The world was silent as John Newman slowly stepped after the heartless emperor. With them was a whole procession of people, all of them close to one of them. Sol and Luna, Romulus’ chosen familiars and patron goddesses of his guild, followed their beloved master with worry in their eyes. Occasionally, they would glance back to muster or glare at one of John’s women.

Eliza stared at her feet while she lifelessly trotted after them. Her hair, white at the roots but turning blue at chin length, had grown all the way down to her hips during her transformation. Of course, she wasn’t the only one with him. Rave, his techno-loving girlfriend, Nathalia, the red headed dragon and goddess, his elementals and artificial spirits, even Nia, the pariah and anti-mage, all of them were there.

With the exception of Lydia, who had been kidnapped by her father on the day of the attack. The current day, as John had to remind himself.

It had only been ten minutes since Romulus’ announcement. He had dismissed the court afterwards, telling everyone involved to be prepared. Before John had been able to take his leave, the Emperor had told him to come along.

Now they were walking through the smallest of the many garden complexes in the ancient Greek styled palace. Under the light of the blue lines of power bolting over the surface of the towering obelisk, Romulus guided them to a bench in front of an artificial lake where he sat down.

“Here we should be unbothered for now,” the Emperor said and let out the breath of a man who was finally allowed to relax for the first time in weeks. In front of John’s eyes, the impressive figure of Romulus began to shrink.

What John knew as a colossus in his mid-forties reversed in age until he hit his early twenties and stopped. Still taller than John, although by not quite as huge a margin, the now young emperor reached out to his lost eye and began using healing magic. His other, a boring hazel brown, fixated John.

Romulus looked like the kind of sun-browned, muscle-bound Adonis that was used for shooting the attractiveness of a Mediterranean vacation and also way less imposing. As a matter of fact, aside from his obvious good looks and strong aura, he could pass as a normal person now.

So normal, in fact, that John felt almost like he was looking at his own, better looking Italian cousin. Which easily explained why Romulus usually wasn’t using that form; an emperor had to look the part.

“Is this your true appearance?” John couldn’t help but wonder. He had spent quite some time reading up on the different historical figures that Romulus had been, and they had vastly different looks. Which were the emperor’s real clothes?

“I have no such thing as a ‘true appearance’ anymore,” Romulus said; “I spent eternities in different shapes, and I do not age anymore. This comes closest to how I remember looking when I wasn’t all powerful. Maybe I looked more average than this, kind of like you.”

“I should get myself some shape correcting skills,” John tried to crack a joke while ignoring the fact that the Apex of everything just took a crack at him; “What do you say, Jane, yay or nay to me getting that jawline?” He pointed at the Emperor’s face, which was just the right level of manly before going into stupidly so territory. It wasn’t completely unlikely that Romulus, in this form, served to set the beauty standard of the men in the western world.

“If ya gonna make your face as sexy as your abs, I ain’t complaining,” Rave answered with a giggle. Why would she anyway? They weren’t one of those ‘I would love you however you look like’ couples. They understood that their love ran pretty deep but that there was a proper physical aspect to it.

“Do you really find this to be the time to be cracking jokes, Newman?” Sol reprimanded, her golden hair radiating. The other goddess with glowing hair stepped up.

“John can make whatever jokes he pleases,” Nathalia growled, pulling back her lips. “It is not your right to decide over anything my potential mate says. That right belongs to me.”

The sun goddess disbelievingly stared at her old rival for a moment, then she burst out laughing, “By the cycle, it’s true, you are in love. That is hilarious. Then again, of course you would go for the second best now that you can’t have Romulus anymore.” That actually pricked John’s ego a bit, but he kept it to himself. The rumbling in Nathalia’s throat only became louder.

“Calm down, both of you,” Romulus, his voice as deep as ever, commanded. It didn’t really help, the two kept standing chest to chest in a battle of will. John carefully reached out to the dragoness’ arm and took her by the wrist. Glancing over her shoulder and then back at Sol, Nathalia hissed one last time and then whirled around to get John in a stormy embrace that ended with his face on her tits.

