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Paranormalities: Episode I - Ch. 15 Belluzub

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The next day on Krantisi and after near-restless sleep and a quick meal, Zolph Vaelor and Grein contacted Luke Skywalker and Alliance Fleet Admiral Cephal to discuss the battle plans.

"It's a good thing you two came first, otherwise the whole fleet would've been wasted before the attack began," Luke told them.

"Um…yeah. It sure is," Zolph said still thinking about yesterday's events.

Luke could notice the scars from Dynn's finger-tooth marks on Zolph's neck, even though they were chatting through monochromatic holograms, and asked with concern. "Zolph, are you alright? And what's with those scars? Did something bite you?"

"I don't want to talk about it right now."

"Are you sure?"

"Let's just say he had a really bad day yesterday," Grein answered him. "I would not recommend pushing the questions further, for now."

"I understand." Luke then changed subject and directed his attention to the Mon Calamari admiral's hologram. "Anyway, Admiral Cephal has something to say."

"I understand your highest priority is eliminating this Belluzub guy – whatever he is – but we've got another problem: that space station is armed with a superlaser capable of destroying our cruisers and Star Destroyers. We've already lost three ships to that menace, and we have enough trouble with the Valkoran fleet," Cephal told them.

"Well, looks like we were correct about that technology." Zolph said. "And this is exactly why we called you over to blow this thing up in the first place."

"It would go a long way in helping us disable this thing permanently if you got on board it and shut down the laser and the shield."

"I'll prioritize that as well, because we planned on boarding the station anyway to make sure our target doesn't get off before we blow it up."

"Convenient. We'll send some support to help with getting to the laser, but we'll really need you alive if the stories about these Archfiends are true."

"Thank you, Admiral. We'll get on that thing, now. Vaelor and Grein out." Both holograms then turned off.

Grein headed for the cockpit and Zolph manned the quad-laser turret.

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The Blazing Manta took off and exited Krantisi's atmosphere. Zolph and Grein were then greeted to the site of the Alliance and Valkoran fleets exchanging fire near the Rakatan space station – nicknamed the 'Death Star Forge' by Zolph due to its hybridized appearance. Fighters and capital ships on both sides were being destroyed.

The Manta ignored them and headed towards one of the three fins on the Forge while Zolph gunned down any Firaxa-class starfighters and Shyrack-class bombers that came near, either to help out along the way or because they would set their attention on the freighter.

A few X-Wings then came to their side to escort them to the Forge. Grein then picked up a few Alliance MAAT Gunships escorted by more fighters heading for the Forge. A few of the X-Wings and MAATs were shot down getting close to the Forge's hangar fin, but a good number of the transports and the Blazing Manta eventually made it while the surviving fighters retreated.

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Zolph and Grein exited the Manta's loading ramp and were greeted by a platoon of Valkoran troopers and a Gundark walker for support, but they were promptly gunned down by a squad of Alliance soldiers.

"Commander Vaelor, the transports have made it aboard. We lost a few, but we've got enough," the squad captain told Zolph.

"So far, so good. Let's try not to lose as many men on here as we did getting here. Now let's move out." Zolph ordered the squad.

"May the Force be with you," Grein told him walking back up the loading ramp.

"You're not coming? Not even to help me with one of the best in the Collective?" Zolph asked her.

"Someone's got to keep the ship ready when we blow this place up."

"Oh yeah."

"The other squads are already progressing to the superlaser gunnery station as we speak. Let's not keep them waiting," the squad captain interrupted.

"Try to do your best to stay alive. From experience, the mortality rates of you Alliance troopers are still not that spectacular when fighting alongside me. Now, for real this time… Move out!"

"Yes sir!"

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Zolph and his squad fought their way through many Valkoran troopers and battle droids, as well as the more specialized infantry units such as Exo-Troopers, Hazard Troopers and Black Guards. A few Alliance troopers were lost along the way, mostly to the more advanced enemies. However, the lost troopers would be quickly replaced along the way from the other squads still making their way to the superlaser.

