Chapter 51: The Icy North

AN: Thanks for 100K views.

Dedicated to Woodstock 'Woody' Peko Cheney 2018-2020, taken too soon from our world, ignorance of where you are walking leads to tragedies unbidden, my brother I forgive you your ignorance, but pain is great.

Song This is War) A warning to the people (Show the people of the Empire) the Good (Tatsumi stands with Night Raid, his generals and his new army in his new attire and flag of Night raid and Golden Dragon on shared pole held aloft by its standard bearer) and the Evil (Volgoth in front over a demonic host with the Six Arch-Devil Generals in front with Valtor's shadowing form and Mark in the background and Argardon towering over the rest of the Generals along with Boreth and his inner circle scheming) This is War. (Tatsumi and Esdeath protecting Makoto and his sisters) To the soldier (Bulat wearing Incursio without the helmet and Air siting in his lap) the civilian (Angela holding Ieyasu's hand as she rallies the people in the shield) the Martyr (Budo's dead body) the Victim (Kyoko being held and comforted by Tatsumi) This is war. (Armies clashing) It's the moment of truth (Isshin's Ghost without his face mask looking at Tatsumi) and the moment to lie (Volgoth grinning at his servants) , the moment to live (Tatsumi finding resolve in a fight) and the moment to die (Soldiers dead on the ground), the moment to fight, the moment to fight, to fight, to fight, to FIGHT! (Que battle montage) To the Right! (Spear destroying a Dwarven Automaton) To the Left! (Esdeath killing a Revolutionary Army soldier with her new sword) We will Fight to death! (Sheele taking down a target yet to be revealed) to the End of the Earth! (Eden from space) It is a Brave new World! (Tatsumi kneeling before Supreme Matriarch Maltise) From Last to the First! (Emperors showing Tatsumi's Grandfather, Father, Uncle and Makoto) To the Right! (Bulat killing a Revolutionary Army General) To the Left! (Mine Firing away) We will Fight to Death! (Tatsumi slicing an enemy in half) To the Edge of the Earth! (Eastern Lands) It is a Brave new World (Strongholds of the Giants) a Brave new world! (Dwarven capital of Karak Hammerdeep) (End battle Montague and show Melitine under shadow of Volgoth with Red sky above) A warning to the Prophet (Syura clutching a Staff of Asha) the Liar (Volgoth sitting on the Imperial Throne with Graal and Lorhish to either side of him) the Honest (Aria with her new long hair and new outfit clutching her new sword) This is War. To the Leader (Najenda in her new get up and with her new ponytail with her Desert Eagles in hand and Susanoo at her side in a battle pose) The Pariah (Esdeath in her new outfit with her hair cut short levitating ice shards) The Victor (Spear in her new Teigu Armor Valkyrie with her new Teigu Greatsword Yadviga held aloft atop a mass of dead enemies) The Messiah (Tatsumi in the Golden Emperor's Armor with wings fully aloft and his sword Michael in one Hand and his shield Enoch in the other facing off against a Argardon) THIS IS WAR! (Mangled bodies of Volgoth's victims and of enemies killed by Tatsumi, add also Koro devouring baddies as Seryu grins maniacally) It the moment of Truth (Tatsumi with Akame his mother hugging him) the moment to lie (Boreth Falkland scheming) the moment to live (Tatsumi in bed with Merraid and Akame) The moment to die (Tatsumi killing the Skaven King) the moment to Fight! (Battles) the Moment to fight! (Tatsumi and Spear side by side) The Moment to Fight! TO FIGHT! (Night Raid vs the Arch-Devil Generals) To the right (Najenda firing her desert eagles) to the Left (Susanoo destroying a blob of Revolutionary Army soldiers) We will Fight to the Death! (Falkland's two generals killed by Sayo's arrows) To the Edge of the Earth (Map of Eden showing Tatsumi's journey so far) It's a Brave new World (Tatsumi overlooking the cities of the Lizardmen) From the Last to the First (Line of the Emperors of the Empire) To the Right (Spear driving her new Teigu Greatsword thru an enemy) To the Left (Akame slicing down several Skavan at once) We will fight to the death (Tatsumi fighting Volgoth) To the Edge of the Earth (Tatsumi overlooking a city not Melitine) It's a Brave new World from the Last to the First (Line of Emperors again with Tatsumi included) It's a Brave new world! (Empire's End logo appears) (Song End)

