We have been left behind, abandoned in the First Heaven with no hope to return to either of our homes.

It is up to you, for whom I write these lines to fight and make a brand new one here.

The Nine cannot be fought, nor beaten and the net of the Heavens is vast.

Yet, even though nothing can escape it, the awareness of the tyrants is not limitless.

Their wisdom finite.

Thou shall fight for freedom we all deserve and win.

Nothing is final, even the cycle.

Persevere. the cycle will fade.

Crimson Blood Patriarch, Tokugawa Akame

"Persevere. the cycle will fade." An ashen finger not dissimilar to a branch of a tree touched lightly the forehead above the amber eyes and moved quickly as if to draw foreign symbols in the air, mostly horizontal in nature. Meanwhile his other hand closed his small book and his eyes wandered to the scene in front of him that was taking place by the river, far away from his hiding place in the trees.

He chose not to act yet and just observed.

They were too few, he could not be impatient.

* * * *

"There does not seem to be any other way. I am sorry." Karl Gulden looked at Rowan who wore the expression of a tortured animal. Two robust Void Knights held him at each side.

"Assisted catapultation commence!" Karl shouted inside of his head and motioned resolutely downwards with his hand. It seemed incredibly funny to him and he was glad that his stone identity protected him from displaying a mischievous smirk on his face.

  Two of his knights heaved mightily and threw Rovan with all their might across one of the most narrow parts of the river they had been able to find. Rovan took off the ground and flew many meters across while not making any sound. Karl with Mei Gon watched his flight and breathed out with relief when Rovan landed on the other side in the bushes.

After a while, a shaking hand emerged from the bushes and showed them thumbs up.

"No, he is faking it! Faking it!" Mei Gon stuttered when the two knights promptly grabbed her malnourished frame with obvious intentions.

Karl simply ignored her and waved his hand again, Rovan seemed fine.

  Another person flew above the Purple River and crashed into the vegetation on the opposite bank. It was much easier than Karl expected. The only one left was he himself, but he wanted to wait until at least some of his minions were on the other side to protect his fragile self.

And his companions of course.

The next moment, Void Horrors were being thrown across the river in a wordless, eerie spectacle that was simply unreal.

  Luckily they turned out not as heavy as Karl had anticipated and ended up all safely on the other side. He dealt with his skeletons the same way and the Goblins were just too easy.

"Now comes the hard part." Karl focused his attention on the Void Knights themselves.

Without hesitation he ordered the same procedure to be done with one of the Void Knights, expecting that if he acted natural, the physics would not notice.

Sadly, it did and the Void Knight was unable to reach the other shore and sank into the river like a rock only after making it two thirds of the way.

That was a problem.

"This won't do! I cannot drown all my knights!" Karl thought desperately how to move his most valuable assets across. "Why have I chosen teenagers? The Water Dragon Sect disciples would have had no problems with this task."

Karl sulked for a while, but was eventually forced to face reality.

"Do you have rope?" He wrote a question in the direction of his two servants who were squatting on the other side of the river.

"No." He received a simple answer and a short while of uneasy silence ensued.

Was it possible that they were all negligent enough to not even take a rope on an adventure like theirs?

The truth was unpleasant and Karl rather focused his genius on finding another solution that did not require a rope or tools of any kind.

"All of you, start chopping down trees and throw them all into the river. The more, the better!" He ordered his minions and soon, swordlight of Void energy began flying left and right and trees were pouring into the river. With above ten knights of herculean strength, the trees poured down the river and after some time, Karl began to see what he intended to create from the start.

One of the large logs was stuck in the stream and other began to pile up on top of it.

Karl watched his plan to shape the forces of nature to his advantage and felt really smart and cool at the moment.

However, instead of creating a safe crossing as he had intended, the river started to overflow, as he had created a more shallow, but wider riverbed instead.

"Great, just great! Go fuck yourself water! Do you hear me?" Naturally, it could not due to multiple reasons and Karl was left with no other option, but to command his minions to back away from the widening river.

"We will not be able to cross here, follow me!" Karl wrote in big letters and made sure Rovan and Mei Gon understood his intentions. He organized his minions and they started to continue along the river on their respective sides.

He did not believe there was no crossing down the stream. Even if his luck was cursed for seven generations, there had to be a crossing somewhere.

"We will not hold out, we have to rest before reaching Edo!" Karl heard Mei Gon's shout from the other side of the river and had to agree with her. Despite his relative focus on the other bank, he seemed to spot a sudden movement in between the trees.

