Chapter 59: I am
It was three days to the final fight and Thaedric was meditating. There were a number of reasons, the top among them being that he didn’t want to commit to physical training until the fight.
But the main reason he was meditating was because memories of Thaedric—the real Thaedric—were acting strange. Maybe it was the thought of going back home, but his head had been acting strange, withdrawn.
He sighed again as he slowly cleared his mind, focusing on nothing and everything. Meditating was one of his coping mechanisms on Earth, and he would make it his here too.
He felt his two techniques blooming around his heart. The Beyonder’s technique felt like darkness, oily darkness around it, while his bloodline technique was like a blazing star of purple.
With a simple thought, he could send mana from his core to activate either of them. But he restrained himself because the only thing on his mind was memories.
Finally, he gave it up and let the memory roll through him. The real reason the real Thaedric lost the will to fight. It was fear. His will was broken.
It all started with his father, the commander of the Vaidika armies. He grew powerful and, as a man of ambition, he set his gaze on something high, higher than a Dominion. He wanted the throne of Maledicta itself.
He called the armies, disobeyed the Bloodscion—Thaedric’s mother—and started the rebellion. Thaedric’s mother should have put a stop to it, but she feared a civil war. The only thing she was able to do was stop her Overlords from joining the war.
But the armies, most of which had switched loyalty to Thaedric’s father, flocked under his banner. Almost all their high-tier warriors joined him.
It led to disaster. No one Dominion, especially not a united one, could hope to fight the God Emperor. They were crushed. All of them were killed.
Thaedric’s father took him along to teach him ’what real Rashaka meant,’ and they were both captured. His father was tortured in front of him, his body parts slowly removed while keeping him alive with magic.
Thaedric was tortured too. But differently. It was mental. They broke his will. They made him fear. He locked himself in his room after that.
The God Emperor then descended on their Dominion to mete out his judgment. The Bloodscion pledged that the rebellion was not of her making and that it was because of her traitorous consort.
Still, it was her fault that she couldn’t control what was hers. The punishment was simple—The God Emperor gave her an Heirloom necklace that locked her power down to Tier Three.
That was it.
It should have been simple. But it wasn’t. The highest law in Maledicta was power, and the Hydraeus had just been cut down to size. The other Dominions saw this and cheated them during trade. What would the Hydraeus do? They had no armies and their Bloodscion had no power.
There was a rumor that Thaedric’s father was influenced into starting the rebellion. There were whispers that some people promised him support. There were rumors that the Vaidika Dominion had grown too powerful, more powerful than others, and the God Emperor himself didn’t like it.
There were rumors that it was all planned. Just to rob them. Take their armies. Strip their leader of power and break the will of the Scion. A perfect plan. Then slowly grind them to dust.
This wasn’t the first time a Dominion would be destroyed after all. Even the Hydraeus had taken part in a lot of it throughout their long history.
Thaedric clenched his hand. ’But now they involve me in this mess. Me who has never tasted a mother’s love. A new chance, but they want to take it? I won’t allow them!’
The wind whipped around him and a purple aura flared once.
He opened his eyes. Thankfully, he was the only one in the room. "There is a lot to do before returning Hydraeus to its former glory. Higher than that."
But it was going to be hard because even now the Overlords ignored her and focused their resources on their territories. There were even whispers they wanted the Hydraeus gone. Not that anyone could fully blame them.
But Thaedric’s blood boiled either way. They swore to serve his clan! How dare they turn their backs now? He took a deep breath. Now was not the time. He had to focus on the next and final fight and what would come after.
"I don’t even know what’s going to happen," Thaedric muttered. He had tried to get as much information as he could about the venue of the fight in the palace and who the guests were.
He didn’t learn much though. All he managed to learn was that it was a party, and it was organized by the Elders to ’celebrate’ the Bloodscion. That alone was suspicious because why celebrate the Bloodline when it wasn’t festival season?
And he bet he knew the Elder who was spearheading it.
"How will I let them know I’m Thaedric Hydraeus?" He frowned. "Maybe splash my blood and stuff. But only where Mother can see me. We’ll still have loyal soldiers in the palace. Maybe." The thought worried him.
Everything about it worried him and turned his stomach.
"You’re still here?" a voice said after a bit of silence.
Thaedric didn’t open his eyes. Sandskar had let him know the moment Malak entered the room.
"You mean not to train physically again." He continued, his voice carrying a hint of surprise.
Without opening his eyes, Thaedric spoke. "Do you think me a maniac that does nothing but train?" He finally opened his eyes and saw Malak towering over him.
The man grinned. "That is what you have been doing all these weeks. Training like a maniac. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you are training for something other than this fight."
Thaedric snorted. "Maybe I am."
