Akhenamen and Damocles were not unaware of their new guests; they could feel four immense powers staring down at them. Far above even the Dominions outside their mindscape.

  ?

  At least seventh rank Transcendents. And with their mind significantly slowed, it didn’t take long for Damocles to guess who was interfering. And Akhenamen guessed it had been some sort of Time Law Transcendent, not that he even knew about the Administrators.

  ?

  He decided to ignore the four watchers and decided to start showing Damocles the Cygilites ways of war. His mind connected to the greatest Cygilites strategist and started to move his soldiers, at first his advances made no sense. He was throwing his entire legion at Damocles, an attack of such wrath and violence that thousands of souls died every second.

  ?

  However, in this battle, there was not a single beginner Damocles, and the Quadrants all had seen too many conflicts to believe the Cygilites would uselessly sacrifice soldiers. Each is trying to understand the goal of those strange movements.

  ?

  Damocles decided to go fully on the defensive. Each assault would slam into the Lapinids' lines, piercing them and digging into the fallen god’s army, only to suddenly get crushed once they went in deep enough.

  ?

  However, when he suddenly felt immense loss amongst his children, the fallen god realised he had made the most stupid mistake a commander could make. He hadn’t made sure his army had a path to retreat. As he stared behind himself, he saw two more legions, summoned discreetly by Akhenamen’s mind while he made sure Damocles was distracted by his extremely violent offensive.

  ?

  Akhenamen had summoned a single legion, yes. But that did not mean he couldn’t summon more. A second legion had been summoned behind Damocles’ army. Having been masked by the extreme violence of the Cygilites' first assault, the two legions at the rear of the Lapinids were attacking with absolute power.

  ?

  Staying behind, constantly retreating whenever Damocles tried to send hit troops to take them down. Their Gauss canons, rifles, and powerful long-range spells slammed into the Lapinids; the full might of Cygilite technology started to rain down on the Lapinids.

  ?

  They could not retreat it on any side; on one side, they were bombarded by two legions, on the other, Akhenamen himself and the Seventeenth legions made sure to act like an unbreakable shield that stopped the Lapinids from retreat, constantly walking forward, their offense having turned into an unbreakable line of defense. Pushing forward, keeping the horde of Lapinids in the metaphorical grinder they had been trapped in.

  ?

  For every Cygilite falling, two would take its place. Damocles started to feel despair; the Cygilites were getting more and more numerous, and the war engines that had at first been few now started to finally appear en masse. It’s when he realised one thing. It wasn’t the legion that got better…

  ?

  It was Akhenamen himself. Damocles did not know how… but somehow this was the result of a Divine Law. A law that was being understood deeper for every second that this battle raged on. Akhenamen’s strategy was already deadly enough, but it was being refined; now, Cygilites aviation was bombarding the inside of the Lapinids horde.

  ?

  His children now numbered one against ten. Damocles realised then that the moment Akhenamen had started to understand this new law… it wasn’t a battle anymore. Just a way for him to deepen his law’s understanding.

  ?

  Seeing so many of his children dying… Damocles felt a tear slide down his cheek. This was… so unfair. Why…? Why him? Why his children? They had nothing… nothing but being born… But Damocles already knew what he had to do.

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  ?

  “ENOUGH! AKHENAMEN! I YIELD! YOU WIN! STOP SLAUGHTERING MY CHILDREN! I BEG OF YOU!”

  ?

  Damocles’ roar broke the sound of battle, and the Cygilite’s legions immediately stopped their battle. Akhenamen’s body started to float down toward Damocles. The Fallen God, having kneeled down, begged for his children to be spared.

  ?

  Seeing this, Akhenamen stayed silent, not out of arrogance but of his own inner thoughts. He felt like this kind of scene would become something he would have to get used to. He was the Aspect of the End, the one who would end entire races. How many people would beg as Damocles did? To spare their wives, husbands, or children…?

  ?

  He knew that maybe common sense would demand that he start small, slaying the Lapinid who now numbered no more than in the three hundred thousands from the millions that had once composed their horde. Such a small number would become forgotten after even the first extermination Akhenamen would commit. Killing such a “small number” of souls could help him handle his “first job” better. But he decided to do what humans did best. Procrastinate.

  ?

