Galen’s jaw dropped, his mind going blank as he registered the words. All he could do was ask the single question on his mind, “Why?!”

  “Because, despite all of the Dominion’s propaganda and brainwashing, there is still a chance that the mother will try to see their child, in spite of them being forbidden from doing so. It has happened before, and due to the troubles it brought, Athanasius decided to just be rid of the mother to be on the safe side…”

  “And people are fine with that?!”

  “You assume that’s what they’re told, lad,” Aleksi sighed, “what the public is told is that the burden from carrying and giving birth to a child sired by a god is too much to bear for a mere mortal woman. That is the reason, they are told, why none ever see the mothers of Athanasius’s children after they give birth.”

  “And they believe that?!” he yelled, though he immediately knew it was a stupid question.

  Of course they believed it. The citizens of the Dominion are brainwashed into worshiping Athanasius Durai from early childhood to adulthood. Even if people suspected something was afoot, there was no chance they’d dare question their god. Even the most skeptical among them would be cowed into silence. Particularly with the Shadows of Athanasius hiding among them, looking for any would be dissenters.

  “When I found out the truth, lad,” Aleksi continued, “it rocked me to my core. I didn’t believe it at first, but I could not escape the conviction of the evidence. It haunted me for months… ‘Why did they lie about this? Why WOULD they lie about this? And if they lied to us about this, then what else is the Dominion, is ATHANASIUS lying to us about?’ Those thoughts plagued me. Eventually, I had a chance encounter that would finally sway me, that would open my eyes to the truth of the empire and god I was serving.”

  “And what was that?” Galen asked.

  Aleksi smiled, his first genuine one since he began to tell the tale, “A Rebellion ‘terrorist’ group was discovered, and my squad and I were sent to aid in finding them and either capturing or killing them. A trap was laid for us, and I got separated from my fellow men. Something had gone wrong with the trap, however, and the Rebellion forces had been separated as well. Then, I found myself alone against another lone, rebel woman…”

  Galen’s eyes widened, “Don’t tell me…”

  “That’s right, lad,” Aleksi leaned back in his chair, smiling fondly, “that woman was Lusha. We fought to a standstill and, sensing the conflict within me, questioned my wavering loyalty. Eventually, with my internal conflict and heart not in the fight, she bested me. Then, she offered me a chance to join them and learn the truth about the Dominion. And I took her offer. The rest is history.”

  The man sighed deeply, still looking tired and worn, but not nearly as much as he had when he’d started, “So there you have it, lad. That’s my story. That’s the tragedy of my sister Nora, and how I joined the Rebellion.”

  Galen nodded, and he let silence fill the air before he asked, “So… where does Morpheus play into this?”

  Aleksi took a deep breath, “That was a more recent revelation. Back when I was a spy in the Dominion, before you were summoned to this world, I met him. He was under the alias, Milton the scribe, at the time as well. I’d suspected… but… well, you can imagine how painful it was to try to confirm, lad. But I did, and I got confirmation not long before you were summoned. Morpheus is my nephew. He is my late sister Nora’s son.”

  Galen leaned back, taking it all in.

  Hell, what could he say to what he’d just heard? The tale was a tragic one, and he once more realized just how messed up the Dominion was. And the bit about Athanasius… most of Galen’s opinions on that man were based on what he learned of his empire and the actions the Emperor himself had taken, such as ordering his summoning. This was the first time he’d gotten a glimpse into Athanasius’s proclivities, and he was disgusted by what he’d learned.

  So, it’s as I’d figured, he thought, Athanasius is nothing more than a power hungry tyrant. An exceedingly powerful one, yes, but a tyrant nonetheless. What else did I expect from someone so egotistical they claim to be a god?

  He looked to Aleksi and said, “I’m… sorry I pressed you for this…”

  “Don’t be, lad,” his mentor sighed, “I think… void, don’t tell Arvad what I’m about to say. The man would never let me live it down. But I think he was right. You needed to know.”

  Aleksi leaned forward in his chair, “I… I faced him, you know? When my identity as one of the Rebellion’s leaders was discovered and I had to flee.”

  Galen perked up, assuming he was referring to Morpheus, “You did? How… how did that go?”

