Legend:

}-P.S-{ = perspective shift

{background actions or circumstances}

[Characters Writing or letters/notes]

(flashback)

author body note/commentary

*sound effect

^marks a phrase that can be translated from a real language^

/story break for a character/teigu/tentai heiki/monster breakdown/

BOLD: demon talking, outside force talking, basically anything not explicitly human talking

ITALICS: thoughts, expositional description, emphasis on a particular word

Disclaimer:

I do not own any of the following original/fanfictional works: most of these will be referenced and inspired the story being written. All the credits for the original work go to the creators of their respective pieces. I hope that my story will be far enough removed from any individual story that it could become a file off the serial number work, but regardless it still pays homage to these great stories.

Undertale

Homestuck

Final Fantasy VII

Final Fantasy XII

Dissidia Duodecim: Final Fantasy

+Anima

Akame Ga Kill

Colonel Saber: AGK fanfic

_Tatsumi_

In the royal palace of the Etheralaine empire, a mirror appeared out of nowhere in which a silhouette appeared and walked forward, as it approached the edge of the mirror it began to crack until it shattered as an armoured soldier stepped out of it. Breathing in deeply. Taking in the scent of the polished granite halls. He took a moment to calm himself and prepare for what lies in the future before him. "And now the next chapter of my life begins…"

*sigh.

Colonel Tatsumi of the Imperial Legion, the Autha-Gaulir, Stands before the doors to the throne room, he doesn't know exactly what lies beyond the doors in front of him, He had been summoned rather unexpectedly as he and his legion were returning from wiping out a bandit fortress that had taken up residence near an imperial fort in the east. He knew there were some rumors of his summoning being for an impending promotion to general, which everyone had been expecting for months. And when he arrived back at the Capital, Grand General Budou had personally greeted him at the Gates. Budou was of course as Stoic and un-emoting as normal but his voice still gave away some slight amount of pride.

This left the young Colonel with a slight sense of Anxiety, having been called so suddenly and having his former mentor greet him bodes well for the notion of a promotion, But he knew that Prime Minister Honest would never allow this without some form of catch, it was well known that Tatsumi had become a political threat to Honest due to his sway over the mind of the young emperor and the backing of the people behind him: and he couldn't think of any reason for Honest to allow him any more power and influence. Bodou suggested that he meet with the emperor with haste so Tatsumi teleported into the palace rather than take the longer more relaxed route. And now here he stood in front of the throne room doors, prepared as he ever would be.

*Creeeeeeeeeaaaaaak

The doors were swung open by the imperial guard, and Tatsumi began to move forward, his armor and helm gleaming under the sunlight that poured in from the windows in the grand hall. However, the most notable features about the young man were one: the striking sword at his hip. The hilt and blade made of a purely obsidian metal, the cross guard made of two axe blades entirely comprised of blood red diamond, darker than any ruby, and with the vigor of freshly flowing blood from a wound. The sword is an heirloom of his kin, passed down to the first of any generation to complete the test of the Teigu Beasts. And two: His Helm. Fashioned after the likenesses of Dragons it had an almost feral look to it, whilst retaining an almost faceless cold visage.

*clink, clink, clink, clink

Tatsumi kneeled before emperor Makoto and the prime minister, but still did not remove his helm, For him and him alone was he allowed not to remove his helm in the presence of the emperor, The true reasons behind Colonel Tatsumi always wearing his helm and shielding his face from the eyes of all, were unknown. But, it had been his request that no one be able to identify him out of uniform when he had graduated from sergeant Major to Colonel, and as such the only living people to see his face outside of his kin back at the Kim-Un-Kur village was Budou and the members of the Autha-Gaulir. Budou's input had been the deciding factor behind Makoto allowing this even though he was terribly curious to know what his "Onii-san" looked like. Eventually, it became a commonplace thing and nobody took note of it from Tatsumi.

