The butcher hummed the same tune as he walked towards his torture chamber. His excitement grew with each step. Little did he know, a beast waited for him behind the metal door.

“Neroooo... are you ready to have more fun?” The butcher said blissfully.

The butcher put his hand on the door, and began to push it open. The air that slipped into the hall was cold, way colder than what he was used to. This caused him to pause for a moment, but he continued inside assuming it was nothing.

Once inside, the butcher saw Nero sitting in the chair he’d been tortured on. However, he was unchained, and he had put his armored robe back on. He was relaxed, leaning his head on his right hand, legs outstretched. Like a proud king sitting on his throne. Although this was a throne of pain and despair. The butcher stumbled backwards, sensing something dark within Nero’s spirit. He tried to scream for the Abiti outside, but he had no breath in his lungs. All he could do is look into Nero’s cold eyes. Was this the same person he tortured?

“How... did you escape...?” The butcher said with a gulp.

“Escape? Do I look like I’m running?” Nero replied with a blank expression.

The butcher was sure of it now, he had completely changed. He could feel Nero’s power, it was like hell was extending its arms towards him. He had to run.

“Do you really think you can?” Nero said.

Nero had seemingly read the butcher's mind.

“What have I done? What have I created?” The butcher thought to himself.

Nero stood up and slowly walked towards his torturer.

“Now!” the butcher thought as he extended his arms towards Nero.

Lightning began emanating out of the man's hands, he began to cast a spell. The magic exploded out of his hands, and struck Nero’s entire body. However, Nero continued walking. The spell had no effect on him. Was it the robes? Or perhaps Nero had just grown so powerful that the spell simply couldn’t hurt him.

Nero walked through the lightning with ease, like a god braving a storm. He grabbed the butcher's hands, and began to crush them until the spell stopped. The butcher screamed in agony.

“These hands... are evil.” Nero said calmly.

“Please... stop! I-I...” The butcher tried to say.

Nero didn’t care. He just continued crushing the butcher's hands until they were liquified. The man’s hands were gone, they were now just another splatter of blood on the walls and floor. The butcher began to lose consciousness, but Nero wasn’t going to allow that.

He delivered a swift blow to the butcher's gut, causing him to gasp for air. This kept him awake. Nero then put his thumb on the man’s left shoulder, and began pressing into his skin. It immediately broke through, and began pressing on his collar bone. At this moment, his strength knew no limits.

“Now... you were humming something earlier. How about you do it again, it would make me very happy.” Nero said with a sinister smile.

“What...” the butcher tried to ask.

“Your tune, I’m sure plenty of your victims have heard it before. It’s not too much to ask, is it?” Nero said.

Nero began to press into the man's collar bone, starting to feel it crack. The butcher screamed in pain yet again, giving Nero pure pleasure.

“I said... hum.”

The butcher began humming along with his agony, creating a new tune altogether. All that could be heard in the halls outside was this tune, sharpened by cries and yelps of pain. A few cracking sounds could be heard as well. However, the hums stopped after about an hour. All that was left were the sounds of bones breaking and limbs tearing.

It took Nero a while to realize the butcher was dead, he had been focused on destroying his body in every physical way possible. The room was completely covered in blood, so was he. There was no time to reflect on what he had just done. There was work to do.

He exited the room, and began to walk down a long hall. It was dimly lit with candles, and there were other rooms just like the one he was in.

“Disgusting.” Nero said.

He heard some laughs coming from a door at the end of the hall, no doubt the Abiti agents who were assigned to guard the place. Nero approached the door, knowing what was about to happen. The men outside had no idea they were about to die, horribly.

“My wife still has no idea I was the one who finished the whole barrel of wine.” An agent outside laughed.

The rest of the men outside laughed at the agent’s story. Not knowing a monster was standing behind them. They were sitting at a table outside the butcher’s shop with their backs turned. All of them had been drinking, and probably expected a peaceful night. They were the same men who had arrested him, but the Lieutenant wasn’t with them.

Nero grabbed the joking agent by his skull and lifted him off the ground with both hands. It took a second for the other three men to realize what was happening. They all shot up and reached for their swords, but did not advance. They were too frightened by the man who stood before them. He reeked of death, and was covered in blood and guts. One of the men even threw up his alcohol on the concrete.

Nero locked eyes with the man he had grabbed.

“Where is your Lieutenant?” he said.

“I don’t kno-”

Nero crushed his skull to bits and pieces, and the agents body folded down to the ground. The rest of the men froze in terror. They had never seen this brutality before. This was not the young lad they had arrested earlier. This was a beast of a man.

“You bastard! I’ll kill you!” One of the agents screamed as he drew his sword.

