Chapter 51: Checkmate

Distances away, the chaos of Krutone’s collapse had not yet reached Clyden Military Base in full, but the tremors of war were felt in every corridor. The ground shook, lights flickered, and alarms blared in an endless loop. Soldiers scrambled in formation, weapons raised, sweat pouring down their temples. But none of it mattered. Not when Aku arrived.

He didn’t run like a soldier. He flowed. A blur of dark and light Intergy streaking through the halls, Aku moved like a phantom, untouchable and silent. The soldiers who tried to intercept him found only air. He weaved through their lines with liquid precision, sliding across shadows, bouncing off walls, vanishing from view and reappearing in bursts of light. Fires and Intergy erupted behind him, but he didn’t retaliate. He didn’t need to. They were irrelevant. Mere noise. Aku’s eyes never left his path.

And then he saw them. At the far end of the corridor, two figures sprinted through a reinforced hall: Kyto and Virem, panic flashing in every motion. They had almost reached the entrance to the armory, where a squad of elite guards stood ready, surrounding the doorway in a protective arc. The guards raised their weapons the moment they spotted Aku. They were in tight formation, poised to defend their leader at all costs.

Guard: President Kyto! Stay back!

Kyto turned around and stared down Aku. Aku removed his hood, a broken image of Sen staring right back. Kyto stepped forward.

Virem: President!

Kyto: There’s no point in running. He’s already here.

Virem: President, please.

Kyto walked ahead of the guards.

Kyto (calmly): Hello, Aku.

Aku: I’m not interested in talking.

Kyto: No. Let’s talk for a bit, actually.  You made it. I wasn’t sure if you’d come yourself. Thought you’d send another army of beasts to do it for you.

Aku: I came for you. No one else.

Kyto: I see. And what of the others? The leaders you killed. Esren. Lessa. Andin. Forim. Osin. You slaughtered them all back in Krutone. That wasn’t personal too?

Aku: No. That was justice. You’re the only one left. The final lie.

Kyto: You think this is justice? What you’re doing? You think any of this brings peace?

Aku: Like I said, I’m not interested in talking. It’s pointless since you’re dying here.

Kyto (stepping forward slightly): And what of Sen?

Aku’s eyes flicker. He pauses. Something tightens in his face.

Kyto: He’s still trying to save people. Still holding on. Even after you took everything from him. Dain. Yerah. The only two he ever loved. And they’re gone… because of you.

Aku: No. They’re gone because of you. Because of your system. Your war. Your economy. Your politics. You built the world they died in, just like you built the one I suffered in. You don’t get to act like you’re innocent in this.

Kyto: Even if you’re right, what then? Do you really think the world will fix itself after this? After the cities burn and the leaders fall? They’ll be directionless, broken, more vulnerable than ever. You’ve destroyed the structure holding everything together.

Aku: That’s the point.

Kyto: So, you don’t care what happens to them?

Aku: No. I don’t care. I just want them to have a chance to try again without you whispering in their ears.

Kyto (sharply): Then why? If you don’t care, why bother?

Aku: I don’t want to save the world. I want it to face itself because only then can it decide if it wants to survive or not. I didn’t come here to hold its hand.

Brief silence. Kyto studies him.

Kyto: Even Josar knew what was best.

Aku: It doesn’t matter if you try using Sen’s or Josar’s names. Josar never sided with you. He just wanted out. Don’t twist his name into your puppet. Your words might have worked on the world, but they don’t work on me. If you’re not ready for an honest conversation, we can stop here.

Kyto (continuing anyways): What about your allies? Sicrus. Mayzen. Zan. Say you win… what then? You think they’ll fix the world too?

Aku: They’ll do whatever they want. That’s their choice.

Kyto (disgusted): So, that’s it? You think they deserve to live in this new world? Sicrus kills without hesitation. Mayzen manipulates minds. Zan is a sadist who eats suffering. If you really want change, why not get rid of them too? Unless… you’re planning on replacing me.

Aku (quietly): At least they know the truth.

