Last week, he coldly murdered the King of the Elves. Today, thousands of corpses of innocent women and children, alongside their dead husbands and fathers stared back at his eyes, their lifeless bodies asking him a simple question—was this worth it?

  This has gone too far.

  It was the only reply his mind could give them, as the soldiers of the Imperium killed them, sacking their walled capital.

  Chaos ruled the streets.

  No elven mage nor soldier was left, all massacred from the previous one-sided battles. The civilians thus had no one to protect them, as blood and screams flowed freely while those with swords, crossbows, axes, and wands took part in the sughter.

  He walked through the streets of the burning city, his face unquestionably neutral, yet his mind in eternal conflict as he watched the ongoing sack.

  He stayed here. He lived here for a while. He saw the way they went through their days, and how merchants, nobles, commoners, and priests of the elven people lived under a King who did nothing but kindness for his people.

  He remembered how for months, he did nothing but subdue them from the shadows. He assassinated key leaders, spread false propaganda and rumors to spur unrest, and a litany of crimes that he couldn’t count.

  On the rubble, the corpse of a child y dead, and he stared at it. The tactical part of his mind noted the burns—fire spell, high intensity. But his stomach churned the more he stared.

  “Vd,” someone gently patted his back. “You did a good job with this one. As I had expected.”

  “Empress Irina,” Vd replied, not bothering to look at the older woman behind him. “I thought we were just here to take over. Wasn’t that the pn? They were productive people, weren’t they? Good new citizens of the Empire as you told me.”

  “The pn changed, Vd,” she replied, her voice amused. “These elves, they’re a dangerous kind. The fact that they defied me so gruesomely even with their King gone is enough of a pretext to…clean this pce up, so to speak.”

  “...Cleaning up?” Vd took a deep breath, internally unconvinced. “I’m not so sure. These people could have been sves at least. Wouldn’t that be better? At least they’ll keep working for us—”

  “Are you doubting my pns, Vd?”

  A cold chill shot through Vd’s spine, as he froze.

  “No, I apologize…Mother,” he replied.

  “Good. On the other hand, about your question—watch,” Suddenly, the entire city was lit up by a sickly purple light. He felt like he was suffocating until he saw hundreds of bodies in front of him standing under her command. “With the spell I’m creating, even the dead can be controlled. They can become sves too once the great project is finished. Doesn’t it excite you?”

  The city burned, its embers crawling toward the sky like the souls of the dead, as his mother controlled and removed the dignity of the corpses they left behind.

  Exciting?

  “Yes,” Vd replied, smiling as best as he could to mask his true response. “Yes…it does feel quite exciting.”

  “I knew it,” she ruffled his hair from behind, her sick giggle filling his ears. “That’s my good son. Just don’t disappoint me, okay?”

  He knew what would happen should he ‘disappoint’ her. That clear threat didn’t go unnoticed for him. He could feel the noose already tightening on him, and that his fate might not be too far from the fate of the corpses below his feet.

  He knew what happened to everyone who dissented or showed signs of dissent. Worse, he wasn’t just a dissenter. He had already been a covert rebel against her for so long.

  “Crystal clear, Empress,” Vd replied. “I will never disappoint you.”

  “Good. That’s what I like to hear. Keep this up, and you might truly beat your siblings and gain the right to the throne. Trust me, it’s within reach, Vd.”

  He briefly stared at the purple orb that glowed wildly on her gloved hand. It was the same orb that powered most of her disgusting curses and spells, containing unimaginable mana after being refined for a decade.

  The horror in front of him was clear—this was the true power of the Witch Empress, the strongest known individual in the continent, a power held by a sadist with a deteriorating sanity.

  We have to destroy it, there’s no other option left. We have to set our pns in motion.

  “Like what you see?” the Empress asked. “We’ll soon finish refining it, then…then we can truly start continent-wide spells. Imagining the possibilities alone is enough to send me to heaven.”

  “I know,” Vd smiled. “Congratutions, Empress. Your brilliance is truly astounding.”

  “Mhm, indeed it is,” she giggled again, before hugging him from behind like a doting mother would. “Thank you, dear son.”

  +++

  Weeks had passed since that fateful evening, as he and the group of rebels he colborated with diligently prepared to sabotage her pns before the world was crushed by her insanity.

  They’d stop her.

  Tonight was that day.

  It went awfully wrong. They were now forced to split to desperately flee.

  Cd in a bck cloak to disguise himself, Vd dashed through the forest with rapid, careful, and stealthy steps. He gritted his teeth, as the tell-tale signs of someone flying toward him became clear to his ears.

  “You know the cost of disobedience already, haven’t I drilled that in your little mind? Then why this ridiculous stunt, Vd?!”

  That voice, there was no mistake. It was the Empress herself.

  She’s focusing on me. Vd thought. Damn it, if this will be the st thing I will do, I’ll do it. I know you can do the rest, Ivan. I’ll be the new diversion.

  Vd kept running. It was the only way out now. He hatched this scheme with those who opposed the Empress for years: a fallback pn should the possibility of the Empress’ growing insanity reach a tipping point.

