Confused and disoriented, Kazius groaned as he got up from the floor, surprised to see himself laying on dirt. This temple sure loved messing with people.

“What the…” Kazius groaned, standing up only to grow confused.

‘Where fuck am I?’

He would think to himself as he looked around. He seemed to be right in the middle of a castle’s courtyard. The place was near a bridge that went over the river, connecting the castle to a city. The place was massive. The city was even bigger than Ratier and more luxurious than Veleno. But something about the place… was familiar… The nearby river… He knew this river… It looked a bit different… But it was the river that he knew well…. The mountains… The 5 mountains in the distance… He had spent so much time in them, of course he recognized them anywhere. Things looked different… But the location and position… This was Vargstam.

The place was extravagant… To be honest… The castle was just to his taste…

‘Was this… The future?’

As he stood still, thinking, he saw a maid with a mask on walk towards him… And then through him… As if he wasn’t even there.

‘Am I inside the mirror? This is definitely the future, but… It must be showing me some sort of vision…’

Confused and unsure, Kazius decided to follow the maid. Maybe she was going towards someone he would recognize? He would stare at the maid, wondering why she would be wearing a faceless mask, the smooth surface having no holes or anything of the like. How could she even see? Why would he make his servants wear such a weird uniform?

As he followed the maid, he would hear quite the commotion. Then a screech, as off in the distance he would see a red dragon take off, the creature massive enough to make the ground shake and even knock over a tree or two in the process of taking off.

His eyes went wide, shocked at the sight.

Quickly, he would go to the gardens where it seems the dragon had ascended from.

When he got there though, he wasn’t sure what to make out of what he saw. Or rather who he saw. It was him.

Himself.

Looking at himself was something he thought would be encouraging… But instead… He felt uneasy. He was standing, a scowl on his face. His skin was no longer white, but instead gray. His actual hands were black. His own presence was intimidating, his expression oh so cold, his eyes shining an eerie red and full of malice. Shadow whisps seemed to constantly be emitting from himself, specially from his hands. He wore a dark black armor and clock, the almost silver looking metal being one he had never seen before. The metal accents held the symbol that had appeared on Damon’s spear…

‘That really does become my symbol then…’

Next to him was Damon. The cheerful and goofy man was like a totally different person. He wore armor worthy of a general, the metal itself black. The armor was adorned with furs and part of a skull at his belt. A black quite torn cape was on his back. His hair was even more wilder and untamed, but his expression, it was a wide wicked grin. Quite the sadistic one, something he never expected to see.

His future self looked awfully displeased about something. There was what looked to be a red dragonborn kneeling before them both, begging.

“P-Please, your majesty… I-I didn’t mean to… It was an honest mistake… I won’t fail you again! I swear! I will round up every human next time! I-I didn’t think the Elves would come to their aid… We just didn’t have the numbers. There were so few of us and the Elves have the magic to fight back! There were 10th tier Mages!” The terrified male exclaimed.

Future Kazius would sneer at this, looking disgusted. His presence made that of The Guardian feel like nothing. “You are right… You won’t disappoint me again… In fact, you will never have the chance to do so… Ever. Damon, deal with him.” He stated, sounding almost bored of the conversation. It was odd, but his shadow… It was much more independent than Kazius knew his shadow to be, pulling out a chair from a nearby garden tea table. Future Kazius would sit, returning to what appeared to be his lunch. Acting as if he had not just sentence someone to death.

“NO! PLEASE!” The dragonborn begged.

“With pleasure.” Damon chuckled out in delight, seeming excited at the idea of killing someone.

“Y-Your highness, s-sir… Please…” The dragonborn pleaded in despair.

“Don’t make this any harder on yourself. Unluckily for you, you pissed off my king… So I will have to kill you… But try to entertain me for a bit, won’t you?” While his words sounded a bit apologetic at first, his expression was far from it.

“Feel free to run away, I love hunting down runaways… It is always fun playing with them… Especially when they think they got away only to then see me! Buahaha! I haven’t done that in a while!” Damon would add. In his words and expression, there was not his love for battle, but instead genuinely delight in killing the helpless dragonborn. It wasn’t about fighting.

