The Red Hand

"And that about wraps everything up." Akagi yawned as she put her tablet on the table next to her. She'd spent most of the day in meetings with Nima or other clan members in order to get the latest intel and had been reading over reports at an outdoor patio. Things were proceeding smoothly and Akagi was glad that the Ninja seemed to have only gotten better at their job thanks to integrating with modern tech. "Looks like they've gotten back into the groove well." She smiled.

{We're here two days, and they've already given me a breakdown of the political situation across the continent, assembled a comprehensive list of assassination targets, and devised a path toward infiltration of various governments. Chloe, I see that you haven't been slacking on their training during this past year.} (Akagi)

"I suppose with all this information at my fingertips I'll need to pick my targets and figure out the best way to start the collapse of this house of cards." Akagi pulled a bottle of Ayakashi Sake from her inventory and poured it into a small cup. "What was that old saying by Hemmingway again? Gradually and then all at once." She giggled as she took a sip of the sake. "He was referring to Bankruptcy if I'm not mistaken, but the same idea applies here."

{Those Gods are going to panic as all their influence vanishes like dust in the wind. They've had it too good for too long, and it's about time that somebody showed them that Gods aren't at the top of the food chain.} (Akagi)

As she sat in silence and looked at the twin moons above, Akagi was eventually interrupted by Silfana, who came from one of the attached buildings. The Vampire was, naturally, a night owl even though she never actually had anything to fear from the sunlight due to her status as a high tier Vampire.

"Must be nice, sitting under the clear sky and sipping alcohol while we do all the heavy lifting." Silfana chuckled as she walked up along side the Demon.

"What can I say? It's the perks of being the Demon Lord." Akagi gave an overly dramatic shrug as she offered Silfana a seat. “Besides, didn't you do the same thing when you were running the show?” She laughed.

"Perhaps just a little.” Silfana chuckled as she took a seat. “But ya know, I always knew that the Ondai clan were incredible ninjas, but to see just how efficient they are..." She sighed as Akagi poured her a cup. "It makes me glad that I never angered them. Otherwise, I might've found my head taken from my body a lot sooner than it happened in reality!”

"They were born and bred for this kind of thing." Akagi said as she slid a cup of sake over to Silfana, who happily drank it. "But while I won't deny that they were good back when I crushed them, compared to now... Well, let's just say that their rate of improvement is astronomical." She smirked. “These crazy bastards have made me proud with how much they've grown.”

"I'd imagine being supercharged with Demon Lord power helped a bit?" Silfana commented as Akagi pulled out and lit her Kiseru. "Having the ability to go wherever you want definitely helps with intel gathering." The Ninjas' shadow magic was incredibly strong and it required extremely powerful wards to stop, and even then it was only a matter of time until they got in.

"And the funny thing is that I only took that power share skill because I had nothing else to do with that branch of the tree!" Akagi laughed. "In game, the buffs it gave were so paltry that they may as well not have mattered, but I suppose that's what happens when you give even a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a percentage of my power to mortals." She chuckled as she took a hit of her Kiseru.

{That's a fucking understatement...} (Silfana)

"Any chance you could swing some of that power my way?" Silfana asked as she took a sip of her drink.

"Oh, is the Lord of Vampires not satisfied with what she has?" Akagi asked.

"I still need to beat Hishya, so no." Silfana answered flatly. "And at the rate things are going, I'll never be able to compete with that stupid Dragon." Her grip on her cup tightened for a split second, which Akagi noticed.

{Interesting...} (Akagi)

"Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you but I'm unable to grant that specific power to others, at least via that skill." Akagi explained that without the follower window that was available in FWO, she couldn't add or remove the passive skill from other people. "You aren't the first person to ask me about that, and I would've given it to Kana and the girls if I could."

{Strangely enough Mika was the first to ask me about it. I think that was just after she became a Magical Girl for the first time.} (Akagi)

"Then what about Zephiria? You made her your Warlock, so why not do that to me?" Silfana's eyes snapped to Akagi as she finished her sake. "I'm already your servant, so why not grant me that kind of power?" She figured that it would be nothing but a boon to the Demon, since it would make Silfana nearly unrivaled in terms of fighting power.

