The scent of Oera forest was ever stronger with the night dew, the full moon in clear view of the sky. It was dead silent, apart from the rustling of the wind on the trees. A dozen soldiers of various sizes and shapes, gaits, colours, tails and ears, were all ready for ambush outside the cave entrance. Swords and pikes drawn, bows nocked, and explosive crystals primed, all ready to wreck carnage on whoever would dare to venture out.

  Even demons had nerves, it seemed. Some of the less disciplined felt their hands shake, a cold sweat drip down their back, their hairs stand on edge, or even had their tails stick upright like a pole.

  Click Clack

  Something, or someone was coming from within the cave. The leader of the mismatched band of soldiers, a brute of a blue lizard man, 8 feet tall in slightly shinier half plate, held his left hand up, open. Or as open as a clawed hand can get. He stood at the front of the pack, attempting to lead by example, not daring to let his pounding pulse betray the mountain of fear he felt.

  Click Clack

  The soldiers clutched onto their weapons even harder, their hands audibly squeezing on the hilts or bows. They knew what they were going up against.

  Click Clack

  Bravely dying in the line of duty was their purpose, even if that sacrifice was merely to buy seconds for reinforcements to arrive. Not that half of them were even prepared to make such a sacrifice.

  Click Clack

  A horned figure emerged from the entrance, her purple skin and feather dress fully illuminated in the torchlight of the soldiers. Slim, yet exuding an arrogant level of confidence with her posture, one hand casually on her hip as a dozen weapons were aimed at them. The rookie soldiers exchanged utterly confused glances.

  “You can put your weapons down, he’s dead.” said the imp blasé fashion. Some of them did, but the more experienced remembered their due diligence and discipline, keeping their weapons primed at the imp.

  “Who are you?” shouted the lizard captain, his glaive still squarely aimed at the imp’s chest. She sighed, and began to reach into her dress. “Keep your hands where I can see them!” he hissed with with his fork tongue extended, inching his glaive closer.

  “I’m reaching for my royal seal, you idiot.” said the imp pointedly. The lizard continued to hiss angrily, slitting his eyes even further.

  “Take it out slowly.” he said. “And keep your other hand where I can see it.” He made a jerking motion with his glaive, as if to say, go ahead.“If it’s a crystal, or you start casting a spell, you’ll be dead before you even know it.” The imp let out a half hearted chuckle at the threat, a sly smile on her face.

  “Half of you are from the reserves.” she said, her amusement oozing into each of her words. “Remind me, which moron of a commander sent you out here?”

  “Hold your tongue imp.” said the lizard, his hurt pride on display. “We may be the leanest of the army, but we still-”

  “Would be horribly dead. Fried to a crisp, or folded seventeen times across a demiplane.” From within her dress, she produced a metal sigil in a shape of a claw, encased in a hellish brimstone, and displayed it for all to see. All the soldiers had now lowered their weapons, some at least glad that they weren’t about to be spatially folded into another dimension. “I’m just saying that there’s more useful things you could be doing. Than, you know-” she rolled her eyes and wagged her tail. “-attacking the human Sage that wiped out an entire city by themselves.”

  “We had our orders, my lady.” said the lizard trying to maintain some semblance of dignity, glaive now at his side. “We followed them.”

  “Hang on, did they say the sage was dead?” asked one of the goblin soldiers to another, perhaps a little too loudly.

  “Yup. Very dead. Or as humans say, as dead as a doornail.” replied the imp.

  “Eh? How can a doornail die? Don’t they just get bent?” One of the other soldiers prodded the goblin angrily in the shoulder blade, right between a very noticeable gap in their armour plates.

  “You’re talking to royalty. Manners!” whispered the other soldier, into his long green ear.

  “Oh ah, sorry milady.” said the goblin, croaking in a sort of embarrassed manner. Nonplussed, the imp shrugged.

  “I don’t mind. In fact most of us don’t care about these stupid formalities. Unless you’re talking to Vigilance, in which case- you should care.” She glowered on mentioning the name Vigilance.

  Their brief chat was interrupted by a distant shriek from the skies. High pitched, yet guttural. All of the soldiers, even the imp were on guard.

  “From the north!” squeaked a kobold soldier, pointing a clawed hand up to the sky. Silhouetted against the moonlight and the stars were seven wyverns. Even in the distance, they could make out their armour. They were the Emperors guard.

  “All stand to attention!” shouted a dignified voice from the sky, amplified by a crystal in her hand, the band around it spinning, the core glowing orange every time she spoke into it. “The Emperor has arrived!”. With their many years of ruthless and diligent training, the wyverns landed in formation behind the soldiers, one after another, skidding in the forest dirt, then trotting to a stop in unison. The soldiers on the ground began scrambling to get into position to welcome the guard, while the imp was content to lean back upon the rock wall by the cave entrance.

