Ascension Rebirth - The Arune Inquisition

CHAPTER XXII

PART ONE

-500 years ago-

"I refuse."

The words that came from the emperor's mouth, echoed through the throne room. Ringing loudly in the ears of the two men that stood before him.

They were not the words that they had expected to hear.

The emperor had refused to follow an order from the supreme being, even if he was the man with the highest authority in the entire nation, the supreme being's words supersedes his. One does not simply refuse the order of such a being.

Yet the emperor had decided not to.

Breaking the silence Dian Cecht spoke.

"I don't believe you have a choice in this matter, Emperor Eldwin. This is not an offer, but an order, one that you are expected to follow."

"And I believe I have made my piece clear, I refuse to follow such an abhorrent order."

"Abhorrent you say. What makes you say as such?"

The emperor took a deep breath.

"Arune has erred. 'Expansion' you say? Over the course of history, Arune has taken many countries and kings, destroyed numerous armies and families, brought injustice to all races even to our humanity. Our tradition dictate that we uphold humanity on a pedestal, yet trample on those that are not human. Where is justice in this? Where is glory in harming those that cannot defend?"

"I do not understand your position, emperor. Have you not lived your life as the man who is at the height of all Arune stands for?"

"You are wrong, all my life I have tried to rectify the wrong done by Arune. When I took the throne I did so with the intentions of peace, not warfare."

"So you say, but you have crushed your fair share of rebels, have you not?"

"The ones that I have crushed are the ones that disagree with my view that we should reach out and offer peace to other races. They would only bring more pain and suffering, thus I have crushed them."

"You bite back at the hand that has kept you fed. Was it not the supreme being that created what Arune is today? Yet you decide that you want it differently? Do you have no sense of shame?"

"When a country has erred, is it not the king's duty to fix that? The supreme being is this country, even so he is wrong, I wish to show him that there is another way; war can only bring more misfortune."

"I see. It is a shame, Emperor Eldwin, I did not hate you."

Dian Cecht turned his head towards Dagda who was standing looking bored. His forte was not in politics or philosophy, but in battle and carnage. It is after all his title to be the [master of war].

Dian Cecht gave a non-verbal signal to get rid of the one who stands in the plan of their master. In this case, the emperor himself.

Dagda had a cruel and malicious smile as he flexed his neck, making an audible cracking sound.

Dagda spoke, his hoarse voice sending chills towards the emperor.

"For those who stand in the way of our master, only death awaits."

"So be it."

Accepting his fate the emperor closed his eyes. From the start he never believed that he would be able to get out of this situation alive, however for the emperor it was more important that he place his principles above his own life.

Dagda slowly walked up to the emperor, with each step resounding through the halls. Audibly tapping, sending shivers down the emperor's spine.

Overshadowing the emperor with his large physique he grabbed him by his neck and slowly lifted him.

Struggling to breathe the emperor hung on to dear life.

"Khh!"

"It seems that your services are no longer required, oh emperor."

Just short about to break the emperor's neck someone had intervened at the right time.

"Stop it! Don't hurt grandpa!"

It was Elly, she tackled Dagda and pushed him aside. Though it may be surprising that a two year old girl was able to push a man nearly 3 meters tall.

Dagda, flown back released the emperor.

"What the-?"

Dagda looked back but was blinded by a bright white light. The entire throne room was covered by the same light, blinding everyone.

The light was not only bright but it also had damaging effects to everyone, this included the emperor. Such a mystical light, no one had known what was going on until they gazed at Elly once more.

She was still glowing with a golden light, however it was not as bright as before thus they were able to see much more clearly.

The most surprising part was what was behind the small figure. A pair of white heavenly wings, a symbol of divinity.

"What?"

Dian Cecht surprised, let out an audible gasp. He knew what it meant to have such angelic wings. After all, he too possessed them, of course not always, but once he unleashes his full power the wings form behind him.

The answer came naturally to all those in the room, of course it was still hard to believe.

The emperor stared, shocked at what he was seeing, he couldn't believe it.

"This child. Who is the father?"

Dian Cecht asked.

"My strongest knight, Lugh."

Still dazed from the mesmerizing light, the emperor answered unconsciously.

"Lugh?!"

Dagda, now shocked had his eyes wide open.

"That traitor's son."

"Traitor?"

Though the emperor knew Lugh from a young age, he did not know exactly his real origins. Lugh had been orphaned when he arrived at the palace.

"Lugh. He's the son of the traitor, Cian. A lesser deity like us."

"Then Elly is-?"

"Hahaha, interesting, so this child also inherited the traitor's divinity. This makes things much more convenient, we can use her."

"What? As if I'd let you!"

