A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor
Chapter 1722 - 1722: A Kingdom At War - Part 5 - VOLUME 4 END

"…Naturally, I would be a fool to miss it," Ingolsol said. "But this is not our domain. This is not where we belong. We are Gods, Claudia. We are in the ever shifting. We war for the throne! And now the throne is not even in sight. He has robbed us of both our crowns."

"Has he robbed us of them, or has he relieved us of them?" Claudia asked him. For what ought to have been a contradiction, she was unusually gentle with him.

"I do not like it," Ingolsol said.

"It is the nature of all men to fear change."

"We are not men," Ingolsol said.

"We are closer than we were before," Claudia said.

"This realm—"

"Is an achievement," Claudia said. "Have you ever seen a mortal go so far?"

"It does not make sense," Ingolsol said. "This should not exist. This…"

"Harmony," Claudia finished for him.

"A mortal should not have access to it."

"A mortal should not be able to bear the brunt of you and I," Claudia said. "We have made him suffer."

"I have made him suffer, you mean to say," Ingolsol said, twisting his lip.

"No," Claudia said. "Destiny made him suffer. It is I that the mortals blame for destiny – for the rivers of progress. We both had our hands in it. He could lay equal blame at both our doors."

"…It is my Fragment that so weighed him down," Ingolsol said.

"And then it was my interference that nearly killed him," Claudia said. "Neither of us have seemed to be the bastions of compassion. We have simply done what we can. For the struggle that he has borne, there is this."

"What is this?" Ingolsol said, toying with the wheat that Claudia had given him.

"Did I not tell you?" Claudia said. "This is harmony. This is the suffering that we have seen him endured. This is us – you and I. It is all three of us. A delicate balance that we have all suffered through for years."

"And you say, this is its setting?" Ingolsol said. He shook his head, and practically growled. "I do not like it. Robbing me of my crown? I am the God of Power! Where I say there ought be something, it so shall be!"

He brought out his arms wide. "Even here, I inflict my control! Let waters run, and drown all near!" By his call, there was a great roar, and a giant river erupted through the valley, tearing up the wheat with it, and flowing down towards the village.

In that water, Claudia stood, unmoving by its roaring current, as it swam up towards her chest and threatened to sweep her off her feet.

Indeed, when he so summoned himself, that old golden crown appeared on Ingolsol's head, along with his black armour.

But Claudia only smiled for him, and shook her head. So easily did she move through that river, that even against its current, she crossed her way nearer to him, and laid a hand upon his cheek. "Does the beauty of this place reduce you?" She asked him.

He faltered ever so slightly from her touch, and the flow of the river fell dramatically, down to what was just a piddling little stream. Something that seemed to bless the landscape more than it did destroy it.

"Does it frighten you, Ingolsol?" Claudia said. "You who all kneel to."

"...It goes against my nature," Ingolsol said.

"Have you not served him all these years?" Claudia said. "Has he not won your respect?"

"More than any mortal before him."

"Do you feel your powers reduced?" Claudia asked.

"…No," Ingolsol realized.

"You are as strong as you always were," Claudia said. "He has not lessened you. But your ability to disrupt the balance of his world is lesser than it was. When your rage passes, tranquillity follows – do you see?"

She pointed to where there had once been that stream, and now wheat grew back in its place, recovering what once was.

"It is strange for you," Claudia said. "I do understand it. For a creature as powerful as you, Ingolsol, how could you ever understand what it meant to know peace? To know harmony? But do you not see? As much as there is Oliver Patrick in all this, there is you as well. You have stained him what he is. He has not forgotten."

She pointed to a castle, far, far into the distance. Ingolsol had to squint to see it. "There lies your throne, Ingolsol," Claudia said. "Do you still sense it?"

"…The wanting," Ingolsol said. "My wanting. My desire."

"They are yours," Claudia assured him.

"And your roads," Ingolsol said, finding them too. "Your rivers, your paths, your streams."

"They are there too," Claudia said, almost surprised to see them once they indeed were pointed out. "We are not lesser than we were. We need not crowns to demonstrate our might. Do you feel the very potential that stirs in the air?"

And indeed, then, the air did stir. A vicious swirling wind, as Oliver's emotions heightened, and he pushed Gar back on the back foot.

"The air," Ingolsol said. "I suppose the air belongs to him."

"It belongs to a Tempest," Claudia giggled, pulling Ingolsol by the hand. "Do not look so sour, oh God of Power. We have been granted a whole world in which to explore."

"Is it the world that he knows?" Ingolsol asked, allowing himself to be led.

Claudia shook her head. "He knows not a single field, not a single pasture, not a single brick in the castle. It is all unknown to him. Terrifyingly so. The fear that you feel for it, know that he feels it tenfold. Potential this place might be full of – but a human height can hardly bear such a thing in one go. One day, he might make his way back here. Will you play with me until then?"

She looked up at him beseechingly, pulling on his hand, her purple eyes seemingly innocent, for all she did know about the world. He stared back down at her, a head taller, a creature that knew only how to conquer and overcome. He grinned at her. "I suppose we might conquer this little world, Claudia, if that is the game that you wish to play."

She sighed with distaste. "After all this time we've spent together, can you not say what it is you rather feel?" Claudia said, looking at him. "If I were to leave you now, what would you do?"

"I would find you, as I always do," Ingolsol replied. "The world would be far more boring without you. My eternal foe."

"My eternal love," Claudia replied, catching him off-guard, and flashing him a grin of white teeth, seeing the look on his face. She danced away from him, leaving him stunned. "Is it not the same for you, Ingolsol? Can you not declare it – or is the God of Power not mighty enough to?"

His eyes flashed gold, and he clenched his fist in rage. "Who has knocked on the door of the heavens for thousands of years to find you, Claudia? My love needs not stating."

"And now you have found me."

"And now, I have found you…"

VOLUME FOUR - END