IV: Leifi's Shore - EVENING

The Crown Prince labored to where the twin Storm Lords waited atop their horses. Both of Golden hair and storm filled eyes, one soul split into two. They stood proud–giants in their own right– while thunder rumbled in their wake. Magni and Modi's entrance into our tale is a thunderous occasion worthy of all the spectacle on offer.

MAGNI:

Look brother, the false storm approaches.

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MODI:

Broken and weeping

MAGNI:

Soft-spoken and soaked like a maiden eager to be made friendly.

THE CROWN PRINCE:

Uncles… I come not as Crown Prince but as the son of Myrra-

Lightning struck all around them with malicious hatred.

MAGNI:

You have no right to speak her name, false storm.

MODI:

Poisonous serpent do not speak that name, or be struck down.

THE CROWN PRINCE:

I mean no ill will lords. Please let us bring this to an end, the ocean has had her fill of blood. So have I. Release the princess to me.

The Crown Prince was struck across the face with lightning, bringing him to his knees. His soldiers rushed to his side and he forced them back.

MODI:

Release the princess to you?

MAGNI:

Do you think we would allow another Stygian to make a breeding mare for our sister?

MODI:

Just as we struck King Barranagan a death blow.

MAGNI:

So shall we offer you one in kind.

THE CROWN PRINCE:

Is this how it must end?

MAGNI:

(Laughing)

False storm, have you forgotten the wicked ways of our home?

MODI:

(Laughing)

We have fifty thousand strong, come let us make merry with your twenty thousand.

The Crown Prince rose resigned to what would have to follow. The twin Storm Lords had stated their rebellion clear for all to see. There would be no bending the knee to the prince without bloodshed. All returned to their respective armies prepared for what was to come. The fifty thousand that belonged to the twin storms outnumbered the mere twenty thousand of the Crown Prince. Added that those soldiers of the storm were fresh and had not seen battle.

As Modi had said, the two armies made merry.

However as they clashed, it was precisely this reason that moved to be a disadvantage for the army of the storm. The Crown Prince and his soldiers had been baptized by the catastrophe of the conflict these last three days and had emerged changed almost feral in their combat. The army of twenty thousand crashed into fifty thousand without hesitation. Prepared that many of them would fall, but for every one of them that did, three of the enemy would join them. The ferocity of the famed Ilian army as well as the Stygians within their ranks proved to be capable butchers. Holding their own against equally elite forces.

They fought valiantly worthy of the purple banners they represented. But the primordial conflict between the twin Storm Lords and the Crown Prince took center stage. Their battle had commenced with overwhelming intensity that the effects spilled over into the adjacent struggle with their respective armies. The Crown Prince fought against his uncles in deadly combat. White Fang in his left hand and his Inherited Treasure in his right, as he pushed his limits of the spear to their absolute zenith.

But it was not enough. With their mastery of lightning and thunder, Magni and Modi easily turned the tide of battle, playing with their prey they looked to torture the prince.

MAGNI:

Is this all there is to the famed Crown Prince?

MODI:

Bring forth the Lord of War within, enough of these games. Let us defile each other.

The Crown Prince ignored all taunts, mind focused on the task at hand. His greatness and aptitude so vast with the spear he summoned several more to assist him in his fight. Truly throughout all of Iliad, no Aurum herself. There was none else who compared to the skill possessed by the Crown Prince with a spear. A blessed warrior in all respects. His mastery over ice also served to be a point of great spectacle. His constructs and incantations offered him absolute control over frost and its properties.

Yet as he continued to excel the twin Storm Lords reacted in kind, matching his greatness with their own. Toying with the boy. There was no doubt of the strength they possessed, it was them after all who dealt King Barranagan a death blow decades prior. Here in conflict with his son they hunted him for sport.

The Crown Prince was beaten into submission. They left him battered and broken on the sand soaked beaches, barely clinging to life as he was tormented for his attempts to take them on by himself. The prince rose to his knees, heaved over as blood oozed from his orifices.

MAGNI:

My axe still thirsts, false storm.

MODI:

We have not nearly had our fill, half-breed.

MAGNI:

You mock him too readily Modi, all know he cannot call the storms. He is no half-breed. He is Storm Lord in name only. His title inherited from the Destined One–a true storm caller. The only one worthy of our sister's hand.

It had been whispered across hushed winds that the princess of the Storm Islands was first promised to the Destined One, the true union the Islanders desired. However the Destined One divested himself of all claims and titles, thus the privilege falling to the Crown Prince. The False Storm, the unwanted king. The second son, the lesser one.

Modi struck him again with a bolt of lightning. The boy's cries masked by the tearing of thunder and his flesh.

MODI:

(mocking)

Call forth the storms!

Magni struck him with lightning as well, over and over.

MAGNI:

(mocking)

Call them storm caller! Show us!

And so the Crown Prince did. As Magni brought down his battle-axe, Stormweaver atop the head of the prince for the death blow. A blinding explosion of lightning fired off in all directions. It shook the shore and all who stood on it with mystical energy of the most powerful kind. The blast was strong enough that it sent Magni flying off at great speed.

