As the spears rained down on the army in front of him, Lucas smiled widely as he enjoyed the scene. Fire, chaos and despair were familiar to him, perhaps a little too well. Seeing it happen to someone else, he wondered if they would also turn out like him.
'No, they can fight back, we were powerless.'
'Indeed, to truly understand despair, you can't have any hope.'
He pushed his darker thoughts away as he noticed that the spears had run out.
"Everyone, take a step back.", he said as a smaller wall appeared before them and handles seem to form on the ground they stood on.
"Lay down, grab the handles, and push the wall in front of you with your feet. Keep holding on until we land, then summon your weapons."
Everything he said was with a certain calm that forced the men to follow. Seeing the carnage they inflicted upon their enemies, nobody was in the mood to disobey the orchestrator of it all. Nero was the first to lay down and follow his instructions.
The wall came down and with surprising efficiency, the soldiers summoned their weapons as if their lives depended on it. Once the smoke cleared, Lucas shouted to ask for their surrender.
"We surrender! E-Everyone, lay your weapons down!", Rubert had never yelled so loud, and he knew what he said was only evident. Their army had collapsed, there were barely any weapons to lay down or unsummon, nobody was able to keep their calm in such a situation.
The trained soldiers had already lost control of their sword while the newly recruited soldiers had iron weapons they threw away to run away faster. All they had to worry about was their life.
'Hmm, that went a lot easier than I expected. Even if you didn't completely follow the script.'
'This shit was boring as hell.'
'You know, sometimes I really don't understand you.'
'The feelings mutual.'
'No. It's like, you're way more protective, and you want to take the least amount of risks, yet you also just become a battle maniac in certain situations. I just don't get it.'
'Hahaha, you don't understand. Fighting against someone way above our level is suicide. It's something we have to avoid at all cost. But fighting against someone on our level or below is like a sport, it's fun.'
'My point still stands.'
'Oh, you should stop our aura dummy.'
'Hmm, great way to shift the conversation, don't think I didn't notice.'
Lucas wasn't even paying attention to the man in front of him. He was the leader of the army he just fought against, a Tier 2 general with plenty of experience. The only reason for his relaxed demeanor was simply because of the fear in the man's eyes. If they fought it might result in an interesting fight, yet once Lucas saw his demeanor, part of him didn't get his hopes up.
There was a chance of an assassin lurking about, and the best chance to strike was when they thought the fight was over, hence why Lucas spread his aura and willpower around to check for anything. Sadly, or luckily, there was nothing he could detect.
Part of him thought it was because there wasn't anybody in the first place, the other half thought it was because he was incompetent and was too weak to detect it. Both sides did agree that it was time to move on.
'Oh well, I guess we should move on to the next step.'
"You! You're the leader of this group correct?"
The man noticed the disappearance of the bloody aura and scrambled himself together to take a knee.
"I was, your Lordship! From this point on, I will serve you, and that means this army is at your disposal."
Calling it an army was a vast overstatement, but the man tried his absolute best to appear as cooperative as he could.
"Good.", Lucas looked at Thurin for a second, waiting for some kind of response. When he saw him shake his head, he knew he had the command to continue. He clapped his hands together to force everyone's attention on him.
"Men! These foolish nobles are the ones who put you up to this, aren't they?", Lucas said as he tried to rile up the soldiers.
"Yeah!", even though everyone heard him, only the general had an enthusiastic reply, all the others were still recovering from it all. Even his own soldiers were shaking a bit.
"The nobles in the east have always abused their power to rule over the weak. I think it's time we put an end to that."
His only mission was to take care of the army, but Lucas found that to be too simple. There were plenty of things he could take advantage off. If he could cut off the head of the snake, the rest was easy dinner.
"Your Lordship, if you want, I will lead you to them."
"I'm starting to like you already. Nero!", Nero had never left his side, together with Thurin they tried to always stand next to him.
"Yes, sir!"
"Nero, I trust your capabilities, have a talk with this general here on how to proceed further. I'll heal up all the wounded soldiers."
"Of course, sir, if you would please follow me. We should discuss this somewhere private."
"Yes, yes!", he quickly got up and followed Nero like an obedient dog.
Lucas went around to heal every single soldier. Or at least close their wounds. People who had lost mos of their limbs due to the wall or had their face burned off due to the fire couldn't be helped. He could close the wounds and relieve them of their pain, creating new eyes wasn't part of his expertise.
