A long time ago, in a forgotten and paradisiac Empire, there was an emperor beloved by his people for his kindness and intellect, far superior to his predecessors. With his common brown hair and unnatural golden eyes, many believed he had mixed blood between a human and a god, but nobody could confirm those rumours. His past before the ascension to the throne was a mystery. 

———

At the time of the previous emperor, the empire, after losing a war, fell into famine for many months with rebellions increasing every day all over the territory, until one faithful day that man appeared in front of the emperor. Usually, he wouldn’t speak to any plebeians but when that golden and young gaze met his old and tired eyes, he decided to make an exception and hear what he wanted to say.

The guy didn’t speak and pointed at the emperor. No one knows what exactly happened after. 

When the rebels arrived at the capital, they found the gates opened with guards greeting them and letting them go to the castle and the same phrase could be heard “The new emperor is waiting with a gift.” 

Every rebel was sceptical about this new emperor, but what they saw when arrived at the throne room shocked them: a young guy in plebeian clothes sitting on the throne and before him, the old emperor on his knees, mumbling something.

As the rebels’ eyes met the new emperor’s golden eyes, they instantly fell to their knees while tears started flowing.

Everyone said simultaneously, “The son of God has arrived!”

What the new emperor gifted after was knowledge, with two key terms “Soul Awakening” and “Aura Manipulation”, the first was a way to awaken hidden power within someone’s soul, meanwhile, with the second there was a way to cultivate and use those powers through the use of aura.

The Era of Magic had started.

The previous emperor and his future sons and grandsons became the “Voices of God” or called by plebeians “The Speakers”, they would share with the entire nation every news from the Emperor. Thanks to his gift and his guidance, the Empire quickly became a world power but just one nation had been destroyed, the one that years before with his victory caused a famine in the kingdom, thanks to this, citizens thirsty for revenge were satisfied and the emperor’s fame grew even more…but that euphoria remained confined in those borders.

As the years passed, the hostility against the Empire grew, leading to the closure of every border and the creation of a global alliance.

The “Anti-Demons Alliance” was born.

All the Empire’s citizens that lived in other countries were called “Sons of the Devil”, they were persecuted and killed, along with their families. This caused the Emperor to finally take action and declare war against the blasphemous alliance.

The war went on for many years, with the Empire being always victorious, until one day, a rumour was spread among the population.

The Emperor wasn’t the son of God but was the son of a prostitute with the father being unknown. He was a kid with a beautiful voice, capable of calming everyone in the peaceful village he lived in. Until, one day, it was attacked by barbarians and her mother was violated and killed before his eyes. His anger obscured his mind and made a pact with the devil, his voice in exchange for powers, the same ones he gifted to the citizens of the Empire. After finally killing the assaulters, he discovered pleasure in murder and developed a god complex with a desire for power, then waited years before finally showing his “gift” to the Emperor and passing for God’s son.

All the citizens couldn’t believe those rumours and wanted an answer from the Emperor itself, but never received one, not even a phrase from the Speaker.

This caused the Empire to be split in two, those who didn’t believe the rumours and those who did, with their motto being “Death to the False Emperor!” and entered the Global Alliance, that for the occasion was renamed the “Anti-Emperor Alliance”.

Because of this development, the war continued for a few years, until one day the rebels reached the Emperor’s castle and their eyes witnessed something for them unbelievable.

The young Speaker had just stabbed the Emperor, while he was sitting on the throne.

“You are just a human after all. You deceived my Granpa, the first Voice of God who served you!” the Speaker said in anger.

The Emperor didn’t reply and simply looked at him and the rebels still at the entrance of the throne room.

Fate wanted that they were the sons and grandsons of the rebels he saw when he sat for the first time on that throne years before.

He simply smiled at the coincidence and with his voice shared one last message with every citizen of the Empire, rebels included.