The emperor, even knowing that he hadn't a shred of combat experience charged at Dian Cecht.

At that moment Dian Cecht raised his hand and a smoke-like shadow had engulfed the emperor. Slowly killing him from the inside, he coughed blood.

"Noooo!"

Elly, witnessing the scene once more charged towards the two lesser gods.

However she was easily stopped by Dagda, she was brought before Dian Cecht and pink colored smoke engulfed her, putting her to sleep.

Thus Emperor Eldwin had been murdered by the two lesser gods, and his granddaughter, Elly had been captured.

Following these events the entirety of the Arune Empire had changed, no longer titled as the [holy empire], the entire nation was renamed to the [Arune Inquisition].

PART TWO

-2 years later-

"Y, your highness! We have received reports on the current situation of the Arune Expansion Campaign."

A scared soldier had entered the throne room. Visibly shaking at the presence of who was sitting at the throne.

The one sitting at the throne was a lesser god named [Dian Cecht]. As though death had taken the seat of the empire, his black robe and ominous white plague mask sent a clear message to all those within the palace.

The ambiance of the entire palace had changed. No longer did nobles come and go with a solemn smile on their faces after a hard day's work. Now it was just silence, no one spoke to one another and simply accomplished the task they were given.

If they did not comply with the new emperor's orders they would be immediately executed. On the spot no less.

Standing next to the new emperor was Dagda, crossing his arms at the boredom.

On top of the throne, encased in a golden crystal was a familiar figure of a child. Deep in slumber was Elly Arune, the granddaughter of the previous emperor.

It wasn't as though time had stopped for her, she still aged, she was 4 years old now, her hair reaching past her thighs. She was put to indefinite sleep until the time where she was required came.

The new emperor had a look over the parchment that he received from the scared soldier and started to read over them.

"Hey, how much longer do we have to do this?"

Dagda, still bored asked from the sidelines.

"Until we gathered enough [divine energy]. That's the entire point of this expansion campaign anyway."

"Ugh, when do I get to see battle? This is boring!"

"Who knows? Maybe you'll never see battle, once Lord Nodens arrives then it's all over anyway."

"Dammit."

Interrupting them a new group of soldiers had arrived in the throne room.

"You highness, we, the [inquisition] have returned."

There were around 20 soldiers. All dressed in an ominous red armour, their faces were covered by grey masks which had inscriptions written on them.

"Excellent, so how did it go?"

"Yes, the Western Continent has fallen. We have secured the entirety of it and are now proceeding to extract [Divine Energy]."

"Ugh, why do we have to do this again?"

Dagda asked, ruining the professionalism of the exchange.

"I don't know how many times I've explained this to you. We require a certain amount of [divine energy] to allow a connection between this world and the [heaven continent]. Once the connection is established, a gateway will open, when that happens it becomes possible for Lord Nodens to enter [Eternis]."

Dian Cecht responded, giving an exposition on what they were doing.

"So? How much longer do we need?"

"Well, the southern and western continents have all been excavated, so that means we've reached about 60%. Once we conquer the eastern and center continent it should be it."

"Dammit, this is going to take forever isn't it?"

"Patience is what you need. If you're that bored why don't you go play with some of the soldiers?"

"Bah, they break too easily, not enough of a challenge. Hey do you think I should go slay the demon lord? We haven't received any news of the emperor's daughter regarding her side of the mission."

"You'll just be wasting time, how long do you think it takes to simply get to the northern continent? It'll take at least two years, as long as she doesn't know her father is dead then she'll faithfully accomplish her mission. Once she gets rid of the only obstacle then we've completed our part."

"Argh, fine. Whatever. Call me when you need me, I'll just go to sleep or something."

Dagda left the room, feeling rather bored he decided it was best to just sleep it off.

"Sigh, it's taking every inch of my mental fortitude to stop me from killing him. As for you guys, go see to it that the eastern and center continents are also conquered."

"I hear and obey, your majesty."

The red inquisition knights left the room.

Wanting to take a break from the work, Dian Cecht walked over to the veranda and gazed down at the Giga Fortress.

The capital too, has changed. There were no happy faces.

Most able bodied citizens were conscripted into the [inquisition] and turned into soldiers, they received extremely harsh training to turn them into murder weapons. It's said that only 40% of the recruits make it past the first month.

However logistically this wasn't a problem since more soldiers could be procured from everywhere Arune had conquered.

"Soon. It will all end soon."

(Okay, so this is just a short intermission chapter, the next chapter will be the real last chapter for this small [500 years ago] storyline. Forgive me, I wanted to put this and the next chapter in one chapter but I didn't know where to put it.) :(