"Good evening your majesty, I received your summons and came as requested my liege." Tatsumi relaxed a little allowing himself to fall a little more easily into his position, his head tilted down still towards the floor. "I am glad you came Colonel, it is good to see you again and with such great news for the empire! It is wonderful that you have crushed the bandits in the east and made our roads safer for imperial citizens, although this is hardly a notable feat in your list of accomplishments serving in the Imperial Army." chimed Makoto with exhilaration. "Your compliments are appreciated sire, personally just serving to make the empire a better place for the people is reward beyond measure for me." Tatsumi truly meant this. He didn't do this for honour or glory. He was just content making people's lives happier.

"Indeed, you have served this great Empire quite extraordinarily, Even General Esdese is impressed with your work, and speaking of her she should be joining us soon enough." Spoke Honest, grinning in gluttonous venom. As…

*gramph

…Honest slurped on a stick of meat. The helm hid both his disgust at the fat Fuck in front of him, as well as his hatred for Honest and his silver-tongued corruption. But his voice held nothing to hide, already long since trained to evoke emotions that expressed a naivety, and ignorance of the circumstances. "…I look forward to meeting Miss Esdese." The grin on Honest's face turned from venom into the likeness of wretchedly rank rot personified "Indeed, however, Your Majesty perhaps we should move on from these extraneous pleasantries and bring the good Colonel up to speed with our Plans for him, I am sure you'd agree that the tension is rather palpable by now."

*glamgh shliiiiiiiick

"Yes, I agree, colonel Tatsumi!" "My liege." the trepidation was overflowing at this point. Even the light pouring from the windows had dimmed a little with the clouds masking the sun."With careful Consideration, I have decided that you are ready to be promoted to General and take on the responsibilities of helping the rest of the Imperial Legions in protecting the Empire. However It has been agreed upon that you should have one last assignment. It is believed that your new position as a General will be more demanding. And, we believe your next assignment will be an appropriate test to initiate you into your new duties, as it will involve teigu combat. However when you return your position will also be Rewarded with a teigu from the imperial vaults, to mark your promotion as official. " that doesn't make sense, what exactly is that piece of shit, Honest trying to accomplish?

"It is an Honour that you would believe me worthy to be a General, My liege" Tatsumi decided to play Honest's game for the time being. "Onii-san, of course you are worthy, you have kept the West and Eastern borders clean from invasion and inducted many brave souls into the army, even when they were formerly rebels or members of the revolutionary army! Your work has made the empire far safer and stronger." Makoto rang out, ever the enthusiastic young man "If it is your will my liege I will not decline." Tatsumi took note of a slight chill running through the ground all of the sudden "Good my fine young man, then it is settled, if you will please wait for General Esdese to Arrive we will brief you on your Test and you may be on your way to prepare." Said Honest, grinning ever predatorily.

Oh but, Tatsumi had yet to know the meaning of "predatorily" and he would soon find out what predator had been stalking him. Strangely enough, he was still naive enough to not have noticed the interest of one blizzardous blood lusting succubus. Makoto ironically washed off the slight chill in the room, thinking himself having come down with a cold. But the guards in the room began to feel sick. She was coming.

*Creeeeeeeeeaaaaaak

*click

And then the room froze. The oppressive aura of hellish power and a damning level of cold came in an instant. Tatsumi could feel the gaze of the Empires Strongest upon his back, and his skin crawled from the feeling of raw hunger that oozed out of this Woman behind him. His instinct told him that the creature behind him was an immediate threat that needed to be killed with extreme force. Tatsumi breathed in deeply, his chest rising. He took note that it suddenly smelled of flowers, rare wine, and fear. A combination he found rather odd given the circumstances.

*click

All in the room froze not even daring to move a muscle for fear of being seen by the demon. Tatsumi forced himself to relax and let Her aura flow through him just as he had always done with Budou. As he did this her Aura and gaze began to bother him less and less, and she became human to him, just as his kin were known to do with the Danger Beasts that everyone fear. It felt a lot like Winter really, once you got past the feeling of mortal terror.

*click

All were frozen in abject terror…except for the Young Colonel, who was noticeably….unaffected? "You won't be needing to wait for long I assure you" Tatsumi kept breathing in, slowly, taking it all in stride. Esdese found this both amusing and confusing.

