The King of Heroes
The tale of Aphelion 2021 begins with the declaration by an entity representing himself as a messenger from Neptune. Representing himself as “the Messenger in Chief,” this messenger demanded that the signing of a treaty is backed with force if the signatories wished to sign the treaty at that point in time. If the signatories refused this demand, the said entity promised to bring down “the thunder of judgment” on those who refused to give into his demands. When this happened, a storm was caused as the planet Neptune itself was moved out of its solar system by the powerful beams of a Great Astronomical storm. This caused further deterioration to the system and resulted to Aphelion’s destruction.
Aphelion, officially referred to as Triton, is officially the second-closest exaltation planet to the Sun at perihelion (the farthest point beyond the Sun). At perihelion, Triton is the hottest planet with a surface temperature of 10.6 degrees Celsius or Earth’s current temperature. At aphelion, Triton’s surface temperature drops to just a fraction below freezing. Its atmosphere is composed mainly of carbon dioxide, making it very inhospitable to any life forms yet friendly to other planets. Hence, despite its title, Aphelion promised much for mankind, as it brought a sense of “awakening” to people across the solar system. With this success at the third stage of Triton’s journey through the Solar System, the series of events that led to the destruction of the second planet became known as the “Apollo Syndrome.”
For all practical purposes, the tale of Aphelion should be considered a classic tale of gods and men working together. In Aphelion, Triton, the god of water (the planet Mercury) and also the god of war (the planet Venus) allied themselves against the planet Xanthellus (the planet Saturn). To do this, they each sent their giant fleets of ships into the inner regions of space. They united their forces against the realm of Xanthellus, defeating and capturing it, and then forcing Xanthellus to make peace with them in order to save itself. Triton, now the ruler of the fourth heaven, decided that he would like to make an example of the evils of war, so he sent his men to attack the phenomena of Triton’szu and Xanthellus. The phenomena were made to bow down and worship him as the leader of all the heavenly beings, but as luck would have it, Triton chose a rather weak vessel for himself in which to lead his fleet into Triton’s realm.
Once there, however, the gods had other plans for Triton, namely that he would need to defeat the other gods of the realm. Thus, Triton’s first task was to destroy the phenomena of cum. It was during this time that Aphelion 2100 arrived to stop the attack, though he was too late. It was then that the gods inadvertently took Triton into their own realm.
When Triton returned, he found that his fleet had been scattered and nearly destroyed. Aphelion explained to Triton that he did not die in the battle, but was thrown back into Triton’s realm by the phenomena. Triton was confused and believed that Aphelion was simply escaping while leaving behind his fleet for a peaceful period of time. However, Triton was soon to find out that Aphelion was not escaping; rather, he was being transformed into a dragon-like creature.
Appearing before Triton, Aphelion explained that he sought to help Triton defeat the other gods, whom he considered to be stronger than himself. With this, Triton allowed himself to be captured by the phenomena, though he spared his friend Tenebrae. Aphelion then went on to fight and defeat the gods Tefrix and Delphin, while revealing the location of the other five gods. When Triton arrived at the location of the other five gods, however, he discovered that Aphelion still refused to surrender, stating that he would reveal the location of the other five gods if Triton helped him defeat the gods.
When Triton refused to abandon his allies, Aphelion attacked and captured Triton’s three other retainers, kidnapping them to serve as his personal guards. Forced to defend himself against Triton’s army of monsters and fiends, the young warrior was forced to flee from his enemies. However, he managed to create a force of his own by trapping the five other Faunus in an enchanted prison, forcing them to fight amongst themselves for the control of the magical artifacts within.
However, with the aid of his son Ascanius, Triton was able to escape from the confines of the prison. While Triton made a way out of the prison and fought against the monsters surrounding him, his son confronted the seven Faunus once again. In order to protect Triton, the younger man attempted to poison each of the fiends, but to no avail. The seven then turned on Triton, though the latter barely survived their attacks. Faunus eventually died after Triton slew all of them, leaving his body to be eaten by an animal.
