Chapter 5: Who Is The King?
Tear's expression was utterly shocked. As he looked all around him, all he could see was that he was in the midst of a giant battleground.
His ears rang loudly with what seemed to be bullets of various elements blitzing through the air.
Some were blue, others purple, and some even neon in color.
Surrounding him lay a dusty ground with fallen metallic objects resembling mecha's and other futuristic instruments.
Tear turned, breathing a sigh of relief as he saw the judge still with him.
Right now, both he and the judge were in the midst of a pile of these fallen and dismembered mecha bodies.
Tear noticed something about the fat judge at that moment.
"Wait a second. You look young again. Actually, you're even younger than before!" He said, surprised.
The pompous man retorted: "You look like a young man too. Did we reverse in age this time?"
Before any of them could say another word, a human-like futuristic cyborg appeared from behind the pile of mecha's, noticing Tear and the judge before stopping in place.
Tear also noticed the cyborg. As they came into contact with each other, the cyborg's helmet lowered into his armor and a green alien-like head suddenly revealed itself.
The thing had four square-shaped eyes and a disgusting-looking hole of a mouth with no nose.
Tear immediately got freaked out, chills crawling up his body as he backed up slightly.
"What the fuck is that!?" He said as the alien raised the element-powered rifle it was holding toward both him and the judge.
It began to power up a blue laser beam out of nowhere and unleashed a bolt of energy toward the two naked people.
"Disappear!" Tear said just in time, vanishing himself and the judge once again.
Just like this, both he and the judge traveled through multiple planets.
Some were icy tundras, others were dry deserts that felt like hellfire.
Some were under the water, nearly drowning the two humans, and others were in the sky with no ground to be seen! Through all of these planets, the two witnessed landscapes and creatures that were nearly unimaginable.
Finally, Tear and the pompous judge summoned into a land that seemed more familiar.
Everything around them was luscious greenery, and the ground below them looked like real dirt.
Tear furrowed his brows, looking up at the bright blue sky, and then at the greenery around him.
"At first I thought these were just odd-shaped bushes. But... aren't they just grass blades?" As he said this, both he and the judge heard some rustling in the leaves a few feet away.
They both neared each other, readying themselves for what was to come.
Out of nowhere, a leafling jumped out of the grass forest.
It had the head of a leaf and the body of a larger leaf. Its legs were stems and its arms were another few small leaves.
It had beady black eyes and a cute, innocent look on its face.
"H-huh?" Tear exclaimed in confusion.
In the next couple of seconds, over 20 of these leaflings gathered in front of both Tear and the judge.
Finally, one of the leaflings spoke: "Ha hu ga ge?"
The judge became perplexed at this odd language. However, somehow, Tear was able to understand what the leafling said perfectly.
"It said... 'Who is the king?'." Tear exclaimed. At that moment, more information entered his mind.
"I see. It seems this magic book imbued in my soul allows me to understand every possible language ever created, including the language of... the Gods?"
The judge seemed to be more concerned with what the leaflings said:
"Is one of us the king? That's what they asked!? I don't know how you understand them but... if that's the case, we can fully take advantage of this situation." The pompous fatty exclaimed, grinning widely as he attempted to step forward.
"No! Don't do anything rash" Tear quickly retorted, making the fatty halt. "They may want one of us as king, but what will they do to the other one? These creatures may look innocent, but it's stupid to be fooled by looks. They could be vicious savages for all we know." Tear was completely serious as he gazed at the leaflings with a stern face.
The leaflings' expressions changed, some of them looking as though they got their feelings hurt by Tear's angry look.
Noticing this, the judge exclaimed: "Oh, shut up! Don't act like you are Sherlock. They are clearly a bunch of weak and stupidly gullible creatures."
Tear didn't say anything to this. Of course, he didn't know whether he was right or wrong either. He just wanted to be safe.
At that moment, a much taller leafling came out from the back of the group. It looked the same as the others, except it had more scars on its body.
It placed down two sticks and adorned a crown made of thorned leaves on one of them.
It then said: "Hu ev ju ga ne bim, to dlo!" or "Whoever is the king, they become our feast! Whoever's stick we break means that we welcome that person!"
Right after this, it broke the stick without the crown in half and threw it to the ground.
'They... are way too aggressive and violent. Plus, if they have even more of these big leaflings, we won't stand a chance. We need to get out of here.' Tear thought to himself without hesitation.
The judge, however, not understanding thier language, got a completely different message from the large leafling breaking the uncrowned stick.
'So... whoever isn't the king gets killed huh?' The judge thought to himself, clenching his jaw.
"Yeah... we need to get out of here and go back home--" Tear said as he took a few steps backward, but was abruptly interrupted.
"Go back where!? Huh!" The judge suddenly retorted in anger, looking back at Tear.
Tear was taken aback by this sudden reaction.
"Let's be honest here... we've been trying for several hours. There are millions--no--trillions of planets out there in the universe. What do you think are the chances of us ever returning back to Earth? You've ruined everything for me. However...
you will not ruin this." The judge said with a disdainful and low tone, stepping forward.
"Wait! Just what do you think the big leafling said!?" Tear exclaimed at that moment.
"It's obvious! Whoever is the king gets to live! The other one is broken in half. Right now, it's you or me. One gets to live the life of a king... the other gets to die.
I'd choose me every single time over a pathetic low-life like you." The judge turned, facing the leaflings as he shouted:
"I am the king!" He took the thorn-leaved crown and placed it on his head, "Take me for your leader! Kill that son of bitch back there!"
Tear stayed silent, his expression shadowed. As the judge made it to where the leaflings were, he was abruptly grabbed by the large leafling.
His neck was twisted and his body was split in two pieces, as though butchering a chicken with one's bare hands.
The man didn't even get to scream before he was mangled.
"D--disappear..." Tear managed to say under his breath--astonished at what just happened in front of him.
***
When he opened his eyes again, he finally felt as though he was home. Was this place Earth though? Probably not...