15 days after the “Relic incident”
19:30
Hellquill Castle
Wingfried von Katerinburg is having a silent dinner with his advisors in his personal dining room.
A knock-on door is heard, and shortly after guards open the main door to General Demetrius Kamphaus.
Wingfried seems delighted about his visit:
“Ah! General Kamphaus! How nice for you to join us. Why don’t you take a seat?”
Kamphaus however doesn’t seem to be much thrilled with his visit. Without saying anything, he sits on the other end of the table. Wingfried enthusiastically calls out his servant:
“Don’t forget to serve General Kamphaus from our dishes.”
Demetrius breaks his silence:
“No, my Führer. I didn’t come here to join you for dinner. There are… things… that we need to discuss.”
Wingfried looks at Demetrius for a while before dismissing his advisors:
“Everyone except for Demetrius has been dismissed, have a nice evening ladies and gentlemen.”
The advisors salute Wingfried and exit the room from the main door.
Less than a minute later, only Demetrius and Wingfried were present in the room, along with two guards and a servant. Wingfried asks:
“So, General. What did you want to discuss with me?”
Demetrius sighs and answers in a monotone voice:
“I hear that you’ve made a visit to the emperor.”
Wingfried answers in a usual tone:
“Yes. It truly was the most fruitful. The relations between Hellquill and the Empire have entered a new phase.”
Demetrius stares at Wingfried for a while before answering:
“And I’m supposed to react to that as if that’s a regular occurrence, right?”
After a pause Wingfried replies:
“Yes.”
Demetrius can’t help but answer in a dismayed tone:
“No offense to you, but I really can’t pretend as if the last two weeks weren’t pure insanity.”
Wingfried casually continues eating his food, while Demetrius continues:
“The entire Hellquill government is either appalled or outright traumatized, two of our ministers went completely insane after the “incident”, yet you still act as if it’s nothing unusual. I know you have changed, and there’s no point in hiding it.”
Wingfried breaks his silence:
“Who says I’m hiding it?”
“I do.”
“How sad.”
Wingfried continues his dinner. Demetrius doesn’t break his determined tone:
“You disappear for 13 days and then suddenly reappear as if nothing happened?”
“I didn’t disappear, I left my place to my advisors and let SG take control of the security.”
Demetrius rolls his eyes and sighs:
“Thanks, I haven’t noticed.”
Wingfried:
“Never heard of a “diplomatic visit” before?”
“Never heard of a one where the head of state would leave his country abruptly without letting anyone except for his advisors know about it.”
“I had to keep a low profile; I couldn’t let the media know about it.”
“What media?! We already control all newspapers in the country!”
“The “other” media, of the “countries” I visited.
Demetrius tries to comprehend for a second:
“Wait… Did you say… countries? You visited countries besides the Empire?”
Wingfried keeps his calm stance while continuing his dinner:
“Of course, we spend just a single day in what is left of the Griffonian Empire.”
…
Demetrius answers after an awkward pause:
“And… how did you spend the other 12 days exactly… my Führer?”
“Travelling from country to country, making allies and… “deals”. We have a grand plan in motion, that which will change the world forever for good.”
…
Demetrius asks after an awkward pause yet again:
“Look, my *dear* Führer… I won’t even ask which countries you’ve been to, but I have a notion that you are forgetting the fact that you are still supposed to rule a country! Do you have any idea how chaotic the last two weeks were for me?”
Wingfried:
“Yeah, I can imagine.”
Demetrius gets furious:
“SG essentially took over the country! I had to spend my whole time trying to keep the government together! Even though that’s nowhere near my responsibilities! And who’s responsibility is to keep the government as a whole exactly?! Of a Leader! What kind of a “diplomatic visit” of yours could possibly be more important than your own damn country?!”
Wingfried finishes his dinner and cleans his beak with a tissue:
“If it was the former Katerinburg, the country would fall apart anyway regardless of his absence… Do you actually think when I left Hellquill, I didn’t have a plan in my mind? I considered every single possibility, calculated them, and then planned my steps. And now, because of my visits, we already won every single war that is ahead of us.”
