"And can military secrets be divulged, you traitor?" he shouted. "Hand over the sword, now!"
Noor threw the sword toward the lieutenant, who was taken by surprise. He leaped backward, avoiding the sword, then skillfully turned, grabbed its hilt in mid-air, and turned to Noor, only to find him standing in his place. He charged at him and stabbed him with a wide, deep wound, but he felt as if he were stabbing the air. Suddenly, he found himself stepping on a round metal object. This object quickly lit up and produced a steel net that caught and tied him up. Then Noor appeared from between the trees.
"You’ve fallen into my photonic copy’s trap," he said. "You should be more careful next time, Lieutenant."
"You are assaulting a lieutenant in the greatest empire in the universe!" the lieutenant shouted in anger. "Do you know the consequences of this?"
Noor bowed to him. "I know very well. I don’t want you to care about your empire right now. You should care about your life, which is about to be taken."
Terror was evident in the lieutenant’s diamond-like eyes. He screamed, "Don’t think that by defeating me you have gained anything! I am just a lieutenant. You haven’t seen the power of the generals yet."
Noor took out his knife, which shone in the light of the stars and the moons, and said as he approached the lieutenant, "I don’t care. I’m not going to stand in their way anyway."
Noor approached him to stab him, but the lieutenant suddenly moved his thermal energy sword and cut the net. He then kicked Noor, knocking him to the ground, and was about to stab him with his sword, but a shadow moved quickly from the forest, wrapped around the lieutenant several times, then took shape behind him as a man sheathing his sword. As soon as he had completely sheathed his sword, the lieutenant was cut into pieces, and the pieces fell on top of Noor, who quickly rolled away to avoid them.
Noor quickly got up, on guard, and found a man wearing a skull-shaped mask, a cloak, and a hood, and on his back were four engravings of four planets.
Noor’s eyes widened. "The Enix," he said.
The stranger turned to him. "Aren’t you going to thank me for saving your life?"
Noor hid the sticky bomb he was about to stick on the lieutenant’s chest and then kick him far away to finish him off for good. "I was about to finish him off if you hadn’t interfered," he said. "I’ll save you the time and tell you that I don’t have what you want."
The stranger took a few steps forward. "I know. And I know that it is on this planet and that you are looking for it with your renegade friends. But don’t be afraid, I haven’t come to kill you. If I had wanted to, I would have cut you to pieces with that lieutenant."
Noor looked at him defiantly. "So what do you want from me?"
The wind moved and caressed the stranger’s hood. "A chance for you and your companions to join the Enix (the Holy Guard). I know that you were previously drawn into a great battle that you were no match for and that you fled for your lives, and you are not to blame for what happened. But we found that your courage and bravery in the previous fight have guaranteed you a place with us. That is, you have passed the test."
Noor took a few steps back. "We know the truth of this conflict, and we know what has become of planet Earth and who is responsible for what happened. Do you think we will join you after all that we have learned?"
"You were about to destroy your planet with weapons of mass destruction, and we did what would ensure your unity and solidarity. You should thank us instead of this ingratitude of yours."
"I don’t have what you want. Go where you want."
"Let me accompany you then, so we can find it together."
"I will not accompany a detestable person like you, even if you were the last one in the universe."
"What a gloomy boy you are. You might take me as a friend if you took the time to get to know me." Tʜe sourcᴇ of thɪs content ɪs 𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙡⁂𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚⁂𝙣𝙚𝙩
Noor took a pistol from behind his back and fired several shots at the stranger, who moved left and right with a strange speed, as if he were a rippling shadow. He then appeared in front of Noor. "You have informed the soldiers of our location with this recklessness of yours."
Noor retreated in terror and found that the pistol in his hand had been cut into small pieces. He felt that he was in front of a being that surpassed him in speed, strength, and cunning. He said, sweat pouring from his body from the extreme tension, "What do you want from me?"
"Help me find what you have lost, and I will let you and your friends go wherever you wish."
"And what guarantees me that you will not betray us?"
"And what is the use of killing a handful of weaklings who weigh nothing on the scale of the vast universe?"
Noor was annoyed by his insult, but he composed himself. "You can follow me, but I do not promise that I will hand it over to you once we find it."
"Agreed then. Let’s go from here before the soldiers arrive."
They headed together to the plains, their destination a purple hill not far away. The cloaked figure said, "I haven’t introduced myself. I am Tulkas, a member of the Enix."
Noor did not say a word and continued to walk. Tulkas resumed his speech. "So you won’t tell me your name. I know it anyway, so you can skip that part. We are on a sacred mission on this planet, and we cannot let our goal fall into the hands of the Franks or the Prince’s forces."
Noor looked at him with confusion. "Who do you mean by the Prince?"
Tulkas carried his sword and placed it horizontally on his shoulder, resting his arms on it. "The prince of this planet, who started the resistance against the Franks’ forces and gave them a hard time. He is a strong and brave man. I advise you not to stand in his way if you find him. Even the Franks’ generals, with all their immense power and their overwhelming armies, are still chasing him in vain for thirty years. He is the king of hit-and-run."
"And why didn’t he come to help these afflicted people whose village was burned?" Noor said grimly.
"The matter is not as easy as you think. He is fighting all over the planet and cannot save everyone. But I was ordered not to interfere in the affairs of this planet."
Noor laughed. "That’s right. You have finished interfering in the affairs of our planet until it was completely destroyed and the humans were scattered throughout space."
Tulkas looked at Noor. "I did not participate in the attack on planet Earth. I was assigned to search for something precious on another planet."
"Let me guess," Noor said in a sarcastic tone. "Was it something round and had a tremendous power?"
Tulkas placed the sheath of his sword on Noor’s shoulder. "You got it."
Noor sighed. "What is your need for this power? Don’t you see its danger?"
"Then why are you looking for it with your friends? Hasn’t its power tempted you yet?"
"Because I saw the horrors that happened before when this power was used, and I do not want the matter to be repeated here again."
"But it has been repeated, as you can see. An occupation by a strong galactic empire of a planet that is weaker than it militarily, cognitively, and scientifically. But the occupation here is more hideous than on many planets I have seen, because the Franks see that this planet has become an integral part of their empire and are trying hard to reduce its population or to subdue them by force."
"You haven’t answered my question yet. Why are you seeking this power?"
Tulkas looked at the stars for a moment, then said, "We want a new universe where you do not see these horrors. All that we are doing is for the sake of the new world where history will end and a peace beyond peace will prevail. But the horrors will continue until we create this world."
Noor lowered his head, thinking, then said, "Is that why you justify the blood you shed? Because they are incidental sacrifices for a higher goal? This is what we call on Earth pragmatism; that is, the end justifies the means."
Tulkas laughed. "It seems to me that your planet was full of wise men, but they agreed to disagree. Enough talk, we have arrived."