Chapter 3: Return Of An Empire

Page 2: Better Acquainted

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Viktor regained consciousness long enough to see Chara and Asriel come rushing outside after he landed on the porch, he looked up to see Chara about to break out into tears and Asriel on the verge of freaking out as they lifted him and had to drag him in the house, they brought him over to the couch and laid him down when his vision quickly went to black, he faintly heard Chara yelling at Asriel to do something and him yell back that he was trying then fell to nothing but silence.

*Viktor...Can you still hear me?* The voice of the one who called himself Inviktos came through, suddenly Viktor felt his vision slowly coming back, at first all he saw was white, as if he was stuck in a bright, open void but then he found himself in a single large room, held up by large stone pillars into a wooden ceiling, in the middle of the room sat a large table with all manners of food and drinks sitting there, on the other side of the table sat a larger man with long dirty blonde hair and a beard going down to his chest, he was casually chewing on what looked like a leg of some kind when he looked up in Viktor's direction,a pair of piercing green eyes stared in his direction as the man waved him over. Viktor's steps echoed off the walls as he closed the distance between himself and the man.

"Ah...Welcome Viktor, have a seat, enjoy the feast so we may get to know each other a little better." Despite the man's attempts to sound kind, his tone naturally sounded commanding rather than inviting. Viktor however pulled out one of the seats and sat down at the table, trying to size up the man that was sitting across from him, he had to be at least 6 inches taller and had a considerable amount of muscle mass to him.

"So...You're the one known as Inviktos?..."

"Ah the one and only, and you seem to be one of the people meant to slay the being known as Osiris...I suppose you probably have a lot of questions on your mind so I shall skip the formalities and you may ask anything that might put your mind at ease..." Viktor took a moment to think about the first question he wanted to ask, he had a few dozen but one seemed to really stand out the most to him.

"...Who are you? I mean, I know your name but who exactly are you?..." Inviktos took a moment to clear his throat and set the leg he was eating down.

"Well for that one we're going to have to take a long trip back through the annals of time, back to the days when the Roman Empire stood strong over the world and I was the leading man of the Roman Army under the command of my brother Emperor Nero...At 18 I was regarded as one of his highest generals, I was known amongst all of Rome's conquered territories and my name struck fear in those that opposed us, even going as far as putting fear into my own peers...At 5 I discovered that I had a gift for fighting, almost as if I was born to do so, from the first time I could pick up a sword everything I did with it just came naturally to me, at 10 I decided to use my talent to enlist in the previous Emperor's army and my first day there I sent 4 of their best hopefuls running home, at 12 I participated in my first battle with the most kills out of anyone in that fight and at 15 I was leading my own soldiers into battle, at 18 which marked the 3rd year since my older brother Nero usurped the previous Emperor I received my 5th medal for my performance in battle and it also marked the first time my peers gave me the name "Inviktos" at 23 I earned the rank of "Centurion" one of the highest honors and I was considered the youngest one to ever reach that role."

"Wait...Inviktos isn't your real name? What is it?"

"I've been locked in this God forsaken rock for so long that...Honestly I've forgotten what my original name was...At the age of 24 I was encountered by the being Osiris who said he saw great potential in me and that it would be a waste to allow me to die...So he sealed me within this gem, which in a way has granted me eternal life but at the cost of being unable to ever see my friends and family again...I do know however that due to my brother's adept nature in the mystical arts he also sealed Nero in his own respective stone but as he always viewed me as the stronger one between the two he kept me on his person and the stone of my brother locked away in his tomb in the catacombs of Rome...However as I have been able to keep some contact with my brother over these past millennia, I have learned that he...Has cursed his stone so that whoever wears it will immediately fall under his control. But the stone will only react to someone with a similar magical affinity as his, just like mine has become attuned to you due to our similar natures..."

"Similar nature? Inviktos don't get me wrong I can appreciate a good fight when the moment calls for it but I wouldn't say I'm a natural born fighter like you...Unless you count my Saiyan heritage but other than that I don't really see how we're similar..."

"You haven't fought as much as I have but the battles you have been in you've displayed a skill that someone like yourself shouldn't possess, your ability in combat at your age is very similar to mine in my early years. Plus you fight for similar reasons that I did...You have a specific goal that you fight for rather than just yourself...You fight for the girl."

"You mean Chara right?" Inviktos nodded at him.

