image [https://imgur.com/Y9DFq6x.png]

The Lord of the East, Berossus, shook out his hand. It had gotten a cramp from putting his elaborate signature onto several hundred documents throughout the morning. His Physical stat was thirty two and he STILL grew weary from the endless bureaucracy of running his fifth of The Continent. He grabbed a small handful of dark chocolate covered coffee beans. It had been a pain to get permission to grow these in his domain but by the GODS he was glad he had made the effort. It was troublesome that if he ate too many his stomach hurt, another thing he felt strongly his Physical stat should have prevented. He was in his late forties now and small aches and pains would catch up with him sometimes. That was okay, it was very hard to slow aging, even with magic. His temples were starting to gray and he had bags under his eyes that never diminished. He didn’t think of himself as a vain man, but it was tough to look into the mirror and see his father looking back at him.

As he slowly crunched on the sweets he let himself relax back into his office chair and look out of the open windows. He did have glass in his windows, but the ripples and warps in it always distracted from the view, and he preferred to feel the breeze. From his tower he could see the whole of the port city stretching out before him. His city. The name of it was boring, in his opinion, but it was accurate. East Capital City. He wasn’t sure of the exact population, people always lied to the census takers, but it was around one hundred thousand souls. All his. His to care for, protect, and most importantly, use. He pulled up the GOD Menu and idly scrolled through the map view. Becoming a Lord was one of the only ways to overcome the inherent superiority of the Chosen, but he had long since become used to his position. He had no need to fear any Chosen, any denizen of The Continent. He glanced at the piles of paperwork and sighed. There was a cost for everything.

A rune slate was glowing slightly off to the side, and he realized it had been for some time. Berossus rubbed at his eyes, and let them close for a minute. Just a minute. The slate began to let out a high pitched whine. “FINE YES OKAY.” He dismissed the GOD menu, and moved his hand in the air. The slate flicked up and over, stopping in front of him. Three white dots faded into view. Ah, it was “his” Vessel. “Did you correct the fate disruption?” Berossus allowed himself to sign a few more documents as he spoke. These things were endless.

The three white dots on the slate glowed, and images flickered in his mind. He paused, putting down the expensive white rune stylus carefully. “A town was destroyed? By the two “labyrinth” heroes? Well that’s frustrating. Yes yes I know only one of them is the target, I was just clarifying. Okay… well, keep going? Wait, actually.” He stopped, letting himself actually focus on this problem. “Keep at least one of them alive and extract his memories. If they actually escaped on their own then that little overreacher Fangmore can keep his domain. If he helped them get out then I’ll have you return and deal with him. Okay?” The three white lights flashed again.

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Berossus went to push the slate away, and then the three white dots pulsed and more visions filled his mind. Something very strange had happened to the town after it had burned. An immensely powerful skill had been used, and the fabric of reality was still restoring itself. He saw a blurry outline of a… child? He was walking very very far away, the ripples of air and heat making it hard to discern features. It looked like he was perhaps swinging his sword back and forth as he went. He peered at the screen, and then activated the GOD menu, causing an information overlay to appear over the child. Berossus cursed and stood up, angrily striding back and forth in his lushly appointed writing room.

“Okay well OBVIOUSLY THAT has to be dealt with first!! Why are you EVEN calling me? Crush that aberration and THEN return to the Chosen!!” He furiously dragged a hand through his thick dark hair. “See this is EXACTLY what happens when someone gets a “smart” idea and doesn’t run it through the proper channels. Chaos creates chaos creates…” He frowned at the three white dots still glowing on the slate. “GO! Don’t let that thing make any further changes!!” The lights winked out and he dismissed the tablet back to its ledge.

“Gods gods GODS!!!” Berossus felt like punching something, but everything he owned was too expensive to break unnecessarily. Just what he needed. An aberration spreading further chaos in his lands. His finger flew over the GOD menu, cursing under his breath. If he didn’t use up too many GOD points then the other Lords wouldn’t inquire. Probably.

He executed the command, locking down the area with the Heroes and the child. He had faith in his Vessel, but if the other Lords found out about this they would immediately attempt to use it against him. This would cause some headaches with the natural flow of energy, Heroes, trade, monsters, animals, wind… it wasn’t worth thinking about. All those things could be fixed easily enough once these problems were completely dealt with.

He glanced at his spear on the wall. It wasn’t his best weapon, it wasn’t even a named weapon, but it had served him well during his bloody climb against the other aristocrats to his current position. There was a simplicity in pushing a sharp point through something vital. The sight of it calmed him. He was getting too anxious these days. It was because he did everything remotely. Things felt too abstract. He ran his hand through his hair again, and grimaced as he saw the loose black hairs in his palm. Was his Lordship going to cost him his hair?

He needed to commit some violence to calm himself. He had been productive all morning, he could afford to take the afternoon off. He flexed his hands and dark shimmering armor coalesced around his body, the visor snapping down over his eyes and three white points of light gleamed from it. There would be prisoners of war fighting in the pits right now. Heroes being given a chance out.

He smiled behind his Aura armor. Well, technically fighting him was still being given a “chance”. Technically.