  Each of the royal guard had their plate armour custom fitted to them, rather than being the motley of plates, mail or brigandine that the normal soldiers would have to piece meal together from their quarter master. Their weapons, staves and bows were all embedded with crystals or glowing runes, made out of brilliant metals or venerated woods. Every member of the guard carried a certain air of dignity, beyond one of typical rank and file, as they formed two lines, with the most important demon in the centre, who had been gently settling down his crimson scaled wyvern, said wyvern being at least two sizes bigger than the ones belonging to the royal guards. Every demon present gave the Emperor their respect as he marched forwards in his armour, jet black and smooth, his helmet imposing and craggy, his horns large and curled on his head, towering above all others, head held high.

  The lizard captain had worked up the bravery to meet the Emperor, scampering up to him, and saluting him with one hand on his chest, the other on his back.

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  “My Emperor, we weren’t expecting your presence.”

  “Who sent you here?” The Emperor’s voice echoed across the forest, powerful and commanding.

  “Commander Gaz’hul, my lord. He believed that-”. Raising out a palm, the Emperor stopped the lizard man from saying anything else.

  “You’re dismissed, we can handle things here. Return to base and tell the commander that I’ll need to speak to him about his tactics and strategy. There was no need to risk your men here.”

  “I- I see sir.” Turning back to his men, the lizard captain hissed out his orders. Most of the grunts, wheezes or sighs of relief from the soldiers were muffled in the presence of the Emperor, as they began to get into marching formation, ready to head home.

  “Guards.” called out the Emperor. All of royal guard immediately responded with cries ‘Yes my lord!’, weapons raised to attention as per their discipline. “Secure the area, keep an eye out for any others, especially humans. Apprehend anyone you deem suspicious.” In unison, they answered in the affirmative and began setting up a defensive position around the cove. One of their number quickly leapt up high into the trees in a single bound, landing on a thick branch, settling themselves as it wobbled beneath their weight. There, they took out a scope, embedded runes glowing, and surveyed the dark treelines for any incoming targets.

  The imp was still leaning against the rock wall to the cave entrance, brushing the hem of her feather dress with her slender fingers.

  “Hi Dad.” said the imp, waving half heartedly.

  “Misery. What are you doing here?” asked the Emperor.

  “Seizing the moment I guess? A bit of random guessing here and there lead me to here.” Misery waved her hand, index finger out, as if pointing to said guesses. “I didn’t expect you to show up in person.”

  “Given who we were dealing with, this situation demanded my personal intervention.”

  “Why not bring the whole family then?” she asked, half teasingly.

  “Not necessary.” The Emperor looked down at the cave entrance, his eyes glowing blue through his helmet. “Especially since the sage is dead.”

  “Shame. I thought this forest could do with a new crater lake.” The Emperor ignored her whimsical jibe, and entered the cave, his metal boots clanking loudly against the stone floor, deep into the murky darkness. Misery followed in turn, but not before extending her palm out, coalescing the mana in the air, the energy that fuelled all things magical. In an instant there was floating glyph before her. A circle of magic runes shimmering in the air, interlinked with lines connecting them. The casting circle glowed brightly, then faded away. In it’s place, there was an orb of light, no more than a couple centimetres across, hovering over her hand, illuminating the dark cave walls.

  “Is this the entrance?” asked the Emperor. What was in front of him was nothing but cave rock. There was absolutely nothing notable about it, no out of place pebble, switch, or even a fake covering.

  “There’s a special sort of trick to opening it, you see-” Misery was interrupted out of her smug explanation by a sudden loud clang. Then the crumbling of rock, tumbling to the ground. The Emperor had elected to simply punch his way through the wall. “I guess you can do that Dad. What if there was some sort of trap?”

  “Would’ve seen it.” His fist had already wedged itself into the crevice of what seemed to be a door. He ripped it off it’s hinges, along with a signifiant amount of rock, almost tearing down the entire cave wall.

  “Ever heard of a cave in Dad?” Misery asked, for once genuinely worried and shielding her face from the debris.

  “Are you going to pretend either of us would have an issue with a couple falling rocks?” he replied, entering through the wide open doorway.

  “Yes a minor issue, but still an issue!” she followed suite behind him, heels clicking on the floor.

  The cove itself was more of a study. Befitting of a sage really, with reams of paper spilling off the desks. Devices and tools crammed against the walls, magnifiers, crystal refineries, scribing stations and even a crystal radio. There was a section of cave cut out to make a garden, with all sorts of exotic plants growing various foods, including one that seemed to be growing cakes. He even laid down wood flooring and a carpet, with dancing magical lights hanging from the chandelier above. The strong bitter scent of earlsweed was in the air, coming from the smoking pipe that laid on a table beside the motionless sage by the fireplace, who was still in his rocking chair.

