Damien watched as children ran around, giggling and laughing as they played on the specially grown grass in the park. He was one of a multitude of adults sitting on the various wooden benches scattered all over the park.

  He watched as a few kids jumped a dozen feet into the air, not a shred of fear in their minds that they could fall and injure themselves. He watched as the formation placed underneath the park caught them in a cushion of wind and gentle gravity, slowly bringing them down, making it seem as if they were flying. The children giggled and cheered, demanding for more as they ran again towards a large circle where gravity had been reversed—courtesy of the runic enchantments inscribed within— and then they floated up again, laughing as they were slowly brought down.

  Other children swarm inside a very transparent small lake, laughing and screaming in delight as they were tickled by the hundreds of water spirits inside the water, harmless spirits.

  He watched as a little toddler, with blue eyes and deep black hair—now that it wasn't so drenched in blood that the whole hair turned red— played with other toddlers his age. Tiny little nature spirits flew around their heads, playing catch with the toddlers as the little children raised their grabby little hands to catch them.

  The park was alive with the sounds of joy and laughter as children ran around and had fun without a single care in the world.

  Damien reminisced fondly when he and Keilan used to run around like this. They didn't jump around on gravity-defying enchantments or play with nature spirits, as far as he could recall, but they did have their own kind of fun. He smiled as he remembered both of them sneaking off into the nearby jungle when they'd been expressly warned not to. Making fun at Leila's expense and Keilan running around playing pranks when he thought no one was looking. They'd had lots of fun. But eventually, life caught up to them earlier than expected.

  Damien shook his head, dispelling the sadness that'd begun creeping onto his mind. He didn't like remembering the times after that.

  "How'd you find me?" He said to the empty space around him, drawing strange looks from a few passing civilians.

  "You're in my city, remember? It isn't that hard to uncover your whereabouts, especially when you're not trying to hide," a woman's voice answered, originating from a spot behind him, closer to the tree borders.

  Queen Fenore stepped out from the treeline, seemingly out of nothing. Others would think that she'd just teleported in, but Damien knew that she'd been standing there for the past half hour, fending off attention with an aura trick. Those kinds of tricks only worked on people who were not him.

  She was putting on a long black dress that trailed behind her in the grass. Multiple pieces of jewelry adorned her form, matching her emerald eyes.

  "What do you want?" He demanded brusquely, irritation creeping into his voice at the unwanted interruption.

  "Is that the child you rescued? I was surprised to learn that you'd taken a ward. Or wasn't that your intention when you directed them towards my palace?" She said, slowly walking towards him in so smooth a way that it seemed like she was gliding. I wonder if all these royalties have some special school for walking, he thought.

  People who didn't know him would think it foolish of her to show such disrespect by ignoring his question, but his Emissaries knew him well, and they knew when he was really not in a good mood, unlike the childish grumpiness he was feeling now.

  "The boy has lost something so precious that he would never get back, and at such a young age too," he replied, turning back to the playing child. "Nothing is more powerful than a mother's love—I can't best that, so I've decided to at least give him something closer."

  Fenore gave him a weird look. "I never took you for the caring type, especially not to strangers."

  He snorted, a little bit of laughter slipping out of him. "I do care, not just for everyone. The little one and I have something in common, just as you, I would recall. So I might as well make sure he doesn't lack the love we both got, even if it was for a brief while."

  Fenore smiled ruefully. "And what is your brother's opinion on this?"

  "As much as I'm doing it for the boy, I'm also doing it for Keilan. He needs a special kind of love only the little one can give, to bottle up that seething rage he has locked up inside of him."

  Fenore looked at him in surprise.

  "What? Did you think I was the angry one? Ha! If you think me angry, you should see Keilan when he's truly pissed. It'll be a memory never to be forgotten.

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  "This," he gestured at the laughing children. "They shouldn't have to feel the same hate that's coursing through our veins. Their happiness should be something to be treasured."

  "Then why are you so hell bent on this war? I mean, I will not say no to any battle with the Empire—as long as we're sure to win—but you know very well that thousands of these children are going to lose their parents to this war, and yet you choose to go with it."

  "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't fighting for revenge. But I'm also fighting so that these children wouldn't grow up with the same hate festering inside of me, or the wrath burning inside my brother," he said, shaking his head sadly. "They might lose their parents, but it'll be to them dying as heroes who defended their families and kingdoms rather than dying helplessly to the invasion of a power-hungry Empire."

