Ten months later-

In the time from me finding the Evangelion and one of the many answers, I had gained a few more grand commanders. Two were picked by Talia whereas the others were chosen by me with some help from Artoria. The two picked by Talia were a firewatcher called Hollow and an ice mage named Shu whereas me and artoria chose Panora, Furisa and Hek.

Panora was the most different than the other grand commanders, unlike many of my commanders who used longswords, great swords or dual swords like Nox did. Panora chose to wield her two large silver metal forged hairpins as weapons. This also bled into her legion like Nox’s legion they were assassins by nature but also my information gatherers. Out of all my commanders, Furisa was the most brutish yet, she was intelligent, however she didn’t care for plans as long as she got a good fight. That showed mostly in her oversized double-headed battleaxe mainly used for killing cavalry. The last person who was chosen was Hek an artisan hailing from Kyrix a mage city in northern Tramon tucked away from all kingdoms.

Hek seemed to be the most intelligent out of all my commanders in the sororitias, she showed it well by directing mages in the building effort along with making her specialty. Mana bombs. To the average person, she was quite stunning and lovely but under that soft exterior, she was a cold, subtly mad girl with the ability to make any lethal even more effective. Her legion’s role wasn’t to make explosives but to be the main force behind ambushes and reinforcement along with creating most plans working closely with artoria’s and Ciaran’s legions.

Other than having more grand commanders, more than I assumed occurred especially with the continents of Aslan and onrath. Lyron was beginning his grand plan with Aslan helping him out with the creation of war engines, and the other continents began their own preparations, according to their leaders this was in part because of Ludwig’s growing influence. Pyre and seidr were growing their armies and influence against Lyron, his prince sons even going against each other.

“So they are reading for war? Do you think wolfgar will try anything?” Hek asked rummaging around her bag finding tools to gather the mana seeping out of corpses.

“Seems like it right. I can understand why one might because of Ludwig and because of me… I think all of them heard me becoming the wielder of Evangelion even going so far as to be called the raven queen by the Numenian people. Outside of the continent, I’m an urban legend used as a symbol for freedom and never submitting to enslavement.” I replied jumping off the beast god’s corpse that just so happened to roam the landscapes of Numena.

“Yeah, who knew that you’d become a living legend. No doubt some see you as the enemy with a large number of allies, but I get the feeling that Onrath is underestimating you. Just look at Astyria she doesn’t want to get involved with you because you are young even though you are millions of years older than her mentally… Medea is the first human royal ally you’ve gotten and has even pledged a vow that will kill her if she betrays you. Willingly pledged the vow!” Hek reaffirmed waving a socket wrench around like she was about to put up some sort of shelf.

“The summit is what… a week away and the delegations will start arriving tomorrow. Maybe these leaders and Nobles will change their minds about you if they see act like the queen they want. Just thinking about it makes me sick.”

“Submissive and easy to control is what they want.” I replied swinging my glaive through the air creating a wave of lightning mana directed towards a cleric beast that began to charge towards us. Hek knew I was right which is why it made her feel sick as she saw stuff like this happen before she left the life of being a Pthulminth noble behind her. These kings and queens even the dukes and duchess of the three major realms always wanted someone or something to control aside from a few people like Medea or Orin even the shogun of Nihon. These people were vultures.

The summit would just be the beginning of the shifting power balance in all the realms that would shake the very foundation of the world tree. As the summit was a week-long affair of pointless chatter, I had a few plans up my sleeve for how to separate the princes from their father. Unluckily for me, Imra was going to be with someone he will hate to be around, Furisa would love to torment someone who doesn’t give her shit back like Panora does. Harmon would no doubt hate being around Hek seeing as she would use her intelligence to fuck with his head cause that’s what she does, partly because she isn’t really wired right mentally as she says.

Imkli if he ever leaves his room would no doubt, he would be around Shu seeing as she is a shut-in like him, he’s probably the most redeemable out of all the princes. Through a lengthy investigation, Imkli and Lyra don’t share the same mother as the other children being twins and all that. This fuelled his inferiority complex towards his family even going so far as to destroy his self-esteem making him ever impressionable some would even say easy to control. I had found out that everything Imkli did was because he was either forced to or because he actually fears his stepmother who abused him.

There wasn’t much to go off other than that, a lot of the family was covered in secrecy that I couldn’t get access to no matter how hard I tried. Lyron seemed to be very tight-lipped about it all.

“I know this may sound a bit insane and that’s coming from me of all people. We can use Imkli against his family, in exchange for him letting us use him we can give him a new life and help him become better. From what we can gather, he has been slowly changing over the last two years still anti-sociable and a coward in parts, but he is also a knight, not serving his siblings as directly which Corvus is doing. If we separate Imkli from his brothers and father, we can use him.” Hek’s words did sound reasonable to some degree with a not-so-good ethical standpoint. She was largely right went it came to the fact that Imkli wasn’t changing because of the abuse he’s been through, he isn’t so easy to be around or talk to not that I would know anyway.

