It was always a hard thing to pry the Sunlit Emperor away from his women and his palace. For the most part, he allowed handpicked men to oversee matters of state. He participated enough to not be an absentee Emperor and to keep an eye on his appointees, but he largely allowed his chosen ministers to govern with great autonomy. As a result, he spent nearly all of his remaining time in his palace sleeping with a member of his harem or training his magic power.

It was unbecoming of an Emperor to grow fat or lazy, his mother had always told him. While he didn’t take many of her lessons to heart, that one was one that he always stuck to. He knew that it was his personal power more than anything that allowed him to retain his wealth and titles, and he couldn’t allow it to atrophy.

The Sunlit Emperor greatly enjoyed his time in his palace. Sex with the most beautiful women in his Empire and growing his power were his two favorite things in all the world. So, aside from those few administrative duties that he forced himself to see to, there were few things that could pry him away from his chosen lifestyle.

One of those things were reports on old Thunderbird technology that his Empire had inherited. It was rare that there was any progress on them, but the Sunlit Emperor had laid out some plans to have a few select pieces brought to him for his personal experimentation.

Half a year after Leon departed from his Empire, on a bright sunny day, he found himself relaxing deep in his favorite private palace enjoying the attention of a dozen of his most recent concubines when one of his female attendants interrupted him. At first, he was excited, thinking that perhaps the Thunderbird artifacts had finally been covertly moved to the palace.

Unfortunately, he was disappointed to hear that he was interrupted for an entirely different reason…

—

The Sunlit Emperor was not happy when he entered the private study that he’d chosen for this particular meeting. The study itself was as opulently appointed as befitted an Imperial palace, but its luxuries were lost on the Emperor as he glanced backward to ensure the door was closed, then collapsed into an armchair by the hearth in a most undignified fashion.

There he sat, slouching, as he seethed in resentment for having been pulled away from his pleasures. However, he only allowed himself this indulgence for several seconds before he straightened himself out.

It was a good thing he did, too, for not a moment later, there came a knock at the door, and a second later, it opened, revealing the face of his most trusted secretary, and behind him, the grim visage of the Keeper himself.

It was incredibly rare for any of the plane’s tenth-tier mages to meet in person. He knew that the Lord Protector and the Grand Druid met on occasion, but apart from their brief dalliances, mages of their caliber meeting in person happened maybe once in a millennium, at the most frequent. In fact, the Sunlit Emperor had never met any of his equals in person, not even when he acceded to the throne of his Empire.

As such, instead of rising to welcome the Keeper into his study, the Sunlit Emperor remained seated, his expression carefully measured, yet his eyes never once wavered from the poorly-dressed man.

As was his custom, the Keeper wore nothing more than shapeless brown robes, attire that the Sunlit Emperor—dressed as he was in elaborate, multicolored formal wear—took in with disdain. The Keeper himself obviously didn’t care for any luxuries around him, and made it clear by keeping his eyes closed and navigating purely with magic senses.

He took a seat opposite the Sunlit Emperor, and even after the secretary closed the door behind the Keeper and sealed them in behind some of the most powerful privacy wards within the palace, neither tenth-tier mage spoke for a long time.

The Sunlit Emperor tapped his finger on his armrest, waiting for the Keeper to speak first. However, when the veritable beggar refused to even open his mouth for what seemed an eternity, the Sunlit Emperor finally said in a tone about a thousand percent brighter and cheerier than he felt, “So, my friend, what brings you to my neck of the woods? It must be urgent if you came with such short notice…”

‘More like no notice at all…’ Sunlit bitterly thought.

The Keeper sat there, infuriatingly stone-faced and silent, for several more seconds. “I came here…” he finally uttered, “… to speak with you about a matter of grave importance…”

Again, the Sunlit Emperor waited for several seconds. “What matter?” he asked when the Keeper kept his silence. Changing his tone, the Sunlit Emperor demanded, “Speak, old man. You come to my doorstep without invitation or announcement, don’t play coy with the reason why you’ve come.”

“Leon Raime,” Keeper stated, surprising the Sunlit Emperor not at all, yet still inspiring no small amount of anger for a multitude of reasons.

“The fleets down south are shattered, the bodies of our soldiers lie scattered and rotting about the Sword. The Sky Devils have pressed us hard and spilled our blood. Instead of speaking on their threat, you instead come here for an insignificant boy? A boy coddled and kissed by Heaven’s Eye?”

“The advance of the Sky Devils make this matter even more important!” Keeper insisted. For just a moment, his eyelids cracked, and light spilled forth like he’d stuffed a pair of stars into his eye sockets. Killing intent erupted from his body in equal measure, though none of it yet directed at Sunlit. “You know why this is important! You saw the same things I did!”

Sunlit just about stated that he saw nothing that concerned him. His mouth was already curling upward in an arrogant smirk before he managed to catch his tongue. “Let’s not beat around the bush, Keeper. Tell me what you want. Tell me what concerns you. We can speak further if I share your concerns.”

By this point, the Keeper had regained his composure, though Sunlit had enjoyed seeing the bald man finally express some kind of emotion, for once.

