The golden characters in the air shifted again, reorganizing themselves into a new column. Veneri's expression grew more serious as his eyes traced the lines. This time, when he began to speak, his tone changed. He wasn't summarizing anymore. He was reading exactly what it said.
"I write this ten years after the day our scouts first returned from the outskirts. Every district of Vienshternhein has now been touched by the Krepsuna plague. I no longer receive reports of isolated outbreaks. There are no longer any districts to protect. Entire cities that once thrived under our banners now echo only with the sounds of monsters that used to be our people."
The Emperor's voice, carried through Veneri, felt hollow and exhausted.
"The capital, Frostdeath, remains the only place where we still breathe. We have sealed its borders and stationed our strongest warriors along the walls. Every day, the horizon is filled with the shapes of the infected wandering through the snow like a sea of corpses that refuses to lie still. My Empress is the one who steadies my hands when they shake. She reminds me to eat when I forget and to sleep when my mind refuses to rest. Without her, I believe I would have surrendered this throne to despair long ago."
None of us spoke.
"For ten years, we have slaughtered our own people to prevent them from becoming something worse. I have personally signed execution orders for children who had not yet even learned to read. I have watched parents beg us to kill them before the fever takes them. The number of those we have put down before their transformation has surpassed the millions. Every corpse we burn is a mercy. We have confirmed that once the infected are dead, the virus within them dies as well. Their bodies do not rise again. It is the only kindness left to us in this cursed war."
Veneri paused for a fraction of a second, then continued.
"I have no children and I will not have any. I refuse to bring a life into a world that I know will fall within my lifetime. An empire that cannot guarantee the safety of its own people has no right to speak of legacy."
The next column of golden text drifted forward. Veneri's eyes widened slightly before he began reading again.
"I sent envoys to Zerzura, Obnoveshad and Suluve. I begged the other landscapes for aid. We were once united under the same realm. We trained together, bled together and fought side by side in makeshift wars. I believed they would not abandon us in our hour of need. But unfortunately, they were affected as well."
His jaw tightened slightly as he read the next line.
"For ten years and two months, we attempted to send messengers beyond the borders of Vienshternhein. None of them ever returned. It was only after multiple failed attempts that we realized the truth: we were imprisoned."
This time, Veneri was completely amazed but he continued to explain.
"Master Vasreveilder, the Realm Creator, has sealed the realm. The Creator of Convergence has locked every landscape within its own boundaries. No one may leave. No one may enter. Ha. So this is how we are repaid for our loyalty. We were created to be the military arm of the Hidden Citadel so that others might live in peace. And now, when we are the ones facing annihilation, we are cast aside like diseased livestock."
I felt a spike of anger in my chest at those words, even though I knew the logic behind the decision.
"My Empress was furious when we uncovered the truth. She called Master Vasreveilder a coward and a tyrant. She demanded that I find a way to break the seals and confront him personally."
There was a brief pause as he scanned the next lines.
"But after I calmed her down, I told her what I knew in my heart. If I were in his position, I would have done the same. The Krepsuna plague is not a war that can be contained by borders alone. If even one infected were to escape into another realm, the disaster would multiply beyond control. We were not abandoned because we were worthless. We were abandoned because we had already lost."
The golden characters shifted once more and a new entry took shape. Veneri inhaled slowly before continuing.
"It has now been twenty years since the scouts first brought the plague to our gates. The survivors who remain in Frostdeath have all reached at least the Divine Rank. Those who could not advance did not survive long enough to see this day."
I felt a chill crawl down my spine. That meant the city had turned into a crucible. Either you grew stronger or you died. Still, they all got to Divine Rank in ten years? How?
"My Empress and I have both ascended to the Deity Rank not through the natural flow of training, but through necessity. The constant battles against the Krepsunas have forced our bodies and souls to adapt or shatter."
He read on.
"We have observed that the higher one's rank, the lower the chance of infection. Essentia Rank individuals face a seventy-five percent infection rate upon exposure. Ascenders have a fifty percent chance. But once a warrior reaches Divine Rank, the probability drops to twenty-five percent. For Deities, it's a five percent chance by estimation."
Nari's eyes narrowed slightly, clearly committing that information to memory.
"This discovery allowed us to devise a new strategy. Instead of merely defending Frostdeath, we began a systematic extermination campaign. Our Divine Rank survivors were deployed in organized units to hunt and destroy Krepsuna hordes across the frozen wastelands. For the past decade, we have maintained records of every confirmed kill. As of this entry, the total number of Krepsunas we have eradicated stands at thirteen million, eight hundred forty-seven thousand, eight hundred and thirty-six."
Even Veneri's voice faltered slightly at the sheer scale of the number.
"That is thirteen million of our former citizens. Every one of them once had a name, a family and a home within this realm. My Empress remains the light that keeps this dying empire from collapsing into madness. Her charisma rallies the troops before every campaign. Her strength on the battlefield is unmatched and when she returns, covered in the blackened blood of the infected, the people cheer as if she were a goddess of war descending from the heavens."
Wow. So he's a romantic too, huh?
"The other landscapes have abandoned us, and our Creator has sealed us away, but as long as she stands beside me, I do not feel entirely alone. Even if Frostdeath is destined to become our tomb, we will face that fate together as emperor and empress."
