By noon the next day, long after Amhain and Barrafin took their leave and returned to their hefty and anxiety inducing responsibilities, they once again found themselves atop the city’s northern walls, only now in the terrifying and prestigious company of Tessiphina, Avestan, Archon, and of course Hamilcar himself, who alone sat with his usual stern and cold expression on his face, with his eyes calmly closed; as all the rest of them stood at attention at the head of a large crowd, that had already formed hours before on the northern banks of the city’s battlements.

A mass of humans better described as a deluge of excitement, expectation and curiosity that spilled it’s excess of anticipating people deep into the awaiting city’s many tight alleyways and vast streets, that were crowded to the brim with loud hawking merchants and a wide plethora of carnival performers capturing the attention and wonder of the surrounding masses.

"The boss’ finally comin’, eh?" And just then, as the highest commanding structure of the conquered Murathicus lands were settling into the comfortable pause now blanketing them, the loud echo of Orhan’s exhilarated voice boomed in their ears.

"You seem excited for someone who’s so late." Avestan commented half in annoyance at the man’s perpetual habit of tardiness, and half in mild surprise, since in the three long years of having been sharing in this odd man’s entertaining, yet infuriating company, he’d never seen him act so animated when the topic in question did not involve his ’darlings’ and their deafening ’serenades’.

"’Course I’m excited!" The eclectic elder proclaimed. "The boss is coming, that means my poor, lovely song birds will finally get a chance to leave their cages after so long and really let loose their beautiful voices! Besides, my darlings’ songs grow most passionate when he’s around!"

An uncanny chill ran through the spines of Amhain and Barrafin as they heard the disturbed man’s words, and all it’s horrific implications.

’So what you did before was not the full extent of your cannons ability?!’ The two men thought at the same time.

"He’s here." Hamilcar’s authoritative voice then lightly spread out, proclaiming with a heavy intensity that always accompanied his words, refocusing all their attention back onto the awakened him, as he slowly rose from his seat, before he then calmly launched himself to the ground below; and for what was a mere splinter of a second, they thought they saw, what looked like to them, as an almost excited grin spreading darkly across the ancient demon’s face, much to their utter disbelief, as they’d never before seen or even conceived of the possibility that he was able to show such an expression.

The others remained in place for a moment later, looking towards the mountain pass, only to see and feel nothing when they tried to spread their senses further using their aura, yet even still none doubted the ancient demon’s words, as they all then followed his lead, beginning with his ever loyal and present right hand man Avestan, before being followed shortly after by Tessiphina and Archon.

Barrafin and Amhain followed after, as they needed to help Orhan, since the mad cannoneer was but a common mortal at the end of the day, and wholly unable to mimic their actions.

Once before the gate, they again lined themselves on either flank of Hamilcar, and looked back up to the northern corridor, only to suddenly behold the first signs of activity upon those black stones in days.

As swift shadows of a few dozen men and women zipped past the terrain towards them in a beautiful ribbon of different lights and forms, their colourful and disparate auras stitching the distance of a few lieges between them in a matter of few seconds.

Yet despite the undeniable speed of these nearing figures, the awaiting people of the Emperor’s Reach, particularly those of Murathicus origin, found a profound sense of disillusionment and even disappointment descend upon them, when they beheld the approaching party, which only doubled when the figures of these people finally halted their relentless advance a moment later, when they finally neared the awaiting gates.

Even intelligent and unprejudiced men like Amhain and Barrafin found themselves slightly unimpressed and even let down by the one they had heard so much about this whole time, this supposed conqueror of their land who only looked to them as a young pup half their age.

There was none of the expected pomp and fanfare, none of the predicted majesty and vanity, none of the forecasted show of indomitable power they thought they would be witness to.

After all, that was how conquerors usually were, beings who were always eager to showcase their might before those he vanquished.

