Tyrant of the Ruined Sun

The first of many of his names and titles from his previous life that shall reanimate themselves, like vengeful ghosts, determined to haunt this helpless world in the bloody, yet glorious rode that he shall pave in the illustrious future to come.

But while the world still reeled in shock from this, one man with mesmerizing, yet chilling heterochromatic eyes and snow white hair, was eagerly pacing back and forth in his large, yet bleak mansion in Solis Luxuria, when he suddenly caught a glimpse of a large black rat in the peripheral of his vision rushing towards him.

Yet unlike most people in his situation who would jump back in disgust or fright, his eyes gleamed in unimaginable glee and relief upon seeing the creature, as he bent down and gently picked up the rodent, before handing him a few pieces of jerky, much to it\'s joy.

After quickly rewarding the animal, Leonid began to search through his thick, pitch black fur, before quickly finding a small metal cylinder, tied by a small rope around the rat\'s back.

Instantly opening it and retrieving the message in it, he used his aura to impower his eyes to strengthen his vision, as he frantically read through it\'s contents.

Realizing that he finally received the news he\'s been desperately awaiting for months now, he felt the same relief and euphoria, as a man who suddenly found an oasis, after wandering aimlessly in the endless desert for weeks without any food or water.

He immediately wore his large black cloak and poor quality clothes he used in his mercenary days, before bolting silently outside his estate, without alerting the few sleeping servants he had, or the men sent to secretly monitor him.

Within the next few minutes he managed to quickly, yet silently sneak his way through the slumbering capital of the Luminous Empire, before quickly reaching his destination, the slums.

As soon as he entered this forsaken land of criminals and immorality, he was instantly reminded of the staunch deference between the rest of this city, and the slums.

The fresh and refreshing breeze that carried the aromatic sent of jasmines through the night sky became a noxious gas of rot and disease.

The serene and calm feeling of the twilight hours was replaced with an eerie and uncomfortable silence, that was only interrupted by the odd blabbering of some madman, or a soul stirring scream from the distance.

The beautiful and meticulously designed marble buildings became a chaotic labyrinth of crumbling shacks built with molding wood, or flimsy tents made from tattered rags randomly sewn together.

The firm and clean cobblestone roads became a slippery, putrid, inky amalgamation of mud and feces, that further accentuated the horrid smell of death and despair, that sinisterly hung in the air.

Yet despite all that, Leonid seemed completely unbothered by what he saw, since he already experienced living in conditions similar to these less than a couple of decades ago, and in several deferent cities during his arduous life after that fateful day in the Boreas Empire.

After expertly traversing through the seemingly endless maze of the slums, while avoiding any wandering gangs of murders, rapists, thieves, kidnappers and drug dealers that were up in search of their newest victim, he finally arrived before a quiet two story building, that was so poorly built, it was actually leaning slightly to the right, and was threatening to collapse at any moment killing all those unfortunate enough to be in it\'s path.

Leonid knocked three times on the door, before stopping for exactly four seconds and knocking twice more, before stopping yet again for seven seconds this time, and knocking four times to finish the code he received three weeks ago.

Immediately after that, the door opened to reveal a tall, lean, average looking man with brown eyes and hair, wearing dirty rags, that could barely be described as clothes, but Leonid could tell that this man was a martial artist, and not just any martial artist, but a powerful one at that; what rank though he couldn\'t tell, due to how expertly the man hid his aura.

After the man ushered him in, they made their way to the second floor where Leonid saw an additional seven men, surrounding a man in the middle who was the only one among them to cover his whole face, even his eyes with a golden angry demon mask, which raised many questions for Leonid.

Identifying him as the leader of this group of Shade Corps assassins and spies, Leonid asked in his unpleasant voice "What took you so long?"

"My apologizes lord Leonid, but ever since Marius Nerva was reinstated as the Prime Minister of the Luminous Empire, we\'ve been having trouble easily moving.

Not to mention that your old acquaintance General Heinrich Vanar is a regular at the brothel she works in, which further delayed our efforts." The masked man replied.

Leonid remained quiet for a few seconds before deciding to no longer bother with the issue, as he menacingly asked "Where is she?"

"The meeting will be held in an hour from now, at dawn when the Pleasure District closes, and she can more easily slip away without being discovered." The masked man patiently explained.

Leonid\'s bloodlust instantly spiked as he heard the name of the Pleasure District, as his lifeless eyes seemed to become mirrors that fully reflected the deepest parts of his infernal soul, that vowed to deliver demonic damnation upon all those who so much as dared to lewdly glance in the general direction of his sister in that district of untold debauchery!

All the men present felt their hearts skip a beat, as their instincts started to flare up uncontrollably.

Even the masked man felt as if he\'s been conversing with death incarnate at that moment, before quickly reminding him in a tone that betrayed his desperately concealed panic "Although she works in a brothel she is merely a bookkeeper, and we have never once seen a single man enter her room in the months we\'ve kept our eyes on her.

Even all the information we gathered on her of the past few years have all confirmed that she is still pure! So please hold your anger lord Leonid, and wait just one more hour!"

Leonid\'s frustration and impatience further intensified upon hearing that he has to wait even more to rescue his beloved sister from that revolting place, but he quickly took a deep breath to calm down, since dawn was only an hour away, and a single hour was a mere drop in the oceans of solitude he had to suffer through over his decades of heartache.

The room once again returned to it\'s former silence, as Leonid anxiously waited the passing of every minute with baited breath, as he cursed every God he could think of for their cruel joke of slowing time down into a pathetic crawl whenever he begged for it to hasten it\'s pace!

The silence started to become more and more smothering, like a noose slowly tightening around their necks, as the hour slowly started to inch it\'s way closer and closer to the determined time without any signs of her coming.

The sun eventually peeked from behind the horizon to chase away the silent cover of the night, but still she didn\'t arrive yet, and the men in the room, including the masked man began to to sweat bullets despite the chilling aura that seemed to envelop them in a blizzard\'s frost!

Finally running out of his last remaining drops of patience, Leonid stood up and asked in a tone that refused anymore compromises "Tell me where she lives?"

Knowing that it would be pointless to try to calm Leonid anymore, and fearing that a problem might have indeed occurred, the masked man stood up and said "I\'ll take you there."

Instantly afterwards both he and Leonid vanished from the room they were in, and started to dash frantically across the waking city at lightning speed, before stopping on a roof overlooking a certain brothel in the Pleasure District, where two men wearing commoner clothes were hiding and nervously observing it.

As soon as these two men noticed their superior\'s arrival, they showed relieved smiles as they quickly saluted in respect, and said "Leader! We have a problem!"

"What happened?" Impatiently asked the masked man.

"General Heinrich and..." But before they could continue they finally noticed Leonid\'s presence, and they grew quiet in fear of the consequence of their coming words.

"General Heinrich and what?" Asked Leonid in a fiendish tone.

The two men glanced meaningfully at their leader, understanding their meaning he ordered "Answer him."

The two men nodded as one of them reported "General Heinrich and the target, Lady Anastasia entered her room four hours ago and have still not come out."