As if even the gods were mourning the fall of another victim to Jean’s malicious claws, not long after Jean fired the first shot, a storm gathered above Throne’s City. As Emperor Guards engaged Warden combatants all across the city, rain poured down on the battlefield, forming a wall of darkness. Occasional lightning struck down on rooftops.
It was as if the world was coming to an end.
But if the gods were truly mourning, then they should have chosen a better way. The downpour turned the battlegrounds into what could, by definition, be called a hell of a mess. The inhabitants of this world were inherently stronger than ordinary human beings, but even they found it difficult to fire arrows or spot the enemies in the rain. In fact, the powers of this world applied to men as well as nature. If someone from the Starcraft universe was under a storm like this, he could literally be blown away.
Warden units, on the other hand, suffering no such concerns. Designed to fight in the worst environments, Warden Striders dug their stabilizers into the ground and shrugged off the rain with ease. Scanners tracked down unsuspecting Emperor Guards, and in moments, those Guards were forever gone from the scanners.
In this case, machine efficiency overpowered human strength.
Mounted Emperor Guards could barely formulate a charge in this rain, especially inside the narrow streets. Without their mobility, they were no more than giant targets.
Meanwhile, as thousands fought and died, the Royal Palace was oddly quiet. In fact, if it wasn’t for the rivers of blood running across every nook and slope of the place, one would assume it was just another regular day.
But it wasn’t.
At hundreds of positions where, just yesterday, were secured by men and women in sky blue armor, countless beings not of this world dwelled. Their entire structures were metallic. Odd looking steel barrels poked out of their front and side.
Some of their platings were marked by strikes from the now-deceased guards.
As the symbol of imperial power, the Royal Palace has been in Jean’s gunsight for a long time. As the main ambush in the street occurred, Jean had Demon take a battalion of Warden forces and storm the palace. It was a brutal battle. Most of the Emperor Guards were taken away to the Ceremony. Those who remained were hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned. Most of them fell before their swords and spears could even reach the Wardens. Within moments, they rose again as Demon’s servants.
Their resistance was followed by a bloodbath. As a Voyager who could get an army from corpses, Demon didn't hesitate to slaughter anyone in his way, whether they were a threat or not. Warden units informed Jean, but she didn't object. Who knows how many Benedictine loyalists were in the palace. Tracking them down one by one was counterproductive. The best thing to do would be to wipe the slate clean and hire new servants.
Footsteps approached, a rare sound given the situation. From a distance away, a young man in luxurious, sky blue clothing approached. He was followed by a female Voyager.
Blink’s armor was a little stained. On the way here, she and Leon were already attacked by three groups of assassins. One was from a group of Benedictine’s assassins and two were from Emperor Guards whose only desire was to follow their emperor to the graves. Though to be perfectly honest, Blink suspected if she wasn’t present, the Emperor Guards would have no reason to take on Leon.
Jean was standing in the middle of the hallway. Her arms were crossed, and her head was tilted. She gave Leon a large smile.
“As I foretold, Prince Leon. The throne is yours. In fact, I should probably call you Emperor Leon.“
Something appeared in her hand. Leon’s heart accelerated. It was a blue seal, but not just any seal. Forged hundreds of years ago, the seal has been a symbol of royal authority. It was guarded behind layers of vaults and guards.
Now Jean was simply handing it over.
The new emperor smiled.
“I assure you, miss…”
“Turner.”
“Miss Turner, your investment in me will not be wasted. As the Emperor of the Empire of the Moon, I hereby name you the Chief Military Officer of the empire.”
Jean lowered her head. Leon saw obedience, but what he didn't see was how Blink looked at him with pity. Unlike Leon, Blink knew Jean. The blonde woman wasn’t just some sort of mercenary who would be satisfied by a commission. No. Jean Turner wanted much more, and if Leon thought he could impress her with a seat of power, he would be painfully mistaken.
Jean’s words confirmed Blink’s thought.
“Your generosity flatters me, your grace, but I would suggest you give that position to Commander Eric. He is much more experienced in the art of war than I am.”
Deep down, Jean knew taking the seat would be a mistake. On one hand, as the commander of the empire’s military, she would become one of the most powerful people in the empire, at least on the surface. Even if Leon was grateful toward her now, people change, and when Leon inevitably grows suspicious, things would go ugly very soon.
She would become a high profile target. While she didn't worry about her personal safety, she saw no need of making things more complicated for no legitimate reason.
On the other, if she wanted that title to mean something, she would need to spend a lot of resource on controlling the military directly. She would rather spend those resources on her own Warden and Purifier units.
It was in her best interest to remotely control the Moon forces via a puppet.
Eric was ruthless, which meant he would be fine with having his men carry out Jean’s dirty work. He was also terribly scared of Jean. Without assurance that he would be victorious, he wouldn’t rebel. Jean had no doubt the time would come one day for him to turn, but she was confident by the day that happens, she would be done with the Empire of the Moon.
Leon frowned. It was obviously he didn't expect his first order as the emperor to be rejected, but if he was angered, he didn't show it.
“In that case, what do you want? I can’t let a loyal ally like you down.”