  "Aren't we all power hungry? What's the difference between them and us?" She asked, her piercing emerald eyes seemingly studying him.

  "You want an honest answer? No, there's no difference, we're all power-hungry villains. The only thing separating us from the Empire is that we have a different way of getting it, a slightly less painful way.

  "The only reason we've turned the Empire into the big bad villain is that they've just been the ones to cause us the most pain," he said, his eyes going blank as his mind went back to that day, that heart-wrenching day.

  Chest tightening, he shook his head as he came back to the present, turning his attention towards the little children playing. A little boy ran, laughing shrilly as he was chased by two other children—a boy and a girl—holding dirt in their hands. Their faces were marked with brown dirt, most likely the handwork of the boy they were now chasing.

  Scattered around the field, dozens more were playing similar games, chasing each other, sometimes catching their quarry, and the other times the quarry managed to escape.

  "Adrian—I've decided to name him that—will live inside your castle. It doesn't matter who he stays with, as far as he's being taken good care of and protected, and hidden away from any suspicious eyes," he said, turning his eyes towards the tall woman. "I will come for him when the war's over."

  Fenore nodded. "I'll post protectors to watch over him."

  Damien watched her for a moment before he nodded. He didn't need to voice it out loud, they all knew what would happen if anything untoward happened to the boy.

  "So, what actually brought you here?" He asked, changing the topic.

  "I came to inform you about the battle plan being finalized. We want you to see it, just in case you want to add anything."

  Damien sighed, looked one last time towards little Adrian playing on the ground, and then he stood up. "Let's go."

  Together they teleported out of the park, startling a couple who'd just happened to glance at them when they disappeared.

  ***

  They appeared in the war room of the castle, surprising none of those already present. Other than nods and muttered greetings, their full attention was focused on the large map laid over the great rectangular table.

  The map was a detailed drawing of the Greensend continent, filled with mountains, rivers, lakes, and the maps of the other nations that called this place home. To the far east was the map of the Solarian Empire, which took up more than a quarter of the continent. There were almost a hundred dots representing the cities within its territory.

  To the north of the Empire was the Solarian northern jungle, and a line was drawn to the west of the jungle, indicating a river. Across from that river was a forest that housed the temple to another celestial.

  To the west of the continent were the maps of dozens of other kingdoms and close to a thousand cities. The kingdoms of Gandor and Camlen shared the border between the east and west, like a last defence against the ever-encroaching war machine that was the empire. Behind them were the dozens of other kingdoms who, although strong enough to help halt the expansion of the Solaria Empire, were held paralyzed by fear, relying cowardly on the two border Kingdoms to save them. A few weren't like that, thankfully.

  "I think we should expect a sea or sky assault," swordlord Danor said. Outside, thunder rumbled in the distance. "Since they'll be looking for a quick and overwhelming attack, the reasonable path would be either through the northern or southern sea."

  "There is no use attacking via the north or the south, it just gives us ample forewarning of their approach," King Brunos argued. "My money's on the borderlands. Sure, we might see them, but not before they manage to cause destruction with their quick response battle groups."

  Thunder rumbled again, closer this time.

  The borderlands were a large expanse of land—hundreds of miles— that stood between the Empire and the border Kingdoms. It encompassed an old massive battlefield, a small desert, and a forest.

  "What if they come from the sea, but rather than sea ships, they attack with skyships," Danor's second in command spoke and another clap of thunder echoed in response.

  "Are we all forgetting that the forest that borders Gandor also acts as protection from any northern attack?" Helera said. When everyone turned to look at her, she clarified. "The northern forest houses the temple to the cult of the Nature Celestial. We know that they will not help us in this war, but they also will not let pass anything that so much as looks like a danger to the forest, which includes sky ships, land vehicles, and even Spirit lords.

  They all nodded at that. "Which means their route of attack is either through the southern ocean or the borderlands. I believe the ocean to be the most plausible route, less stressful and harder to see." Thunder rumbled again, this time accompanied by forking lightning so bright that it lit up and startled the room's occupants.

  As one, they all looked up.

  "They're here," Damien said, looking through the window just as the entire city was plunged into semi-darkness by the sudden rush of dark clouds.

  A thick bolt of lightning, as thick as a small building, flashed in the distance, the light illuminating the figures of multiple Spirit lords who flew in an iron-tight formation, aura blazing as they made their way towards the city.

  And there, leading the formation in his almighty golden glory, was the Emperor himself.