“Hek let's get back… we have things to prepare.” Hek nodded in response shapeshifting into a raven, jumping on top of Luna we all proceeded to make our way back to Eventide which had been largely built. Some areas haven’t been fully built such as training grounds from Panora’s and Shu’s unit. They both took their time having their training grounds constructed as both legions weren’t fully formed as of yet, Shu didn’t want to fully form her legion until she had a symbol for them. I did mention she could use a snow leopard as her symbol seeing as her legion of called ‘the snow hunters’. Panora on the other hand couldn’t think of a symbol that actually fit with her legion's name ‘canaries’.

The two most known legions were Artoria’s legion and to my surprise Nox’s legion. Nox’s legions were mostly known for placing a playing card with the legion’s symbol on whoever they killed along with Nox’s signature stag skull mask. Most of the time Nox’s legion was heard of by people seeing Nox with her index finger over her mouth just in front of her mask. The ShadowNova legion quickly became known by nobles as my left hand beside artoria as my right hand with Ciaran completing the trinity being known as the third hand or the unity.

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Artoria’s legion however was mostly known for their name among the commoners and the symbol they took on. Artoria’s legion took on a simple symbol of a blue-eyed seraphim matching their name which artoria spent a lot of time thinking about. ‘The abyssal hunters’. Ciaran’s legion however was the first known simply because of her and Kaine. Their symbol took on the shape of a winged knight holding a claw, their name was simple for them. ‘Spero’. With many other legions, I found Hek’s to be the most unique in terms of name and symbol. As Hek’s symbol had nothing to do with what her legion was.

She named her legion after an ancient beast in Pthulminth mythology known for its brutal nature and modelled the symbol after the head of a cleric beast. The beast from their mythology called ‘the black shuck’. Hek said that she did this so it would be hard to figure out what their legion does, in her words ‘no one will imagine a cleric beast being called a black dog making mana explosives’. When she explained this to all the other grand commanders aside from Nox who found it quite funny, bursting out into laughter which shocked everyone. This was odd for many reasons as Nox laughing is something that doesn’t happen often plus, she is a princess of an entirely ‘nother continent and kingdom.

As soon as we entered the gates of Eventide’s inner city, Hek flew off my shoulder straight towards the large building on the eastern edge of the inner city. The inner city of Eventide was the bustling district of business mainly commuted by noblemen, the buildings made from muted colours of stone and oak. Though these buildings were simple in design through the glass windows a lot of the buildings showed what these establishments had to offer. These were mainly places like clothing stores for noble women or places where men could have a drink with their buddies without their wives knowing, which also meant they could gamble freely. In the daytime of course. There were salons where women could do the same thing, they mainly used these locations to have open teatimes.

Though there wasn’t a clear divide in nobles and commoners here in Numena they did seem to keep to themselves. The common people seemed to stay in the Inns and pubs in less densely populated areas, some even spent their time in brothels or casinos like the nobles seem to. The commoners also seemed to be a more colourful people in how they dressed. This included multiple colours in one outfit even how they showed what establishment they were. Brothels were mostly denoted with bloodied reds and creams; pubs and inns took on more of a muted colour hue. Aside from this when the nobles and commoners came together were times like now before a special event or time of year. Currently, it being yuletide one such event other than the summit was upon us the winter solstice. When the winter solstice begins a large feast is set up in the streets between nobles and commoners alike, even little things like the winter night market bring them together.

When the night market was in full swing the only other two buildings you could see lit up were the grand commander's large keep and the citadel of mine which also acted as a castle. The citadel took on a very different look to the keep of the sororitias which they conveniently named using the Pthulminth meaning of sisterhood which was the rose guard. The sororitias keep was named the Keep of Roses, this was the opposite of the citadel which the commoners and nobles both called the Golden Thorn Keep. It made sense in a way as both took on a gothic design with the citadel mainly being tones of black and flaked gold.

The citadel was built in a way in conjunction with the natural illusory magic of Numena that until you got used to it you wouldn’t see its true shape. Its true shape was similar to the three-pointed spire in the capital of Pthulminth, Torosk. Numena’s citadel had two large intricately designed spires that had carefully carved flying buttresses, these were at a forty-five-to-fifty-degree angle. All had a matching tracery in the shape of a half-moon. This feature carried on towards the back of the citadel connecting to thirty smaller buttresses on either side of the building. The triforium followed this as well even through the large corridors that led to segregated areas of the citadel where the maids and servants’ quarters were. The point tympanum was carved into the shape of my helm being held by a dragon gargoyle.

