Tyrant of the Ruined Sun

Tendrils of golden light slowly crept their way across the darkened sky, painting the earth in it's warm glow and with it raising all the slumbering birds and beasts that lie beneath it's watchful gaze.

And of course, the mightiest beast of all, the race of man, also heeded it's call to arise and begin their day.

But within the Imperial Palace of Eklepsus, a different sort of being also woke with a satisfied smile dancing across his lips, a sight that would petrify his enemies if they saw it, despite the innocence of the gesture, as he made his way to his opened window and took a deep breath while happily gazing at the fruit of his labor.

Six months had passed since Alexander's meeting with Valdour, also meaning that a full year had already passed since his rebirth, and during that time he has not been idle.

After bidding farewell to Qayan, as well as Orhan, who decided to remain there after seemingly having forged a deep bond of brotherhood between himself and Valdour almost overnight, he returned to the capital and began initiating sweeping reform after sweeping reform across the Empire with brutal efficiency and cruel diligence.

Every archaic flaw, foundational instability and idiotic rule he perceived as even remotely bothersome he crushed with unflinching mercilessness, and every plea, protest or argument raised against this was met with inhuman indifference, followed quickly by a sting of cold steel between their shoulder blades.

The message was clear, any defiance what so ever meant an early visit from the God of Death.

But fools wouldn't have been called so if they possessed the mundane ability of common sense.

Which is exactly what happened a couple of months back, when the wealthy merchant elite of the eastern port city of Thalab staged a mass riot in the streets of the city in protest to the new taxation laws that demanded they pay more to the crown, a decision they obviously detested.

Yet shocking enough for them, their actions and voices were not met with a paper of acceptance of their demands, like Alexander's father, the late and weak Emperor Akhamenid would have done, but with steel, blood and fire.

As both Alexander and Sodarus, deemed their charred skeletons a satisfactory reminder to the world why they earned the titles of the Bloody Emperor and the Storm Lord, as Sodarus and his Chimera Knights unleashed a maelstrom of blistering fire upon them, silencing them in a wash of horrified screams and crackling pyres.

While the rich merchants, who deemed themselves important enough, and wealthy enough to stand against the monster that was Alexander and remain unscathed, were greatly mistaken as they had the privilege of watching all their wealth vanish before their eyes, and gain in it's stead their warden's whips biting at their backs as they toiled endlessly in the cold, dark mines of the Empire.

And so the Empire's decaying infrastructure was uprooted and built anew, it's antiquated taxation system thrown in a blazing crucible and reforged, the entire nation began to change by hook or crook; it mattered not to Alexander in which manner it happened, only that it did.

And change it did, with each subsequent reformation occurring faster and smoother, and with it the empire grew increasingly stronger and stronger, like a roaring river, with each stone eroded into dust and every obstacle thrown out of the way, the stampeding water grew wider and fiercer.

A chilling realization to many.

But despite all these accomplishments, they wouldn't have been able to bring such elation to Alexander's mind compared to the deeds of those closest to him, especially those of his beloved little brother Nizam, who rocked the world like a stranded ship in the eye of a devastating typhoon a few months back, when they revealed his ascendency to the first stage of magic arts at the young age of twelve.

An achievement so gargantuan and magnificent, it nearly propelled him to the same level of fame as his older brother, even more so in the tight knit, and highly secretive social circles of the magicians, as they all proclaimed him as the most likely candidate among the last few hundred generations to reach the illustrious title of Arch mage.

Because of this, dozens if not hundreds of powerful and renowned mages from all over the world rushed to the Palace in hopes of acquiring the coveted position of a future Arch mage's teacher, a hope that Alexander and the Eclipse Empire's one and only Arch mage Hekan Heka dashed, as they announced that Nizam would be tutored by Hekan and no other.

A highly criticized and hated decision by the mage society, who argued fervently that despite Hekan's prowess and expertise in the illusive arts of magic, he was still a mage who specialized almost entirely in lightning magic not water magic, which was by far Nizam's greatest element.

Luckily though for the upstart mages, it was the quiet and reclusive Hekan not Alexander who delt with them first. And deal with them he did, in the most simple way possible. With pure, unimpeded wisdom.

