The elevator to the Great Mine ground to a halt at the surface of Luna Magna. Knoxus and Matoro had finally decided to check outside now that the noises had stopped. The two Matoran, armed with just their pickaxes, slowly began to look around.
“Looks like the action’s been over for a while.” Matoro said, letting out a sigh of relief. “We should probably head back to the kingdom. Or what’s left of it.”
“Lead the way.” Knoxus responded. “I can’t imagine the King is very happy, if he’s even still alive.”
They began walking back toward the kingdom once more. But they didn’t get far before getting a feeling they were being watched. Knoxus felt an icy stare to his right, and as he turned to look, Matoro spoke.
“What is that?” Matoro’s voice resonated through Knoxus’ mind as he noticed a shadowy figure, standing about 30 yards away from the two Matoran. The figure was in black and silver armor, with piercing orange eyes that stared them down through the eyeholes of a Kanohi Huna. Where the figure’s hands should have been, two crooked, curved blades protruded from its arms instead. It had a dark aura about it, an aura which haunted every fiber of Knoxus’ being.
“Uhm, Matoro?” Knoxus whispered.
“Yeah, we should go.” Matoro responded. The two of them quickly began to walk away, but the shadowy figure started moving towards them. They broke out into a run, but somehow, it was now directly in front of them. They slid to a halt at the figure’s clawed feet.
“Knoxus, this is your end.” said the figure in a raspy voice, leaning in toward Knoxus. Matoro slid in between Knoxus and the being.
“You… know me?” Knoxus asked. He wasn’t used to being acknowledged directly by anyone besides Matoro. “Who… what are you?”
The figure straightened up. “Where I’m from, I’m what’s known as… Makuta. I have come from very far away to kill you, Knoxus.”
“Kill me…? Why!?”
The Makuta lifted one blade above its head. “It’s easier to explain this way.” He suddenly brought the blade down at Knoxus, but Matoro jumped up, and blocked the blade with his pickaxe.
“Why must they always interfere?” The Makuta sighed. He shoved Matoro out of the way and readied his blade once more. Knoxus scrambled for his own pickaxe, but the Makuta knocked it away with a blast of shadow energy. Knoxus didn’t know what he had done to anger this so-called ‘Makuta.’ But he could tell that he wasn’t going to stop until he was dead. The Makuta lunged at Knoxus. He closed his eyes, but instead of pain, Knoxus felt a cold gust of wind blast over him. Opening his eyes, he saw the Makuta lying on the ground in front of a Toa of Ice. Knoxus recognized the Toa. It was Chilluno, one of the Luna Magnan army’s officers.
Chilluno turned to the two Matoran. “Names and statuses, Matoran. Are you hurt?”
“Matoro… and Knoxus! We’re okay for the moment. That thing attacked us, and it called itself… Makuta!” Matoro sputtered. Knoxus was still too frightened to speak.
“This matter does not concern you, naïve Toa of Ice!” The Makuta shouted, as he slowly rose to his feet. “This is between me, and that Matoran of Iron.”
“You will not lay a finger on that Matoran of Iron! Even if you… had… fingers!” Chilluno shouted back. “And, naïve? I think it’s time I give you a traditional Luna Magnan welcome!” Chilluno shot a volley of icicles at the Makuta, which shattered and bounced off him harmlessly. She looked back to the Matoran. “Okay… run.”
Knoxus and Matoro followed her advice, once more sprinting toward the kingdom. The Makuta attempted to ignore Chilluno and pursue Knoxus, but she held him back by attacking once more with blades of ice generated from her arms. The annoyed Makuta growled and began to fight back.
The Makuta was surprisingly good at combat, taking minimal effort to match Chilluno’s skill. He struck at Chilluno’s ice blades with such speed that they were chipping with every swipe. Chilluno continued to use her elemental powers to try and slow the Makuta down, but his fierceness in battle forced her backward, in the same direction the Matoran were retreating.
The Makuta wasn’t fully paying attention to the sword fight either, and instead kept an eye on the Matoran’s escape. This gave Chilluno an idea. She crossed her arms, locking the Makuta’s blades with her own. She then froze both their blades together, as well as her feet to the ground, anchoring the two fighters in place. Her foe hesitated for a moment, trying to figure out a way to break free.
“Enough of this! We’re fighting, the least you could do is pay attention!” Chilluno said mockingly.
“You’re right. It’s past time we finished this.” The Makuta responded. “Thanks for holding still.”
Chilluno noticed the ribcage-like armor on the Makuta’s chest was slowly opening, revealing the Makuta’s hollow core. She saw a small, glowing object inside, but before Chilluno could make it out, a plume of shadow energy burst forth from the opening. It engulfed Chilluno where she stood, blinding her. The shadow energy washing over her was weakening her elemental powers. She had no choice but to shatter the ice that held the two of them in place, causing her to be thrown backwards.
The Makuta approached again, pointing one blade at Chilluno’s throat. Through blurred vision, she looked up at him, but he did not return her gaze. Instead, he stared at the two Matoran in the distance.