  “He seems at peace.” The Emperor laid a hand on the sage, gently rocking him. “The man deserved a more painful death.” Misery clicked her tongue several times.

  “I thought you were above petty revenge.” she said in a scolding manner, or at least the mocking imitation of one. The Emperor merely let out a dissatisfied grunt in response.

  "This wasn't your kill, was it Misery?" he asked.

  "Dad, I know you think highly of me- well at least in the ways that I don't appreciate, but do you really think I could've beaten him?"

  "Battle is inherently unpredictable. Anyone can lose a fight." The Emperor let go of the sage, and the rocking chair began to settle.

  There was one other major oddity with the study- all the books were gone from the wooden shelves lining the upper part of the walls. All but for one shelf, which was still crammed with books.

  “Hm.” The Emperor could sense something was slightly off, the mana in the area around the bookshelf being dimmer, the very essence of magic itself being sucked away.

  “Y’know, it’s a very human thing to leave a trap like this. You make it just out of place enough, so that you can’t help but investigate it.” said Misery, carefully inspecting the row of books. Each one was leather bound, with indecipherable markings on the spines.

  “Why are you so certain it’s a trap?” asked the Emperor, quickly assessing the states of the other shelves above him.

  “The guy went ahead and burnt every other book, but stopped here. Not as if he was in a hurry, otherwise he wouldn’t have sat down and let himself have a nice smoke. Before going off to beyond yonder” Tapping her nose, Misery smirked. “It’s a trap. We should leave it.” His blue eyes glowing, the Emperor touched the bookcase with his metal gauntlet. He could feel his mana gently being siphoned away. Blue eyes glowing through his helmet, he could see the mana flow through the ground. With his metal gauntlet, he traced the mana across the wooden floor. Misery stepped back, tapping her heels, arms crossed

  His gauntlet scraped loudly along the wooden floor as he continued to follow the dimming mana, up until he hit a wall.

  “This is an artificial ley line.” said The Emperor, getting up from his knees. “It’s channelling mana to somewhere. The book case itself, or some device inside, is what’s used to donate the mana.”

  “You’ve seen something like this before Dad?” asked Misery, curious.

  “On a smaller scale.” he replied, stepping back and looking beyond the wall itself. “This ley line stretches far beyond just this cave though.”

  “How far?”

  “Far.” he replied simply, sensing his own mana slowly fading in the distance. “We’ll have to follow it on foot.”

  “We?” Misery seemed offended. “I have better things to do than trudge through the woods.”

  “Like actually handling your military duties?" His tone was firm, not quite angry, but disapproving. "If you’d been wearing your uniform, you would’ve had a better chance of avoiding a friendly fire incident.”

  “You saw that?” said Misery, meekly.

  “Not much can escape my eyes.”

  “If you say so Dad.” The Emperor gave the cove one last sweep. The radio had been stripped of it’s crystal, and there was no hope of getting the frequencies used on it. None of the tools were any use to him, and most of the writing on the desks happened to be fanciful poetry, than actual usable intel.

  “Prepare to-” He cut himself off. Misery had already left while his back was turned. She had certainly mastered the art of casting teleport spells. Quickly at that, in both senses of the word.

  Walking towards the rocking chair, he gave the sage one last stare, his blue eyes bearing down upon his wizened face. The sensation would freeze the innards of anyone else, though the sage had the fortune of already being dead. Was it really bitterness welling up inside the Emperor? He’d already come so far, sacrificed so many for the sake of his campaign. The seeds of petty feelings could not be permitted to exist in his hardened heart. These choice coincidences pointed to one thing. That some sort of turning point was inevitable. Whatever this sage had been powering with his mana was about to fail. Given the scale of his power and the nature of his schemes, it certainly wasn’t benign. Taking out a radio crystal, he spoke his orders, the crystal glowing with every word.

  “Royal Guard, prepare to fall in line. We have a long march ahead of us.”

  “Yes my Emperor, we will wait for you outside the cave.” came the response from Illi, the leader of the guard. Both an excellent fighter and a commander, and someone he believed could take tips from. The shackles of leadership were one he wished he could make an excuse to loosen. If only total infighting wouldn’t be the result of letting loose those chains- what would he be doing if he was free? He had no hobbies, he had no other talents, only waging war and the winding the shadows of deception. No other equals, no other friends, he was alone upon that throne, desperately sailing a ship that he had felt he no control over.

  Would there be a civil war? Would the humans rise up again? Buried already in schemes that threatened to spill and mix into each other, the situation demanded a flexible mind and strong spirit. No, there would be no more self doubt. He would hold himself to his promise, no matter what. Burning the body of his so called enemy with a fireball, the Emperor marched out of the study, smoke billowing out of the cave as he left, his sights set westward. Following the ley line to either his glory or doom.