The End of an Era

4:42 PM

The church was spacious, but I managed to find the Emperor’s room with Orthos’ navigation. I finally found the set of stairs that led to the Emperor. After reaching the top, I was now in front of the doors that would open to him. I proceeded to open the doors.

Once the doors fully opened, I could see him sitting in a chair. Emperor Pius was staring at the active fireplace. He wore a red robe with more golden accents designed all over it, while a red hood covered his head.

“Took you long enough, Tom,” said Emperor Pius.

I took a deep breath and walked into the room. My right hand was ready to grab the gun in my pocket. The room had books all around. It was a large room with a high ceiling to top it off.

As I was walking over to Pius, he began to get out of his chair. He turned around to look at me directly.

“Tom, you will bow before your Emperor now, unless you want to die,” he said.

“Bow? I know who you really are, Pius—you’re the devil incarnate,” I said.

He began to laugh. His laughter was becoming more hysterical.

“The devil incarnate? You don’t even know what you’re talking about, boy!” he yelled.

Do it.

“Pius!” I yelled back.

In a split second, I pulled out the gun and aimed it at his head. I was able to hold it still and pull the trigger. I felt like a soldier in that moment.

As the bullet came out of the gun, Emperor Pius had taken off his red hood. He revealed to Tom his third eye. It began to open.

What the hell? This bastard had another eye on his forehead? It was all starting to make sense now.

Impossible!

The bullet stopped moving about halfway between Tom and Emperor Pius. Tom couldn’t move his body and couldn’t realize it, either. Time froze in place and everything was still…except for Orthos.

As Tom’s shadow, Orthos began to move around on the floor. He noticed that both Tom and the bullet were not moving and wondered what was going on.

Emperor Pius slowly walked toward Tom. He was thinking of all the ways to torture the boy and eventually kill him. It was inevitable for him to die by his hand. He could easily make his head explode but that would be too boring.

He needed to ask him some questions before killing him. He was also slightly pissed about the General still not responding back to him.

As Emperor Pius got closer to Tom, Orthos could sneak behind the Emperor. Emperor Pius was now in front of Tom, but his discomfort remained.

He looked closer at the boy, trying to understand why he still felt uneasy. When he looked at the floor, he realized his instincts were right. He couldn’t see Tom’s shadow.

Emperor Pius began to slowly back away from Tom, knowing that something was very wrong. At that moment, Orthos entered his body from behind.

4:44 PM

It was dark. I was walking around in…what had to be the Emperor’s subconsciousness. There was a dim light above the vast space.

“You shouldn’t be here,” said a voice.

I turned around and noticed Emperor Pius standing a bit further away from me.

“How did you get inside here?” he asked.

“I thought anyone was welcome, so I let myself in.”

“You’ve made a foolish decision…Orthos,” he said.

We both stared at each other, and neither one of us blinked. One of us had to start talking again.

“I don’t think you truly realize what you’re getting yourself into, Orthos,” said Emperor Pius.

(White pawn to f3.)

“I could care less about what happens to me, Pius. I’m just here to stop you once and for all.”

(Black pawn to e5.)

“It will be you that dies by hand, as well as the other boy out there.”

(White pawn to g4.)

“No, Pius…I will be the one to end you. Your era of reign ends here,” I said.

(Black queen to to h4. Checkmate.)

The Emperor’s body began to evaporate slowly.

“W-What are you doing? Stop this…stop this now!” yelled Emperor Pius.

“I’m simply…making some changes. I will now be taking over your body.”

“N-No, you don’t understand, boy! I don’t own this body!”

“What?” I said.

Emperor Pius stopped evaporating. No, I couldn’t fully get rid of him. Was my power too weak?

“What do you mean you don’t own this body, Pius?” I questioned.

“This body…my soul. None of it is mine anymore, Orthos. The…the Man Below has received it.”

“The Man Below? What the hell are you talking about?” I asked.

Out of thin air, a third figure joins the conversation, a shadowy figure. Orthos looked over to his right and noticed a man in a black suit.

“It is me that he is referring to…Orthos. I go by many names, but the one name I’m most known for…would be the Devil,” said the man in black.

What was going on here? Why is the Devil of all things involved with Pius?

“You see, Orthos—once upon a time, Germany was going to fall. And, I mean, go into extinction because of the Great War. When Germany was cornered, I heard a cry for help so desperate that I just had to respond. And who was it that cried for my help?” said the Devil.

The Devil pointed at Emperor Pius.

“It was him. Pius, or should I say…Emperor Pius was the one who called for my help. I gave him some powers in exchange for, well…humanity’s salvation,” he added.

I was stunned, too stunned to speak. I could feel my body slightly tremble.

“You might be wondering why, correct?” he asked.

I just nodded, almost instinctively. Emperor Pius was on his knees, looking down at the ground the whole time. The Devil continued speaking.

“It’s because I believed in him. Throughout all the agreements I’ve made with other mortals, Pius stood out to me the most.”

“Other humans? You mean to tell me that you’ve had agreements with others as well?” I asked.

“Of course, Orthos. I’ve made agreements with all kinds of mortals before him, especially famous ones. People like Julius Caesar, Nikola Tesla, George Washington, Karl Marx…I can go and on but you get the point,” he said.

I couldn’t believe what he just said. I just stood there, staring aimlessly at him. Everything was a lie.

“You’re telling me that the reason the world is the way it is…the only reason that humanity has made it this far…is because of you?” I said.

“In short, yes. Everything is the way it is because I made it so.”

“So…then Germany’s success in the Great War was solely because of you?”