"The creature is here, has it been following us the whole time? Why revel itself now?" Questions ran through Karl's mind, not being sure of the identity, nor intentions of the fire wielding combatant from before.

"Turn back, your destination is not a place that welcomes visitors!" Deep voice carried by the wind showed hostility Karl had anticipated. The creature appeared to be a person, probably a demonic cultivator malformed by his cultivating practices. His skin looked like burned to ash, patches of it still glowing with embers. His skin was not smooth, but more like bark of hundreds of years old tree, completely unnatural.

Karl's first impression was that the person must be suffering, but he did not seem to mind his condition.

"That means Edo has still someone that calls it home." Karl answered, trying to circle around the hostile statement and get more information from the cultivator in front of them. "My name is Lord Karl Gulden, or The Black Emperor and I am on an expedition to reaffirm the state of the world after the great cataclysm."

"You mean the shift in the cycle? You would do better staying home, Edo does not welcome visitors."

"I understand! I will turn around, but sooner or later, Edo will have no choice." Karl wrote, aware of the fact that his mission was not exactly critical and it would be foolish to fight with this super strong demonic cultivator just because of his hubris and ego.

"What are you implying? Is it a threat?" The unwelcomed visitor continued in his hostile tone, stepping closer to the Void Knights that did not seem to provide much of a deterrence against him. If it was due to his strength or foolishness remained to be seen.

"Perhaps you could introduce yourself, if we are to continue this debate." Karl proposed in slowly written words and the cultivator remained standing for a while before he responded.

"Tokugawa Genji." The demonic cultivator responded and Karl had to force himself to not get too distracted, his name blowing his mind. It was obvious that he was getting at something, but he had no idea what it was. One option was to ask directly, but he doubted it was the best and safest strategy.

"Never heard of your family before." Karl responded, trying to prompt the other party to reveal more about himself.

"You have to be from far away, our clan has quite the history in Edo. You have never been to the city." Genji stated flatly, waiting for Karl's response.

"No, is the city still . . .operational?"

"You are awfully interested in Edo, considering you have never been there before." Genji dodged the question again and Karl knew that he had a problem. The man seemed to be too protective of the city, still standing or not.

"Fine, we will return. Have a nice day." Karl decided it would be better to cancel the operation, too much unusual circumstances surrounded the city of Edo and he was not willing to sacrifice anything important just for the sake of exploration.

"Wait, you have said it is only a matter of time. Perhaps, there are others coming our way?" Genji quickly scanned all of Karl's party and The Black Emperor had a feeling they were even closer to a confrontation than before. The suspicious demonic cultivator seemed too protective of the city and the prospect of many visitors had clearly not left him in a good mood.

  Karl's thoughts raced against time, as he kept assessing what could be safely told to the eccentric cultivator. It was obviously unwise to let him know that there was a big city with multiple Immortals in it and he was the only one who knew about the existence of the demonic cultivator and his fixation on Edo.

Telling him that he was a merchant from a land far away was even more dangerous, meaning that no one would come looking for him.

"Jinsheng will be sending diplomatic delegations to all nearby cities to find out about their status. We went in advance by chance because of, . . . a map I have bought from a senile shopkeeper."

"Just like that?" The cultivator had to think it was quite a silly reason, but his fake smile froze on his face the moment Karl pulled the map out of his bag.

Karl waved the map, as if trying to say that it had looked like a promising idea at the time and Genji seemed to believe him. Telling half-truths was safer than lying outright. The reason looked silly, but authentic and that was all Karl had been aiming for.

"This is. .. such a trash." Genji stepped closer, took the map and shook his head after taking a brief look. The map's accuracy was terrible.

"Edo is mostly overrun by the beasts, we could use some help from your puppets. Can we hire some?"

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Karl was alarmed that Genji was able to tell what his minions were, but it was not strange considering he had been observing them for some time. He hesitated, a long-term operation that would enable him pushing his kill count up was advantageous for him. He had a long way to go to the next level, but he might as well start from somewhere.

"Why not? But you will only command them to kill beasts, not people."

"Deal." Surprisingly, Genji had no problem with the condition, indicating that his request was genuine. "How much do you mind losing them?"

"Do not mind it, pushing back the beasts and restoring the civilization in the cities is the priority." Karl wrote, trying to position himself into the role of a hero, because he did not want to openly admit that the cost of summoning was negligible and he did not care at all.

