Ophelia Delphi sat in her office in Albus, watching a world of lights and connections. Some of those lights stayed stationary, holding in a set position and pattern, others strobed, flitting about, flaring and flashing as they interacted with their neighbors. Relaying information to local members within the network.
Ophelia watched a handful of those lights go out. She watched five of them go dark in quick succession and frowned. Asking the other lights, the other agents, if they knew what had happened.
Twenty more disappeared as she waited for answers and the answers she got weren’t even very good. They were all mixed and inconsistent, a few had heard whispers of trouble, a few thought it might just be new kind of anti-telepathy shielding.
Ophelia was betting on it being the former than the latter. Anti-psychic shielding just made the connections go quiet, it didn’t cut them away. Making them disappear permanently, falling away as she’d felt them fall away.
Problematically, no one knew what kind of trouble was coming or whether it was from the private, public, or ‘less legitimate’ sectors.
There was talk of people hiring enchanters and alchemist for some kind of research. Talk of some groups gathering men and buying out the contracts for various private military companies.
There was talk of individuals who seemed to be stocking up on munitions and buying large shares of the weapons that were currently available on the market.
All of it was simultaneously useful and useless, the intel serving little purpose on its own, because saying someone was planning something in Monde was roughly the same as saying fish were swimming or birds were flying.
Plotting and scheming was pretty much all the Mondian upper-crust did when they weren’t eat, sleeping, murdering or fornicating. And they usually managed to combine it with all those activities till it took up the majority of their lives.
“Mhm….”
Ophelia looked through her mental copy of all the records, letters, and missives, that the ministry’s agents had viewed for this particular decade. Trying to spot a trend.
She understood that jumping at every noise while one was in the dark, was no good when that darkness was within a bedlam..
‘Noise’ was everywhere, what she needed to look for was silence. Signs of people trying to hide or disguise what they were doing. Signs of people trying to be clever.
*****
Albrecht was one of the oldest nations on Argus, existing as the former capital of the old Argus Empire. As well as being one of the first portions of the population to pull themselves out of the ashes and rebuild.
Compared to the rest of the continent it stood at the very height of civilization and society. The streets were clean, the available tech was fairly ‘modern’ with the Great Kingdom and its vassal states being highly industrialized.
On average, Health and living standards were near the top of what could be expected for Monde.
Albrecht was the most orderly of the great kingdoms, a place with strict, strongly enforced laws, very few raiders roamings its wastes, and a strong military presence within all its settlements.
As for the region, it was known for its bitter winters, its temperate clime, the jagged, white capped mountains that towered over the land, piercing the clouds like spikes on a dragon’s spine.
*****
Twelve of Albrecht’s picturesque mountain peaks sank below the skyline. Shattering, energetically, exploding into heaps of stone and dust and molten earth. The first three falling could have been just another of the continent’s usual dramatic occurrences.
The fourth and fifth, nearly wiped out a nearby city. Locals who nearby and happened to look up would see the hazy silhouettes of a massive tendril covered, serpent, and something that like a winged crab with a chapel on its back.
The fall of Mountains six through twelve would have normally put the Great Kingdom on alert. Unfortunately they just happened to be preoccupied this evening.
*****
Elsewhere in the northlands a train of wagons made its way to Meinrad, Capital of Albrecht. The Sixty wagons were drawn by sixty teams of second realm, Ruler-layer demon horses.
Gigas-Abyssinians. Rare, hard to find, harder to catch, horses whose hooves could break open deep crevasses in the earth. Brutal creatures known for their habit of picking fights with the hoary giants of the north.
The carriages they were hitched to, were heavy things of iron. With great black cylinders jutting from their sides. These New-world tanks, made for war. As for the men and women that they carried and the ones that marched alongside them, all of them were Practitioners, of the layers of the first realm and the beginning layers of the second.
At the head of it all sat a witch, dressed in white, her silver white locks, whipping in the wind. Her gaze sharp. Her icy blue gaze narrowed in determination.
*****
It was very rare for the Ministry of Public Order to ever take a direct hand in anything. As far as most of the public knew, they were just a middleman, public servants that worked under the kingdoms and guilds.
Providing bureaucratic aid and sanity to what would otherwise be a world of bloodshed and chaos. It was they who ran the tax offices. It was they who made sure what little regulations there were on trade, were followed.
It was they monitored, watched over and recorded all the small vital details that were required for society to function. It was they who made the trains run on time. And for the most part that was ‘all’ they did, if anything more needed to be done, their only duty was to let the necessary parties know.