“He is not a replacement; I can guarantee you that he fucks better than Romulus,” the dragoness declared.

“Of course, that’s all you would care about,” Sol mocked after loudly blowing air out of her nose.

Romulus quietly chuckled, “You two will never get along. I must admit I have missed that.”

“And that right there is why I crack jokes, especially in these times,” John informed the sun goddess; “If we can’t laugh in dire times, when can we ever?”

“It makes you look like you don’t give the situation the needed earnest,” Sol informed him; “Like a fool, in other words.”

“I am fine with that,” the Gamer shrugged; “When the time to fight comes, I won’t be found wanting.”

“We will see,” Sol probably had a lot more to say, but Romulus patted the empty part of the bench next to him and thus ended this inquisatory conversation lead by the solar goddess. “Sit with me, John Newman. I want to discuss a few things with you. I imagine you have questions for me as well.”

That was a massive understatement. John sat down on the left part of the bench. He wanted to directly get into his questions, but then he was struck by the view in front of him. Fireflies danced over the surface of the lake in front him, and the island in the middle of that lake was where the obelisks’ base was.

The arcane tethers that connected to all of the flying islands and kept them in the air by supplying them with the energy cut through the sky like the arms of a galaxy between the starlit sky above.

“A beautiful spot, isn’t it?” Romulus asked.

“Yes,” John only answered and took in the sight for a few more moments. Even Sylph was quiet.

“I have a multitude of things that you shall know about, John Newman. For the sake of ease, let’s make and follow an easy format. I will give you an order and you will be allowed to ask me one question, although I will withhold the right to not answer,” Romulus finally spoke up.

“That seems awfully tilted in your favour,” John pointed out. “What if I do not want to fight in your war?”

Romulus shook his head in disbelief, “What a senseless rhetorical question. Muris must be rubbing off on you.” That hurt. That hurt a lot. “While on the topic of him, I might as well address this: do not mistake my graciousness of letting these two back into my court for saving my city as me having forgotten their past trespasses against my cause. Their recent virtues simply outweigh my old grudge, but siding with them, especially the Rat, is bound to make me and you stand on opposite sides one day.”

Nathalia rolled her eyes, “You are welcome to try to kill yourself again once I get away from this continent. I don’t plan to stand against you as long as you don’t involve me in your next scheme.”

Romulus left that uncommented and instead moved back to John. “My first command is that you will be part of an elite unit that eradicates strong resistances. Meaning that you will stay right here until tomorrow and my empire’s state has been sorted out. Someone of your strength is best used where most needed.”

“Why not just go yourself?” John used his first question without thinking.

“Because they won’t let me,” Romulus nodded towards Sol and Luna.

“Rom will not fight until he is healed,” the latter said. “Thus, we have decided.”

The emperor leaned in conspiratorially, “You will agree that it is sometimes best to give in to the wishes of your loves.”

“He says that, but he is still arguing with me through our soul bond,” Luna tipped against her forehead. “Old and smart he is, but his wisdom is clearly lacking. You can take your revenge when you have healed! The traitors won’t be able to run from their sins.”

The cheery look on the emperor’s face that he had slowly developed over the past few minutes as the reality of his friend having been killed just hours ago sunk back in faded away in a mere moment, melted like ice in preheated oven at 200 degrees celsius. “I envy your ability to heal instantly, Newman; of all the powers I have, incredible regeneration has never been one of them,” he sounded grave.

“I think that being able to survive without a heart is just as stupid as healing instantly,” John pointed out and got himself a dismissive shrug.

“The second command I have is that the host stays here,” the Emperor said.

“She has a name,” John pointed out with as much anger in his voice as he thought he could get away with, “Eliza… Eliza?” The Gamer had turned to the usually cursing bundle of insanity. She was unnervingly quiet.

“Yes, I can fucking hear you,” she answered, still looking at her naked feet. She had been clothed only with her tattered robes and leather bikini that she called her own. “I am still… I think I should stay here as well.”

