Chapter 326 – Epilogue – the heartless Emperor

Chapter 326 – Epilogue – the heartless Emperor

He darted up in a hospital bed. Heavily breathing, he looked around and was greeted by the sight of Maximillian going to town on some pudding. Several more, empty plastic cups were placed on a table next to him. “Yo,” he greeted with an astoundingly chirpy voice.

“You are alive?” John couldn’t help but ask.

“Oh yeah, I am as astounded as you are. My body was basically just a crumpled piece of paper. Permanent damage to my left leg though. Not even the apothecaries can heal it. Your elemental tried as well, no luck. It’s just shitty now. At least that gives me an excuse to walk with a fancy walking stick,” he ripped open another pudding.

“How are you this happy about that?” John had several other really urgent questions, but this one could be answered immediately, he hoped. While he listened to the answer, he went and checked on his cleaned clothes and other equipment that someone had left in a basket next to the bed. He himself was only wearing one of those white hospital sheets.

“Well, after being backstabbed by my childhood friend who let loose the empire’s worst enemy on it, being used as a skipping stone and then also losing that best friend,” the king in his hospital gown listed. “I decided to let myself be subject to some emotion meddling magic stuff. They heavily advised against it, but I insisted and for now things are just peachy. I’ll deal with all of that after I have a good night’s rest.”

As a side effect, that seemed to make Maximillian crave sugar like a madman, going by how he ate yet more pudding. Either that or the lack of sadness also removed his inhibitions.

John ignored the king further and instead fixed up his shirt with Craft. There had been a giant hole where he had been eviscerated. There was no way he could have done the same for his jacket, considering in what state it was.

“How long was I out?” he mumbled. It was dark outside, but that meant nothing in mid-winter. He checked his health and quickly calculated his regeneration against what he had right now. They seemed to have left him unhealed, considering that it was still pretty low. Most likely, they had seen that he was physically fine and decided to deal with other issues first.

Once more he thanked his past wisdom to raise Endurance this high. There was no way he could have survived as much as a sneeze from Thana if he hadn’t. As a matter of fact, this had been way too close, he should raise it some more in the future.

Mechanics were second to his need to learn what happened. He had to make sure everyone was alright, and he had wasted enough time getting clothed. Dumping his destroyed jacket in his inventory, he set out to find someone who wasn’t on drugs and could tell him what had happened.

‘I am way too chill about this, something about having so much Wisdom that I unconsciously realize that a few more seconds of ignorance won’t change the outcome of whatever I am about to learn?’ he wondered and checked his status to make sure HE wasn’t drugged.

The complete radio silence from his familiars ended the moment he opened the door and suddenly was assaulted by a multitude of worried bodies flying in his direction. All screaming, “Master” or “John” or both or some derivation of these words or everything at once, they went ahead and cuddled him.

“Ohyasonofabitch, whydoyamakeme worry that much,” slurred Rave and then went ahead to kiss him. “I will write this facility a strongly worded letter about their visiting policies,” Aclysia commented and claimed his mouth the moment Rave went off.

“Slow down,” John said and looked around; “Where are Th- Eliza and Lydia?”

The fact that even Nathalia had turned up for this meeting made these two missing so much more apparent. He could think his part for both of them, the former being contained somewhere else and the latter dealing with mountains of paperwork because of the situation.Explore new novels on novelbin(.)com

Still, some confirmation would be nice, and John had the feeling he would get it from the silver haired lady that accompanied Nathalia. “John, you woke up just in time, follow me,” Luna’s voice was cold and business-like towards him. Whether or not he was in good graces right now, she wasn’t sounding all too friendly.

“Can someone tell me what happened after I collapsed?” John asked. “Or, actually, what happened to you while I was down in the arena, Jane?”

“Well, you are not going to like this,” Rave sighed heavily, most of the happiness that had come with the relief of him being alright vanished.

“Lydia got kidnapped,” Nia said after his girlfriend stayed silent for a few moments.

“Hold up, what?” the Gamer would have stopped to have this conversation slow down, but Luna gave him a warning glance over the shoulder as she kept guiding. Where were they even? The walls were looking more like the inside of an ancient temple than a hospital.

A glance outside the window showed only a vast garden and a rather giant obelisk, that was so close John could only see the base of it. ‘We are in the central palace,’ John realized, and finally Rave spoke up again.

“Yeah, so this is what happened: Some guy came along, called out to Lydia to come with him before Romulus died, 'cause he made a deal or something. She, very angrily refused saying he should have stayed in his grave and stuff, then there was a kerfuffle with some of them and a lot of us then that masked supreme fateweaver appeared and the man and Lydia got teleported away before Nia could stop it..." she added some other minor details, how she they had then beat the remaining soldiers that were left behind and how they looked for any traces. To no avail, however the Fateweaver had done it, he had left no hints as to where he had brought them.“...and that’s when Thana started to slaughter every single one of the Bloods in the arena; the two fighting us also went down there,” Rave finished.

