Free Web NovelChapter 26: Chapter 26 : The Golden Emperor of the Sun
Three days passed slower than Helios would have hoped. The days were slower and every day in this city was more insufferable to the crew than the last. They were all tired of seeing the masters go about their buisness. Treating lives like livestock.
But Helios’s inner circle was aware of what was to come.
The third day arrived quietly and unannounced. It was warm in the morning. But all of them were proper southeners. They could handle it.
The entire city seemed occupied for a trade of a lifetime that was yet to happen. It wouldn’t happen.
To the crew, this was a new dawn. One that would bring change by storm, change this world was not meant to handle.
Oberyn had taken the time to send letters to his older brother. He had been suprisingly happy these days, not just for finding religion but for finding the key that opened all locks that he wanted open.
Helios had also used this time to get Oberyn Martel to write a fourth book. Entirely dedicated on philosophy and even rituals to please the gods. Every faith needed tradition and rituals.
And a faith with a strong philosophical base tends to last long. For these four books he had taken inspiration from the Vedas of the Hindu faith.
The traditions and festivals too were heavily inspired by Hinduism, festivals mainly. The traditions that soon every man and women and child will follow will be the best of the world Helios truly came from.
It was absolutely important to ensure that his mythos would be a flawless and lawfull one. He intended for this faith to be easily adapted.
The philosophy was heavily inspired from Kafka, Jon Locke, Immanuel Kant and Confucius.
This was as perfect as it could get.
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The time had arrived.
The great plaza of Astapor simmered beneath the blazing red sun. The bricks glowed an orangish red. Giving the great city the look of a working furnace.
Helios walked towards the podium. Wearibg the confidence of the man who feared nothing. He had worn his armor. He looked every bit a god, his men carrying the large vault filled to the brim with gold. There was a million gold dragon in there but the army was worth only four hundred thousand.
Thousands of men stood it perfect formation before him, beaten into it. They stood perfectly upright, each unsullied held a spear in his hands. There expression had not changed. They looked at him with the same eyes devoid of emotion, the same way they had looked at Kranzys.
Even now they had their feelings. Helios had senses good enought to know.
The Masters had stared at the gold with open greed. Their mouth wide open. They were not even civil enough to not let it show. But who can expect such things from an animal.
"It’s all in their count it if you want" Helios announced low and clear. They were quick to rush.
Helios’s eyes scanned the surroundings, he looked at all the slavers present. All the slaves. To them this was normal, acceptale. Buying another human was a matter of money here.
The slavers had looked at the gold with open envy. The slaves though had looked lifeless. His eyes shifted to Missendei who had not cared, atleast she looked not to care but she too felt disgust towards the Masters, towards him too.
The counting finished.
Kranzys looked like the happiest man in the world right now.
He called for the ancient whip. The symbol that represented ownership of every unsullied. It was carried forward on a velvet cushionc.
Kranzys lifted it with a theatrical reverence.
Handing it to Helios. Who grabbed it like it did not matter.
"The army is yours" The slaver spoke his voice satisfied. Like a bargain well struck.The plaza erupted in applause. The Great Masters smiled broadly.
Kranzys began laughing, openly mocking the foreign fool who had paid enough to enrich Astapor for years. Oberyn too almost burst out lauging. All the men of Helios’s crew were smiling broadly too. It was entertaining to both sides.
Helios looked at the whip, then at Missendei who quickly avoided his gaze. Then he looked at every slave present. Then he finally turned to look at the unsullied.
He stepped forward, his steps slow and deliberate. The enitre plaza was dead silent. History would be made toaday.
After a very long look at the perfect soldiers below, a look so long it made everyone uncomfortable. He finally spoke words in perfect Valyrian.
"UNSULLIED! March Forward" And they did, in perfect unison.
"HALT" And they did, in perfect unison.
Helios stepped closer
"Today is history and you are part of it"
He grabbed the whip, holding it up for all to see before snapping it in two.
The applause halted and the masters looked confused.
"I am here to show you the way, children! I am the light that points the path" He lifted himself from the ground.
Loud gasps erupted from the crowd present. They were all too shook to even think. Missendei looked ready to faint. The unshakable unsullied looked on. Their faces tried to show nothing. But their hearts began screaming.
"From Today you are all free" he turned to look at the masters below him "And you are dead."
They looked like they had seen a ghost. But they did not have the time to voice their concerns.All eyes were on the flying man.
Helios vanished.
A sonic boom shattered the windows across the plaza. A shockwave sent all the ones nearby back several steps.
The sheer force crushed Kranzys completely. Leaving nothing of him but blood and bones.
He looked to the other slavers present. Now they had realized what was happening. They began running for their lives, their guards betraying them, all falling on their knees due to sheer terror.
His eyes glew a murderous red.
He looked at every running slaver. Then he unleashed a twin pair of beams, incinerating all those who held chains in mere moments. The slaves had not dared move. They had only terror but no courage to run.
There was nothing left of the slavers.
Dozens of guards disappeared in blinding flashes as heat vision carved through walls, towers, and men alike.
The entire section of slave market collapsed in roaring clouds of dust. Some had tried shooting at him with their crossbows. He erased them too.
Helios floated in the air one more time.
He looked at the unsullied present. The perfect formation was broken, some had attempted to flee but their legs had betrayed them.
They remembered what happens to those who try to run. All their hearts screamed.
"Fret not, all of you are safe" Helios spoke as smooth as trying to console a child.
"The Masters that ones owned you are all gone! No longer will you suffer through the chains. From this day until your last you are free.
No master owns you. They are dead.
I am the Sun God and my name is Helios. And I have come to liberate all of you!
.....If any man here wishes to leave, leave. No strings attached.
But if you stay and pledge yourself to fight for the cause of the divine then together we will change this very world. We will liberate every land that suffers through the plague of slavery. We will create an empire founded in gold!
But you must choose to follow me. If any man wishes to leave he won’t be stopped. I give you my word. The word of a god!"
The world was dead silent for a long moment.
Then one men fell to his knees in pure submission. Not the slaver kind but the devoted kind.
Soon every other slave followed. The unsullied took the knee, spears resting on the ground. Banging their spears on the ground was not enough of a display of submission before a god.
"STAND ALL OF YOU!" they did as they were told in a panicked hurry.
"You will bend your knees no longer. I have freed you and you will hold your heads high even before a GOD!" No they wouldn’t. They had just shifted from one master to another. A much better one. But in the end a god always demanded submission.
They would kneel regardless. Even if told not to. Not here then at the temple Helios will build for himself.
He now had a free army 13,000 strong and a free city 300,000 big.
There was work to do now. A lot of it.
