A Story of Evil

"So did you meet Pandora?"

These were the first words which Solomon heard as soon as he opened his eyes. It was the second time he woke up; finally feeling some of the damage dealt to him during the fight with the Direwolf. He got up and, saw his king sitting on a bench in the dark.

"I did my liege." Sol was still processing the whole conversation with the Seraphim. As well as all the shocking revelations told by the creature.

"I see. Solomon, those eyes of yours seem to have changed a lot." It might be because of what he learned. It might be because of the atmosphere of the room. It may even be because of the king's tone of voice. But Sol felt like he was talking to an entirely different king.

"Can you stand boy?" The king furthered, making Solomon test his legs as he went out of his bed.

"Good. Come and follow me." As soon as the king said this, the entire room turned black and, immediately crawled within the king's shadow. Sol was finally able to see Jubilee; thankful, that the king's appearance didn't seem to have changed.

"Let's start with the basics. You and Alice have survived through the maze, your brains have retained its normal functioning. However, both Jake and Ethan went a bit insane after that. The girl came as a surprise to me but, what happened to the other two was expected." King Jubilee was waiting for Sol to say anything but, the boy was quiet.

"You are permitted to ask questions. It's not like I'll kill you Sol."

"That's the first time you called me by my name my liege."

"Well, we now share the same fate so it'd be a bit weird to keep addressing you as 'boy.'"

"Understood my liege."

"Anyway, the maze actually messes with your brains, making time move slower than it actually is. The effects are largely through the efforts of Pandora because, it is through her powers as a Seraphim that we're able to access such a useful feature." They walked through a dark and long corridor; Sol was right beside the king who gave these explanations.

"I only use the maze when I need to create another knight or when the need arises. Primarily because of the aftereffects which, your two acquaintances are experiencing."

"Turning insane?"

"Yes, they've began seeing things that don't actually exist and, are having trouble distinguishing between that and reality. They're disposable now but, we can talk about that later." They finally reached the end of the corridor.

Just like every other secret area within Pentagon, there was nothing but a dead end in front of them. Sol was expecting the king to use a crystal just like everyone else but, instead he gave a command.

"Sol, you still have the crystal given to you, correct?"

"Yes, my liege." Solomon took out the crystal which was on his pocket and, upon close observation, King Jubilee gave his approval.

"Stick the crystal to the middle of the wall. That should open it up."

It was difficult fort Solomon to keep up with the pacing of everything happening before him. He just finished killing a Direwolf in a half-conscious state. Talked personally to a seraphim. Learned that King Jubilee actually possessed the power which he also awakened and, just learned that his crystal could open some sort of secret area.

"Solomon, you are a genius, there's no doubt about that. You understand things in a speed that other humans could only dream of." The wall began opening split in the middle and sliding away from both sides.

"Just like the day when I gave you the truth of our history, I want you to throw away all that is common sense and, transcend beyond reason."

Large black pillars with blood red linings held the room ceiling from collapsing. Walls of the same dark shade glowed with the rune markings sharing the similar color to the linings of the pillars. Solomon could hear a faint heartbeat echo in the room and, in the middle was a large cylindrical glass with a washed-out purple liquid inside. Floating within it, was someone Solomon was familiar with. It was Pandora

"When I was a kid, I asked my father to take me to the slums. He agreed of course because, he didn't care about me. I was the last of my siblings after all and, he wouldn't care less if a boy who couldn't inherit the throne died." They began walking towards Pandora.

"I saw everything. With these eyes of mine, I saw the rotten and broken state of the Void. How we've suffered so badly that even the heavens seemed indifferent to our plight. The people came to me, asking me to help them; reaching out their hands to the six-year-old boy who had nothing but his title as a prince. That was how my vision was finally cleared and, as I grew up, I never stopped trying to find a way out of fate that imprisoned us."

Solomon didn't know what to say in that moment. He simply listened as his eyes also focused on the Seraphim which had its wings covering its naked body.

"I found it, years later, when I went on an expedition. I found how we could escape this fate and, together with my trusted subordinates, I began an expedition outside the domain."

"Why aren't there any records of that my liege?"

"That's because my father could care less about what I did. The other Domains also have zero interest on me so it was a fool-proof plan."

"What they didn't know was that I had it all figured out. With all the clues I could find and, with the hints through the royal library, I was able to discover that, there was a key lying on top of Dragon's Peak."

It was yet another shocking revelation. Not only were dragons rare, they were also known to be so powerful that, they could wipe out a whole city with one flame breath. Its scales were harder than any steel or gem. Its eyes could see clearly through the night and could reach a whole kilometer. Every flap of its wings could create hurricanes. A dragon was calamity itself, one which not even the strongest in every domain dared face.

Yet King Jubilee, a powerless human, braved through all the Chaos Areas and went straight towards it. Courting death itself and having half of his body already plunged in the river Styx.

"A lot of good men died having faith in me and believing in the future that I told them about. We went on a fool's errand and got what we deserved. A year of nothing but despair as we desperately clawed through the pits of our graves until we reached that despicable neverland." King Jubilee touched the glass enclosing the seraphim. Some bubbles rose up; with Pandora's eyes opening just a bit but not completely.

"The dragon came to kill us. It didn't take much effort really and, it was able to get me along the way. My body was torn open, leaving me for the scavengers. But I didn't die yet, I crawled and crawled, moving towards that destination written on the records. With whatever strength of will that I had left, I struggled and, upon reaching the cave, I finally saw her."

"Pandora?" Sol asked, with a nod coming from the king.

"Chained. Imprisoned. Exiled. Beaten half to death with her glorious wings torn. With a sword piercing right through her chest. The one who saved the Void from death, the seraphim who favored us, finally took my life."

Sol didn't understand. If the king died then, who was the one he was speaking with? Who was the one narrating everything to him? But before he could reach any answer, king Jubilee began providing it.

"The next thing I knew, I was back within the castle walls. Everyone, including my own father died by my own hands and, I could taste blood and raw meat in my mouth. It was a horrendous realization, of what had happened and, what I have done."

"You became one with Pandora?"

"Correct. More precisely, I became a living shadow." King Jubilee controlled his own shadow, turning it into a sword which he held in his hand.

There was an air of silence that Sol didn't invade. He allowed the king's final word to trail of and waited for what would be said next.

"A lot of things happened but, the most surprising thing about it was that I gained Solomon's Wisdom. Just like that, I was given the power to change the fate of our domain. But I couldn't do it alone. Slowly, meticulously, without getting noticed by the other domains, I've built this plan from the ground up, needing only one last variable."

"Winning the culling." As Sol mentioned this, the king smiled at him. Jubilee still thought how it was nothing short of a miracle that someone like Solomon finally appeared.

"Exactly. Solomon my boy, you need to win the Culling if we are to break free of our fate."

"How do I do that my king?" Solomon asked, feeling the great responsibility brough on his shoulders.

"That's simple."

"Jake Damian…"

"Ethan Levery…"

"and that other orphan Alice…"

"I need you to kill all of them."