Dull, black nails scratch along the map, tapping at points, pushing aside compasses and rulers as she mutters all the while. A deep Blood Orange Crystal sits topside of the table, Seeker itself stabs the map in place, and an ink-dried quill stains a single city.

"It has to be here… right?" She runs her fingers through whitened locks, scratching her scalp until she bleeds. King glares at the stained city—Kyis, the Sainid Emperor's supposed second home. Raging, her fists slam into the table and it flashes with an orange light, keeping King's abuse to a minimum.

A knock comes at the door, forcing King to pull herself together with a deep breath and look across the room. "Come in."

The heavy metal door rolls aside at her word and a ghast of a man steps in. Long, clawed arms connect to broad, bare shoulders with skin as gray as ash. Lipless, the ghast hisses away drool in her presence and presents King with a tea tray.

King hums at the undead creature, critiquing its horrid bow, posture, and overall presentation like she does every time. "See? Undead will never get it right. It's a disgusting imitation of the real thing, and you can't even be mad about it."

The ghast grunts in oblivious agreement, furthering King's unfounded frustration with it. Her fists clench but don't lash out this time, and begrudgingly she serves herself tea—the ghast will certainly fail if she ordered it to.

After a few sips, the deep taste of a wolf's bane and jasmine have her relaxed. "Maybe I'm overreacting. Even if it's Kyis, I can still get it, I'll just be a little more creative, that's all. I can be creative."

Holding onto that line of thinking, King nods herself away, staring into her glorious future. A wet smack of drool knocks her out of the daydream to scowl at the ghast still holding the tray.

"Nu…nina," it hoarsely articulates.

King blinks to the door and kicks out of her seat. "Lumina? Have you been standing out there all this time to be introduced by an undead?"

A voice speaks from the hall, "… I've never visited you before." The short pause before her meek defense is enough to have King cackle away her worries.

King nods and the ghast makes across the room to slide the door open, revealing Lumina in the doorway. Lost underneath the stark white cloak, she mutters an unsure thanks to the ghast before walking in.

"Aren't you meant to be in Hescaria? Soothing tensions?" The add-on has Lumina scowling before she can shake the snow left on her head.

The ghast is there to place a chair for her to sit, and goosebumps raise her neck hairs. "I… I'm not sure about this anymore, King."

King nods along, watching Lumina's golden eyes avoid hers as she picks up the kettle and refills her cup.

"Oh! Tea, that would be marvelous." Lumina exhales, hands out waiting for the cup.

King chuckles, "This won't calm your nerves, Lumina. No amount of milk will drown out the wolf's bane." She gasps and quickly retreats. "What were you saying about this not working? This being what?"

Her eyes find the tiles at the inquiry, "I think… I told myself I was ready but… I…" she trails off in quiet mutterings but matches King's gaze after a deep exhale. "My council and I protest this military action. By contract, you—"

"Sshh!" King shuts her with a finger. White, drooping hair curtains away light as King looms over Lumina. King's hand wraps around her head, enlarged to the point her dull fingernails threaten to poke out Lumina's fine gold eyes.

Failing to gasp, Lumina whimpers as King closes in. "I found the map, Lumina. Even if you force Nil's soul to obey… how will you win this war that you started? How will you secure your people's existence?"

Even with King's finger pulled away, she struggles to offer a reply. Choking on her own saliva, Lumina heaves and coughs, and King recoils in disgust. "You're afraid. I see that, I sympathize with that. But didn't I tell you? Power and the responsibility to wield it are for monarchs. You are one, aren't you?"

Taking hold of herself, Lumina sniffs. "Valery… Valery says we'd be worse, barbaric and wicked. I don't want that…"

"Yes, you're right. Hell, for once Valery's right about something. It is a bit… cruel, but haven't you earned the right to be cruel to your mother's killers? To the people who watched as you were paraded as a trophy?" King shrugs and sits back at the map. "It doesn't matter a bit to me, as long as we find my child. You understand, don't you?"

It takes a moment, but Lumina stands and says, "I brought a Dragon... or a Dragon brought me here. If you weren't going to commit to my will, I was going to use it against you."

King turns in her seat, listening intently to Lumina's confession as though she hadn't seen it all in her mind the moment Lumina walked in. "I will always follow your will, Lumina. This is your war, and our deal is that I help you win it as you will help me win mine."

Her fingers tangle each other as she bites her lip: the moral conflict is strewn across her face for anyone to see. Her lips part to speak, but the ghast beats her to it, moaning out a single word.

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"Enemy."

King and Lumina share a dawning look—the trap is sprung and the bait taken. It's now or never.

Seeker dislodges itself from the table and takes its place at King's side as she steps to her full height. A black corset gown and cape tumble against Lumina's white in a contrast evident to both. King picks up the Blood Orange Crystal sitting on the table and looks to the ghast before shaking her head and handing it over to Lumina.

"Would you be a dear and attach that to my…" her fingers graze along the choker on her neck. Lumina hesitates, her mind clouded by the urgency of the ghast's single word—still, she fixes the crystal on King, having it aglow against the darkness of her dress.

With a grin, King cups Lumina's chin, her breath hot and close as she whispers, "It's your call what to do with that Dragon, Lumina."

"Is this the only way to win?" Her eyes fall shut as she asks, squirming in King's grip.