Demetrius:
“Then what would you lose if you just let us know about your upcoming visits?”
Wingfried:
“Come on now Demetrius, the army is filled to the brim with opportunists that would launch a coup the second I left the country, and you know this better than I do. I only let those know that wouldn’t spread the news of my absence like a wildfire. I had little time, so I ordered Edler to secure the entire Hellquill as fast as possible.”
Demetrius:
“And give all the control to that Wingenberg psychopath? Do you have any idea how many people he killed in your absence?”
After a moment, Wingfried answers in an assertive voice:
“General Edler Wingenberg didn’t carry out any acts without my knowing.”
“You knew about the SG executions?”
“General Kamphaus, I didn’t just “know” about the SG executions, I ordered them.”
Demetrius cannot understand the reasoning behind Katerinburg’s actions:
“You- You can’t be serious…”
“As I said, I calculated everything. This was the way things were supposed to proceed. And now thanks to my plans, Queen Chrysalis and others will now aid us in our plans regarding the Riverlands and beyond.”
Being completely baffled, Demetrius forgets about the previous subject:
“Wait… you are telling me that you not only traveled to the Changeling Lands but also made it back, without making any noises, in just two weeks?!”
Wingfried answers as he pours down a drink:
“Yes… If it was the former Katerinburg, he would immediately get captured on the border. But now… things have changed.”
Wingfried finishes his drink at once, and queries Demetrius:
“Now General, I would understand the way you would bombard me with questions. But one thing has caught my attention…”
Demetrius stares at him as Wingfried continues:
“…Why haven’t you asked me about the most crucial question yet?”
Demetrius doesn’t answer. Wingfried continues:
“What that relic was about anyway?”
Silence in the room.
After waiting for an answer from Demetrius, Wingfried continues:
“How did I even achieve these things in just two weeks? Or how did I manage to produce a massive fire out of nothing and how did I put it down with just a snap? A reasonable griff like you would obviously ask questions related to this… But unless… perhaps you already know the answer…”
Demetrius continues to stare at him with soulless eyes. Wingfried stands up and calls him out:
“Now General, would you mind accompanying me to my office?”
Demetrius too stands up and slowly walks towards Wingfried:
“Not at all… my Führer…”
“Good. Let us go then”
Two leave the room and enter the corridor.
Without any talking, they arrive in Katerinburg’s office. Katerinburg dismisses his guards and servants, leaving only him and Demetrius in his office.
Wingfried’s office was fairly large, having 4 separate doors and a fairly tall ceiling, accompanied by dim lighting. And even though the room was an artistic masterpiece by all means especially with the priceless antique paintings on its walls, at a late and silent hour like this, it surely had an eerie ambiance to it.
Upon entering the room, Wingfried walks past Demetrius and heads to his desk. He stops by to look at the papers he had on his desk. He then picks up the papers and puts them in the desk drawer. Wingfried then starts looking at the scenery of Hellquill through the massive window he had behind his desk. Without looking at Demetrius directly, Wingfried calls him out:
“Demetrius, why don’t you take a seat?”
Demetrius slowly starts walking towards the desk but does not intend to sit on the armchair in front of it.
Wingfried asks a completely unrelated question while continuing to look outside the window:
“Say, Demetrius, do you like magic tricks?”
Demetrius however is in no mood of listening to Wingfried’s chatters and only could dedicate himself to what he had in mind. Despite not receiving a response, Wingfried continues:
“Because I know one. “
After reaching a closer range, Demetrius pulls out a pistol from his coat.
Without saying anything, he simply points it at Wingfried’s head. Katerinburg continues:
“One that I’m sure you’ll like.”
Demetrius fires his pistol.
…
Nothing happens.
Wingfried then casually turns to Demetrius, and starts walking towards him, after getting right in front of him, he looks directly in the eyes.
Wingfried then pulls up something from his pocket, he then opens up his claw, revealing a pre-fired bullet to Demetrius. He asks cheerfully:
“Now, is this your bullet?”