  “Poorly,” Aleksi grimaced, “I… I saw too much of Nora in him. Void, he inherited his mother’s looks, you know? Seeing him reminded me of her. And it hurt, lad. It hurt to see my sister’s son, fully grown and serving Athanasius! As if I didn’t have enough reason to want to see that blasphemer dead.”

  “Do you think you’d be able to face him in battle? If it came down to it?” Galen asked nervously.

  Aleksi took a deep breath, “No doubt this was the reason why Arvad had you press me. For someone so aloof, he sure does have a habit of showing he cares in the oddest ways.”

  “So… can you?” he asked again.

  Zareb Aleksi Barus was silent for a long, long while before he answered, “I don’t know, lad… I just don’t know…”

  “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, then.”

  “I pray to the Maker that it doesn’t,” Aleksi muttered, looking hollow.

  After a few moments of silence between them, Galen, having enough of the dower mood, leaped to his feet with exaggerated energy, “Right then! We should probably get going with the last of our preparations. Better safe than sorry, as they say.”

  Aleksi cracked a smile, “It is as you say, lad. Come on. We’ll make sure our own preparations are done and then go assist Lusha.”

  He nodded, and followed his mentor out of his tent.

  ***

  Morpheus was on a hunt, and the predator was quickly closing in on its prey.

  He dashed through the open fields of Axis Mundi at high speeds, the landscape nothing but a blur as he sped past.

  His heart thundered, not from exertion, but from excitement. He could tell he was closing in on his targets.

  He leapt a great distance, reaching the top of a hill in that single move. Just as his feet touched the ground, he jumped again, leaping so high he could see for miles at his peak before gravity began to bring him back down.

  He landed violently, a crater forming on the ground as he landed on his feet, looking no worse for wear.

  He took a deep breath, grinning like a madman as he looked up to the swirling orange-yellow sky.

  A lithe figure in pitch black armor nearly identical to his own landed next to him, only unlike him, she landed gracefully and with no where near as much intensity. She didn’t even leave a crack on the ground.

  No flair whatsoever, Morpheus smirked as he turned to regard her, well, that is good I suppose. She attracts enough attention without it.

  “I swear,” Venus sighed audibly as she stood, carrying a sack over her shoulders like a bag, “you need to calm down, Morpheus. You’re acting like an unchained hound.”

  He laughed at the comparison, “My dear, that’s an apt description. I’ve spent far too long in the boring persona of ‘Milton the scribe’. I hadn’t even realized how pent up I was for a good mission until we were sent to track down the Champion.”

  “I don’t know,” Venus sighed, “there was a certain charm to that ‘Milton’ guise.”

  Morpheus paused, taking off his helmet so that she could see the raised brow he was giving her. “You have got to be joking.”

  “I’m not!” Venus also took off her own helmet, revealing the unparalleled beauty beneath, “there was a nerdy appeal to your look as Milton. Why, I’m a bit saddened that you will no longer be requiring that role.”

  He snorted at that, “Well, I’m not. You’ve no idea how many times I came close to choking the life out of some of the more obstinate staff in the castle.”

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  Venus shook her head with amusement, “Quit whining. It’s beneath you.”

  “Yeah, yeah… just off load the prisoner already.”

  She did just that, roughly tossing the large sack she’d been carrying to the ground. A pained grunt could be heard inside.

  With a quick Art, Milton burned away the sack, and the person inside screamed through their gag as the fire briefly licked them before going out.

  The prisoner in question was a terrorist. A member of that abominable Rebellion that dared to deny Lord Athanasius’s sovereign reign. Merely seeing this rebel made Morpheus want to burn them to cinders. Especially after what was done to Ignis…

  Patience… he scolded himself, you will have a more target rich environment soon enough. Hold back until then…

  Subduing his rage, he coldly analyzed the prisoner.

  Bound and gagged, the captive was a knife-eared male. Bruises covered its exposed body, along with a myriad of other far more gruesome wounds. Nails all torn off from the earlier interrogation, and fingers all bent in unnatural angels. An eye closed for it had been gouged out. A long ear missing after being cut off. Body and face scarred and hair in patches from being repeatedly cut and burned.