"Who will be our contact for further communications?" The cultivator who reminded him of a living burned tree asked, most likely surprised by the advantageous deal he had just made. The transaction seemed too quick and profitable to be true.

"If you must contact us, travel to Jinsheng and ask for the Water Dragon Sect. They will know about The Black Emperor." Karl said and after exchanging a few more pleasantries with the strange cultivator, they parted ways.

  Karl had not expected that his journey to Edo would end before it even properly began and was a little disappointed by not seeing the city and experiencing the adventure of uncovering its mysteries. He would not be able to see much given that his ability to possess his minions had a certain range limitations and his curiosity about the city would remain not sated.

  Yet, he forced himself to act rationally and not stick his nose into the business of Tokugawa Genji, who was obviously not eager to share his secrets with him. Everything about the man screamed at him that he would be dealing with a complicated mess if he insisted on sticking his nose into his business.

The name, his level of power, his looks, the state and name of his home city. . .

  There was too many mysteries and Karl had to be careful before sticking his nose into something big. After all, he could just turn back and watch his kill count go slowly up until one day, one day it reached the milestone of the next level.

He did not entirely like being forced into a reactionary approach by his circumstances, but it would be silly to not use what advantage he had.

He looked at the state of his experience points that he had not seen for a while and it did not improve his mood at all.

The number had not moved at all.

It had been moving with the speed of an iceberg, which was only logical since he was not actively doing anything to rise it, as all he could think of was either too radical or too inefficient.

Genji departed with roughly half of his forces and Karl stared at Mei Gon and Rovan who were stuck at the other side of the river.

"Nah, my Void Horrors can't throw them back and I do not have any Void Knights on the other side. "

  Eventually, they had managed to meet again after Karl had asked Genji about the nearest river crossing. They trudged along their path back home to the expanded underground of Fort Orlov without any major incidents. Twice, Karl's minions had to fight off wild beasts, but they were relatively weak compared to the remaining strength of his party and there were no surprises. They arrived back to his dungeon with no fanfare, but he noticed that his subordinates were quite happy to be back home.

  No surprises waited them at the old ruin, except that their party shrank again. For some unspecified reason, their comrade Kou Linhai was no longer at the base and no one seemed to know where he was.

  A thought passed through Karl's crystalized brain, he considered searching for more people, but he decided not to. He had still some of them in one piece and kicking. Besides, he did not need them much anyway. He quickly recalled the status of his teenage companions.

  Wu Han and Xin Han were still with the Water Dragon Sect masquerading as its members. Two members of his private circle had just returned with one drowning in the river, Wei Ming was present in the base and the last was the missing Kou Linhai.

"Bah, how fast they've shrunk. I have only three of them present at the base at the moment." Karl mulled over the state of his core staff. "It is still enough to delegate the basics, it is not like there is too much work to do considering that my business is not very important."

He already had a lot of coins and did not need more.

  They spread in the base and everyone did their own thing. Karl decided to roam through his tunnels, decorating his home with murals, columns and of course, more tunnels that led to no particular location. He built two mazes and tried to make one of them three dimensional. At the moment when he was in the business of building a third maze that was not only three dimensional, but also incorporated underwater portions, he had been disturbed by Wei Ming, who surfaced from under the water of one of the maze's branch tunnels.

"Lord Karl Gulden, the sect leader of the Water Dragon Sect is here to visit you." He said coldly with a strange expression on his face.

"I will be there, what do you say about my new maze?" Karl wrote his response with enthusiasm.

"Permission to speak truthfully, Lord?" Wei Ming asked while doing something with his black hair.

"Of course! Do not hold back!" Karl reassured him and waited what would be the man's thoughts. He was not against knowing him a bit better, as he was one of his people he knew the least. He should get to know him, before he kicked the bucket like the others and he lost the opportunity.

"The water stinks like my grandmother's ass!" Wei Ming tried to spat out the last drops of the water that had gotten into his mouth.

"Noted." Karl had intended to use lava originally, but it cooled down too quickly to be practical to work with.

They exited the maze and Karl walked out of his domain, where clear sky greeted him along with a man with blue hair and beard that was waiting for him there.

"The Black Emperor in person, what a marvel! I have an issue to talk about." The cultivator beamed with smiles, but Karl noticed that the ridicule in his voice had not been hidden as well as before. For a second, he thought that the man was making fun of him, but he decided to ignore it.

"What issue?" He wrote without any pleasantries.

