Demeptah POV

  My footsteps echoed across the long passageways of my father’s flying fortress that was his flagship. Even now I could hear the rhythmic hum of the shields that surrounded the entire fortress as well as its supporting fleet.

  The massive hallways made this entire place feel more like an ancient castle or dungeon than the marvel of technology and aetheric arts that it truly was. The very first memory I could recall took place on this ship. But back then it was buried deep underground to conceal its massive size and acted as home and training grounds for me. It had everything that was needed for an Emperor in a time of war. How it was constructed, my father never told me. But I deemed it unimportant for now.

  As I hurried along, large paintings and maps of long lost civilizations decorated the walls. Despite being viewed by any of our kind as a warmongering tyrant who seized the opportunity to take control of our race, that could not be further from the truth.

  My father was someone who appreciated art, not only for the beauty it could represent. But the act of creation of art itself. He could see the emotions, the struggle, the pain that the artisan poured into their work, almost like an extension of the artist themselves. He had told me that such feelings and emotions were a key thing that separated us lessers from the asuras.

  He had tutored me that the Asuras were born into power, never truly struggling like many lessers do. No, he claimed that in spite of all the darkness and pain present in this world that lessers were the ones who stood to face it without any god-like powers. And that is what made us truly special.

  I always grew sentimental when walking these halls, I did spend most of my life here after all. But the only emotion I could feel now was confusion and rage.

  Ever since I was born my father had directly trained me, or had tutors he had personally selected to educate me while he watched over me. Even when we fully revealed ourselves to both Asuras and Djinn I was by his side as his most trusted general. I had trained my whole entire life for this one purpose, to act as his sword in times of war.

  I had grinded my very bones until they were nothing but dust to share some of the burden that was on my father’s shoulders. He had so many dreams for our people’s future, and I had made his vision my vision. But yet he had always kept me at arms distance, he didn’t even allow me to refer to him as father in public.

  I just couldn’t understand him, why? I had made it my life’s purpose to be by his side. To be the one who he could rely on in his conquest in liberating our world from the tyrant asuras. So why? Had I disappointed him in some way? I will find my answers soon enough.

  I finally reached the Emperor’s personal chambers. A set of massive doors made of blackstone and decorated with gold stood before me. Flanking the doors were two Custodians who eyed me as I approached, they both extended their spears to stop me.

  “Lord Demeptah, what is your-” One of them spoke but I cut them off before they could finish.

  “Let me through.” I said, allowing my already boiling anger to spill through my words.

  I could see both Custodians’ bodies tense as I sensed my rage. But they didn’t budge as the Custodian spoke again.

  “What is your purpose here?” He demanded. I pondered the thought of just breaking through them but that would only be a waste of resources.

  I took a deep breath as I calmed myself. “I am here to meet my father.” I plainly stated.

  Both of them glared at me before they spoke, “His majesty is busy at the moment-”

  “Just move god damn it!” I shouted and the entire fortress seemed to shake from my barely suppressed power.

  The other Custodian was clearly calling for backup as the one I have been speaking to continued to try to reason with me.

  “Lord Demeptah, despite your position and close relation it doesn’t mean-”

  “Why don’t I just silence you first then huh?” I said as my lance materialized in my hands. The sharp blade gleamed with a bright white-gold light as I channeled my mana into it.

  Both Custodians took a small step back, and for good reasons. I have spared each Custodian countless times. They were formidable fighters, some were far better than any dragon I had faced. But they knew that they were still outmatched in combat with me. Of course being attacked by a squad of them will leave me with heavy wounds but I was sure I would be victorious in the end. And these two knew it.

  I let out a small bit of my mana as it lashed out. Rumbling the ground and shaking the large door, dust and small loose rocks tumbled from the ceiling as the stone floor cracked like thunder. Both of the Custodians now took on battle positions with their spears raised. But their movements seemed slow as the gravity I exerted hampered them. Mana surged from my core to my weapon as the blade glowed brighter until it was almost blinding.

  ‘I’ll just blast my way through.’ I have put up with too much shit to be stopped by merely two Custodians. I will get the answers myself.

  The Custodian to my right lunged forward first. His spear raised up and aimed at my neck. The other was right behind him with his spear and shortsword in his hands. To anybody else that would have been the end of their life. It is often said that when a Custodians goes in fully for the kill that their victim only sees a gold and black streak before dying.

