Tyrant of the Ruined Sun

"Hail to you as well, respected prime minister of the Luminous Empire." I dryly replied, as the grip upon my halberd slightly hardened, while my senses began working over time to detect any trap, and my muscles readied themselves for any surprise.

Something very much shared between me and my guards, but our prudence was not because we were weary of being outnumbered with our mere twenty before their thirty; in fact, many of them would've even welcomed such a challenge, because ever since they had come under my command four years ago, I had strived continuously to further their loyalty to me, so much so, that their already dogged devotion to the emperor of the Eclipse Empire had now been reinforced to such an extent that they now mimic fanatic zealots.

And in a few of them, I have even begun to notice seeds of my own madness begin to take root within them. A watered down, fleeting shadow of the tyrant that haunts me, but a mark of madness nonetheless.

No, the cause of our caution was due to the presence of two specific faces among these thirty, the first of whom obviously being that of Marius Nerva himself, but the other was the image of Lucius Sejanus standing proudly at the head of their line; the rarely seen commander of emperor Octavian's Custodian Guard, the empire's most elite fighting force, who were much alike my own Palace Guard, with the only difference being their perceived power by the public, who generally rate my guard above them, simply due to the reclusivity of their commander, who despite rivalling Abraham himself in combat prowess according to some rumours, his aversion to the public eye has rendered both him and his order less memorable than others of their kind across the globe.

"What a coincidence to meet one another in such a manner." Marius then warmly said, as he slowly approached me, his hands laid bare by his sides, clearly showing himself unarmed and without ill intent.

"A coincidence indeed." I sarcastically repeated, before I then purposefully pointed out. "I didn't realize you enjoyed such activities."

"I don't." And to my surprise, he honestly admitted with that same unknowable smile upon his lips.

"...Leave us." I commanded at that moment, not turning to my guard as I did so, while keeping my eye on the enigmatic man, who seemed so confident in himself today.

"If you would commander." Yet Marius seemed utterly at ease with both my inquisitive glare and the situation as a whole, as he casually turned his head to Lucius and spoke.

"My lord." Lucius lightly bowed in response to Marius, before turning with his men and joining my own guard in patrolling the surrounding area on the opposite flank, being just far enough not to easily eavesdrop unless they intentionally willed it, while also being far enough away to instantly react to any danger that might approach us.

"Am I to assume this is the promised second bout?" I calmly asked, reminding him of the challenge we issued one another the day we met on the Melting Mist Plains.

He chuckled in response, as though remembering a fond memory, before refuting my thoughts, saying "Though I would've liked such a challenge today, I'm afraid that our meeting this time around would not be able to qualify for such a battle between us."

"And why is that?" I queried in mild surprise, that I obviously didn't show, having thought his sudden ambush of me in the woods was due to a far more Mephistophelian deal he had and Octavian had wickedly brewed.

Smiling, he lightly replied "Because what I offer you today would be a mutually beneficial agreement."

A contemptuous snort blew through my nose me then, a mask to further hide my thoughts on the matter, as I incredulously asked "And what pray tell, could this miraculous agreement be that it can even bridge the chasm between our two nations' interests?"

"An extension of the non aggression pact between us." He happily revealed.

"And how in the name of all the Gods would that ever benefit me nearly as much as it does you?" I questioned, but the report Eve gave me just earlier today came to mind as he spoke.

"Peace is inherently precious in it's mere existence, not to mention that we are in the year of the Banquet of Concordia, so don't you think we should strive to better abide by the teachings of this event, we both have been participating for the twenty days?" He merrily said, in a tone that both stunned me and amused me, as I then smilingly replied.

"Come now Marius, if you're not going to speak seriously, then I might as well leave and rid us of this waste of time."

"Indeed." He chucklingly said, as his face then took on a more sombre air, despite the continued presence and uniformity of his eerily warm smile. "Three years your majesty Alexander, we want a three year extension of our peace agreement, promising not to bother the other during which."

"Three years? That hardly seems enough time to conquer the remaining dissident states of the western nations." I casually remarked, knowing full well what the Luminous Empire wants to achieve during this treaty they are proposing.

"We are confident." Marius again didn't try to play coy and simply said in reply.