Kyto (stepping forward): Don’t lie to yourself either, Aku. You don’t want what’s best for the world. You want revenge. You’re just an angry, bitter child who didn’t get what he wanted.

Pause. Aku stares at Kyto. Not angry. Not shaken. Just… still.

Aku: You’re wrong. I want correction, and the only correction I know… is to correct the people who broke this world. Correction is death… and I’m correcting your existence.

The two stare at each other. The air between them is molten, stretched with history and silence. Then Aku takes a step forward.

Aku (glancing at the guards): These men standing to protect you… They don’t even know what they’re defending. They think they serve peace. Order. Security. You tell them they’re protecting the world… but they’re just protecting—

Suddenly, the floor beneath Aku buckled. A sharp crack split the reinforced hall as a massive beam of jagged stone shot from the ground, aimed directly at Aku’s chest. It wasn’t the guards. It was Kyto. Aku didn’t even flinch. The moment the stone neared his body, light and dark Intergy blasted outward from his frame, shattering the attack into a cloud of splinters before it could pierce him. He turned his head slowly, eyes fixed on Kyto, and gave a look not of rage, but of pure, weary disappointment.

Then something inside Aku snapped. A low, guttural rumble poured from his chest. It wasn’t a growl, but a warning. Light and dark Intergy burst from his body in equal measure, swirling like twin storms. The walls shook. The ceiling cracked. The very air thickened. It wasn’t Sicrus’s howl of chaos. This was something deeper. Heavier. A monstrous resonance that pulsed like a living beast. Then Aku leapt forward, not like a soldier, but like a predator unleashed. Kyto turned and ran. The guards surged forward to stop Aku, but Aku was beyond them.

The first two came in with synchronized lightning strikes. Aku slipped through, catching their arms mid-blow and hurling them aside like dolls. The next wave came with water and ice. A freezing spear sliced across his side, Virem, fast and precise, landed a clean hit. Aku didn’t dodge. He didn’t even blink. The ice shattered across his ribs like glass on stone. He reached forward, grabbed Virem’s arm, and threw him down the hall with a crash.

One by one, Aku dismantled the entire squad, but never killed. He dodged and deflected, redirecting every bolt and blade. One soldier tried to stab him through the back, only to be disarmed and swept off his feet in a single twisting motion. A trio launched an elemental barrage of flames, lightning, and freezing wind. Aku lunged through it all, his Intergy coiling around him. With surgical force, he sent each fighter flying, slammed into walls, flipped over crates, pinned under collapsed doors. No blood. No corpses. Just broken formations and broken pride. Then, silence.

Aku stood alone in the corridor, breath low, body still glowing. When he looked up, Kyto was gone. The armory doors hung ajar. With a snarl of energy, Aku surged forward, leaping like a monster hunting prey. He landed inside the chamber, the heavy metal floor cracking beneath his feet. Inside, Kyto had nowhere left to run. The President stood frozen, back against a sealed vault, breathing hard.

And there stood Aku. Eyes glowing. One pure black. One pure white. His Intergy growled… deep, guttural, alive… Like something ancient had been awakened… and it was no longer in the mood to talk.

Kyto: Stay down, Aku! Know your place!

Aku stepped forward.

Kyto struck first. With a defiant roar, he raised his hand and summoned jagged stone from the floor, launching it in waves toward Aku. The ground ruptured, walls cracked, boulders hurtled like missiles. But Aku lunged forward, weaving between the flying stone, light and dark Intergy flaring around him in violent streaks. Each step shattered the earth beneath him. In a blink, he was in front of Kyto, his hand snapping to the President’s throat. With a savage thrust, Aku slammed Kyto backward through a wall, then another, and another, each impact sending shockwaves through the base. They burst into the open air of the Clyden Military Base, shards of concrete and dust exploding around them as Kyto’s body was hurled across the air like a ragdoll.

He crashed hard into the center of the warzone, tearing up metal flooring and gouging a trail through crates, corpses, and cannon wreckage. Soldiers and Zagons alike had been in full combat moments before, but now, everything froze. All eyes turned toward the two figures standing at the heart of their collapse.