Trying to heal up the others should improve his relationship with the soldiers he just took over, but most were too afraid to even properly face him. And even if he healed them, the pain and images from before wouldn't simply disappear from one kind action.
---------------------------------------------
Nero guided Rubert to the nearby tent. He kept his calm as he showed the former enemy general their camp and lead him into the tent next to the central.
He didn't want to use the biggest tent because of the documents that his Lord had mentioned.
Entering the tent, Nero only had a single chair available, so he had to go and fetch another.
"There. Now that we can relax for a second, let's start by introducing ourselves. My name is Nero, I'm one of the men serving the Starborn and the Empire."
Rubert looked at the man in front of him. He looked like an average soldier, yet surprisingly with even bigger dark circles around his eyes.
"Hey, can I be real with you for a second?"
"Uhm, sure, the Lord asked me to get to know you, so I guess this counts."
"You serve that monster, right?"
"I technically serve the Emperor, and please don't call his Lordship a monster. He is a righteous man who wants to save the Empire. His Lordship has asked me to be his assistant, or that's what I'd like to believe.", he smiled as he grabbed the back of his head. He never gained any position officially, but the thought of it was pretty nice.
"Hah, I never said that I was talking about our Lordship, to think you would call him a monster on your own. What did you do to get on his good side?", Rubert said with a tone that contained a slight hint of a threat.
"My duty, nothing else.", Nero felt a little embarrassed to be caught like that. Because while he was loyal to Lucas, the battle, if you could even call it that, certainly stuck with him.
"Pfff, yeah sure.", Rubert had plenty of experience in the world of mercenaries and armies. Just doing your job wouldn't land you next to the general. Various tricks and lickable boots were necessary to climb the ladder.
"If you don't want to tell my, you don't have to."
'I can always just force it out of you.', Rubert might've just displayed his obedience in front of Lucas, but he was a general and a Tier 2 one at that. The person in front of him was so weak, he could kill him with his eyes closed. He just knew that if he did that he would end up dead, so he went along.
"My name's Rubert."
-------------------------------------------------
It didn't take long before Nero came to Lucas with a plan to move forward.
They quickly made their way forward, with Lucas at the front, Nero and Thurin by his side and Rubert leading the way, they reached their destination in a flash.
Arriving at a somewhat larger mansion, Rubert slowed to a crawl, staring at one of the windows.
"A familiar sight?", Lucas said as he looked at the protections set up by the mansion's owner.
"This was the place where I received my command to go against the Empire, I was foolish to follow such a ridiculous order."
"Indeed you were, but you have turned around, your weapon is aiming at the right place. Please make a path for us. Only we shall move forward."
Rubert nodded and waited for his gift to activate, yet nothing happened. His happiness shown clearly on his face, he stepped forward to remove any obstacle in their way.
His strength was impossible to stop, any guard trying to earn their keep was obliterated in a few seconds. With the army outside the mansion, a few guards put their hands up, saying it wasn't worth going against them.
Entering the room of the noble's hideout, there was a simple desk with a few people behind it. Two looked like nobles, while the one protecting them was a simple butler.
"Your Lordship, these are the men who were foolish enough to raise their arms towards the Empire.", Rubert said as he made a grand bow, clearly trying to impress Lucas. Stealing the way Nero talked in order to seem closer to him.
The nobles looked at Rubert with a strange expression, one that seemed to combine rage and confusion. Had he betrayed them so easily even after giving him so many rewards?
"Hmm, from this point on, I will act in the name of The Royal Advisor, close aid to the Emperor. You two, state your names.", he waved his hand, blowing the butler to the side. The poor man didn't know what happened, but by the time he realized it, Nero was already pointing a spear at his neck.
The nobles reeked of sweat, their hands shaking slightly. They both looked like average men who tried to cover up the ugliness in their hearts with fancy clothes.
"My! My name is Bolayo Tripardo, I am the owner of this land that you have invaded illegally!"
"And I am Yalled Grisha, I own the land next to the honorable Bolayo! How dare you interrupt our private conversation! Do you have no respect for those of noble descent?!"
Both nobles started to spout their accusations as loud as they could as if it would be more legitimate in that way. Lucas observed them for a moment before shutting them both up. Releasing his aura, everyone in the room felt on edge.
The blood-red aura containing images of despair spread through the room, making the nobles choke on their own spit.
"Now that I have your attention, please listen to what I have to say.", Lucas said with an extremely calm and monotone voice. He didn't hide his aura at all, keeping everyone in check.
