Insane. That's what he was as the beast of the male walked along the marble floor, sharp talons clicking on tiles, the sound echoing in the giant chamber. He was going to the throne room with one purpose only.
Murder.
He had plans when he would be ruler, he thought of them long ago, when he was just young. What he didn't know was how long his father could live. As he heard the news he knew one thing: his father must die.
Nero was insane. A sadist. Torturing people. Jailer. Punisher. Executioner. He liked his job, but he wanted a bit more. Just a little more.
So when he was told his father would continue to rule for the next thousand years he snarled and snapped and killed the messenger. The death was brutal and bloody and he loved every single second of it.
What he actually wanted to do was murder everyone and, this sounded a bit original, take over the world. He didn't want to call it Doomsday because that was already taken, nor Argamemmon, because he didn't actually want to destroy the world.
He was a simple man and he wanted something simple. Something easy to remember. So he called it D.W. N. E.W.A.D, Day Where Nearly Everyone Will Almost Die. He needed to work on it a bit more, but so far it was good and he was too lazy to give t anymore thought.
Anyway, back to the point. He placed an amused smile on his face and shoved the guards on their duty away from the door. They made again to stop him but with one glare from him stopped. Even they knew not to mess with him with that look of madness in his eyes. A satisfied smirk played on his face as he kicked open the door and it clanged against the other sides.
The King, talking to the Queen, both leapt up from the chair. He snorted. A King and a Queen. Like the players on a chessboard. The guards were the pawns Nero was the King of the other side of the board. Now he just needed a Queen on his side.
He walked towards the throne with his head held high, tail swishing behind him, almost lazily. The meaning behind his smile was unidentifiable. His pawsteps were hard but casual. He took his time.
He stopped at the foot of the throne and dipped his head. "Hello King, uh, whatever. Hello Queen Marie." He flirted, turned to the woman, ignoring the scowl that was forming on the Kings face, studied the Queen, winked at her.
She was pretty, in a delicate, thin way. Small, with a lithe form. Maybe he would try and corrupt her and make her Queen on his side. Shame he would have to kill her husband. She might not cooperate then after her mind was scarred.
"Nero." The Kings voice wavered. He cleared his throat and tried again. "Nero. What do you want?"
Nero didn't answer, merely looked around. The King repeated his question, and Nero cast a cold glance at him. "I'm here to kill you, of course." A laugh burst out of the King, a deep rumble. Then he faltered as he realized that Nero was serious.
"Nero, no-" He only was able to say before the beast leapt onto the throne and ran his claws across his neck. Crimson droplets splattered out, onto Nero's muzzle and Marie's chest and back. He smiled a bloodthirsty smile and Marie opened her mouth to scream as he began grooming his muzzle with his paws casually. Slowly.
"Hush now," he pinned her with a glare. "Now I've killed your husband I control the guards, so I can kill you with them."
Queen Marie shrieked. No guards burst in, but a young animal did. He was smaller than Nero, with the form of a wolf, but as soon as he cast a glance at his father's body and Nero towering over him he understood the situation immediately, and his facial expression transformed to one of pure fury and near sanity. He screamed, and charged Nero. Anger clouded his vision and made him blind, and Nero simply hopped off the throne as the animal leapt onto it, landing on his fathers limp corpse and nearly slipping in all the blood. He yelled in surprise and Nero leapt and soon he was lying on his fathers corpse. Son and father lay, dead, one piled on top of the other. Marie screeched again, in anger this time, and charged Nero and jumped his back and proceeded to rip his head off. Wow this girl was violent. He loved it and he chuckled, shook her off, backed her into a corner with quick jabs of unsheathed talons. Fear shattered her, filed her eyes and her form hunched as if her bones were broken along with her spirit. Nero narrowed his eyes and finished her off with a sharp snap to the neck. The sound rang clear through the air.
"Guards!" He barked, strolling back to the throne and watching as the door burst open and metal flashed as the wearers ran in. They looked at the room with a mixture of disgust, fear and awe. Then their gazes landed on him and shock froze them.