Wingfried laughs, while Demetrius looks at him cold-blooded.
Demetrius quickly pulls up a knife from his pocket with his other claw and attempts to stab Wingfried. Wingfried swiftly and effortlessly dodges the attack.
Demetrius tries to stab him, again and again, with Wingfried easily dodging his attacks every single time. Eventually, Demetrius becomes exhausted due to his old age, and couldn’t keep up with Wingfried, as he seems amused by Demetrius’s attempts, he taunts him:
“You’ve gone rusty haven’t you, old man?”
Enraged, Demetrius screams and starts firing at Wingfried again. Katerinburg starts moving at an unnatural speed for a griff, confusing Demetrius as he couldn’t fire at an enemy that he cannot even see. After a couple of seconds, Demetrius completely loses the track of Wingfried. He starts looking around him in desperation. As he turns around, he sees Wingfried standing right next to him, but before he couldn’t do anything, Wingfried swiftly disarms Demetrius of his pistol and knife and punches him in the stomach with an unnatural force, causing Demetrius to fly in air and land 5 meters away from Wingfried.
Demetrius groans in pain as he fails to get up.
Wingfried starts laughing again:
“You really thought you could play the hero, haven’t you? Come on now Demetrius, you already know it is physically impossible for you to defeat me.”
Still enraged and determined, Demetrius pulls up a grenade from his coat. While screaming, he pulls the pin and throws the grenade at Wingfried.
Wingfried goes wide-eyed, not because he was scared, but rather because he was surprised by the amount of commitment Demetrius had.
Wingfried hits the grenade mid-air with the back of his claw, tossing it towards the windows. The grenade breaks and pierces through the glass and then detonates right outside the window, shredding other massive windows into sharp pieces, and causing all of them to fly into the room at high velocity.
Amid the storm of sharp pieces of glass, Wingfried only looks away and ignores the glass shredding his feathers and skin. And even though Demetrius also suffers from the glass storm, he simply couldn’t think about his wounds while he still had someone to kill in the room.
Demetrius sees Wingfried closing his eyes from the blast and sees this as an opportunity to attack him. He notices his knife on the ground and forces his whole body to rush towards it. Amid the pieces of broken glass, he finally reaches it and grabs it. He then swings it towards Wingfried with all of his remaining energy. But before his strike could land anywhere, Wingfried grabs Demetrius’s arm with ease and tosses him across the room again. Demetrius violently lands on and breaks an antique wooden stand. He was completely appalled at that point and couldn’t ignore his pains anymore, especially since he didn’t have any unnatural powers, unlike Wingfried.
Wingfried smirks:
“How many weapons you put in that little coat of yours?”
Demetrius painfully answers:
“…Nothing… I didn’t need.”
As Wingfried walks towards Demetrius, he couldn’t help but laugh out loud. He pulls up Demetrius from his lapels, and starts talking in a near-demonic tone:
“This is what I like about you, Demetrius… You never waste your time explaining the motives behind your actions… You just aim and shoot… No drama, no wasting of time… And despite all the odds… you still gave it a shot… you know you can’t defeat me regardless… but you still try… not because you are an idiot… but because you believe in dying with honor… You are truly the greatest General a leader could have…”
Even though the elderly and badly wounded Demetrius struggles to even open his eyes, he still forces himself to talk:
“…And for… *cough* …a “leader” …*cough* …you sure… …talk too much.”
Demetrius shakes his arm reveals a small blade hidden in his sleeve and stabs Wingfried in the neck with it.
Noticeably shocked, Wingfried drops Demetrius and takes a step back, seemingly drowning in his blood. He tries to pull out the blade that is stuck in his throat but fails in the process. His moves become slower and weaker.
Seeing Wingfried’s drained state, Demetrius crawls towards the pistol on the ground with little energy he had left on him. Ignoring the cuts of glass shreds, as he finally reaches the pistol, he picks it up and points it towards the diminished Wingfried. And without any delays, he starts shooting at Wingfried with whatever ammo is left on the magazine.
