Chapter Twenty One: Clash of the titans!!

"it's good to have a bigger ally on your side."

"yes, and i don't let anyone mess with my friends!"

"as the french say: Tres Bien!"

"but you don't speak fre--"

"shut up." >:(

-Bailey.
-Collin.
-Beta.
-Alpha.
-Beta.

Panic overtook Sillias, he'd once been the truest predator, devouring countless people and annihilating anything from tiny villages to sprawling cities, but now, he faced off against someone else his size... it gave a new meaning to the old saying "go pick on someone your own size"

the white wolf was confidently smirking at him, and it was already obvious that he posessed greater combat skills; Sillias had only ever attacked things smaller than himself, but his foe had greater one-on-one paw-to-paw combat skills.
he was at a disadvantage.
especially when the wolf launched himself down the street at him.

unable to move in the cramped space, he couldn't dodge the wolf as he tackled him to the ground, which buckled beneath their weight and left a crater.
Sillias snarled and tried biting at his enemy, but the wolf kept quickly dodging him and pinning him down.
a flash of white went past his eyes and an insurmountable pressure clamped down on his throat, making Sillias choke as his breathing was cut off.

"feeling scared yet, monster?" Collin asked darkly, tightening his grip on Sillias' throat.
a bloodlust overtook Collin as he watched the crimson canine writhe, digging his claws into the flesh beneath that red fur.
Sillias was trying to scream through his strangled choking, his feindish yellow eyes pleading for Collin to let him go... to let him live.
"don't bother. how many people begged you to spare them before you destroyed them? you're such a monster that you've probably got too many to count."

Sillias' vision was starting to get black spots in it, and everything was starting to fade to black.
he wanted desperately to cry out, to say anything to be let go, even surrender, but that clearly wasn't going to happen, everything he'd wanted to do had been revealed to the wolf the instant he'd tried posessing him; he had been going to double-cross them, to kill the three canids with their friend's body... and that seemed to be the wolf's main motivator.

he was going to die.

but, just before he perished, he caught sight of the little canine looking out of his enemy's pocket, they locked eyes, and the tiny canine started clawing frantically at his friend's chest.
"Stop! Col, Stop! you're killing him!!"
the wolf stood, releasing Sillias and getting off him mere seconds before he died from suffocation. he panicked, taking in huge breaths of air, but stayed limp on the ground.

Collin looked apologetically at Bailey in his pocket "sorry... my... my instincts took over..."
"you were scary..."
he gently stroked at his master's head with a finger, giving a reassuring smile.
"i'm really sorry... but remember, you're the one and only person i'd never hurt, not even if i go out-of-my-mind crazy."
they looked at Sillias, his body limp and weak, but his breathing was calming down, he could become a threat again at any time. Collin snarled.
seemingly having sensed his thoughts, Sillias raised his paws in surrender as he sat up.
"take it easy, i know when i'm beat..." he groaned.
a familiar energy came to Collin's notice, his sixth sense picking up on 'Zenef' as he flew over to him through the air.
"you won!" he yelled gleefully, pumping his fists in the air "you kicked Bedlam's tail!"
Collin smiled "yeah, i did, didn't i? ... sorry for what i said earlier... that was out of line."
Zenef scratched his head, and Collin noticed a pair of silver, semi-transparent triangular- wings on the little canine's back "don't worry too much... it's true anyway..."
"hey, you're two parts of his original self, plus yourself. nobody can blame you for not being quite as strong as he was just yet." Collin offered sympathetically, and offered his paws for Zenef to land in, which he did, and the wings vanished with a glimmer.
his features reverted to normal, and the Gold and Ebony spectral wolves appeared on either side of him.
Beta's spectre looked up into Collin's eyes with a neutral expression "hello Collin."
"Sir." the white wolf nodded to him in acknowledgement
"you can go back to regular size any time now, it seems to be the same as feral mode."
"thanks for telling me."
Collin retrieved Bailey from his pocket and set the two young canids on the ground, and focussed, finding his center and the bead of condensed power that lay deep inside.
coldness flooded his veins, and he shrunk down to Buki size, Bailey once again towered over him.
he was a little disoriented "phew! what a headrush! actually felt kinda good, seriously!"
Bailey crouched down to be closer to Collin "C-Col..."
he looked up "yes? you wanna say something?"
Bailey gestured at the large paw-shaped crater they were in "who's going to pay for all the damages?"
the wolf cringed, he hadn't thought of that, and he couldn't make the Ghasts pay, that'd be a pretty poor way of thanking them for everything they'd done for him... and he couldn't pay, he had no money.
"w-well, i uh.... u-um.... i-i'm not gonna make y-you or your dads pay.... and i can't.... so--"

"i'll take care of the damages."

the voice had come out of nowhere, and its owner could not be seen, even Sillias was looking around, curious to see who would offer such a service.