The man swung at Nero’s head, using every ounce of anger to avenge his fallen comrade. However, Nero simply caught the sword mid swing. He bent his wrist and snapped the blade in two. He then grabbed the agent by the back of the head, and pulled him closer. As the agent tried to resist this godly strength, Nero plunged the broken blade into the man's chest. He dropped to his knees and Nero released his head. The man fell face first, causing the blade to protrude out of his back. Only two agents remained now. One was on his knees, trembling in terror. While the other was on his feet, trying to stow his fear.

“Where is your lieutenant?” Nero asked once more.

“Fuck you.” The standing agent said.

The agent on his knees closed his eyes, and could hear a swift but bloody noise. His comrade had gone silent. He then opened his eyes, and saw Nero holding his comrades severed head in front of his face. The agent let out a scream of terror, and began to stumble backwards. Nero threw the head behind his shoulder, and knelt down in front of the trembling human.

“Where is he?” Nero said very calmly.

“He’s... probably at his home right now... but-”

“Where does he live?” Nero interrupted.

“He lives... downtown, near the royal castle. But please-”

“Give me an address.” Nero interrupted again.

“It’s on the main circle, right by the castle. It’s number... 47. But-”

“But what?! But spare your miserable life?!” Nero shouted in the man's face.

“No! He has a kid; he has a really good kid! Please don’t hurt them. His wife died; he does everything he can to raise her. Please, take my life in their stead! It’s my duty!” The man pleaded in tears.

Something changed inside of Nero. This man was under the impression he was about to kill a child? Was it because of the carnage? The rage in his eyes? Nero grabbed the man by his collar and pulled him close.

“I am not like you.” Nero said.

The agent looked confused, but realization struck him. The elf before him was not a monster, but a wounded soul.

“No... you’re not. But you do what you have to do.” The agent said with a soft smile.

Nero raised a fist, and the man closed his eyes. Tears began to form, and he delivered a powerful punch on the concrete next to the man's head. A large crash was heard as the entire ground cracked around them.

“Run away.” Nero commanded.

The agent paused for a moment, wondering if he had died. When he realized his situation, he got up and began running away. He shed tears for his fallen comrades, and the terrible thing they had done. He disappeared into the night.

Nero fell to his knees; he had snapped out of his state of rage. He began to sob uncontrollably. As he looked back on the bloody mess he created, he felt sick to his stomach. He had just killed 4 people, some probably had families of their own. Nero knew the butcher deserved it, but these three agents were just following orders. Does that make them responsible? He had to keep moving though, no doubt reinforcements would arrive before the night was over.

He began walking down a dark alley, and found a large bucket of water with some rags.

“How lucky.” he mumbled to himself.

He sat down, and began wiping the blood from his body and clothes. He didn’t know there was this much until now. The water was cool from the night air, and felt good on his skin. It almost allowed him to forget about the carnage for a while.

Once clean, he began walking towards the direction of the castle. He passed by a clock tower that revealed the time. It was 2:30 in the morning. He had been gone for quite a while, if it wasn’t for the smell of blood on him, he’d probably be hungry.

After walking for about an hour, he reached the main circle. It was just a large round street filled with closed shops, restaurants, and rowhomes. The people residing in them were probably all government officials or nobles, being this close to the castle. It was deserted in the dead of night, and there was a large pathway that led to the royal castle. The castle itself looked absolutely beautiful from where Nero was standing. It was massive, big enough to be a small city on its own. It had 4 large towers that stretched to the sky, there were balconies lining them. No doubt they were for luxurious bedrooms or studies. Nero wondered if Stella was in one of them, sleeping peacefully. Perhaps she’d still be awake after the events that happened the day before. Nero turned his attention back to the matter at hand.

“Where is house 47?” he said to himself quietly.

Suddenly, footsteps could be heard from afar. Nero became a black flash of speed and jumped to a nearby rooftop, his newfound powers were coming in handy.

A group of guards were patrolling the circle, they were young major knights who probably drew the short straw in getting the night shift. Surprisingly, Nero could hear their conversation, even though they were talking quietly amongst themselves. His senses were heightened.

“The alert for the suspect went down earlier tonight, I bet he ran out of luck running into some knights.” A male hevarian knight said.

“Oh no way, the dude was apparently very dangerous. I bet the Abiti snatched him up in a dark alley.” A female human knight replied.

“Yeah right! Those suits are probably all at the taverns right now, drunker than dwarves.” The hevarian replied.

Nero chuckled under his breath; the girl was right. He was most certainly abducted by the Abiti in a dark alley.

He waited for the guards to pass, and jumped down to the circle quietly. He then began to walk past the large rowhouses, and eventually found number 47. This was the Lieutenants home. Nero was unsure what to do now. What would happen if he saw the Lieutenant? Would he kill him in his sleep? Would a battle ensue? What if the Lieutenants daughter was awake? Was he going to be able to go through with this?