*click

The demoness knelt beside the young colonel, taking note that nothing about him changed, his` posture had not stiffened, his breathing remained the same, he didn't hold the smell of fear, and he wasn't affected by her presence. "I received your Summons, my emperor, I do hope that I haven't made you wait long my liege" The boy in question was in shock and his mind hadn't even caught up to what was going on. As she spoke the room began to lighten, everyone felt the presence remove itself from the once permeated room, but they felt it congregate on the colonel. The demoness had become frustrated, even when she poured the full content of her will onto him he was completely unfazed. Tatsumi, to his part felt rather cold now, and was fighting the urge to sneeze. He breathed in once more and then released then he surprised her.

The room felt the oppression return but this felt different. Rather than the damning cold of Esdese killing intent, this felt like the incarnation of despair itself, bone chilling physically, and searingly heated spiritually. And it stayed away from Emperor Makoto as if to avoid harming the young boy. For everyone else However, it felt as if they were being crushed with despair and madness, it was as if the light and life were leaving their bodies and all they could do is stand and watch as happiness died in front of them.

This oppression wasn't just terrifying, it was demonic, in a corner a soldier began to vomit, and many of the others were shakily trying to grab a knife and kill themselves simply to be rid of the feeling of this aura, however no one in the room had the strength of will to move under its power, not even Esdese could bring herself to easily fight it off, but this didn't irk her, in fact, it's effect did something quite the opposite. Honest found himself without his appetite, much to his horror. The oppression grew, far beyond that of General Esdese's and everyone began to see black. A miasmic mist had begun to form around the room, and then it disappeared as if it never existed. And even though they could directly tell where it came from everyone who had felt it knew that it had come from Tatsumi. Thunder Crackled outside. The windows were frantically being closed as rain began to pour in.

The helmed man turned to look to the woman beside him, who remained unfazed, if a bit stiff, despite his oppressive force, although she was disappointed in herself and surprised. ^"hn! Dhia sàbhail mi…" Tatsumi breathed out, and only Esdese heard him.^ She peered at him quizzically, from his posture and tone she could easily discern that he wasn't trying to act or deceive, and his tone appeared to denote him as being amazed by her. It was mildly infuriating that she didn't understand what he said, another mystery to add to an ever growing list. But, she took note that his awe was obviously not influenced her presence; to her annoyance, she wasn't able to discern anything about him

.

It is important to note that this all happened the space of about 15 seconds, and Makoto had no idea what just occurred, to his mind it looked as if she had knelt down addressed him and Tatsumi had briefly looked her over. He hadn't recovered from the shock, so his mind just filled in some blanks and rebooted. Regaining His ability to speak"Ah General Esdese, I am glad you have come so soon, now we may proceed to debrief you two as to Tatsumi's final assignment prior to his Promotion." Emperor Makoto said a little shakenly. "We listen and obey my liege" both Tatsumi and Esdese replied in tandem. "General Esdese, your role in this will be as a judge to report and tell us if Tatsumi is indeed ready to take on the responsibilities as a general, and since this takes up your time we have agreed that you may name a price for your services." Said the Prime Minister with boasting glee, pissed off at Tatsumi for his display.

I have no problem being tested by Esdese, sadistic demon or not she's still stronger than me and I can learn from her. What's his angle?

"Are the formalities really so necessary, we've already discussed that I would like for Tatsumi to be placed as my subordinate if he is not prepared, so that I may teach him personally." Oh…Damn…so that's what it is...shhhhhhit… "General, are you sure that is all you would like? If he succeeds and proves himself worthy then you will have gained nothing from this?" Esdese smiled rather warmly at this. "You have no reason to fret my Emperor when he succeeds then I will challenge him to a "friendly" spar so that I may assess his strength myself. In all of this my hop, and what I look forward to, is the possibility of having someone who can keep up with me."