"Why... Why indeed." Akagi said as she took a sip and looked into the sky. “That's a good question, Vampire.”

"Do you not trust me? Is that it?" Silfana asked, not hurt but curious.

"Trust... To be entirely honest, I don't distrust you at the very least." Akagi answered her truthfully. “So that's got to be a good sign, right?”

"And yet you've got Zephiria hanging about with orders to liquidate me if I try anything funny." Silfana clapped back. She'd long since figured out what was going on, but wasn't angry.

{I'd do the same thing in her position...} (Silfana)

"Did she tell you that?" Akagi laughed. "That stupid girl. She can never keep her mouth shut."

"It wasn't hard to tell. I'm well aware that most of the players harbor negative feelings toward me." Silfana answered. She'd killed many of the surviving player's friends in FWO. Though technically, as a copy of the original Silfana, the Vampire sitting in front of Akagi had never actually done anything wrong, though Silfana was not aware of this fact as Akagi had a standing order which sealed the mouths of those who knew that information under the penalty of eternity in the Happy Farm. "So I asked her about it outright and that stupid Warlock confirmed that she'd been given orders to end me if I did anything."

"Can you blame me?" Akagi asked as she took a hit from her Kiseru.

"No... I can't..." Silfana sighed as she requested another cup of sake, which she was given. "Hell, thinking about it bringing me at all was risky. What if I'd gone rogue and destroyed that transporter while you were away? Even if I was killed and/or sucked into hell for all eternity, that would certainly be a pretty big middle finger to you." If the situations were reversed, Silfana would've never taken that kind of risk. "So why even bring me at all?"

{Is she testing me? It seems logical but Akagi is NOT a person who takes risks like that, so why would she do something like this?} (Silfana)

"Trust, but verify." Akagi said as she placed her Kiseru down on the table. "Or in other words, I'm giving you the rope, and I'm waiting to see if you hang yourself." She poured another cup.

"So this is a test?" Silfana asked as she took a sip. "You want to see if I'm going to turn on you?"

{But doesn't tell me that completely undermines the point of such a test?!? Since I know that you've got eyes on me, I'm sure as hell not going to try anything even if I was planning to!} (Silfana)

"Nah." Akagi waved her hand. "To be honest, I'm not actually worried that you're going to turn on me."

"Think I'm too afraid to try?" Silfana scoffed, though she would freely admit that it was true.

"Well, that's part of it, yes." Akagi laughed before taking a sip of her Sake. "But the primary reason I don't think you'll turn is because of what I saw in your eyes that day." She said as she looked up into the dark sky. “And what I saw... It told me that I've got nothing to worry about from you.”

"My eyes?" Silfana furrowed her brows, not understanding the Demon's words. "What could you have possibly seen that made you so sure that I'd never turn on you?" She recalled her exasperation at the Demon's desire for peace, and Silfana was genuinely interested in seeing what Akagi did in the future. But she couldn't figure out what Akagi was talking about here.

{What from my eyes or expression could've given her such assurances? She knows full well what kind of person I really am, so how could she-} (Silfana)

"You still wish to rule." Akagi's words slammed into Silfana like a tide of water, and her entire body became tense. "Despite your seeming contentedness with the status quo, I can tell that you see me as a way to get what you've always craved, Vampire." She leaned in closer to Silfana, her eyes seeming to stare into Silfana's very soul. "And you know, I don't mind granting your wish." She chuckled.

{So... So this is what people mean when they say Demons are seductive... My... My mind feels like mush...} (Silfana)

"I know that you won't betray me because I'm the only person who can give you what you truly want, Silfana." Akagi's lips curved into a nasty grin. "I'm a Demon Lord, a being that can snap her fingers..."

*SNAP*

"And change everything." Akagi continued to grin. “And you are well aware of that fact.”

"I... I..." Silfana gulped, but found little saliva in her mouth. "I was born to rule... And it's all I've ever wanted..."

{Its... That was the reason why I waged war for centuries...} (Silfana)

"Indeed." Akagi's grin faded, her face going flat. "You were born as Heir to the Imperial Throne, raised to be Empress, only to have that stolen away from you by fools too idiotic to realize your genius." She continued. " So instead of having your Empire, you ruled a nation of monsters, but you were never satisfied by something so petty.” She smirked.” You, Silfana, you wanted to reclaim the throne that was yours by birthright, the one that was stolen from you..."

