The room falls eerily silent as the King of Moriarch continues to stare at Tom with a look of disgust. Tom takes a deep breath as he patiently responds to the King.
" There is more here at stake than your kingdom and its morals, your majesty. We're talking about a force that will continue to be the undoing of verses outside of your own. Your verse is but a stepping stone on an infinite staircase that this great evil has been climbing since the Otherlands has come into existence. By helping us, you will not only be saving your verse, but you will also be potentially saving the rest of the Otherlands as well by preventing this evil from ascending the staircase any further. I understand that millions of your people have died in the war over the worship of Gods, but failure to take the precautions that I recommend would be putting an infinite number of more lives at stake than the amount that you've already lost. "
The King sits there and thinks for a moment, then he speaks to Tom in a sympathetic manner.
" Even through my disgust, I understand your cause, Otherlander; but I'm afraid that you ask something that is simply impossible. Many families are left broken as a result of our war. Mothers have lost their sons. Children have lost their fathers. All of this death was in the name of purity and the protection of our people against the twisted nature of The Dark Ones. Worshiping them after all of these families lie broken would be an insult to the dead loved ones who laid down their lives to prevent it, and I'm afraid that no amount of reasoning would be able to sway the good people of Moriarch on the matter. "
Mimi frowns and shyly stands closer to you upon hearing this come from the King. Tom looks down and notices this, then turns back to the King and pleads his case in an inspiring tone as one last ditch effort to sway him.
" Your majesty… It breaks my heart to hear that so many of your people have lost the ones that they loved in the war. I've been alive for billions of years, and I empathize with Moriarch because I too am no stranger to loss. I have lost more than you could ever imagine throughout the thousands of millennia that I've lived across the Otherlands, so believe me when I tell you that I feel your people's pain and I understand it on the deepest level.
The people of Voldoor worship The Dark Ones because they seek pleasure and personal gain above all else. They are sinful and twisted. I know that Moriarch stands to uphold what is right and your people are good by nature. The nobility of your people laying down their lives to fight the good fight is a testament to that. However, I am not asking the people of Moriarch to pray to The Dark Ones for the same reasons as the Voldoorians. I ask your kingdom to pray to The Dark Ones in the hope that the many other families across the Otherlands do not suffer the same grief of loss that we have shared.
I ask the people of Moriarch to pray to The Dark Ones for the greater good of the many other good hearted people that share the Otherlands with them. Pray to Nahzgor not out of the desire to hurt or enslave others, but the desire for Moriarch to dominate all that try to oppose and corrupt the good hearted people that live within your borders. Pray to Sowzo not out of the desire for chaos or nightmares, but the desire for Moriarch's great dream to come true so you all may cleanse Aria of the corruption and filth that the Voldoorians have plagued your world with. Pray to Reylesh not out of the desire to sin or manipulate, but the desire to make any foe that has hurt your people to suffer equally or greater than the suffering that they themselves have inflicted and for them to face the consequences for their heinous actions.
Pray because Moriarch's will to do good cannot be faltered. Pray because Moriarch's efforts to protect the innocent will never fail. Pray because it falls to Moriarch to save not just your world, but the many other worlds that are at stake, and the innocent people among the Otherlands can rely on Moriarch to save them in their most dire moment of need.
Your majesty, I ask you to pray to these dark gods in the name of all that is righteous. Use these dark gods as a tool for the greatest good that a kingdom could ever hope to achieve. Become the King that is remembered forever, not just by your world, but by the infinite worlds across the Otherlands that you save because of your indomitable will to defeat evil. All of your life has led up to this moment, your majesty. By the grace of Izael, Fate has chosen you to become the shining light for humanity when the darkest of darknesses is on the horizon. Your majesty, I ask you and your kingdom to stand with me.
Stand with me, and defeat this great evil that intends to destroy all that is good.
Stand with me, and fight for the families that are not yet broken and are in need of protection.
Stand with me, and prove to the Voldoorians that you can pray to The Dark Ones and still be pure of heart.
Stand with me, and immortalize yourself and your kingdom across the Otherlands as the kingdom that did what no other kingdom could!