"Very well, Colonel Tatsumi, for your final assignment we need you to put down a rebellion that has been rising in the Northern reaches of the empire, an army from tenebrous that allies itself with the revolution has cropped up, villages have been raided and there have been no survivors left, the only things left in these areas are pillaged homes, corpses and the remains of defiled women." Before Emperor Makoto had even finished the room felt the oppression again, and this time it was clearly coming from Tatsumi, it was swirling around him like a fog whirling into a typhoon, it was at this moment everyone knew that this, This was an inhuman level of killing intent capable only to those who stood above the rest. And at that moment Esdese gave her trademark grin. What they didn't know is that this was a mixture of Hatred for Tatsumi both at the acts of the raiders, and at himself for mistakes in the past.

"I hear and obey my Liege, these cretins shall be sent to oblivion where they belong," he said in a dead monotone. Esdease took note of the monotone, she couldn't know anything but she understood his aura and it's meaning better than anyone else could, such was her upbringing. As such she was curious at the self-direction of it. "Excellent, I look forward to the reports when you return. Oh! And I also give you leave to visit your home on the way there, it is likely that you won't be able to visit them except sparingly should you succeed." Makoto Chimed out, still naively, blissfully ignorant of much of this meetings subtexts. "Thank you, my Liege."

"Your majesty I am afraid we have worn our time thin, we should allow these fine soldiers leave to prepare, we must return to daily affairs in the capital." Honest seemed rather anxious at this point, Tatsumi wondered why. "Oh? Have we really been here all that long…very well. Colonel Tatsumi, General Esdese, you are dismissed. Good luck on your assignments" replied the young emperor somewhat dejected of not being able to spend time with two of his three favorite soldiers. The irony in this fact was lost only to the boy himself.

"We serve and protect the empire for your glory and the safety of the people." Once again in perfect harmony. Albeit one held a rather extreme level of sincerity for anyone employed in the imperial army. Both stood and turned, the clink of armor and clack of heels echoing in the vast throne room. Her eyes trained to the armoured soldier slightly in front of her, she decided to engage the Young man, still debating on whether or not to play her game. My, my so you are the famous Colonel Tatsumi of the Autha-Gaulir, I've heard much of you." Tatsumi replied easily and without missing a beat "And I have heard much of you Miss Esdese, please forgo the act, I care not for manipulations and you are well aware that it will do nothing with me. What is it that you want from me?" Esdese gave a rather disturbingly sweet smile, causing Tatsumi to wonder if she was in fact aware of how juxtaposed she had managed to make herself."Ara ara, you don't have to be so defensive, I haven't begun my game with you…yet."

"Bullshit, and that doesn't answer my question." With eyes that glinted with the predatorial sense of a lion, and a grin one might compare to the allure of a fatal flower, she put a finger to her lips indicating that she had no intention of answering truthfully "MY dear Tatsumi, you don't need to worry, all I want is to see who lies behind that helmet." Tatsumi took immediate note of the possessive use of words. "Then ask Sensei Budou, he's probably the only person who would tell you. I'm afraid I have my reasons for keeping my mask on at all times" "Ara ara, is that where you learned your stoic sense of formality? I guess your irreverence is to be expected then, but that will change." Esdese's tone changed slightly, sounded more serious than playful "I did, in fact, ask him when you had graduated from a lowly sergeant to a colonel, I believe he had pointed you out with pride and called you a sleeping dragon waiting to wake a storm unlike any other." Tatsumi was starting to understand Esdese a bit more here, or at least her interest in him.

"I am glad to know Sensei thinks highly of me, I hope I do not disappoint his expectations. And no soldier is lowly, anyone who willingly puts their lives on the lines is by no means low, there is no higher form of honour than to protect others who cannot protect themselves." Esdese scoffed at this"That is a foolish notion to believe in Colonel, the weak are destined to die. And what of me? Surely you realize that you could learn much from me." This confirmed tatsumi's suspicion. Inwardly he sighed. Thunder crackled outside "Indeed I could learn much from you, however, I prefer not to gain the strength I desire at the cost of my humanity. And before you recite your mantra again I do agree with you that it is the law of the land: but I do not give a damn about the laws of the land, I will find the strength to defy even nature and I will protect whomever I wish. The weak will not need to fear the strong as long as I can reach my goal."