John would have loved to disagree, but he couldn’t. “I will need more details on this,” he still said, careful to not formulate it as a question. That it was the smartest move for Eliza to stay where the only person who could stop her if Thana awoke again was just common sense. However, John wanted to make sure that he understood correctly that this was a temporary thing. “I am not going to leave her with you forever; she is one of my friends and, more importantly, I love her.”

Romulus made an amused sound; he knew exactly why he had said it that way. Choosing to play along, the Apex of the Abyss answered, “Rest assured I don’t plan to rip apart anyone that I don’t have to.”

“But you will if you think she is too dangerous,” John finished for him when the emperor paused.

Nodding, Romulus continued, “If she is too unstable, I will kill her. Feel free to hate me for this, John Newman, but I have more to protect than just you and your relationships. My empire, humanity itself, is bigger than your self-interest. Your next question?”

“Why didn’t you just steal HER,” John dodged the name to not cause another violent reaction from Eliza, “powers? You are the god slayer, what stopped you?” He had a theory for this, but he needed an answer.

“I am indeed, but my power has a limitation. I can slay whatever beast spawns from illusion barriers, be they little treants or mighty gods, and absorb their powers. But I cannot take from humans, not even human gods,” Romulus didn’t even try to hide that this wasn’t news to him, which only meant that John felt reinforced in one of the questions he wanted to ask next.

First the Emperor had another command for him though.

“My last order is that you will be the one to watch over Maximillian,” Romulus said. A moment of silence passed in which John waited for the emperor to elaborate. Apparently, he liked this little game between them though, so John had to resort to a workaround.

“Why is Master required to do so?” Aclysia asked for him.

“…I am going to let this slide this time,” Romulus grumbled with his envy inducingly deep, manly voice; “If we fail to retrieve Lydia, Maximillian is the only true claimant to the vacant throne. I need you to make sure he doesn’t lose himself to despair or self-doubt.”

John just accepted that answer. It was smart of the Emperor to plan for the worst case where Lydia was already dead and he was stuck with a vassal whose head would have rather gigantic trust issues. But why him? The Gamer would have loved to ask, but his questions were precious.

“I give this task to you,” Romulus seemingly read his mind, “because you strike me as the sort of person who was betrayed himself. You have been watching my hands this whole discussion as if you were expecting me to strike you.”

John couldn’t keep the shock from his face as he raised Jack’s eyes, the sparrow sitting in the branches of a hedge diagonally behind them, from the Emperor’s hands.

“You are speaking to the person that has been the strongest being in the Abyss for thousands of years,” the Apex said in an amused tone; “Don’t think I don’t feel such obvious things as the eyes of a drone resting on me.”

“Fine,” John mumbled. Admittedly, he expected Romulus to feel Jack’s presence, but not exactly where the drone was looking. “Yes, I am always keeping a lookout for people to turn on me, and I am also always wondering whether what you stood to gain from backstabbing me is bigger than what you stand to gain from staying with me. It’s a wise policy with a healthy dose of doubt that I should have adopted the moment I stepped into this world and not AFTER I was stabbed in the back once.”

“It is indeed; the first betrayal is always the worst, not because of what you lose but because of the permanent doubt that will linger to your last day,” Romulus stood up and looked at his reflection in the lake; “Although sometimes what you have lost is irreplaceable. Your last question?”

John needed to think. There were two, both urgent, on his mind. Why do you want to kill Gaia? Was the obvious one. What did the emperor hope to achieve once he had done that? John, however, decided to go with the other one in the end.

“Gaia is the first human goddess, isn’t she?”

Eyes are the gate to divinity. A thin circle penetrated by seven lines. Gold belonged to the end of humanity and black to the gatekeeper of the abyss. The supreme deity, she had the same eyes as the deity of the end.

Romulus nodded, then turned and looked at him with enigmatic eyes. “…If you succeed in keeping Maximillian safe, I will tell you the whole story, from who she was to when she became what everyone else knows,” he stated and then walked away. His eye had barely even healed. “Speak what needs to be said to those who won’t accompany you and then go to the mansion Staufen and rest. Rest assured, should your companion rampage again, I have eyes on the situation. Tomorrow, you will be going wherever I send you.”

John turned to Eliza.