Kyto coughed, his face scraped, one arm trembling as he pushed himself to his knees. His breaths came in short gasps, blood pooling beneath his chest. Refusing to fall, he threw his arm up once more and summoned a hailstorm of pillars, columns of stone rose and then rained down in deadly succession toward Aku.

But Aku didn’t flinch. His Intergy roared outward, an explosion of force and sound. A pulse of blinding energy burst from his body like a shockwave, disintegrating the pillars mid-air. Stone erupted in all directions. Soldiers ducked. Zagons scattered. One massive shard whistled past Kyto’s face, tearing open a line of blood across his cheek as it embedded itself into the earth behind him with a loud boom that could’ve caved his skull.

The battlefield trembled. But Kyto stood again, bruised and bleeding. His eyes were still locked on Aku.

Aku: I didn’t kill you moments earlier… because I wanted this to be a public execution. Soldiers and Zagons will witness your death. They will witness a new world.

Kyto rose one last time, bloodied and shaking, and summoned every ounce of Intergy he had left. The ground beneath the Clyden Military Base trembled violently, a quake born not of tectonic shift but of a man’s final defiance. The air thickened, vibrating with raw pressure as chunks of stone levitated around him, his eyes glowing with the dim flicker of spent power. But Aku didn’t flinch. He lunged, not with rage, but with terrifying purpose. His Intergy erupted outward in a monstrous burst, louder and heavier than before, a deep rumbling roar that sounded less like a man’s power and more like a beast’s awakening. From his hands and feet, black-and-white claws of pure Intergy sprang forth, razor-tipped, pulsing with vengeance. In a single motion, he slammed into Kyto with surgical brutality, his foot claws driving into Kyto’s hips, pinning him in place, while his hand claws latched onto Kyto’s shoulders like talons holding prey. Then Aku’s mouth opened, and from within, jagged Intergy fangs unfurled, gleaming, animalistic, divine and demonic all at once. He bit down, tearing through Kyto’s neck and chest in one horrific snap, ripping a massive chunk of flesh and bone with a wet, visceral crack. He spat the mutilated mass aside like garbage, the remains thudding across the battlefield. Blood sprayed like a broken fountain as Kyto’s twitching body collapsed, but Aku wasn’t finished. Before the corpse could fully settle into death, Aku jumped back and his hand flicked. In an instant, a jagged sword of fused light and darkness materialized in his grip. With the ease of finality, he hurled it forward, directly into Kyto’s chest where it pierced through with a shattering impact, skewering the dictator’s lifeless form to the burning ground. Smoke rose from the corpse. Silence followed. The last breath of Krutone’s false god had been consumed by something far older, far truer, and far more terrifying.

Aku withdrew his swirling Intergy, light and dark fading back into his body. Across the battlefield, all eyes were on him. Even Virem, bloodied and limping from the gaping hole torn through the armory, stood frozen in shock. The Zagons halted, snarling as if awaiting instruction. Then Aku raised his hand, and a portal split open in the air. Without hesitation, the Zagons lunged into it one after another, vanishing into the Void. Silence fell. The Clyden soldiers stared, horrified and dazed, the weight of it settling in. Their leader, President Kyto, had just been killed before their very eyes. Then the portal sealed as the last Zagon crossed. Aku looked around to the Clyden soldiers.

Aku: Start over… Become what neither one of us could be.

Aku created a portal for himself. No one stopped him. He walked through and the portal closed.

A few distances away, a low hum split the air behind them. Sen and Josar turned sharply, instinctively raising their guards, but what emerged wasn’t an enemy, it was a portal. From within, Aku stepped forward, his expression unreadable, his Intergy flickering faintly around his body like a fading storm. Sen and Josar stood amidst the rubble of Maren and Arna’s home, the charred remnants of walls and broken furniture telling a quiet story of survival and loss. Josar tensed as Aku approached, then looked at Sen.

Josar: Aku…

Aku: It’s done.