Cold. That was the only thing running thru Tatsumi's mind at the moment, they had passed out of the Northern Empire into the newest Imperial Provinces, the lands known simply by the Empire as the North but named Valskaar by the natives, or rather the southernmost, each tribe seemed to have a different name for the lands and new Imperial names for each of the 10 new provinces that came with Northern annexation would add to that confusion so for the sake of writing and for my sanity the lands will be referred to as the North and Far North respectively.

But anyway, Tatsumi was cold, there wasn't any snow fall and little snow remained on the ground as Spring bore its life giving power to northern lands. However the cold remained about 40 to 50 degrees and Tatsumi was unused to it fortunately his furs kept him mostly warm, given that Tatsumi was from the Heartlands of the Empire and Melitine in particular (Even though he spent most of his life in Karsawa but that was in the same province) where it rarely dropped below 60 even during the night this cold was an experience he didn't like, especially given how the cold sunk its teeth into him. "It's only going to get worse the further north I go" Tatsumi thought, despite being inside a palanquin it still felt cold so as such those among his wives that were unused to it (Practically everyone bar Esdeath, the Oarburghs and Nora) huddled around him both for warmth and just to love him.

Speaking of his wives Esdeath and Nora were not in the palanquin as they were riding outside, Esdeath on her wyvern Yandral to keep an eye out for ambushes as there were still pockets of raiders resisting Imperial rule in spite of her efforts and those of her administrators and there were the local danger beasts to worry about too also Nora shared a similar duty but road on horseback rather than on a winged flying terror that could wreck entire squads of trained solders on a whim. "I wonder how much longer it will take for us to reach the nearest city?" Tatsumi thought, granted they had visited a fair few of the southernmost cities as the more southern tribes were far more civilized then those further north and could build stone bastions about as good as most Imperial cities and were rich from trade with the Empire, those tribes had welcomed him with open arms and willing threw their lot in with his cause due to loyalty to the Empire as these people had joined the Empire willingly to get protection from the more aggressive tribes further north and were NOT by any means fans of Saika kingdom even when it still existed and did not pay tribute to it and rarely traded with them they also didn't practice slavery as their local faith was against it.

However, as they had gone further north the tribes became more suspicious, the human ones at least, the Yetis flocked to his cause because of Esdeath's presence as they remembered her as a breaker of chains and destroyer of their enslavers. Tatsumi noted that other tribes too joined his cause out of either fear or respect for his wife to say nothing of Imperial troops that joined his cause on sight of their beloved general and their loyalty to their Emperor.

All this however had not been enough in his eyes he had more allies he wished to gain and had sent messengers to call on everyone he could offering money if words alone couldn't sway them and he really wanted the Dwarves and the Giants on side. Fortunately, the former were proving receptive to diplomats sent by their kin from the east and were willing to speak with him in their capital of Kraka Azgul Drakka which was further north and was a massive ice covered peak. The Giants too were receptive, but he would have to entreat them individually by castle, however they were easier to convince to join his cause as he needed only to have his diplomats invoke the pact of old and they'd join his cause willingly.

The Giants though were scattered about and would take some time for them to mobilize but they were worth it as they weren't the normal kind of giant one may think of that being a lumbering brute that wasn't smart and used branches and wore nothing to protect them, not the Sky Titans of Eden were extremely smart, long lived with members of their race living for thousands of years at a time and they were extremely advanced, they made armor that was essentially as strong as a mountain lived in castles that were the size of mountains, had advanced tech that rivaled the Dwarves and to top it off they numbered in the hundreds of thousands and had a number of allied races that lived under their protection and would fight alongside them, in short Eden's Sky Titans were extremely powerful and a force more than equipped to fight demons and they had experience doing so with a good number of their older warriors having been around during the war with Empire of Yeenkar.