"From the time I learned to fight my father always told me to fight for an honorable cause, never out of selfishness, for me my reasons to fight were my God, my home, and the people I cared about, I never fought for myself, only for the things that were close to me, just as you fight for Chara, never for yourself. You fight for her and the future you want to spend with her and there's no better goal to fight for than someone you love, that's what gave me the power to win every single battle I was in and it's what will give you the power to defeat Osiris."

"Then how come it wouldn't help me?..." Inviktos mulled the question over in his head for a moment.

"How much are you willing to give up for Chara? I mean this without any maliciousness, or any harm behind my words but how much are you truly willing to give up for Chara? Because you can say that you want to give her anything...But are you really willing to sacrifice everything for her no matter what?"

"Can you elaborate on that a little better?"

"I mean, you can save her as much as you want, but if it came down to it would you willingly die for her if you needed to?" Inviktos then stood up from his seat and lifted the chestplate of the armor he was wearing off, showing a large scar in his stomach.

"Her name was Athena, no not the goddess just a poor peasant girl I had fallen in love with, she was a lot like your Chara in a way, she was kind, beautiful, and she had an unconditional love for me...I met her at the age of 16 and we just fell at first sight...She was in danger one evening and I stood in to help her, I was stabbed by one of the men who attacked her, I didn't lose that fight but the point is that I willingly allowed myself to take the sword for her...She's also the only person aside from my brother that I remember from life, and if I'm being honest it always hurts that I have no knowledge of what happened to her after I was gone...The question is would you be willing to do the same for your Chara? Only once you let go of your own self preservation will you be able to fully tap into the power that the stone provides you..."

"So...There's more even beyond the power I had in the fight against him?"

"Far more, right now you only fight with the basic form, once you finally let go for her you will achieve the full power that I can offer you..."

"So it wasn't just me getting angry that triggered the stone to work?"

"In a way yes, your anger towards those who seek to do harm to Chara specifically is what triggers it, your brother's threats to kill her as well as Osiris' constant taunting, the stone picks up on.

"What about your brother? Is there anyway he could assist in this battle?"

"Of course...But once the stone is retrieved it will have to purified by a special order of monks that live in the East, an order that dedicated itself to the teachings of my brother, an order that has existed for hundreds of years since they learned of his existence, otherwise the wearer of the stone will be corrupted by his power and he will assume control, my brother is not as...Merciful as myself, he's essentially the opposite of myself as he took over the Empire for his own reasons, he wanted the power that came with the role and it's also why he dabbled into the magic arts when most people regarded it as a source of evil...Nero is quite a hostile force to deal with, even towards me he always had a bit of jealousy for my natural fighting skills and the fact that people looked at me with more fear rather than him...After all I was always the one fighting for the glory of the Empire while he sat on his throne."

"Joseph he...He mentioned something about going to Rome once I returned, I think he might be looking for that stone, but he doesn't know what it's capable of or what's inside of it...If he puts that on without actually knowing what to do he'd lose control of himself right?" Inviktos just nodded at him.

"That means I have to stop him before he does something stupid and gets himself possessed by your insane brother..."

"Hold on, you never answered my previous question."

"Which one?"

"The one about Chara, would you be willing to die for her if the moment called for it?" Viktor sat back in his chair for a moment, thinking about the question.

"Wait...Why am I even thinking of that? Of course I would..."

"Because you still have self preservation like any other human being or in your case Saiyan has...It's not something that you can just give up but in order to access the stone's full power you must be willing to do so for her...But for now Osiris is sending some of his forces to make sure you're dead so I recommend you wake up to assist Chara and Asriel with the oncoming problem..."

"Wait what? He's attacking the house?!"

"He will be soon...So I suggest you wake up and prepare yourself." Viktor stood up from his chair as Inviktos gave him a smile before the room he was in slowly faded to white, then black as he could hear the sounds of Chara's and Asriel's voices talking amongst themselves, he slowly opened his eyes to see Chara's head immediately snap in his direction, a bright smile coming across her face as she leaned down and kissed his forehead

"Welcome back Vik...We had Joseph do one of his healing spells and it shouldn't be too long before you're back up to full strength." He started blinking his eyes to clear up the blurriness before he shook his head and tried to sit up, Chara insisted he keep himself laid down for a while but he told her he was fine.

"Where's uh...Where's Joseph?"

"He left for Rome not too long ago...He said he was going to find out whatever this stone was."

"And you let him go? What happened to all that talk about planning?"

"I'm sorry Vik he just...He seemed so angry once you returned...He saw the shape you were in and he just said he was leaving, even Azzy here was surprised to see how angry he got from seeing you in bad shape."