“Hello, can I advise John on a little thing,” there was a squeaky voice that spoke into the quiet. John looked at the normal sized rat with a four-horned skull for a head with disbelief. “Don’t stare at me like that, Newman,” the Horned Rat threatened him with the voice of a rubber duck.

John would have burst out laughing if the situation wasn’t as bad as it was right now. “You have only just been allowed back into court because of your help in the accident, don’t push it, Muris,” Sol shouted down at him.

The little rat made several bows, “Of course, your radiancy, shall I get some tea while I am doing rat business?”

“You can-“

“Let him speak to the Gamer,” Romulus interrupted in a quivering voice.

“Thank me that Romulus is such a good-hearted fellow,” Richard snickered once he reached John and had climbed up the Gamer’s arm.

“How the hell can I convince them that Eliza is best left alive?” he asked the Horned Rat. He spared himself the ‘not a problem’ question since that was already clearly not the case.

The eyes of the court, filled with all kinds of fantastical beings and humans of all yokes of life, stared at him with judgemental eyes. It was pretty clear that they hadn’t liked what the uncut live-broadcast, according to information that Momo shared with him, had presented them. ‘Damn that Jeff fucker,’ John thought.

“Here is something you don’t seem to know about gods: When we die, the Faith that makes up our power doesn’t just vanish. Very few first gods remain. I am sure you can figure out the rest from here,” the Horned Rat giggled and scurried away as quickly as he had come.

Indeed, he could. “Do you think she couldn’t reform in another body? The goddess of genocide, I mean,” he presented his argument to the celestial judges. “Because if she can, you are better off with the enemy you know than the enemy you don’t.”

“It could take aeons until the next god of this kind forms,” Luna threw in.

“Yes, but Eliza has control!” John said. “Right now, she is in control, and I will do my best for her to stay in control. I will take the responsibility of teaching her, I swear to all deities in existence if I must!” He was putting all his eggs into one basket here, but he didn’t care. He would not fail to save Eliza again, no matter what name or horrible monsters she carried with her.

Sol and Luna looked to Romulus for judgement. “Eliza is pardoned,” he finally said and with a flick of his fingers, the chains around her disappeared.

A storm of dissenting voices broke loose, crying for that judgement to be rethought. “She is a monster!” “Who knows what she will be capable of if left to realize her potential further!” “Why would you let the walking apocalypse live?” “Have you stopped caring for us, Romulus?” “Are we all just bugs to you?” “Why won’t you protect us?!”

“ENOUGH!” the voice of the emperor shook the very building and choked the air from the lungs of everyone else. They probably had more complaints, but the air to voice them just refused to move. “John Newman is right: she will reform because of the atrocities mankind has committed in its wake. The longer it takes, the stronger she will be next time. We should be happy that it has ended with her only massacring those that opposed us,” the emperor finally turned.

Tears were streaming from his one intact eye, and he still hadn’t changed his toga. The simple piece of clothing was torn and damaged in numerous places, most obvious of which was the hole in his chest giving view to the hole in his heart.

Now the complaints finally ceased in earnest. “They attacked my city,” the heartless emperor spoke, “they threatened my people,” he looked with grief at all of them, “they killed my friend,” he reached once more for the thing that he had been standing in front of. John stood up and decided to see what it was.

It was a wooden casket, painted in a marvellous blue with a black eagle resting upon a white flag with black upper and lower borders. Behind it, a two-headed god of an eagle was sitting on a pole, picking at the wood like a dog that refused to leave its owner’s grave. Frederik, emperor of Rex Germaniae, had been killed during the invasion.

“They abducted his granddaughter,” now Romulus’ voice slowly rose into anger, “they tried to have me killed. Following the incident of Pompeii, I retreated into solitude to heal my damaged soul. I saw how well things worked even in my absence, so I chose to not intervene even when I had healed.

“I thought a new time had begun, one where I only had to act as a figurehead. When the extremists in my empire moved around, I let them go unhindered because they seemed to be of no concern. I was wrong, so wrong, and this girl down there had to pay the price in my stead. My friend had to pay the price in my stead! NO MORE!”

Everyone took a breath at once as the air unfroze and the emperor raised his fist into the air. He had been clenching it so hard that crimson rivers were running down his arm from between his fingers.

“If the Blood of the Proletariat wants destruction, then destruction is what I shall bring onto them! Sons and daughters of Rome, my allies and my vassals. Subjects and friends. We will desolate them, we will get back Frederik’s granddaughter and we will remind them who stands at the Apex. Let us cast aside differences for just a few days, for that is all I will need to eliminate these maggots and their bases. THE EMPEROR CALLS TO WAR! HOW DOES THE EMPIRE RESPOND?!”

“”TO WAR!”" the hall shouted in unison, so loud that John imagined he could hear the city itself scream it.