Josar: You mean… you actually—?

Aku nodded once, calm and final.

Aku: Kyto’s gone. Everything I set out to do… it’s finished.

Sen, still crouched, looked up with quiet disbelief.

Aku (softly): And I see you’ve made good friends with Sen. That’s good.

He glanced between the two of them.

Aku: I’m glad. Truly, I am.

Josar: Aku… please. The people here— just leave them alone.

Aku: I already have. I’m done, Josar. There’s no need for Zagons anymore. It’s over. Kyto was the final thread. The world… now has a chance to start again.

Josar: So what happens now?

Aku: Now… you both end it.

Sen (weakly): Why us? Why put this on us?

Aku: Because who else is left?

The question lingered, unanswered.

Aku: You both have to destroy what remains of The Orb.

He looked down, for the first time seeming unsure.

Aku: Two souls— ancient ones— were sealed within The Orb long ago. I passed one into Sicrus. The other… is inside me.

Josar: Sicrus is still alive?

Aku: Yes. He’s still with us. Back in the Void. But Zan and Mayzen… they’re gone.

Sen: Gone? Zan and Mayzen… dead?

Aku: I don’t know who killed them. But they’re finished. And… so are Zarnem and Shera.

Sen (shocked): Zarnem and Shera too?

Aku nodded with quiet gravity.

Aku: They didn’t make it.

He turned to Josar, his tone shifting.

Aku: Josar… I imagine you’ll deal with Sicrus.

Then to Sen.

Aku: And you’ll be the one to face me.

Sen: You want me to finish you?

Aku (nodding): Yes. It’s the only way to end this. The soul inside me is stirring, trying to take control. Same with Sicrus. If either of us loses that battle internally… the destruction we’ve seen so far will be nothing in comparison. I can hold it down for now… but not forever.

Sen: Why us, though? Why do we have to be the ones to carry this?

Aku: Because there’s no one else left. Krutone is destroyed. Most of the world is in ruins. And the only two who still carry The Orb’s power, who can withstand what’s coming, are you and Josar.

Josar looked away, jaw tight, voice low.

Josar: So, giving Sen the Intergy from The Orb back then… that was intentional.

Aku: From the beginning. Every step led here, and this is the final one.

Sen: You planned all this… You wanted this…

Aku: I did, and now it’s time to finish it. Before the souls inside Sicrus and I take over completely.

Sen: That’s not right. You can’t just—

Aku (gently interrupting): I know. You never asked for this. You never wanted to be part of this war, this system, this chaos, and I forced you into it.

Aku reached into his coat and pulled out two jagged shards, both black and white, pulsing faintly. He tossed both at their feet.

Aku: Those shards will take you to the Void. When you come, you’ll find me and Sicrus waiting. That’s where it ends.

Sen: The Void?

Aku: Yes. I’ll fight from within to keep the soul buried. End it… so that no one can ever wield this power again. Not even the soul itself.

Sen: I still don’t understand.

Aku: You’re not meant to. Not all of it… And there isn’t time to explain everything.

Josar: What happens to you and Sicrus?

Aku gave a small smile. Not arrogant. Not sad. Just… resigned.

Aku: I don’t know.

Josar (quietly): You’re lying.

Aku’s smile held, unchanged.

Aku: Sen. Josar. I’ll see you on the other side.

Josar: Aku… please, why?

Aku turned away and opened a portal.

Aku: Because it’s done.

Aku walked through and the portal closed.

Sen and Josar sat slumped against the cracked wall of what used to be Maren and Arna’s living room, the silence between them stretched thin by exhaustion and disbelief. Dust clung to their clothes, the faint scent of smoke still curling in the air. Kyto was dead. Zarnem and Shera were gone. The world, already shattered, now teetered on something far stranger: not chaos, but uncertainty. Josar stared blankly at the shards Aku had left behind, their faint glow pulsing like a heartbeat, while Sen leaned his head back and closed his eyes, trying to breathe without feeling the weight of every decision pressing down on his chest.

Sen: I can’t believe it’s come to this point.