“I keep the memories of the atrocities committed by that boy’s ancestors,” Keeper plainly stated. “They will never be repeated while I yet live. That Leon Raime met with the Sky Devils even briefly concerns me greatly. I fear that they may come to some kind of accord. If the Sky Devils are reunited with the blood of their natural ruler, then they may again visit atrocities upon Aeterna that seem forgotten to all but my Sentinels.”

“The Sky Devils have gotten far enough without the boy,” Sunlit pointed out.

“All the more reason not to allow them to rally around Leon Raime.”

“If you’re that worried about him, then why don’t you just go and kill him? That would resolve your concerns, no?”

“The Lord Protector and Grand Druid have betrayed their ancestors and entered into terrible alliance with the boy,” Keeper spat.

Sunlit kept his expression neutral, but his mood soured further. “That’s… concerning. Are they getting in your way?”

“Yes… and no…”

“… Is that it, old man? Going to give me an answer like that and leave me hanging? Explain your meaning.”

“The boy… has taken possession of a tau pearl.”

Sunlit rolled his eyes in a rather exaggerated fashion and had to stop himself from audibly scoffing. “Leave superstition for the powerless; we are above such nonsense. The boy is a descendant of the Thunderbird, is it any wonder that he has artifacts of surprising power and origin?”

“The tau do not give pearls lightly,” Keeper growled. “Neither do the pearls themselves give power recklessly.”

“So you say. Is this something that will cloud your judgment?”

The Keeper went quiet for a moment, but when he spoke, he did so with conviction. “No. Leon Raime must die before he brings death to our plane. There can be no alternative. The power he bears cannot be allowed to exist.”

Sunlit sat there and smiled, waiting for the Keeper to finally get to his main point. However, once again, he had to prod the older man to speak again. “You wouldn’t have come all the way here just to discuss Leon Raime. So, tell me, why have you come to my Empire and bothered me?”

“Ilion and Evergold have allied with Leon Raime. As things now stand, the boy is now untouchable. And soon enough, if they harvest the fruits of his presence for too long, the balance of power that has maintained the peace for so long throughout our Empires will be disrupted. We must oppose the west and the north, or else they will surpass us in power, and we will never be able to contain Leon Raime.”

‘Quite self-serving, aren’t you?’ Sunlit thought contemptuously.

“Are you asking for an alliance?”

“I am. Not against the west and the north, but against Leon Raime. All that we can do to stop his taking power must be done.”

Sunlit smiled, though the smile didn’t quite reach his eyes. “I’m… amenable to such a request. I have no love for Leon Raime, and actually quite agree with you that his influence upon our plane must be curbed. However, you’ve forgotten one powerful player that he has in his corner: Heaven’s Eye.”

“Merchants and bankers,” Keeper spat. “Men of no consequence.”

“Money men they may be, but money has power. Those who deny that it does are fools. And Heaven’s Eye has lots of money. You may not care what they do to your Empire, but I care about what they might do to mine. To risk reducing our capacity to wage war at a time when the Sky Devils are rising against us… Surely you can see why I hesitate? To completely replace the commerce and industry that Heaven’s Eye has within my Empire with local guilds would take decades, and even then, those sectors would still take at least a century to recover at the very least. If we’re going to go that far, we might as well invite the Sky Devils back to the mainland to give us deeper ramming.”

“You would bow your head to those who think of nothing but silver and gold, and let our true enemy escape due judgment?”

Sunlit stared at Keeper in disbelief. “How did your stupid ass rise as high as you have? How about you stop interpreting my words in any way you wish and actually listen to what I’m saying? I’m asking if you have any idea how to handle the massive **ing hole that Heaven’s Eye will leave in my economy and how to handle the subsequent tremendous loss of tax revenue that I might stand to lose if they pull out, you **ing moron!”

The Keeper withstood Sunlit’s brief tirade with poise enough that Sunlit had to stop himself from going further.

“I will not make any public declarations,” Sunlit growled. “I will not publicly ally with you against the north and the west. If you wish to act against Leon Raime and those who allow him to exist, then I will support you, but I will not do so publicly.

“You know there’s an animal our in the northeast, living somewhere past the Andoran Wastes far beyond even the boundaries of distant Beloran and the limits of human civilization. It’s a strange creature, like an enormous bird with a fluffy body and small head upon a long, thin neck. I won’t bore you with the details, but these idiot birds bury their heads in sand when frightened. You and the rest of the cock-riders in the other Empires all remind me of them. The Sky Devils press against us, yet you bury your heads in the sand, allowing yourselves to be absorbed in meaningless issues.

“I will support you against Leon Raime and the others, but know that my focus lies in the south, across the sea. My focus is on the Sky Devils.”

‘And a few more things besides…’

Keeper scowled, but in the end, he accepted Sunlit’s tacit support. He didn’t stay in the palace for much longer, leaving the Sunlit Emperor alone again. Only then did Sunlit let the grin he’d been suppressing at this outcome reveal itself. He had what he wanted from Leon, there was no reason to protect him. The possibility that Ilion and Evergold would benefit from their relationship with Leon had his grin faltering, but the knowledge of what he would soon gain from his own projects had it steadied.