  “Very well, Damocles. I will spare your children. I will protect their soul within my mainframe until I find a place suitable for them to be released and settle. I will treat them with respect and care, not as old enemies, but as I would with my own people and children. However… “

  ?

  “I know…”

  ?

  Damocles stood up, using the last of his authority over his children's souls to start guiding them through him and into Akhenamen’s own soul. Each that passed into Akhenamen was swiftly put to sleep, their memories erased to keep them from remembering the horrifying experience of being fused to their own for so long. The process done by the Fallen, Damocles, and Akhenamen’s immense mind computing power made this process swift and painless.

  ?

  No more than thirty seconds had passed before every soul had been transferred. Now, Damocles was alone. Completely alone. The god could not stop himself… he cried. Wherever it is out of respect or disinterest, even the Quadrants had stopped watching the battle.

  ?

  Akhenamen stayed silent, kneeling before Damocles and softly holding his shoulder, letting the god cry, knowing that he would not be forgotten again. Even if the world did forget him fully. At least some of his children would be saved. At least Akhenamen would remember.

  ?

  “I do not know how it must feel, Damocles, but I can swear to you, your children will be safe. And… I wish to know your story. I do not know what you remember. But I will listen. You will not be forgotten, Damocles.”

  ?

  So Akhenamen stayed at Damocles’ side, listening to the fallen god’s life. His birth alongside the other second-born gods like Rubi-Khion and Sapphyra. Born to be used in the Forgotten War, his people became amongst the most numerous mortals because of their ability to populate at an incredible rate.

  ?

  The Lapinids were amongst the main fighting force… and yet when the war was over, the other gods grew scared of their ability to expand so that. So they were attacked by some other gods.

  ?

  Slain down to the last in one of the most shameful events in the gods' entire story. The massacre lasted for an entire month, an entire month where the gods and their children methodically exterminated the Lapinids. Children, wives, babies… no one was spared.

  ?

  It is that very same event, which created such horror and negative feelings that the Lapinids and their fallen god became The Orphan. They couldn’t be the only ones. Akhenamen did not think so. It was likely that every race that could prove a threat to the “status quo” was exterminated, either by the System’s order or by the gods' own choices.

  ?

  However, what Damocles spent most time explaining was the pride and love he held for his children. Their culture, their beliefs, their architectures, their favorite sports, the weapons and armors they used. Akhenamen was told the story of an entire race.

  ?

  When Damocles finished his tale, a smile on his face, he stood up, his sword and shield tight in his hands, his tears dried up, his eyes now resolute and firm. Akhenamen felt no danger; he now knew that it was considered shameful for a Lapinid to die without their weapons in hand.

  ?

  So Akhenamen stood up, gripped his glaive. His arms and hands were shaking. Killing an enemy was one thing. But to kill something so… so sentient, so… broken and lost. He wasn’t just killing some cruel bandits from the Pyrax Empire, some non-sentient robots, or beasts.

  ?

  He was, for the first time in his life, killing a being that had surrendered, a being he had grown to respect and even understand. Seeing the blow didn’t come, Damocles smiled, staring into the Cygilite’s singular eye; he saw all the youth within his opponent.

  ?

  So he held Akhenamen’s shoulder, nodding at him with a smile.

  ?

  “Go on… do not be scared. You’re an Aspect. You will have to do far worse than kill an abomination like me. I am ready.”

  ?

  A swing. Fast, resolute, painless. A head that rolled down on the floor, a body that followed soon after, eyes full of peace as the mouth of Damocles moved one last time.

  ?

  “Goodbye, Akhenamen, take care of them for me.”

  ?

  Akhenamen stayed in his mindscape, silent, staring at the dissolving body of Damocles, the inner battle won, the pumping heart achieving its final form, and his body already starting to form and take a new shape.

  ?

  “Goodbye, Damocles. Never shall you be forgotten from my memories, for even if I must carve it on my own body. The gods will remember their crimes. Rest in peace now. You may rest.”

  ?

  “For today, that is a promise I, Akhenamen, make to this Universe, I may be your executioner, I may accomplish my duty for the sake of my loved ones well being. But never shall you erase those that I must end. For even if their story must be carved on my own body. No matter when, no matter the reason for their extermination. I shall never forget them. All of them.”

  ?

  “That is my promise.”