"You work for me now." He snapped, strolling past him. "Get rid of the bodies. I don't want them to be there when I'm back."
In the corridor he looked around, an annoyed scowl on his face. "Now where is that messenger?" He mumbled to himself, looked up and realized that the moon was up. He had spent more time in the castle than he realized or wanted. "Oops."
He shrugged, laughed, walked out. A white owl swooshed by his ear and he glared at it. It's eyes, glittering darkly, intelligent, looked back at him. It cocked its head and landed on his back. It was a while before he spoke. By then he had almost reached his house.
"So, what do you want?" His voice rang clear, a hint of a threat hiding beneath them. The owl flapped its wings. Hostility radiated from it but Nero didn't show that he felt it. But the changes were small but slight. The claws dug into his fur and the fur on the underbelly shot up. "And don't even think about killing me. I can snap your neck as easily as you can land on the floor." He sensed a hesitation in the animal and it began.
"You wondered earlier where the messenger was, sire?"
He tsked. "Don't call me sire. That sounds too formal. Just call me Nero. And, yes, I did try to find you. Where were you?"
The owl considered. "I was waiting for the bodies to be cleared out."
Nero frowned, paused briefly. "How much sense does that make?"
The owl shrugged. "Yeah, owls can't see blood."
"Sure. Right."
Lies.
Nero whirled, threw the animal off, slammed a paw into the creature's neck. "You're lying. Owls are birds of prey. Call off your kin. I can smell them above us." It gurgled. He looked up, to where masses of the predators were gathered, their eyes glittering with heavy menace and promises of pain. "Let this be a lesson to you. Never try to kill me again." He then pressed both his front paws against the owl's head and hind paws against its stomach. It would be a loving gesture save the fact that his optics were narrowed slightly, the red in them burning.
The owl's own orbs were wide with fear. Nero could see his reflection in them. "Please don't-" it gasped.
"Don't beg. It takes the fun out of it." He spread out, tearing the animal's head clean off. Picking it up by the trachea he threw it as far as he could in the direction of the other birds. They scattered.
"Nero?" A soft voice asked, and he turned to find his sister Malia looking at him, blue optics stretched with fear. "What are you doing?" The moonlight hit her fur, haloing her in a ring of gold. Her eyes glittered, the brightness of the moon bringing out the golden flecks in her pale blue eyes.
A brief snarl flashed across Nero's face but cleared out as quick as it had happened. He walked over to Malia and looked at her with genuine kindness in his eyes. "Malia, I'm sorry."
The girl frowned, blinked. "Wait, sorry w-what?"
"I can't let any of my family get close to overthrow me." Nero said, and bit her head off in one clean motion, despite her shrill screams. For a beautiful animal she did have a bad voice.
"Well then. Whose my next victim?" He wondered softly, out loud. He knew. He had a neighbor, Jeremiah. He was and always had been a dick to him and he deserved to die. Nero turned his head, ears swiveling, muzzle parted and nose up to try to detect any scent over the blood. He caught a faint trail of his stink and followed it, holding his breath. His wide paws brought him closer to an isolated little hut further up the mountains. Good. Then the people would find out later, after he died.
He killed Jeremiah. After that he killed his brother, Ashton. And after that his friend Ruby. And then her brother Derek. And then his father, the Italian male Marco, whilst his mother begged for mercy. He had looked at her with pity, her form glowing in the light, body limp as she stared at her dead husband with tear-filled green eyes. "Nero, why?" She had whispered.
"Because I'm King now." He replied, just as quietly. And then he had killed her and made the floor red.
And then after that he had padded into the village screaming and whoever came out of their huts to complain he killed them until there were only two people left and he walked up to one of them and tore his throat out while the other one watched.
He leapt onto the other one and pinned her to the floor and told her to run to the next village and spread word of him and tell them not to mess with him. She did so. He met no challenge in the next few, didn't expect to. With a sadistic laugh he tossed his head back and made his way slowly back to the palace. His palace.