"But that throne is gone!" Silfana stood up and yelled, her palms slamming onto the table, shaking it. "The Empire is no more! It was destroyed along with everything else from that world!" She bit her lip in frustration. "Even with all your power, I can never reclaim what was stolen from me!"

{Its all gone! Destroyed! No matter what I do now... No matter what I do now... I cannot get back what was taken from me...} (Silfana)

"You are correct. Even with all my power, restoring the destroyed world of FWO is simply impossible." Akagi locked eyes with Silfana. "But there's something within my reach that I think will make a good consolation prize." She let out a slightly Demonic laugh.

"Consolation... Prize?" Silfana parroted the words back at the Demon, confused.

"Silfana Tildeshide." Akagi spoke her full name, which caused the Vampire to flinch. "How would you like to be Empress?" Her voice distorted and Silfana could feel a chill wash down her body until her very soul felt like it was being gripped by a great darkness.

"E-Empress?" Silfana said quietly, her mind registering the words but not processing them.

"The Empire, here on Enoris, was the foundation upon which the Empire in FWO was built." Akagi explained how Enoris was used to create parts of FWO, at least on a foundational level. "So when you think about it, this is your true birthright is it not? The Tildeshide Empire of FWO was nothing more than a pale imitation of the original, so wouldn't one as Noble as you be better suited to ruling the real deal?"

{Why take the knock off when you can have the original?} (Akagi)

At that moment, Silfana's mind was flooded with memories of her time in the Empire, long before she became a Vampire. All she'd ever wanted was to rule her nation and lead it to glory, but such a future never came to pass. She was exiled, purged from family records, and treated as nothing more than a monster. By the time of the Battle of Hassan, Silfana's hatred for those who scorned her had bled into everything she did, and there was a very real chance that victory that day would have precipitated mass death and slaughter at her hand.

"I... I don't..." Silfana stammered. Such an offer was completely unexpected, and her mind was in complete chaos as she tried to figure out what she wanted. On one hand, her ego screamed at her to take the offer, but her Noble blood told her that she was born to rule the Empire that she was born into and nothing else.

However, the Demon expected this, and seeing this inner conflict, Akagi decided to toss one more piece of fuel onto the fire.

"Think of it this way, Silfana." Akagi stood up, meeting the visibly shaking Silfana's eyes. "You were born to rule the Empire, but I don't think the Empire in question was actually the one from FWO." She continued, Silfana pausing her inner thoughts to listen to the Demon's words. "Why else would you and you alone be saved from that world's destruction?" The Demon's seemingly nonsensical statement was partially based on information that she knew about Silfana from her in-game lore, and from the look in Silfana's eyes, Akagi could tell that it was working. "Silfana." Akagi walked over and put her arm on the Vampire's shoulder. "This is your chance to claim your birthright. To take the throne that was always yours." She allowed her voice to distort again. "So what do you say? Do you want to become Empress, Silfana?"

"I... I..." Silfana's mind raced until an image of her mother flashed through her mind. The kind woman raised her with great care and instilled in her a sense of duty as the next Empress. She was probably the only person in Silfana's life who ever showed her true kindness, and her unexpected passing was the catalyst that drove Silfana to become a Vampire.

{Mom... Is this what you meant when you told me that I'd need to endure great hardship before ascending to the throne I was born for? Did you know something about the future that was to come? Did... Did you foresee all of this with your power?} (Silfana)

Making up her mind, Silfana took a deep breath and calmed down. "Akagi, please help me claim my birthright!" Her eyes were ablaze with a renewed flame, one that Akagi wagered hadn't been this bright in a thousand years.

"So you have asked, and so it shall be." Akagi laughed demonically, her honeyed words finding a very receptive fly.

Akagi was not above manipulating her own subordinates, and in this case she was more than happy to abuse some of Silfana's FWO backstory to direct her to a plausible, albeit wrong conclusion about what her mother meant with her words. What the late Empress-Consort truly meant in her prophetic sounding words to her daughter was something that not even Akagi knew, but the truth was unimportant. For as long as Silfana believed that her Mother's Divination ability had seen this future, that was all that mattered to the Demon.