- Intermission –

The Empire of Valor has stood tall for hundreds of years. The Empire itself consists of four hundred colonies. Each of these colonies swears fealty to the Emperor. But the colonies aren’t that fanatically loyal to the Holy Emperor. They are scheming bastards that will turncoat if given a chance. Every month, and every year there’s a colony that tries to revolt despite the humility of the Holy Emperor.

I do not believe in the ‘holy’ part of the Emperor. Why? Because I’ve seen what they were doing inside the laboratory located deep inside the castle of the Emperor that lies on top of a mountain plateau. I’d witness what the Emperor will do just to achieve his goal of eliminating the enemies beyond the falls.

It took him a long time but he finally achieved it. By the end of winter of 1810, the Emperor allowed the use of the ‘Thunder of God’. The TOG was a devastating weapon that unleashed God’s fury at the Livia Continent. The whole Empire was then able to subdue the continent and made the factions there surrender.

This show of force made the colonies tremble. The TOG was a weapon that allowed the Emperor to showcase his might. It was a reminder that the Emperor will not hesitate to pulverize a nation if he sees that there is need to make them know that he rules them. The Emperor is a humble man that rules with an iron yet fair hand. He ruled the Empire of Valor for years because of his disposition. He has lived for thousands of years and yet he still has the looks of a middle-aged gentleman. No one knows his secret.

I believe that the Emperor is wise. I believe that his choices lead the whole Empire to the right path. He needed to do all of this in order for humanity to endure the cruel world. The Emperor has known many things. His wisdom is unfathomable. His understanding of this world is immeasurable. He has learned many things from the artifacts that came from the stars.

They call these things as the artifacts of the Quietus. It took many decades for the Emperor to unlock the secrets within the artifacts. When he did the whole Empire entered an age of Industries. We developed flying machines and warships that could cross many seas. But those machines still could not traverse the land beyond the falls.

The Empire doubled in size because of this technology. But when the Empire met with the Kraken of the Gigantes Sea, the Emperor realized how still weak our weapons are. Then, the Empire witnessed the flying skyships of the Maltius La Fende. Their firepower and their walkers made the Emperor thought that even if the Empire crosses the Gigantes Sea, we will meet heavy resistance. We will face the technological prowess of the demesne.

The nation itself has many defensive lines. Any ships that near its maritime line will get pulverized. Only when the first submerging ship that we managed to close and inspect the whole of the demesne. The demesne was a trouble. It was tiring to defeat with its allies being fanatical. The Emperor wanted to win the continent.

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Then, ‘he’ appeared. A frail man with the power to unleash spells and use healing spells somehow wandered through what the Emperor call as a space storm. This spatial distortion made this frail man appear in the Empire. He was captured by the Empire and was taught to learn the language. It took two years for the man to understand the Empire. The Emperor questioned him and in the end, he was told to ‘reveal’ everything he knew.

The frail man did what he was told to out of fear. And then he wrote that ‘formula’ that made the Emperor laugh with joy. The frail man was told what the Emperor did and he broke. He tried to escape but the Emperor didn’t allow him. The man had spells and that spell made him dangerous. This angered the Emperor and the frail man was sent to the laboratory that I am in.

I am part of the researchers that was told to study the spells. The frail man did what we told him to do. He was cooperative but the experiments we did scare him. The frail man is a weak-willed character. But I could understand after learning of him. He is missing three of his fingers. The right part near his ear was swollen. He was limping and he was ridden with diseases that worry us.

We somehow cured his infections. But I could deduce that he’s still hurting. The frail man was a broken person. He lives in a cell without any light. He would only get called out when he needs to be fed or when we need him to do what we want him to do. He was a not a smart person. His masteries of spells were garbage.

He would do what he told like a doll. He was like a pet of ours that would do what we wanted to do. Even I am starting to feel sorry for what he was suffering. But how can a man endure so much yet not take his own life? He lives what we call as a dog’s life yet he still trudges on. We don’t know what’s going inside this helpless man at all.

He works but he is broken. He was stable. But yet when he heard what the Emperor did to the Livia Continent. He shouted in despair. All those lost lives were the result of him enlightening the Emperor of the formula. The frail screamed. The frail broke harder that he was now a living husk muttering his mother’s name.

The irony was that the Emperor named the weapon he developed in honor to the frail man. The frail man’s name which meant the ‘Thunder of God’ was a fitting name for that horrifying weapon that made the whole Empire tremble upon knowing about it.

The Emperor used the weapon to turn the land beyond the falls into a barren wasteland. By the time the first year of 1812 arrived, the whole world was silent and there was no one that wants to rebel against the Emperor.

And it was all thanks to the frail man who enlightened him.

The world was at peace...but the storms were brewing.