With the blood gushing from his throat and bullet wounds, Wingfried collapses on his back, as he makes even more choking noises. After a while he stops, laying on the ground motionless with his eyes open and his beak resembling a fountain of blood.
Silence in the room.
Demetrius looks at the unmoving Wingfried. Unsure if he’s successful or not. Demetrius struggles to breathe, as the pain from his injuries kicks in. While groaning in pain, he realizes that he is in no shape to stand up by himself. And decides to stay on the ground and stare at Wingfried.
Demetrius continues to look at Wingfried with uncertainty.
He thinks to himself: “Did he… Did he really die?”. After waiting for a while, he couldn’t help but smile.
The idea of him banishing Maar was ludicrous for him, but he couldn’t help but feel pride. He didn’t care about what would happen next, he had accomplished the greatest achievement he ever could’ve achieved in his life. He senses a level of happiness he never thought he could ever experience. And started thinking if Boreas was proud of him, or perhaps he would even reward him for this unmatched victory, for defeating the notorious and legendary Wicked One. He thinks to himself again:
“I… I can’t believe this… I am the championof Boreas! I DEFEATED MAAR, THE GOD OF DEATH!!!”
…
“…Yes, you have…”
Upon hearing a voice, Demetrius feels as if his heart is about to stop, and instantly looks at Wingfried.
Wingfried started making choking noises again. Demetrius’s mind replaces pride with pure terror.
After a while, choking noises slowly turn into a burst of hellish laughter.
Wingfried calmly stands up as if nothing is wrong with him. He then looks Demetrius right in the eyes, Demetrius realizes that Wingfried’s eyes were now completely covered in an unnatural darkness. Wingfried opens up his blood-covered wings as if he wanted to prove to Demetrius that he is completely fine. He then speaks as the blood continues to spill from his beak:
“Now… That was a lot of fun…”
He then pulls out the knife on his neck with ease and throws it to the ground.
Completely horrified, Demetrius tries to crawl away from Wingfried, as he felt like he was going insane over the inexplicable situation he was in. Overwhelmed by emotions, he wanted to cry but just couldn’t.
Wingfried laughs again as he spills out more blood:
“Where do you think you are going, “HERO”?”
As Demetrius hears Wingfried’s footsteps, he gets even more desperate and tries to crawl faster towards the knife on the ground that he tried to stab Wingfried with.
Wingfried speaks mockingly:
“Ah, come on now Demetrius… You just saw me pull out a blade from my throat, and you seriously think that little butter-spreader of yours will save you?”
Wingfried calmly walks past Demetrius and picks up the knife just before him.
“Let’s be real now…”
Wingfried throws the knife away.
“You have lost…”
Wingfried grabs a chair from the other side of the with psychokinesis, and places it gently in front of Demetrius, and asks him:
“Now, would you mind sitting?”
From the ground, Demetrius looks at Wingfried with tearful eyes, fully knowing that he failed.
After not receiving a response, Wingfried picks him up from his shoulders and puts him on the chair himself. He then picks up another chair the same way and places it in front of Demetrius, he then sits on the said chair. Wingfried serenely asks Demetrius:
“Now Kamphaus, I know you wouldn’t just come into my office with me and try to kill an immortal, you are too smart for that. There is obviously more to your plan. Start spitting it out. Now.”
Demetrius remains silent. After a while Wingfried speaks in his place:
“You are too prideful to concede to the demands of your enemy… isn’t it? Let’s speed this up then.”
Wingfried makes a simple hand gesture.
Demetrius feels like his heart is starting to get pressurized, he is struggling to breathe, and his head starts spinning. In a matter of seconds, his health collapses, as he feels like his ribcage is about to get crushed from pressure. Just as he was about to lose consciousness, Wingfried makes another hand gesture, and the pressure instantly ceases. Demetrius couldn’t help but groan in pain. Wingfried:
“Now… do you understand me? I have complete control over your body. And if you still decide to play the hero and stay silent, I’m going to make you swallow your own tongue and choke you with it. Now, speak.”