The last defining part of the outside of the citadel was the figures that were chiselled into the gods of Numena’s paganistic beliefs which were housed in the jamb of the grand building. The gods being Zenith, Aclincia, Hela, Ornstein, and Mazikeen among others. The most known are the four primeval and Aeon Hyperions. Not all the gods have their true names known so they are up for interpretation like the goddess of war’s name is sometimes known as Sif other times either as Apollyon or Ravenus. The primordials have their names mentioned but not all believe as they are also part of the aeon Hyperions.

Looking toward the grand commander's keep it was built with the natural illusory magic of Numena in Mind as well. It took on more of a gothic-style cathedral built entirely with dark blood-red and black materials. Having two designed spires also took on the carefully designed flying buttresses, these were at similar a forty-five-to-fifty-degree angle. Having matching tracery which unlike the citadel took on the shape of a bleeding eclipsed sun. This feature carried on with other twenty or so smaller buttresses on the eastern and western sides of the keep. The triforium followed suit with this as well, unlike the citadel, the keep only had one segregated area split into twelve areas split between the existing grand commanders and those I might form in the future.

Aside from these buildings, there is one other big building in the inner city the large Colosseum, it wasn’t much to look at just being a plain circular building with each grand commander’s symbol with the main symbol of Numena flying from an elevated pole just above the grand commanders’ banners. After I came back to Eventide after finding the glaive the first thing, I did was name my continent’s empire and create the symbol of the black radiant empire. A black phoenix flying above a golden lion, the symbol was embroidered onto a large piece of white hemp. Soon after this symbol began to spread across the entire realm eventually to every other realm always accompanied by something along the lines of ‘A raven queen has arisen’.

Jumping off Luna’s back, I walked through the main entrance to the courtyard of the citadel. My raven steel-clad knee-high boots clanked against themselves with every step I took on the marble-blackened gold flooring. Each knight, maid, servant even noble and commoner gave a faint bow with their fist placed on their chest or just below their shoulder if they were a woman. Among all the people that I walked past it was the knights that recoiled the most, many of them I have seen me fight against beasts firsthand. Those same knights shared firsthand accounts of what they saw, I’ve even heard stories from the knights recounting how I’ve put their lives above my own when fighting beasts.

“Your majesty. We have a slight problem… something we didn’t expect, seems to have happened. Imkli is here but alone and defenceless… what shall we do?” Valentina asked watching the people around me as I removed my second forged helm unlike my first instead of having a crown this had horns protruding down from the left and right sides of it. I was half tempted to turn the two horns into eight forming a horned crown but seemed overkill. This helm didn’t take on the shape of a skull but took on the shape of a great helm, still had the plume on of course. This horned helm I only wore when only inside Eventide’s walls.

“Let’s just go inside. Your looking prettier.” I teased. Valentina began to blush in her pale vampiric skin turning beet red at the comment. She then hid her face inside the leatherbound notebook she just so happened to have on her. Laughing I walked beside Valentina my aide as we marched towards the throne room, caught in the vicious wind of Numena’s current weather Val’s hair blew all over not enough to cause her to lose sight of where she was walking. It did give me a moment to take in her appearance, being a vampire she had quite pale skin matched with her vampiric blood-red eyes. Vampires also seemed to take on the cliché either black or crimson hair, in Valentina’s case she had beautiful crimson hair with a gleaming shine. Her clothes followed suit; on an average day she wore simple dark colour dresses but today she wore something quite different.

Today she wore an extravagant red dress with white lace. The wrap dress was something that many women could see themselves dressing, I however wasn’t one of them. According to Talia who was sort of an expert on this stuff, they are considered high fashion for spring and early summer. I couldn’t see the appeal as someone who wears mainly open-back shirts and skinny-fitting trousers even though they aren’t ideal for fighting in. After some time, Hek joined me and Valentina just before the great oak doors to the citadel. Her Azure amber eyes gave off a faint glow as we entered, not much could be noted on her appearance aside from the clothing being rather brutish for a noble.

Unlike Valentina, Hek wore a Pthulminth steam worker’s uniform with ripped cotton gloves. Over these clothes she had vials with different acidic and alkalic liquids with varying effects, these were mainly used in things she called surprises. They were bombs just something worse than the average mana bombs, keeping to her appearance she had her sleeves rolled just above the elbow exposing her black oil and grease-covered arms. From her neck she hung one of those masks that filtered out dust and smoked her own invention apparently it looked similar to Riva’s crow mask. Due to her living in Pthulminth, she dyed her hair to stick out less, her natural hair colour was black like most Pthulminthian nobles, but her current colour was blonde albeit currently dirty from soot.

“Right then... Valentina, Hek let’s get this over shall we.” Taking my first step into the citadel towards the throne room.