"I have received a complaint from Yen Gon of the Purple Lotus Sect. She is claiming that your forces has killed her disciple." He stated with his hands behind his back, waiting for Karl's reaction.

Karl was surprised, but quickly realized where the problem was. Genji had been given a part of his forces and was basically indistinguishable from one of his people.

"It was an accident and it was not my forces who killed him." He said.

"I have argued the same, but she did not seem to understand. I am afraid that you will no longer be able to stay at my land." Lehaim stated bluntly, acting like he had been shocked by the murder and wanted to deliver justice.

Karl Gulden nearly ordered his minion to run its sword through the man's heart.

"Let me guess, the fortifications are more or less complete and I have outlived my usefulness." Karl though about the most likely reason for his host's unexpectedly cold attitude.

"If you insist." Karl wrote, thinking that he might be visiting Edo after all. He had enough gold and some basic information, plus he had made some contacts in the city, he did not need his business as desperately as before anymore. In addition, he could purge the city with more intense operation, gaining experience points faster. The buildings for recruiting Void Knights could remain in place, He just needed to introduce some additional measures to separate his private dungeon from the public space more properly before making it look truly public and deserted.

"I can leave anytime." He added and watched with amusement Lehaim's expression. The man obviously did not expect him to give in so easily and might have intended to negotiate a price. However, he had disrupted all his plans by his unusual flexibility.

"That.. . That is perfect. I will give you a week, because of our friendship." Lehaim said and Karl was glad he had no mouth as he would have spat out a ton of saliva at this moment. A friend was definitely not the term he would have used for Lehaim.

"It is time to say goodbye then, Water Dragon Lehaim. Good luck." They both clasped their hands together and bowed slightly.

Karl headed back underground to prepare for another expedition, no this time, it was an exodus and the target was the same as before, Edo.

"While there, I have to dig in into the secrets of that city." He thought if the decision was not too bold, he might as well make his camp outside in the forest, but with the demonic cultivator, he at least knew that life in Edo was possible. It was not like he needed much space on the surface anyway.

  Karl immediately began their preparations for the exodus, yet he was unwilling to burn all bridges when moving to Edo. He recalled all his Earth Elementals that were helping Lehaim, who had little need for their help anymore, and began separating his private dungeon part from the portion outsiders might have seen with more than just a dozen meters of soil and rock. He moved his secret base that would remain in the region a good five hundred meters away from where his old base was. Karl considered it a sufficient distance, he did not assume Lehaim was crazy enough to be digging kilometers in every possible direction just to be sure that he truly left.

The Water Dragon Sect could hardly waste their resources doing that.

  Concurrently, he commanded a portion of the Earth Elementals to dig an access tunnel in the direction of Edo, as he planned to connect his leftover base with his future base at some point in time. It was only logical and he had manpower to spare to do it.

Well, earthpower.

"It will be perfect." Karl mused and caught himself drooling over the idea of having his secret bases everywhere, connected with extremely long tunnels that would run like a web under the whole world. The dungeony part of him was drooling over it, mesmerized by the prospect.

  After a week, Karl Gulden assembled all his minions that would move away with the exception of two Earth Elementals that continued to work on the tunnel leading to his destination. They all stood among the ruins of the old Fort Orlov, making their departure as public as possible. Karl was sure that Lehaim had his spies watching and the possibility to fake his departure was certainly something that crossed Lehaim's mind.

However, without enough resources, what could he do? He could only probe so much to make sure The Black Emperor was truly gone.

  Karl looked at his retinue that was being assembled under the last rays of the sunset. He decided to move at night as before, as it proved to be a good strategy. It was strange to see the plate armor of his Void Knights reflecting light instead of the ominous Void, as they usually looked underground. For the moment the tip of the Sun was still above the horizon, they lost all their eeriness.

  After checking his minions, Karl's sight inevitably drifted towards his teenage entourage. The siblings, Xin Han and Wu Han, no longer in the robes of the Water Dragon Sect, Mei Gon squirming in her new leather outfit, looking like she intended to play an amazon or something, Wei Ming who looked so ordinary Karl suspected he was just a cultivation troop inserted into his group by a malicious trickster god and of course, Rovan, his exemplar servitor who had a big smile plastered on his face in a way Karl could no longer even guess what percentage of that smile was just a cheap posturing.

All of them shared a similar air of unease looking at their elusive emperor.