Demetrius struggles to get himself together and only could talk in an exhausted tone:
“…You are not a follower, aren’t you? …You are not even possessed. You are outright him… You are Maar…”
Wingfried (Maar) smiles:
“You seriously realized that right now?”
“I’ve been to your library while you were gone… The sign on that relic… I learned what it meant.”
“Yes, I already know it. I know you read the book with black cover…”
Demetrius stares at Wingfried fatigued:
“…This is the part where I am supposed to ask, “How did you know?”, isn’t it?”
Wingfried replies to his “question”:
“Because there is no way of you learning it from anywhere else. That book you’ve read; there is only a handful of copies of it in the entire world.”
“…Then why you didn’t hide it? Isn’t that vital information?”
“Of course, it is vital information. This whole thing was just a test for you.”
“A test?”
“The main reason why I didn’t let you know about my foreign trip was to test your dedication to reason.”
“You… expected me to betray you?”
Wingfried chuckles:
“Demetrius, if I were you, I still would’ve betrayed me.”
“…I …I sadly fail to see the reasoning behind that…”
“Just two weeks ago, Wingfried von Katerinburg too thought that committing a ritual involving Maar to be too extreme for him. But now, he sees it. And I can’t blame you and the others for not seeing it.”
“Wait… others?”
“Do you think that I wouldn’t realize the fact that you are not working alone right now? Come on now, you don’t need supernatural powers to realize that. A grenade just detonated right outside my window, yet no guards came in. Why? Because I already know that they are not in their positions.”
“I…”
“I know you are working with Wilhelm to overthrow me. Both of you awaited my arrival so you kill me while I was still weak, and try to take out SG in the process too… I already informed Edler and Eisen on this, they are prepared for your petty plot even before I arrived.”
Demetrius asks:
“Then… why? Why did you even bother fighting with me?”
“Firstly, let me ask; why did you think you could defeat me? Be honest.”
“The book mentioned… that one could banish the demon if you kill the flesh worn by it…”
“And you thought you could kill the flesh of Katerinburg?”
Demetrius looks at the knife wound in Wingfried’s neck:
“I can tell that I’ve got very close.”
Wingfried (Maar) laughs again:
“This fight was a part of the test. To examine your determination. If I really wanted to kill you, I would’ve made your heart stop while we still were in the dining room.”
“Yet you haven’t… why?”
“The thing is Demetrius, that you are too useful for your own good…”
“You… want me to work for you? Even after all this?”
“Not outright, you still need to learn about many things… And now, I’ll reply to any question you have in mind.”
Demetrius stares at Wingfried for a while, not sure how he should respond. He asks the first question that comes to his mind:
“Is… is Boreas and others real too?”
“Of course, they are. Just not in the way you and others like to believe. And no, he surely won’t “reward” you over your “unmatched victory”, my dear “champion of Boreas”.”
Maar starts to laugh to himself again. Demetrius goes wide-eyed and asks:
“Wait… You can read my thoughts?!”
“Of course, I can, how else could I “congratulate” you while you were fantasizing in your head about being the champion of Boreas?”
Demetrius recalls the line that almost made his heart stop; “…Yes, you have…”. Yet even more confused, Demetrius asks again:
“This is nonsensical! Why are we even having this conversation when you could just read my mind?”
“See, I just wanted to have a *chat* with you… Also, I needed to confirm your thoughts, since mind reading can get fuzzy sometimes. It’s like… listening to someone talk in a separate room.”
“Still makes no sense…”
“It doesn’t have to. But just the fact that you are the one acknowledging this puts you above the others…”
Sounds of gunfire are heard from a distance. Demetrius looks outside the broken windows as Wingfried continues to stare at Demetrius.
“Speaking of “others” …”
Demetrius gathers his attention, and turns to Wingfried again:
“My soldiers… what will you do to them?”
Wingfried answers:
“Not just your soldiers, but Wilhelm and others as well… their future is completely up to you…”
“…So, if I surrender… You’ll forgive them…”
“For those who survive, yes of course. Even your “close friend”, Wilhelm, can be worthy of my mercy.”