They eventually made it to a spacious multi-floored room with the superlaser gunnery platform suspended over a large pit. They noticed the laser fire another time, confirming the destruction of another Alliance capital ship. Zolph's comlink then rang.

"Admiral Cephal to Commander Vaelor. We're running out of ships!"

"Yeah, we noticed. We're very close to the gunnery station, so your laser problem should be over soon. Hold on just a little longer, Admiral. Vaelor out." He then turned off the comlink.


Zolph's squad then moved up several more floors and eliminated more Valkoran personnel that got in their way. They eventually got to the platform and eliminated the crew when they tried to fire on them.

"Okay, now that no one's trying to kill us at the moment, we can shut this thing off."

Before Zolph could destroy the controls, an automated voice interrupted him. "Alert! Alert!" An eel-like security droid with electrified mandibles and a single red eye then emerged from under the platform. "Eliminating program start!"

"I think the Valks goofed up on converting this droid's Rakatan to Basic," Zolph said.

The droid then lunged at one of the troopers and grabbed him. It suspended him over the abyss before dropping him to his death.

"Sir, I think we should take this thing a little more seriously," the captain told Zolph.
The soldiers fired at it, but it dodged every one of their shots.

The droid then grappled another trooper, but instead of pulling him to his death, it electrocuted him and caused him to disintegrate. The squad captain then fired on the droid after the lunge, but the shots bounced off. "Oh, blast it!" he yelled. The droid then lunged for him, but he quickly somersaulted out of its path.

"I've got this." Zolph said as he tried to cut the droid with his lightsaber. The blade bounced off its armor too. "Oh, come on!"

As the troops continued to avoid its attacks, Zolph realized something: if the droid tried to avoid the first blaster shots, it must have a very obvious weak point. "Captain, get that thing to aim for the terminals. I've determined its weak point."

The captain moved towards the control terminal and drew its attention with more blaster fire. The droid lunged once more and the captain dodged, but the droid got its head stuck into the terminal. Zolph then stabbed into its single photoreceptor.

"Eliminating program failure," the droid said as it shut down.

"Well, looks that piece of junk did our job for us," Zolph said observing the damage the droid had done. "Now, all that's left is Belluzub and the shield generator."

"Let's move out!" the captain said.

"No, Captain. I'm doing this alone. Last time I brought a squad to kill an Archfiend, it killed someone by collapsing his insides on him and gave the rest of the squad PTSD. There's no telling what Belluzub is capable of, especially since I hear he is one of the more dangerous Archfiends."

"Yes, sir… and no can do, sir. We'll hold the hangars until you take down the shields if he tries to get out, but just in case he is too much for you alone, I'm sending a few to help you out."

"Alright, but I can't guarantee they'll survive this. Let's move out, men!"

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With the superlaser disabled, Zolph's squad moved upward through the Forge. They plowed their way through more elite Valkoran forces and defense systems, but there weren't as many casualties on his side since Zolph had fewer troops to protect.

They eventually made it to a data library. After downloading a map of the installation, they determined that Belluzub's summoning chamber was way up on the viewing platform, conveniently next to the shield generators. Of course, Zolph figured Belluzub had to be eliminated first in case he was successfully summoned.

Going further upward and getting closer to the viewing platform, they also encountered not only Black Guards but a few Force Sensitive acolytes right next to the platform's turbolift. They were somewhat troublesome for the troops, but Zolph had relatively litle trouble with them due to his experience fighting Archfiends and Maesterus and dispatched them quickly. They proceeded up the turbolift.

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Zolph's squad entered the viewing platform, where they noticed two more acolytes and a strange, interdimensional portal that had been opened.

"You are too late, Vaelor!" one of the acolytes told them. "The summoning ritual is complete! Soon the galaxy will learn to fear and respect Lord Belluzub!"

"Looks like we came just in time," Zolph said before directing his attention to the acolytes. "Well, not if we kill him first."

A black reptilian claw then emerged from the portal followed by the rest of the creature: a large, somewhat bipedal mix between a reptile and insect that moved on all four limbs, had a blade-tipped tail, sharp teeth, a hard shell forming what looked like a helmet and a single Forceless eye on its forehead above what were once regular eye sockets. This was definitely Belluzub.

The acolytes turned their attention towards the beast. "We are honored to have you among us, Lord Belluzub! How may we serve you?" one of them said.

Belluzub then looked down on the relatively tiny creatures and spoke with an echoed voice. "The gatekeepers, I take it? You must be some of Emperor Valkor's puppet minions."

The other acolyte asked in confusion. "Wait…puppet minion?"

"You said you wanted to serve me? Well, you can help me out BY FEEDING ME!" His mouth opened up and a long tongue with a humanoid head – with features including a single eye and a wide grin - on the tip lashed at one of the acolytes, engulfed him in its mouth and swallowed him whole as he struggled.

"M-monster!" The other acolyte then activated his lightsaber in defense.

Belluzub then said to him with his tongue still out and holding one of his claws up, "I wouldn't do that if I were you, weakling." He then sprayed out a stream of black acid from his tongue onto the acolyte, dissolving him quickly and painfully into a puddle. He then looked towards Zolph's squad.

"I know you. You're that little Jedi who's been giving us trouble lately."

"I didn't even think you could speak Basic," Zolph responded. "And how did you know what I look like?"

"Oh, please. We don't always need to use other creature's vocal cords to talk. We've been learning your languages over the course of our campaign here. As for your other question, we Forceless are somewhat part of a hive mind. We can see what our other brethren see." Belluzub then repositioned his tongue. "But enough chit chat. Now that you foolishly brought yourself before me, I can kill you and maybe get a higher position."

"We'll see about that." Zolph then activated his lightsaber. "Ready your weapons, men!" The two remaining soldiers with him pointed their rifles towards Belluzub.

"Three against one? That's hardly a fair fight."

"So? If you're one of the best this Valkor guy has to throw at us, we should hardly be a…."

"Children! Dinner is served! You can finish that guy inside me later." The mouth on Belluzub's tongue opened up and out of it came swarms of tiny flying insects that vaguely resembled him.

The soldiers fired on them and managed to kill a few of them, but they still managed swarm the troopers and eat them alive until they were nothing but armor and bone. Zolph cut down any of the insects that got close to him, but when they tried to swarm him, he Force Repulsed all of them, causing them to disintegrate.

"Wow, you Jedi sure have no qualms about murdering children," Belluzub told him.

"Well, whose fault is that? Because you sure have no qualms about letting your kids eat people."

"Oh well. There's more where they came from."

"You get more and more disgusting with everything I see you do and say, throwing away their lives away so casually. And what would their mother say about this?"

"Their mother? Hah! I can easily make more of them by myself! I haven't even required a mate since I joined the Collective!"

"Joined? Give me a break, parasite. I already know that you robbed this poor creature of his free will."

"Really?" Belluzub then lifted one of his claws off the floor. "Can a mere possession slave DO THIS?!" He then shot blue lightning from his claw towards Zolph and sent him flying several feet.

Zolph was surprised. "Force Lightning?! But how?!"

"I don't think you really understand what an Archfiend is. We willingly serve the Collective! I am truly Belluzub! Since I have been such a good boy, I can do whatever I please while I benefit from their powers."

"What were your reasons for joining them? Did they break you into serving them?"

Belluzub then mockingly laughed at him. "Break me? I joined them right from the start! Nothing feels better than slaughtering and feasting on your enemies!"

Zolph got back up on his feet. "So, you're just a psychopath. You know, I may still have a grudge against the Valkoran, but guys like you make them look like legitimate freedom fighters."

"Either way, I need to get back to killing you, and I'm going to enjoy every second of it!" He then lashed his blade-tipped tail at Zolph, who quickly but barely dodged backward, putting a cut into his mechanical arm. He then lashed his tongue at him, but that was avoided as well.

Zolph tried to slash at Belluzub, but he then climbed up to the viewing platform's ceiling, being careful not to depressurize the room by shattering the windows. Hanging from the ceiling, he sent another swarm of his larvae down to devour Zolph, but while he was focused on them, the Archfiend shot more Force Lightning and acid down at him.

