Book I of III: The Swords of the Sultan (33 page)

“Even that answer,” Trendon replied, “must
you decipher in your own time—but let me give a little hint. When
you have truly discovered, and mastered, the truest law that
governs this world and realm where you currently exist, then that
very discovery shall also lead you right back to me—though I can
guarantee you that we shall not meet again in this tower.”

It was then that Baltor became seriously
exasperated at all of Trendon’s cryptic answers, and replied with
frustration clearly evident within his voice, “Well—if everything
that you say is true, then it will take me literally centuries and
centuries to get where you are at! In fact, I’m sure I’ll long be
dead before I’m even close to being ready—”

Trendon interrupted, “In a sense you will be,
and yet not.”

“Huh?”

After sighing, Trendon explained, “Even those
elves who dwell upon other planets, and whose lives literally span
two to three thousand years, only get a fractional glimpse of what
really lies out there, due to the fact that most are stuck on one
planet—I’m not, thanks to the rod, and my immortality.”

With irritation seriously brewing now, Baltor
asked, “So you’re saying that it will be impossible for me to learn
everything in this lifetime, in order to become the chosen one. Am
I right?”

“Yes and no,” Trendon answered back quite
calmly. “In order to truly live, one must have first died.”

Baltor thought in disbelief, anger, and
frustration,
this man is insane! His claims are impossible—even
ridiculous—no way can any of this be true! Maybe I’m the one who is
either hallucinating or insane
.

Trendon appeared to have read his mind yet
again, as he verbally confirmed, “No, you are not hallucinating or
insane. Now listen carefully, as my time grows short. What I am
about to offer to you is a choice that I was not given a long, long
time ago.”

Baltor asked, “What’s that?”

Trendon answered, “If you should accept, I
will make you an immortal, though the costs and demands of this
powerful type of immortality will be extremely high at first, much
higher than any other type of immortal races.

“You must learn how to curb them all through
your own wit and resources—should you accept!”

Sounding like a pouting toddler, Baltor
asked, “Accept what?”

Trendon telepathically answered,
Becoming
a vompareus… or in your best understanding of the word, a
vampire!

As for the word “vampire,” Baltor did
comprehend. He had read an ancient, compilation scroll on undead
creatures only about two years back in the Guild’s library. This
zany, unknown author who lived four hundred years ago claimed that
the undead once walked this world millenniums ago, but were
banished into hell by the good-aligned god Titus, so that humanity
could be tested for its value, whether good or evil.

Seven types of undead did the author list and
illustrate: ghosts, skeletons, zombies, wraiths, specters, mummies,
and vampires.

Regarding vampires, the author mentioned
about how vampires were the only undead creatures who still looked
alive, were blood suckers, and preyed only at night upon living
creatures, preferably human beings—for, during the day, they slept
in coffins, graveyards, or at least someplace underground. Sunlight
was the only thing that could permanently destroy them. Yet they
also hated religious symbols and holy water. Oh, and there is
always “a head vampire.”

Just after he had looked away to the ground,
only a few moments later, he asked, “So your plan is to make me a
vampire, let me master this world and realm completely on my own,
and once mastered, you will then teach me about all the other
ones?”

“If that is your destiny and your will.”

“I don’t know,” Baltor replied quite
reluctantly, as his mind flashed upon his recent encounters with
the cannibals, and of course, their disgusting rituals. He didn’t
want to hurt anyone, much less drink his or her blood!

Again having read his thoughts, Trendon
added, “As I have already explained, you must use your wit and
resources to help you overcome all your weaknesses, and upon every
level—even with the initial need to feast upon human blood! Even in
the beginning, be selective by removing only the human vermin from
the earth and feasting upon the blood of your enemies.

“Ultimately, in order to understand the
future, one must also learn from the past; in the same way, in
order to understand absolute good, one must also understand
absolute evil. If that’s not enough of a hint, then let me put it
in a way you will understand—in order to beat your enemy, you must
first become that enemy!