Stand with me, and together we can ensure that an infinite number of Gods and men will live on without the fear of this evil arriving on their doorstep!
Oh great Kingdom of Moriarch! I ask you to STAND WITH ME!! "
Tom shouts as he raises his fists in the air. The guards all do the same and cheer as the electric atmosphere envelopes the room. You look at the King and see that he has a grin on his face as the whole room roars. Then you look down at Mimi and see she's blushing with a bright smile as she looks up at you.
As the room cheers and shouts, you feel like you can hear roaring coming from outside as well. It's almost as if the rest of the kingdom heard Tom's speech too. Confused, you begin to look around the room amongst the roaring. Then you feel Tom's hand on your shoulder and as you look at him, he smirks and begins to speak to you inside your mind just like The One did when you first saw him.
" Seems like the whole kingdom liked my speech as well. Pretty cool, huh? "
What? Tom can speak telepathically? Can he read my thoughts as well? Why didn't he say anything about it earlier?
Tom answers you out loud.
" You don't remember, but we used to communicate like that all the time- "
The King interrupts by clapping his hands and shouts aloud to calm the room down.
" Alright, everyone! Settle down! "
The room slowly quiets down and the King begins to speak to Tom as he leans forward in his throne.
" Well then, Otherlander. It appears that you've not only swayed me, but you have swayed my kingdom as well. I will order my priests to begin adding altars of The Dark Ones in our churches and we will pray to them out of the goodness in our hearts. Is there anything else you require of Moriarch to help aid in this fight against evil? "
" Yes. "
Tom responds honorably.
" I ask that you prepare your military as if Moriarch is going to war once more. The enemy will likely try weakening the Gods by killing your people to stop prayer and worship. I'm afraid that your walls and the guards that you have at the moment aren't enough. My companions and I just caught an enemy at your front door right before we entered the castle. "
The King leans back in his throne, looks down, and murmurs to himself for a moment.
" Yes… the one in the black robe. How could he have gotten into my kingdom, and what happened to my guards? "
" They were presumably killed or worse, your majesty. They were completely gone when we arrived, so I'm afraid that they may have fallen victim to him. "
Tom replies. The King then looks back at Tom and speaks to him.
" How unfortunate… Now that you mention it, our people have been disappearing over Aria's past few rotations. We've been looking, but we can't seem to find any leads. Every now and then we'll hear rumors about a missing person being sighted, but we always lose them upon investigating. The rumors are always the same. They've been said to have their eyes missing and they're typically seen wearing a dark cloak of some sort. Do the missing eyes fit the description of the person that you saw at my castle's door? "
" Yes. It does. "
Tom says with a serious look on his face.
" But I'm afraid that I squandered an opportunity for information by dispatching him in the heat of the moment because he was scaring my companion. "
Tom and the King both look down at Mimi and Mimi jumps up and shouts at Tom embarrassedly.
" I wasn't scared! You were scared! "
Tom laughs a bit as the King responds to Mimi.
" Oh yes, I'm sure you were very brave! Excuse me, if I may ask, but what is your name? "
Mimi blushes as she responds to the King.
" My name's Mimi and Tom told me that you and my Papa were friends. "
The King's eyes light up with amazement.
" You're the daughter of Sir Arthur?! He told me so much about you when he was an Oracle here at the castle! Tell me, how is Veronica? I've heard the stories of what happened to Ishville and my men couldn't find either of you when they searched through the rubble. Is she doing alright? "
Mimi looks down with a frown. You can tell that the thought of her mother is making her sad. The King sees this and speaks up in an attempt to make her feel better.
" I'm sorry, Mimi. I didn't mean to upset you. I want you to know something though. There is no denying that your father loved you and your mother more than anything. There are some things that even a King cannot have, and the love that your parents had was one of them. I have no doubt that one day you'll grow up to have your father's sharp mind and your mother's warm heart. You're a lucky girl, Mimi, and you should be proud to be their child. "
Mimi looks back up at the king and smiles softly, but the conversation comes to a halt as you hear and see a hauntingly familiar crack of black lightning come down outside in the streets of Moriarch.