"Damn it...We need to stop him before he gets himself killed, I know a bit more about that stone than he does and if he's not careful it's going to lead to something very bad..."

"How bad are we talking?"

"Well Asriel if Joseph puts that stone on without getting it purified he's going to be possessed by an ancient Roman emperor who's brother happens to live in the stone that I own, it's a long story that I'll explain after we deal with the issue that's coming now."

"And that issue is?"

"You don't sense the couple hundred different energies approaching the house from almost every direction? Osiris is obviously pissed at me that I beat his ass like Zarbon on a Wednesday so he's going to make sure I don't interfere with anymore of his plans..."

"Who's Zarbon?"

"It's a joke Chara..." He got up from the couch and stretched his limbs out a little bit, cracking his knuckles and his neck as he tried to work the stiffness out of his body, even though he was healed his body still felt a bit sore from the battle.

"What time is it?"

"It's about 2:30 in the morning Vik...You were gone a long time and you were out even longer..."

"Great...From what I can tell we have about a half hour to deal with this before we go find Joseph...We have to make sure that by any means he does not allow that stone to give him any power before we have it cleansed otherwise we'll have more problems aside from Osiris trying to fuck us up." Viktor just paced around the living room, the seconds ticking by as he could feel the onslaught of different powers coming his directions, on the bright side it didn't seem like any of them were even on his own level so this obviously wasn't intended to be something to trying and kill him but rather Osiris sending a message that he was not happy with what happened, his plans were all ruined by Viktor and now that Joseph was against him even he had no one to assist him with his plan so of course he's going to try and make their lives a living nightmare, he watched as Chara and Asriel sat on the couch looking far more nervous of the impending attack, he continued to pace around the living room, waiting patiently for the horde of Osiris' minions to come and try to start a fight he won't be able to finish. Outside he could hear the faint sounds of things moving in the trees as the various powers surrounded the house, he shushed the pair as he saw what looked like half mummified creatures walk from the trees, their eyes glowing red as they carried swords similar to Osiris, one stepped up on the porch as the other two stood in the yard, looking around for the others to assist them.

"WHERE IS THE SAIYAN!" The one on the porch yelled as he aggressively pounded on the door, despite the seemingly dire issue at hand Viktor felt an excitement rising up in his chest, whether this was Inviktos' influence, his Saiyan blood going insane or just the fact he was itching to tear into these guys, he just cleared his throat and opened the door with a smile on his face, that excitement slowly growing more and more as he faced what he couldn't describe as more than a sentient zombie.

"Oh...Hello neighbor, fancy a cup of sugar? Or how about a spot of tea and a knuckle sandwich?" With that Viktor threw a massive right hook that knocked the creatures head clean off, it felt to the ground in front of the feet of the other two, he walked past the still standing corpse as black blood spurted from its neck, Viktor just casually pressed his finger against the thing's shoulder and shoved it aside.

"Now we're playin' for keeps!" He took off towards the other two and held his hands out in front of them, 2 yellow spheres appeared and obliterated them both with an energy wave, he looked around as different sets of eyes appeared just about everywhere, in the trees, on the ground, but he didn't seem to be disturbed by it in the slightest, in fact watching all the different eyes appear just made him get more and more excited.

"Azzy! Chara! You guys wanna come join in on the fun? The one with the most kills at the end wins!" He then let out the most joyful laugh either of them had heard in a long time before he quickly summoned his scythe and prepared for battle

"Chara is he seriously treating this like a game? There's so many of them out there..."

"None of them are even close to where he's at right now Azzy..." Chara then stood up from the couch and started towards the door, she looked back towards Asriel expecting him to come with her.

"You coming out here? It's gonna be fun..." Asriel was hesitant, but eventually got up from the couch and followed Chara to the doorway, meanwhile Viktor was attacked by at least a dozen of the creatures, instantly he effortlessly sliced 6 of them into different pieces, they let out cries of pain as their different parts and blood flew everywhere, he leaped in the air with 3 of them after him and in three quick slices he cut them in two, the last three attacked him and quicker than any of them could see he sliced through them, for a second they stood there before suddenly they all had cuts along them before he took off into the trees, Chara and Asriel could hear him slicing through the crowd, they could see his silhouette in between the trees as the different lights went out before he suddenly reappeared in front of Chara and Azzy, a massive grin written on his face.

"Come on guys you're already down 30, you don't want me to win that easily do you? Hey Chara new rule, if I win you better put a bow on that ass because I'll be opening myself a gift later on tonight." He gave Chara a grin as she just blushed a lot before she shook her head a bit. Suddenly one of the creatures came out of the trees and attacked Viktor while his back was turned, he just threw his fist up and his two knuckles dented its skull before he reached around to the back of its head and slammed it into the porch, shattering its skull open.

"31...And with every kill you just look more and more like a snack Chara..."

*169 left

"And what do I get if I win?" Chara suddenly took a leap forward and sliced through one of the creatures with a glowing red knife, splitting it clean down the middle.

"How about...I let you do that one thing that you did before."

"Oh you mean the time where I rode your-"

"Yes and I couldn't breathe during that..."

"Never said you didn't like it though..."

"Who's saying I didn't like it? But you've still got 30 to go before you catch up." 3 more of the creatures appeared behind Chara and with one swing of her knife she killed the 3 of them.

"27 now...I'm gonna make sure you black out Vik." She just winked at him as the two turned to face the rest of the creatures while Asriel stayed on the porch, minutes went by as the two killed dozens of the different creatures, slicing through them as if they were nothing more than wet tissue paper and keeping count of every single kill for their game, Viktor cut down the monsters like the Grim Reaper on drugs and Chara looked more and more like a serial killer with each swing of her knife as the creatures fell before them.

*90 left

"So what number are we on now Chara?" Viktor asked with a rather smug tone as he knew he was still outnumbering Chara's kills, the girl in question just let out a low sigh.

"60 for you, 40 for me, shut up Vik we still got plenty of kills left..." Asriel however was on the porch when one of the creatures jumped on the railing and screamed at him, he blasted it with a sudden fireball before he just kicked it off the railing.

"Oh look who decided to play the game with us..."

"I don't have anything to bet on this since Joey isn't around but I can at least try to enjoy things a little bit..."Asriel took his glasses off and set them on the table he had next to the front door and put his hands out, two bolts of lightning appeared from the ground and connected to his palms as two white blades rose out of the ground and into his hands.

"Aww the Chaos Sabers, I haven't seen you do that in years Azzy" He didn't say anything as he jumped off the porch and cut down a few of the creatures, his style of fighting was drastically different from Viktor and Chara's as his style had a more delicate look about it, almost as if he was dancing rather than fighting, Viktor stopped fighting so he could study Asriel's style and keep an eye on him to make sure that he wasn't snuck up on, he cut down at least 25 of them before he stopped, Viktor figured he could get back to focusing on his own numbers as the three continued cutting down the various creatures, the sounds of blades clashing echoed as the trio cut down countless more of the monsters, Asriel was faring quite well for someone that Viktor assumed wasn't much of a fighter, skillfully mixing the magic attacks he'd learned from Joseph with his own and his skill with his blades almost seemed as if he was professionally trained.

*15 left

"Asriel! Can you still use that cannon thing of yours?" Viktor called out.

"The Chaos Buster? Of course I can."

"Good because I got a trick I want to try..." Asriel held his arm out as a large cannon appeared on his arm, 5 of the creatures attacked him but he effortlessly killed them with a spray of shots, Viktor meanwhile had another 5 coming at him when he started knocking them into the air.

"ASRIEL FOCUS ON THEM!" He yelled as he pointed towards the 5 still flying up in the air, he aimed at them as the entire gun charged with rainbow colored energy and he fired a massive beam at them, catching them as they started to fall and disintegrating them, Chara wasted little time as she dealt with the last of them in a rather quick manner except for one that tried to run away.

Viktor got the luck of having the last one, he grabbed it by the leg and slammed it back and forth like a ragdoll before jumping up in the air and bringing both feet down into its head and with that the fight ended.

"So lady and gentlegoat, what's our final score?" Chara sighed very heavily as she knew she didn't win the game.

"95 for you, 65 for me and Asriel got the rest..."

"Aw don't worry Chara I'll still do that thing you like so much..." She just blushed a bit as the two looked towards Asriel, who was watching the couple do their usual round of flirting.

"I swear Viktor only you would treat an invading army of zombies as a game so you and Chara decide what you'll do in bed next..."

"What? If I'm going to win a fight I may as well make it enjoyable for myself right?"

"Can we just go find where Joseph went?"

"Of course...If I'm correct he should be heading to the catacombs in Rome to find the Eye of Nero...We have to stop him before he puts it on...After we clean up these bodies though, Asriel please tell me you have a spell to do this for us..."

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