DOMAIN OF LIGHT, INTERROGATION ROOM :

  “This scum is utterly broken, I assume?" Vrystk asked, tapping her talons on the floor, filling the room with a rhythmic clicking sound.

  She was in front of interrogation room number thirty-six, the interrogation room containing the regional leader of the Beijing Reclamation Army, a failed startup revolution in Beijing. Luckily, the administering Company of the Beijing Province put it out quickly. Unfortunately, this Army was only one of the network of rebels in China known as the Chinese United Front.

  That was before one of the officers winced and shrunk in on himself as he gulped, shaking uncontrollably; "Y-you see, my empress-”

  Vrystk held a talon up in front of the officer's face, silently telling him to shut up; " Enough. Inquisitor, fifty points. Head to my throne room for promotion."

  She walked past the scared guards in front of the cell, rolling her eyes behind her mask. Fear was irrelevant in her eyes, only efficiency and power mattered after all. She stopped for a moment before opening the door to reveal a prisoner within it. The room itself looked…miserable to say the least. The walls were cracking, there was dried blood stain on the floor and the only light source was from a light orb casted using a simple rune.

  She snapped her talons, making his bindings disappear into light; “Speak."

  The man, a 2 winged Aegis with pale skin and blonde hair casted a hateful glare at her. She let out a sigh, annoyed that this man was disrupting her schedule.

  She then spun a spell circle, making the chair in front of her move, inviting the man to sit. Seeing that the man was not moving an inch, she closed her eyes before shaking her head; “What is it that you seek from this petty rebellion?”

  Seeing that the Aegis was still refusing to answer, she sighed before standing up which caused him to tense up and slightly back up; “Whatever. I suppose your wife and children-"

  “DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH THEM!" The man bellowed, his eyes wide. He had already stood up, wings spread out fully while his index finger was pointed towards her, spell circle at the ready

  Vrystk smirked; “Ah, it seems that I have struck a nerve now have I?” She sat back down before gesturing for him to sit down; “Now, sit down please. It would be a shame for your family to lose their father.”

  She then conjured a knife in her hands before spinning it around her fingers carelessly. The man quickly sat down, making as much room as he could between them; “Can you please give me direct eye contact?" When he begrudgingly looked at her with a scowl, she smiled; " Ah, now that's a good citizen. Now please, tell me why you created an underground rebellion exactly?”

  Instead of answering, he looked to the side and kept his mouth shut; “Is it for riches perhaps?"

  When she received no answers, she raised a brow behind her polished mask; "Then is it for freedom?”

  No answer; "For Glory?”

  Once again, not a single word; "This is getting nowhere. We will get that information out of you one way or another I do hope you realize.”

  Hearing not even a single response from her prisoner, Vrystk sighed and shook her head before heading for the door.

  Right as she was about to grab the handle of the door however, the man finally answered; “My Kids.”

  Right as he said that, Vrystk froze as her eyes swept to met his; "Elaborate.” She summoned a light dagger before placing it against his throat

  “I do all of this for my kids. They never know anything other than oppression their entire lives. When China collapsed and we moved to Beijing, we thought our kids can finally, FINALLY get a better life than us but you just HAD to become a wannabe dictator. You just had to make their life worse! You want to kill me?! Do it! Do it you coward! They are already gone by now! Your empire let them die and my daughter is nowhere is near me anymore!” The man shouted, tears falling down his face as he shook.

  He clenched his teeth before shutting his eyes and turning his face neutral once more. This is how I die he thought.

  As the moment passed, he grew impatient and opened his eyes, confused as to what is taking Vrystk so long. Until being shocked to see the blade gone and the fierce empress he knew? She was tense. Her body posture was uncharacteristically stiff and the light illuminating the room was flickering.

  The room was silent with only the two being in it. Vrystk was the first one to break the silence; “What is your name." She said in a monotone voice but at the same time, wavering.

  “...Zhen Tianlang. Do it fast, or don't. It's not like I have a say in anything in this godforsaken land.” Right as he finished, he quickly repositioned himself to a more comfortable position and shut his eyes before also tightening his fist that was holding… Something.

  Vrystk immediately took notice of this and without a word, sent multiple small light tendrills to his hands to rip the object within his fists into her talons instead. And the object revealed itself to be…a locket.

  Tianlang’s eyes went wide as he saw his treasured locket, one of his only connections back to his family ripped away from him; “GIVE THAT BACK!"

  He leapt for Vrystk, hand outstretched to grab the locket but the light tendrills around Vrystk immediately bound him.