Nero took a deep breath, and walked into the front yard. He knew the front door would be locked so he surveyed the windows. One was cracked open on the first floor.

He approached the window silently, and peeked inside of it. It was the kitchen, and there were no lights on. He slowly opened the window, and silently entered the house. Despite it being so dark inside, Nero could see perfectly fine. He was one with the darkness now. Nero entered a room with a couch and a chair that were facing towards an unlit hearth. It was the living room. There were framed pictures on a small table, many of them were of a young girl and the Lieutenant. Nero picked one of them up, but this picture had a blonde human woman in it. Nero felt sadness, this must have been the Lieutenants late wife the agent told him about.

“I shouldn’t be here. This isn’t right.” Nero thought to himself.

He then heard a small creak behind him, and a shiver went down his spine. He slowly turned around and saw a little girl in pajamas looking in his direction. She looked just like the woman in the picture, this was certainly the Lieutenant's daughter. There was no way she could see him, because it was pitch black. But he could see that she was scared. He had to leave.

Nero silently put the picture back where he found it, and took a step backwards. The wooden floor creaked slightly.

“Daddy? Is that you?” The little girl said in a scared tone.

Nero cursed at himself in his head, what was he supposed to say? “Uhhh... no.”? Nero knew he had to leave; this was a terrible mistake. He began to slowly walk backwards towards the kitchen where he entered.

The sound of a door opening was heard behind him, and the lieutenants voice was heard in a groggy tone. He had been sleeping, and he was wearing loungewear.

“What is it, Sofia?”

Still in pitch black darkness, Nero looked back at the girl and saw her face change to a horrified expression. She knew someone else was among them. The lieutenant could feel something was wrong, and a flame illuminated in his hand. A dim light filled the room. His heart dropped at the sight of Nero. To make things worse, Nero was in between him and his daughter.

“Y-You...”

“Hello Lieutenant.” Nero said with a cold look on his face.

Nero was trying to look strong, despite not having the courage to confront the man in front of his child. It clearly worked, because the Lieutenant's hands were shaking with fear.

“How did you get away? You weren’t supposed-” The lieutenant tried to say.

“They’re dead.” Nero interrupted with a cold look.

“Please, don’t hurt my daughter... I’ll do anything.”

“I’m not going to hurt your kid Lieutenant. To be honest, I don’t really know why I'm here. At first, I wanted to kill you. But now that I’m here I feel differently.” Nero said as he stepped aside.

The man’s daughter ran into his arms, and he looked up at Nero with a confused face. Surely, he thought the worst was about to happen. The lieutenant could also feel Nero’s power. It seemed to seep off of him at this point, as if he had no control of his strength.

“Who’s the man in black daddy?” The child said to her father.

“I don’t know sweetie... and I don’t think he does either.”

This came as a surprise to Nero, perhaps the lieutenant now believes his story after his show of restraint.

“I work with your father little one, I’m sorry if I scared you.” Nero said to Sofia with a smile.

This lie put the little girl at ease, and the lieutenant respected that. He then put her in his bedroom and tucked her in. He closed the door and lit some candles in the living room, then he sat down in a chair. Nero chose to stand.

“What do you want?” He asked Nero.

“I’m not sure, but it’s safe to say YOU started off on the wrong foot. I’m assuming you haven’t gotten word of what went on in the Butcher’s Shop.” Nero said.

“What... happened?” The Lieutenant says as he lit his pipe.

“I killed the butcher, and three of your men. I let one of them go, he changed my decision to kill you.”

The lieutenant looked up at Nero in disbelief. He was not the young man that was arrested earlier in the night. He was a man who has seen hell. He then took a long drag of his pipe, clearly saddened by the loss of his men.

“They were good men, I just told them to do bad things.” The lieutenant said.

“I’m sorry, but you can understand what I was going through.” Nero said.

Nero could see scars on the man’s face and body, they were from torture. Perhaps they could find common ground in this terrible situation.

“I do understand. I hope you can understand that I was just doing my job, I thought you were a foreign agent.” The lieutenant said.

Nero let out a sigh and sat down across from the Lieutenant.

“Are you in charge of the royal police? Or are you just some lackey?" Nero said.

The lieutenant let out a chuckle.

“I’m second in command, right behind the king and his court.”

“Who gave you the order to arrest and torture me.” Nero asked bluntly.

The man took a drag of his pipe.

“The order to arrest you for questioning came from Master Migliore, the royal knight, he’s one of the three masters. However, I was the one who ordered your torture behind his back. I’m sorry kid.”

“Don’t call me “kid”, I’m over 2,000 years old.” Nero said with a chuckle.

The lieutenant sat back in his chair and the two laughed for a moment. They both began to open up to each other. Nero told him about his journey over the past day, while the Lieutenant talked about his family for a while.

