I, President Agarho, leader of the western nation of Irktash, was about to piss my pants.

“If you wanna throw down, let’s do it! No more grandstanding. Fight me right now, little bitch!”

“Huh?! You really wanna go, Bloody Empress?! I’ll finish the job that incompetent assassin started!”

A giant boot slammed down on the even more gigantic round table that sat in the center of the room. The woman attached to the boot cut a horribly imposing figure, accented by the blood staining her otherwise pristine white military suit. That woman, Empress Takari the Bloody, was facing down General Gohnolen, who at first glance was far, far out of his league. The woman had, after all, killed an assassin with her bare hands mere moments before. How many had that been in the past week? I was always surprised to see that the legends surrounding the Empress were somewhat true, with mysterious murderers targeting her constantly. Even if her nickname didn’t stem from the assassin blood permanently staining her clothes, it did nothing but enhance the stories.

And yet, I knew from experience that my counterpart’s strength was not to be underestimated.

But looking again at the tyrant, towering over the entire Coalition of Crowns with her single good eye, my piss nearly did escape me. It was during this woman’s rule that myself and Gohnolen had together freed our country from her Riktish Empire, and still during her rule that me and my military-minded friend had split our country in two.

General Gohnolen seemed to remember who it was he was arguing with and huffed, forcefully picking up his chair and sitting back in it.

“Pussy,” Takari spat, also sitting back in her larger seat. The other rulers had stayed quiet, every bit as terrified as myself. Well, all but one. The representative from Dreva’s Ministry appeared positively bored, primly picking nonexistent grime from his pristine nails. The heretic sat there, ever-confident, draped in the typical black and red robes of the upper echelon of the Drevan government. Of the supposed thirteen rulers, the four Ministers I had met during my attendances at the Coalition of Crowns were all equally disturbing. Even among Drevani, their leaders were odd.

Those two represented the real power of crowns. My Irktash, Gohnolen’s Ritia, Lord Asauio’s own Crown Jewel. Even the assorted small western city-states and countries and all their respective rulers. All of us combined amounted to almost nothing in the face of the three true rulers of the world.

So, Dreva and Rikitan were present; where was-

The doors slammed open just as I pondered where the King of Somuia was, revealing the monarch himself.

“Why the tension, everyone? Eat! Drink! Though I see you’ve already managed to get blood on your plate, Takari. Ha!”

Grizzled and tall, King Yiwan the Third strolled into the meeting chamber, the door hurriedly being pulled closed behind him. White-haired, handsome, and appearing very young for his actual age, the King never failed to dominate a room. Despite the simplicity of his outfit, in true Somuian fashion, luxury was hidden in plain sight. Discrete jewelry, masterfully crafted metalweave clothing, and even a wooden pauldron.

Do not look. I quickly tore my eyes from the door to avoid the King’s gaze, instead training my eye on the table. Indeed, the round table had been piled high with delicious offerings, dishes styled after each and every member country’s cuisine. Lord Asauio had once again outdone himself, and as usual, received no thanks for his efforts. The ruler of the Crown Jewel, the city-state where every Coalition meeting was held, sat near me, and I noted his meekness. It was hard to believe this man was the one who had successfully wrested independence from Somuia, considering the Crown Jewel’s proximity to the Kingdom’s own capital. One would expect such a leader to be confident and strong. Not like this weasel of a man.

And as for the feast…. Despite how delicious everything looked and smelled, the spread had gone mostly untouched due to the tension that was ever present in the room. Untouched, aside from the empress’s bloody bootprint.

And now it was finally being disturbed as the king casually plucked a massive piece of some roasted bird from the table and tore into it without taking a seat.

The room was completely still, broken only by King Yiwan’s chewing and chortles.

Takari stared. Minster… Vaghloron, was it? He stared too. The rest either glared daggers at Yiwan or avoided looking at him directly. Though none completely averted their gaze like I did.

Then the meeting hall exploded.

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“You northern slime!” the Bloody Empress shouted, stomping the ground so hard I swore the stone audibly cracked.

“You better have a proper explanation, wretch,” came the frightfully calm voice of the minister, his expression darker than even his Drevan complexion should allow.

“Bastard!”

“Madman!”

Takari had jumped up again and was shaking Yiwan, his formerly elegant collar bunched in her fists. Vaghloron merely sat with his arms crossed, oozing an aura of anger with Mind being plainly flaunted. The other rulers stood from their seats in the heat of the moment, shouting at the still-smiling king.

The man who had lost his Mind.

“Peace, my friends! This is why we’re here. To discuss!”

“Fuck discussion! Why did you burn down the forest? You think moving your knight army around like a child with a toy will go unnoticed?!”

And therein lay the crux of the Coalition’s anger, or at least the thing that had burst the proverbial dam. Why had the king ordered the Burning? Wood and fruit were a great luxury, beautiful and ephemeral. The forest had brought commerce and beauty and more. For some, like the lesser crowns, the forest was valuable solely for its luxurious resource. For the rest, it held other value.

But I knew. I knew why the king had done it.

“Why, the Revelation, of course! You know this.”

Yiwan spoke confidently, though his mirth had slowly quieted. Takari released his collar and stared down at him, towering over the king despite his own tall stature. It was the king’s boiling Mind that had made her release him, not his words. No, his words were nothing new.

