The Reaper King

Chapter 10: Son of The Terror pt. 4

"Sooooo," Lord Jorie asked in a singsong voice as Damien appeared in a flash of rose golden light, "what'd ya learnnn?"

"I learnt," the young imperial crown prince replied, a sour expression stuck on his face, "that you two are assholes." He pointed at both Astallon brothers, who now had similar shocked expressions, before continuing his rant, "and that the Nephilim seriously suck as a whole. I mean seriously? Blood Purists? And don't even get me started on the complete and utter travesty of logic that had to have gone down to birth to a faction like the fucking Hierarchists, who are seeking to destroy the very system, THEY'RE FUKCING BENEFITING FROM!"

Rage oozed from Damien's seething aura, like daggers of hot, shameful emotion seeking a target and instead finding too many to count.

"I thought the Illuminated Ecclesiarchy was bad, but excuse my french, they seem tres fucking normal compared to some of those guys!" he ranted on, "why the fuck didn't either of you see fit to mention that in your, "make Damien afraid of even the drinking water in Gera," lectures?!"

The two astallon brothers were left stunned by Damien's sudden ire and foul-mouthed outburst, contrasting starkly with the boy's usually reserved and kind disposition.

Then Lord Jorie burst out laughing wildly, gaining a less than amused look from Damien.

"No disrespect, my lord," the viscount said between laughs, gasping for air, "it's just so vindicating to see you that mad from just talking to your people for an hour,"

"Indeed, Your Highness," Henry went on, taking Damien's attention from the still manically laughing older Astallon brother, "as His Highness accurately deduced, we knew the likely outcome of sending you off on this mission, especially why we disguised it as something more benign."

But then a smile spread out on Henry's preened, usually reserved features. His smoothed back, red hair seemed to glisten along with the lord's golden and blue eyes, he seemed to see his prince in a new light.

"But my lord," he went on with a sigh and a chuckle, "we can't tell you how to think, who to protect and who to damn. I mean we could, but that would amount to nothing more than a slow burning cataclysm waiting to boil over the second you ascended to the Imperial High Throne without any capacity to think for yourself."

He shook his head slightly, but the look of pride in Damien only seemed to grow on Henry's face.

"No, we had to let his highness come to his own conclusions," he finished, giving Damien a disarming wink that seemed to shut down the remnants of the boy's bucking aura, "and you have done us, and your mother proud."

Damien didn't know what to say, stunned couldn't begin to describe the mess of emotions he was feeling.

At some point Lord Jorie had stopped laughing and pulled himself together when he heard what Henry had to say. The viscount got up and walked over to his younger brother, standing beside the other tall Nephilim lord in a rare act of kinship between the two sibling deities.