King Essen the Great looked at the golden city gleaming under the sun from the terrace of his palace.

He was extremely pleased with himself. After a lifetime of wars, conflicts and scheming, he was now the only supreme ruler of the greatest nation Domir had ever seen: the Arkan Kingdom.

Just about 100 years ago, Arkan had been an unremarkable city state among many others. The only thing of renown about the small town had been it's color: since all the buildings in the city at the time were made of red clay, taken from the shores of the nearby Red Lake, Arkan was called the Red City.

Essen had always hated that color. Even since he had been a child, he hated the deep red walls of his city. Even the palace where he was living as the Prince of the city had been of a bright red.

He had vowed to somehow find a way to change the color of the city, and some years later, the occasion came.

A group of new “gods” had come to Domir shortly after Essen's birth, each seeking more followers among the people. In exchange, they offered their blessings, and with those blessings came power.

Immediately, the wars among the city states of the region had changed greatly. With the new powers of the blessings at their disposal, the blessed warriors could only be stopped by other blessed, and so war took a more “individual” trait, where the power of a single blessed could easily dictate the outcome of a battle of hundreds.

Those with the blessing of strength plowed through enemy lines like a heated knife through butter. Those with the blessings of regeneration were almost unkillable. Those with energy manipulation blessings were engines of destruction like no one had ever seen. And even the more weird blessings did find a way to be useful, more or less directly, on the battlefield.

In order to be the winner, it was imperative for each side to have the greatest number of blessings. And to do so, each side tried to appease to the gods, building many temples and giving offerings.

Essen's father, the king of Arkan, obviously did the same, building a small temple to the God of War and various altars to other divinities, which gained his kingdom a few blessings of their own.

But no one but Essen truly saw the truth of that situation: these gods were not so perfect and all powerful as they seemed. They obviously coveted new followers, which meant they needed them in some way, and they argued and fought with each other just like mortals did.

Even if they were much more powerful than a human could ever be, these gods were fundamentally humans.

And that meant that they could be manipulated.

Essen spent his youth studying the gods. By the time he was 17, he knew which gods he would chose for his plans: Jusel, the goddess of Light, clearly had a great influence over Surm, the God of War.

Essen decided to build his plan around that.

First of all, he devoted himself to try and impress both gods, eventually taking control of their cults.

Then, when he had a solid power base to work with, he had his father and brothers killed. After all, his plan could only work if he was in charge of both the church and the state, and his father was too stupid to make it work. And so were his brothers, who were before him in the line of succession.

Then, when he took the crown, he could finally start the main part of his plan.

He outlawed every cult not dedicated to Surm and Jusel in his kingdom, and built a magnificent temple dedicated to both gods, with two huge statues of the deities sitting next to each other, like a king and his queen.

Both gods had been immensely pleased by that: clearly Surm was smitten with Jusel and loved having a reminder of their relationship on the mortal world, and the goddess in turn enjoyed having something that strengthen her sway over her lover.

Not to mention, these gods deeply approved of the fact that the city was dedicated to them and them only.

And with the gods approval came a shower of blessings.

Not only that, but both gods did let Essen chose for two blessings for himself, one from each.

Essen had chosen the Immortal Warrior Body from the God of War and Child of the Sun from the Goddess of light.

Immortal Warrior Body basically did let him have a perfectly healthy and strong body that would last till the day he died, and Child of the Sun would grant him a great boon of regeneration as long as he was bathing in sunlight.

Combined, these two blessings meant that Essen had essentially stopped aging. Even now, 120 years later, he still looked barely 40 years old, and very fit and well kept at that.

And in those years, he didn't say idle.

Using the blessings that the gods gave to him and his people, Essen systematically conquered and annexed the other city states. And in each city he installed the state religion of Surm and Jusel, which made the gods stronger and in turn earned his kingdom more blessings.

And, after a century of wars and bloodshed, the Southern Plains were finally unified under a single banner: the Kingdom of Arkan.

And Essen was the king.

Sipping wine from a golden chalice, Essen smiled to himself.

He almost had it done.

He was now the most powerful mortal in Domir... and if things continued to go as planned, soon he wouldn’t even be mortal anymore.

Statues of himself were being built in every temple of the Two Gods, and the people hailed him as living herald of the wills of Jusel and Surm.

But Essen didn't gave a shit about Jusel and Surm. To him, they were means to an end, nothing more.

Soon, he thought, he could find a way to obtain godhood for himself. And then he wouldn't need the other gods anymore, and would become the God King of Arkan... and soon, of the entire world.

He chuckled a bit.

Just the thought always managed to get him all giddy. He couldn't wait to see what godhood was like.

He waved his hand to the servants to bring him more wine. His successes deserved a toast.

A petite girl, with the pale skin and blonde hair of a northerner, came beside him carrying a golden chalice full of spiced wine.

Essen took it and dismissed the girl with another gesture, looking at her back as she was getting away.

He didn't have many northerner in his palace, as they were usually too prideful to be good slaves, and he had never seen this girl before.

He considered for a moment the possibility that she might be an assassin and that she had poisoned his wine, and he signaled for the guards to stop her.

