Prologue
They only had fifteen minutes. The wormhole to the Progenitor’s Palace finally opened in a dramatic boom. A small group of human knights charged through, clad in metal and armed with only the basic swords and bows. Leading them was him, the man every single person on the world of Vyle had heard of, mortal and immortal. He called himself Doodric, but others had dubbed him as the “God Killer”. Since as long as humanity could remember, and many other races of the cosmos, their worlds had been ruled over by strange and cruel masters, the Overpowered, a collective of beings that had come together with one common factor: each of the nine members had mastered part of an unfathomable power, The Word. This knowledge had given its wielders the ability to completely change the universe to their will depending on what words were known. There were some Overpowered who had mastered The Word of Darkness, allowing one to manipulate shadows, The Word of Time, allowing one to change history itself, The Word of Control, allowing one to completely dictate the actions of entire civilizations. With this power they toyed with the fledgling races of the universe, unstoppable and unreasonable, until only a few weeks ago. Doodric had managed to master this force and accomplish the impossible. Whereas all but one of the Overpowered had mastered only one Word, Doodric has mastered them all. In a matter of weeks he had imprisoned seven of the nine Overpowered all in total secrecy. The Overpowered were disjointed, often resentful of each other. They would only communicate with each other in matters of great importance, their pride seldom let them be seen let alone ask for help from their comrades. Although now it seems like the element of surprise has been removed. The two remaining Overpowered had sealed themselves in the throne room of the palace, possibly preparing for their counterattack: Kyroz, master of The Word of Chaos, and Progenitor, leader of the Overpowered and a being that rivaled and possibly even trumped Doodric in terms of knowledge of The Word. Doodric’s knights would never get this opportunity again to kill two birds with one stone. Their plan was to focus Doodric’s power to stun or incapacitate Progenitor and Kyroz upon creating the wormhole, neither should be aware that their challenger knew how to use The Word and would have their guard down. With an estimated time of fifteen minutes before they recover, all they had to do was locate them and imprison them, as Doodric had done to the seven beforehand. After leaping through the wormhole they found themselves in what seemed like the inside of a temple, it was dark, the stained glass windows showing the Overpowered and their rise to power let in little light. It was only a few seconds before they found themselves instantly under attack. Creatures made from barbs and the recycled flesh of the fallen, innumerous in number and impossible in shape, they were ghastly. It was there, in the far side of the room, Lord Kyroz lay on the floor, gripping his head in pain as he launched swarms of his monstrosities at the knights in a last ditch attempt to defend himself as Doodric weakened his mind. He was caught by surprise, and he was about to meet his end.
“Pause memory” a voice suddenly called out. The scenario before him suddenly stood in place, knights grappled with strange beings like statues, barbed tentacles reached across the surfaces like the roots of a tree, Doodric stopped mid charge, his mouth agape in a silent scream, as he ran towards the impossible body of Kyroz on the floor. Everyone knows how this battle played out. Kyroz was swiftly banished to the Nether dimension, his task, by the order of Doodric, to watch over the universe as it’s caretaker, to heal damages in reality that he and others would cause with the abuse of The Word of Chaos. Progenitor did not fall so easily but the clash with Doodric was too much for the ruler of the Overpowered, his fate however is unknown. Legend and myth have fabricated numerous accounts based on the story of Doodric’s ironic punishments of the previous eight. However, the battle stood still, the knights clashing with monstrosities, Doodric charging at Kyroz, like a photograph, not one thing stirred, except three figures. They strode through the scene like ghosts, phasing through the objects and people before them. The tallest walked to a knight by himself, paused in time as they threw aside his sword to take on five creatures by himself only using his fists.
“THE BRANDON remembers doing this as if it were yesterday” the tall figure spoke as he looked as his past incarnation wrestling with his foes. He was Doodric’s second in command during the attack on the Overpowered. He trained under his commander to master The Word of Power, and even after Doodric’s disappearance he continued to practice and train until many would argue he had mastered the art. He called himself ‘THE BRANDON’, he had a habit of referring to himself in third person and announcing his name, always writing it in full capitals and announcing it when speaking with reverence, and so did all those who spoke of him. THE BRANDON was a power-house in stature. He stood taller than any average human, roughly 10 feet tall, covered in muscle and with hair as dark as the night.