  Vrystk opened the locket much to Tianlang's protests. Inside was a picture of a family of six, Tianlang, four children with two being female and a woman on his right, smiling brightly at the camera. While the background was quite depressing, war torn buildings with a flag waving above a torn People's Republic of China flag, the smile on the family was genuine.

  Vrystk stared at the locket then her gaze swept to the bound man right in front of her; “...” She didn't say anything before putting the locket back around his neck and putting him back down near the door.

  “You have 24 hours of freedom. Get out of here and find her." Vrystk said. Tianlang of course didn't need to be told twice before bolting down the hallway straight for the stairs.

  She saw a few of her officers rush to capture him but she raised her talons quickly and created a light barrier, causing the officer to smack into the barrier; “He has given important information. He will get a single day to escape to a neighboring country."

  “B-But-"

  “DID I STUTTER?!" Vrystk screamed before scanning the hallway for anyone who dared defy her orders.

  After seeing none, she turned around, covering any view into the room with all ten of her wings before dissolving into light.

  =====

  Vrystk's Room :

  Vrystk took off her royal garbs, tossing it onto her bed and not even bothering to change into something more comfortable, walking quite fast straight for her desk and quickly opening a drawer to pull out a framed picture.

  The picture itself was of the peace treaty of the war of coalition against the Genocidal Volkocich who sought to unify The Arcane Realm by turning everyone into his undead soldiers.

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  The picture was rather…chaotic. It was supposed to be a formal photo between the three surviving royal families, the Ziller clan, the Arcana family and her family, the Tanzaki family.

  The planned photo was supposed to have the Arcanas in the middle with a 13 year old Leila and her 14 year old sister, Sierra between her parents, same with Vrystk and their 14 year old friend who was also the son of Hal, William.

  To sum up the real thing however, it was just chaotic. Leila was being chased by Vrystk after stealing her hair tie while William was just cheering her on. Leila's parents, Adam and Evelyn Arcanna trying to get them back in position. Vrystk's parents were just trying to make sure the audience don't see all ten of Vrystk's cherub wings.

  Hal was just sitting to the side cheering Leila on alongside William and his Dragonkin wife while Sierra was running alongside Leila and was gesturing for her to throw the hairtie

  Vrystk felt her mask being a wet and promptly took it off, seeing a small puddle of tears that had formed. She gently put her mask down and tried to wipe off the tears that was still flowing down; “I don't get it. Why?"

  She put the photograph down gently before she covered her face with her talons, tears flowing. She slid down along the wall to the floor, knees now touching her face as she also started hiccuping and trying even harder to stop the flow of tears.

  All ten of her wings created a sort of cocoon around her, the light from her ring of light orbs illuminating the broken form of the fierce tyrant.

  The room was silent save for Vrystk. That was until a loud ‘CRACK’ was heard out of nowhere; “WHY?!"

  She stood back up, eyes closed and shaking before raising both her hands. She then proceeded to open her eyes and let out a gut shattering scream full of agony; “RAHHHHH!" before pummeling the wall in front of her with a flurry of punches.

  Of course, the wall collapsed into nothing more than dust, revealing the dirt surrounding the exterior of the room but thanks to the enchantments placed upon the walls, it was quickly fixed.

  She grabbed the photo again, placed it on top of her bedside table before laying on her bed.

  Before going to sleep, she took one last longing look at the picture and her face displayed a look of doubt before she closed her eyes; “They will understand…they must. Leila will atleast…right?”

  =====

  ESC Royal Fortress;

  “Oh Void, oh Void, oh Void!" Leila exclaimed over and over again, running down the streets as Bruno was hot on her tail; “Leila, wait up!"

  She turned to look at Bruno while running, face displaying a look of panic; " Bruno, we're late to the war planning! Oh Void, if Icy’s not mad before this, he's gonna be so mad now!”

  Right after that, the two finally arrived where they're supposed to be, an ornate building at the END of the street.

  The building itself stood out from the nearby buildings. Instead of the mostly grey buildings that looked like a mix between modern and medieval architecture. Bruno took one look at it and thought; ‘this one looked like it had been ripped straight out of St.Petersburg.’

  The building itself had a rather vibrant color palette which consisted white overalls, gold highlights and to contrast the two colors, a dark cyan domed roof. A single tower jutted out from the side of the building, occasionally billowing out smoke while lanterns powered by a simple rune gave light to the building.

  A sign in front of the building read, “SUSANIN CONFERENCE BUILDING", telling the duo that yes, they are at the correct spot; “Okay…we're…finally here. Why are Hyferions so damn fast-”

  Before he could finish his sentence, Leila ran past Bruno who just caught up to her, almost making him fall down; "Leila!”