  With their retions rapidly deteriorating, he had no choice but to enact it. But as he had expected, nothing, not even being one of the best assassins of the Imperium, or having a professional team to counter her, would be enough to challenge the mad Empress.

  He jumped high through a cliff, nding straight into an ambush set up by Imperial troopers. Releasing his rapier, it glowed bright red when he channeled his sword arts through it.

  It wasn’t his most used form of equipment as an assassin, but today was different. There were thousands of the Empress’ goons surrounding him. He needed to cut through the mob, and his silent, more sublime methods wouldn't be able to offer that.

  Not when his cover was blown.

  Dozens of soldiers charged at him, swords drawn and ready. He plowed through them rapidly, slicing and disintegrating them with each swipe.

  They tried to resist, but none of their weapons managed to match his rapier. An entire ptoon of them regrouped in an attempt to swarm him—but a swift slice sent a bright red fsh that cut through eighteen men.

  Dismembered bodies were all that was left, alongside a lone, panicked survivor.

  The remaining soldier received a quick thrust straight to his shoulder, and then Vd sliced him diagonally. The soldier's body was burned and cauterized, leaving no trace of blood when the Imperial assassin escaped.

  He sheathed his rapier.

  Gsses of various spsh potions smmed into the forest’s ground, igniting rge fires that rapidly created thick fog in the assassin’s wake.

  He was now at the ‘st resort’ phase of his escape pn.

  Vd jumped straight into one of the caves that his trained eye managed to quickly locate, disappearing for a while. He briefly checked his mana reserves, drinking whatever healing elixirs he had left to heal his wounds. A blue, transparent screen appeared in front of him. It was bad.

  The numbers didn’t lie, even if his stats were at S or S+, which was near the current upper limit of a person’s strength…he was still being drained.

  [HP: S (45%)]

  [MP: S+ (12%)]

  I have little mana left, and I’m already somewhat injured.

  He looked outside the cave. It was as if the world had turned into an inferno. He could still hear the soldiers, mages, and various members of the Imperial Army tracking him from above. His breath came ragged, but surrender was not an option.

  Not now.

  No, he’d get out of this, and if not, he’d rather die tying up the Empress’ attention on him.

  That psycho’s been on me for a while now, they should have fled far by now.

  When he found an opportune window to escape, he scurried out of the cave without being noticed by the Imperial soldiers. He swiftly ran through the burning forest, his eyes straining to figure out which path was traversable and devoid of enemies.

  He found a squad of scattered soldiers ahead of him, but before they could alert the rest of the Army, four flying knives struck their throats.

  Vd passed through their bodies as they colpsed and choked on the ground.

  He was close to his objective.

  If his map wasn’t lying, continuing west of the forest would lead him to the border of the neighboring Kingdom. He already held the damning documents about her mother’s pns with him, one that he could trade in exchange for favorable terms for his defection.

  It was one of his st resort options.

  There’s none of them chasing me anymore.

  His ears didn’t lie. His senses have been sharpened in his decade of service under her. Nothing was chasing him here. Not the Army. Not those powerful mages. Not the—

  He stopped in his tracks. Then, he drew out his rapier.

  The Empress herself nded in front of him. Her red eyes were bloodshot, and her bck hair flowed through the air wildly. His surgically improved eyes, capable of seeing people’s mana should he desire it, saw the sheer strength of the woman. Mana practically oozed from her body, with such intensity that Vd had never once seen from anyone other than the Empress.

  The sinister smile on her face grew, and it would have terrified anyone into submission—but not Vd.

  “Vd,” she softly said as a dark shadow appeared in her eyes. “What led you into this? Do you wish to forfeit your right to be a candidate for the throne? Most importantly, where is my astral orb?”

  Damn it. This is the end of the line.

  While Vd was capable of assassinating and executing those the Empress deemed below her, Vd had no hair’s chance of challenging his mother. Not that he was ever trained for that purpose. To be an assassin meant that Vd’s ways were optimized for fighting unfairly.

  It was why this pn hinged on them escaping stealthily after they sabotaged her, and that condition was now gone.

  Face-to-face with the strongest witch, it would be foolish to hope for victory. She could hex him at any second, and Vd would stand no chance.

  “I want nothing to do with your messed up ‘family’ from now on,” Vd’s voice was empty, his eyes darting subtly left and right to search for an exit. “You’re a paranoid madwoman. You even cursed your damned children!”

  “Curse? You wound me. It will not activate unless you act against me. Besides, look at you,” her smile grew, and her maniacal giggles filled the forest. “You managed to expunge it from your body. Dear heavens, I knew you would be so perfect that you’d be capable of that!”

  Vd did not react. He tried looking for any weakness in the woman, his eyes checking every vital part of her body that was open to an attack. Suddenly, five masked figures nded behind the Empress. Boris, Nikoi, Lilya, Anastasia, and Alisa. They were his five siblings.

