A Warning

The world turned grey as time stood still.

“I was wondering when you would show up,” David mumbled as he tried to open the carriage door, but found that it wouldn’t budge a little, even with his full strength.

Eris giggled across from him and David snapped to look at her; she had appeared out of nowhere.

She had appeared with the same icy, haunting aura oozing out of her and with her usual, sadistic smile. Eris was lying casually against the side of the carriage with her hands in her lap and her wings folded against her back.

“Did you miss me so much that you were willing to risk breaking a rule?” She leant forward to meet his gaze.

David shifted back in his seat.

He dug his fingers into the wood beneath him and tried not to panic.

After all, Eris had warned him not to do anything unbefitting of being a Demon Emperor and then, seconds after his agreement with Rebecca, she had appeared.

I messed up.

“…Eris, I have legitimate reasons for agreeing to Lady Rebecca’s request,” David said, trying to hide the fact that his teeth were chatting. “As Lady Rebecca said, I-”

“David.”

He instantly stopped talking.

She sat up straight, never breaking eye contact with him and slowly moved towards him. Eris lightly tapped the air and dismissed David’s armour, exposing the terrified man beneath and taking away any last remnants of safety David had left.

Eris purred and touched his cheek, lightly stroking it, enjoying the way that David’s body shook from her touch.

“I wonder if I wasn’t clear enough about what would happen if you didn’t live up to your name as the Demon Emperor?” She mused, caressing his cheek. David closed his eyes, but didn’t dare move from her. “Open your eyes, David.”

He did so nervously and found that her face was less than an inch from hers, putting her cruel, monstrous eyes that pierced his soul before his.

“Do you know why I came here?” He nodded. “Say it.”

“B-because I…I broke a rule.”

Her smile grew a little, but she lightly shook her head. “Wrong.”

“Wrong?”

Eris put her other hand on his face and held him in place.

“Why did I come here, David Athelward?”

“I-I…I-don’t know.”

Eris laughed and put her forehead against his.

“Why did I come here, David Athelward?”

“T-t-to remind me not to cross you.”

Unable to hold herself back any longer, Eris laughed loudly and released David floating before him, but keeping her face close to his.

“Ah, I don’t think I’ll ever get bored of seeing you squirm, David.” Eris’s wings flapping giddily. “Well, I will leave it at that, I think. However.” Her expression turned cold. “Never forget that you are bound by my rules.” She smiled and then began to turn into a cloud of black feathers. “Remember, David Athelward, you are the Demon Emperor.”

She giggled as she disappeared into the abyss, causing the world to regain its colours and time to move forward.

Once it had, David sat in stunned silence for almost a minute, before collapsing onto his hands and knees, hyperventilating and sweating.

He clutched his chest and winced, curling into a ball. He tried to calm himself down, to stop himself from having a panic attack; he tried everything he could think of, but nothing worked.

His breathing exercises, distracting his thoughts, trying to focus on the pain he inflicted on himself with his fist as he beat his leg; it all did nothing.

Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! He couldn’t hold back his tears and he wept loudly, trying his best to muffle his sounds by covering his face with his shirt.

I thought I was dead! Didn’t Eris come down to punish me for breaking one of her rules?

If not, then what the hell did she come here for then?!

Just to mess with me?

What the hell is wrong with that woman?!

Why? Why? He hit the carriage floor so hard that he destroyed a large portion of it, splintering it. Why the hell did she have to come here and do this? Why today, when I was feeling a little bit happy for the first time in weeks?

***

When Eris had returned to her realm, she laughed loudly as she watched David struggle.

“That’s exactly right, David Athelward!” Eris cried, looking down at him from her throne, wearing a smile much more vicious than any of the ones that David had ever seen. “I had considered punishing you for trying to find a loophole in one of my rules, but this.” She giggled. “This is much, much better.” She exhaled and brought a hand to her chin.

“David, what you and Rebecca don’t realise is that you aren’t showing them mercy. Once they escape and become refugees, they won’t ever be able to find true happiness again.

“Their homes, friends, families; they’ll have lost so much and have been powerless to do anything to stop it.

“They will despair over their own weakness and never, ever be able to move on from the deep wound you’ll inflict upon them. They’ll suffer a fate so much worse than a stab through the heart.”

Eris giggled and leant forward a little in her throne, licking her lips.

“David Athelward, sparing them was the most evil and cruel choice you could make, one perfect of my Demon Emperor.”

***

Mímir was waiting for Rebecca inside the Demon Emperor’s office with a massive stack of paper by his side, and a long list of jobs for her to do.

Much to her surprise, Mímir thoroughly explained all of her duties and gave her a few general guidelines about what the Demon Emperor wanted her to achieve. He had left about two hours ago; Rebecca, not wanting to waste even a single moment, got to work immediately.

The first order of business was understanding the Demon Emperor’s plans for Castle Kelsey, what the renovations were to look like, how large the castle was going to grow, and that it was to be the crown jewel of his empire.

As she set about her work, Rebecca couldn’t help but smile.

She had gotten through to Lord Allaric and had saved some people’s lives.

Maybe I shouldn’t be so happy about something like that, but I feel like I’ve finally loosened the chains on my wrists now.

This is the path I’ve chosen to walk down, right or wrong, and all I can do now is try to save as many people’s lives whilst at the Demon Emperor’s-no, by Lord Allaric’s side.

***

In the dead of night, in what was a storehouse for spices and herbs in Stonefall, twenty corpses littered the floor.

“Please…please don’t hurt me,” the man beneath Herakles’s foot begged, his words muffled by Herakles’s boot.

“You know, this wouldn’t have happened if you’d just talked when I asked you nicely the first time.” Herakles put more pressure on the man’s jaw. “Now, there’s two ways this goes. Either you die from my boot, or.” Herakles swung his club down on the man’s ribs, cracking two of them and making him scream madly. “You talk before I turn your ribs into dust.”

“I-I’ll talk! Please, just-”

Herakles put more pressure on the man’s face. “Less begging, more talking. Tell me: how many bases do you have in the city?”

“T-Three more. Two in the lower district and one in the noble’s.”

“Oh?” Herakles smiled. “Where?”

“I-I swear, I don’t know. I was just told the general location, not specifics. My captain would know.”

“Where can I find him?”

“Y-you killed him.”

“Oh.” Herakles looked around the almost destroyed room and couldn’t tell which of the disfigured corpses could possibly have been the captain. “So, you don’t know anything else? You swear?”

“On Themis’s name, I swear it.”

“I see.”

With a weary sigh, Herakles lifted his bloodied club onto his shoulder.

“The boss was right,” he groaned, crushing the man’s skull beneath his boot. “The Night’s Eye really are weak.”

***

The next morning, the corpses were discovered by a worker who reported it to the city watch.

It was a sight they had come to expect, but there was one thing that caught their eye this time.

The message left at the scene of the crime was different.

Death Took Them.