“Yes, Orthos. If Pius did not have the willpower and desperation during the Great War, I may not have noticed him at all. I’ve already mentioned how I saw his potential compared to the other mortals, but I also wanted to try something different as well.”

“Different? What do you mean?”

“Different as in a different approach. I grew bored of terrorizing mortals, you see, and wanted to try something new. I just wanted to see how much I can get away with altering mortal history.

“In other realities that I foresaw, Germany would lose time and time again due to inadequate leadership. In one of those realities, there was even another Great War after the first one, would you believe that?”

“N-No, I couldn’t…believe that.”

“Anyways, I wanted to see what would happen if Germany won the first Great War. However, there were two problems for me. The first problem was choosing the right mortal. This problem wasn’t as bad as I realized soon enough since, well…y’know…Pius exceeded all of my expectations. The real problem was the second one, which was…God’s wrath.”

“God’s wrath?”

“Yes, I mean…If I exist, then God also exists as well. I simply didn’t know the limits of abusing my power when it came to going against God. I’ve already altered mortal history many times.

“However, this would be my first time changing such an important event in mortal history. I mean…America was far more powerful compared to Germany back then. Hell, America could’ve finished the Great War and ruined Germany’s reputation forever.”

“So…you helped Germany win the war just because…you felt like it?”

“Yes, Orthos. I felt like doing it and thought it would be fun. Doesn’t anyone want to have fun, even just once in a while? Either way, I didn’t get the result I wanted in the end.

“I was hoping Pius would control all of humanity and hand it over to me, but it looks like I’m going to have to try harder now,” said the Devil, as he grinned maliciously.

“B-But what about God’s wrath? I thought you demons feared Him.”

“Yes, yes we do, Orthos. But after all this, I realized something, a theory you mortals call it. The theory is that God did not care about this world anymore.”

I just stared at him blankly. He wasn’t joking around. He was being completely serious.

“I mean…why else hasn’t He saved you, saved humanity? He let all of this happen. It was the only logical explanation that made sense to me,” the Devil added.

“P-Please, my Lord. Please spare me,” said Emperor Pius.

“I have no use for you now, Pius. You failed me, I mean…I even warned you earlier. And, yet…you still let me down. I had high hopes for you, I really did, but you failed me. And failure comes at a price.”

“N-No, please…my Lord. I won’t let you down. I can stop him, just give me some more time—”

"TIME?" exclaimed the Devil. 

Emperor Pius screamed for mercy. The Devil almost got out of his mortal body.

“You’ve had a lot of time, Pius. I’ve given you enough time,” said the Devil.

“Hell…I even gave you the power to see through time and stop it! I mean…how do you let yourself lose against a boy, especially one with such a poor background compared to you?” the Devil added.

Emperor Pius was completely in fear of the Devil. He didn’t know what to do anymore. This was the first time he ever lost in his lifetime. The Devil was not amused anymore. I couldn’t do anything. I wanted to say something, but it felt like I lost my voice as if the Devil was preventing me from speaking.

“Any last words before we go, Pius?” said the Devil.

“L-Last words? W-Where are we going, m-my Lord?”

“To home, Pius. Remember how I showed you a glimpse of it before?”

“Y-You mean the Lost Paradise, my Lord?”

“Yeah, sure, Pius—we’ll go with that name. I mean I only showed you what you wanted to see before.”

“W-What?”

“The Lost Paradise and Hell are two different places, Pius. One was just your imagination. The other is very real and far worse than you can imagine.”

“B-But my Lord! I sacrificed so many people for you! I’ve done everything for you, for Germany! I even became Emperor. Yet, I failed the agreement because I lost to some boy!”

“Yes, Pius—you did all those things. You fulfilled the agreement month after month, year after year. You were basically my righthand man with the mortals. However, the agreement is only binding to you, not to me.”

“W-What? Why?”

“Why can’t you understand, Pius? I made the agreement in the first place. If anything, you should be bowing down before me for even giving you a chance at having those powers. Know your place, mortal.”

“B-But I followed…but I followed everything. I…I did all that you asked of me.”

“And I got bored.”

“N-No, my Lord. I…I don’t want to die—”

“Too bad,” said the Devil, as he grabbed Emperor Pius’ head with his right hand.

He began to suck Emperor Pius into his hand. The Emperor screamed from the top of his lungs. He was trying to grab onto something, anything on the ground to keep him from being sucked into the Devil’s hand.

I just stood a couple of steps away from them, watching this all go down.

After the Emperor was completely sucked, the Devil licked his lips and looked at me.

“Don’t think this is over now, Orthos,” he said.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, now that there isn’t any intermediate between Hell and Earth anymore with…Pius gone. I will be coming back to Earth with some other friends of mine.”

“W-What?”

“Yeah, you see it’s like I’ve already said before. I’ve become bored and now want to see the destruction of humankind. I want to…have some fun with you mortals.”

“Y-You can’t do that. You will destroy everything and everyone.”

“I know and I don’t care. As I’ve already said, I believe God doesn’t care about you all anymore. Which means I can have my fun now, without any consequences.”

“Damn you, demon,” I said.

I didn’t know what else to say. If anything, I still hadn’t fully processed the conversation we had. The Devil grinned at me one more time before vanishing in the blink of an eye.

I noticed the ground was starting to shake and realized I had to get out of the Emperor’s body immediately.

4:44 PM

Everything began to continue in motion again. Orthos was able to leave the Emperor’s body before it completely vanished. He even managed to dodge the bullet that came from Tom’s gun.

Tom blinked and realized Pius was gone. He saw Orthos as his shadow, standing in Pius’ place.

“W-What happened to him?” I asked Orthos.

“A lot, Tom, a lot has happened. We need to talk,” he said.