"Why?"
In a palace worth a city, the deep voice of a depressed man reverberated in the throne hall.
The man facing the question leaned back on the throne to a more comfortable position. He didn't even bother to open his eyes.
Shaking in anger, Bali stood looking up at the throne, and waited. Along with him, Irene Nial and Kevin, the surviving sovereigns also waited.
"Three Billion lives." Irene Nial's chest heaved up and down as she gritted her teeth to the point blood started leaking out of her lips.
"And the death of Sovereign Albert, just how could you?" Kevin asked with bloodshot eyes.
The atmosphere in the room grew heavier. Even though it was the palace of the 'Human Emperor', the grief in the air made it feel like a cemetery.
And that irked Julius.
But he didn't open his eyes. He didn't even bother to open his mouth and answer.
He simply pointed his finger into the air and the interior walls of the throne hall lit up.
The dark, depressed, and silent throne hall transformed as the walls began to glow, showcasing the murals engraved on them—telling the tale of human civilization.
It began all the way with the advent of the first human from the ape, fast forwarded to Blink five centuries ago. And then, came the nuclear wars, the murloc war, the shadow nation, and so on.
All of these were engraved on one wall. The remaining three walls were filled with history since the advent of abyssals.
Even though the duration of this era was less than two centuries, it heavily dominated the representation in the murals.
The last mural on the walls ended with the start of the war and humanity finding itself in extremely dire straits, just on the verge of extinction.
Finally, the vaulted ceiling lit up and the murals finished the story. Julius emerged and destroyed the abysses, establishing lasting peace.
Julius wiggled his finger at the vaulted ceiling and crossed his arms, his meaning obvious.
"A false history. There is nothing about Varian here. Even though he saved humanity multiple times. Even in this war, without him, we'd be a goner." Before even Irene or Bali, Sovereign Kevin sneered with contempt.
Those words finally caused Julius to open his eyes. The palace flashed with a golden light brighter than the sunrise and the air grew so heavy that just standing in there felt like carrying a mountain.
"History is written by victors," Julius said slowly but his words echoed in the throne hall loudly, almost like a clap of thunder. "Varian hid like a rat. He doesn't deserve to be in the glorious human history."
"What about you? The man who allowed the slaughter of three billion humans?" Irene took a step forward and glared at him. "Do you know how many families are affected, how many lives ar—"
Her words stopped in the middle as a heavy pressure shut her up.
"I know, I know. Tragedy at a mega scale. I know the implications." Julius waved his hand like he was swatting a fly and propped his chin on his palm. "But I have a correction to make, I didn't allow the slaughter of three billion. It's the abyssals who did what they did. And I avenged them."
"You…" Bali looked at Julius' eyes and saw no emotion in them. It was as if he was staring at a robot. No, even robots these days had plenty of emotions.
Julius' eyes held no remorse, no pain, not even the faintest of regret. Bali felt like he was staring at a psychopath.
A very clever, exceedingly strong, and madly driven psychopath.
Julius noticed the expressions on the sovereigns' faces and shrugged. "20 million humans die because of abyssals every year. That's 2 billion in a century. Any major war, then this number shoots up like crazy.
If the abyssals were left to fester, in a century and a half, they'd kill as many humans as the ones that died on Neptune and likely, way more. What's worse, this would continue on and on.
The living sacrificed now are to prevent larger sacrifices in the future. Overall, it's a net positive."
Irene clenched her fists as her blood boiled and she almost lashed out.
Bali looked at Julius incredulously. How could this man be so confident in his shitty logic?
"The abyssals would be gone in a decade or two. This century casualty would've never happened." He spat.
"You don't understand." Julius shook his head. "Abyssals get support from their home world. If we drag things, there's a good chance things would've gotten very dangerous. Because there's one guy on their side…who's in the same league as me."
His words stopped any further words from the sovereigns. They were still angry at him. But they realized they couldn't make any difference. With a defeated sigh, they exited the palace.
"Do come to the coronation. Human Empire would benefit from your services." Julius' voice rang before the huge doors to the palace snapped shut.
The Celestial ranker stared at them one last time before his body disappeared and he appeared in a ruins.
Ignoring all the explored and partially explored areas, he went straight into the unexplored areas.
They were called as such since no one came back alive from those areas. Not even Sovereigns.
The one that Julius picked was a misty forest. He stepped in and the mist concentrated around him, generating a pressure tremendous enough to crush a sovereign.
But he was fine. Unlike anyone else before, he was a celestial ranker.
"The mysteries of devas will be mine." Julis smiled and stepped forward through the mist.
Even with his strength, the mist was interfering with his senses, preventing him from looking ahead.
Before he knew it, Julius felt himself walking into something tall and vast.
"Huh?" He stumbled back a couple of steps and stared up in confusion.
Even if it's just a normal walk, how could a celestial ranker stumble?
A subdued growl sounded and the "thing" in front of him buzzed.
Julius was slapped by a suffocating aura and flew out of the mist forest, vomiting blood.
"What the?!" He touched his blood and grew angry. "What even is that creature? Why is it that strong? Why am I not given the legacy?"
There was no answer.
"Speak, Heaven's Will!"
An ancient voice spoke directly in his mind. "You are a protector, not the inheritor. Guard the legacy, do not seek it. The inheritor is already decided."
"Who?" Julius gnashed his teeth.
The wind in front of him distorted and formed a screen. It fluctuated between a male and female before finalizing into a handsome young man with a confident smile.
"You! Why you?" Julius smashed the ground into a deep and roared. "Varian!"
The human army was soon ordered to search for Varian. No one even had a clue. Then, the search for everyone related to him began.
All of them were missing.
Evander? Missing. Kyle and Maya? Gone. Blue Flash? Gone. Richard and Anna also disappeared.
But of course, only Kyle, Maya, and Evander were on the ghost ship. The rest were hiding and the human army, which wasn't really loyal to this new 'Emperor' didn't bother searching thoroughly and at times, deliberately helped them from being found.
Even as he clung to his throne 24x7, he felt like a fool carrying a crown just like a monkey that got hold of a piece of gold. Varian's image continued to play in his mind and to his own fear, he imagined the young man sitting on the throne and staring at him with pity.
The Emperor-to-be was warring against his own mind as the coronation grew closer.