However while the Giants did each have their own self-contained bastions that they lived in there was one Giant that could rally them all: their High King Ymir Mountaincrusher, a giant so big that he could easily be dwarfed a large hill at about 500 feet tall and with the knowledge of a thousand libraries in his head, he was about 6000 years and had experience. It was to the castle of this Ancient Titan Tatsumi ventured, the name of the place was the Palace of the Sky which could easily be spotted on the horizon for the day was clear and it loomed large.

A hour and a half later he found himself at the gates: which were guarded by a Giant and five colossal Cyclopes, the one eyed relatives of the giants that specialized in smithing and were warriors first and foremost they tended to be less bright then their giant cousins but were smarter than most imperial peasants and each was comparable to the cyclops Tatsumi had faced in size but they were more civil then him. "Hold Imperials!" the Giant captain boomed, he was about a 100 feet tall and had armor that was emblazed with gold but was made from strong materials, he had a proud helmet and even more proud brown beard and eyes that were blue as the sky but looked at them with suspicion, he held in his arms a Greatsword that Tatsumi figured could slice thru a city block of houses like they were made of butter.

"I am Golden Dragon Emperor Tatsumi Gildenstrom of the Golden Dragon Empire. We come in honor of the pact of old, demons threaten our world once more, they have taken the Imperial city of Melitine, I ask you to fulfill that oath; we have need of your aid" Tatsumi explained the Giant looked at him and then at the sizeable force.

"Open the gates!" the Giant yelled and a large metal gate the size of the Imperial palace opened. "You may enter young Emperor, we know what you say is true for our guardian stones sensed their arrival, High King Ymir is expecting you, treat our halls with respect but leave your army outside our walls for you are coming in peace" the Giant explained, then he and the Cyclopes next to him stood at attention and let him pass, the spears as long as tall trees held by the Cyclopes in respect and one their number stepped aside to act as their guide.

The inside of the castle was vast. "You could fit Melitine in here five times and still have room" Tatsumi thought, then noted the various structures, some were the size of small mountains and Tatsumi assumed they were made for Giants but there were a number of buildings in line with human structures and he noted a number of humans bustling about as they went in, the looming cyclops towering over them as they moved and the loud thuds of giants moving were audible along with the trembling of the ground at their steps though they moved slowly not because they couldn't move faster but because they were avoiding crushing humans. However, one structure loomed tall about 10,000 feet at least and it was decorated lavishly as would be expected of a palace: Tatsumi knew that it must have been the palace.

"It is a marvelous sight, the Palace of the Sky, it was a marvel built by the original giants and cyclopes and despite its age is still beautiful to see" the Cyclopes commented.

"Indeed, it is, I never got your name by the way" Tatsumi commented.

"Polyphemus of Strongforge clan, I choose the way of the warrior rather than that of the smith, my kin were proud to see one of their own use the weapons our smith brethren make" the Cyclops replied.

"Have you ever used them?" Tatsumi asked.

"Yes, against the beasts of the North both of nature and of man, you'd be surprised how many of your race desire our wealth and technology and even more surprised how many have died to six door-wardens, thousands have fallen before me I'm about 5000 of your years, you say you fought demons, I've fought them too and am glad for the chance to face them once more for they were worthy opponents" Polyphemus replied.

"I'm looking forward to fighting alongside you Polyphemus" Tatsumi replied.

"And I you young emperor I'll request of the High King I be assigned to your army: mind you though our armies do consume much in the way of food" Polyphemus replied, Tatsumi chuckled. "But worry not we bring much in the way of supplies and can go long times without eating" Polyphemus replied.

"What about the Giants are they much different" Tatsumi asked, the cyclops laughed a loud thing that required much ear covering.

"You're comparing sheep to mammoths; we are different, and the Giants are much wiser and eat less but still a great amount: they loom over us and we proudly fight alongside our wise cousins" Polyphemus replied.

