Jester stood beside the golden throne, patiently and silently awaiting the King's next order.
It was horrible, terrible, and especially dreading... Jester didn't even have the courage to call their King by name, even in his own head, fearing that Zen would somehow reach inside and rip the brain from his skull had he even dared to think it.
Which was saying a lot considering that Jester was a Paladin, and the ninth strongest Paladin in Vallmora at that.
He had been alive thirty long years, which gave him good memory of what Zen had done to the kingdom.
Which would be liberating it of course, or maybe showing it the path of freedom and legacy...
Or at least that is what Jester forced himself to believe.
Then...
"Bring me... Bishop..." Zen's low yet grimacing voice echoed through the tallest hall of the grand castle that had once belonged to Orion.
The man Zen had fought for four months straight... A stalemate that would have been left to Zen's victory had the son of suns not turned himself into one.
Jester refused to even shift his stance as he stood like a statue, awaiting Bishop's entrance into the grand hall of Zen.
Their was an eerie energy flowing through the air that Jester had grown well accustomed to over the years.
'My lord is angry...' He thought as tears began to form at the edge of his eyes.
Bishop was the sixth strongest Paladin in all of Vallmora, and one of the first to be initiated by Zen himself, so in terms of raw strength, Bishop could take down an entire Paladin ridden kingdom by himself over night.
In all honesty, Jester did not like Bishop that much, as Zen would praise him constantly for his astonishing accomplishments over the years, which was why Jester was so fearful as to why Zen was filled with so much rage.
Soon the giant doors began to slowly creak open down the hall.
Two guards on each side of Bishop walked in slowly and cautiously, as Bishop wore an eerie expression above his gilded silver armor.
His medium length black hair with purple streaks flowed statically in the breeze coming from the many windows within the grand hall.
Meanwhile, Zen with his long and ragged indigo hair, and black beard, leaned heavily against his tightened fist which connected to the indigo elbow plate that was crushing the golden arm of the throne he sat upon.
Above him...
The skull of an ancient dragon hung from the ceiling, as its blood slowly splashed onto the floor before Zen.
This had not happened in nearly a decade...
A rage so powerful that the air itself began to squeeze everything around it in hopes of escaping the titan's presence.
The guards threw Bishop forward, letting his knees scrape against the blood-soaked floor as he barely managed to keep his posture before the royal titan.
Bishop awkwardly chuckled, as he bowed to the titan that sat above him.
"Why?" Zen's voice sounded like the creaking of an ancient stone door. Jester himself felt the need to relieve himself in his own pants as his body trembled violently under the force of Zen's anger.
"My lord... That is actually the reason I came you see. Pardon my rudeness, but why have I been summoned?" Bishop awkwardly asked, with his head lowered and his eyes avoiding Zen's at all costs.
"No... Why...? Why is that you find the need to laugh before me... For I was to think you a man of high esteem during the golden age... But now... You fill your head with ideals and meaning, as if there is any to a bug as pathetic as you... Do you know what it is you have done that has angered my very being to its absolute limits..." Zen's voice was utterly terrifying, clawing at Jester's ears like a monster had infiltrated his mind.
He only seen it then...
Bishop was trembling, and liquid was spilling from the eye sockets of his hung head.
He didn't dare respond.
Zen slowly stood up, cracking the ground below him from just the force of his natural prowess.
The guards frantically backed away, covering their faces as Zen reached downward... Grabbing Bishop by his hair as he forced the Paladin to look him in the eyes.
"Legion was able to annihilate your entire task force... Something that no man should ever have the ability to do... I gifted you with grace... And you turned it into pointless bloodshed at the hands of our pathetic enemy... Do you understand that much... You lowly worm..." Zen growled, his voice cracking the pillars of the grand hall as Jester lowering into a kneeling position.
Bishop's eyes were wide and it looked as if the soul had already left his body.
As if he had died from fear alone.
"Fine by me..." Zen let out a low and sinister chuckle, causing screams to radiate through the air from the lower floors of the castle.
Then...
Jester forced himself to look at the floor as the grotesque ripping of flesh and splattering of blood echoed through the large room gilded in the gold of Orion.
When Jester looked up...
Bishop's body lie stained in his own blood below the bleeding dragon's skull.
As Zen had his hand outstretched, palming a flowing orb of energy in his right hand...
And orb of energy that gruesomely resembled that of a catalyst, and wore the look of a shroud of crimson stains.
"Bring me the next legacy..." Zen sighed, looking down at disgust towards the fallen Paladin.
"Jester!" Zen growled, turning his indigo gaze towards the trembling clown.
"Brighten my day..." The Grand Paladin demanded, forcing Jester to stand and pull a dagger from the sheathe on his waist.
"Oh- Oh dear- Dear me! My blade! It's slipping! HAHAHA!" Jester stuttered and sputtered as he stabbed himself in the ribs with his own dagger, allowing himself to frantically laugh in a crazed state.
Zen boomed with laughter as Jester began to bleed out on the floor.
Which luckily was impossible, as Jester could not die... Hence why he had survived so long under Zen's direct orders.
Then the doors creaked once more, and the same two guards pulled a body in from what could have only been the dungeons.
"Good... The next subject..." Zen applauded slowly... Even the slow force of his palms meeting each other was enough to crack glass... Hence why the windows had been simply archways for the last three years.
The guards dragged a half-dead slave down the hall, and threw him at Zen's feet.
The boy was trembling and unrecognizable, as his entire face was littered with bruises and cuts.
His body was stained with dirt as well as his own blood, and his body was frail and useless when compared to what Zen thought a legacy should be.
And yet, in a grotesque way... Zen smiled down at the dying child.
"Boy... Vow that you will serve my kingdom well... And you may have the chance to obtain glory and wealth beyond imagination..." The boy trembled underneath Zen's mighty voice promising that of things that could easily be granted by Zen's will.
The boy didn't raise his head... But he pleaded as his deathly dry lips muttered pathetically into the golden floor stained with blood.
"Good... Then it is done."
Zen grabbed the boy by the shoulder, crushing every bone in the right side of his body as he pulled him up to look him in the eyes.
The boy was nearly completely gone, as he only had a crazed and out of it stare to return to The Grand Paladin.
Zen reached out with the orb... Before jolting forward with his left hand, and ripping open the flesh of the boy's sternum... Placing the catalyst inside of the boy...
A strange thing happened, that had happened many times before.
Energy swirled around the boy, as his body began to repair itself.
Jester was forced to witness another transformation...
The boy looked up at Zen before lowering his head and bowing, before kneeling and kissing the ground before Zen.
"Good... Now go get yourself cleaned up... Bishop..."