Wandering under the rain once more, the emperor, cloaked in a rag, wandered through the lone streets of a ruined city. Scrambling through his own thoughts, he had begun to feel himself waning as time went on. Weakened only in memory but in the flesh as well, his lungs for the very first time ached as he drew each breath.
'I don't have much time…' He thought peering up at the sky. Washed by the heavy rain, he wished things had never gotten to where they were, but it was already too long to deter it all from happening. That is unless… 'Asmodia, if only she would turn the clock of this world back, then we can live eternal lives with the children of this world flourishing forever.'
"So you're here, I was looking everywhere for you," breaking the emperor's chain of thoughts, a man called out to him from behind.
Turning to the man, the emperor was somewhat amused by his sudden appearance. And not only because he'd gone completely unnoticed by him as he approached, but also because he wasn't someone he'd expected to see in his domain for at least a good while.
"Dominion, what are you doing here?" Asked the emperor.
As he moved closer to the emperor, his silver-colored attire reflected the rain that had soaked them completely. With his hem-like scarfs on both shoulders being dragged through the mud, he seemed utterly unbothered by the dire condition of his formal suit.
"I heard you killed Almuld so I had to come and see if the rumors were true," taking a stop right in front of the emperor, Dominion gave him a crescent smile.
"He was messing around with Asmodia's toy, someone would've killed him sooner or later," although he said it himself, the emperor wasn't too convinced by his own lie. The reason Almuld had to be downed wasn't simply because of his altercation with another demon lord's plans, but because he was one of the many hurdles the emperor had been avoiding getting rid of so he could achieve his ultimate goal.
No stranger to his true intentions, Dominion put the matter aside for the moment and instead decided to focus on what he came here to talk about.
"I have to admit, I never expected you to raise your sword against family/ But anyway, reaching into his pocket, Dominion took out a cloudy marble and threw it in the emperor's direction. "I've brought a present for you."
Taking one look at the marble, the emperor already knew what it was.
"A soul?" He asked, looking back at Dominion.
"Not just any soul," moving even closer, he peered directly into the emperor's eyes. "A soul from one of the companions of the very toys of Asmodia had led you to kill Almuld, the king of wraths."
With that knowledge, the emperor knew exactly why Dominion had brought him the torn soul. And despite the pain from his body degrading from the inside, the emperor after a very long time finally gave off a smile.
"I need him, alive, Dominion. You know what that means, right?" Throwing the marble back at him, the emperor let him know everything he had to with just those few words. "Whatever it takes, just bring him to me."
Although he couldn't feel Asmodia's presence around him at the moment, he didn't want to give her any more information than what he'd just said in case she was somehow still listening. On the same plain of understanding, Dominion too simply nodded and returned a devious smile at the emperor.
***
After Haruki's return to the cabin, he'd for a while forgotten about having left the sapphire brooch with the goblin queen. However, right as he was about to hit the bed, the queen came knocking on the door with Moriyana and Fay both in her tow.
"Master!" By the time Haruki turned to the door, the goblin queen had already stormed in through the entrance. Just as crazed as before, if not more, her eyes were changing colors as if they were decorative lights of festivities.
"What?" A bit tired of her over-the-top personality, Haruki wasn't in the best of moods.
Glancing at the two behind her, he received just as tired gazes, almost as if they had been tortured throughout their trip back to the log cabin.
"This isn't just a brooch it's a-"
"Frost dragon scale," interjecting in the queen's enthusiasm, Moriyana finished her sentence instead.
Turning around, the queen of goblins glared at her as if she was deeply offended to not be the one delivering the news. Ignoring their squabble, Haruki focused on what he'd just been told instead.
'A frost dragon scale could be Klian's. We might have to meet up with him about it then.' Chalking up the matter for later, he took the brooch out of the queen's hand.
"Wait! Give it to me!" She tried to grab the brooch out of Haruki\s hands, but he quickly put it away inside a dungeon portal. "I can use it to figure out how to use magic from elements you don't have an affinity to!"
Still begging to be given the brooch, the queen intertwined her fingers and looked at Haruki with big puppy eyes. However, having already decided to keep her ambitions and greed in check he wasn't willing to hand it over to her just yet.
"Focus on improving the quality of the rings, and I'll let you have the brooch later," lying to her with no intentions to give her the brooch anytime soon, Haruki wanted to first meet up with Klian before taking any decision about experimenting on such a useful item.
Gesturing to Moriyana to take the queen out of the cabin, Haruki quickly shifted his gaze to Fay to let her know about his new plans. Once, the illusionist had taken the goblin queen out of the cabin with help from her rose whips, Haruki sat down on the bed.
"The others are out preparing for our next move, but I think checking up with Klian about the dragon scale might be helpful before we visit the other kingdoms or even try to figure out who this silver-clothed guy is," tired beyond reason, Haruki could barely keep his eyes open as he spoke to Fay.
"Sure, I'll let the others know," noticing his exhaustion, Fay didn't talk much and just went to inform the others about their plan.
All alone in the bed, Haruki threw his back onto the mattress. But all of a sudden as he was pulled into the abyss, he knew that the night wasn't over and fate had some other plans for him.
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