A year and a day late …
A tiny streak of light leaked between a narrow crack in the closet door. He called it a closet, but it was easily twice as big as his home had been. It was too dark to make out anything in the room now, but he had seen the obscene amount of luxurious clothes within. The outfits of lace and hems didn’t belong in his world anymore. It would be the kind of thing he saw in a movie when he had the rare opportunity to watch one. He had torn a few dresses from their hooks and was using them to cushion the ground. Another was used to cover his nose and mouth to muffle his breathing.
He kneeled on the ground, one eye just barely able to peek through the door. He stared into a shadowed room that was only illuminated by the moonlight that streamed through a large glass window. The room itself matched the owner’s wardrobe in expense. A bed that easily fit half a dozen people sat just beneath the window. The room was terrifyingly good at containing sounds, and he couldn’t hear anything but the muffled sound of his own breaths. The place was filled with expensive furniture and art besides the bed, but he didn’t care for any of them. His gaze darted to the information that hung had been hanging on the edge of his vision for the past month.
Twenty-third Mission (Final): Defeat the Empire
Bonus: End the Empire
Bonus: Kill the Emperor
Bonus Subdue the Emperor
Bonus: Kill or conquer over 25% of the Empire’s Population (Completed)
Bonus: Kill or conquer over 50% of the Empire’s Population (Completed)
Bonus: Kill or conquer over 75% of the Empire’s Population (Completed)
Hidden Objective: Betray and Kill over 25% of your allies (Completed)
Hidden Objective: Betray and Kill over 50% of your allies (Completed)
Hidden Objective: Betray and Kill over 75% of your allies (Completed)
Bonus: Become the new Emperor (Failed)
The notification from the Greater Connection haunted him with the reality of his actions. It wasn’t real. It couldn’t be real. He told himself about those things over and over again. This was nothing more than some stupid game. The thoughts, the words, they bounced off his blood-stained clothes and hands. He almost fell into another fit of numbness and panic but steeled himself when he heard movement.
The wishing sound of wood was enough to tell him that the door had swung open. He didn’t shift in the slightest and just kept kneeling against the ground. His moment would come. The thought kept him still while his fingers turned white as he clenched the knife in his hand. It was stained red by the blood of a guard he had only seen for an instant. He didn’t pay it any attention and just stared unblinkingly through the narrow gap.
The Emperor strode into the room confidently. Her long hair swayed with her dress as she stormed in shouting at the servants trailing her. The servants all looked like maids from some historic documentary. One of the servants was holding a bottle of a deep purple wine. She shouted at the servant without even the smallest hint of restraint.
“You dare to give such a filthy common brew! Is your Emperor worth so little in your eyes? Or is that the worth of your own life?”
The servant blubbered and her face turned pale with fright as she replied.
“N-no your majesty. It was the o-only thing the c-chef h-had.”
Her gaze was pointed straight at the Emperor’s feet, and he doubted she would live to see the morning at this rate. To his surprise, the Emperor reached out and grabbed the bottle. The maid’s relief was easily noticeable as her shoulders fell a fraction of an inch. Her gaze remained on the floor, so she didn’t even try to avoid the bottle as the Emperor swung it at her head. It struck loudly, exploding into a shower of glass and wine. The liquid sprayed out over the carpet and the Emperor’s dress. The woman was wearing a thin white silk robe that revealed most of her chest and back but covered everything else completely. It was not something anyone would call regal or modest and it would provide her absolutely no protection.
The servant fell to the ground her face was covered in tiny shards of glass. Her blood mixed with the wine and seeped into the carpet beneath her. She wasn’t moving. Another servant moved without order and practically threw the fallen maid out of the room. Was she even dead, or did they already decide it didn’t matter?
He shook his head slightly. The maid didn’t matter to him either. Why should she, when this was nothing more than some twisted game? The tens of thousands of deaths that hung at the edge of his vision were nothing.
Stop!
He forced himself to ignore the blood on the carpet. The red of which matched the stains on his clothes perfectly. All of it was shoved to the corners of his mind as he watched the Emperor yell at her servants.
“You worthless insignificant rats. Feeding on my home. I am your god! And I will punish you like one.”
Her voice was cold but loud, and the servants could see where it would take them. A few of them backed up and fled while another two just fell to their knees resigned. He just watched patiently as the Emperor happily sentenced their deaths.
“Death!”
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She screeched the word so loudly that he was sure the entire castle could hear. There was a flash of movement outside the door, and he heard the death screams of the fleeing servants. The two who had failed to flee would be given much more agonizing deaths. The Emperor didn’t even look at them as they were dragged out of the room by a knight. Those knights were the problem. He had learned that the hard way. They couldn’t be beaten, at least not by him. Hopefully, he wouldn’t need to either.
The Emperor stared momentarily at her stained dress and turned away in disgust. She strode directly towards him. He cursed internally. He had planned to kill the Emperor after the doors had been shut. When she slept, in the dead of the night. Even if it wasn’t part of his plan, he didn’t flinch. If he had gotten used to anything it was killing the weak.