  All of them acted in different roles as agents of the Empress, and like him, they were all vying for the throne and the Empress’ favor. Unlike him, however, who only used it as a pretense to keep himself out of trouble as he schemed, these five were still serving her with deluded loyalty.

  Can’t the five of you not see that she’s not a proper mother anymore? Why? Why is it only me?

  “Vd,” the Empress called. “You can still surrender, and I promise you that I’ll only give a mild disciplinary measure. Just give my orb back, then we can return to our old lives.”

  You liar. I’d rather die on my feet than be backstabbed on my knees.

  “You’re te. While you were chasing me, it’s already been destroyed,” Vd audaciously ughed, as he readied his stance. “So screw you! I won’t be your tool ever again!”

  He charged head-first with his bde, as her voice finally turned fully cold.

  “You did what?!”

  Three knives whistled through the air, their poisoned tips gleaming. Two sliced her wrists, while one buried itself in her shoulder. Vd pressed on his advantage, readying his rapier to strike at her.

  Vd jumped high, aiming his rapier straight at her neck.

  Her death would grant freedom to him, to the Empire, and his cursed siblings.

  He knew that it was a delusion—a fleeting desire that went against reality, and it was confirmed with a single punch from the Empress. The shockwave from it fttened the trees around them.

  Vd nded hundreds of meters away, bones and flesh torn apart as he rolled through the green fields. Pain coursed through his body, and he felt his skin slowly boiling.

  Still, he stood up one st time, defiant even in defeat.

  The Empress walked to him calmly, her face contorting again into a sadistic smile.

  “So you destroyed my most prized possession?” she asked. “Oh, my dear Vd, you sneaky, unruly, and disappointing brat. You just asked for your death, don’t you know that?”

  Vd fell on his knees. His body, cursed by her dark magic, was disintegrating from the inside out. It was the same curse that he had expunged before trying to challenge her. Now…with merely one punch, she cursed him again. Since he was already defying her, the effects were immediate.

  [HP: S (9.8%)]I’m going to die here.

  His body trembled, but instead of succumbing to pain, Vd let out the first hint of emotions that he never showed for years. He was smiling mockingly at her. That only elicited a prouder glint in the Empress’ eyes.

  “I knew it. Not even the end would deter you from going down with your dignity. This almost makes me sad, I thought I raised you so well,” she clicked her tongue. “Such a shame those efforts became a waste. What a scoundrel you have become, I loathe that I even birthed you.”

  “Humor me one st time,” Vd hissed. “Do you think you’ll be at the top of the wheel forever?”

  She kneeled close to him.

  “Of course. All I need is time, and I’ll figure out how to recreate that orb. Then, I’ll be triumphant,” she gently grabbed his chin, raising it so the two could stare eye-to-eye. “...I wish I could lessen the pain, but what you just did disappointed me so greatly.”

  “Don’t. Let your sins pile up high,” his voice died into a tormented ugh. “They’ll bite back hard one day. Mark my words—you can't outrun them.”

  He continued ughing, reasoning to himself that there would be no way she could recreate it without all the important ingredients he acquired for her and that even if she tried, his allies must have escaped today to carry on the struggle.

  He wanted to believe that his efforts weren’t in vain.

  He colpsed, his body slowly melting into a puddle of gore and blood. Rage and hate consumed his dying mind, the desire to rip and tear his mother to shreds overwhelming him, as the tremendous pain escated.

  You damned…bloodthirsty animal!

  Yet she continued to smile, almost as if she found satisfaction in his tortuous death. Vd didn’t care if it came from the satisfaction of killing her greatest saboteur. The fact that she could do this to her very son—it only boiled his blood further.

  Liar, madwoman, tyrant, murderer! You’re a vile mother! I’ll kill you! I’ll absolutely kill you!

  His vision continued to turn into a bloody red as his mind screamed, the pain becoming nothing in the face of his hatred.

  Then, his agony ended.

  +++

  Three cloaked figures scurried toward a cave deep in the forest. One of them, their leader, Ivan Lukin, looked out at the darkened skies, as the forest burned in the distance.

  Vd.

  He must have been forced into an open battle with the Imperials. Ivan gritted his teeth, as his comrades called him to continue deeper into the cave.

  They would have to hunker down before resuming their efforts, and Ivan feared that they might have lost the only person that would be a worthy Emperor.

  “At least we destroyed the orb,” Ivan cursed. “But damn it, to lose the best candidate for the throne...”

  This was nothing but a pyrrhic victory for the Imperial opposition.

  He curled his fist.

  He soon disappeared with his comrades, deeper into the cave, then to the secret tunnels they excavated, connected to the nearby Kingdom.

  They’d carry on to fight another day.

  +++

  Death.

  Vd had always wondered if he would go to heaven to the embrace of Goddess Celea, or if he would be sent to hell, for he was a man who sinned so deeply under the Empress.

  He even hoped that his actions would at least redeem himself in the eyes of the goddess, but he feared he was too far gone.

  As the darkness consumed Vd, a voice suddenly reached his bckened soul.

  “All I want is a purer, kinder world. Will you help me realize that?”