It was a cold Tuesday morning. The air was still, calm, and showed barely any movement.

But the inhabitants of this air in the crowd of the world stage exhibited the exact opposite.

The crowd was noisy, over the top, active, and beyond ready to see the new King, Deziekker, give his introduction to the world.

At about nine in the morning, the crowd quieted down as the King was expected to soon make his appearance.

Everyone's eyes shifted between each other and the world stage as they anxiously awaited his arrival.

Then, just a few minutes after the expected time, the crowd started chanting again.

And if it wasn't obvious as to why, one look at the world stage would tell you all you needed to know.

The stairs that resided behind the massive stage were slowly being ascended by the new King:

King Deziekker.

He planed both of his feet on the world stage and looked out into the crowd. Nothing about his outfit had changed from when he took the throne. He was still sporting a black beanie with two white spots in the front that resembled eyes, had long, purple hair, and a tan vest and grey pants.

He walked up to the microphone with his eyes still affixed upon the crowd.

He opened his mouth to speak.

"Good morning everyone. My name is Deziekker. King Deziekker."

Some parts of the crowd cheered, some did not.

Some people were excited about the idea of a new King since they disliked Jonah. Some people were uneasy about the idea because they weren't used to change and it was jarring that a King was killed in their lifetime. Others were either blindly cheering or weren't able to find a reason to cheer at all.

Nonetheless, the crowd acted the way a crowd usually does in any big event.

"A week ago I took the throne from King Jonah's hands."

He stood silent for just a few seconds as he knew the crowd would react. He wanted to test how good he would be at crowd control. So when the murmurs occurred, he quickly suppressed the noise with more words. And it worked. He continued his speech.

"He was a marvelous King. He was the only one I knew in my lifetime, and from what I saw he did a damn good job. May he rest in peace. I'd like a moment of silence for him starting now."

The crowd followed his command. There were a few distant echoes and murmurs, but the silence overpowered it.

After a bit, Deziekker inhaled and began talking once more.

"Most of you living here come from the surrounding cities in the Kingdom of Mace. Some of you live directly in Mace. Some of you in Curie, the heroes city...some of you even in royal and warlords cities! There's even some that reside in outside or nearby villages that are attending here today. I just want to make it known that everyone here is welcome."

The crowd made some noise as Deziekker gathered his thoughts.

"I guess the main thing that I'm trying to establish is that everyone has their own living situation. Everyone has their own life with friends, family, and duties that you tend to. While these duties and whatnot may be vastly different, one thing that is similar is that you are all under rule of the King. That is why right here, right now, I am assuring you that you are safe, you are protected, and you are well."

The crowd started cheering as his speech went on, and especially at the last part.

"Every one of you is special in your own way, and you control many aspects of your life. However, my ruling and those close to me make decisions that may alter this, so it is my duty as King to let you know that under my rule that I will not be making any drastic decisions that negatively impact any aspect of your life."

Deziekker stared at the crowd as it stared back at him, cheering.

He was thinking of what to say next. He already got the obvious things out of the way, but now he wanted to establish a personal connection to the audience.

"Growing up, I was less like the ones that live in royal cities and more like the ones that live in the outskirts of them. I grew up in West Settyville, and if you don't know, that's the area of Settyville where poverty is most rampant."

Deziekker's expression remained the same as he paused for a moment in his speech.

"I was impoverished for most of my life. My single mother sacrificed a ton for me...I grew up with the belief that I needed to be strong and protect her and myself."

Deziekker stared at the crowd as it was mostly silent.

"I trained everyday from the moment that I realized that I needed to be strong to the day that I took the throne. I trained independently sixteen hours a day, barely ate, and barely slept. When my mother passed, it gave me more conviction that I needed to become the strongest I could possibly be. And I did. I eventually gained the power of a King."

The crowd was now murmuring. The response was mixed with cheers and talk.

"I don't believe I was ever destined to become the King. Honestly, I don't think destiny matters in most cases either. Everything in your life can point towards something being your destiny, but you can end up going with something completely different. I only thought about the fact that I could be the King when I realized my strength...and this strength was achieved through determination from other goals, not the goal of becoming King."

The crowd was still murmuring, albeit a bit louder.

"Everyone in the crowd may have their own destiny. Everyone in the crowd may not. But honestly, I think it goes without saying that you are ultimately in charge of what to do with your life. I developed strength in order to protect my mother and I, but this strength proved to be great enough to protect the entire world."

The crowd's cheers increased.

"So now I stand before you with my goal ultimately changed. I was able to protect my mother as much as I could before she passed. I've always been able to protect myself. And now, the people that I care most about are the citizens of the world, those under the rule of the King. Therefore, I will use my strength in order to protect you. You being the people in the crowd, the people watching from their news screens, the people who are hearing about this speech from their friends and family."

