If the siege of Longcheng went even a month more than the Emperor’s troops were going to starve. Even with the new forests and groves Nikola created, there was still a food rationing in place. There were no animals in the new forests, and they seem to try to revert to steppes.

Even still, surrounding Longcheng with tall trees native to China seemed to be the thing to do. There were too many obstacles for the Xiongnu cavalry to really charge, and that should have meant that China’s infantry and archers could advance right up the gates of Longcheng.

Should be the keyword. The Maggot sent cavalry on a suicide run, and Nikola though him mad at that time. But then, as the slain warriors rouse back up and kept fighting even as they were hacked to pieces, Nikola had been forced to sound the retreat.

He knew that this, the Maggot being on Xiongnu’s side, had little to do with the war. The Maggot wanted to become a phoenix again. He wanted to replace Nikola’s soul, and then to restart the natural rebirth cycle for the phoenix ashes within his body. The Maggot wanted to be free, and Nikola swore he will find a way to chain him further.

On a moonlit night, as he was composing letters for his children, Nikola heard a sound outside his tent. It sounded like a gurgle. He exited the tent only to see that the guards were dead and that maggots were crawling out of their wounds. Drawing his sword, he spoke.

“For a phoenix, you are very bloodthirsty. Did you make a short work of the camp too?” He asked the darkness and the darkness responded.

“Follow me if you would rather not see the Emperor die,” came a child’s voice from somewhere to the right. Nikola snorted. Of all the hostages this boy has taken, he had picked the one he cared about the least.

“Go ahead and free me of his presence. Next time, pick a better hostage,” a knife pressed next to Nikola’s stomach, and he traced it back to the child’s hand holding it.

“What would the Emperor say if he hears you say so?” Asked the child, grinning.

“What would the Chanyu do if he sees you risking yourself instead of defending him?” Asked Nikola back, pressing his sword to the hand holding the knife. He needed to only press down, and he will cut it off. But Marek had said that even decapitation didn’t work on this thing. That it was reduced to maggots and then became impossible to track.

“The Chanyu will rage and then will become quiet. Much like your Emperor. I have a proposition for you, Emerald Emperor.”

Nikola raised a brow at this. The Maggot wanted its former power back, and Nikola wasn’t about to part with it. He was more than a thousand years old. Should the phoenix get its ashes out of him, Nikola would die at the spot, he was sure of it.

“Speak,” but all that didn’t mean he was not going to entertain the child. Maybe he could trick him somehow. It wouldn’t be easy, thou.

“I have captured a phoenix. It is in Longcheng. I need your assistance in replacing its soul. If I take over that new vessel, then I won’t hunt you anymore,” as a show of good faith, the Maggot removed the knife and slowly moved to stand before Nikola.

“You want me to just walk into the capital of my enemy undefended on your word alone?” Nikola’s grin had turned savage. He could walk in there and poison their water supply and then walk out before the Maggot raised the alarm.

“Oh, please. As if I will let you anywhere near the wells,” said the Maggot, reading his thoughts. “I can bring the phoenix here, if you wish. But I will need you to swear on your immortality, or rather my immortality, that you won’t cheat me.”

“Phoenixes are pure beings. I won’t let you corrupt one,” Nikola was ready to break through the walls of Longcheng. As soon as the delivery of paper came, he was going to make an army of Cyclops to throw stones at the gates from a distance. Then the army of the Emperor could swoop in and take the city.

“Pure? Are you pure, you wretch? Am I? This phoenix was captured from the land of the thousand volcanos. Had you known what it did there, you wouldn’t have called it pure either!” The Maggot’s chest raised and fell in indignation.

 It had taken a lot out of him to capture Direspark, the phoenix forcing his home to erupt and nearly burning the invader away. Had Direspark succeeded, the Maggot would have been happy. He missed the lava so. But Direspark was weak and the eruption lasted a single day.

“You seem to be an accomplished necromancer,” tried to reason with the thing, Nikola. “Why bother becoming a phoenix again? As a phoenix, you are but a bird, one chained to a volcano at that. Unless that is what you want? To cause an eruption?”

The thought had crossed the Maggot’s mind in his darkest hours. An eruption that never ended, filling the skies with ash and burning everything around the volcano. But the boy knew he would be hunted down if he did this.

Maybe even by the Emerald Emperor himself, or even by the angels. The Maggot feared Azazel more than Penemue, but in his weakened state even the scholar could take him.

Then, just as the Maggot was about to leave, chains of light bound him to Nikola, who showed him his bleeding palm.