TIpping them off in time to avoid the nation destabilizing coups, and the meaningless wars and those natural disasters that were of the sort that even the people of Monde would not be able to simply shrug at them. Constantly and quietly pulling mankind back from the brink of calamity.
Together with the church it was they who brought mankind out of the dark age that came after the fall of Old Empire. And rarely, very rarely, if needed the Ministry of Public would and could muster elites to directly defend the world that they’d helped create.
*****
*Bang*
With a sound like thunder, a groan like that of a toppling tree, the Grand Gates at the mouth of the Great City of Meinrad fell. Blown away by an immense wave of aether and psychic force.
The Ministry’s wagon train blew past the wreckage, racing up the main road as it headed for the ornate palace that stood at the center of the city, towering over everything. Looking both beautiful and awe inspiring, as if someone had carved it from one of the mountains that were outside.
The demon horses roared like dragons, as they raced up the road that lead to the palace. More than a few guardsmen and soldiers tried to bar their way, but they were either trampled beneath the demonbeasts’ hooves or blown apart by the merciless fists of the practitioners who marched alongside the carriages.
Eventually the Palace was reached, the Ministry’s carriages road up a carpet that was ‘red’ in more ways the one. Red brick, covered in red blood, covered in flickering flames.
******
With naught but her eyes, to reveal the agitation and tension she felt, the Head Administrator of the Ministry stepped down from her wagon. A perfect picture of transcendental calm and cool.
Accompanied by a team of elite agents that were all in the third tier, she strode up the stairs that led to the front door of King Cadeyrn’s palace.
The royal guardsmen that tried to impede her, were cut down by her agents and she soon stood in front of the royal palace. Staring at the blue, gray and gold wolf that lay at the center Albrechts’ royal seal.
Ophelia took a second to consider what she was about to do, and after deciding that it was already too late to be having second thoughts, She sighed. Snapped her fingers and blew away the entire front end of the palace in a minor display of telekinetic power.
From the inside of the palace came screams, cries of pain and fear and confusion.
She walked over rubble and she walked over bodies. Ophelia and her people didn’t kill any who didn’t try to get their way, but the number that they did kill was more than zero. Which u was enough to make her expression grow even more grim than it had originally been.
She could hear, the one who’d known her best, tutting. She could hear her old master, the old Head Administrator, calling her soft. To keep herself from hesitating, she laid the deaths on Cadeyrn’s feet. She wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for what he was trying to do.
And the handful of deaths she caused today would stop the massacre that would come later. Surrounded by her agents and trailed by a small, exceedingly powerful elite force, she made her way to the king’s throneroom.
*****
King Cadeyrn vi Albrecht sat upon his throne, looking almost bored, as he waited. In hindsight, he found that he maybe ‘could’ have played things a little slower, as he’d been advised. One would think nearly two centuries of living and rule would have tempered the man, or taught him some patience, but no.
When something seemed expedient, and the benefits seemed worth the risk, he was the sort who’d decisively act. Throwing caution to the wind.
In the end though, he didn’t really regret his actions. What was about to come, was a face off that would have happened eventually. The Church brought back reason. The Ministry brought back order, and Albrecht brought back society as a whole.
Reminding the feral men who roamed the wilds that safety was a thing you could build and cultivate. Like the first drops of life in a primordial stew, civilization was reborn. Evolving, expanding, and growing. This was how the history of Monde’s new world was told throughout all the continents.
There was a problem though, a thing that only someone who’d sat where Cadeyrn sat would be able to notice. An issue that one would need height and perspective to see.
The rebirth of the world had been done in half-measures, the church brought man back to his sense, but it left him half mad. The Ministry brought back order, but left maintenance of that order to the people.
Albrecht triggered the birth the new kingdoms but then quickly stagnated after consolidating its rule of its part of the Argus continent.
The world was only half reborn and so it stayed half-wild. With millions dying each day, as if ‘that’ was the proper state of things.
If Monde was return to its old world glory, if Monde was to have true restoration more would have to done. The world would have to be shaken to its core if its people were going to grow and reach their full potential. Being locked in state of constant life and death was no way to live.
A change would be needed. It already happened once and now there was a whole race of new-men and a new firmament that lay between heaven and earth, as proof. It could and should happen again and this time it would happen the right way.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
This time the world would know true peace and true order. But every one from the paupers, to the princes, to the priests were afraid of what that would mean.
*****
The door to the King’s throne room slammed open and in stalked the imperious lady Adminstrator. Her look gloomy and cold. The blue-gray furs she'd chosen to wear over her Adminstrator robes, blowing in a breeze made of dense psychic energy.