The two warriors stepped before her, and she turned around, looking at him with only the smallest hint of nervousness.

If she was indeed an assassin, she was well trained and brave... but she wasn't that smart, if she had tried to kill him during the day. His blessings had always protected him from countless assassinations attempts in the past, and as long as he was in sunlight, poisons could hardly faze him.

Essen smiled at the girl. He almost wished for her to actually be an assassin. Torturing and breaking the will of such a pretty girl would be very fun.

Lifting his chalice in salute to her, he drank it all in one single gulp.

The spiced wine was sweet, its taste excellent, and it had nothing weird to it. Essen felt disappointed. If it was normal wine, he got excited over noth...

Suddenly, he felt a cramp in his stomach. He crouched in pain, keeping his hands on his belly.

In front of him, the girl produced a small knife seemingly out of nowhere, and with the speed of a snake she cut the guards’ throats as they were distracted looking at their king.

As the two men fell to the ground bleeding to death, she ran away, disappearing into the shadows of the palace.

But Essen didn't notice any of it. He was too concentrated on the excruciating pain on his belly.

How was it possible!?! His blessings basically made him almost immortal in the sunlight! How could any pesky poison...

He couldn't even think straight anymore. The pain was spreading through his body at an alarming rate. He could barely see that there were some figures around him, probably his other servants.

-A healer...- Essen said with barely a breath -I need a he...-

And then everything went dark.

When Essen regained his consciousness, he immediately felt that something was wrong. He couldn't feel his body, like it wasn't there. He could see and hear, but at the same time it was more exact to say that he could perceive sounds and images, because he didn't feel like he had ears and eyes.

He was still on the terrace of his palace, or rather he was floating a few meters over it. A group of person was gathering under him, around what Essen recognized with horror as his lifeless body.

-What!?! No, no NO! This can't be! I can't be dead! I still have an entire world to conquer!-

-Essen, son of Ersan.- a calm, female voice called from behind him.

Essen turned, and he could see that a beautiful woman was floating besides him. She was dressed in a simple short white tunic that let him see her alabaster white skin, and she had long, black hair.

On her back, she had a couple of gray dove wings.

Essen had seen various gods and angels in his life, so this sight didn't actually bother him that much. Except for the fact that clearly that was an angel of death, who was here to collect his soul.

-Wait... I am Essen the Great, High King of Arkan!- he protested -I am blessed by both the God of War and the Goddess of Light! I can't die like this! This is so... anticlimactic!-

-It matters not.- the angel replied in her emotionless voice -Your time has come. You need to come with me.-

Essen, as strong as his will was, couldn't actually oppose to her voice. His very being was compelled to follow her, and he couldn't resist.

But maybe, the king thought, he still had a chance. If he was taken to Surm's or Jusel's domains, it was entirely possible that the gods would actually resurrect him. After all, he had been a very useful follower.

And even if they wouldn't, he could still spend his existence in their paradises.

So, all in all, the situation wasn't as grim as it first seemed.

-So... where are you gonna take me?- Essen asked to the angel, as they were moving through the air, getting further and further from the palace -Are we going to Jusel's or Surm's domains? If I can choose, I'd rather go with Jusel... at least she is a beauty to look at! Although Surm...-

-I'm not taking you to any of them.- she said -You have not an ounce of devotion for them, so you are not drawn to their domains.-

Essen was stumped. Taken by surprise, he couldn't think for a while. Then, as he recovered, he asked in a scared voice:

-Then... then where are we going!?! Are you gonna have me reincarnate!?! But that way... I'd lose all of my memories! I won't be able to continue my work!-

-I'm not gonna send you to the reincarnation circle... not right away, at least.- the voice of the angel was chillingly calm -Your soul is too corrupted for it.-

-T-then where are we going?- Essen asked, afraid he would know the answer.

-Your soul need to be cleansed first. And that is the task of the God of Hell.- She turned to him -We are going to Hell right now.-

Essen screamed in fear, but he couldn't do anything but follow the angel, as she entered through a shining portal.

Something had changed, Essen thought. He could feel his body again, although it was a weirdly unpleasant feeling. The sky was dark, and a cold rain was falling on him.

He looked down. He was naked, and his body was impossibly emaciated and pale. He shivered, both because of the sight and the cold of the water, and looked around.

He was in a humongous plain, full of stone spikes. On the horizon, he could see what looked like an impossibly tall black tower, surrounded by stone spikes the size of mountains. On top of the tower, dark clouds were stirring, lightning running among them like snakes.

But even the sound of thunder couldn't cover the screams.

On the horizon, he could see a mass of people, each and one of them as thin and pale as he was, running in his direction.

The reason of their running away became soon clear: the ground itself was erupting with spikes, who stabbed them and pushed them further from the tower.

Soon, the group reached Essen, and they trampled him, not even stopping as they were stepping on him. Then, numerous thorns erupted from the ground, piercing the former king in the most painful way.

Tears of pain fell from his eyes, mixing with the ice cold rain and the blood, and he started running away from the spikes, no other thought in mind than to make that pain stop.

A voice echoed through the thunder, a terrible, deep voice.

Get away... stay away from me!