Anastasis

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Prologue

"...Ana...!"

"...nast...Li...an...ril...!"

"An...sta...us!"

"Anastasius!"

Blurry figures moved around me, their silhouettes flickering and waning as my vision started to fail me. A loud ringing deafened my hearing, and through the white noise, I heard faint bells ringing in the distance as if welcoming me to some faraway land. My chest felt empty, a disgustingly hollow feeling spreading from my abdomen, a searing pain dulling with my mind. Something wet slid down my forehead, trailing off my jawbone and slithering over my neck. At my fingertips was ice slowly freezing my veins, frost climbing up and sealing my fate. The shadow of a man kneeled by my side, and my dimming sight shook with dots of colours vibrating before me, forming vague scenes. He was crying, as if the world had ended and everything was not alright. A black sea covered my vision, and suddenly, everything was alright for me. His coat was still warm, giving me a much needed solace. The scent of sweat and blood- a familiar smell to me-entered my nose, and I knew that blood was mine this time.

'He remembered. He remembered that I didn't like the cold.'

Fighting to move my facial muscles, I mustered up the last of my strength to give him a grateful smile, his voice finally piercing through the bells tolling my demise. He sounded wretched, devastated. Even knowing him all these years I have never heard him this sad before. I wanted to reach out and pat his head like always, but the ice had reached my elbow and everything felt heavy. My cheeks were already stiff with tears, anymore coming out at the moment would be impossible yet they still flowed down infinitely. He seemed distraught, caressing my cold cheeks before yelling to his left at a crouched figure. Even without seeing it, I knew the person was laughing at me.

A pressure squeezed my lungs, breathing-a simple task-becoming harder and harder by the second. Frost crept up my arm and reached for my heart, thousand of tiny needles prickling my chest. Just as the light finally died from my eye, a moving shadow akin to that of a hand covered my eye and whispered into my ear, his grin at the corner of my eye burning into my mind.

"Goodnight......th...r."

Everything went silent.

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"I now crown, Alaric Gladiolus Vladimir as Emperor of the Verilian Empire!"

The sound of clapping and shouting rang out throughout the capital, people gathering in front of the imperial palace to witness the start of a new era. Atop his locks was a bejewelled crown with different shades of colours that glittered in the sunlight, their radiance incomparable to the man wearing it. The commoners cheered and worshipped him while the aristocrats gave their new emperor tight-lipped smiles hidden with discontent.

A hooded figure darted across the streets and into an alleyway before leaping up and landing on the roof. Sitting down heavily on the red-tiled roof, he stared at the unmoving figure of his new monarch and scowled, clicking his tongue in annoyance. The hooded male looked between the happy people and the emperor then the aristocrats standing at attention and found the sight funny.