***A World at War***

***The Necromantic Princess***

Passing through the city gate, I solemnly followed my personal guard onto the wasteland of a battlefield. The siege had gone on for months by now, a steady back and forth between the Allied Forces of the mainland and the Mirai Empire's last faithful. It would be a long and bloody struggle until Tracor would fall.

Yet, we held out, because every day endured meant that we could evacuate more of our people oversea.

The city's walls were sturdy, its barriers fed by the strongest power stones the Empire could afford, and the defensive spell arrays ensured that none would live long who neared the walls uninvited. Many charges had broken against the city which stood like a rock in a sea of enemies. And once they crawled back out of range after another unsuccessful charge, crying for their mothers, naught was left behind but corpses for our priests to bless.

For them to rise and fight in the Empire’s name. Other armies would have broken by now, but not so the Holy Crusade of the Allied Forces. They would see to it that the city was razed to the ground and forgotten.

Once, Tracor was the Empire's largest port and an economic wonder of trade. Now, it was an overpopulated home for refugees who tried to flee an ideology that had no place for the necromantic arts or the worship of the dead. At some point, we would have no choice but to forsake this place. Pack everything of worth into our ships and burn the remains to sail for other shores, if only to spite the enemy.

Sadly, the besieging forces had gotten smarter. Now they huddled just outside the range of our spell arrays, waiting for their chance. Once the stupid ones had removed themselves from the gene pool, they started testing us with small raids and long-range attack spells, searching for weak points in our defences. Their newest plan had been a tunnel right beneath our walls, and it was only thanks to luck that we had caught the attempt.

I watched their line, or at least what I could see from here. In the beginning, they had camped outside the city, but now they had dug in, felling every tree in sight and burning even the last bush to ensure that none would enter or leave the city.

The Holy Church would indiscriminately end the life of anyone who was touched by the foul arts, as they would say it. They were blinded by their faith, unable to see past their ideology.

Not that I would give them any quarter myself, but as an immortal, I had long since learned to see beyond the charade of mortal politics. Their fanaticism was just a guise to move the mortal masses. Behind kings and emperors, governments, and institutions, one could always find people with great ambition and little to lose. People like me, who for some reason were denied the luxury of oblivion once they died. Instead, we were forced to remember all of our reincarnations, something which I dearly wished to understand, but for now, I had to accept the world as it was.

We were the real puppeteers. Men and women with far more wisdom and power than their age would make you believe they had.

I sighed when the undead guards prostrated themselves, and two soldiers with deathly pale skin dragged the beaten and spluttering man in front of me, forcing him to his knees. It had taken five hundred of my finest to catch him once more, but they had willingly paid the price for their Empress when our spies realized that he would lead another raid to test our walls.

The prisoner’s face was different from when we had last caught him, but the taint on his magic unmistakably belonged to one of my enemies. One who I had already killed several times.

“We see each other again, Seer,” I sneered as I studied his beaten body. Even though death was no danger to someone like him, he had given my people a proper fight. And it was still only thanks to overwhelming numbers that they had caught him. “Isn't it getting boring to lead the troops from the frontlines? I stopped counting how many suicide squads you led against the capital's defences. Are you by any chance, a masochist?”

“Don’t mistake my devotion to the cause for anything like that. I simply chose to take on the task which my abilities are best suited for.” The man on his knees spluttered and spit in my direction. Then he smiled, which earned him promptly an unpleasant experience with the blunt end of a guard's spear.

I raised my hand to stop them. “Don't kill him... he will just come back again in some other shell. They are saying necromancy is bad, but he himself takes over living bodies.”

The Seer laughed good-naturedly. “Why don't you just go on to your next reincarnation. Stop polluting this world with your abhorrent magic.”

“Like your magic is any better.” I snorted. “Do those who you use as your puppets even know what you are doing to them before you rip out their essence and take them over like a piece of garment? Do you even have a real body left somewhere?”

“All of my vessels are willing agents of the Almighty!” he snipped back with fervour and conviction in his voice.

I had to leave it to him. If nothing else, the man was committed to his role as the Seer of the Church. It wasn't bad enough that his magic allowed him to see a part of the future, but it also allowed him to take over someone else's body via some sort of spiritual connection. It appeared more like some psychic ability than magic, though I had no clue about his actual limitations. He had kept that secret well.

The only thing I was certain about, was that he didn’t see everything, or he wouldn’t be here.

“Don't you see that all of this can have only one end?” he continued. “Stop fighting and make it easy on all of us. Your refusal to accept the inevitable only costs more pain and suffering in the end.”

I raised an inquisitive eyebrow, wondering whether the man was delusional. If anything, it was his group that had forced this situation. I would have been content to play out my role as a Mirai Princess while I lived out the natural lifespan of this reincarnation. My research of the eldritch arts was my only desire until this war started. Ruling an Empire wouldn’t help me with a reincarnation which was likely to end me up in an entirely different reality. The only thing I could possibly take with me was knowledge.

And then they had thrown the glove by assassinating the parents who raised me.

It was true that I had many parents throughout countless reincarnations, but the ones I had met in this life weren't bad people. They were caring rulers, just as they were loving parents. Seeing their Empire crumble, something they worked so hard to care for their entire lives, it was something unacceptable to me. As mortals, their work was the only thing I had left to honour.

The assassins had seen to it that nothing remained of their bodies for their souls to anchor to. And without an anchor, I couldn't drag them back through the Veil and return them to me.

“I think you just have to look into your future in order to see that I won't go willingly into the light. Even if we are immortals, there is still a price to pay for death, and I will not lose memories just because you say so. Just tell me why, insane bastard, and I will give you a quick death. It can't be that you just want more power. What's the true reason for destroying the Empire? It wasn't like we bothered any of the other countries. We had peace, short as it was.”

“Of course not. It's just like you say. Us people don't care about much aside from keeping our memories. And for that, living as long as possible is important!” The Seer chuckled, and his eyes turned milky white as he used his unique magic.

His voice took on a sacral tone as he shared one of his prophecies.

“And the necromancer's line will birth a shackled child. Wrought in chains and collared, its hatred grows with age, blinding whatever innocence remains. Biding its time, a monster grows unseen.

“But no binding holds forever, and once the shackle breaks, the shackled one is free to rage. A city burns to ash, its inhabitants screaming to the heavens, and only silence will remain.

“With the city's cracked heart and through the child's hands, another city is forged. As a shining symbol, it will rise to the heavens and draw everyone's eye. Even kings will yearn for its riches, and greed will fester in their souls.

“As armies march to capture their grand price, a final battle is fought, but they too will burn in fire! And once everything is said and done, the world's centre lies shattered. The world's Mortals and Immortals alike will have paid the price of hubris.

“The child, now a god among men, will stand alone to decide the fate of all! And thus, a world is ended.”

I pursed my lips and played with the hilt of my new rapier while the Seer's eyes returned to normal. I wondered how potent this man's ability truly was. Was this a genuine prophecy, or just one of many possibilities. Unlike my guards, I knew how fickle predicting the future was.

The prisoner managed to gather himself and focused his eyes back on me. “Do you see now why-”

Not bothering to listen to him anymore, I drew the weapon in one smooth motion and stabbed the empty air next to the Seer, right where I saw his ghostly soul hovering, manipulating the body like a puppet on strings.

The soul looked down at the blade that had shattered its core, clearly not believing what had just happened. It let out a silent scream as it dissolved, the Seer's body going slack as its strings were cut. All that remained was a drooling shell, abandoned by any sign of intellect.

A quick death I promised and a quick death was given.

I sheathed the blade, satisfied with the weapon's first real test. The demon had given me a truly formidable artefact. Without it, I would have never been able to slay the elusive man and strike fear into the hearts of my enemies. How many times had I gnashed my teeth at the Seer's soul, unable to touch it?

The guard who had punished the Seer earlier for his behaviour nudged the body with his spear and it fell over from its kneeling position without the tiniest resistance. “Was it truly wise to kill another immortal, Empress? You stand alone against a whole group of them. I don’t doubt your power, but will they not double their efforts in getting rid of you now?”

I smiled. “Oh, they will. But the difference is that now none of them will dare to come within a hundred kilometres of me. They will run at the mere rumour that I may be close. Powerful they may be, but there is one thing they fear. After all, the one thing immortals value above all else is their immortality, and we will make sure that they know what happened today. That is if they don't piece it together themselves after watching the execution. Everything else they might throw at me, more mortal minions, that I can deal with once there is the ocean between us.”

Raising my hand, I gave the enemy line that was camped a few kilometres outside the city wall a salute, counting on it that someone had been watching with a scrying spell.

“I didn't like the story's beginning,” I mused and turned back towards the gate. “...but the ending was fine with me.”

***The Higher Planes***

***Demon Lord Ostreios***

“Die, you feathery abominations!” I screamed and hacked at another enemy, taking off one of its wings and sending it tumbling to the burning city below. Then I raised my arms and called out to my legion. “Sack their roosts and steal their eggs! I want to have an omelet tonight!”

“WårﬡaêrjﬡZanêb!”

My minions replied with a warcry of their own, eager to deal death to those who defied the Infernal order.

“We will raze this city to the ground!” I egged them on, burning with the desire to be one of the few Demon Lords who ever sacked a Higher Plane. There would be legends told about me. Demonlings would remember my name for millennia when they were taught in the hatcheries!

“My Lord, I fear you have forgotten of the original purpose of your quest!” My adjutant admonished me, trying to steer me back to the true cause of my mission.

“Bah!” I threw out my hand, forgetting that I was still holding my sword. If my adjutant had been a lesser minion, I would have beheaded him accidentally, not that I would have ever admitted to such a thing. Being a Demon Lord meant that one was infallible! Officially, I would have slain him for his disrespectfulness and for speaking up against me.

But he ducked and dodged the sharp blade just so, losing only a chip of his horns.

I continued as if I hadn’t noticed anything by pointing the blade towards the burning skyscrapers below us. “Do you really suggest leaving out this chance? The Infernum blessed us by delivering my entire legion to this place! The lad who led us here won’t be able to run away, now that we know which plane he made his home in!”

“We do?” The adjutant raised an inquisitive eyebrow, looking doubtful.

“Of course, or have you ever heard of a succubus leaving the Infernal Plane of Lust?” I pointed out the obvious for my minion, feeling generous for once.

Then I raised the blade and aimed it at a formation of feathery ones that pressured my marauding soldiers. They had managed to fly around a towering building, staying out of sight of my stronger minions so that they could surprise a weaker group. A blast of Hellfire shot forth towards the ground a thousand metres below us, focused tightly enough that it resembled a beam of plasma.

The feathery ones were too slow to escape my attack and it easily incinerated every offending feather on their bodies.

Laughing, I listened to their screams as they writhed and fell to the ground like the burning tears of a god.

A good tenth of my legion had been lost against those who had risen initially to defend the city against us. But after their strongest warriors had been slain on the battlefield in front of the city, taking on those who remained wasn’t hard. Most of the feathery ones were weak and mollycoddled. They had grown soft from their easy life on a Higher Plane. Many couldn't even put up a fight against a group of our imps.

Originally, these lowest of my minions only joined the legion as mere support staff who weren’t expected to fight. But when I had seen the weakness of our enemies, I had ordered them to the front lines. Some may even earn themselves enough souls for their evolution to an adult form.

“I see.” My adjutant somehow managed to bow in mid-flight without looking utterly stupid. “Does this mean that we will spend some time here? Should I inform the summoners to ready the legion’s Anima Stone as a foci for a portal? We will need to transport away the goods somehow. Our legion is numerous, but we can hardly carry an entire city's loot.”

I nodded, already drooling at the thought of which delicacies the Higher Planes might have to offer. “Yes, yes, do that! And tell them to leave no stone unturned in search of food. Of course, I claim first dibs on anything new and exciting!”

The adjutant rolled his eyes. “Please allow me to claim at least some magical artefacts and other valuables for Baaar’s treasure troves. We still have to rebuild a lot after that… incident.”

I waved him off, not caring much about the not-food related part of our ventures. As long as I got to eat, others could bother themselves with the complicated stuff.