The golden text hovering in the throne room began to tremble slightly, as if whatever power had preserved it for decades was starting to weaken. The characters reassembled themselves into another entry but this time the glow was dimmer.
Veneri stared at the lines for a long moment before he began to speak again.
"I… am infected."
We all looked at each other in shock.
"I once believed that my rank placed me beyond the reach of the plague. I was wrong. The virus does not care for titles, nor does it fear the power of a Deity."
Veneri paused briefly, scanning the next lines.
"My strongest soldier, a warrior who had reached the Seventh Enlightenment of the Divine Rank, was struck during our last campaign beyond the northern ridge. He fought through his injuries and returned to Frostdeath with us. Five days later, he transformed. When he rose again, he was no longer Divine. He had become a Primordial Deity. The virus did not simply preserve his strength. It amplified it beyond anything we had ever witnessed."
What the fuck? A Primordial Deity from a Seventh Enlightenment Divine?
"It took everything my Empress and I possessed to put him down. The battle lasted three days and three nights. Frostdeath's outer walls were reduced to rubble and entire districts were buried beneath the shockwaves of our clashes. In the end, we succeeded but not without cost. In the final exchange, his claws pierced my body. I burned the wound with my own flames and hid the injury from my soldiers. At the time, I told myself it was merely a precaution."
There was a short, hollow pause before the next lines.
"I was lying to myself. I have confirmed through repeated examinations that the infection has taken root within my body. The higher one's rank, the slower the transformation. Based on the progression of the symptoms, I estimate that I have approximately ten years before I am completely consumed."
Veneri stopped speaking for a second before he continued.
"I have not told my Empress. I will not burden her with this truth while she still has hope left to fight for. She has carried this empire on her shoulders for twenty years. I will not be the one to place the final stone that crushes her spirit. I will not take my own life either. That would be a coward's end and I have never allowed my soldiers to choose that path. If I am destined to become a monster, then I will ensure that I drag as many of those monsters down to hell with me as possible before that day arrives."
The golden text shifted again, and when it settled into a new column, even its glow seemed to flicker like a dying flame.
Veneri squinted, clearly struggling to read the fading strokes of the next entry.
"It has been nine years. The infection has spread through most of my body. I can feel it in my bones. I no longer sleep more than a few hours each week. It is a miracle that I have managed to conceal my condition from my Empress for this long. Every day, I wear thicker armor to hide the blackened veins crawling across my skin. I avoid her touch, claiming that my injuries still ache from the last campaign. She looks at me with concern but she does not press the matter. She trusts me… and that trust is slowly killing me."
No one spoke. I didn't even hear breathing.
"For nine years, we have continued our extermination campaign. Our kill records now stand at twenty seven million, seven hundred thirty-seven thousand, six hundred and twenty-eight Krepsunas destroyed. And yet, the numbers never seem to decrease. For every horde we eliminate, another appears from the wastelands. It was only recently that we uncovered the truth: the Krepsunas are not merely reproducing within our realm. They are coming from somewhere else."
The characters shimmered faintly, forming the name of that place.
"Dimensium."
The realm of the Krepsunas.
"There exists a Passageway hidden beneath the frozen earth beyond Frostdeath. It is the origin point from which the Krepsunas first entered our realm. They are not native to Convergence. They are invaders from another world. It has been twenty-nine years since the day my scouts first brought news of these creatures. Twenty-nine years of nothing but battle, blood, and the endless stench of rot. I have forgotten what peace feels like. I no longer remember the sound of laughter in the palace halls."
Veneri's voice dropped to almost a whisper.
"I am tired."
Those two simple words carried more weight than all the previous entries combined.
"I have decided that within the next year, I will send the army—along with my beloved Empress—to locate and destroy the Passageway. If they succeed, the flow of Krepsunas into our realm will finally cease. Frostdeath will be safe. Our people will be able to rebuild what little remains of our civilization."
He hesitated before continuing.
"I will remain behind in Frostdeath and defend it alone. If any Krepsunas slip past our forces while they are away, I will ensure that they never reach the capital. By the time my Empress returns, either the city will still stand… or there will be nothing left of me to recognize."
The golden characters flickered again. They were weaker than ever now.
"Before my transformation reaches its final stage, I have begun engraving all of my knowledge within this throne room. My techniques, my insights, the battle strategies we developed over three decades of warfare, all of it. I will leave them all behind for the future generations of our army."
There was a strange, almost nostalgic softness to the next lines.
"In my previous life, before I was reborn into this realm, I used to read wuxia novels back in my homeland, China. I always admired those ancient masters who, before their deaths, would carve their life's knowledge into stone for their disciples or curious cultivators to discover."
A faint, sad smile tugged at Veneri's lips as he translated.
"It seems I have become one of those old fools myself."
The final lines of the entry trembled, barely holding their shape.
"Perhaps, one day, when my Empress and the surviving soldiers return from destroying the Passageway, they will step into this throne room and find these writings. Perhaps they will curse me for hiding my infection from them. Or perhaps they will understand why I chose to bear this burden alone."
The golden characters dimmed further, like embers on the verge of going out.
"If anyone from the future is reading this, then know this: I did not fight for glory, nor for legacy. I fought because there was no one else left to do it."