“You really threw away your sword to fight beings made by an Overpowered?” asked a second figure, considerably smaller than THE BRANDON, standing five foot two inches. He stood next to his titanic partner.
“THE BRANDON requires no weapon Joniak, you should know this by now” THE BRANDON responded to his friend and looked down to him and gave a proud smile. Joniak looked up to him unimpressed. His appearance were typical of his race, the Scy. As a Scy he appeared similar to a human with several key differences. His face, although human in shape, missed a nose, ears and hair. Red markings covered all of his face except the area around his face and mouth. His features were rather simplistic for what someone would associate with a nineteen year old boy despite his actual age being into the late twenties. He looked up at his partner, unimpressed.
“Yeah but then imagine what you’d be capable of if you actually used a weapon…” Joniak retorted.
“If you’re both finished ladies.” The first voice spoke up again. The figure behind the voice carried itself with a weight of authority and superiority. It marched straight through the armies and passed straight through Doodric, not giving the legendary figure a second thought. This was Aeon, an enigmatic figure shrouded in mystery and highly respected throughout the universe. Clothed in business attire, all white as the hottest flame, from his gloves to his suit and tie to his shoes. Along with this he wore a strange helmet, covering his face and neck, all white except for a golden visor which was as large as his face. No one was certain what species Aeon was, where he was from or how old he was. All those facts he kept to himself. He softly strolled through the scene before him to Kyroz. THE BRANDON and Joniak followed as they stepped past Doodric and through the horde that the Overpowered had launched at him.
The three looked down at the once mighty beast as it cowered in pain. As they had gotten closer the three began to feel something. It was hard to explain what exactly this was but to them it just felt wrong. It was confusion, it was madness, it was chaos. It felt wrong. This was Kyroz’s aura. “You can both feel that?” Aeon questioned the two as he remained focused on the Overpowered before him.
“THE BRANDON can sense Kyroz’s presence as well as he did when he fought him alongside Doodric” came the first response.
“Yeah I’m getting the feeling too.” Joniak agreed.
“Now think carefully Brandon” Aeon said as THE BRANDON growled under his breath behind his employer for not addressing him properly, Aeon had little respect for anyone else. In his eyes they were all just tools to keep the peace throughout the universe. “Is this what you claimed you sensed earlier?” THE BRANDON took a step closer to Kyroz as Aeon stepped out of the way, arms folded as he observed THE BRANDON kneel down and concentrate. The muscular titan had sensed something earlier, something very slight, very small, as unnoticeable as the flap of a butterfly’s wings. He concentrated, trying to think back, he needed to know if he was right but at the same time prayed he was wrong. After ten seconds of silence Aeon impatiently butted in. “Well?” He tapped his foot on the ground. THE BRANDON sighed as he picked himself up.
“THE BRANDON stands by his statement. The disturbance he felt earlier was the work of Kyroz.”
“Cease Memory Feed” Aeon announced as suddenly all the figures, tentacles and battle damage disappeared. “I need you to be sure on this Brandon” he continued as the goliath curled his hand into a fist yet held back at lashing out in anger for the constant misuse of his name. “Whatever we all felt by being in close proximity to that thing, you felt earlier today?” After a short pause he responded.
“THE BRANDON can sense the spirit of all life across the galaxy. He can sense the slightest change in the order of reality. He knows that what he felt was Lord Kyroz.” Aeon stared at him silently for a few brief seconds before he stalked out of the room. Joniak and THE BRANDON followed.