“…Don’t you ever act as if you are merciful… you are the literal God of Cruelty!”
“Yes, I am. But why exactly would I want to waste all these Griffons? We are already low on griffonpower, why would I want to punish these fine soldiers for following their Commanders? If they are loyal enough to follow you to a coup, then I must earn them, instead of destroying them.”
Realizing what plans Maar has for him in his mind, Demetrius glares at Wingfried completely distressed:
“…Spare them… …but don’t let me be a part of this… just kill me… kill me right here… please…”
“Sorry Kamphaus, as I said, you are too useful for your good. And I need you to keep the army together. Also, what is it about my plans in particular that disturbs you so much?”
Overwhelmed by emotions again, a tear drops from Demetrius’s eye. He gloomily looks at the ground, and talks to Maar without looking at him:
“…I know you are still weak… and I also know what you need in order to gain power…”
“And what is that?”
“You require Blood sacrifice… I already know about the grand plan you have in mind…”
Wingfried (Maar) looks amused:
“And would you mind explaining that? I am really curious about it.”
Demetrius sighs, and continues:
“…I was always afraid… that you would go too far… and try to exterminate the ponies… But now… even that seems mild.”
“And what is my plan exactly?”
Demetrius pauses for a moment, and replies:
“You… want to turn the entire Riverlands into a Blood Sacrifice… gather enough power, and then set your eyes on Equestria…”
Wingfried (Maar) smirks:
“And Demetrius… why ponies in particular exactly?”
Demetrius pauses for a moment again, and answers:
“…You not only want to harvest them for their blood, but also for their magic… Ponies possess a magical aura that no other species does… And you don’t even hate ponies anymore… you just want to harvest them… For you, they are nothing but crops on a field…”
Maar (Wingfried) responds cheerfully:
“Bullseye! You really have studied well Demetrius! And as a reward, you’ll get to lead the invasion of Riverlands! How exciting isn’t it?”
Demetrius continues to look down and couldn’t help but shed tears silently. Wingfried talks in his place:
“Cry all you want. In the future, you’ll look back at these times and laugh to yourself; “how naïve I was to cry over those petty mortals!” * laughter*.”
Demetrius finally raises his head:
“…And how are you planning on turning me into such a monster like you?”
Wingfried (Maar) instantly gets serious and speaks in a low voice:
“Don’t you know? I gave you your souls. And if I know how to give them to you, I surely know how to break them too.”
Demetrius struggles to get furious with little energy that is left on him:
“You… You devil! How long do you think you will be able to keep this a secret? The entire world will turn against you the moment they learn about your true identity!”
“Let them know it… Because by the time they learn, I will be completely unstoppable. A hundred thousand blood sacrifices alone will be enough to make me more powerful than any other entity that ever has existed on this planet…”
“…Even if so, by the time you get to a hundred thousand blood sacrifices, how are you planning on keeping the Griffons of Hellquill loyal to you? Don’t you know how religious they are?!”
Wingfried gradually stands up.
“Ah, please Demetrius… You’d be amazed by the number of griffons I have who are eager to serve the Dark God of Death.”
Wingfried casually walks towards his desk, and activates the telecom device on it with a normal voice:
“Alright gentlemen, you can enter now.”
A couple of seconds later, a dozen SG troopers unexpectedly storm the room. Demetrius stares at them shocked, realizing the fact the soldiers he sent to secure the castle are already defeated, and SG is in complete control of the building right now.
A moment later, Edler Wingenberg and Eisen Silberkrone enters the room alongside even more SG troopers. They both salute Wingfried while shouting: “Heil Maar!”. Wingfried salutes them back and orders them:
“General Kamphaus has decided to follow the reason and join us in our crusade against degeneracy! But yet, he still has much to… “learn”. Please “escort” him to the “room” we prepared for him.”
Edler answers proudly:
“Yes, my Führer! And what about the Wilhelm and the others? We are ready to execute all of them right now, just give the order.”
Demetrius screams while he struggles to stand up:
“NO!”