“And since we’re now talking about you, young
one, let me confirm that there are many obstacles in your past that
prevent you from clearly seeing the potentials for your future!
But, the signs are also clearly there.”

Despite the fact that Baltor wanted to learn
and discover all that this man had to teach, or whatever Trendon
was, he still was reluctant in the heavy price tag involved, and so
he replied, “I don’t know.”

Trendon pointed his left index finger up, and
then said telepathically,
You have one hour to decide, as I have
other affairs that I must tend to presently. During this hour, you
are not to touch the Rod of Ro’shain for the reasons I’ve already
specified
.

He verbally added, “Should you choose not to
accept what I have to offer; that is okay, but you must leave and
never return. If you do and/or you bring others, I will be forced
to destroy you all, for the rod must stay upon one of the physical
planets, and I have chosen this planet for a very specific reason!
Should you accept, then you will soon find a whole new world of
opportunities and powers that were previously unfathomable,
here.”

Trendon abruptly switched back to telepathy,
as he said,
Once you have fully mastered this world and realm, I
will next commence to take you to other worlds and their boundless
opportunities. That is, of course, if you still want to know the
mystery behind all of the other mysteries, then this is the only
path to go! This is the way toward absolution and the absolute
truth, where the very Heavens and the Divine co-exist!

Baltor nodded his head a few times, and then
proceeded to sit back in the chair so that he could contemplate in
silence.

Trendon asked, “Do you have any other
questions?”

Still looking away, Baltor shook his head
negatively. “I shall be back in one hour.”

As soon as Baltor nodded his head, Trendon
snapped his fingers and instantly disappeared.

Baltor stood up, walked over to the pedestal,
looked at the rod again, and shockingly noticed that there were now
hundreds of tiny emerald teardrops in the mahogany wood—not only
that, but the handle was no longer made of granite, yet a perfectly
smooth gray, white, and black marble!

As he took a closer look at the marble, his
mouth dropped open upon seeing that the marble patterns were
continuously shifting around!
Beyond priceless!
Because
Trendon said not to touch it, he didn’t, but sat down back in the
chair and thought.

For the next hour, he considered the fact
that he was now standing on the crossroads of life—on one hand, he
didn’t want to become a vampire, forced to drink people’s blood in
order to survive.

On the other hand, he wanted to know the
mysteries of the universe, and maybe Trendon was right that this
was the only way to go about it, yet he had also said that this
would be his one and only chance to decide! Baltor admitted that he
had always been curious about the truths behind life and death.

At the end of the hour that only felt like
minutes to Baltor, Trendon reappeared.

Even though Baltor still looked quite
uncertain, Trendon revealed, “Now is the time for you to make your
choice, young one.”

Baltor asked a couple whiny questions, “Why
can’t you just train me to be a watcher now? Why do I have to
become a blood-sucking vampire first?”

Trendon sighed before answering this
question, “Just as I explained before, in order to beat the
enemy—one must first become the enemy. Let your heart and mind
continuously be your guide as you have always done before, Baltor,
and you shall never fail again. This is the very reason I seriously
believe that you have the potential to be the chosen one.”

With fear, Baltor looked to the ground. After
swallowing back the saliva that had accumulated in his throat, he
asked, “Will it be painful?”

After considering his question for a few
moments, Trendon replied from his own experiences, “It is always
painful when one wants to know the truth, but I can guarantee you
this. Once one has ultimately discovered and united with the ‘Truth
of Truths,’ there shall never be pain again, only utter joy and
peace. Even I, after nearly ten thousand years of existence, have
not yet found it, though I believe that I am very, very, very
close!

“But I know exactly how your question
referred, Baltor—yes, the physical pains are just as excruciating
as the emotional, mental, psychic and spiritual pains.”

Baltor looked up into the compassionate eyes
of Trendon, and then slowly nodded his head up and down a couple
times.