It was with the knowledge that his plans weren’t affected by this that had him smiling all the way back to his harem.

—

Things couldn’t possibly be worse for him. Not long ago, his vampires had grown throughout Occulara, their power, backed by that of Heaven’s Eye, growing with them. They numbered in the hundreds, though few were vampires of any note. Of them, he and Valentina were the strongest, the only eighth-tier vampires that he knew of on Aeterna.

Now, it seemed that he was the last. Somehow, Valentina had managed to not only get captured, but convince her Heaven’s Eye captors to spare her, and rid herself of her vampirism. How she did this, he knew not. Why Amon had done nothing to stop her was an even deeper mystery, though when Amon had told him of all this, he’d detected a note of frustration and deep rage within the demon that he’d never heard before. It made him think that perhaps Amon had lost Valentina not from neglect or apathy, but that this Lord of Flame had tried to kill her and failed.

Such a possibility disturbed him. He’d given himself to the demon for power, and here Valentina was showing that Amon’s power was far more limited than he ever realized.

The thought of surrendering had occurred to him several times since leaving Occulara. If Leon Raime was willing to let Valentina in, then why not him? He’d made an attempt on Leon’s life before, but it wasn’t like Leon knew that. Given that Valentina had been involved in that particular incident, he didn’t think his former comrade would reveal that to their target…

But no, he wasn’t Valentina. If he even tried, he knew without a shadow of a doubt that Amon would have no problems killing him, if only to prove a point. Even though he was the last of Amon’s vampires on this plane with this level of power—at least, as far as he knew—he was still expendable.

So, he was stuck. His deal with the Director had fallen through, depriving him of his most powerful ally, though thankfully, he’d never dealt with the Director personally, leaving his cover intact. He still had his position, and with the current political climate in Occulara, he was eminently grateful for it.

For now, he had the time to devise a new strategy. However, he wouldn’t be alone in that.

Even now, he sat in one of his homes in the Ilumerian Wetlands, a small manor on a rocky cliff overlooking the seemingly-endless swamp. He was deep in the dungeons, extracting every bit of use he could from the crew of the merchant barge he and his closest followers had attacked just a few days before, draining them of their blood to fuel his communion with their Lord. He’d had to keep some of them off the women as Amon preferred his sacrifices ‘unspoiled’, so he knew that there was some discontent in their ranks, but for now, so long as Amon shared with him the wisdom he needed, all would be well.

The sacrifices were properly drained, the runes were drawn in blood, the sacrificial bowl was filled with the remaining blood, and when the time came, he drank every drop. He felt the power pulled from the blood and flow through his veins, using his own blood as a medium, providing him nourishment and power, while also flowing through his heart and into his soul realm. From there, his contract with Amon had the power flowing onward to the Lord of Flame.

It wasn’t much in the grand scheme of things, he was sure, but it was more than enough to get his patron’s attention.

Almost immediately, the crackling voice of his patron resounded through his mind, speaking his name in little more than a whispered growl. He couldn’t help but nervously run his hand through his jet-black hair in barely-suppressed fear.

My Lord… he responded. Leon Raime. He grows in power and influence. Those who defend him are powerful, far more so than me.

Straighten tongue, Amon commanded, and despite his eighth-tier power, he almost lost himself to fear. Amon was more powerful than anything else he knew of on the plane, his power so thoroughly eclipsing the tenth-tier that comparison was hilariously insulting.

If I am to successfully kill the boy and the demon within him, then I need comparable power, he said, his heart so madly beating that it seemed to be trying to escape his chest. One did not simply ask a Lord of Flame for power and expect to receive it for free, after all.

Power comes at a price… Amon said, and he could practically feel the demon’s smile.

Such cost comes as no surprise, he replied. I’ve paid for all power I’ve received in blood, sweat, and tears. What price would this come out to?

One thousand souls, third-tier or higher, and I will boost you to the ninth-tier, Amon stated. He knew his Lord well enough to know that he wasn’t going to get another offer. He’d witnessed other vampires attempt to haggle with their Lord, and in the best-case scenarios, their requests for power were immediately denied.

In the worst-cases, they burst into flame, their demonic patron retaliating for the perceived insult.

Done, he stated, and he felt his patron’s attention fade, and a sense of elated lightness settled about him. It was hardly ever apparent during their communions, but his demonic patron’s attention was as weighty as all the world, but he’d only notice such pressure once it released.

‘Now,’ he thought to himself with perverse glee, ‘I need to find a thousand mages who won’t be missed…’

This was why he resorted to vampirism. He’d been an eighth-tier mage for so long, but only now did he have the opportunity to rise to the next tier. Once he obtained such power, it would be time to make his move. No more would he be testing Leon Raime’s defenses, it was time to act personally.

He’d have Leon Raime’s head soon enough, and then he could pay Valentina a visit. It would be for the best that he find out just how the woman had managed to slip through Amon’s clutches…