The crowd cheered and cheered with every new part of the speech that was stated.

"I will allocate resources to those who need it the most. I will set up great systems for warriors and royal and regular army members to protect places that need it. I will set forth against any Evil that the world needs eradicated. And most importantly, I will make sure that under my rule, you, a citizen of the world and all that is good, will be safe!"

The crowd's cheers were now deafening. Deziekker stepped back from the mic and stared at the crowd. His expression was still as blank as it was when he started speaking.

He stared at the crowd for a few seconds and then stepped back to the mic.

"Thank you all. I'm sorry for this speech being so short, but there are very important matters I must attend to. Love for all."

Deziekker turned around and walked down the steps behind the world stage.

Once he reached the bottom, he entered the main building that was connected to the main castle.

The walls were yellow and bronze, and red carpet stretched from every corner of the rooms.

Two of the highest members of the Perrior accompanied him from behind to guard him.

They advanced forward through the hallway.

After a tiny bit of walking, Deziekker turned around and looked at them both with a smirk on his face.

"I know you guys did it for Jonah as he became old, but seriously, I don't need accompaniment like this all the time. I can handle myself." He said this in a half joking way.

The member on the left opened his mouth right after he said this.

"Is that an order?"

Deziekker let out an explosive laugh after hearing this. He put his hand to his mouth and had his eyes closed as the laugh echoed throughout the halls.

"Jesus, what's up with you guys? Nothing should ever be that serious when it comes to this."

The members of the Perrior stared blankly at Deziekker.

Deziekker finally stopped laughing but still had a smile on his face.

"Alright. Let's go."

They advanced through the halls as Deziekker led the way to the throne room.

As they were progressing through the halls, a door opened on their right.

Out of it came the #4 Warlord, Grix. He had dark skin, short green ruffled hair, and wore a tin-foil looking robe that spanned across his entire body with pieces all over the floor.

"Great speech boss!" he exclaimed with a smirk on his face. "I was so moved. Especially at the part where you said you'd eradicate the evils. It reminded me of a certain mission that occurred five years ago."

Deziekker also developed a smirk.

"Shut the hell up. You know I didn't mean it like that." Deziekker was half serious in this instance as well.

"I got the reports you asked for." Grix continued. "Ain's in here with some additional stuff if you wanna see us now."

Deziekker nodded and began to enter the room.

Before his body was fully through the door, he turned around and spoke to the two Perrior members.

"Stay here a distance away. Don't try and eavesdrop. I'll know if you do."

He then turned and entered the room.

Inside the room was a rectangular wooden table that stretched across the room, with chairs all around it. The entire thing resembled a meeting room, with food and beverages on the side, news screens around, and boards for those to draw on.

Ain, the #5 Warlord, sat at the very end of the table. He was white, had freckles, and most notably...a massive cowboy hat that was on fire.

Ain's eyes lit up when he saw Deziekker.

"Wow! The King's in my vicinity just minutes after his address! I feel so important right now!"

Ain chuckled after saying this.

Deziekker smiled a bit but didn't have too much of a reaction to his slight sarcasm.

"Out of all the significant shit in your life this makes you feel important? You need to get your priorities straight, dumbass, you're a damn Warlord."

Ain kept chuckling with a wide smile on his face. "Relax man, it was a joke. It's just that Jonah was King for so long that all this change is getting me going."

Everyone took a seat. Ain at the end of the table, Deziekker a little far on his left, and Grix in front of Deziekker.

"So. What are these reports you speak of?" Deziekker started.

Grix cleared his throat, covering his mouth with one hand and using his other to pick up white sheets of paper on the table in front of him.

"So you asked for inside spies on several armies and notable people's settlements. Some good, some evil. These papers are status reports from each individual person's spy mission on the person. Some are in, some have detailed data already, and some haven't responded..."

"Do you think this is ethical?" Deziekker turned and looked at Ain while asking this question.

Grix looked up from these papers in a confused manner and wondered why he wasn't asked this.

Ain was stuffing his face full of popcorn when he was asked. He quickly swallowed it all and prepared to give an answer.

"Um...your intent is to gather information on those and make sure that they aren't doing anything awful so, no, I don't think so. It's not like the previous Kings never did anything like this. You should've seen the shit we did for Jonah sometimes! Hah!"

Grix now looked at Ain with an angry expression, seemingly telling him to not speak about Jonah.

Ain looked over at him for a second and caught wind of it. He then shifted his eyes back to the King.

"It is odd though. Let me know if I'm overstepping your majesty, but, you did say in your speech that you became King on a whim because you realized your power, correct? How come you have such a detailed plan for how you're gonna run things so soon?"

Grix was scared that he had asked this question. It was out of the blue considering the meeting was only supposed to be a formal report from the Warlords to the King about their duties.