Josar: It was always going to happen. I think we both knew it.

Sen didn’t want to reply.

Josar: Aku got what he wanted… Everything he wished for is here…

Sen: Are we going?

Josar: I think you know the answer to that…

From there, silence. The sun began to set. Dusk arrived. Then nightfall. Sen and Josar sat in silence, taking everything that they had been through.

Years earlier, the Void. Josar, Sicrus, and Mayzen sat in a rough triangle, the silence between them long and heavy. The sky above was an endless expanse of shifting shadows and moons that never moved, casting an eerie calm over the obsidian ground. Hours passed. Then, finally, Aku stepped through, his face younger, thinner, but already carrying the gravity of someone who had seen too much. He said nothing at first. He just looked at them— at the only three people who might understand what he intended to become. With quiet steps, he sat down in their circle.

Aku: I’m going to need you to hear me out. It’s not going to be something you want to hear… but I’m asking to just listen to what I have to say… not as your friend… but as family…

For a moment nothing was said.

Josar: Sure. Tell us.

Aku sighed.

Aku: You all know, I tried doing something for the world… I tried to make change. You know that right? You know I was trying to be good… right?

Nothing was said right away.

Josar: Yeah. We know.

Aku: But… what if I told you everything I was fighting for was against myself? Was against us?

Sicrus: What the fuck are you on about? Get to the damn point already! You stole The Orb and got us looped into some crazy shit.

Aku: I know… And I understand that you’re mad at me.

Sicrus: Then hurry the fuck up, and explain what’s going on!

Aku couldn’t take the anger. He sat silently.

Mayzen (inserting himself): Your suffering was designed.

Sicrus: What does that mean? And who the hell even are you?

Mayzen: I’m Mayzen.

Sicrus: Yeah, no shit. What I mean is who are you to Aku?

Mayzen: We worked together in Krutone. I worked closely to who you call President Kyto. Everything you suffered was because of what Kyto creates and manages, but not just him. The other world leaders.

Josar: I don’t follow.

Mayzen: This life we endure is just a game of chess. The orphanage you went through… it is design. It is practice. It is the system… a small part of the system.

Sicrus: You’re telling me, this Kyto guy makes the world this way?

Aku nodded.

Aku: Not just him. The others too. We all suffer in our own ways because of them. Kyto is just the mastermind.

Josar: And you wanted to make change. So, during your climb, you found out the truth. But how?

Aku: Because I can slip around like I always did.

Sicrus: No fucking way. Don’t tell me you snuck into places you weren’t supposed to be in Krutone.

Aku: I did… and I found The Orb.

Josar: And you grabbed it!?

Aku: Well, more like I was caught… So, I did what I had to.

Josar: So, you grabbed it…

Sicrus: What the hell?

Aku: It was the only thing I could think of at the time.

Josar: And you ran with it? You didn’t put it back?

Aku: No.

Josar: Why not?

Aku: I don’t know… I don’t. Just, something inside me said to run with it… Mayzen called for it… so I did.

Sicrus: Crazy… How do we know if this Mayzen guy isn’t here for Kyto? Didn’t he say he works close to Kyto?

Aku: He helped me escape.

Mayzen: I always hated Kyto… even before I ever worked with him.

Josar: Why’s that?

Mayzen: Because of my ability. I can draw the memories of any dead person so long as their brain is still intact.

Sicrus: What the fuck? What kind of ability is that?

Mayzen: I’m a mutant. I was made, and with that came this ability… Before I worked with Kyto, I drew from many memories… and I saw many lives destroyed because of Kyto.

Josar: Wait… Aku… you said you wanted us to hear you out. We never got to hear exactly what that was. You can’t be thinking what I’m thinking right?...

Aku paused.

Josar: Aku?

Aku: I still want to make change.

Josar: Aku, are you being serious?

Aku nodded.

Aku: I… think I want to end Kyto.

Sicrus: You are wild. I’m out. Don’t count me in this shit. Send me back now.

Aku: Sicrus please. I’m serious. Just hear me out first. Let me finish.