Under his breath, Chilluno heard him mutter, “No…” Then he suddenly leaped into the air, rocketing toward the two Matoran in a trail of smoke. Chilluno flipped around to see what was happening. To her surprise, the colossal being in the sky was reaching his arm down to Knoxus and Matoro. A beam of energy shot down from the giant’s hand, lifting Knoxus and Matoro away from the planet. The Makuta was rushing toward them, but by then, he was already too late. The Matoran had disappeared into the sky.
With a bloodcurdling scream, the Makuta fell to his knees in the sand where his target stood a few moments ago. Chilluno slowly rose to her feet, blinking away the last of the blindness from the Makuta’s attack. She readied herself to fight once again, but as she did, the Makuta disappeared. She waited there, expecting a surprise attack, but it never came.
Knoxus couldn’t see anything. The last thing he saw was the colossal giant’s hand reaching down from the sky, and then a bright flash of light. He wondered what became of Chilluno and the Makuta, and why the giant in space had suddenly taken an interest in him.
“Don’t worry little ones, you’re safe now.” A voice boomed from everywhere at once. Knoxus assumed that this was the voice of the giant, and the other ‘little one’ was Matoro.
Suddenly, the bright light went out, and Knoxus’ eyes adjusted. He was in space, miles above the atmosphere of Luna Magna, levitating in the palm of the giant being’s hand. Knoxus could see Matoro about 300 feet away, too far away to speak to him. Now much more visible, the giant being appeared to be made of an ancient metal, and it had a solemn expression on its face.
A small hatch on the giant’s hand opened below Knoxus, and a mechanical arm reached out. Panicking, Knoxus tried to push off against the mechanical arm, but it maneuvered around his flailing limbs and latched onto his torso. Matoro was in the same situation on the other side of the giant’s palm. Knoxus watched helplessly as his friend was also caught.
The mechanical arms then began retracting back into the giant’s palm. Knoxus and Matoro looked at each other one last time as they were pulled inside, hatches closing behind them. Once inside, the arm carrying Knoxus started moving along a rail through the robot’s interior. It was well lit inside the robot’s body, and surprisingly high tech. A few times, Knoxus thought he saw various beings moving about through the corridors and catwalks inside the robot. But he figured he was just seeing things.
The arm stopped above some sort of spherical canister, and Knoxus suddenly felt light-headed. The arm slowly lowered him into the canister. He wanted to resist, but he couldn’t move. He just felt sleepy. The canister was sealed behind him, and everything went dark.
What is happening? Knoxus thought, fading in and out of consciousness. Giant robots? Rifts in space? A Kingdom of Matoran on a glowing planet?
Did that really happen? It’s so strange. A moment ago, it felt so real… but that’s ridiculous… Knoxus stirred. Must be the dreams again…
Crash!
Knoxus woke abruptly. He was in his tent. Outside, His Fe-Matoran brothers were unloading a boat full of new technology from the Southern Continent, and one of them had dropped a crate of gears. Waves crashed on the shore of the island of Stelt, the island he and his brothers currently called home.
“Time to get up, I guess…” Knoxus groaned. “They’ll probably be needing my help again.”
Gringat overheard a commotion outside. He was in a makeshift hut, having a meeting with several Matoran engineers to design a secret bunker for the Luna Dial. Wondering what all the fuss was about, he exited the hut. A group of Toa Soldiers were assisting an injured Toa returning from the outskirts of the kingdom. Gringat approached the soldiers. The Toa they were assisting was none other than Chilluno. She was limping, but nevertheless, saluted the King.
“What happened?” Gringat asked.
Chilluno was weakened, but not unable to speak. “I was searching the area around the Great Mine when I noticed two Matoran getting attacked by a strange being. I tried to rescue them, but this thing… it was made of shadow. It called itself Makuta… I fought it, but it was too powerful.”
“This…Makuta, what was it doing on my planet? Why was it attacking Matoran?”
“Just one of them actually. The one called Knoxus. I don’t know why it attacked, but he and the other one, Matoro, got away.”
“Where are they then?”
“That’s the thing, the giant in the sky… it reached down and grabbed them… and then it flew away. The Makuta disappeared shortly after.”
Gringat stood there in silence. The number of atrocities Mata Nui unleashed upon the Luna Magnans was already too high to count. Now he had to add kidnapping to that list.
“Knoxus and Matoro, who were they?” Gringat asked the gathered Toa.
A nearby Matoran spoke up, “They’re miners sir, like myself. Matoran of Iron and Ice respectively.”
Mynus approached Gringat from behind. “Sir, they were the last Matoran unaccounted for.”
“I want those names to be remembered.” Gringat announced, sadness in his voice. “All these losses, while unfortunate, will be our motivation. We will honor the names of these lost ones, so that all of Luna Magna may know of their sacrifice in the future. These innocents paid the ultimate price to reveal the name of our enemy…”
Gringat raised a fist into the air. “…and that name… is Mata Nui.”
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End of Prologue 2
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Link to Story Masterlist: 【BIONICLE】Knight of Nights: Knoxus' Story (Masterlist) - Literature - The TTV Message Boards