It had been over three months now since the king of Somuia called the Coalition together for an emergency meeting, convinced that something terrible was coming. That had not been unusual; every person knew that something was deeply, terribly wrong. More than a year ago, it started. That feeling. That dread.

The feeling was nothing compared to what came later. When the king called the meeting, we had all met for days to compile information and plan. And on the sixth day, everything changed. The king entered the meeting chamber in a frenzy, wildly flinging his Mind’s weight around. It had taken Takari and a host of guards their full strength to calm the king, who soon after began to babble incoherently. It was then that I timed my entrance so as to go unnoticed, and it was at that moment that we all bore witness to the King’s Revelation.

A chilling warning of danger and fire. Of the destruction of the Minds of humans and the fury of the sky falling upon civilization.

Of the creatures.

Pleasant. But what did it mean? Nobody understood the King’s ravings, or what had brought them on. The only information he further uttered was of the ‘middle’, whatever that meant.

It was not long after that day that strange rumors began to circulate around the world. Riktese traders brought word from the eastern territories, speaking of unusual monsters roaming the desert. Dreva gradually closed its borders and vehemently prevented people from entering—or leaving - the country. The allied tribes fighting against humanity in the Orc War frontier began to suddenly and furiously push back against the Somuian army. Even in the west, I personally heard tales from sailors speaking of old ocean fairy tales and creepy stories as if they were not fiction.

And now this.

It had been the empress who called the emergency meeting this time. That this was the first time the Coalition of Crowns had ever called a second emergency meeting in a single year was pushed aside, merely an afterthought. For all the rulers had heard the news by then.

Somuian knights, the king’s own Royal Guard, no less, had destroyed the Vultuous Forest.

And now, Yiwan had the audacity to blame his bizarre nightmare for the travesty? Something with effects so far-reaching that even the common people referred to its uninspired name in frightened whispers. Nobody would stand for this. Nobody besides me.

Hm. Since when did I begin to think of the ‘common folk’ as separate from myself?

“You have five seconds to explain yourself better.”

“Be calm, Bloody One. Let us allow him five minutes. How else shall he provide sufficient detail for his actions? And for his supposed Revelation, which he has apparently interpreted.”

Takari was swift and brutal. Vaghloron, measured and thoughtful. The rest of us were nothing, mere spectators to the true crowns.

“Very well, damn you,” Yiwan grumbled.

He suddenly spun, bringing his fist down on the table, creating a crack in the wood that crawled all the way to the other side. The eerie smile on his face presented a shadow of his former self, a young warlord who squashed rebellions in his father’s newly formed, massive kingdom over sixty years ago. For the first time, I realized that the man before me was truly the one I had only heard stories about.

“You want to know why I did it?! Why I sent my damn strongest knights to raze that fucking forest? WE ARE AT WAR!” he roared. “Humanity is at war against the world. The Human Themself blessed me all those months ago with a vision of the future. With a message! Inhuman creatures the world over are betraying humanity, rebelling against our place at the top of the food chain. The orcs and their united tribes are nothing but a sliver. A pittance of an enemy. That forest was teeming with creatures. The vultures! The fernen! Whatever other blasted things crawl in those trees. Annoying enemies within my borders! I felt the guiding hand of God steering me to that place, and I followed the path presented by a damn higher power!”

Yiwan took a moment to catch his breath. The lesser crowns sat silently, shocked at the outburst. Even the two other true crowns were stunned.

“I have not truly come to understand the Revelation. No, damn it, I haven’t. But what They warned me of is clear. Humanity itself stands on the brink of destruction. You all know it. You have all seen or heard it. The world is changing, and humanity must change with it. As we do.”

Nobody reacted. I continued to avert my gaze. If he had said this a month or two prior, what the king spoke would be madness. Hell, it was still madness. But the monarch’s blatant and unexpected actions spoke of conviction. Of determination that could not be ignored without consequence.

“Now. Let us discuss things more peacefully. I find eating and drinking to be very effective at easing tensions, so please, let us not waste this opportunity.”

The other crowns begrudgingly indulged the King and calmed down. For now. They ate at his behest and laughed alongside him. Even the Empress and the Minister joined his revelry, quietly discussing amongst the three of them in a further display to the lesser crowns who the true rulers of the world were.

They dominated the rest of us. Their military power, their wealth, their technology. It was too far beyond us. Lord Asauio quickly learned his lesson when it became evident that Yiwan’s seemingly generous concession, allowing the newly independent Crown Jewel to host the Coalition every year, was more curse than blessing. Dreva and Rikitan managed to resist the influence of Somuia’s MIS organization, but the rest of us who unwittingly agreed to adopt the agency were being manipulated and subjected to spying. And those were just examples of Somuia’s power alone.

In the midst of the politicking and feasting, only I couldn’t eat. Couldn’t drink. I was the only one who truly knew.

All those months ago, on the sixth day before the sixth meeting, I, President Agarho of the western nation of Irktash, had personally killed King Yiwan the Third.

Only for him to rise from the dead, speaking with the tongue of God. I heard only a fraction of what the king heard in his own Mind, but it was enough to change my world.

Lesser creatures have betrayed me. Worlds converge. If you do not act, humanity will no longer reign.

All Minds will end.