Inside this book lies the true, bloody and horrible story of the Emperor’s ascension to power…
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Two hundred years ago, the Kingdom of Gongkua was under constant attack from the conquering forces of the Kingdom of Roatia, which lies to the West, past the Western Mountains. At the time, Roatian soldiers attacked rampantly, burning and looting towns, raping the Gongkuan people, and taking thousands of prisoners for slaves. They treated the people of Gongkua like wild animals, slaughtering, torturing, and beating them without mercy.
Eventually, these forces spread all the way to the northern edges of the Kingdom of Gongkua.
It was here that they decided to conduct a dangerous experiment on a subject of the Kingdom Gongkua, as they deemed the Gongkuan people as less than human and therefore fit for magical experimentation. This experiment involved implanting a severed heartstone into the chest of the Gongkuan subject in order to measure whether he would be able to access the power of the heartstone. If successful, the severed heartstone would grant the subject with immeasurable dark spiritual energy. The Roatian army planned to use this subject as a possible military weapon against his own people, in order to greatly speed the conquering of the Kingdom of Gongkua.
The first and only subject of this little-known experimental project was the Emperor himself.
At the time, he was a young man. It is believed that the Emperor volunteered for this experimental project upon the conquering of his town in the North in order to enhance his existing magical prowess. When he was implanted with a heartstone, he exploded with immeasurable evil power. He proceeded to go rogue and destroy the experimenters, and went on to slaughter all of the Roatian military occupying the Northern Regions of Gongkua. He then moved to the Western Regions, where he drove out or murdered every last Roatian soldier.
If he had stopped here, his name may have been written down in all Gongkuan versions of history as one of glory and might. He would be remembered by magicians and truthful historians alike as a defender of the Kingdom, truly blessed by the Heavens, worthy of an immortal title.
However, already having a malevolent temperament and being inclined to insanity, he did not stop at that point. He returned to the North and, out of pure spite and insanity, cruelly slaughtered his entire hometown. Then, in a series of bloody massacres, he moved through the North, West, South, and East, burning towns and leaving hundreds of thousands dead. It is said that the ground all over Gongkua was always soaked with blood in those days, like a layer of wet crimson clay.
The Emperor utilized a cruel method of killing. When first reached any village, it is said that he would cause jagged rocks to fly through every window hole, bludgering and smashing anyone within each house to pieces and leaving organs and brains scattered in pools of blood. Then, he would set the village on fire with a snap of his fingers. Lastly, he would float through the town like a ghost, slashing any person left living to pieces with bladelike shadow magic. It is also said that in the few accounts of survivors that he often laughed with a sadistic pleasure while killing. Even the largest city of the age, the former Imperial Capital, took him only less than one day to thoroughly massacre. He massacred so many subjects of Gongkua on his rampage that it is said that their piled bodies would rise higher than Mount Zuigao in the North.
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After massacring the residents of the former Imperial Capital, he burned the entire former Imperial Palace to the ground, leaving not a single living person within. The only surviving member of the royal family was the Noble Consort Wei Jin, who was visiting her birth village on that day and immediately went into hiding when she received the news.
By this time, the Emperor had gathered a large following that consisted of those who were unsatisfied with the King’s reign and handling of the invasion of Roatia, those who praised him for driving out the Roatians, and those who were simply crazed by and worshipful of his immense, unmatchable magical power. With this following, he rebuilt the Imperial Capital, naming himself Emperor of Gongkua, and converting the Kingdom of Gongkua into today’s Heavenly Empire of Gongkua, a higher and loftier title than anyone before him ever claimed or ascribed to the land.
He sent out subordinates to rebuild and restructure the infrastructure and public mindset of Gongkua. Through a hundred years of propaganda, mass murder, mass torture of magicians and survivors, and the use of a deadly magical disease which affected selectively those with magical ability, the Emperor drastically shifted the mindset of the common people from one loving of and deeply intertwined with magic, to one fearful and contemptuous towards all who practice it.
Ever since these demonic and bloody events occurred, the Emperor has continued to sit upon the throne, unaging, and yet just as utterly cruel, inhumane, insane, and evil as he was from the beginning. And yet, all of the common people believe him to be the Son of Heaven, a divine immortal, a glorious leader.
How can we continue to live beneath someone like him? A Son of Heaven who is in reality a sick murderer, who relishes in doling out the most horrific tortures, who stained the earth of Gongkua scarlet with blood that has seeped deep into our soil? How can we accept the rule of an evil being who murders all who are found to use magic, and yet also holds the most power in evil magic known to humankind? A hypocrite, a demon, a murderer, a tyrant. These words can be used to describe the demon that now sits on the throne. And I fear that until someone moves to tear him from the throne he has warmed for so long, things will remain this way for us magicians and seekers of the truth: bleak, fearful, and void of peace and justice. Perhaps for even a thousand more years.
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Abrial lowered the scroll. She let it rest in her lap, raising a hand to rub the middle of her forehead with a squint.
She’d never read so much in her life. Her head felt like it was about to split in two.
After a good minute sitting and processing the horror of what she’d just read, Abrial shook herself and rolled the scroll back up. She sat there a bit longer, staring at its crumbling paper in shock.
So the Emperor was a madman. A murderer, just like Bi Chanjuan had said. And a hypocrite, and a tyrant, and a demon, or whatever else the book had said. He’d killed more than a million, mostly magicians. But…he’d also killed Roatian invaders? So, his loyalties were fickle? One minute, he’d driven out horrible invaders, and the next minute, he’d turned around and destroyed his own kingdom. Or maybe…he just liked killing people? That would make more sense. The Emperor was a murderer at heart. A power-hungry demon who wasn’t exactly even qualifiable as human. He was a hell of a lot worse than just some stupid guy who outlawed magic.
He was like a curse sent from hell.