Once Zolph had killed all of the larvae, Belluzub jumped down from the ceiling and pinned him to the floor with his left claw. He lightly pushed down on Zolph's chest, but not enough to kill him. He then positioned his tongue and tail towards him while he glared menacingly at him.

"Seriously?! This kid is what Valkor is so worried about?! Absolutely pathetic! Either way, time to die, Vaelor! And I'm sure you'll be seeing your girlfriend in hell!"

Zolph then snapped. "Shut up!" He yelled as he violently Force Pushed Belluzub off of him and into the ceiling before he fell down. "You do not talk shavit about Dynn!"

As Belluzub got back up, he then tried to slice Zolph apart with his tail, but he got that cut off instead. Zolph then charged towards him and cut the head off of his tongue and slashed at his limbs, crippling him. He was then flipped onto his back.

Zolph jumped onto Belluzub's chest and pointed his lightsaber towards his throat.

Belluzub then sadistically chuckled. "So you're still shaken by what you did yesterday? I may not be the one who gets to kill you, but this? This is even better!"

Zolph then punched into Belluzub's ribs and his eyes turned gold again. "I thought I told you to shut up!"

Belluzub then pushed him further. "Ooh, there are those eyes again! Someone's getting really angry! Forget your stupid cult's ideals and satisfy your thirst for our blood! Go ahead! Kill me!"

Before he could stab into Belluzub's chest, he realized that Belluzub was clearly gaining satisfaction from his anger, and that he was trying to repeat what the rest of the Collective tried to do to him yesterday. He then deactivated his lightsaber, his eyes turned back to brown and said, "No!"

Belluzub was shocked by Zolph turning down his opportunity for vengeance. "W-what?!"

"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Dynn didn't want me to be like this, and she wouldn't even after death, and it took one of my other friends to keep me from making that same mistake yesterday. I am not giving you the satisfaction of watching me slip to the Dark Side!"

"Why?! That completely defeats the purpose of why you chose to challenge me! Your journey here and the sacrifices those soldiers of yours made will have been in vain!"

"I'm not going to kill you, but I'm not going to let you live either."

"That is the stupidest thing I have ever…" Zolph then used the Force to throw him into a conveniently-placed, oversized force cage and activated the force field, trapping him. "What is the meaning of this?! And why did those damn Builders put this cage here?!"

"I think they predicted that you would try to eat them should they have successfully summoned you at the time. Anyway, you are just stupid as hell today, Belluzub. Incredibly sadistic, but also incredibly stupid. I came here to stop you from terrorizing this galaxy, and should I have failed to prevent your coming, kill you, but I'm going to let the Alliance fleet do that now."

"But doesn't that go against everything you just said?!"

"Maybe it does, but I'm not leaving you here to die for personal reasons. I'm leaving you here because you're a serious threat to the galaxy. Besides, I'm not making your own demise satisfying for you." Zolph then turned his back on the imprisoned Archfiend. "Goodbye, Belluzub."

As Zolph walked away, Belluzub shouted as he weakly banged on the force field. "Let me out, you hypocritical bastard!"

"Do you ever shut up?" Zolph asked as he headed towards the turbolift to the shield generators. He then left the Archfiend to wait for his fiery fate.
Star Wars: Paranormalities: Episode I directory
Prologue: [link]
Chapter 1: [link]
Chapter 2: [link]
Chapter 3: [link]
Chapter 4: [link]
Chapter 5: [link]
Chapter 6: [link]
Chapter 7: [link]
Chapter 8: [link]
Chapter 9: [link]
Chapter 10: [link]
Chapter 11: [link]
Chapter 12: [link]
Chapter 13: [link]
Chapter 14: [link]
Chapter 15: You are here
Epilogue: [link]

Don't worry, epilogue will have plenty of conflict too. It'll be a cliffhanger ending in regards to the rest of the story, but it will conclude this arc.

Concept art:
Belluzub: [link] Of course, he's getting a minor redesign when the cover art comes.
© 2012 - 2024 Gahmah-Raan
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