  But I was the very first of the Emperor’s creations. I am of his blood, trained by him personally. I easily sidestepped the first Custodian and delivered a quick jab to his sternum. I could sense his mana core instantly seize up as his body fell to the ground with a loud thud. The second Custodian was upon me but I simply blocked his sword with my armored forearm as I swatted his spear aside.

  With a swift kick the Custodian was sent flying back and struck the door hard, cracking some of his armor in the process. Grabbing a hold of the downed Custodian I threw him to his comrade that was now trying to pry himself from the dent in the door.

  I then pointed my lance at the two of them. A weapon that I had crafted myself under my father’s teachings. It was capable of annihilating entire armies of asuras in a single blast, although such an effort took considerable time and energy. But for this occasion it was overkill.

  The golden runes that ran up and down the shaft of my weapon glowed in a brillant show of lights as mana and aether surged forward in a singular beam of blinding white light.

  The beam should have reduced the Custodians into nothing more than mere memories. Not a single dust of their bodies would have been found and the door would be erased from reality. But that did not happen.

  Instead I was face to face with a large man. Dressed in blackstone armor, far more ancient and advanced than anything the other Djinn warlords wore. With an insignia of a three headed eagle crafted of gold on the chestplate.

  I had to strain my neck to look up at his face. The dark skin and black hair, with glowing gold eyes. He stared back at me with a subtle look of disappointment.

  +Enough Demeptah.+ His mental voice seared itself into my brain like a hot branding iron. I reeled back for a moment and in a bright flash of light both of the Custodians were fully healed and standing behind him again. While they were the guardians of the Emperor they wouldn’t dare interfere now.

  “How nice of you to finally join us, father.” I sneered through gritted teeth.

  +I understand your anger. But this is no way to conduct yourself.+ He reprimanded as he gestured for me to follow him.

  I trailed behind him as we entered his personal quarters of the flying fortress. The doors were already repaired with no hint of any damage on them. The two Custodians stood by as the door shut with a loud metal thud.

  My father’s own room wasn’t that extravagantly decorated. Just the pure essentials, he deemed it would be in poor taste to live a lavish lifestyle in such times of war and strife. The only things he indulged in were his various hobbies such as metal forging and his personal lab. From the corners of my eyes I could see the winding staircase that would lead to his laboratory.

  Every single step my father took produced the smooth purring of the mechanical workings of his ancient armor. He unbuckled his sword, Sol Invictus, from his belt and propped it up on his desk. A well built wooden desk, but quite plain in the office of someone with the title of Emperor.

  “You should know better than that, lashing out like a child.” He said with his back still turned to me.

  ‘Strange’ I thought. Even in private he is still so distant to me. Now that I think about it he has changed. Just before we had revealed ourselves he had taken me on his flagship into the aetheric void. He had left alone, tasking me in guiding some kind of gateway. And when he returned he was changed, he carried a new kind of flame inside him, he was far stronger, but he also seemed far more distant. A much colder individual.

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  He was still capable of emotion and personal connection but he seemed to hold everyone at an arm's length, also seeing things like he was an outside observer. Something in that sea of souls had changed him, did he make some kind of bargain with some sort of demon? To gain power but to lose his soul? No, that only happens in children’s fairy tales.

  “Your mind is wandering again.” He said as if he could read my mind like a book.

  “Then you should know why I am here.” I asserted.

  My father turned to finally face me. His eyes that were burning bright gold now returned to their usual dark black. His ageless face seemed to grow a few wrinkles somehow before all of that disappeared in an instant.

  “You are sending me away?” I said, I could hear the pain in my own voice. After all we have been together, I was his son and he is sending me away to some Djinn warlord.

  “You work well with Oliurk.” He commented. His voice held absolutely no emotions. No variation, just cold machine.

  “On the battlefield, he is the same as all the other Djinn lords. He-”

  “There are reasons for why I am doing this.”

  “Then let’s hear it father, please tell this poor son of yours your master plan.” I shouted, demanding answers. Most of the inner circle knew of my father’s prescient abilities that far surpassed even Lord Vago’s, it was one of the reasons why they even followed him into this war.

  But the thing was he never told us anything about this vision, at least not directly. His reasoning was that peering into the future never produced clean easy to understand answers. That the tide of time that obscure his mind’s vision was ever changing and having multiple others peer into the future at the same time only muddied the waters even further.

  My father took a deep breath as he looked down at me. For a short flicker I could have sworn I saw something within those dark black hole-like eyes. The warmth and care I had once felt as a child that was almost entirely gone now, I could see the dying embers of that flame once more. But just as soon as it was born it died as he spoke.