  She slammed the front doors open, startling the red haired receptionist witch at the front. She stopped momentarily to quickly snap her head to every corridor, eyes eventually landing on the one with an armed and startled guard in front of it.

  The receptionist quickly pushed her glasses back up before clearing her throat, trying to appear formal; “Your Majesty, we have been expecting you-"

  That was before she bolted past the receptionist and guard altogether. Bruno gave both of them a quick apology before hastily putting his and Leila's name.

  Following this, he gave Leila a chase yet again. He made sure to quickly fix any mess she accidentally made before they arrived at the conference room door, a heavily guarded entrance with Witches, Elves and … ‘wait, is that a Dragonkin? Nope. No time to waste. Got a loose Arcana’

  These guards who were lazily lounging and playing a game of poker didn't even get the chance to look at Leila before she ran past their table and through the door

  “I..sorry I'm late Icy” Leila said after bursting into the room and noticed Dunkeles Reich, ESC flags and … wait, is that a Heiru flag?

  The room itself had maps strewn on the walls, maps of Europe, Asia, the world and even the internals of the Domain of Light which included…a road map?

  “Ah, there you are, little raven!” Rang out a voice which Leila was very familiar with. With an overly excited smile plastered onto her face, she turned to the side and saw-;

  “UNCLE HAL!!” She screamed before promptly tackling the aforementioned Hyferion into a hug.

  Hal was tall. 7 feet tall at the very least, towering over both Leila and Ice King who was looking at their interaction with an unreadable expression.

  Like other Hyferions, his entire body is covered in feathers but his? They were bright red, glowing slightly like Magma. He had a slightly darker skin color with shoulder length maroon hair and a rather bushy yet well trimmed beard.

  His eyes dimly glowed a crimson shade, his scleras being pure black. His teeth were all sharp, like that of a dragon which he used to give Leila a very big and genuine smile. His hands, instead of being talons, were dragon claws, webbed and sturdy.

  Behind him was a flowing cape, crimson red with white and gold trimmings. He was wearing a sort of tunic made from dragon hide. He also wears a simple pair of pants, with a loincloth made of dragon wing hide.h His wings, red and draconic, passed through the backside of his attire thanks to an enchantment placed upon it.

  “How's my little Raven doing? I heard you killed one of the young light's commanders?” Hal asked with curiosity in both his eyes and voice which made Leila pull out of the hug and fiddle with her talons as a guilty expression fell upon her face.

  “Well…He…He did some bad stuff.” She said, voice wavering before she bit the bottom of her lips, drawing blood. This made Hal’s eyes go wide as his face morphed into that of excitement and a look of proudness. He then put one of his hands, still wearing his gauntlets on her shoulder; “Ah, but this calls for a celebration! We must have a feast for this occasion. You, my honorary niece, achieved victory over an invading army's leader!”

  Leila's face started heating up which made her rub her arm using her talon; “It isn't that impressive…he's just a 4 winged Aegis…”

  Hal let out a loud laugh, shaking his head before clapping his claws against Leila's back with so much force, it caused her to stumble; “Bah! Four-winged, six-winged, what is the difference? You would have crushed any of them! Strength never lies in numbers, it lies in your fighting spirit! You should be celebrating this achievement and use it as a motivation to hunt down a stronger enemy!”

  Leila cracked a smile at this response, shaking her head before rubbing the back of her head; “Okay Uncle, I'll…try to uh, defeat a stronger aegis if I get the chance to.”

  "Oh, it's not a matter of if little raven, it's a matter of when!" Hal said, making Bruno who was just standing to the side raise a brow; “And…what do you mean by that?”

  Hal’s brows furrowed, clearly confused before pointing to the map on the table; familiar; “Is it now obvious what the plan is?"

  After seeing both Leila and Bruno looking absolutely confused as to what he was refrencing, Hal turned to look towards Ice King who looked uncharacteristically impatient; “Did you not tell them-"

  “Telling them was the entire point of this meeting, Hal. And I am going to explain it all to them if you don't mind.” Ice King cut off, looking at Hal with annoyance before casting an illusion spell to create a holographic display map of Asia.

  He turned to look towards Leila and Bruno before greeting them with a nod; “Good evening to you two, Your majesty, Estralez. Now, I thought my instruction of ‘Ornate building at the end of the street’ was sufficient but regardless of that, welcome to the war planning.” He started before stopping momentarily to adjust his hood.

  That was when Bruno saw a small patch where it seemed like the feathers were sliced off in his shoulder. A bit odd since Hyferion regeneration would have handled it no problem but he probably didn't have time to go to a colder place and heal it up.