"oh, i'm sorry, of course you can't see me. just a moment, please."

the dirt on the naturestrip bulged, then a white rabbit popped out from underground, he wore a headlamp and miner's clothing.
a giveaway to his identity was known immediately by Oriado once he'd come down to the ground, it was a paw-shaped pendant on a choker, resembling a pet's collar.
"well i'll be damned, Xavier, that you?" the black wolf laughed.
the young-adult nodded and laughed back "yup! i'm with the city construction and tunnelling industry, so we'll take care of all this, if we hassle our boss and he says 'no', then who's gonna do our job? it takes time to learn our skills, and they ain't got backup workers!" he chortled.
Collin then drew everyone's attention back to the mountainous red canine that was Sillias "so, what do we do with him?"
Beta's spectre seemed to have an idea as he started tracing glyphs in the air with his finger and muttered incomprehensible words that sounded like a spell of some sort.
Alpha, although technically the same being as Beta, had no idea what his ebony counterpart was doing at all.
"the heck're you doing?"
Beta frowned, or at least he seemed to, it was difficult to tell his spectral expressions exactly.
"i'm trying to use a banishing spell to send Sillias away, but..."
Kevin raised an eyebrow "but?"
"well, i'm trying to banish 'The Megalith'... and the magic is asking 'which one?'"
"does it mean Mr Collin?" Zenef suggested, but Beta shook his head.
"no... it keeps asking 'which one'.... out of two thousand..." he said with a frightened tone.

everyone, even Sillias, stared at Beta, shocked.
there were apparently another 1999 creatures ten times larger than Gikis in the world, and somehow, they hadn't been noticed!

Zenef cringed "j-jeez... how can such big people be so well hidden?!"
Beta groaned "no clue, but for now, we should keep Sillias sedated, and we know Dyson has the facilities to keep him restrained."

---

Benson, Lily, and their sons heard it on the news the very next day.
Beta was in a coma, the mythical monster Bedlam Sillias was revived, much of Giki Kero was damaged, and there was a hidden society of 'titans' in the world that nobody knew about until now.
currently, Zenef was on screen, acompanied by the sparkling gold lupine spirit of Alpha, asking that the festival continue as normal despite the events that had occurred.
"oh hell," Benson groaned, holding Lily as he sat on the couch with Ciril and Virlan, the latter on his brother's shoulder "this is insane, all of this is just insane."
"no kidding," Virlan barked "why's it gotta happen during the festival, too!?"
there was a knock at the door.
Benson put Lily on his shoulder and got up to answer it.

he opened the door to find an elderly beaver standing there dressed in a respectable suit and accompanied by a pair of agent-looking panthers.
"Mr Palmer?" he asked.
"that's me..." the fox replied "aren't you President Dylan?".
he handed Benson an envelope "you've been nominated."
"for what?" he asked as he opened it and withdrew the letter.
both he and Lily gasped at the title.

the beaver smiled kindly "why, for Virada's presidency, of course."

Benson was flustered "wh-why, who, how, when?!"
"because you're a respected member of the community who is also widely known as one of the heroes that defeated project legion, by the mass public, by a petition they submitted to city hall, yesterday."
one of the panthers cleared its throat "do you accept?"

Benson looked at Lily, then back at his bewildered sons, who'd been listening in.
"if i became president... would i be able to lega--"
"legalise intersize marriage?" the other panther cut him off "yes, you would."
Benson wrestled with the idea in his head for a moment "but... you're president..."
"i am, but i was also one of the people that signed the petition." the aged beaver laughed.
with a sigh that ended in a big, vulpine smile, he answered "if it gets done right, through an election... then yes, i accept the nomination."

later, he sat at the dining table with his family, discussing the letter.
"me... jeez, i didn't expect this, people want me to be Virada's president..." Benson muttered.
"you should go for it, dad!" Ciril said gleefully, with his brother agreeing completely.
Lily was being supportive as well "yeah Benny, you'd be a great president!"
he sighed "if you all say so..."
"we do!" they all shouted.
he smiled again, wider than before "then make it official; as of today, I, Benson Appolo Palmer, am running for Viradan presidency!"

---

meanwhile, Amelia scoured over shelves of books, searching for something.
"come on, where the hell is it? don't tell me it's missing?"
Ian walked up behind her "what's missing? you looking for something?"
the turned and sighed "i'll never get used to you understanding Gentikan... and yes, i'm looking for a certain book, a very old one at that."
"one: obviously i'm gonna pick up on a language after five years of being married to someone who speaks it. two: title?"
"it's called the 'Mythicon', it's a book telling legends and lore from ancient times."
he nodded "seems like something that'd explain how just under 2000 creatures ten times the size of giants went unnoticed, doesn't it?"
"my thoughts exactly." she replied, switching back to Viradan merely because the bilingual conversation was a bit too weird for her.

the two of them searched the shelves for hours before Ian found it.
it was an old book, it had a weathered grey cover and faded text on it reading 'Mythicon: a guide to Xlenian mythology, legends, and lore'.
"okay," he sighed as he opened the dusty tome "let's see if we can find anything out about those titans..."

(Next Chapter: the Mythicon tells the ancient tale of Agnak, lost city of titans.)