It was then he would grab the dragonborn by the neck, strangling the life right out of him with a sadistic delight.

Kazius was shocked at this. He knew how important it was for Damon to not act like his father, to not be cruel… Yet here he was… Acting in such a way… Enjoying battles was one thing… But this was… His future self was the one who gave such orders too… What has he turned Damon into?

‘Damon considers Alice and me his closest friends… Azanor and Eve too… Why would he go this far? Are all my friends like this in the future because of me? This isn’t like… The future I saw before… I was heroic… I was saving the world from The Demon King… But this was… This was a different future from what I saw. Did the future change?’

Soon the dragonborn finished struggling, going limb once his life had drained away.

It was then Future Kazius would put down his teacup. He would look over his shoulder at the dead body, looking bored. “He didn’t last very long… They never do… Perhaps I should just go eradicate The 3 Kingdoms myself… I want those kingdoms out of my sight… I didn’t want to go there again, but I will if it means they are gone… Mortals… They are so…” Future Kazius trailed off, his presence growing stronger still. The shadows he released only grew more abundant, almost enough to darken the sky in the area of the garden. His indifference turning into a cold rage.

“Let me go instead. I would love to go. In fact, if Eve and Azanor come, there may be nothing left of that side of the continent.” Damon chuckled out in delight. “I rather you not have to bother yourself with such things, I will do the dirty work.”

“I am your King, Damon. I hope you are not trying to patronize me. I do not need protecting like some child. Don’t look down on me.” Future Kazius snapped.

“Kazius… You know I never would. I just know you still think of it as her kingdom… Her area… I know it would be upsetting to go…” Damon stated in concern, acting a bit like the Damon Kazius knew.

“I thought I made it clear you are never to speak of Alice again.” Future Kazius would respond coldly.

Damon bowed at this at first, doing a full kneel to the floor after further thinking.

“You may be my king, but I am your friend first. I would do anything for you, you know that. That is why as your friend, I have to bring her up. I know what her death did to you. You shake in anger whenever you even think of Ratier. Let me destroy it, make them suffer. I will personally kill every human, child or adult, young or old, I won’t let a single one escape.” Damon pleaded in a determined manner.

‘Alice is dead?! How!?’ Kazius would think to himself in horror, his heart aching in grief at the thought. Feeling frozen in his spot. Images of the smiling woman flooding his mind. He grabbed his head with his hands, attempting to not feel overwhelmed at the revelation. He was barely paying attention to the conversation now.

Future Kazius would glare at him, turning away. “You know, if you were anyone else. I would have killed you for bringing her up…” He stated coldly, his lips pursing into a straight line while in thought.

“Fine, go. I want that side of the continent off the map. You have a month.” Future Kazius would state before looking at the corpse. “Make yourself useful, join the butlers and cover that ugly face.” He stated before making a rising motion with his hand.

At this, the corpse would indeed reanimate, making a strange groan and gurgling sound in response before it would stumble away. It was now a mindless undead.

Sighing, Future Kazius would then head off, Damon watching him in concern as he did so.

Unsure, and with a lot on his mind, Kazius would follow his future self. Future Kazius had been so calm and cold… But now with humans brought up, especially Alice… He seemed so angry. Overwhelmed with anger, hatred, and grief.

While he did go into the castle, going up the stairs to a tower. The place didn’t look like someone lived there… It was unclear as to where he was going until they were already there.

At the top of the tower was a room with many windows, letting in a lot of light into the elegant room. There, on a luxurious bed, laid Alice. Her hair was even longer than how it was now, going down to her lower back. The pink locks sprawled out elegantly on the bed. Her body perfectly preserved yet it was obvious she was a cold, inanimate corpse.

Kazius would stare in horror, the pain in his heart only growing stronger at seeing Alice in such a state. It was too much for him, he was frozen in the hallway.

It was then Future Kazius would close the door behind him, the sound of the door slamming shut pulling him back into reality.