One could argue that Deziekker initiating the questioning with his initial question about morality, but he still had authority in the situation. The Warlord's main duty was still to keep professionalism around the King in situations like this no matter what the King is doing.

Deziekker was mysterious to them all, and since he had the power of the King, he could really do anything as long as it remained upon the lines of "good". The lack of knowledge and background on him really spooked the Warlords more than anything. Deziekker may have told his story already, but he told it to the rest of the world as well. Every citizen in the world got the same story that the Warlords did, and that lack of personal connection between them was scary.

"I didn't say it was on a whim. In fact, I never specified when I made this realization. When it comes to this matter, I feel like what I'm doing isn't too odd, no?"

The Warlords shook their head no in agreement.

"You said it yourself, Ain. Jonah made you do worse things. Is it the fact that I'm already so far into my duties as King already that it scares you? If my actions truly get out of line and divert from what you're used to, by all means, let me know. But I think this lurking suspicion of me that you have is just going to hurt us all in the end. I'm the King. You're a Warlord. Let's do our duties and tend to them like us Nobles always do, alright?"

Ain nodded his head. Grix also nodded his head even though he wasn't being addressed.

It was unfortunate, but this sneaking suspicion that they had was not going to be let go. Deziekker brought up some good points in their head, but the matter still remained the same. They were just as in the dark as anyone else about the new King.

"Continue the report." Deziekker said, turning back to Grix.

"Right."

Grix flipped through the pages, reading information in his head and studying what was on the page.

"You requested that seven of them be highlighted, right? I can read off the ones that you highlighted and their status." Grix proposed.

"Yeah, that'll work. After that just hand me the documents."

"Alright."

Grix flipped to the first page and read off the first highlighted one.

"Jiriki. What a grand start. He was recently crowned the #4 Evil Warlord after he murdered the entirety of the Sai family a few weeks ago. We were requested that we find his whereabouts. We had #11 Warrior Mixtel look around Okanaki village where some villagers claimed that they had seen him in black hooded attire inside their local bar."

Deziekker nodded. "And?"

"Mixtel entered the same bar and sat next to Jiriki. He got a good glimpse of him and immediately knew it was him. He had a blindfold around his eyes."

Deziekker's eyes started to widen. Ain took note of this.

"They talked for a bit, and then apparently Mixtel slipped up and Jirki realized who he was and..."

Deziekker was invested. "And what?"

"Jirki sliced his arm clean off and walked out nonchalantly while he cried screaming on the ground in agonizing pain."

Ain and Deziekker both put on a freaked out expression.

"Well alright. Um...the next one, please."

Grix flipped the paper.

"Lord T. He was recently crowned the new #9 Evil Warlord after his assassination of Michael, the #10 Warlord. He left behind a note on his body that said "My name is Lord T. This was revenge, not evil doing. I am only nineteen years old and plan to carry out Kogami's will. Please don't be afraid."

Kogami was the strongest man in the world at one point. He was Evil. He was put as #2 on the Evil Warlord list at one point, only second to Morzi due to Morzi's heinous crimes outweighing his. When Kogami caught wind of this, he sent a letter to King Jonah telling him to take him off.

They refused.

Kogami then attacked the Kingdom of Mace with his army and caused utter chaos, killing thousands of innocent civilians, Warriors, and many members of the Perrior.

While they wanted to declare war on Kogami for this, Jonah made the decision to take his name off the Evil Warlord list and lay low until they figured out a better plan. The hit they suffered was too much and it had genuinely weakened them, so attacking wasn't in their best interest. Kogami passed away some years later, but that's a story for another time.

Deziekker smiled after hearing Lord T's message. "How interesting."

Ain was freaked out by Deziekker's response, but he didn't say anything. How is this intimidating message interesting to you? That's the youngest Evil Warlord ever designated! he thought.

"We sent a few low ranking members of the Perrior to scout for Lord T's location and confirm some things. His identity, where he came from, and details of his supposed plan are unknown. One thing that was known was that he wore a white cat mask around his face, because he was seen fleeing the scene by a royal army member."

Deziekker nodded.

"He was also wearing a black robe with a white karate-esque belt. With this knowledge, we sent out the massive alert to be on the lookout for him and report any sightings. He was found with a cat mask on in green attire in the heroes city of Kuri. He was apparently there talking with another person who had a hood on. A few citizens reported it, and when the royal army members finally came in, he was gone. The residents pointed in his direction, but he was nowhere to be found."

Deziekker was intrigued. "And the other person?"

"They found him running down an alley way and pinned him down. They interrogated him, asking where Lord T went, what he said to him, and he was apparently about to confess everything. But then suddenly, a massive yellow star flew down from the sky and struck him, blowing him into pieces."

Deziekker's eyes opened wide. "That's just like Kogami's power."

Ain and Grix caught on at the same exact time. They both had stunned looks on their faces.