A rough voice spoke “I know you all must be confused because of the rumours and I’m sorry I have never said anything about it. What you heard was half the truth, yes my mother was a prostitute and I never discovered who my father was. Yes, my village was attacked, my mother met that horrible before my eyes and I wanted revenge, at that moment I saw someone, I made that pact with him and obtained the powers you are using. I still don’t know if he was the Devil or a God, but one thing is sure, I’m still in debt towards them. After finally killing those barbarians I didn’t develop any god complex or desire for power, but what I truly wanted was to share what I had so everyone could live safely and gaining the title of Emperor was essential to make sure there were no disparities. I know, it sounded too ambitious even to me but you saw with your eyes, the results were great and even if there were some problems at first, they were resolved thanks to your efforts.”

There was a second of pause and then he resumed

“My life is approaching its end, thanks to this the pact has ended and I can finally speak. Your rebellions and this dagger, all of this hurt me a lot…but that’s fine. Even if you continue to hate me, that will be fine…I forgive you all for everything because to me you were like a family…”

As he took his last breath he said “Thank you all and please-”

He didn’t have time to finish his phrase, his eyes closed, he stopped speaking and his body turned to ashes.

Every single person in the Empire remained in silence, with a sense of guilt that started spreading among the rebels. The rebel’s chief shared his last order

“If you truly feel guilty, end your lives. We betrayed a good soul, we don’t deserve forgiveness.” then he killed himself by cutting his throat.

Two days later, every rebel was dead and the few people who didn’t betray the Emperor continued the war, but without orders or organisations, they all died, causing the end of the Empire.

The Era of Magic had ended and every book about it was destroyed by the nations of the global alliance, that shortly after was dissolved.

All of this was forgotten over time…but the entities that humans call Gods will never forget the humans’ mistakes…as well as their own. 

———

Minutes passed while that story was projected into my mind, and at a certain point, two of the old men quickly jumped into the room where they threw me. At that exact moment, the memories stopped and those monsters charged towards me when I got up.

Weird enough they seemed slower than before and I easily grabbed them for their arms and threw them off the building.

I was feeling a slight burning feeling on the palm of my hands and looked at them, those symbols were glowing with a bright red light.

‘Does this mean I can use her powers..?’

I looked through the hole my body made before and looked down, to where the old men were, but as soon as my eyes met theirs, they started shaking and the same happened when I looked up at the giant.

‘Something happened when I ate the kid-...Emperor’s flesh. I don’t feel like I obtained a new power and I don’t have that hunger for more. I just…feel different…’

My body was feeling heavy and I thought I was just really tired.

“Let’s see what I can do with this power.” I pointed my palm towards the men, closed my eyes and concentrated. I could hear their heartbeat and feel their blood flowing in the veins, it was like my body was connected to theirs; when I opened my eyes, I closed my hand in a fist and they started convulsing, I could feel their blood as if it was in my hand and I was compressing it.

As I opened the hand, their body stopped convulsing but blood started flowing out of them, from every single hole, pores of the skin included and it started flying towards me and stopped before my palm, after some seconds I had in front of me a ball of compressed blood…but something wasn’t feeling right again.

I was slowly losing control over my body and I was feeling someone else aura surrounding me. My hand touched the blood and as the word “Shape” came out of my mouth, the ball of blood started stretching and hardening, taking the form of a spear. My hand grabbed it and my legs jumped high, breaking through the floors of the building and reaching the rooftop.

My eyes looked at the giant and he seemed prone to escape. My body quickly moved in a javelin-throwing position and threw the lance at the giant at sonic speed and with incredible force, all of this without even using aura to strengthen the throw.

The lance passed through the giant’s head, leaving a massive hole and his blood painted in red all near buildings; when his massive body fell it shook the earth a bit and proceeded to become an enormous puddle of blood.

Shortly after that, the girl appeared before me, looking at me with a lot of sadness. I wanted to say something but different words came out of my mouth

“Nysilia…a lot of time has passed…”

She didn’t speak.

“Come on, say something. It’s been years since we last saw each o-”

Nysilia interrupted him “Don’t say anything else. He’s listening.”

“Oh right.” My eyes closed and a male voice spoke in my mind

‘Sorry kid, I’ll give you your body back later, but for now sleep, please.’

As the voice spoke, he slowly took over my mind and body completely.