“I’m here.” Randolph called out as he entered the basement. What greeted him were the remains of the left over palace guards covering the floor in a mass of gore. Sitting atop a small chest in the center of the room was Titan with a wide smile.

  “That took longer than I thought.” He said.

  “Unfortunately things didn’t go quite as planned.” Randolph sighed, shaking his head. “But in the end I got what I wanted and more.” With a snap of his finger Orochi's serpent popped its head out from under Randolph's coat and looked at Titan with its wide and curious eyes.

  “I see, the more the merrier.” Titan laughed standing up and walking to the large door which kept the Emperor's tomb sealed. It was covered in chains, locks and paper seals which Titan paid no mind to. He forced the door open, ripping the chains, and seals apart with a variety of sounds until the doors were fully opened.

  “Amazing…” Randolph muttered walking into the tomb and seeing its contents. It stretched down deep in the earth below in a cone-like shape. Clay soldiers lined the sloping terraced walls with their weapons and armor in pristine shape and ready for action. Waterfalls of molten Mercury came out from the walls and roof of the tomb dripping down to the Emperor's Sarcophagus which was made entirely of jade allowing the Emperor's mummy to be seen through the cloudy jewel.

  Randolph walked across and over the bridge which was suspended over the tomb and fell down to the bottom with a graceful landing. He strode over to Orochi's sarcophagus and looked at the man inside. He was surprisingly well preserved and looked like a dried up raisin. His face noticeably deformed and body covered in both rich jewelry and clothes.

  “Sokushinbutsu…” Randolph muttered, rubbing his fingers across the jade's smooth surface gently. “I’m sorry your dream didn’t come true, but with your assistance mine will. I thank you for that.” He said with a smile. Turning around and looking up at Titan who gave him a thumbs up he said the command.

  “[][][][][][]”

  DOOM!

  With a roar the clay soldiers began to glow, their eyes shining a bright golden yellow as their limbs cracked coming to life. The layer of clay which covered them broke off of them revealing the more flexible golem underneath with joints similar to a marionette. Looking down at Randolph they all knelt down on their knees and bowed their heads.

  “YOUR COMMAND!?” They all asked in unison. The boom of their voices was enough to make the entire tomb tremble and the arguably inexhaustible amount of mana imbued into them through an unknown ancient ritual filled the room.

  “It’ll be over soon.” Randolph muttered, placing his hand over his heart.

  # # #

  The planet trembled, no, that would be an understatement. It shook so violently that even those who didn’t comprehend magic felt the immense wave of change. The balance of the world had dramatically shifted and the stress put upon the planet was immense. The ocean's tides grew fierce and storms began to form around the globe. Thunder, rain, hail and snow all rained down upon the world with a violent passion.

  For the first time in history snow fell down onto the city of Azhar. The workers who’d been cleaning the ruins in preparation to rebuild the city were stunned by the sight.

  Across the world on the continent of Afurenthos the Venator Tower bustled with energy. Men and women of all ranks and ages sprinted around the complex in a panic. Phones rang and emergency meetings were held both consecutively and concurrently.

  El-Saber sat alone in his office, his head resting in his hands as it throbbed. “Randolph your brat, do you even know what you’ve done!?” He growled behind clenched teeth.

  Across the tower reclining on a velvet couch in his mansion sat Jinen Lutece, in his hand he held a golden chalice filled with expensive aged wine which he twirled as if nothing was happening. His [Pure Eyes] allowed him to see the world's mana [Kami] vibrate in a show of bright colors and patterns like a psychedelic trip.

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “Things are starting to really get interesting now, thank goodness. I thought I was gonna die before something exciting happened.” He chuckled softly.

  # # #

  On the uninhabited continent of Artisius an especially brutal blizzard swept over the frozen landscape. The violent winds were so cold your lungs would fill with ice just from a single breath.

  In the center of this unlivable continent sat a mountain range, one which housed the largest mountain in the world, Mt. Atlas.

  Deep under this mountain below its very roots sat five men in a room., Their faces obscured by shadows as they muttered amongst each other.

  “He did the unthinkable!” One said.

  “He never did comply with our orders but to think he’d go this far… I’d never have imagined it in my wildest of dreams!” Another growled.

  “We’ll order Francisco to send Jinen after him immediately!” A third argued.

  “No, He’s more of a loose cannon than Randolph is! If we give him an inch he’ll take the whole planet. We need to keep him like he is now, on a tight leash.”

  “We have no choice! No one else is capable of restraining Randolph! If things continue like this everything we’ve worked on for the past five thousand years will be lost!” A fourth man argued.

  “Brother Konhan, you’ve kept silent, have you come to a realization?” One of the four men asked, turning to the fifth who’d yet to speak a word.

  “In trying times like these we should pray to our lord.. He shall guide us to the correct conclusion.” Konhan said.

  “Of course! What a splendid idea!” Said one of the men clapping his hands. The others agreed with a hum and whispered amongst each other further.

  “I’ll prepare the sermon then, please prepare the sacrifices in the meantime.” One said, rising to his feet.

  “Thank you brother Gahan.’" Kohnan said with a nod.

  “Of course.” Gahan smiled, his mouth full of crooked pointy teeth.