"Sir Yalled and Sir Bolayo, both of you have committed great offenses, your punishment shall be one of two things. Surrender all your possessions and hand them over to the Empire or become a slave to the Empire."
Immediately laying out the choices, Lucas didn't waste a single second. He didn't want to be here any longer. He had achieved his project, there was no reason to stick around. What he was doing now was simply a way to avoid further trouble from this area.
If he could put some competent people in charge who were loyal to the throne, he would move on to the next thing. During his time here he had a lot of projects that he needed to work on and standing around listening to the screams of two numbskulls pissed both sides of Lucas off.
"Hmm?", seeing that nobody could speak when he unleashed his aura, he retracted it. "My apologies, your answer?"
*Huf, puf*, not only were the nobles breathing heavily, but even Nero and Rubert had a hard time keeping themselves together.
"You!", Bolayo said with an exasperated voice while pointing his thick greasy finger at Lucas. "You're the Starborn, right? I've heard you're a stickler when it comes to rules!"
"I do believe that rules are necessary for a society to run."
"Then you know that only the Emperor himself can decide our judgements instantly! If we made a grave offense, we need to be brought before the Emperor himself! You can't decide this on your own! We need a court hearing and a fair trail!"
'Exactly!', Bolayo's friend though, 'The Emperor is just some kid, we can easily pressure him into letting us go. In fact! We can probably kill the Emperor when we visit the castle, then we'll be handsomely rewarded!'
Lucas kept a sigh to himself, he wanted to end this here, but he was in the presence of two people he was planning on using later. If he besmirched his reputation here, they wouldn't be as willing to serve him.
"Fine, although your argument is wrong, I don't want to waste any more time. Your Highness, please decide this yourself."
Lucas made a small bow while stepping aside to make room for the hooded figure. Taking off the hood, Thurin revealed his face. The dark circles had lessened slightly, as if the trip was actually helping him sleep a tad better.
While Lucas was confident things would move on now, he made a single mistake. Nobody here had ever seen the new Emperor's face, so they didn't know if he was being serious or not.
"This child isn't the Emperor! The Emperor's son looks completely different!", Yalled yelled out loud. He had seen two of his children, and they had some similarities to their father, Thurin had none of that, so he was certain.
Thurin raised his hand to reveal the ring on his ring finger. "Kneel if you still want a chance to be spared.", his voice was cold, a lot more detached than Lucas. Even he was surprised to see Thurin speak so unusually.
He was the enthusiastic little dummy, or he was. Now he had grown into a shadow of his father's personality. But there was always a sense of holding back, his emotions chained down, keeping them in check. Now it felt genuine.
Even if the nobles had a lot to say, the moment they recognized the ring, their hearts stopped for a moment.
'How did he even get here so fast?! The army should've.. No Rubert betrayed us, there was no fight. Dammit, dammit, dammit!'
Performing a grandiose bow, both nobles felt the sweat form on their backs.
"Your Majesty, my apologies for not recognizing you. I simply reacted as if someone had tried to impersonate you, I meant no offense!"
"Sure. Before I decide your fates, answer my question honestly. Before I set off to meet you, I was notified that you didn't believe I was worthy of ruling over the Empire. What action did I perform that made you think that?"
Lucas finally understood what this was all about. He also felt terrible when all his time spent on a project turned into nothing, but for Thurin this was on a much bigger scale.
The nobles looked at each other, clearly not expecting such a question to appear.
"Uhm, well, you let the barbarians do whatever they wanted, you still haven't fixed that mess!", Bolayo said with a hesitating tone.
"Y-Yeah, and I heard that the Empire's treasury is already empty, you can't manage your finances well.", Yalled added with more certainty. Feeling that his friend was so confident, Bolayo fueled the flames.
"Exactly! There was the issue of sir Alex dying in your own castle, you can't keep things safe, there are riots everywhere in the country because of your incompetence."
Bolayo and Yalled kept bombarding Thurin with all the negative things they could think of. From poorly managed Rainzones, to the lack of infrastructure and the halt on spreading the cycle system. They had a lot of things to gripe about, Lucas felt he should intervene, but the look in Thurin's eyes held him back.
'He's listening attentively to these ridiculous claims, has he grown stronger?'
'I guess, either way, half the issues they're listing are things they should've fixed themselves. Their own commoners are rioting against the high taxes, and we don't get shit from these assholes. So I can guess where all that money went.'
'Not to be overly negative, but look at them, do you believe they have the mental capacity to manage a territory?'
'Hahaha, hell no, I'll bet ya they can't wake up on their own!'