The room was silent for a few seconds as they soaked in the revelation.

After a bit, Grix continuted.

"They took his DNA and identified him as an old retired soldier of Jonakai that lived in Jonakai's royal city."

Deziekker's opened his eyes even wider. "What the hell?"

"Yeah, it's fucking weird. I don't know what to make of it. Do you think this Lord T guy, who apparently has Kogami's power...has some sort of connection with Jonakai? " Grix replied.

Deziekker's eyes fell back into normal place.

"I'm all for speculation but we shouldn't jump to those types of conclusions. It could honestly just be a big coincidence. The guy seemed ready to admit everything. If it was a secret that threatened his life, he wouldn't have been so eager to tell the royal army that wasn't even trying to kill him. And besides, why meet in public where everyone is watching if you're trying to tell a secret? The more you think about it, the more it seems to me like a random interaction with Lord T. But that cat mask guy was definitely Lord T alright. That part adds up."

Grix and Ain nodded. It made sense when they thought it over, but the fact that Deziekker shooed any suspicion of this connection stunned them a bit.

"His age though. Do you think he's bluffing? Because if not, he'd be the youngest Evil Warlord that we've ever seen." Grix stated with an expression of curiousity.

"Eh." Deziekker started. "I really doubt it. It's such a specific piece of information to lie about. His intentions may be to lie about his age in order to make us scared that he's such a force at such a young age, but in all honesty, he's already done enough now that if he really is nineteen, it's the last thing that scares me. I mean, solo killing a Warlord, that's an insane feat!"

Grix and Ain both nodded their heads to this. They were both stunned again at how quickly Deziekker was to dismiss the fact that an Evil could be lying to provoke fear. But, nonetheless, it slowly became the last thing on their mind as Grix turned his attention back to the report.

Grix read four more reports, until finally, he reached the last one.

"One more." Grix said, flipping to the final page.

"Mikali Rinsinau. His father Tret Rinsinau is a famous retired Warior who peaked at #4 before settling down and creating the Rinsinau Warrior army, where he challenges those that are evil himself and fights those who wrong him and his family. He supplied four thousand troops to his son, Mikali, two years ago and set out on a peaceful venture to expand his army and fight evil himself. In just two years he amassed 22,000 troops. He even took a three month break in between. The spies, two mid ranking members of the royal army have been referred to enlist but haven't reached where the main army resides just about yet. They're trying to get to him as close as possible."

Deziekker was stunned. "22,000. Impressive. What an insane amount of willpower."

Deziekker got up from his seat, and Ain and Grix did as well.

Grix handed him the documents like he asked.

"Thanks for the reports. I'll be returning to the throne room now."

Grix and Ain nodded.

"Of course." Grix replied.

Ain grabbed his popcorn bucket and walked towards the door.

Before he exited, he turned back and called out to Deziekker.

"Hey, if you want some of this popcorn, just let me know. I'm about to get a refill from Sheshin."

Sheshin was the King's chef.

Deziekker smiled a bit. "I'll keep that in mind."

Ain exited.

Deziekker walked towards the door and so did Grix. As they both got towards the door, Grix stopped him and looked at him with a questioning look.

"I don't mean to question you but..." Grix started.

Deziekker immediately took on a serious expression.

"You made this spy request list two days into you being King. It's apparent you already knew so much about the world from the jump. Some names on the list didn't even ring a bell in my head."

Deziekker nodded. "I told you, I didn't become King on a whim."

Grix nodded back.

"My question really isn't about that though. You put Jonakai's name on the list. Do you understand how fishy that makes you look, to send spies into the previous King's son's estate?"

Deziekker cracked a smile.

"What's the difference between him and anyone else on that list? His lineage? My goal was to figure out what good and evil people alike are doing in their free time and what it means for the world. You wouldn't say that he's a special exception and that he can't possibly be doing corrupt things because he's Jonah's son, no?"

Grix's expression remained unchanged from before, and he responded almost immediately.

"Of course not. But it's not the initial listing of him that fills me with questions. It's the fact that last night, you recalled all the spies and told them to scrub any reports they had made. Why is that?"

Deziekker put on a massive smile. His eyes were affected by this, seemingly turning into slits because of the sheer size of his smile.

"I only asked if he was a special exception, I wasn't being rhetorical!" Deziekker said enthusiastically. "I realized it was odd for me to do so I stopped spying on the previous King's son. That's all."

Grix was utterly confused. He wasn't confused about his answer, even though it seemed odd, but he was confused about why he'd put on such a massive smile for such a simple reply.

Grix didn't want to step any further into the situation.

"Alright then. Take care, Deziekker."

Grix exited the room.

Deziekker's smile faded and he turned his eyes to the documents.

He placed his eyes where Jonakai's name was and stared at it for quite a while. The information attached was completely blank.

After he finished staring at it, he exited the room.