11. Fate of Zeus

Asgard, the capital of Northern Bloc. In the year of our Lord: 2110.

“Sir, the world is staring at the Seventh World War. We have been a strong force in the Third, Fourth, Fifth and the Sixth World Wars, or I would rather say that we started them. But then, we were ready, not this time. This would be a war of the equals, and considering the alliances which have sprung up, we are the comparatively weaker alliance. I suggest we keep out of it” begged the army commander.

“I have been named Zeus for one reason only – to rule over the other gods. I shall be the ruler of this extended world of Mount Olympus. The Northern Bloc has never retreated from any battle without gaining something. We are the new Sparta; and I am the great warrior king of this legendary phalanx”.

“But a warrior king would lead from the front. From what you are doing, it is pure massacre of your own people. You are making the same mistake as Dion made for the Southern Bloc which benefited us. The only difference is that they did it for others and you do it for yourself. You think you can continue in power for long if you order this invasion? Or do you feel that this is your last chance on glory? Whatever be the thoughts, this is one of the worst decisions the Northern Bloc might ever witness. You shall be recorded in history as the most incompetent and terrible leader who lost everything which has been built by your predecessors on the sweat and blood of millions of our citizens and captured slaves alike. It is not that we are historically against war, for it has been a part of our life for long. But this is suicide, and for certain, this is madness of the highest degree to which any leader of a nation can commit to”.

“Well, unfortunately for you, this is not going to work. I don’t think that you can ever realize this, that I am a God King, a legend in the making. I am the new Constantine, who shall defeat the forces of the enemy despite being outnumbered, and shall be given the title, the great”.

“Constantine had his visions and the symbol of Chi-Rho. What do you have? Are you considering going back to religion at this point of time? Can you defy the Northern policy of irreligion till death and make that Constantinean shift in religion?”

“Religion? Why should I follow a religion or a God? I am the divine power for I own the most advanced scientific inventions, and I am the Lord of this world. To be honest, there is no omnipotent force looking after this world punishing the evil and rewarding the good. I shall do that instead, but I shall punish the ones who fail to bow down to me, and reward the ones who make me happy. Look at the world map. See how much land I own, and how much worshippers I have. This is not really the Northern Bloc. It is the land of Zeus, and I shall rename it once we win this battle. I will keep most of our enemies alive, and make an example out of them. They shall live a life in chains from which they shall beg for a rescue which can only be death and that is one thing that I won’t give them. They shall be dishonoured, humiliated, and tormented to the extremes. They shall know who the greatest of all humans is, and once they realize that, I shall provide them with their ultimate reward, which is death by decapitation”.

“We shall follow the orders, sir. But the result of this aggression is completely upon you, and nobody else”.

“Let it fall on me, the master tactician and your king of wisdom. Trust me or not, do as you are ordered. Mobilize the troops not only from Earth, but also from our other colonies and be prepared for a night attack on our neighbours. Lets start with them and make an example out of them. A day attack might be too predictable, and it would not be easy to murder civilians and collect them as slaves when there is too much light”.

“As you wish, sir” the commander exited after a salute.

“I should have been Genghis Khan” he murmured. “Constantine was too much of a hero. I am the hero only to myself, and for others, I shall be the villain; there shall be mass destruction and chaos shall rain upon everyone outside Northern Bloc. We need no allies; I take them all for myself. I shall improve on what small achievement we had during the Third World War. The concept of super-soldiers are still with me. The key to all of these might be in Titan. I need to send an army of special forces there, and I shall find one lady and her daughter and bring them to Earth. They shall suffer for what dishonour that lady brought upon my father. I have waited for so long and I am now very close to achieving that. We shall win the war for sure, and in the mean time, this is a battle which I shall personally win for my family. Her daughter shall head our army of super-soldiers, not as a girl, but as the thing. As for her mother, I have bigger plans. In her broadcast to the other blocs, she had come up with a big speech about suffering. She talks about pain, agony, dishonour, humiliation all that like she is the walking encyclopedia of all of them. May be she has suffered, and may be like most of the other humans have not yet, but she has not yet suffered in my hands, and she has no idea what fate awaits her.

