“Albert?” I couldn’t help but say. “How are you...” I trusted that Father had killed him.

“Surprised?” he asked.

He no longer looked down at the ground, his blue eyes stared into mine. There was no one else in the room. But then Father appeared from behind Albert’s throne.

This couldn’t be… “Father?”

He shot a wind blade. I didn’t move or dodged. It hit my toga and dissipated.

Albert’s mouth moved, but his words didn’t register.

“Father, is that you?” I asked, but he didn’t speak. More and more wind blades slashed me. Soon they mixed with flames but it didn’t matter. none did, beasts couldn’t hurt me.

“Please say something,” I whispered.

I turned to Albert. He was set deep in his throne, his eyes trembled.

I created new roots from the exposed earth near the throne. Albert struggled to mount a defense with wind blades, but they couldn’t cut down the wood.

I skewered him. The roots grew out of his head and seized the crown and crowned me. I turned to Father. “See? I became the successor, the King you wanted—”

Something pressed against the back of my head, and a tingling sensation traversed through my head until the tip of a bloodied blade came into my view. It had pierced my head. I couldn’t speak anymore. I looked back. Albert. His eyes wide open, his mouth trembled.

“I didn’t mean… I…How,” he muttered, his hands in front of his face.

My fingers turned into claws; I slashed his neck open, but blood didn’t flow. Albert appeared a few steps behind where he used to stand. I pulled the blade out my head and healed my wounds. They closed near instantaneously.

Albert disappeared and twelve of his copies encircled me. Did he play with reflections, lights, and the like? I suppose this is how he could see where he went though, he only ever looked down.

I dashed to the exit and drove my hand through the Albert that stood there. Still nothing. I created a makeshift door of thorned wood.

“You can’t escape.” I created a rose fireball the size of a giant and launched it towards the middle of the room. My eyes set on Father one last time. He hadn’t moved nor spoken.

My fireball continued to expand, its interior emptied until it formed a ring. It spun and thorns and vines grew out of it. Dozens of Alberts clung to the walls, searching for an exit.

The vines continued to grow until they wiped one Albert after another.

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“Stop! Stop!” yelled one of them. To my right, a boy awash with pink flames rolled and screamed on the ground, but my flames didn’t die.

You killed one sorcerer.

It seemed that he’d become a beast as well. I headed towards the throne, but in its place there was nothing but splinters. Instead I decided to sit on the rock on which the throne used to stand on.

The carpets which adorned the wall burnt and smoke filled the room. I brushed aside the remains of the throne from the little stone platform and sat down. I suppose this had been my wish.

It felt empty. The throne was naught, my father was dead, my half-brothers were dead, my servants were dead, the kingdom was torn apart.

#

An hour later I pushed the stone plate on which the throne used to stand and descended into the underground passage.

The peach treasury was no different here than in the Kingdom of Liliana.

I inserted my red sword into the wall and opened a passage into the treasury.

In its center, the sceptre’s stand sat. I merged the sword with its other half. The stone glowed and a slit appeared in it. I looked around and found a hazy model of my sword. It pulled at the sword in my hand. I let go and the blades merged. The new sword’s look didn’t change, but it now blazed rose flames on its own.

I grasped the sword, and a blinding light engulfed the treasury.

Mission Completed

Reward 150 god’s favours

#

I lay on warm marble tiles. The light had transported me back to the throne room. My head spun and I felt a warm light. I rolled over onto my side and puked. Julian was still with me, but I felt him being buried in something heavy in my heart.

I got on my knees. I couldn’t believe I had almost lost my mind to the kid. Thankfully he completed his mission and went to sleep. I could only hope he wouldn’t come back. I had been swimming in a thick black goo, unable to find any land on which to rest. That’s what it felt like being lost in someone else’s mind. I felt sorry for him, but he had already died. I wasn’t dead, and if it weren’t for me he’d never have accomplished his dream.

“Is anyone there?” I yelled out and got back up. Sceptre and sword in hand, I walked in my regal purplish black toga through the halls of the castle. I searched each room, each little corner, every wardrobe, and underground jail cells. But I found no one. I went outside.

The ground shook. The city walls were under assault. No one noticed me or the castle’s broken wall. No one heard Albert’s screams or the last breaths of the knights.

My hands were too full, the obligations, the others' insistence on rebuilding the kingdom, Julian scratched at my mind, he did not need to show me memories anymore, I already knew what he wanted to say or show me, but I couldn’t let that overwhelm me, so I dropped the sword and sceptre. I didn’t care about solidifying my power. I already had more power than anyone else. I held the highest position on this land. What was there for me to prove? What would I gain by ruling over every creature on this land? Nothing, nothing at all.

Now that this wish was fulfilled, termites dug holes in my heart. My eyes burnt. Had I really…had I really used my one and only wish to gain strength. Rose. What about Rose?

FUCK!

There had to be a way. I never wanted to gain strength above Rose. That was Julian. Julian, not me. Not Veero. Not the raven.

I should have etched my words in gold. A rigid fate was better than one which swayed with the wind. I couldn’t control the wind.

#

Mission: Reestablish the Empire of Flora on its old lands.

Completion when all undead are wiped from the lands of the former Empire of Flora and its Emperor proclaims his ancestral lands his.

Rewards: 1500 Gods Favour

Title of: Emperor of Flora, Julian IX the Confused