"No, there's always another way… or so some hero told me once. However, this is the best way to start winning. And isn't that what you want? To have the council, your kingdom, and your subjects have faith in this war? To have faith in you."

Lumina snatches away from her grasp, sneering outright at King. "… Fine, let's do it, but never again. Never."

King snorts but agrees, knowing this one-time consumption will leak out more than enough Essence. "Yes, never again."

The ghast leads the way out into the Fort Tower's corridor and the ramparts where undead skeleton archers stand. It's a bright afternoon in Dersen, the closest Sainid city to Hescaria's border. Snow fallen from the night before melts away but has already carried King's sleep curse into the nostrils of every denizen spilled over in the streets and homes.

Dersen is a hostage. The soldiers and protectors shed loose skin and turned raw once King got a hold of them—ghasts and ghouls are all that remain of those who fought.

Standing at the head of the rampart, King weaves commands to the dome of magic settled across the entire city—a mana-heavy cast of [Greater Deception] sets the city worth of people into a deep slumber and under King's larger scheme.

King whispers commands to her ghouls and they scatter across the city, stabbing the entranced denizens of Dersen with another undead curse.

"What are they doing?" Lumina gasps, her voice betraying the strong will she's struggling to hold onto.

King caresses her head gently. Suddenly a foot or two taller than Lumina, she points out to the cloudy horizon. A small army of calvary, pikemen, and, by the smell of it, Mages, approach.

"You don't have to be here for this. In fact, it's better if you weren't," King says, her undead skipping throughout the city, cutting and cursing oblivious citizens of the Empire.

"No, I should stay."

King doesn't need to hear much else to pull her close, "Stand by my side. I'm not sure what unfiltered Essence would do to you."

Letting herself into the weave of her spellwork, King sighs, relieved that Sainid's response was only a few days more than estimated—anymore and maintaining [Greater Deception] on this scale would deficit even her abilities.

Eyes closed, she takes command of the city through the webbed illusion. "Open the gates," she mutters.

Denizens closest to the gates jerk out of their slumber to hazily pull the gates open as a charging advance of calvary run through. Galloping into the city, the riders trample over bodies strewn in the way. Horses neigh and launch their riders off at the sight of undead.

At that moment, the Mages identify the veil of deceit over the city and panic, casting protections that'll mean nothing to the ghouls and four hungry ghasts in the city.

King doesn't give the army any time to react, ordering the skeleton archers to set loose on every head in sight and setting Seeker free. Arrows find skulls, shoulders, and knees as the pikemen scrabble in confusion. The mages haplessly cast winds against arrows but fail to watch the ghasts lying in wait.

It's a short blood bath, but the undead pull in all hundred of the survivors for the final bit of King's trap.

"What now?"

Dersen's foundation trembles as the last of the curse marks are set on each breathing, living thing in the city. Lumina wraps around King's waist to hold herself up as three thousand hearts explode, snuffing out life from Dersen.

King mutters a chain of key words, knitting her illusion into a plane-piercing spell. Blood flows up under King's feet, a cyclone of the crimson fluid whirlpools around her, calling dark clouds and night over the city. A crack tears in the sky.

"Reais ud dumen."

The cyclone shoots out after the crack, rushing in like a waterfall until the crack implodes. A sick red cloud the size of a dog is left, crackling with Essence, mana, and the stain of undeath.

King fingers the Blood Orange Crystal on her choker. The cloud hovers close for a bit before nearly half of it is vortexed into the Crystal. She rips into the rest, slurping up the cloud with her mouth and nose.

A cold wind gusts through Dersen. The dead city sits in an unbroken silence as King marinates in the depths of power she's reaped out of Reais. [Planar Travel] is a skill she never mastered, and this butchered variant of it is only good for proving there are other realms and containing the power that leaks out of them.

As well as the undead serve her, there's no beating the reliability of a single Demon's power. Fueled by Essence, that power has potential to grow without bounds—how Valery managed to reap Demons themselves out of the planar tears is something she's intent on investigating.

For now, simply taking Essence without dealing it Reais itself is good enough, albeit crude.

"They're… all dead." Lumina gapes out at Dersen. Nothing but drained, gray bodies and ash are left.

"A lot more left to say goodbye to, Lumina. The Emperor awaits, and so do Deran and his siblings. This is the beginning."

"Is it?"

"Yes, merely the beginning… isn't that right, Nil?"

Locked and lost in my own Soul Crystal, I don't entertain King with any answers, merely observing and biding my time as I have the past months.

Name: King(Nil)

Race: Demon

Type: Transformed Deviant Soul

Age: Immortal – 35years, 2months

Crystal Essence: [Blood Orange]- Lvl.4— 1283Esq

[Available Essence Points— 0]

Strength: 46

Agility: 61

Wisdom: 56

Abilities: [Faithless Absorption], [Faithless Mimicry], [Faithless Essence Amplification]

[Available Trait Points— 0]

Traits: [Armored Form]- Lvl.5, [Mesmer]- Lvl.5, [Psychic Barrier]- Lvl.2, [Somatic Manipulation]- Lvl.5, [Full Mimic]- Lvl.3

Ascension Perks: [Reais Fiend], [+]

Spells: [Invisibility]- Lvl.3, [Greater Deception]- Lvl.1, [Curse of Undeath]- Lvl.5, [Curse of Necrosis], [Planar Rift]- Lvl.2, [Arcane Mastery]

Patron: Lumina au Hescaria

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