  “Some things need to happen Demeptah, even the most terrible things you can imagine sometimes need to happen.”

  “Why?” I stammered, if we knew our fate and destiny wasn’t there something, anything we could do to stop it? To forcibly change our path to a more favorable one?

  “Because sometimes the only victory possible is to keep your opponent from winning completely.”

  My father’s face turned into one of sadness and regret. But his eyes were enough to convey his deeper emotions. Having spent my entire life with him I could notice such minute details of his surface emotions.

  “Some believe I am omnipotent, but there is a catch with being all powerful and all knowing.”

  “Which is?” I asked.

  “You can’t be both at the same time.” He said with a wry smile. And before I could continue to ask questions his mental voice burned itself into my mind, filling my brain with false emotions and commands.

  +Now go, fulfill your duty my general. The next time we meet will be in another place and another time.+

  “Yes my lord.” I said as I bowed, all of my anger and frustration was snuffed out like a dying fire. All my questions vanished into thin air as I was left with an empty feeling in my chest. The only thing that I knew for certain was that I must obey my Emperor’s command, for his words are law and for the greater good of our race.

  I turned to leave the room. But a forgotten emotion beckoned for me to turn back. I peered over my shoulder only to see the Emperor with his back turned towards me as he surveyed a large three dimensional map of the battlefield.

  ‘His command is my duty.’ I thought as I marched myself out of the Emperor’s quarters.

  My eyes fluttered open as I groaned. I seemed to be having more and more dreams and visions of my father and my past as the days went on.

  I knew that the man that was my father was dead, or at the very least so heavily altered that he was not the same man that had raised me. That… that thing on the throne was something far worse.

  His physical appearance was that of a decaying corpse, his face forever stuck in a moment of eternal agony as his soul was trapped within his dying prison. But his soul was also changed, an amalgamation of souls, all different, all screaming out in pain for me to end their misery.

  To think that some of our race even thought he was some savior deity from the heavens to free us from the Asuras. If he was some sort of god sent from beyond our world then the current Djinn was chained and trapped their own god.

  “My lord?” Boraka snapped me out of my trance. He was on his knees in a deep bow as he looked up at me.

  Ah yes, he was here reporting the whole situation with Erurda. She had escaped as planned. Hopefully she wouldn’t suspect much since Boraka gave her some trouble. But the damage she had done to my lab wasn’t very much appreciated. Let’s just hope that her purpose serves to be more useful.

  “Yes, you have done well my retainer. Although I would have preferred that you bruised her up a bit more.” I commented.

  “Do you believe she will be suspicious?” He asked. Boraka was always like this. He was an absolute monster in the field of war and more importantly combat, but he lacked emotional intelligence. It made me suspect if he was another one of the Emperor’s creations, an almost perfect machine of war. It was hard to imagine someone like Boraka growing up in the prewar Djinn society, with all their talks of diplomacy and peace.

  Perhaps he was similar to Erurda, a firey spirit that was waiting for war to break out of their shell. But even then Erurda was a bit more socially functional than Boraka here. There was a reason that with me being the very first of the Emperor’s direct creations I had a full emotional range. While the Custodians were more akin to soulless soldiers who obeyed the Emperor’s every word. Perhaps he deemed giving me too much autonomy and free rein over my own emotions a mistake on his part in designing his warriors. When I was younger he would still refer to me as his son in private, I’ve never seen him show such personal connection to any of his Custodians.

  They were his advisors, yes, taught with not only battle expertise but with also the understandings of art, literature, science, and politics. He also saw them as leaders of the new world, something the rest of our race could strive for in the future to achieve one day. I wonder if I was deemed a failure then, by those standards.

  “No, she is like most of her Highlord brethren. She thinks too highly of herself to doubt such things. You have done well Boraka.” I answered as I lifted myself off of my throne. My armored footsteps echoing through the large and empty room.

  “I have only done what was asked of me, my lord. There is no reason for such praise.” He said as he lowered his head in a bow.

  I stopped, just in front of my captain. Still on his knees he was massive, almost at my head level. His heavy armor that seemed to always wear around showed signs of wear, most likely from his bout with Erurda and those abominations she released. I didn’t like those things either, a disgusting mockery of the pure Djinn form. And when they served their purpose they were incinerated to leave no trace.

  “Rise my captain.” I ordered and Boraka rose to his feet. Standing far above my own height with his massive bulk.