"Ok, I once encountered a Cyclops named Zogathol and he was massive, nowhere near as small as you, he was as big as the walls of this castle" Tatsumi replied, Polyphemus frowned.

"Ah him, the exile, he had grown large and dared to be grow larger in station, he attempted an uprising in misguided belief that the Titans were too soft on you humans and thought your people a good source of food; that rebellion was crushed and Zogathol was exiled for his crimes, that he still lives is a dark thing for my great-great grandfather fought hard to stop him" Polyphemus replied.

"No, he's dead, we killed him, or rather Akame did" Tatsumi replied, Polyphemus laughed, a loud sound that shook the earth and threw Tatsumi off-balance.

"A human killed an ancient. Well it seems that Zogathol was right to fear humans, if one of your own slew him perhaps it was the for the best that he feared your kind" Polyphemus replied, and they then discussed other matters. Tatsumi noted the humans that watched his entourage from the streets. He noted that the humans that lived under the protection on the Titans were way more wealthy and wore more lavish clothing then those worn by other northerners, they weren't too physically different with white, blonde and red hair being common amongst them along with blue eyes, their stature was larger too about 7 feet was average height for these people but by contrast to other northerners their less developed body strength was apparent. These people had lived under the protection and in the shadow of literal Giants and behind giant walls he doubted that any of these people had ever conceived of travelling outside their safe heaven, which was large enough Tatsumi reckoned to survive indefinitely, they needed only the barriers, but still he noted that there were well armed soldiers amongst them and just as well equipped as any imperial soldier without firearms however.

"You see how they look upon you my love, these people would've never conceived such strangers existed in distant lands and much less would visit them as honored guests" Merraid whispered in Tatsumi's ear she then nuzzled against him more then she had been before.

An hour later… Tatsumi took one look at the giant palace in front of him and suppressed a gasp because it was even bigger up close and- to his eyes could not see the top of it from up close even though he had seen it from afar. "I never imagined such awe inspiring sights would be awaiting me, I thought Melitine was glorious but this- between the Halls of Maltise, the Dwarven holds in the East, Triton and now this: I've seen more marvelous things than any other human being on Eden has seen in centuries, and I wonder what other marvels our world holds, were I not destined to rule I'd travel the world for myself and I may even do just that" Tatsumi thought, the mere thought of leadership however brought him out of his awe and made the golden crown weigh more on him. "Centuries of Emperors and not one of them has seen everything our world has to offer, but of them I've got more burdens to bare then any of them: more than any Tatsumi before me" Tatsumi thought, at that he considered that during the time spent travelling he'd look further back in the past with the Mirror of Time try and grasp the wisdom of previous Emperors.

"Tatsumi the knowledge you seek is great but there are other ways to learn it" Kronos replied mentally.

"I know but I want to see for myself: besides, I don't have much else to do while traveling" Tatsumi replied mentally.

"Tatsumi I've seen centuries of your ancestors trying to grasp at knowledge, don't let your quest for knowledge overwhelm your duties to your people, however there is some information that may help you" Kronos replied.

"What is that?" Tatsumi asked curious.

"In the north east of the Empire not too far from Tokorra is a desert: the Khazika Desert where your most famous ancestors, the previous Tatsumis and other great rulers of the Empire both male and female are entombed alongside their families: entombed with them too are great artifacts of power, relics of bygone eras, records and treasures too protected by Dwarven machines and guarded by layers of traps, automatons, many have tried over the centuries to rob these tombs but all have failed to breach the tombs inside, your ancestors rest eternally there but their knowledge and legacy remain, including the greatest of treasures" Kronos explained.

"What is that?" Tatsumi asked.