  # # #

  The five men stood hand in hand in a dark chamber. The corpses of many small animals sat in the center of them where a sigil surrounded by runes was drawn. The blood from the corpses soaked into the sigil which shone red flashing brightly.

  “We gather here under the blood of innocence to reach your domain and call to you, Father of Sins, King Of Darkness, god of the Wicked. We ask that you answer us, your loyal lambs and guide us in the direction which best suits your will.” They sang in unison.

  The sigil flickered and the candles in the room were blown out by an ominous sudden wind engulfing the chamber in darkness. The only light source being the dark red glow from the sigil. The air grew thick and cold, horribly cold, so cold your eyes would literally freeze over with ice.

  The five men clenched their hands tighter as the wind whispered incoherent words against the nape of their neck. The sigil under them began to flicker more aggressively, the blood swirling around the runes formed blotches of no meaning which began to take the form of coherent words. Albeit words written in an unknown script, one which far out dated humanity. A language known only to these five men and their god.

  “Are you certain of this?” One of the men asked as he read the words, his voice tinged with a hint of anxiety.

  The letters began to change shape forming new blotches of blood which read a new message.

  “Then it shall be done my lord.” Konhan said, nodding his head.

  With their course of action decided the men began to hum a song. A guttural disgusting song which induced the urge to vomit. A song which pleased their god who cast an unthinkable shadow over the sigil before vanishing as the song came to a close.

  “We should begin preparations immediately.” One of the men said, releasing his hands.

  “Yes, we shall do as commanded and adjust the flow of fate to match his desires.”

  “How many times have we adjusted fate? It’s dangerous to disrupt the threads too much.”

  “This will be the 17th time we’ve done so, and if we do as instructed this will be the last as well. A fate which will guide us into a new age.” Konhan said.

  “The age in which we are free to do as we please, a world which is ruled by us, the leaders of man.” Gahan cackled his teeth clacking against one another.

  “Yes, an age in which our god can join us in the feast.”

  I wonder how big the tomb would need to be to fit two million clay soldiers? I think Qin Shi Huangs tomb only had around 20 thousand or so right? So 100 times the size of that section of his tomb? Of course It’d also need to be cone shaped so that just makes it more complicated and beyond my math skills.

  Well I wanna talk about the original concept for the Orochi Kingdom and Edoland so bear with me. I came up with both names when I was a freshman in high school and they were way different then they are now. Their general dynamic was very close to North and South Korea with them literally bordering each other. The map I had in my head was basically Honshu being Edoland and Hokaidou being the Orochi Kingdom. Much like now the Orochi Kingdom was heavily based on 20th century communist China whereas Edoland was based on Meiji Era Japan. But that story in general was quite different from this one and had no real direct plot because I was always changing it and coming up with new stuff. Well I’m still doing that but I didn’t have a real structure to the story and It was more me just combining things I thought were cool into one big mess.

  I scrapped that general idea around the time I was a Junior in Highschool and more or less created what I now have going on. Edoland is of course based on late 20th century Japan while the Orochi Kingdom is still 20th Century Communist China but mixed with the Qin Dynasty.

  Edolands name was originally just a placeholder until I came up with something else but I never did and kept it the same in the end. While I still think the name is lame I can cope by pointing to Ireland, Greenland and Iceland, ect.

  As for the Orochi Kingdom's name I started to get into Baki around the time and really liked the name Doppo Orochi so I looked more into his name and found out about the monster Orochi. From there I fell in love with the idea of a castle made from the bones of a giant monster.

  When it came time to write this arc I was initially in a panic because while I had the general idea laid out I'd never filled in the blanks. Thankfully I somehow managed to pull through and create a fun to write cast for the Orochi Kingdom. I almost didn’t make Hai-Fang because I’m honestly afraid of drawing and writing female characters but she ended up being my favorite out of the entire Orochi Kingdom cast. I really thought she was going to die when I was writing about her fight with Lestat but she ended up finding a way to escape and it made me happy. I hope she can show up in the future and play an important role. I have an idea for her comeback in the back of my mind but it won’t be for a long time so we’ll see how it goes by then and how she’s changed. I’m excited just thinking about it!

  Despite being satisfied with Hai-Fang I really am scared of writing females. I don't want them to fall flat and static. I also don't want to fall into the trap of writing all women as rather tomboyish like Rebecca, Hai-Fang and Juno have been so far even if I find that to be the easiest to write. I want to dabble into the more feminine characteristics of a female character while also not making them so feminine it comes off as a caricature. I’ll just have to brainstorm on it some more.

  The Orochi Kingdom was originally just going to be pure evil with no redeeming qualities but over time I wanted to make a more realistic depiction. I settled on a country of generally good people who were under the rule of an immature dictator who created a society in which the strong can do as they please. This makes people doing evil things seem like not a big deal because if you’re strong enough to get away with it you can do it. I don't want to write a story in which there’s just a bad guy and a good guy. That’s not how real life is most of the time and I personally find those stories to be boring. Instead I want to write stories where you can sympathize with the antagonist. Even if he’s the one in the wrong you can tell that in their head they’re the hero, the one doing the right thing.