The disappearance of Melba

Gadaric with his assassins returned to the imperial army that had regrouped and reformed after the arrival of the emperor.

The imperial army had besieged the city of Melba. Its walls were battered by cannon fire and many of its buildings had been turned into rubble. The city's diplomats came out to the emperor who was waiting at a table with a piece of paper and a pen.

The emperor had called these people to come and agree on the surrender of their city and state to him and accept him as their overlord.

The imperial army had allowed the civilians to leave the city. Thousand of people, mostly women and children marched out of the city, hoping they could one day return to their homes.

Samanilde was standing next to her father as the diplomats started to read the paper. Their eyes widened as they read through it.

"What is this?" one of the diplomats said and pointed at one of the clauses on the document.

The clause was an acceptance of rewriting the history and agreeing to educate the future people of Melba that they were the instigators of the war. That the people of Melba would have to take the blame for their demise and see the empire as their true ruler and liberator.

"Write your name on that paper now and I will spare your city. Make a decision fast....I do not have a lot of patience," emperor Ala explained.

The diplomats looked displeased and conflicted about it. The consequences of accepting could have serious consequences for the future of their people. Then one of the envoys took the piece of paper and threw it at the emperor.

"History is for humans to write for themselves by their actions and it is to be used to learn from it. We will not sign anything that will go against such an idea so blatantly," the envoy yelled out with the other people joining him.

The envoys started to walk back to their city but as they did, emperor Ala ordered Smanilde to go after them. She conjured fire spirals and killed the envoys in front of everyone.

Emperor Ala then got up and walked forward. He burned the contract and as it burned, the flames grew. He then threw the piece of paper that turned into a flame tsunami that fell onto the city of Melba.

The flames destroyed what was left of the walls and fell onto the city. Buildings crumbled down with the people left getting killed instantly.

The refugees started to run away in panic as they saw their city being burned down by a single attack. As they did, Samanilde rushed at them and started to kill all of the helpess civilians with Gadaric looking shocked.

He ran to the emperor and asked," You need to stop your daughter. She is killing your subjects,"

Emperor Ala stared back at him and made Gadaric cover in fear as he had just raised his voice at him.

"What of it?" Ala said back.

Gadaric was stupefied.

"I plan to burn away this world and create it a new. For that, I need to also count that history will always be on my side. Those people would just have been a hindrance for me and us in the long run," The emperor explained and walked away.

The varangians looked confused as to what was happening. The sentinels of embers then started to walk forward and command them to fight and aide the child in purple, Smanilde.

As the varangians were hesitating, the emperor walked to them. The soldiers were terrified as the emperor looked like he was taller than every man just by his powerful aura alone.

"You will do as you are told or you will join them..." the emperor ordered.

The varangians with hesitation joined Smanilde in killing the refugees. The refugees tried to escape but they all were surrounded.

Ala then ordered the cataphracts to ride in the city and make sure that all evidence of what had happened would vanish.

The massacre of the people of Melba had begun and soon it was over. In just a single day the city of Melba was no more and what was even more terrible, there were no more people of the city of Melba either. They had errased the city and people from the face of the map.

For Gadaric who was used to death, stared at the killing with surprising contempt. He had been an assassin who had done the bidding of the emperor for a long time, from assassinations to taking care of people who spoke against his liege. Still, this act turned his stomach and made him feel sick.

He also thought about what he had promised Rufus. He had promised that his people and friends would have been saved and spared if they had just accepted the as his lord. Now he was not sure what would have happened to them.

For the first time, Gadaric doubted his liege.