  “Now, as you have noticed, a convoy from Heiru has arrived. While yes, I did inform Nations with interest of taking down the Domain by a notch, I was expecting representatives to arrive in a few days or even weeks. Not…The very next day.” Ice King said before giving Hal a look of annoyance.

  He then continued by snapping his fingers which caused many miniature pieces of humans, Vampires, Daemons, Dragonkin and even a tiny amount of Aegis to appear on land while ships surround the coasts of China and Japan; “This war will be split into 4 land campaigns and two naval ones. The first campaign for the navy and ground army will be set in the South East Asian theatre, executed by Nusantra which will start their assault with their 1st Infantry division and two of their three Aegis Divisions from Northern Malaya.”

  "While all of this is happening, their rather formidable navy will try to secure the South China sea from the domain to cut off their shipments of food and supplies from Oceania and the Druid's Keep. While no formal diplomatic relations are ever initiated between the two, Pro-Domain opinions within these two countries and Intel from our spies makes me think other-Yes Estralez?” Ice King stopped after seeing Bruno raise his had to about face level

  “Y’know, I am curious. How big and trustworthy is your supposed spy agency-"

  “July 18th. Dunkeles Reich Palace. Exactly at 8 : 52 PM. There were only 3 people present. The Queen of the Dunkeles Reich, a butler and her future Royal Guard. At this time, the subject of observation is a 20 year old Mexican Vampire, Bruno Estralez was taking flight lessons and got overconfident to the point where he crashed-” Ice King started before Bruno slammed his hands into the table, face crimson from embarrassment

  “OKAY OKAY, I GET IT!"

  Ice King smirked. ‘The son of a bitch smirked.’ Bruno thought still grumpy about it before Leila piped up; "So…Why did you have a spy trailing us, Icy?” Leila asked in a slightly concerned tone before ice King shrugged

  "Pardon me your majesty but that was before we formally met. I do not trust many people as you know. As such, I had a spy trailing the both of you to gather as much Intel as he could. And yes, it is an insider.” Ice King said.

  Before more could be said though, Hal clapped his hands loudly, sparks emanating from his gauntlets; "Not that I am not amused by this conversation between the three of you but let us continue this meeting shall we little Raven?”

  After Leila and Bruno were paying attention to the thing they came here for again, Ice King cleared his throat before giving Hal a reluctant nod; “Thank you Hal. Now, As I was saying, the…”

  About two hours later, the room felt…quite empty and depressing for a room containing what Ice King dubbed as ‘The Literal Definition of Joy and Energy”. Bruno was already spinning a pen in his hands and Leila was half asleep, slipping into sleep every now and again.

  Meanwhile Hal left his seat about halfway through the explanation, telling the others that he's heard this once before and would much rather be finding an underground fighting ring to, well, fight.

  Just as Leila was about to fall asleep once more, she was suddenly jolted awake by a sharp ear piercing whistle. Rubbing her eyes, she looked forwards from where she was looking and saw a rather unimpressed Ice King; “It seems like the two of you are not very interested in listening to me droning about war plans. I shall skip to our roles then.”

  He changed the illusion on the table to a new map, this time highlighting a road from the Sino-Russo border all the way to Shanghai; “Now, we will be-" He started before he heard a pen clattering onto the floor.

  He gave Bruno a very annoyed glare; “For God’s sake, that is just a Thumbaround, Estralez! If you can't do it right, then don't!”

  Bruno let out an annoyed huff before rolling his eyes and clipping his pen onto his pocket; “Let's see you do it then ‘Mr know it all’. Bet my next paycheck you can't even do it.”

  Ice King whistled once more, this time making the pen fly into his talons as he does the trick flawlessly without even looking. He then threw the pen up and caught it before handing it back to Bruno; “I would rather like to receive this money digitally. Much less hassle to carry around rather than physically."

  He straightened his pose once more before stating; " Our mission is a mission of Infiltration. Yes, into the Domain and yes, I do know this sounds completely insane.” Ice King said, ignoring the looks of confusion and disbelief that was plastered on Bruno's face before this.

  He then summoned one of the chairs from the back of the room and just sat down before also taking a sip from a cup, something that looked vaguely like wine to most.

  But to the ones who had a sense of smell as sharp as Bruno? That did not smell like wine. Not at all. It smelled more like… ‘Blood? But the only thing that's used for is healing potions’ Bruno thought

  Before continuing, Ice King quickly covered the part of his shoulder with the sliced off feathers using his hood; “So, your majesty. What do you think?"

  Leila blinked before opening her mouth slightly; "So…a road trip?"