To be continued…

10. Final Sacrifice

Elysium, the largest city of Southern Bloc. In the year of our Lord: 2060.

“This is your last chance. Surrender or face the consequences. We have a copy of the treaty which has been approved by our council. Give up now and save what you love” thus repeated the loudspeaker from the battle tanks.
“This surrender is more of your need than hours. Kindly co-operate and stay alive with your loved ones” added the loudspeaker.

The buildings were collapsing, and chaos was everywhere. They had a last look at their child before they surrendered themselves to the invading Northern Bloc army. It was the only way to save the kid, as they had thought. But, how much that worked out is something that they would never know about. It will be another story, and whether it would have a good run is a question they would fail to answer. It would also save the city or whatever is left of it from further destruction. The whole Southern Bloc was nothing better than the wasteland that T.S. Eliot had talked about long ago. “APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain”. – explained the situation of the bloc perfectly.

Dion was the leader of the Southern Bloc when the Third World War started. The Southern Bloc had taken the wrong side in the war, with the smaller nations around the powerful Northern Bloc which cherished their independence. But the Northerns were not that kind of people who liked seeing little ants wandering around their legs and their obvious decision was the crush the little insects. The small city-states had asked help from Dion which he was ready to provide. He has always been the champion of the weak and the voiceless subaltern. It was clearly opposed by the ministers of his chamber, but he was not a man to back away. But at a time when there were only two power blocs, the Northern and the Southern, Dion was asking for a lot more than he could handle considering the collection of arms and manpower which the Notherns have been collecting for ages.

Elysium had fallen, and so had the last hope for freedom. Does the Third World War end there with the fall of the Southerns? No, it doesn’t, as the unholy alliances has kept forming even among the weakest nations, while the Northern Bloc has concentrating its full army, navy, airforce and the special forces on bringing destruction to the Southerns. What would become of Southern Bloc is a question that remains, as no building is left standing. As the Royal Palace has been taken over and Dion and his wife taken prisoners of war, the Northerns can now fix a puppet government there which they can control from a distance. The leader would be a Northern, who would marry from the Southern Bloc so as to maintain his neutrality on paper and so that the new appoinment would be justified in the pages of history. It is more of a temprary contract rather than anything else. To add to that, all the natural resources can be harvested from among the destruction. The rivers from the South shall now flow towards the North, and whatever flows towards the South shall have dams in their path. The annual tribute might be in millions and that amount will have to be paid by the last remaining citizens of the Southern Bloc who number in thousands.

The total loss of life of the Northerns is estimated to be twenty thousand five hundred troops and fifty five civilians while that of the Southerns is estimated to be ninety five thousand troops and ninety nine thousand civilians, with about hundred thousands of civilians captured alive as the prisoners of war, and Dion and his wife has become one of them. They were stripped off their richness and clothed in drags, and put in concentration camps – considering their high status and Dion’s role in the war, their chances of survival in such a hostile environment would be absolutely zero. The only best thing that they can wish for, is a comaratively painful death, as there would be agony and there should be suffering immersed in brutality. He had quoted Eliot before he surrendered: “I think we are in rats’ alley Where the dead men lost their bones”. He was not that much of an admirer of The Wasteland, but the situations create different likes and dislikes. What he would have asked in the face of the Northern brutality would have been a few other lines from the same poem: “That corpse you planted last year in your garden, Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year? Or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed?” He knew about the war crimes the Northerns had committed, and he knew he would become a victim, and the question about his survival was not a relevant one.

There would be the last question that can remain. It would be about their child. Barely an year old, the child has been identified and taken to the Northern Bloc’s capital city of Asgard. From what is known about the Northern brutality, all the Southerns who knew about the same could be sure about only two things. One is that the child will not die easily, and the second is that the child shall grow up and when it does, there is going to be the brutality of the highest order that awaits. Dion chose to make the sacrifice and not run away by making a deal that his child would survive. But what would this kind of survival mean for the child? Is it any better than the realms of Hades and the being caught by a hellhound at the gates of inferno?

To be continued…