But this man arrived before them with no armies, no servants, no booming trumpets and pounding drums, no long and elaborate processions, he didn’t even arrive on the back of a simple horse, or within the confines of a majestic chariot or luxurious carriage.

He simply walked up to their city on foot, with an odd looking halberd strapped to his, a black, ornate looking sword on his waist and a beautiful, blind woman in his arms, with a few dozen men and women a step behind, each of whom carrying and dressed differently than the rest.

So lacklustre, and honestly odd, was this entrance to the gathered Murathicans that they thought, for however brief a moment it was, that they had inadvertently welcomed the incorrect group, or perhaps even the scouting party of the true emperor’s cavalcade.

A thought they abandoned the instant they heard the absolutely stunning sound of the heavy thud of innumerable sets of knees, bending on dirt and cobble roads, as thousands upon thousands of Eclipse men, many of whom being soldiers and warriors these same judgemental Murathicus lords, peasants, merchants and officers respected, but mostly feared and hated as fearsome and insufferably arrogant beings of war, saluted their emperor in one, fluid, humbling motion, as though they had secretly practiced it for months on end.

None of these bent knees being more impactful than the ones of Hamilcar, Avestan and Archon, as they’d never before seen these three men so much as offer a single word of sympathy or comfort, even when faced with the grieving tears of a mother or widow of a soldier who died under their command, let alone an act of such blatant humility.

And so by herd mentality, peer pressure or whatever else, the Murathicus men began to ever so slowly mimic the actions of the those who’ve already bowed, yet as they were doing so, those of them who were slower than the rest felt a sudden push, a shove as though a myriad of frigid hands had abruptly forced their body down, and when they looked to investigate the cause, they noticed the silent sweeping gaze of none other than the one they’d just felt disappointed them pass them.

Something felt most prominently by none other than Amhain and Barrafin, who instead of hands, felt frigid claws and hooked talons of smouldering coal tear into their skin as his eyes scraped across their bent backs in an almost predatorial appraising eye; an eerie feeling they’d never experienced before, that all but left them in a state of puzzlement,

Until, that is, they noticed the impossible and the unimaginable, which could only be seen from their current angle.

The mighty Tessiphina, the strongest woman they’d ever seen in their lives, a woman who thrived even when every other patriarch and clan came crashing down around her, had a look on her face none, even her own son, had ever witnessed upon the woman’s beautifully heroic face.

A look she never showcased even before the terrifying Hamilcar.

And what look was that you might ask?

It was a look of utter and absolute terror, for unlike the other fools and weaklings around her, she had the courage and the misfortune of daring to directly stare into Alexander’s eyes, which was further exacerbated by the curse of her long life and experiences, allowing her to partially understand the nature of the being they were looking down upon a moment ago.

’Madness!’ Tessiphina screamed in her mind. ’How could they bow before such a thing?! Hamilcar is no fool, he must see even more than I, so how can he so willingly accept servitude to such an abomination! Is he blind!’ She furiously asked herself, as she eagerly turned her eyes to gaze in desperate question at the man she’d served with for the past three years, and who she thought after all this time, she believed she now fully understood, only to then see the Grand Marshal’s ever stoic face twisted into a frightful mask of blood drunk delirium.

Unconsciously gulping to wet her suddenly parched throat, Tessiphina at that moment suddenly realized that she never truly understood the man she walked next to for the past three years, 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

And then compelled by morbid curiosity, utter foolishness or whatever else was passing through her muddled brain at the moment, she gingerly lifted her head, feeling that same abominable gaze fixated upon her, wherein she beheld that being looking back at her with an utterly apathetic stare, that slowly, almost torturously twisted and morphed into one of harrowing sadistic pleasure, as an entirely unknown, asymmetric grin apparated on his once handsome and cold features, that were now utterly mutilated and disfigured by the overextension of his haunting smile.

’Gods. I beg of you.’ Tessiphina prayed in her mind. ’Have mercy upon our people!’