  This thing deserved far worse, Morpheus sneered with disgust as the memory of Ignis’s destruction came to mind, a pity he broke so early into the torture.

  The knife eared freak was looking around wildly with its one remaining eye, looking manic. When it saw him, however, it surprisingly focused and glared at him with absolute hatred, like the animal it was.

  Perhaps not as broken as I thought… he smiled, amused.

  Morpheus reached down and roughly hauled the creature to a sitting position. He had to support its weight since it couldn’t stand. Its kneecaps had been shattered during the interrogation.

  “Now,” Morpheus began, tone cold, “we should be close, right? After all, you pointed us this direction. So, where is it? Where were you leading that band of feral animals? Where is the entrance to the Rebellion’s hideout?”

  The prisoner didn’t speak, and Morpheus had been about to punch the creature in its marred face.

  Until he realized its gag was still in place.

  “Ah, forgot to take that off. Silly me,” he roughly ripped off the gag, revealing for a moment several broken and missing teeth.

  The tree hugger took desperate, deep gasps of breath, shaking as it did.

  Likely it knew they would be its last.

  The prisoner appeared to hesitate, and Morpheus rolled his eyes, “Don’t tell me you’re having second thoughts?”

  These things were never really smart, so it was entirely likely.

  He sighed and made the knife-ears look him in the eye, “Listen. I’m growing impatient. Now, we could torment you some more and inevitably drag out the answer from you. Or, you could tell us now and save yourself the agony. Worse case scenario, we torment the others we captured and have THEM tell us. WORST case we simply search ourselves and find it soon enough anyways. You’ve already pointed us in the right direction.”

  “I… I…” it began before faltering.

  The creature began to weep of all things.

  “Oh for Durai’s sake,” Morpheus looked to Venus, who just shrugged, looking bored.

  “Free the others,” the tree hugger begged, “and I’ll tell you. Please! They are no threat to you…”

  Morpheus was incredulous, “You mean to bargain with me?”

  He barked with laughter. Not a mocking one, well not ENTIRELY.

  He shook his head as he calmed down, “No… no that’s not how this works. You see, as difficult as it may be for your feeble tree hugging mind to comprehend, in order to bargain you need to have some level of power in the deal being made. Only, there is no deal to be made here. Yes, you have something we want, but we can just as easily get it from another one of your friends.”

  The elf shook, its weeping only increasing in intensity.

  Morpheus shot another look to Venus, who yawned. “Don’t look at me. I’d have killed the thing and used one of the others by now.”

  “Please… release them… please…” it continued to beg.

  Now this was just starting to get pathetic. Void, he was almost starting to feel BAD for the thing.

  Why do I bother…? Morpheus wondered.

  Now, he could do exactly as Venus suggested. But that would just delay getting the prize. No, no he didn’t want to wait for much longer.

  He sighed, and said to the elf, “Fine.”

  The tree hugger sharply looked to him, hope in its one eye.

  He could see Venus frown with widening eyes in his peripheral vision, “Morpheus?! What are you-”

  He raised a hand to indicate she wait.

  To the knife-ear, he told it, “Tell us where to find the Rebellion’s hideout, and I will free your comrades.”

  It hesitated, “Will you truly?”

  “You doubt my word? I swear it to you, on my pride as a Shadow, that I will release your comrades in exchange for the location of the hideout’s entrance.”

  He slowly stood, looking down at the elf. “Yes, I will give them the sweet release of death. I’ll even make it painless.”

  “Wait… what?!” the tree hugger cried out, eye widening in horror, “that isn’t what I-”

  “Think for one voiding minute!” Morpheus snarled, patience waning, “you know what awaits them. You personally know it. You are now intimately familiar with our skill in torture. You can save them from that fate.”

  He raised a finger, his voice quieting, but still loud enough for both it and Venus to hear, “All you need to do is give us the information we seek. Information which, allow me to remind you, we will get soon enough anyway.”

  The tree hugger’s lips quivered, and it muttered in between sobs, “Maker… Forgive me… I’m sorry… everyone.”

  It then began to paw at the ground with its bound hands, using its palms to dig since its broken fingers were useless.

  “What are you-” Morpheus began.