Edler looks at Demetrius with hateful eyes:
“Silence traitor!”
And hits him in the face, causing the old and already wounded griff to fall to the ground. Edler continues to furiously insult him:
“A traitor like you should be ashamed of raising your voice in the presence of Führer!”
Demetrius looks back at Edler with pure hatred and disgust, but before he could say anything, Wingfried proclaims:
“Herr Wingenberg! There is no need for such actions. And as for General Wilhelm, sent him too to the “room” we prepared for him. And as for their soldiers, just send them back to their barracks, I’ll personally deal with all of them later on.”
Even though Edler acknowledges the absurdity of these orders, he doesn’t question them, and merely replies:
“As you order, my Führer...”
Edler then eyes around the wrecked room and then at Wingfried’s bluntly obvious injuries. He speaks in an enquiring voice:
“Judging by the looks, it seems like the General “resisted” for a while…”
Wingfried immediately dismisses Edler’s statement:
“Ah, it’s nothing… General Kamphaus and I… simply had a little disagreement.”
Edler doesn’t hesitate and takes it as a proper answer, he then turns to his SG troopers:
“Get this traitor off the ground.”
Two SG troopers approach Demetrius and pick him up by arms, Demetrius doesn’t resist, knowing that any such attempt would be futile.
Wingfried then calmly walks towards Demetrius, and talks in a low voice:
“By the time we are done with you, you are going to thank me.”
Demetrius looks at him with despising eyes, as he asks:
“Just tell me… what have you done to the emperor?”
Wingfried responds calmly:
“Ah, “his majesty” won’t cause any problems for us in the future. Just like you, he too will see the “truth” soon.”
Eisen and Edler both chuckles as Edler whispers to himself:
“Poor kid…”
Demetrius continues to stare at Wingfried, after a moment he talks loathingly:
“No matter how much you brainwash me, no matter how much you brainwash others, no matter how much land you conquer, and no matter how many blood sacrifices you receive… know that you’ll pay for this… the day you get defeated… you’ll pay for all this…”
Wingfried doesn’t break his calm tone, and answers to Demetrius:
“Then, I’d like to wish luck to all those poor souls who think they can defeat me.”
He then turns to Edler and Eisen, and orders:
“Get him out of here.”
Troopers start exiting the room with Demetrius. As soldiers leave the room, only Eisen, Edler, and Wingfried remain. After a moment, Wingfried looks to Edler again and asks him:
“Did Wilhelm resist?”
Edler sneers as he answers:
“Like you wouldn’t believe. Even after taking a couple of bullets, he still continued fighting on like a rabid dog. After we captured him, we had to tie him up just so he would stop trying to bite our griffons.”
Wingfried:
“A true religious zealot… By the time we convert him, he will be the perfect General for us.”
Eisen:
“Well, my Führer, by the looks of your clothing, General Kamphaus is no lesser zealot of Wilhelm.”
Wingfried looks at his blood-soaked and damaged uniform, he then orders:
“Just tell the servants to call my tailor.”
Eisen nods, as Wingfried continues:
“Both of you have done well this evening. I wish you a good night gentlemen. Dismissed.”
Eisen and Edler salutes Wingfried and exit the room in order.
Alone in the room, Wingfried again heads for his desk. He cleans the broken glass pieces off his chair with the back of his claw before sitting on it. He opens up the desk’s drawer and picks up the letters that he placed when he and Demetrius entered the room. He takes a look at the paper on the front. It was a letter from a new friend, Wingfried starts reading it:
“To Wingfried von Katerinburg of Hellquill
Your recent visit to our Changeling Empire has filled our souls with content. We shall keep the word on keeping our meeting a secret and are expecting the same from you on our plans against Equestria. I keep great faith towards our splendid new alliance that will unquestionably create something truly beautiful…”
As Wingfried continues to read the letter, a smile appears on his face.
