The great desert trembled, shaking the boat the Third Prince was on. He looked around in annoyance and urged the boat to move faster, when he did, a pale green Aura from Elura inside his body was fed to the boat and it accelerated.
A billion miles to the side, a series of spear-like scales began to arise from the sand, these scales turned out to be strands of hair that had been caked for endless years with the blowing sand, as a gigantic head emerged from the sand the size of multiple galaxies.
The commotion of its emergence was enough to destabilize the ever present storm, but its presence created a greater storm that shook the entirety of the great desert.
The Third Prince screamed his anger and defiance as he covered the boat with a shell of shadows, one of the four eyes in his chest cracked and he nearly screamed in pain.
Those eyes were the last fragments of Intellect he had left, although they restricted his abilities to a great extent, they were the only thing keeping him at the edge of sanity.
This being arising from the sands had the power to crush a universe, yet it was imprisoned for all time inside this place. Sometimes it was a great mercy to be able to die.
The head was brown and black and resembled a male with exaggerated features. His eyes were closed but a purple flame burned across its edges as if his eyelids were gates holding back an unfathomable inferno.
On the head rested a broken crown that appeared to be made from prismatic glass that reflected a fading sunset, if Rowan was here he would have found similarities between this crown and his crown of starlight when he was accepting the Chaotic Essence.
"The King of Nothing! You should not be anywhere near this universe's deserts, what is happening?"
The Third Prince gasped in shock and pain, and he held himself still like a statue, for a moment everything was silent in this vast nothingness, except for ghosts and fading screams, everything was still, and slowly the head began to turn towards the Third Prince.
It was said that endless Eras ago, that the first and only Emperor of Nothing held his ground against the might of the entire multiverse, that in the great battle that shook all of Creation, he was finally shattered by the annoyed roar of a Primordial who had became fed up with the endless appetite of this creature.
Yet this Mad Titan did not perish but was shattered into a million pieces, each of these pieces created a King of Nothing, and collectively they ended up ruling a thousand universes for countless Eras until the Celestial came to purge them from their blood-soaked throne.
It took a lot to be noticed by a Primordial, and even more to anger one of them so greatly that they left their lofty throne to personally hand down their punishment.
The Emperor of Nothing was worthy of that attention for it was one of the extremely rare beings in all the myriad universes that controlled the powers of Oblivion, perhaps the only being in creation.
Oblivion after all were the chains that were imprisoning a Primordial.
"Don't do it…" the Third Prince moaned in distress. "Don't make me kill you again…. I will not be able to stop myself, and I have an errant son I need to bring to heel."
The head fully opened its eyes, and the Third Prince sighed, he was already eighty percent of his way through the desert. If he ignored this challenge, more would come, until he was flooded and dragged into a battle that would not end until this universe expires.
He was not afraid of the battles, but he understood his own appetites, he had lived for too long as a reflection and his recent habits had shown that he was beginning to lose cohesion, he was beginning to lose control of his Intellect, once he had more than a thousand eyes and now he was down to four… no three!
His growing appetite for depravity and madness was proof that he was beginning to fade. He had lived for too long… far longer than any Reflection had the right to stay alive.
If he was dragged under the sweet music of combat, he would lose himself and forget his purpose, the only reason that he existed in the first place.
"No! I cannot afford to fail. This struggle passed unto me by the will of the…"
He slowly stopped speaking as all around him, massive heads began to poke from the sands, as a dozen King of nothing arose…
Far in the distance a black sun opened its serpentine eyes and gazed at him, while it vomited an army of monsters.
The Third Prince groaned in annoyance and exhaustion, and his shadowy body began to expand until its height towered for billions of miles.
"Even if I'm the faded reflection from a drop of blood… I shall slaughter you all until you remember who the fuck I am!"
With that roar of defiance, a great battle began inside the desert.
©
A young military officer ran down a long passageway toward an opulent office. He brushed past the two powerful Guardsmen guarding the door as he flashed his identifications.
Knocking once, he pushed open the door, and he saluted to the figure seated inside. It was a woman with hair that had been shaved down leaving it short, her face was youthful but with a permanent frown and sneer at the side of her mouth that transformed her feature into one of deep menace.
She wore a red military uniform that fitted her loosely, but the way her figure pressed against the uniform hinted at a body that was filled with strength.
"General Rannah Tiberius, I'm here with an urgent report Sir."
Her eyes left the reports she had been reading and focused on the young military officer who could not help but shiver. The General was a newly ascended Earth god of the Tiberius family, and she was famous for her valiance in battle, and her lack of patience for any sort of foolishness.
"Speak, Lieutenant Trivold, I have many pressing matters."
The young man swallowed and began his reports, the General was also famous for her sharp mind. Her ability to remember his name out of the countless millions of troops that she oversaw was both terrifying and humbling at the same time.