“What? Did you think you can just leave?” Asked Nikola as he moved closer to the now cowering boy. “I have the perfect use for you. I was the one who brought about the famine that is now tormenting Xiongnu, did you know that?”

 He asked as he placed a hand over the boy’s head. It was a fatherly gesture. The Maggot still shivered.

“Who else could have done it but you?” Asked the boy as he tried to get out of the chains.

“Just imagine the disaster I can create using you,” said Nikola, smiling darkly. He will take what made this boy immortal for himself and use the foulness that came with necromancy to bring upon a curse on Xiongnu that will make them and all the other nomadic nations surrender in due time.

“I will make sure it backfires! I will work my curse as you…” Nikola turned around and stabbed the boy with his sword over the heart. The Maggot stared as a similar wound appeared over Nikola’s chest and as no maggots came out of the boy’s wound to try to mend it for him, he began to panic.

“You will end up killing yourself!” Screamed the boy. Some soldiers came out of their tents to see the mage and the boy chained together. They quickly went back in. The news of how the famine came to be had spread all over China. And now no one wanted to be used as a sacrifice.

“Will I?” Asked Nikola as he twisted the blade. He could feel the pain, but it was muted. There was only one way to get rid of this annoying boy, and it was to absorb him. He slowly took out the sword, and something dark green and gooey came out of the Maggot’s chest. At the same time, something bright orange like a flame leaked from Nikola’s open wound.

The Maggot stared at his essence hungrily, and he reached out a finger to touch it, but the chains stopped him. Nikola pulled more out of the wound of the Maggot until he had a chunk. The boy screamed as it came out. It was an unnatural howl, like the raging of a storm.

Nikola brought the disgusting chunk to his mouth and ate it. The bright orange liquid that used to leak out of Nikola was now dripping more frequently. He placed his hand over the wound and forced it to close. He needed both sides of this phoenix for this to work. The little that had escaped him brought him more pain than the wound itself.

He threw his sword to the side and used his hands to tear out more of the green goo from the Maggot. He choked on something and spat out a maggot. It was long and fat and dark green. Nikola stomped on it.

“You are not getting away this time, phoenix. This is the last ritual you will ever participate in, and in death you will be whole again,” said Nikola as he dug into the chest of the boy again.

“Do you promise?” Asked the weakened boy, and Nikola blinked at him, gulping the newest chunk of the phoenix’s twisted soul.

“Everyone is whole in death. Just like everyone is taken by Death,” said Nikola, and he moved to get the last piece of the soul of the Maggot. All fight had left the boy, and he now looked at the rising sun.

“That was what I wanted,” rasped the Maggot as his soul was being torn out. “To be whole again.”

 He breathed his last and his body began to decay in a fast pace as Nikola ate the last of the soul. Gulping it down, he could feel that the soul of the Maggot was trying to connect with something in his stomach.

Nikola made a barrier between the two energies and forced the soul of the Maggot to turn to pure magic. He had lied. This phoenix would never be allowed to be whole again. Not even in death.

You who growls at death, come and visit Longcheng!

You who screams at death, come and visit Longcheng!

You who laughs at death, come and visit Longcheng!

Furies, I, Nikola the Emerald, call upon you!

Death won’t visit Longcheng, and this is an injustice.

So, visit it and make merry. For I give you the name of the creator.

He, who made it known to the angel Samyaza.

Genova.

As the winds picked up, Nikola could see three shadowy apparitions flying towards Longcheng. The three Furies would tear the city from the inside out, judging everyone within and punishing them for their crimes.

He grinned as the first screams were heard from the city. It appears that the Emperor’s army wouldn’t be starving after all. But he couldn’t have done it without the help of the Maggot.

With a bounce on his step, he looked around and picked a hill. Then he took the body of the child and wrapped it in silk. He will give this poor creature a proper burial. As Nikola continued to dig the grave, the gates of Longcheng were reported to have been opened from the inside and the people seemed to be fleeing. The soldier who came to report to him spoke of a civil war and of a Chanyu with two favored sons.

“Then why is the Emperor not riding inside?” Asked Nikola as he laid the body of the boy gently into the ground.

“He is afraid of the curse you laid on the city. He wished that you go inside and take the flag and bring it to him.” The soldier made a step back as Nikola glared at him.

“Why is it always me?” Ranted Nikola as he began to put dirt over the corpse of the Maggot. “Why can’t the Emperor do something too? Oh, forget I said anything. I will finish this burial and get down to it.”

The soldier all but ran away. He was certain that this man was the dreaded Emerald Emperor of Atlantis. Emperor Han was mad to trust such a demon. Only general Lao could save them now.