The King of Heroes: Null/Virtue

Ceasefire

"So... the mountains are a fake right?" Izuku asked, drifting down to the seat opposite Tragedy.

"A king never hides his valuables in the most obvious places," He dryly remarked. "Or do you disagree?"

"I'm not a king," Izuku replied.

"I was not referring to the position that some fools assign you. I was talking about the position you hold with such power."

"Power doesn't make you a king."

"It doesn't?" Tragedy said with what felt like a grin. Of course, he had no skin so Izuku could only infer it. "Then how does one become a king?"

"Hearts and minds."

"Which you achieve through showing strength, and power."

"You're talking about inspiring fear," Izuku countered. "Dictators don't have the support of the people."

"You're avoiding your true-"

"Why have I never heard of you?" The monsters around Izuku chittered and restlessly moved around as he interrupted their supposed king. "Why has no one ever mentioned you? If the Infestation Zone has a king, surely they could've arranged peace talks, truces, we could've-"

"I have lived for thousands of years. I have seen so many generations come and go. They all think they're different. They all think that they'll be the ones to bring peace." Tragedy shifted in his throne, still clutching his Transcendent Class Weapons. "I have been known before, and still I have been betrayed. For what my people represent, for what we are. And when we were betrayed, we were forced into an area we could not escape from."

"This is your prison," Izuku realized. "That's why he won't let go of his weapons even though I did. I'm no different in his eyes."

"Two Lords, entering my domain at the same time, I can only assume. What is your intention?"

"The Virtue Lord's goal is to find her girlfriend and my goal was to find the Virtue Lord."

"And what of us?"

Izuku tilted his head. "What about you? You were an obstacle in the way. I couldn't reason with any of you until now, so I killed what I had to. But if you're open to reason then I see no reason why-"

"I intend to fight until my people are free. This is our land."

"Well I can talk to the other Lords about leaving the Infestation Zone alone and retreating from Tauris."

"Estaria is our land."

"You want... the entire landmass?" Izuku suppressed a laugh of disbelief. "There are other species here, you can't just claim everything."

"We were here before Aeic was. Before he spread the poison of other life. Do you even know what monsters were before we were forced to evolve? Forced to save ourselves from you creatures? You invaders? You were the ones who claimed everything from us."

"And you don't care that time has passed cause you think the result will always be the same if you trusted us. So you remain hidden from the rest of the world to maintain an advantage."

"The only way to change the result is to eliminate it."

"You want to exterminate all other life and you sat me down to have a chat about it? I mean, I admire the spirit, genuinely I do."

"Hmm... surprisingly, I believe that compliment... you are an anomaly."

"You've maintained that anger over thousands of years, anger that comes from your responsibility as a king as well. You can't stay angry for thousands of years for the sake of other people without some real empathy. I will help-"