The Planes Walkers

15. A Day in the Life of the Emperor

Wrathel gazed upon the large land just north of Calbar. It was the spot that he was going to quarry out to put his new machine. Though he wasn't going to do it himself. That's where his army came in. They were probably just reaching the border to the desert.

Wrathel was eager to get started. He could see the potential of what the land will become. It was still currently littered with houses and a few shops. Wrathel had issued warnings for the citizens of that neighborhood to move out by today. Looked like none of them listened, so it was up to Wrathel's personal appearance to get the citizens to leave.

Adjusting his cloak, the now armor-clad Emperor moved forward into the neighborhood. He could see the signs he issued that were plastered all over the sides of houses and messenger boards. Smaller variants of the posters cluttered the ground. One flew passed his feet due to the slight breeze. Wrathel sneered at the lack of appreciation.

The Emperor had always had problems in this section of the city. They tended to keep to themselves, ignoring any laws that Wrathel had established. That would all end today. His boots clanked as he took each step, heavy in his stride. His eyes were locked on the house directly in front of the road.

Wrathel slammed his fist against the old wooden door to knock. It didn't take long for someone to open it. Wrathel could smell that they were cooking some sort of meat inside, because the smell flowed out with the now open door.

"Can I help you?" the man asked.

A smirk spread across Wrathel's face. "Yes, as a matter of fact you can. I wanted to know if you knew what day it was."

The Calbarian man cocked his head in confusion. "What are you on about? Go bother someone else!" With that, the man began to close the door. Wrathel simply reached his hand out and let the door slam onto his gauntlet covered hand.

"Eh?" the man mumbled as he looked back to see the hand in the doorway. "What'd you go and do that for?"

"I asked you a question. What day is it?" Wrathel asked, but this time his voice emphasizing each word.

"Are you some sort of crazy person or something?" the man asked. Wrathel didn't take too kindly to people ignoring his questions. He decided to pull the door back open. His strength was far beyond that of the Calbarian man, so it wasn't hard to take it from his grasp.

"What are you doing?!"

Wrathel began to chuckle a little bit. He leaned in the doorway. The breeze shifted, causing a wind to come into the house. Wrathel's slicked back hair barely moved in its wake.

With the man's shout, a woman came from another room. She was similarly dressed to the man, wearing basic cloth clothes that looked like rags to Wrathel. "What's going on?" she said as she noticed the Emperor.

"You two can't seriously not recognize me, right?" Wrathel decided to flatly ask.

Both of the shook their heads. Wrathel's head drop in disappointment. He let out a sigh and then looked back up to the two. "Well that doesn't matter now. You two obviously don't know how to read the hundreds of signs that litter this section of the city."

"What signs?" the man asked.

Wrathel shook his head. He moved over from the doorway and revealed the outside. "Those." Wrathel added with a thumb point to the cluttered road.

"We aren't going to leave our homes!" he shouted at Wrathel.

The woman nodded in agreement. "The Emperor has no business doing that to us. We have nowhere to go."

The Emperor smiled. He began to walk closer to the couple. "Do you not realize what an emperor does? Do you not realize you live in his Empire? When you live in the land of the Emperor, you follow his rules."

"Are you some sort of Soul Army messenger or something?" the man asked.

"So many questions, and you still don't give me the answer to mine," Wrathel muttered as he stood just a few steps away from them. Before the man could say anything else, Wrathel reached out. He gripped quickly, his hand covered in purple aura. The Calbarian's soul was pulled easily from the body.

Wrathel looked over to the woman. "Don't scream," he said to her. If she screamed, it would alert more people. It didn't stop her though. She gazed in horror at her husband's body falling to the floor and his soul in Wrathel's hand. She couldn't help but let out a loud shriek.

The Emperor sighed once again. The man's soul disappeared as Wrathel clutched his hand. He turned to the woman. "You've made my job harder. If people know I'm coming, how will I take their souls?" Wrathel asked with a smirk.

The woman screamed again. Wrathel knew it was going to be a long day.