"That will change Tatsumi, one day you'll see that I'm right." Tatsumi's reply came unexpected to the General "I never said you're wrong. I just don't care." Esdese looked at him incredulously, it made no sense that he could defy her so easily, no one was stronger than her. Despite his impressive Aura, she had a feeling that he was not truly more powerful than her, only more passionate about his beliefs, and perhaps wiser, as it was rumoured he was talented at magicks, not that anyone survived to confirm this. And yet despite the farce of power, they both were aware of, here this boy stood completely unbothered by her at all. She thought for a moment, and decided to change tactics, she could have her fun when he was broken, as her charms clearly won't bend him to her. What would surprise some people is this did bruise her ego a little, she did have pride in her physical charms, regardless of her sexual disinterest in anyone.

"Hmph, I expect you to do well on this test Tatsumi, if you don't I will not be merciful when you are under me." Her tone changing into ruthless monotone. And then she walked off to her room. She had to make plans. Tatsumi sighed to himself, listening to the pattering rain on the windows of the palace. "Esdese…I asked you not to act with me, wearing your mask around me does nothing. I will only take off mine when you take off yours" he said quietly in the echoing halls of darkened stone. She didn't hear him.

Tatsumi decided to forgo visiting his room for now and instead headed to the soldiers dining room, which was separated and made more comfortable for officers since they were stationed higher. Mainly Honesty's doing to pamper people he personally placed in positions of power. Unfortunately for the rising General, the extraneous grandeur of the dining room was not the most disturbing thing that met him when he walked in to rest by the window.

"Hmm, so you must be the Colonel Lady Esdese has been observing as of late, you do show a great amount of potential for combat, but I wonder if you have the strength to serve her well." Spoke the Former General River noting the appearance and Stature of the upcoming General. "I don't see what's so special with the stiff, I bet he can't even appreciate my melodies." This from the sadistic freak known as Nyau. Who still disturbs the ever living fuck out of Tatsumi despite having lived through something comparably worse than Hell itself."I bet I could get lots of experience points beating someone like you! Wanna spar? You look fun." And this came from the Giant of the three beasts Daidara, who single-mindedly like always wants to become stronger.

Great, these mindless lapdogs. "I am not an acquisition for your lady Esdese, no I wouldn't appreciate that screeching cacophony you call music, and perhaps later if there is any real time." Liver stiffened in restraint, Daidara smiled, and Nyau glared in indignation. "..." Liver said nothing, but unfortunately for him, Tatsumi could see his Aura. And Unlike Esdese Tatsumi was a little more developed in this regard and knew exactly what methods of torture he wanted to recommend to His lady when, as he hoped, Tatsumi Failed. Daidara stepped in at this point "I look forward to it, anyone as brash as you has to be able to back it up." But Nyau had to but in out of pride "I hope you succeed in your assignment. Then lady Esdese won't mind it when I skin your face off." Tatsumi let off a little of his killer intent, normally this wouldn't phase the three beasts, but Tatsumi knew how to make it more potent, and could focus it to have psychological effects on his victims.

"As it Stands Cat, I am above you in rank, Regardless of whether you are Esdese's subordinate or not I can court-martial you for blatant disrespect, threatening a fellow, not to mention superior, officer, and reckless endangerment of Imperial Soldiers." Tatsumi glossed over the fact that they knew of his commission, all it did was further confirm that this was premeditated between Esdese and Honest. "In what way am I endangering any lowly soldiers" Nyau hissed, painfully having to work through the images of receiving his Master's torments. "you just sealed that I will be testing my troops against Esdese's, I wonder what her training will be like if they don't conquer mine."

It was at this moment that the three beasts all blanched, even Esdese herself had admitted that The Members of the Autha-Gaulir were superior warriors to her own, far weaker than them and more restrained, but still more skilled. And the Three beasts became afraid of Tatsumi in that one sentence. Because in one sentence he created an unparalleled level of despair.

the thought they all shared. Shit.

A.N.

[discord .gg/7vvA3Ce]