He sprung into motion when she was one step away from the door. With all of his weight and strength, he tackled the Emperor and slammed her head to the ground in one quick jump. The carpet saved it from breaking her skull, but he never planned on that being the end. He pushed himself unto her stomach, pinning her arms to the ground with his knees. The sound of metal moving told him the knights had noticed, but he pushed it away. He would either succeed or fail here, there was no alternative.
His knife glowed as it reflected in the moonlight, and he saw the Emperor’s blue eyes widen slightly. Fear etched so plainly on her face that she almost seemed human to him. He pushed through it as he had for everyone else. The knife was no bigger than his hand, but he pushed it into the Emperor’s left eye as she screamed. It was a primal shout of desperation that failed to change anything. He didn’t stop as the blade parted her pale white skin, and blood drenched his weapon and hands. It was hot compared to the cold tension that had frozen his hands to the hilt. Who knew that blood could be so hot? He pulled the knife out and stabbed her again. This time the blade passed through her open mouth, breaking a tooth and cutting her tongue in the process. Again and again, he plunged the knife into her face endlessly.
The world flashed around him, the woman’s body dissolving from beneath his body. He didn’t stop. He slammed the knife into the woman’s head long after it was gone. It struck a pure white floor, clanking loudly as the blade chipped and broke. Then it too dissolved. He still didn’t slow. His fist slammed into the perfectly smooth impossibly white stone. The thought of stopping didn’t even enter his mind until his hands felt broken, and his blood had been spread like paint. Tears streamed from his eyes. His stomach felt twisted and his mind numb as he finally noticed that the notification at the edge of his vision had changed.
Twenty-third Mission (Final): Defeat the Empire (Completed)
Bonus: End the Empire (Completed)
Bonus Kill the Emperor (Completed)
Bonus: Kill or conquer over 25% of the Empire’s Population (Completed)
Bonus: Kill or conquer over 50% of the Empire’s Population (Completed)
Bonus: Kill or conquer over 75% of the Empire’s Population (Completed)
Hidden Objective: Betray and Kill over 25% of your allies (Completed)
Hidden Objective: Betray and Kill over 50% of your allies (Completed)
Hidden Objective: Betray and Kill over 75% of your allies (Completed)
Bonus: Become the new Emperor (Failed)
Bonus: Subdue the Emperor (Failed)
Congratulations! You have passed the Trial of Evolution! You may now receive your reward.
Continue…
The message was taunting him, the completion only provided him with the briefest moment of elation, until the rest of the message caught up to him. The numbers it implied meant little, but the bodies that he saw when he read them made him grimace. His attention was drawn to it as it lingered there for him to see. Trying to force the message away he focused on the last word to get the next prompt.
For completing several bonus objectives, you will receive improvements to your rewards.
Rewards: Random F Grade Gift → Limited F Grade Gift Selection
Bonus Reward: Minor Improvement to Fortitude
Bonus Reward: Recognition
Recognitions: Emperor
Hidden Reward: Gift
Gift (F): Emperors Personal Vault
Continue…
He stared at the notification. This time the screen filled his eyes with all the information it was showing him. It felt like he had received a lot like this was something special but he didn’t know. He hadn’t known anything about the bonus rewards or objectives. Never even heard a mention of a hidden quest or reward. Yet here they were, as real as everything else was at this moment. Part of him wondered if he had actually succeeded, or if this was all some cruel joke. A twisted dream that had imprisoned him over the past year. It didn’t really matter if it was either. To him, it was real as it needed to be.
The only thing left for him to check was the final evaluation. That thing which would shape the rest of his life, though he already knew that it would probably be fine either way. He had spent so much time and done far too much to care about what his return would mean. The pressures that he felt crushing his spine before felt so petty and small. He could remember them clearly. The fear that had pushed him to take the trial. The realization that he would forever be nothing without it. Honestly, if the trial had done anything for him, it had given him some time and perspective. He relaxed thinking about it like that and focused on the evaluation. It was time to see what the Greater Connection had rated him as.
Evaluation Complete updating Status information.
Limited F Grade Gift Selection loading:
Please select your gift:
1. Bladed-type tailored weapon gift
2. Leader-type specialist gift
3. Betrayer-type damage gift
4. Emperor-type aura gift
This was unexpected. So much so, that he had no real idea about what any of the gifts would even do. Normally, those with a token would spend years studying possible trials and rewards before taking their first test. He didn’t have those resources or the time to waste on it even if he did. The only option he eliminated immediately was the third one. He didn’t want something that even referenced the word betray. It just didn’t seem smart. The problem was he didn’t feel like he knowledge to choose the second or fourth option either. What was a specialist gift anyways? An aura sounded kind of worthless too. When he thought of it like that, there was really only one good choice for him. One thing that sounded straightforward enough for him. He thought of selecting the first option and watched as the message changed.
Evaluation: