“I know you’re thinking about killing me somehow,” Anders hissed. “But don’t bother, Chione will come for you and your family if something happens to me.”

I gritted my teeth even harder. The urge to kill him intensified and I had already thought of five ways to do it without being discovered. The worst part was that he was telling the fucking truth. Or at least the truth as he knew it, according to the magic I had borrowed from Sap.

“Fine then, everything you say will be read as true. In thirty seconds bump into me, but it’s going to hurt,” I hissed back and slipped a bit away from him. I placed myself next to Naziface, I might as well get some pleasure out of what I was about to do. Almost as much pleasure as hurting Anders.

I was hamming it up, swaying in place, as I created the memory crystal I needed for Anders to fool the priest. When I felt Anders bump into me, I deliberately spun around in such a manner that my elbow coincidentally smashed into Naziface’s face. Busting his nose. I fell to the ground in the midst of a suddenly silent hall.

“Motherfucker, you pushed me,” I roared and surged drunkenly to my feet. The moment before I slammed into Anders, he got the deer caught in the headlights look. I sent him sprawling to the ground, me on top of him. I began wailing on him drunkenly. Fists falling on his face, I ripped open his tunic, smeared blood all over him from my knuckles. On one of the punches I threw at him, I embedded the memory crystal in his chest cavity.

I felt several hands grabbing me and dragging me off. I struggled, almost got free when I felt someone thump something hard against my head. Hard enough to fracture my skull and knock me out, normally. Except I had over the past two years woven a titanium alloy mesh around all my bones. It was enough to make me dizzy, but I quickly removed that with some healing magic.

Nevertheless, I played unconscious for the audience. I had done what I set out to do. Unfortunately, I could not change Anders’ memory. Through trial and error, I had found that I could not alter the memory of anyone with magic. I could implant the memories, but not overwrite the old ones, and the victim would know they were fake.

Well, except in one case. Fideomancers. When the truth mages read your mind, they opened themselves up to be influenced by the memory magic. Meaning I could make spell crystals that would trick them. Anyone without magic was fair game though.

I felt healing magic starting to pour into me, but I had too many secrets in my body, so I woke with a start, punching out at the guy trying to heal me. My arm was quickly restrained by a couple of guards. King Alfred looked mad as hell. The stare he sent me was one of utter contempt.

“Start with him, then throw him in the dungeon. Don’t let him out until he sobers up,” he commanded. I started fighting and protesting, but someone cuffed me on the back of my head and I settled down. Playing as if I was defeated. A laughable fact. I could lay waste to the entire throne room in a matter of seconds. Only the guards armed with muskets gave me any pause. I had still not found a good way to deal with them. Except for barriers, but they had their flaws as well.

I was dragged in front of the High Hierophant and a cleric of Ghidana. The first question asked was, “Have you thought of rebelling against the Thirteen Kingdoms?”

“Yeah,” I mumbled. “There was this shitty cardinal that Wilbur listened to. Fucker and his son had run the hold I was going to get into the ground.”

I saw the High Hierophant’s eyes narrow a bit. When the cleric announced the truth, a murmur of excitement, but no surprise, went through the crowd. The High Hierophant’s voice was a bit more tense than earlier.

“Interesting. Have you acted against the Thirteen Kingdoms’ laws?”

“Nah, would be stupid when you got truthtelling fucking magicians,” I grumbled drunkenly.

The High Hierophant’s eyes narrowed even further. “Do you know of anyone who’s acting against the Thirteen Kingdoms?”

“Yeah, met a bunch of them. Most of them ended up dead or my fucktoys,” I grinned. With a wicked grin, I added, “Sometimes both.”

“You’re disgusting,” the High Hierophant sniffed.

“Not as disgusting as that steward I punished. Fucker raped a young woman, served him right when I castrated him and sentenced him to serfdom,” I said, then narrowed my eyes. “You look a lot like him. Are you Vernon the Defiler, or just part of his family?”

My words seemed to anger the High Hierophant, especially when the cleric stammered out a “Truth”. I did not even have to use memory magic on him this time around. The High Hierophant gnashed his teeth.

“Do you know of anyone betraying the Thirteen Kingdoms or the Church?” was his next question. His voice was rather strained.

I thought about how much shit I could stir up, which was a lot. Nevertheless, I reckoned I had done enough to tarnish my reputation a bit. I answered the rest of his questions without becoming snarky about it. Eventually, I was led out of the throne room, towards the dungeon. I made sure to maintain the connection to the spell crystal inside Anders’ chest.

The cell I was thrown into was small and very damp. Not the best hole I had been in, but at least there was no one else down here. Except for the guards who were staring at me, and the other prisoners. At least one of them kept an eye on me the entire time.

I sat up an illusion of me lying down, snoring loudly, and popped out of the cell with invisibility turned on. It was time to get rid of Naziface and the corrupt capitalistic businessman was the perfect patsy. I made my way through the castle easily unseen. First stop was my own quarters, where I extracted one of the powders that Siphanien had prepared for me.

Next, I found a timid looking serf. Taking on the disguise of one of the guards, I marched up to him and demanded, “Where’s the room of Lord Silas?”

The serf led me there and I altered his memory of why he had come up to the corridor. I created a link to his collar, so I always knew where he was. At the same time, I implanted an unconscious desire to take a midnight stroll. A specific route. While I could have read his mind easily enough, it would take a longer time to find what I was looking for.

Inside Lord Silas room I went to his bed. I carefully coated his pillows and blankets in it. The powder was so fine that if spread out enough, you could not see it. Any little movement of the blankets would fill the air with the sleeping powder. It should be enough to ensure that once he went to bed, he would not wake up for several hours.

That done, I made my way back towards my cell. Somehow I was not surprised when I met Chione on my way back. She was almost as much of an enigma as the mysterious woman residing inside my mind.

She opened a door and gestured for me to go in first, despite the fact that I was invisible. When the door closed, I felt her unleash some mana, most likely securing the room from snooping ears and wandering eyes.

“You better get your dog on a leash and remind him of our deal,” I said without preamble and dropped my invisibility.

“Hello, Karth, nice to see you.”

I harrumphed. “Unless you drop your dress and bend over, there’s nothing nice about meeting you.”

“Crude as ever,” she replied with distaste.

“Haughty as ever,” I countered. “Now what the fuck do you want?”

“The elves, giants, and fairies have already summoned their heroes. We need the four other races to summon theirs,” Chione said in a matter of fact voice.

“Great, I already knew that. Way to risk everything for an old piece of news,” I said with a snort.

“The fairies will try and talk with the beastkin, they share the same goddess after all. To try and convince the beastkin to summon their saviours,” Chione went on, ignoring my tirade entirely. “Anders and I will be coming to your Hold to treat with the dwarves. Officially we’ll be there on business. Ayda will try to get the help of the Sea King to convince the merfolk. That just leaves you.”

“Fuck no, I said I’m doing my stuff. I’m already ruining my reputation just so that Anders can become the fucking hero,” I said. “I want nothing else to do with you. I’ve told you before, you coordinate with me, not the other way around. You tell me what you’re doing, and I decide whether I want to fuck it up or not.”

Her eyes narrowed. “You’re testing my patience, Karth.”

“Yeah, well, do you know what your mangy dog just did? He threatened to expose me if I did not help him fool their truth mages,” I growled. “So don’t talk about testing patience. I went along with your fucked up idea of tarnishing my reputation, so it would be easier for Anders to shine with his battle victories. I didn’t agree to help him more than that.”

“You’ll be compensated of course,” Chione said.

“The only thing I want from you fuckers is to kill Anders, are you going to give me that?” I asked. “No? Well, good working with you then, bitch.”

I started to walk out of the room, I feigned being unworried, but every one of my senses was standing on end, trying to catch the slightest clue of her attacking me. It did not happen. Instead, she said, “Karth, please wait. I can give you what you want. I can give you your child back.”

That stopped me in my tracks. Anger boiled over, and in a flash, I had teleported in front of her. Titanium blades extended and buried in her chest, pinning her against the wall. It was a good thing that the room was soundproofed by magic because I roared, “Don’t fucking mention my children!”

She coughed up a bit of blood, but I could see her wounds were already healing. “Not the one you lost, the one you didn’t know you had.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” I growled withdrawing my left hand far enough to get the blades out of her body. Immediately I shifted them lower and pushed them slowly into her stomach. The lack of pain told me she had turned off her pain receptors.

“The reason that there are so many of you, instead of thirteen as the prophecy foretells, is that the church needed you to breed children,” she started to explain.

“I already fucking know that.” I punctuated it by ripping her stomach open with the blades. She must have been using a lot of mana to heal, the wounds healed as soon as they were made. “They basically told us all that when they forced us to marry and breed a local girl.”

“But you had sex with a local before that, didn’t you?” she asked.

“How do you know that?”

“They sent someone to seduce all of you. Some of you fell for it easier than the others. Just ask your little pet priest.”

My mind turned blank and I just stared at her for half a minute or so. When my mind finally started churning again, it was going wild with speculation about who my child was, and how it was doing. I knew she was telling the truth, according to my giant magic. “Are you saying I have another child out there?”

“Yes, a daughter. Every one of you had daughters. If you slept with your seductress. They’re all being kept on the priest’s fallback island.”

“Conveniently, it’s where you want the priests of humanity to flee too.”

She nodded once. “Yes, you know it is. A coincidence, nothing more. You know I’m not lying to you. The magic you’re borrowing from the giants should tell you that.”

“Fine, one of the High Hierophants is here. Let’s go torture the gate address out of him, so I can go get my daughter,” I growled.

“You know that’s not going to work,” she said in a comforting voice. “You know as well as I that the hierophants won’t open the portal unless it’s their only hope of survival. Which is why we need to get the other races involved. Make a giant alliance with all the races, attack from within and without at the same time.”

“Fine, what do you want me to do?”

“Could you retract your blades?” she asked coldly.

“I kinda like you where you are. This is the only way I get to penetrate you,” I replied with a smirk.

“You can fuck me if you want,” she replied in an attempt at a seductive voice.

“Now I know you’re playing me,” I hissed and threw her across the rooms, my blades leaving holes in her body, which neither bled and was closing at a visible rate.

“Have you vented your anger?”

“Are you going to let me kill Anders?”

“No,” came the expected reply.

“Then no. I won’t be happy until everyone in the Church and he is dead,” I answered. “Now what the fuck did you want me to do?”

“I need you to talk the orcs into summoning their heroes,” she said.

“You’re not asking for small things, are you?”

She got back to her feet, all the blood was gone and her clothes were in the process of being repaired. “With your brutish manners, it should be easy for you to win them over.”

“Fuck you.”

“You just declined that,” she retorted. “What do you want for doing me this small favour?”

“Let me kill Anders, he’s useless to you.”

She shook her head. “Anything but that.”

“Fine, I’ll settle for you putting on a slave collar and manacles, with me as the master,” I said.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Fine, but not until the orcs have summoned their champions. And tomorrow you’ve to make Anders look good with whatever you’re planning.”

“Tell him to not fucking hesitate then. He needs to be ready to kill Silas as soon as stuff goes down.”

With a nod, she swished out of the room, with me staring after her. I could not help but think she had agreed a bit too easy for that. Shrugging, deciding there was nothing I could do about it, for now, I went back to my cell and slept off my bender.

I “woke” about noon, making a large clamour for food and more alcohol. The guards looked annoyed for a moment before one of them whispered something. They started grinning. A minute later a guard looked at me with a grin when he brought a bowl of porridge and an empty. “‘Ere’s yer food, milord. Courtesy of the princeling.”

He proceeded to spit in the porridge and unfastened his trousers before pissing into the cup, making all the other guards snortle and guffaw. He handed both of them to me or at least tried to. Instead, I grabbed the wrist with the bowl in it and the cup.

As the bowl fell to the ground with a clatter and splat, while his face connected with the iron bars. Dazedly he fell to his knees, looking up at me. I grabbed him by the hair and pulled back, tilting his head upwards. The other guards shouted and drew weapons.

“You better remember I’m a lord, not just any lord. I’m the freaking hero of the Bastion, I killed thousands of elves personally. A bunch of lowlives who’s too afraid to fight on the frontlines doesn’t scare me,” I growled at them. Making them stop in their tracks. The guard on his knees opened his mouth to protest, so I poured a small bit of his piss into his mouth. He spat it out immediately. With a little air magic, I made sure it landed on the other guards, not on me.

The titanium blades emerged slowly, for dramatic effect. It worked because the guards all stared open-mouthed at them. To the guard, I held by the hair, I said, “If you want to live, you’ll drink every drop inside this cup. Do you understand me?”

He nodded. So I proceeded to pour the content of the cup into his mouth. He looked ill and disgusted as he swallowed. When he had drunk everything, I released him and gave him back the cup. “In case you get thirsty, you can always recycle. Now get me some proper food and alcohol. If any of you messes with, I’ll fucking kill you all. Tell Prince Shit For Brains that if he continues this shit, he’ll drive me to rebellion. Let it be a lesson in governance or something like that.”

“Yes, Milord,” the guards all mumbled suitably cowed.

The treatment I received afterwards was exemplary, fueled by pure terror on their part. They were so afraid of me that they doubled the guard, and at least three of them kept an eye on me at all times. Which was perfect for my purpose, since it would strengthen my alibi.

When it approached midnight, I put another illusion crystal to run the image and sounds of me drunkenly snoring. The dozens of empty bottles of wine and ale would make it a hazard for anyone trying to enter. Another small teleport and use of invisibility had me moving through the corridors.

First stop was Silas, opening the door, I found him sprawled naked on the bed together with a young, equally naked man or boy. He looked very young, maybe only in his late teens. Too bad for the young man to be caught up in what would be a large scandal very soon.

With Silas passed out, it was easy to implement the spell crystals I needed within him. Four of them. He was a stone mage like Anders, so I implemented one attack crystal, and one memory crystal that would make everything he said read as false. I also implemented a crystal that would silence him, and one that would create an illusion from afar that I could control.

I found a robe that could quickly be put on and discarded and placed it on the floor like it had been thrown there in haste. I also repositioned the two of them a bit. Happy with what I had done, I left as invisible as I arrived.

Next, I went to Walther’s room. He had a bevy of beauties in the bed next to him. They would, unfortunately, have to die as well. With a little application of air magic, I sent a dose of sleeping powder into the faces of each woman, ensuring they would not wake up. At the same time, I made sure nothing got into Walther’s face.

I set up a silence dome around the bed and made the sheets tie him up. Switching between types of magic had become second nature for me by now. Except for the connection with Shenerah, I could change at will.

“Wakey wakey, mein führer,” I said.

“Wha—” he mumbled sleepily. A splash of water woke him up quickly. Finding that he could not move an inch, he shouted, “What the fuck is going on?”

“This is your final moments, enjoy them while they last,” I said and stood up from the bed.

“What the fuck? Karth, what are you doing?” he asked, confusion on your face.

“Concentration camps? Do you really think that’s a good idea? You sick fuck,” I spat. “You want to send my wives and kids to a concentration camp. Well, fuck you.”

“Wait, wait, we can talk about this. If you want to be High Lord, I’ll abdicate the position and give it to you, how about that?” he started begging. I just shook my head and manifested a giant stone above the bed. It was suspended from the ceiling.

“Any moment now, that stone will fall down and crush you. Sounds like fun, doesn’t it?” I told him and got off the bed.

“Please Karth, I don’t want to die. I can give you money, pussy, whatever you want, man,” he continued to beg.

“I just want you to die,” I replied and let the stone fall down and crush him and the ladies. It was a shame they had to die, but people would have known they should be in here.

“Nooo, ple—” was all he managed to scream before getting squished permanently. I had monitored the progress of the last piece of the puzzle, and he was up and about, taking the walk I wanted him to. I went to stand by the door, and created an illusion, making me look like Silas dressed in the robe.

When the serf was at the spot I wanted him to be in, I made an illusion reproducing Walther’s dying scream, except I had added in a few extra bits. “Nooo, Silas, you don’t have to do this, ple—”

The other bits I added in was that of women screaming in terror. I flung open the door and hurried out of the room, heading in a direct route towards Silas’ room. The noise was so loud I could already hear people running about.

As soon as I made my way to Silas’ door, I turned invisible, opening and slamming the door quickly. Liberal use of teleporting and sprinting got me back to my cell in a jiffy. When I got back the guards were all alert, looking around. Shouts and horns of alarm started to fill the castle and were audible even in the dungeon.

With a fake yawn, I sat up and slurred, “What’s going on?”