“I would like…”
Jean paused.
“I would like the Iron Hills gifted to me as my territory.”
It has been a week since Leon’s ascension to power. Past experience has shown that the throne was a dangerous place to be. Within months, emperors came and emperors went. Leon was already the third one, and there was no telling how long he could sit on that seat.
A direct consequence of that was the lack of loyalty by the people to the crown. Many saw Leon as a usurper, especially after what happened at the Offering Ceremony. Benedictine declared war on a mysterious force, and he was overthrown within the day. Anyone with a brain could deduce that Leon didn't come to power by coincidence.
But knowing it was one thing. Doing something about it was another.
Leon quickly replaced the seats of power with his fellow conspirators. Commander Eric was named the Chief Military Officer. He and his band of butchers spent days charging into homes and dragged those inside out onto the streets. Countless, along with their families and friends, were publicly executed without any trail whatsoever. For a time, the streets ran red with the blood of the probably-innocent.
Eventually, people kept their head down and their mouths shut.
When the time was right, Leon announced he would execute Benedictine publicly. At the day of the execution, hundreds of men stormed the field, trying to rescue their leader. The initial attack was successful. The rebels had men all around the field that created sufficient diversion and opened the city gates. Hundreds of Benedictine’s loyal followers protected their leader as they made their way to as far away from Throne’s City as possible.
Things took a problematic turn when the men took off the rope that binds Benedictine’s mouth shut. The former emperor only whispered one sentence.
“It’s a trap!”
And then the man exploded from the inside, taking half the rebels to the graves.
The rest barely had time to stand back up before Eric’s cavalry overran them.
The blood ran for three more days.
As the mastermind of the plan, and the one who stitched the bomb inside Benedictine’s stomach, Demon was named a general and made second in command to Eric. Of course, that was just for the public. In reality, Eric would be trembling in front of Demon, especially after he saw what Demon did to the dissenters.
He thought his methods were brutal, but at least his victims died. Those who encountered Demon weren’t so fortunate…
What happened to the empire was no less than a hurricane, but none of this really mattered to those at the lowest place on the social ladder.
A hunter was navigating his way through the dense forest of the Iron Hills. His muscles were exhausted. His empty stomach complained. He was sweating all over. He wanted to go home and take a break, but he couldn’t. His family hasn’t eaten anything for two days. If he couldn’t claim a prize today, he didn't think his four year old daughter could live to see another sunrise.
He has gone deeper into the forest than ever before, but he had no other choice. His family needed to eat.
Suddenly, he heard something. It was the sound of heavy footsteps. Something heavy was moving across the trees. A beast? An especially large man? The hunter speculated. Strangely, all those footsteps seemed to be merged into one.
He glanced around before leaping onto a tree.
What he saw next made his heart skip.
Two lines of metal creatures were walking across the forest. The two creatures in the front were holding some sort of weapon that cut down the hundred year old trees without breaking a sweat. Behind the two leaders, there were dozens other creatures with something on their back. It didn't take him long to realize those were precious metal only used on weapons and armors.
What is going on here?
A normal person would’ve turned back by now, but not the hunter. In fact, the hunter waited until the convoy fully passed before coming down the tree. Instead of retreating or even looking for prize at a different direction, he decided to follow the Warden units.
The stalking went on for over ten minutes before the hunter found himself in front of something he has never seen before. A wall of metal stood tall. Just that itself was shocking. Almost all the cities and fortresses in the empire had stone walls, not metal ones. Even more surprisingly, there were strange looking buildings on top of the metal wall with something round pointing out.
They gave him a dangerous feeling.
The Wardens started going across the metal wall from an entrance. The hunter waited and observed. Finally, as half the Wardens have crossed already, he suddenly sneaked up to the last Warden and grabbed onto its bottom armor and latched on it.
It was a foolish maneuver, but none of the guards or scanners gave off a warning.
The hunter continued to grab onto the Warden unit before the machine finally stopped. That was when he let go and stood back up. As he looked around, he was completely consumed by shock.
The precious metal those Warden units transported in were dumped into a machine that he could only describe as a furnace. Loud banging sound, as well as a thousand sounds he couldn’t distinguish, could be heard inside the furnace. On the other end of the device, a moving belt delivered metal shell after metal shell out.
All of those shells looked similar to the ones that took the metal in. Only they were more slender.
But this wasn’t over. The hunter followed the rotating belt as it transported the shells across hundreds of meters. There, a line of odd looking machines were attached to the belt. A single rotation of the belt matched every single one of those machines to a new shell. As the new shell was placed under the device, a dozen sharp blades came down on it. The tip of the blades shined in red as they carved across the shell.
The process took five minutes. Finally, the transport belt moved again, sending the finished shells away and replacing them with brand new, unruned ones. A Warden Command Unit walked across those runing machines, inserting a red crystal into each of their slots.
Suddenly, the hunter felt chills down his spines. As if he was just woken up from a terrible hangover, he looked around with fear. What was he doing here? He was a hunter looking for food, not a spy! He had no incentive to be here whatsoever! Why would he even choose to come here?
That was when something smashed into the back of his neck.
He was asleep before he even hit the ground.