"Obviously." I uttered with furrowed brows, my instincts warning that their confidence was not unfounded, but then I asked, returning my thoughts to the present "But why should I believe in this so called promise of non-interference, after all, lest you forget, but three years ago, during Zadkiel's uprising in the east, your armies raided my northern lands."

"And as we've stated to you before your imperial majesty Alexander, those raids were a product of general Heinrich Vanar's personal vendetta against your people, with no relation to us whatsoever. Something, I would like to remind you of as well, he was severely punished for as well."

"Ah yes, that slap on the wrist you painted as a heroic upholding of righteous justice like you were some paragons of rectitude." I mockingly said with a venomous tone.

He wisely said nothing in reply, neither in defence nor in justification, cleverly realizing that it was not a petty outburst from my end, but a subtle trap I had planted to secure a greater advantage over him.

Seeing my bait fail to attract my prey, I inwardly sighed and decided to pivot my approach, saying "I still don't see how this would benefit my nation in the slightest, because it seems to me like you simply wish to remove my possible intervention in your coming conflict, offering you the western nations on a silver platter."

"Come now you majesty, you said we should speak seriously, so why try and obfuscate the truth when it's so obvious at this point." He threw my words back at me then, as he laid bare his argument "Much how we would need time to slowly digest our gains in the west, you too require it in the south, so why not simply stay out of each other's way, and not bog each other down in annoyingly prolonged conflicts."

Though his words sounded reasonable enough, to those whose ears were callused with ageless wisdom, they could easily discern the fact that they harboured a heinous poison within, delivering an invisible threat of turning my campaigns in the south into an endless, expensive quagmire, by offering arms and aid to the Murathicus tribes, who despite their isolationist culture would undoubtedly take the Luminous Empire on their perceived generosity, even if not immediately they eventually will when the clock begins to crawl closer to their twilight, for when one is faced with the extinction and subjugation of his people and culture, then even the devil himself begins to sound like a treasured ally.

And though I could threaten him with the same, by supplying matching assistance to the western nations that stood against their rule, both he and I were perfectly aware that the Luminous Empire's capacity for such efforts greatly outclassed our own, by a not so easily dismissed margin, which would drag my nation into a clearly disadvantageous battle.

After all, only an idiot would challenge the western hegemon to a battle of resources.

I then briefly toyed with the idea of leveraging my newly built alliance with the Yue Dynasty in such a competition of wealth, and with both of us on the same side we could indeed gain the upper hand, but Tianlan was not known as the Golden Glutton for no reason, and I highly doubted he would fully enter such a conflict and unravel his purse strings when he still has massive internal disputes to manage.

'Damn that Nicholas and his blasted prophesies, even now, when he just offered them a mere verifying piece of information, it is still this annoying to deal with!' I roared out in anger, resonating chaotically with the already displeased Tyrant, who continuously berated us for not at least trying to claim that bastard's soul, even if it was completely guaranteed to fail; with the addition of also not expecting such a fast and decisive response from the Luminous Empire after.

Suddenly I found myself cornered, and I despised the feeling, but as I wallowed in it, I also understood that it would the height of foolishness to reject the offered agreement, and in all honesty, much like what Marius said, I would only gain from such a thing, as it would allow me to divert more resources to the southern front, yet at the same time I also recognized that it put me on a timer.

A timer of three years, where in I would have to have largely consolidated my power in the region to levels wherein I would not have to fret from the Murathicus threat, at least not greatly so; which was a steep compression of my original plan of around ten years.

Moreover, even though I know not to easily trust the words uttered from Marius' mouth, but he seemed oddly convinced that the Luminous Empire would be able to achieve it's objectives in a mere three years, and while I grant them the fact that the western realms are of a lesser size than the Murathicus lands, but that doesn't mean they would easily submit either.

And so my fractured mind spun in place, as islands of psyche battled one another in my mind in search for the better option, which ultimately distilled to the simple question of, would I rather fight two weak enemies, or one powerful ones?

Such was my current conundrum, a conundrum I quickly came to the conclusion of, as I answered "Very well then Prime Minister, I accept your offer, but only under one condition."

"And what would that be?" He seriously asked, as my eyes blazed with a black flame that twisted in an insane dance in the deranged depths of my pupils, quietly condemning and cursing not the Luminous Empire, but the one who spurred them with his loose tongue.