  “Have you run those battle simulations again?” I asked as I began to pace around the empty room. It was the throneroom and meeting area for one of the Highlords that I had taken over. I already have most of the decoration or personal flags and marking removed. I had no need for vanity in such times. It was self-serving actions like those that had become the rot that was killing our Empire from within.

  “Yes, my lord.” He answered curtly.

  “And the results?”

  “Eight to two in our loss my lord.”

  Yes, the losses I have suffered at the hands of both Erurda as well as dealing with other strangler Highlords have weakened my forces somewhat. But the most frustrating thing is that we don’t even know the full might of the Imperial throneworld. There were underground vaults that I don’t even have the slightest clue what they could possibly hold. With the full industrial might of Oliurk and Varactor with the brains of Vago commanding their defense it would be much easier to attack Ephetous instead.

  But as soon as I do that I would only be drawing the ire of the throneworld in return. There was a reason why no rogue Highlord went around killing dragons. The Emperor had decreed that we were to remain in hiding, or at the very least minimize our presence to the Asuras, less they hunt us down and even find a way to invade our realms to dissect and study us.

  So either I had to grow my forces enough to squash the throneworld first or be powerful enough that the throneworld would think twice in dealing with me as I lay siege to Ephetous. But that also brings into question just how much the Asuras have changed since our last engagement.

  As well as the fact the last time the Djinn crossed paths with the Asuras, we were dealing with their extermination force and not with the full might of their entire united race. And we would be attacking them on their homeland, there were just too many unknown variables to make a move right now.

  And there was the boy, Grey was it? Who was now the acting-Emperor for that decaying empire. From my short interaction with him he certainly carried a spark of the Emperor’s will but I still needed more data from him. I knew far too little, and he was still too unpredictable. Perhaps I could somehow maneuver myself to pit both the asuras and the throneworld into war and clean up the mess while they are both weakened and occupied. While Vago would have been harder to control and predict this new emperor does seem more... human. The best thing I could do right now was just growing up my forces I suppose. Only the Emperor knew the full breath of the Djinn empire and how far it stretched across the aetheric void. While many of the notable Highlords were already under my banner, there were plenty more who never awakened from their slumber or simply ignored Vago’s call

  I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them left our world entirely and set sail across the void in search of new homes. In honesty that would be the smartest and easiest decision, but the void brought its own troubles.

  “What do you suppose we do, my captain?” I beckoned. Asking for Boraka’s own thoughts on the matter.

  I could see the gears in his head working, the reasons why he was so efficient in the realm of war and battle was his hyper rational mind. Taking in all available data points, analyzing them and coming up with the most efficient answer. After a few seconds he responded.

  “If we were to wage war against the asuras now the throneworld would deem us traitors and try to wipe us out. If that were the case we would be fighting a war on two fronts. Even with our vast resources we wouldn’t stand a chance. If we were to strike at the Empire first then there would only be one left standing.”

  “And the Empire has too many shiny toys to lose easily.” I finished, it would seem there was no easy answer.

  “Precisely my lord.”

  I took a deep breath. If only my father hadn’t sent me away, perhaps I could have been by his side during the final battle and saved him. If he were still alive then all of this would have been so easy. Most of the Highlords would have rallied under his banner and we could have struck as one against Ephetous.

  Was there really no other way? Was my people’s fate just death? We had survived but look at the state we are in now, fractured and broken. Many of our greatest minds were already long gone. Even if we were somehow able to fend off the asuras then what? Could such a rotten society even function in peace times? Wouldn’t we all just return to be bickering politicians who murder each other for more power?

  My frustration was soon replaced with a sense of helplessness. I knew I had to fight on, if there was even the tiniest glimmer of hope on the horizon I will spend my entire life running towards it. I will inspire hope in our people, that a better future was possible, that this wasn’t the end. But who was supposed to inspire hope in me?

  Author's Notes

  In this chapter I wanted to explore Demeptah's and the Emperor relationship a bit. As well as elude to the fact that the Emperor was changing even before he was placed upon the life support system that is the throne now.

  I really wanted to convey that while Demeptah is smart and well trained he still lacks experience as is akin to a child in many aspects. Looking for guidance and approval. As to whether he was designed that way on purpose... who knows.

  He is trying to continue to life by the lessons his father/creator had taught him but he still is a bit clueless about certain things.

  I originally wanted to release a different chapter this time and had planned this chapter to be a .5 chapter that was shorter. But I just kept writing and I guess you could say it kind of got out of hand. Along with the original chapter I wanted to release being rewritten several times.

  But I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. If you have any questions, comments or critiques always feel free to ask.

  Thank you all for reading and have a good day.