Hekan cordially invited all those who doubted him, saying he would hear their arguments for his new student's sake, and they obviously agreed, thrilled at the idea of still having the ability of gaining the chance of taking Nizam under their wing.

But one by one Hekan crushed them all in every single field they challenged him in, and in particular he focused on defeating them in their own respective fields of magic.

A foolish decision, they all initially thought in contempt, as they believed themselves the obvious and clear victor in these debates, until Hekan opened his mouth.

This verbal execution of their egos caused many of them to shrivel up into pits of despair as they questioned the meaning of their lives, while others had vowed that they would never again show their faces before Hekan until they were worthy of it.

All this Hekan accepted with a humble smile, as he welcomed any who were brave enough to stand up against him on the battlefield of knowledge, and like a master tactician he dismantled them all with precise maneuvers and impeccable strategy.

But all this only helped to increase the eyes on his little brother, and although he was happy to see his brother's gifts begin to be acknowledged by the wider world; Alexander knew all too well that fame, like light can illuminate your life in stupendous splendor but will also leave you blind to all the blood sucking insects who will converge upon you in an instant until they smother your light.

An outcome Alexander would obviously not allow to happen.

And so when the flies eventually did come in the form of foreign dignitaries, wealthy merchants and high ranking nobles, all of them with marriage or alliance on their tongues and ambition mingling with greed in their eyes, the now fifteen year old Alexander, his infamy freshly watered by the blood of thousands in Thalab, simply said "Do you take my palace as an ordinary farmers' market?

How dare you come here under the guise of good will, and then start showcasing your daughters before me as common breading mares?! Do you seek your own deaths, you filth?" And with that all of them went running for the hills.

But sadly that only managed to deal with one problem, since many didn't see Nizam's talents as an opportunity, but a threat. A threat that must be extinguished before it has the time to fully bloom. And so the assassination attempts began.

In just a month the Shade Corps stopped nearly sixty such attempts, that ranged from intricate kidnapping schemes, to subtle poisoning attempts, to even trying smuggle explosives into the Imperial Palace in a desperate effort to eliminate Nizam.

The assassins only stopped swarming around his brother's every step, when Alexander refocused their attention on an even greater monster than his brother could ever be, as he released the news that after months of rigorous training he reached the first level of not only saber martial arts but halberd martial arts as well.

This news once again caused another shock to pulsate through the world, making the common people begin to jokingly question if Empress Esmerelda's sacred cave was blessed by the gods.

A joke that Alexander did not appreciate, as evident by the brutal silent purges performed by the Shade Corps upon all those who dared utter such words even once.

Luckily though for the people of the empire, who were still oblivious to this silent massacre taking place, they were saved when the woman in question, Empress Esmerelda herself heard about what was happening, and immediately stopped her son's wanton slaughter just before he lost his last shreds of patience and went on a blood crazed rampage.

"Just as a lion doesn't bother with the buzzing insects that surround him, so should a monarch not bother with every word spoken by the people." Esmerelda told her son, which finally managed to sedate the awakening monster.

But all the while, watchful eyes as distant as the Boreas Empire began to look to the south, with caution and ill will in their gaze. Power was good, but excessive power was not. And the declining Eclipse Empire's sudden resurgence was beginning to worry a great many people.

But this constant stream of electrifying revelations from the Imperial Family had served two purposes, one intentional the other not so.

The first purpose was to keep the other powers focused on the capital and not on the southern front where Hamilcar and his army had recently departed to face the isolationist Murathicus tribes, as well as expand the borders of the empire.

The other unexpected purpose was the fire that was unintentionally lit in Cyrus' heart as his brothers climbed higher and higher, while seemingly leaving him behind. A thought that revolted him to no end, as he suddenly asked to begin training in not only swordsmanship, but also battle strategy.

A shocking decision from him, considering his hatred for studying, but a welcome one at that.

Especially for Alexander who could already see the future his brothers would carve, ones even more magnificent than the ones they created in his last life, especially with him there to support them from the very beginning this time.

Alexander's smile just kept growing and growing as he remembered all of this, but when he suddenly thought of what he would do today, he couldn't contain his laughter any longer as he suddenly thought how their wretched faces would look like when they learned the truth.