Chương 5: 3

The town of Nogales was still as beautiful and alien as I could remember. Although it had been a while since I returned to my mother's homeland, I still remember how the city looked especially when the night crept in. I had never gotten used to the eerieness of the night sky in Ashtarium which was unlike the one back home. Music was breaking out from all over the city, and the smell of pastries and human food surrounded everywhere. People were laughing and smiling, the opposite of what it was back home. I always had the habit of comparing the Kingdom of Xibalba with that of the Kingdom of Ashtarium. There was a great big difference between my home and this part of the world. The entire north of the continent of the New World had become united under one rule after the Long War. And it was by the Ashtarmel family. That said family had managed to maintain order and peace throughout the land, no matter how the regions were separated from one another due to radiated lands. That goes to show how powerful the family was. That they could create a lasting civilization after all the destruction and chaos that a three-hundred-year war could unfold. Unlike the South, which had barely survived the war. After the Nuclear strike and the war had ended, gangs had spurted out of nowhere controlling what little resources that were left. Each gang had gained territories for themselves and it was from these territories that the Kingdom of Xibalba- a splintered kingdom-had risen out from. A kingdom ruled by fear and strength. A place where the weak could never survive. Once Xibalba had been separate kingdoms but over the years, the Warlord Juarez Gomez, one of the leaders of the gangs, had managed to conquer other territories for himself. He had brought them together through the only thing that worked there: Might. And now there was a cold peace, a cold peace that was under threat if my mission here in this strange land did not go as planned. I stopped by the plaza of the city, the open space was filled with so many people. In the middle of the plaza were two monuments. One of them was a tribute to a former leader of the place during the Long War. I didn't care much for it because it reminded me of Father. What drew my attention was the second monument. It was a statue of a naked being with wings with a missing head, fighting against a winged creature. The monument looked to be older than even the first one, the structure of the monument looked to have weathered some bad storms due to how tattered and beaten down it looked. No one knew who made the monument or what the monument was meant to represent. The missing head had been destroyed, though why the rest of the body wasn't,...Well, I guess it wasn't for anyone to know. The only thing I knew about it was the little secret mother had told me a long time ago. The monument was a tribute that once belonged to them... the Children of Light. The moonlight from the sky reflected off the statue showcasing the rusting color that had dried off over the years. The light was strong even for one that was artificial. I stared at the moon that was in the sky. A facsimile of the real one that was covered by the dome that surrounded the region. It was a marvelous invention, the dome that covered the entire region. I still did not get why King Rafael had commissioned domes built around the thirteenth regions of Ashtarium. I guess it was one of the ways in which he maintained order in the kingdom. Make the world look like it was before the Eternal Night. Make life comfortable for the humans who live here. Give them a life that is similar to the one their ancestor used to have. And he would have them admiring and respecting him. Rafael Ashtarmel was a wise and great king. It was too bad what had happened to him and his family. A coup d'etat. I guess that's what happens when you have so much power. People become attracted to that power and desire it for themselves. I stared at the burnt hand that was covered by a silver-colored glove. I was tempted to scratch away at the damaged flesh within it, a reminder from dear Father of what it took to survive back home. But I resisted the temptation. I was reminded that I was not alone and could not let my vassals see me as the weak man that I was.