As Lucas was thinking on how to move forward Thurin suddenly lifted his hand.
"I've heard your complaints, but they are all general things that can't be solved immediately. Was there something that I personally did to offend you?", his voice was getting colder by the second, impressing even Lucas. He was used to dealing with people as if they were objects, especially if they refused to do their duty.
The nobles' heads swiftly turned to face each other.
"What do we say now? The kid is clearly afraid of us."
"Yeah, he wants to know how he offended us, it's clear we're on the winning side. Question is, what do we say now?"
"He hasn't done anything specific to us has he?"
"Hmmm, wait, he did! The guards here have all died, he breached our privacy, that'll be it."
After they were done whispering to each other under the bothered look of Lucas did Bolayo take a step closer to Thurin, he wasn't that tall, but his size was impressive in a different dimension.
"You have taken away my army, killed my guards and servants, broke our privacy and threatened our lives! Is that not enough?!"
Thurin's eyes widened for a split second before grabbing his nose bridge. Lucas didn't bother stifling a grin as he almost enjoyed their stupidity.
"I've heard enough."
Boyalo and Yalled stood next to each other with their chins slightly pointed upwards. Thurin turned around and stared at Lucas. He was clearly upset.
"Lucas.", his voice contained something all too familiar.
'Not advisor, huh?'
'He looks pissed.'
"What is your wish, Thurin.", he said as stepped away from the side. Thurin knew that Lucas was on the same page.
"Bolayo, Yalled, everything you own will become part of the Empire, your lives are forfeit. Lucas, please use that power of yours."
Lucas was surprised to hear those words, but he wasn't going to against Thurin now. "Of course, do we use them as an example for the other nobles? It would be a great.."
"No. I don't want them to see the Stars again.", Thurin cut Lucas off and exited the office without waiting for a reply. He was upset, it was clear that while he was holding his emotions back out of fear of being criticized or being a disappointment. Now he realized that all the worries were for nothing, it was only normal for him to be enraged.
"So be it. Nero, Rubert, take care of his Highness for me."
Nero saluted and promised to protect him with his life while Rubert mimicked him. Leaving Lucas alone in the room, he was free to do as he wished.
"I've heard rumors that people see visions when they get enveloped in my aura. You two will be perfect test subject for this. Please hold on, I can't get any useful data if you go insane too quickly."
Being left to his devices, Lucas experimented all the things he couldn't try out on Carian since it would damage him mentally. Some rather painful physical tests were also conducted.
Thurin walked ahead of both Nero and Rubert, whom the former thought it was best to stand in front of the ruler to secure his safety. Sadly, he didn't dare to.
They had left the room and made it to the entrance, yet the horrifying screams reached their ears almost in an instant.
"Tch, how did it come to this? I never wanted to do this.", Thurin stopped in his tracks and held his head with his hand. "Heh, I never even wanted to become Emperor in the first place."
Talking to himself, Nero and Rubert heard his ramblings and couldn't help but respond.
"Pardon my inexcusable behavior, your Majesty, but I believe you have done an excellent job. Most people wouldn't know how hard it is to rule over such a big area. Even so, you managed to take the reins and pull the country back from collapse."
"Flattery won't get you anywhere Nero, I've gotten way too used to it."
Nero frowned as he pounded his chest. "It was not meant as flattery, your Majesty!", but he waved it off. Rubert also had something to say in order to calm him down.
"Forgive my rudeness, your Majesty, but I worked with these nobles for quite some time. They don't hate you or what you have done, they have simply been seduced by riches and promise of fame and glory. They aren't good people."
"You don't have to spell out the obvious. Despite my looks, I've lost a lot of my naivety."
From both men's perspective, their Emperor looked tired or exhausted, overworked and most of all, sad. There was a certain feeling that couldn't be described in words, the sympathy in their hearts just told them something was off.
"Now, this campaign is done, time for us to go back home. Nero, Lucas liked you, and I need someone to rule over these lands, would you take ownership of Bolayo's lands? I'll make you a noble and Lucas also asked me to give you access to the Tier 2 temples."
Nero felt like the Stars were falling, where did this come from? He barely did a passable job and now rewards were flying into his lap. It was overwhelming, words escaped his grasp as he stood slack jawed in silence.
"Rubert, I know you expect something as well, but you haven't contributed enough. If you continue what you're doing now, I'll grant you the land of Yalled. For now, we'll take care of it."
"I shall do my utter best to achieve the same results as Nero.", Rubert felt that things were finally going well, his gift not activating in the slightest.