Cadeyrn watched her walk in, and sighed, as he rose from his throne. Stepping onto the stone steps below and slowly walking down to meet her.
“Why Ophelia, you lovely thing, I must say it’s great to see you again.” said Cadeyrn.
Ophelia, returned his fake smile with a smile of her own.
“Hah….Well, Why yes. Thank you, I feel the same. I do wish it was under better circumstances though.”
Ophelia cleared her throat, reached into her coat and brought out a scroll. She untied the scroll and let it unroll itself before clearing her throat and beginning to read it.
“King Cadeyrn vi Albrecht, I regret to inform you that you have been found guilty of plotting against the peace of the Argus Continent and the Great Kingdoms that rule it. I come here, on behalf of the Ministry of Public Order, the Church of the Unified Pantheon, and five of your esteemed Royal Peers to condemn you for your crime. What say you to this?”
Cadeyrn, goggled, it was much shorter than he’d thought it’d be but then again, Ophelia and her people weren’t like the bureaucrats in other organization. They focused on function rather than ritual of ceremony.
The ministry were an officious lot, meddlesome, but well meaning and generally doing more good then harm. It made him feel all the more regretful.
“Well...I have to say, I kind of knew this would happen, but I’m afraid that its too late to stop me.” said Cadeyrn.
“Mhm...Possibly, but then again, considering I’m a warden of public order, I hope you understand that I’m going to have to try anyway. ” said Ophelia. Her eyes narrowed. Her smile more a baring of teeth then anything else.
Cadeyrn laughed, momentarily becoming a young man with foolish crush once more.
“I do...I really do. By all means. Go..Right..Ahead!”
If he could make this woman his, it would have been a wonderful thing. Unfortunately knowing both their natures and their differing goals, he decided he’d have to simply be satisfied with the making the world his own instead.
The entire palace trembled and deep from underground, beneath there came a tremor. Stone and rubble flew everywhere as a great clawed hand arose from beneath the ground, taking the king into its palm. Protectively curling its fingers around him as the open hand became a fist.
Wide-eyed Ophelia watched and psychically ordered her men to retreat, she saw her life flashing before her eyes. While she as the Head Administrator was ready, willing and able to lay her life down for the cause of public order and peace, she also knew that dying meaninglessly, without understanding the whys and wherefores, would do no one any good.
Ophelia and her men ran out of the palace, narrowly escaping it, before the whole thing collapsed, disappearing into a great chasm. The palace fell to pieces shedding, stone and steel. People ran screaming. Trying to flee for their lives.
Above the chasm was a thing of metal, force, and violence, a monstrosity, that could only be called war-like. Like war personified, except this creature was almost certainly not a kind of person at all.
Instead it was an entity that could look down on mountains as molehils, and gaze at mortals like men would gaze at ants. A thing made to destroy.
In the creature’s right hand was King Cadeyrn, ruler of Albrecht and feature master of all of Monde. On the creature’s left hand was a youth, with pale silvery, blue hair, glowing eyes and wings where his ears should be.
“Gods...They’ve already done it...They’ve already started.” muttered Ophelia. Feeling despair and bitter failure.
This creature, was an entity that stood above and beyond anything that the people of Monde could muster and stand against. It wasn’t something her ministry could fight or manipulate.
The despair grew strong, when the glowing eyed youth eyes flashed brightly and two more of the creature’s rose from the pit beneath the city.
Cadeyrn laughed standing at the very top of the world. His gaze baleful and prideful, and just a little bit unhinged.
“And imagine...this is only the beginning. Plans are already underway to capture and possibly even create more of these things. You can relax, my dear Ophelia. These are the titans that shall carry the weight of the world on their shoulders. These are the harbingers of the new world order!”
“You’re Mad! You can’t possibly control these things. You’ll destroy us all!” said Ophelia. Still retreating with her men.
Aware that it’d do no good, transmitting the details of all she saw, and heard to the other members of the ministry network, including her future replacement candidates. Leaving instructions and orders.
Sending a few last regrets to her old friend Alphonse by way of her assistant Dennis, who was included amongst the number of her future replacement candidates.
The lead titan’s back arched, its metal maw tearing itself open, revealing a mouth full of glittering blades. From deep within its gullet came a bellow, a roar that shook the entire territory and chilled the blood of all who heard. Devastating Meinrad, with hurricane level pressure.
“I might be mad, I’m probably mad, almost definitely actually, but the line between that and genius is so thin, I think it hardly matters.” Shouting, his voice echoing mingling with the beast’s bellows.