Modi however was not so lucky, as he regained his sight, what he saw ahead was the Crown Prince a mere inches away from his face. Before the Storm Lord could react–emboldened by his long dormant powers–the Crown Prince performed a Thunder Clap. Irrevocably destroying his hearing along with that of several thousand soldiers who were unfortunate enough to be caught in the blast radius.

The Crown Prince was the only one not stunned by the attack, while Modi's mind looked to reset itself, without his hearing, he could not have known the great amount of energy the Crown Prince had gathered at his chest. Without so much as hesitation, the prince fired a point blank Lightning Spear through Modi, with considerable power behind it. The lightning spear pierced through the Storm Lord and embedded itself on a mountain peak in the distance, generating a second even more deadly explosion, obliterating the mountain top. The first of the Storm Lords to fall was Modi Stormborne, who died before his body hit the ground.

Instinctively in response to his first triumph, the Crown Prince let out an animalistic roar which beckoned the storms with a terrifying force. Lightning struck all across the shore with violent intentions, indiscriminately vaporizing friend and foe alike. While thunder exploded in the sky at the reawakening of a Storm Lord. The skies tore apart and torrential rain poured from the heavens. The prince bathed in the power of his mother's people, deafened by his own Thunder Clap he could not hear the wailing cries of Magni as he coddled the lifeless body of his twin brother.

MAGNI:

Astrid, Bodil! Look at what has become of my second half! A viper slithers within our forest set to take all. To ruin us!

Grief stricken, he turned to the prince.

MAGNI:

False Storm, know my wrath! Know my name as Magni, world ender! Doom bringer! Stygian Slayer!

Magni called forth the storms with all his might and leapt into action against the prince. The two Storm Lords fought amongst themselves on even footing. Both wielding lightning to their hearts content. The prince had only just awoken his birthright but proved capable of withstanding and exceeding at times the veteran Storm Lord. He called for lightning like his grandfather King Ragnar, with indifferent authority. The storms were his to do as he saw fit, and he used them without mercy. Each killing blow Magni had created was easily erased with an equal reply that looked to bring him down.

Of what followed many there considered it to be the greatest showing between Storm Lords not seen in centuries. The Storm Islands shook with epic power at the battle they witnessed, warriors stopped their own duels to bear sight to the heavens tear open as lightning and thunder obliterated everything in their path. Neither of them backed down, forgoing the reason why they clashed. Instead they sought to lose themselves in violence. On their faces a collective look of pure unbridled euphoria. Their Wills clashing with primal fury as each sought to impose their hatred over the other.

Yet at the end of the cataclysmic duel before them, it was the Crown Prince who emerged victorious, standing over the smoldering headless Magni. He had done it, he alone at nineteen had slayed two Storm Lords. His great spear–White Fang dripped with the poignant blood of Stormcallers–had once again proven a worthy weapon at his side. Even as he stood there barely alive as his body near mangled looked to repair itself slowly. His hearing returned in time for him to make out the thousands who fell to their knees in worship of his greatness. Not even those who rebelled were immune to what they had witnessed. A demi-god had been born and his rule was absolute. The rebellion had been extinguished.

BASILEIOS:

You are victorious, Lord Prince! Your greatness truly is infinite, they will be sung for centuries on end.

CROWN PRINCE:

This victory belongs to us all. And of my men…of my twenty thousand how many remain?

BASILEIOS:

A…mere two thousand. However they fought like men possessed, in the end our enemies saw no choice but to surrender after your victory.

CROWN PRINCE:

How many?

BASILEIOS:

Twenty thousand my prince.

A coldness Lord Basileios had not felt since in the presence of King Barranagan Xerxes washed over him, as he looked into the eyes of his Crown Prince.

CROWN PRINCE:

Execute them all, none may oppose Iliad and live.

Lord Basileios and the Crown Princes' men would do as they were commanded. All who rebelled against the prince would be shown no mercy. Leifi's Shore would run as red as the ocean for many weeks after. So much blood soaked the ground and sea that it overflowed, covering the air with a thick red metallic haze that lingered for ages after.

The prince, battered and broken, would make his way to Kattegat with what remained of his army. They were welcomed as heroes for their great triumph over the twin Storm Lords. Their praises sung for many moons after and still to this very day. A nineteen year old prince had come to their aid showing that Iliad still cared for its allies. That it would meet any threat levied against it with extreme violence and carnage. As they strolled through the streets of Kattegat, the Crown Prince did not care for the adoration, for all that mattered to him was the princess that waited impatiently at the castle entrance. No longer able to contain herself, she rushed the injured prince and embraced him, her storm eyes filled with tears and his in kind for all he sought was her warm embrace. There they stood for all to see, the triumph of a love thought of as pure. A love worthy enough to unite two realms together in peace. What better end to a tale most epic than with the reuniting of destined lovers, and what their future might bring. Certainly I cannot think of a better ending, to the tale of the Storm Islands Rebellion and the legend of Crown Prince Antares Xerxes.

END.

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