  “Underground,” the creature said.

  Morpheus paused, looking to Venus, who had an identical look of realization on her beautiful face.

  Of course… he grinned savagely. Zareb Barus, you sly dog!

  To their knowledge, there hadn’t been any underground passageways in this area. Such tunnel networks were constantly being created by Ether Beasts who lived beneath the dirt. Whenever a new one was found, it was to be explored and mapped. The ones here must either be new, had never been discovered, or they had been man made.

  “Where?” he barked to the knife ears.

  “A few… paces north of here…” it answered.

  “Watch him,” Morpheus said to Venus as he sped off in that direction.

  He moved for but a few seconds before leaping into the air and slamming his fist down into the ground. A cloud of dust exploded into the air as the ground broke apart and collapsed like a sinkhole. Morpheus fell down along with the debris and soon enough found himself landing in a massive cavernous tunnel. He grinned as he stood, looking down both ways.

  To think we missed this! he thought with a shake of his head, did those rebels dig all this? Or did an Ether Beast make these tunnels? Regardless, those terrorists made use of them to evade us. But not for much longer…

  He leapt out of the hole he’d made and returned to Venus and the prisoner.

  “Judging from the childish grin on your face, I’m guessing you found what we were looking for?” Venus teased, albeit with a smile.

  He nodded, and knelt down to the sitting captive elf.

  He placed a hand on its shoulder, “You have made a wise decision.”

  The creature simply wept at its betrayal of its comrades, not bothering to look at him.

  Morpheus patted the thing’s shoulder. He was in such a good mood now that he didn’t even feel disgust for the tree hugger. Rather… dare he say he almost felt gratitude?

  He pulled out his side knife to slit its throat, but thought better of it. Instead, he stood and pulled his sword from its sheath. No, not his Sentient Weapon. He wouldn’t use such a magnificent blade for a simple execution. No, he unsheathed his backup sword, a regular longsword made of an alloy of metals found in Axis Mundi and Branlyn respectively.

  He looked down at the weeping creature, brandishing his sword, “No need to weep any longer. Now, you may return to the void.”

  With a single casual swipe of his sword, he decapitated the tree hugger as easily as a hot knife cutting through butter.

  He wiped his sword clean with a rag as he sheathed it and turned to Venus.

  “Well, that was one way to extract intel, I suppose,” she mused.

  “Let us return to our camp to gather the soldiers. We march as soon as possible.”

  “I have to say,” she began, looking at the elf’s headless corpse as he sheathed his sword, “its amusing how you lied to the thing to get it to spill the information.”

  “Ah, right. In my excitement I nearly forgot,” he regarded Venus, “have the soldiers execute the rebel prisoners we have in our custody.”

  Venus frowned deeply, “Are you being serious? There’s no need to keep up that pretense now that its dead.”

  Morpheus shrugged, “I keep my word when given, Venus. You know that.”

  “Even to a knife-ears?” she challenged.

  “Given how good of a mood it put me in… sure, why not?” Morpheus smiled, “besides, not like we need those prisoners anyway. Not when we’re going to be on the attack soon. I’d rather have every soldier we have cutting down those rebels in their hideout rather than having some watch over some prisoners. Besides, we’ll be able to get more shortly.”

  “A fair point,” Venus acknowledged, “very well. I’ll see it done. I’ll make sure we have someone harvest the tree huggers we have after the fact.”

  She looked to him then, an unreadable expression on her beautiful features. “I suppose I shouldn’t be all that surprised. You never really liked torture, anyway.”

  Morpheus grimaced, “Normally, no. Anyway, I now have one more question for you.”

  Venus raised a brow.

  “Race back to camp?” he offered.

  She smiled, and disappeared in a burst of speed.

  “Oh you little-” he too vanished as he gave chase.

  Next chapter will be released Thursday, December 25th, 2025 at 3:00 PM PST.

  A huge thank you and special shoutout to my Page Tuner tier Patron, LOOKOUT, Myth Keeper tier Patron, Lukas Votava, and my Lore Master tier Patrons, Mountain Knight, Conman2731, ThoMiCroN, MCE 2 Munchen 2, and Voltrus. Your support is sincerely and greatly appreciated.