He continued with his rant. Since there wasn’t much that anyone present could do to stop him.
“....Besides this is something that needs to the done. This new world was born broken. For Monde to know peace it must reb-...” said King.
First there was a boom, louder than thunder, louder than the fall of the castle and the destruction of city. Then came silence.
Ophelia felt blood trickle down her ears as wave of the titan’s aura blew her and her men off their feet. She flew and was smashed through a building. She hit something hard, and felt a cool numbness that travelled erased all feeling in her lower regions. She gazed up at the creature, helpless, but still determinedly trying to send any pertinent details to her other agents and heirs in the ministry.
If the world was to survive they would need all the help that they could get. Having done her duty she waited for the end, for some kind or ray or beam, or the metal heel of the creature’s metal foot to come and put an end to her.
One moment she was sure they were all going to die, then suddenly the roaring stopped. Without any warning or explaination, the tops of the three titans just suddenly blew apart, showering the city in a glowing bloody rain.
Setting a fair portion of the buildings ablaze.
Ophelia thought that she’d been prepared to die. She’d thought after three centuries of dangerously living her resolution be firm and inviolable.
She was proven wrong when she found herself splattered in the remains of some kind of crab monster, a mile deep impact crater having opened up no less than an inch from where she was lying.
For the sake of her dignity as head administrator, She pretended the warmth she felt running down her legs was just more of the blood that covered her from head to toe.
To further distract herself she did what she’d been taught to do, from the time she was a little girl and ‘paid attention’. Paying rapt attention, to absolutely everything happening around her.
Immediately regretting doing so when the first thing she found was the shocked face of the pulverized king, his body having turned to mush from the impact.
There was also the figure of a bristle-bearded gentleman that she recognized as one of the Seven Lord Magisters of the Seven Son’s Council. A fourth realm sorcerer.
He wasn’t looking so good considering that half his torso was flattened like an empty tube of toothpaste. He’d died with an understandable look of extreme unwillingness.
Then there was the one living figure amongst them. The one who took her entire view, demanding her attentions, filling her gaze with his jarringly delicate appearance, and the fearsome, all consuming nothingness that lay within his aura.
A multi-headed, serpentine colossus, that writhed within his shadow. She watched it, reach out and pull the dead titans inside its maw. Crunching down on them, noisily.
Dark skinned, dark hair, bright eyed. The young man stood looking just a little befuddled. He forked a thumb over at the Sorcerer and then pointed at the king. Under his arm was the youth with wings instead ears.
The youth’s eyes no longer glowed, their light dimming as he took a breath and released the tension within him. Deflating a little like a hot air balloon.
For some reason he seemed to be the only with a clue as to what was going on. Unfortunately he didn’t seem to be up for sharing. Seemingly content to be held like some stuffed prize from a raffle.
“Nh...Looks like that guy figured out how to control these things too. They’re a right menace, yeah?”
She gamely nodded, her expression pale, and then responded her voice barely a whisper.
“....Yeah.”
“Nh...It’s getting out of hand I think and it’s probably going to get worse. Maybe we should work together on this, after all. This will probably stop being funny if every mad idiot out there, gets their hands on one.”
Ophelia blinked. He took her hand and helped her to her feet, a cool but not at all unpleasant electric tingle, travelling through her body, till suddenly she found herself not feeling quite so battered as she’d been before.
“H-, huh?..That could possibly be arranged...I suppose.” she muttered. Half deaf and still very dazed. The words escaping her before she understood what she was agreeing to.
“Nh...Right. In that case, I should probably have my people get in touch with your people.”
The young man, nodded as he spoke, then the enigmatic sorcerer of the Bone Tree Company sketched a bow before promptly disappearing.
Leaving her with a faint feeling of nausea, anxiety, and strange sudden case of heart palpitations, despite the fact that she now unexpectedly felt completely fine. With most of the damage from before having disappeared.
Ophelia looked around at her men, surprised to find that they were mostly alive, with only a few having been crushed by the rubble. She looked around at the city that had been devastated by its mad king, seeing its populace confused and panicking. Then after a moment of not thinking anything at all her brain jolted back to life.
She pulled her fingers through her hair, and straightened her clothes, and the rumpled collar of her coat. And cast a spell to do something about any unfortunate spills that may or may not have happened.
Then she turned around and began giving orders to her people and anyone else who seemed suitably malleable enough to be put to use.
Regardless of whatever it was that just happened a few seconds ago, there was work to be done and order to restore.