Almost as an afterthought, Trendon snapped
his fingers just before he stated, “Oh…something else you need to
know right now. Within the cosmic heavens, souls are continuously
generated that ultimately spread out throughout the multi-verses
and beyond, while filling new life forms. Yet for each powerful
soul that takes a physical or spiritual form, there erupts from the
furious planes of hell an anti-soul to taint and destroy its
counterpart!

“You have not had the opportunity to meet
your ‘anti-soul’ just yet, but when you do, you’ll know it, and so
will that other person, when he or she meets you! In other words,
Baltor, you have had since before your birth an enemy whose sole
mission is to destroy you, an enemy of equal power! Only once you
have destroyed your counterpart can you truly transcend to the next
stage!”

After a ten second pause so that Baltor could
digest all that crucially important information, Trendon promised,
“As for me, I am here to help you, Baltor, to fulfill your rightful
destiny…if you should accept my proposal.”

Baltor nodded.

“Do you accept my proposal?”

Baltor nodded again and confirmed, “Yes, I
do.”

Trendon telepathically concluded,
Before
we commence with the transformation, I have two rules for you. One,
never reveal what you’re about to become to anyone…ever. Two,
never-ever create another vompareus without my expressed consent,
even if you learn how—break these rules, even once, and I will
destroy you and your creation back into oblivion in the very next
moment! Do you understand and agree to my two rules?

With ever-growing fear, Baltor nodded a few
times, but not so much because of the verbal threat.

It was because, as soon as Trendon had
finished asking his question, his figure had quickly begun to
transform
from a human and into a monster
—at first, it was
the fingernails, which transformed into foot-and-a-half long claws,
and then it was the hands, which tripled in size, and turned to
onyx. The human face had already nearly completed transforming into
the face of an onyx-black gargoyle beast; along with a set of
vampire fangs pointing down from its mouth, a set of curvy horns
protruding up and outward from its forehead, and of course, the
glowing red eyes!

Abruptly, the gray robes disappeared,
revealing a crystalline/muscle-packed chest, arms and torso that
had already been growing quite rapidly, along with everything else.
If that wasn’t enough, erupting from behind the abominable beast
that now stood at twenty feet tall—two very large sets of clawed
wings spreading themselves out into the heavens!

As the creature drew closer, only a few
seconds after the transformation was complete, Baltor managed to
stammer out, “Why me?”

IT answered in a hollow whisper, “
Because
you have been found worthy
.”

Before Baltor even had the chance to flee,
which he was about to do, the horrifying monster thrust a
razor-sharp claw deep into Baltor’s lower-abdomen, and the claw
broke off! Not even a split second later, IT disappeared back into
oblivion.

The room around Baltor instantly began to
swirl between reality and darkness, and agonizing moment after
moment passed as he slowly and painfully felt that claw clawing its
way up through his abdomens, and into his chest cavity. Just as the
claw ruptured into his heart, what felt still another eternity
later, he released one final scream, only a moment before Death
overtook his life!!

Not only was it quite a surprise for Baltor
to wake up again, as he thought he was now dead-dead-dead forever,
yet even more surprising was the fact that he was completely buried
under solid earth without any air, which meant that he didn’t need
to breathe anymore, which meant that he truly was undead!!

Despite this rather uncomfortable situation
of sand almost everywhere, he was happy that his eyes, his mouth,
and yes, even his nostrils and earlobes had strangely remained
closed throughout his entire slumber time, and even now as he
furiously pulled himself out. Never before could he shut his lobes
and nostrils.

Even without a single clue as the time, date,
or location, he greatly hoped to discover that he had been buried
underneath the sands of the Sharia Desert, for obvious reasons.

Though he did not expect anything to be easy,
there was the slight hope that these might even be the very sands
near the city walls of Pavelus, as this was his home and final
destination. And soon enough, he would be able to report to the
High Council about the seven-month-long quest to date, so his
analytical mind revealed to him just then.