"Rigth, those that I saved, but they were originally nine, weren't they?" Karl thought while looking at the fidgeting bunch of teenagers. He knew that he was not a good guy, not really after all he had done, but he suddenly felt that marching the remaining five towards Edo was too cruel. Had he truly saved them if they would die for him one by one, or would he be just their jailer and torturer?

He pondered about the situation again and began writing slowly letters of Void, gentle breeze stealing their lines as they flowed into the wind.

"The journey ahead will be perilous and I cannot guarantee your safety. Those who wish to stay behind, can. It seems like ages ago, when I have rescued you at the gate. Those of you who desire, I can lead you to the very same gate and I have more than enough gold to get you past it, back into the city from whence you came. Even with some coins to spare. A fresh start with better chances and on the right side of the city gate."

He paused for a moment and observed their expressions, but they were blank, only masks of what they really thought.

"There will be no sense of betrayal on my part, nor any vengeance later. You can choose freely, for I am no slaver."

Heavy silence fell on everyone, interrupted by loud words after a time it took an ordinary Elder to stroke their beard twice.

"I accept." Everyone turned at the speaker with red hair.

Karl looked at Rovan with surprise, but when he thought about it, the man had never been truly loyal to him. What he had just said was only natural. All this time he had been seeking a surefire way out and he had finally found it. No one would dare to make this choice sooner, before they knew Karl better, but at this point they had a rough idea what to expect of him.

They knew he would not go back on his word in this matter.

"Sorry, but I would die with worry if this continued. We accept." The white-haired girl was the second to speak and with that, the siblings were out.

Karl thought bitterly that his acts of blackmail bore their fruit. It could not be helped. He remembered the sweet words of Xin Han about their future, but where there was no trust, words were just that, words. Sweet, yet empty.

"I can still see the tentacles in the water, hear the screams, the desperation. I will not return there. I accept." A girl spoke, her bowed head covered with a waterfall of green. She obviously felt guilty about jumping the ship, but fear was one of the strongest, if not the strongest of motivations.

  Karl felt like he had been shot by a shotgun with every single statement and when he desperately looked for the fifth person, he discovered Wei Ming had already run away. He most likely had not believed him when he said there would be no vengeance.

He was probably not willing to go with Karl alone, no matter what was the alternative.

"Alright, I will send you off with an escort and give you the necessary coins." He wrote like in a dream and everything that followed passed as if he was not even present. One by one the teenagers he saved left and he remained only with himself, his army of minions and his goal.

He felt empty.

The claws of insanity scratched at the edge of his mind.

"Ungrateful brats." His first reaction was anger, a wave of anger to beat back the ugly that lay beneath it.

"Rovan, you two-faced bastard, always wearing your fake smile. Xin Han, treacherous bitch. Were all your words just lies?" His mind drifted to Mei Gon and when he wanted to badmouth her in any way he could think of, he remembered the fear in her eyes.

They were afraid. All of them afraid. Afraid of him, an unpredictable monster inside a black stone.

His anger slowly faded, revealing the empty abyss beyond.

"My name is Karl, Karl Gulden. Always . . . " His finger stopped in midair, not finishing the sentence.

" . . .always alone, always fighting. Stranger to the world." A raspy voice spoke from a distance and a person with ashen hair stepped from behind a large tree on the periphery of the clearing.

"You have followed me again." Karl responded dryly, not really in the mood to argue with the strange demonic cultivator. He also felt exposed, because the intruder's words completed perfectly what was left unsaid.

"Yes, for some time now. I find it funny that our circumstances are kind of similar." The figure slipped out of the shadows completely, revealing more than his amber eyes that shone with a beastly light.

"Hardly, a stone is not similar to a half-burned tree." Karl was not in the mood to argue and wished the stranger simply go away.

"Yet, we both came here through a bank."

"A bank?!" All alarms sounded in Karl's brain. Was it possible that the person spoke about how it all began? Was he facing another reincarnator? " Do you mean the riverbank?"

"No, you know exactly what bank I mean. The one institution that should be called a church, because no tangible value is really stored there, only paper faith." He paused for a second, before continuing with a short chuckle. "Not even that paper will be left in the end, right? A Church that figured out that faith can be counted. Just count it and it will leave people in want."

Kalr realized that it was no misunderstanding and the person opposite him knew much, too much.

"Are there more of us?" Karl spoke and felt that the emptiness in him faded considerably, replaced with hope.

"Yes, but to find out more, you have to help me out." The person with skin of ash smiled at Karl. "You were heading to Edo anyway, right?"