Title: All Is Silent
Characters: Yuuki Juudai||Romance: N/A
Word Count: 500||Chapters: 1/1
Genre: Drama||Rated: G
Challenge: Diversity Writing: Reversal AU: A55, 301-500 words; GX Flash Bingo, #055: prompt: 176: They say in the grave there is peace and peace and the grave are one & the same (Georg Buchner)
Notes: This takes place in my reversal world, where Juudai's powers are those of the Destructive Darkness.
Summary: Juudai takes a moment to admire the work that he's done in taking over the world.

Some might have called the silence sacred. It hung in the air and over the ashes of what had once been a mighty city.

How many had lived here, a scant handful of days earlier? Thousands, perhaps? Juudai thought that would have been a good number. He hadn't stopped for a headcount before he'd unleashed his power.

They'd thought one person couldn't destroy their proud city. That their defenses would hold, that their magic and their army would stand up to him.

After all, he was only one person. One boy, not yet even twenty. What could he possibly do?

I told them, he reminded himself. I told them what I could do and they still laughed at me.

His eyes darkened just at the thought. He didn't like being laughed at. They'd paid the price in pain and blood and screams.

He couldn't hear the screams anymore, but they lived on in his heart with all the others he'd gathered.

Slowly he walked forward. This was the first city that he'd taken down. There had been others, small villages and little towns, but he'd done them in other ways. Striking at the first touch of dawn, when they'd expected nothing. This one he'd taken at high noon, when they'd trusted the light to protect them the most.

Idiots. As if the light – or the Light – could stand up against him.

Where there had been buildings and life at noon, now the sun edged to the horizon, bringing the darkness he loved so much. He'd brought the destruction with him, of course. It lived inside of him, a force that had created him from nothingness.

Perhaps 'create' wasn't the right word. Shaped could be better. He was the Darkness. He couldn't be made, only shaped and reshaped, sometimes in mortal flesh and sometimes not.

Now he had. Now he would destroy this world down to the very core of itself, and move on to whatever lay beyond.

For a moment, he considered the location. It really was a good one. Then he nodded to himself.

I'll build my castle here. He needed a base of operations. It had been on his mind for some time, and the more he thought on it, the more this place was perfect. If anyone else in the world possessed power such as his, then he would've chosen another location. After all, it couldn't be impregnable. He'd taken it down.

But he was special. No one else could do what he could do. And so this new home of his would be a fortress that no one would take. He would staff it with the most powerful warriors, undead, spellcasters, and all else that he could find, and from here, his empire would grow until it engulfed all the world.

And then I'll destroy it all. What a lovely thought that made. He would have to think it more often.

But first he would have to find someone who knew how to build a fortress.

The End

Notes: I intend to do a full story of reversal!Juudai's rise to power soon-ish. I want it to be this year. We'll see how that works out. It won't involve Johan, except in relation to the rebellion, since Juudai won't capture Johan until some years later.