Thank you for that crucial correction. I will adjust the narrative to reflect that Maximilian was exiled to the small town of Valum, not the army, which strengthens the Duke's sense of failure and the shock of Max's eventual power.
The Monster Maker and the Father's Burden đź‘‘
The Imperial War Room, only hours before a center of strategic power, was now a tomb. The heavy silence was broken only by the low, guttural breathing of Emperor Alaric, who stood with his back to the council, staring fixedly at the scorched, devastating map of Fort Astra. He finally turned, his eyes glazed with a mixture of raw grief and consuming, terrifying rage, but his focus was singular: the man who had brought this ruin upon his Empire.
"Duke Alexander von Caligula!" Alaric's voice was a low, terrifying growl that nevertheless silenced the room completely. "Step forward, you damned fool!"
Duke Alexander, pale but composed, obeyed. He stood before his Emperor, the living embodiment of the catastrophe wrought by his own blood.
"Two hundred and fifty thousand souls," Alaric spat, his voice trembling with an effort to contain a scream. "An entire army, an entire city, erased in a single, silent breath. The Investigative Mages report silence, a void where mana cannot exist. Your son—your monster—has weaponized the end of our world!" The Emperor threw a handful of Fort Astra soil, retrieved by the Mages, across the Duke's desk. "Look at it! It smells of chemical fire and nothingness! This is the alchemy you refused to acknowledge! You thought you could simply exile your shame to that wretched, backwater town of Valum, believing he would rot in irrelevance! Instead, you gave him the isolation and the resources to build this!"
Alaric moved with sudden, startling speed, grabbing Alexander's silk collar with a desperate force that ripped the fabric. "You brought this plague upon my Empire! You spawned this engine of annihilation! You are no general; you are the architect of our ruin! I should have your head mounted above the city gates!" The Emperor released him, his chest heaving, his eyes wild. "But your death is worthless. Only one man understands the twisted, unnatural logic of Maximilian Scorpia. Only one man shares his corrosive blood." Alaric's voice dropped to a chilling, absolute decree: "Duke Alexander von Caligula, I charge you, by Imperial decree, with the execution of your son. You will use every resource, every contact, every breath you take to hunt down Maximilian Scorpia, destroy his forbidden alchemy, and bring his head back to this palace. You created this monster; you will destroy it. Fail, and I will not only execute you, but every member of your corrupted House and burn your name from history."
The Witnesses of Doom
The Emperor's brutal, impossible command struck the members of House Caligula with devastating force.
🗡️ The Trueborn Sons: Byron and Cedric
Byron, the elder trueborn son and recognized heir, stood rigid, his hand instinctively resting on the hilt of his ceremonial sword. He saw the MSW-1 strike not as a distant political disaster, but as a direct, personal humiliation and a terrifying threat to his destiny. His inheritance, his rightful claim to power and wealth, was being vaporized by the bastard he had always scorned. "He has to be stopped," Byron hissed to his brother, his eyes burning with a venomous hatred for Maximilian. "Father must destroy him, or he will come for the Capital and for us next. He has nullified our magic! It is patricide or oblivion. We must provide Father with the resources, but he must be the one to die. It is a necessary act of penance for the House, and a guarantee of my ascent."
Cedric, the younger trueborn, reacted with a complex, intellectual awe. The sheer efficiency and anti-magical finality of the destruction fascinated him. He saw his father, the Duke, as a dead man walking, burdened with an impossible, tragic mandate. Cedric quietly decided he would survive the fallout, secure the family's non-Imperial holdings, and study the forbidden alchemy from a safe, detached distance, regardless of which man survived.
🥀 Lady Lucretia (The Duke's Wife)
Lady Lucretia, the Duke's wife and the trueborn sons' mother, cared only about the final, chilling threat: "every member of your corrupted House." She approached her husband, not with comfort, but with a hissed, urgent demand. "Alexander, you must leave immediately. This is not about sentimentality; it is the sheer survival of our family name. You banished him to that peasant village, believing you solved the problem; now you must retrieve him or kill him. But do not fail! Your failure means the ruin of Byron's claim and the execution of my sons! You have always protected the name of Caligula; now prove it."
đź“ś Count Volder (The Family Minister)
Count Volder, Lucretia's younger brother and the family minister, watched the confrontation with the detached focus of a man whose sole ambition was seizing the Western Ducal seat. He saw the Emperor's command not as a rescue order, but as the perfect opportunity for Alexander's ruin. Volder quietly pulled Cedric aside, his voice barely a breath. "Your Grace, your father is being sent to his death—emotionally, if not physically. His mission is hopeless. We must begin transferring the House's liquid assets to neutral, foreign territories immediately. If the Duke is ruined, the Western Ducal seat will be vacant, and the Emperor will need a steady, loyal hand to inherit the titles and lands. We must ensure that hand belongs to our side of the family. The true power is not on that throne, nor is it your father. It is the monster he created, and we need to be prepared to survive his inevitable victory."
The stage was set. Duke Alexander, the father who had merely exiled his brilliant bastard son to a tiny town, was now tasked with hunting down his own creation—a genius who commanded technology and terror—to save the very House that had cast him out.