“…Your insight on ponies has truly amazed me. I now truly understand that we have much to learn about ponies and their true colors…”
“…Both of us truly care about our peoples and their futures. In this world of fools, both of us stand out, as true rulers who understand the world for what it really is…”
“…Many would disregard Hellquill as a simple and small country on a map. But after meeting its ruler, I fully understand what wonders and potentials your land is filled with. Hellquill and Griffonia truly deserve more…”
“…As you already know, sadly there is no way of me visiting your country with the current status quo. I only can dream of the day I meet you again in person with both of us as the rulers of our respective continents, with me in charge of the Equus and you in charge of the Griffonia…”
“…We are expecting your aid the time we launch our campaign and expect us to repay it by the time you launch yours. Us Changelings shall never let down our allies…”
“…With all my respect and gratitude.
Queen Chrysalis”
As Wingfried finishes the letter, he thinks to himself; “Wonderful…”.
He puts it down on his desk and starts reading another letter. A report by his underlings from the Crystal Empire:
“TOP SECRET
To the one true God of Death and Life and our Liberator; Maar
By his royal subject, Sakira Bluebell of the Circle of Sombra,
We have made a great process of reviving our long-trapped King Sombra. We are not far away from locating all the crystals required for the resurrection process…”
“…I have already listed the equipment and support we require above. We only need a couple of months…”
“…We are certain that King Sombra will be glad to know that it was the Great and Legendary Maar who liberated him and certainly will assist you on your sacred crusade against all the lesser ponies. Until then, we shall pray only to you for help.
Heil Maar,
THIS REPORT MUST BE TERMINATED AFTER RECEIPT”
Wingfried thinks to himself again; “Well done, my poor subjects…”
He raises the paper and ignites it using magic. In mere seconds, nothing is left of the paper.
He then picks up another report:
“To Almighty God of Death, Maar,
by his most loyal servant, Rosa Maledicta of the Dread League,
My Lord, we have begun our espionage operations as you ordered. You were right as always, sending a small group of necromancers to the hidden cemetery of Knights of the Arcturian Order worked perfectly, we have raised tens of thousands of dead just outside the walls of their castles. And even though many of our Necromancers wanted to attack while we got the upper hand, I told them what you ordered me to do so. I told them that the Knights are not our enemies but rather a mere obstacle in front of us, and we only fight for Maar, the Almighty God of Death, and against the enemies which he orders us to kill. And as you ordered, we disguised the dead as ordinary Griffons, and have sent them to the cities all across Griffonia. Tens of thousands of dead now stroll usually among the living without their notices, and the day you order us, we will unleash the true scale of the wrath of Maar. We are currently continuing our operations at full speed and only ask for your divine assistance to defeat our enemies by unleashing your delightful death on them.
Heil to the one true and worthwhile God of the Universe; Maar”
Wingfried smirks with pride, mumbling to himself:
“…Yet another loyal servant, yet another lost soul… Exactly what I need… Truly magnificent.”
He then places the rest of the papers on the table and starts looking at them. They were all filled with reports and letters from his newly founded allies and servants. About a dozen papers, he looks at each one of them carefully. Wingfried (or rather Maar) grins and mumbles to himself again:
“I’ve spent just two weeks in the Mortal Realm, and already have a greater presence here than all others combined… Even now I have lied, manipulated, or subjugated dozens of powerful individuals all around the world for the sake of my own aspirations… Of course, some will receive exactly what I have promised for them, but for the others… heh… they sure deserve a “good ending” from me don’t they?”
A letter amongst them caught Wingfried’s attention, a simple paper with simple writing on it. Its lack of sophistication caused it to stand out. He picks it up and takes a closer look at it. The paper had no name or date on it, but just had the following text:
“We know exactly *what* you are. We know what you are up to. And we will be your end. Expect us, *Lord* Maar.”
Maar sighs and continues to mumble himself:
“Perhaps these mortals are more foolish than I thought.”
He then ignites the paper and turns it into ash in a second.
Wingfried leans back to his chair and puts his claws together as he turns back and starts looking at the scenery of Hellquill. As he stares at the city, he thinks to himself:
“…Meagre mortals… How little they know about anything… I almost feel sorry for them.”
