Cixilo, master of the corpse

Gadaric got back to the imperial army that had been hurt badly by the well-laid-out ambush. He passed the imperial artillery, or what was left from it. Half of the cannons had been destroyed by Rufus's divine sphere. Some were badly in need of repair, leaving the imperial army with only a few working pieces of artillery.

Berig was sitting on top of a destroyed cannon with his head resting on his hand, looking frustrated.

"How bad was the attack?" Gadaric asked.

"How does it look….Did you at least destroy those cannons?" Berig asked back.

"No….we were baited out. This all was a well-planned attack."

Berig took a deep breath.

"Enough of the scorched earth. I have had enough of this king Rufus. We will face them as they have wanted for so long," Berig said and walked away.

"You think that is wise. The emperor ordered us not to harm Rufus. He said he had plans for him."

Berig stopped walking and thought for a second.

"Accidents happen in war..."

Gadaric was left alone in the middle of the destroyed cannons. He knew he was going against his loyal liege, but he also couldn't speak against Berig.

His alone time was interrupted when a man whose skin was completely pitch-black walked toward him.

"It seems you are not doing that well," the man said.

"Cixilo, what are you doing here?" Gadaric said.

"Our emperor sent me here because he heard of the defeat at Pesamo. He will soon destroy the Cassian kingdom and move then to the Tessia republic. He said that you need me more, so here I am," Cixilo said, with him being amused.

Gadaric got up and was about to leave.

"Now that I am here, there will be no more failures, especially since I have this here with me. My newest discovery from the Cassian catacombs," Cixilo said and showed a stone coffin his men were towing.

"Your divine power disgusts me…."

"It may disgust you, but at least I bring useful results to our emperor as a proper emperor's shadow should…..."

~ ~

As Markus was walking around the imperial camp, he sensed a familiar divine aura. It was the winds of pandora. It was faint, but he could feel it.

He entered a tent and saw a stone coffin. He got closer thinking the winds of pandora came from the coffin, but as he touched it, he didn't feel a thing.

"It's a thing of beauty, isn't it?"

Cixilo came into the tent and surprised him. Markus then knew where the slight and feint winds of pandora came from.

"Who did this coffin belong to?" Markus asked, wanting to spark a conversation with this interesting person.

"The owner is still in the coffin. The owner is dead though, but when she was alive, she was called the cobra of Cassia."

"So, there is the corpse of Leia Cassia inside it?" Markus said, indicating he knew who she was.

"Yes, you know your history it seems. She kept the Cassian empire alive for long until she was betrayed by her king and brother. She was probably the strongest person in the Aesis world during her time. Now she is just a useless corpse, but not useless to me," Cixilo said as he was caressing the coffin.

Markus looked at the stone tomb. It was tightly sealed with extravagant carvings on it.

"You need this open?" Markus asked.

"Yes. It, unfortunately, has a divine trap built into it. If it is forced open, it would burn the corpse and the one trying to force it open," Cixilo said with a melancholic tone.

Markus then cut a small cut on his finger. He closed his eyes and sent his blood into the crack of the coffin. He was moving the blood inside and felt the hieroglyphs and carvings that were on the side of the coffin. He then scribbled the carvings with his blood that released the divine aura, locked into them without the trap getting unleashed.

"I think this should do the trick," Markus said and opened his eyes.

Cixilo looked shocked and touched the coffin and didn't feel anymore any divinity from it. He then immediately pushed the lid off the coffin, revealing a woman's tattered and mummified corpse in full battle armor.

"Aaaaaah, I finally have it. Thank you so much," Cixilo said and started to lift the corpse onto a table in the tent.

His black body then started to drip onto the dead body. His body vanished inside the dead woman's corpse. Markus got closer and saw that the fingers started to move ever so slightly. The body then started to move with black ooze coming from it, wrapping around Leia Cassia's body like a cloth.

"Aaaaaaaah the power…..She truly was a powerful divine being," The corpse said in Cixilo's voice.

Markus looked extremely shocked and amazed by the divine power of Cixilo. He was able to possess dead bodies and use their powers as his own. The winds of pandora started to swirl inside the tent. It was born from the dead body of Cassia and all the fallen varangians. These powers that Cixilo used were such a travesty to the order of the world that weak winds of pandora were making him stronger without him even noticing it. Markus though noticed this.

"He will be useful...I am sure." Markus thought.