The room they walked out of was part of Progenitor’s Palace: a massive space-faring ship that the Overpowered would meet on and Progenitor would use to rest and venture the universe when he didn’t feel like using his powers. After their fall it was quickly claimed by the Paladin Police Force, a group of peacekeepers that dedicated their lives to watching over the universe and removing any threat that would seek to corrupt, control or destroy it. The Palace itself defied all logical explanation, shaped like a strange hybrid of castle and spacecraft made of stone, only possible through the will of Progenitor. The halls, once filled with trophies and decorations that celebrated the tyrannical reign of Progenitor, were now filled with lifeforms from across the universe, recruited to safeguard the order of things. THE BRANDON and Joniak were two of these Paladin Police Force members, Aeon however had run everything since the beginning, being the one to set up the police force in this galaxy, to find the palace and watch over his employees. The three marched through these halls to a balcony. The view was a marvel for the eyes, it looked out into the infinite vastness of space. Stars, planets, nebulae, black holes and many other astrological beauties could be seen from the view of the balcony, perfectly safe despite being open to the void of space itself, protected by the mysterious force Progenitor had in place to make such a feat possible. Aeon with his hands behind his back looked out into the cosmos, his face stern, hiding the worry behind it.
“You better be sure about this.” He muttered.
“Look boss, THE BRANDON’s never been wrong about anything before. I trust the big guy” Joniak said as he gave his large companion a friendly punch and smiled up at his partner who gave a quick thanking smile back. Aeon gave a quick glance to the two but with a sigh turned back to the view from the balcony.
“If you’re right, and we’re looking at the possibility of an Overpowered returning after so many years of peace, there’s going to be chaos.” Aeon continued. “As long as he doesn’t physically break out by himself he’s still technically following the rules put in place by Doodric.”
“What are you trying to imply here?” Joniak quickly followed up.
“What I’m implying, Joniak, that Kyroz is not breaking the rules of imprisonment that we uphold. If someone breaks him out it’s technically allowed. It’s a loophole in the terms Doodric set up, he assumed no one was foolish enough to try and break out these monstrosities. Clearly he was overconfident in his thought that people would be sane enough to let sleeping tyrants be.”
“So you're basically saying we sit around and do nothing?! This is Kyroz we’re talking about boss! He’s going to attempt to take over the bloody universe again!” Joniak attempted to reason with his employer.
“In that moment then we step in, we can’t interfere with the events of a singular world but the moment it starts to affect surrounding worlds, then we intervene.” Aeon said as he turned and walked away from the balcony. “And I trust you two to follow these rules, just be ready for whenever he does make that attempt for universal domination” Aeon finished as he retired back to his office, leaving THE BRANDON and Joniak on the balcony.
“Well this sucks…” Joniak said to his partner as he leaned over the edge.
“Aeon is too concerned with his rules, even when they’re being used against him” THE BRANDON responded. “Even with an Overpowered returning he still follows them like mandate.”
“I know but I mean come on! That could be us taking him on!” Joniak yelled.
“That’s really what concerns you after all of this?” THE BRANDON said in disbelief.
“Hell yeah. I mean dude, imagine it. Joniak and THE BRANDON! Overpowered slayers and lady killers.”
“At what point did you plan to kill ladies?”
“What? No it’s an expression. You’ve never heard me say that before?”
“THE BRANDON has heard others say that you weren’t a ‘lady killer’ but he assumed they meant you had a policy against…”
“Wait they say what?” Joniak interrupted before groaning. “Never mind, it just means being good with ladies.”
“The BRANDON wonders why would people use the term killer for being good with women.”
“You know what, me too but that’s not the point. That could be us down there, reaping in the fame and fortune!”
“And then being fired by Aeon for breaking the rules of the force. THE BRANDON needs the money to put food on the table.” Joniak let out a sigh at this.
“Yeah, guess you’re right. So what do we do now? Just watch over the universe and wait for Kyroz to eventually decide to attack some random world?”
“If it makes you feel any better you and THE BRANDON can scout out the world he will be released on and be the first to attack when he makes his move.”
“I guess that’s all we can do…” Joniak muttered as he moved himself away from the balcony edge. “Come on, lets see if you can try and find out where that planet is.”