Sicrus sighed.

Aku: Remember back in the orphanage, when I got the letter that my mom and dad are dead?... and that I will never get the chance to ask if they loved me?...

Aku’s eyes began to tear.

Aku: I made it my mission to be worth going back home… But now, I have no home to go to… Even if I did prove myself, it means nothing. But I thought I should do good anyways. Make positive change anyways… But then in Krutone, I found out that Revano and Clyden fought under Kyto’s orders… My family would still be here, but they’re not because of him… Kyto.

Sicrus: Damn it…

Aku: And I’m not the only one hurt by this. All of here are. The poor lands we come from, that was designed. We could’ve had home, but instead we were trapped in an orphanage that profited off of us. Our young lives saved money for government. We’re not the only ones who suffered. Hundreds. Thousands. Millions. Billions. All of our lives have been screwed by these people who run us.

Silence.

Aku: Sicrus… you could’ve had a name. Josar… you could’ve had a home. But we were just disposable pawns since the beginning… and I still want change. I still want better, even if my family will never get to see me do it.

Josar: But, it’s never been confirmed if your twin, your brother is dead or not. Don’t you want to find him?

Mayzen: We can find him.

Sicrus: How?

Mayzen: I was Krutone’s best sensory user. I can find people.

Sicrus: Ok? And if we find Sen, what then?

Aku: I’m not sure yet. Right now, I think I’d like for him to join us, but I don’t know yet.

Sicrus: He’s your twin, yes, but we don’t know him like that.

Aku: I know… but I can try.

Sicrus: You seriously want family that bad?

Aku doesn’t answer.

Sicrus: How would you even kill Kyto or these world leaders anyways?

Aku: I need you. And Josar. And Mayzen.

Sicrus: The four of us? Really? We’re going to do it?

Aku: And The Orb.

Silence.

Aku: This thing holds so much power. The Orb used to be folklore. They lied to us. They lied to the world. They hid its history. But it’s here now.

Mayzen: I also know who’d want to join us.

Sicrus: Who?

Mayzen: One goes by the name of Zan. He’s still trapped in Krutone. He’s powerful, and I know he hates what Krutone built. And there’s Penim. He was recently discarded in a mission at Revano. But he’s not dead. He’s alive. We just have to find him.

Aku: And I have a few friends I made too… they might help us. Maybe.

Josar: I don’t know if I agree with this, Aku.

Aku: Can you try to understand me at least?

Josar: It feels wrong. Are you saying you’re going to use The Orb to control Zagons?... for war?

Aku nodded slowly.

Josar: Then others will die.

Aku: They’re already dead, Josar… They live in a world as pawns. Like I said, we’re just chess pieces. They aren’t truly alive. They just think they are.

Josar: And us?

Aku: We’re the only ones who are awake.

Josar: Well, why don’t you just tell the world the truth?

Aku: You know that’s not enough.

Josar: You have The Orb.

Aku: But that doesn’t change who runs us. I can make it so the world has to unite to end me, and from there I can kill the world leaders.

Josar: Oh stop. You sound insane! You can’t be serious!

Aku: I am being serious!

Josar shakes his head.

Aku: You guys don’t need to give me an answer right now, but please, take time to think about it. Really do.

Sicrus: Fine.

Aku: What?

Sicrus: I said fine.

Josar: Sicrus! You can’t!

Sicrus: It makes sense.

Mayzen looked up at Sicrus.

Sicrus: I don’t need days to think about it. I get it.

Josar: Sicrus!

Sicrus: What, Josar!? We’re already fucking trash to begin with! What does it matter if we die heroes or not? Might as well as make use of this pathetic life.

Josar was lost for words.

Aku: I have more to explain… but for now, just think about it. You too, Sicrus. I know you said you made your decision, but just think about it for a while longer. Maybe you guys might have some ideas that I didn’t think about.

Another moment of silence.

Aku: I don’t want to be another chess piece… I want to end this board game… I want to call checkmate… And hopefully then, maybe something good can come out of it…