“You’re not too bad Nero, I regret not just speaking to you before putting you through hell.”

“Same to you Lieutenant.” Nero said with a smile.

“Call me David.” he said.

“Look, now that you’re aware that I am no threat to the kingdom. I need your help. I suppose you owe me quite a bit.” Nero said.

“I can try, but I won’t lie to you, you killed four people horribly. It’s not going to be easy to fight that. Plus, my career would be on the line if you said it was self-defense because of the torture.” David said.

“We seem to be at an impasse then. I’m sure we can work something out.” Nero replied.

“You have two options Nero. You can run from this, but will most likely be hunted by the Gallant Six, who WILL kill you. Or, you can try to appeal to the king. For that to work, you would need at least three people to vouch for you; a member of the royal family, a knight, and a citizen. I can vouch for you as a knight, but that’s all I can do.” David said.

Nero thought about this for a while, and hatched an idea.

“The sooner we do this, the better. Correct?” Nero asked.

“Well, no shit.” David laughed.

“I believe Princess Stella Solare will vouch for me.”

David looked up, and saw Nero was completely serious.

“What about a citizen?” David asked

“Well, I met a gleam elf named Kymil, he will certainly vouch for me. I don’t know how much good it will do though.” Nero said.

David’s eyes shot up, and he looked at Nero intently.

“It may not look like it, but the king has a lot of respect for the gleam elves in the slums. He’s a good man, and is working on giving them housing and jobs.” David said.

This surprised Nero, because the hevarian citizens seem to really despise the elves.

“Kymil had an older sister who was a knight, she died in combat. Perhaps that could help him sway the king.” Nero said with hope.

“Geez Nero, you really are desperate... but that could actually work. I can try to get word to the Princess using one of my men. You should get word to Kymil.” David said with a sigh.

“No, I want to speak to the Princess directly. I need to get inside the castle. You can go find Kymil.”

David was almost embarrassed for Nero’s naivete.

“You’re just going to walk into the castle huh? Hope nobody sees you?” David laughed.

Nero just looked at him intently, it took a second for David to realize that Nero was serious.

“You’re suicidal, you know that? The number of individuals in there who could kill you is too high to count.” David said with a flash of anger.

“If our plan fails, I’m dead anyways. So, tell me how to get to Stella.” Nero said with confidence.

“Your funeral... look, did you notice the four towers on the castle? Each one is for one of the royal children. I personally don’t know which one is Stella’s. However, I do know that the firstborn Alba and the thirdborn Mezzo are both out of the country.” David said.

“Good, that lowers my chances of walking into the wrong room and getting obliterated by sun magic.” Nero said with a laugh.

“You didn’t let me finish. Besides Stella, you still have to worry about Princess Eclissa, the second born. She’s in one of those towers right now, and she is NOT friendly. She’s one of the members of the gallant six, I’m assuming you’ve heard of them.” David said.

Nero recalls reading about the Gallant Six, the world's most legendary fighting force. The six of them together could probably take down a nation.

“So, I have a 50% chance of running into an empty bedroom, a 25% chance of death, and a 25% chance of finding Stella. I like those odds.” Nero said with a smile as he started to get up.

“My god, you truly are insane.” David said as he put out his pipe.

“Well, I was just tortured.” Nero said as he extended his hand to David.

“I’ll find your elven friend; I hope you come back alive Nero.” David said with a smile.

The two shook hands, and David showed Nero to the door.

Nero walked back to the main circle; it was still late at night. To get a better view of the castle, he swiftly jumped up to a clock tower in the center of the circle. He was scouting out the four towers. Each tower had a large balcony on the top floor that faced a different direction. The North, east, and south towers were dark. However, there was light emitting from the West tower.

“Well, that one is either Stella’s or Eclissa’s since the other two aren’t home. Which means going to that one increases my chance of death to 50%, but also increases my chance of finding Stella to 50%.” Nero said to himself with a depressed laugh.

“I can’t imagine Stella would be sleeping right now, especially after all of the things that happened yesterday.” he said to himself.

Nero decided, he was about to climb the west tower. Finding Stella could very well mean his freedom. However, if he were to stumble onto Princess Eclissa’s balcony in the middle of the night... it could very well mean death. Going toe to toe with a member of the Gallant Six would be a death sentence. However, Nero was feeling very lucky tonight. There is no possible way it could run out.

Nero approached the west wall of the castle, and hid in a tree from patrolling knights. Scaling the wall was rather easy, but the real challenge would be to climb the tower itself. It was made out of a very smooth material, but luckily there were window sills and other smaller balconies he could scale along the way to the top.

“Well, time to see if I’m afraid of heights.” Nero muttered to himself.

He began the long climb in the dead of night. However, dawn would soon come.