"The Emperor's Armory, where sitting on racks on display are some of the mightiest Imperial Arms, along with an arsenal of Dwarven armor and arms, centuries old but still quite functional and unclaimed but capable of being used for war, also there are the tools of the Dragon Emperor for you see your ancestor discovered a secret, two actually, first that humans could not forge Teigus in true purity and that his creations were but echoes of those made by Tatsumi the 1st and those paled before the Dwarves own creations, and the second thing was that the knowledge to make them was far too dangerous to reside in the hands of humans in this world for they are far too susceptible to corruption and evil, he took the knowledge he learned to his grave along with his tools: for in his life a bloody civil war the likes of which the Empire had never seen and would see far too often in coming centuries was caused by those who bore Teigus and misused their power" Kronos explained. "Why you may ask do I trust this knowledge with you? It is because the enemy you face is one that will destroy our world, not just that you are the last hope of our world the only one with the will to lead the fight, Tatsumi have you considered why it is that humans of Eden are so susceptible to evil, it is because the demons and their taint corrupts and warps the hearts of humans twists them into monsters in human skin: thru your actions in destroying those ruins power that corrupted humans is now being returned to whence it came, if you win then that power will be gone and humans will be far less likely to be evil and to do so on the grand scale, every evil actions that has occurred in the Empire on a grand scale will be a thing of the past and a thing that rarely occurs: you must fight, you must be strong, you must be brave, you must gather the knowledge and relics of your ancestors and continue in your quest for if not then we will both be doomed along with the entire universe" Kronos added.

"I will be strong, brave and I will fight against this evil, as soon we finish our tasks up here and have rallied the allies, we need I'll head to the desert" Tatsumi replied, Krono smirked and Tatsumi could help but think of it.

The large palace doors opened and out walked a rather large amount of well-armed giants at the center of them was a young giant woman, she loomed over Tatsumi and the others but compared to the other giants she was rather short. The Giantess had long brown hair in a set of ponytails, grey eyes, and an extremely well-endowed figure that was her races equivalent of the hourglass and having breasts that were in their equivalent to the E-cup range, she wore a large orange gown with golden trim and on her head a crown that must have been carved from a rather large block of gold, she wore also a belt of intricate design. Then to his surprise and that of everyone else she pressed the belt and shrunk to the size of a human and walked up to Tatsumi who had at this point dismounted from his palanquin.

"Greetings from my father I'm Princess Diane, daughter of King Ymir, High King of all Sky Titans and those who serve us: my father heard of your request and is awaiting your arrival, he has granted permission for an alliance" the giantess greeted. "Formal negotiations will begin soon, but shan't take too long, for the demon threat is obvious from our instruments and you've invoked the Pact which means the threat requires all to fight against it: come my Father awaits you, we must speak and then we feast as you must hunger from your travels" Diane added, Tatsumi proceeded inside following her and followed in turn by his entourage.

"Man, I wish this ground wasn't such a pain to stay standing on" Tatsumi thought as each step the giants took shook the ground and thus made it tricky to keep up his footing. Diane by contrast had no such issue and had assumed her regular size.

"How is it you're able to do that?" Tatsumi asked presently.

"What?" Diane replied.

"Shrink yourself to human size and turn yourself giant again" Tatsumi asked.

"A Mass Shifting belt: it allows us to blend in as humans, some of our kind take interest in your race and some more take human spouses and thus to avoid the risks that come with accidently trampling on your spouse we invented these belts that allow us to be the same size as a human more or less" Diane explained.

"That's amazing, are any other innovations you've made?" Tatsumi asked fascinated by their technological marvel if one could adjust their size what else were they capable.

"None that I personally have made unless you count making snowman the size of houses an innovation but we Sky Titans as a whole have invented numerous marvels, that door you passed thru getting in is fully automated for one, other things we've built are those large statues, they hide our massive turrets, you've seen our heavy guns on the walls too; you know you humans have a fascination with guns now a days well we had them first as did the humans in here but our definition of a pistol is what you'd consider a cannon, not to mention the plumbing, the Thunder-hammers, the Sky launcher, oh and the ground-bridge that allows us to travel from castle to castle without stepping foot outside our walls, and the marvels we've made to allow us to produce so much food" Diane explained then waxed further about other inventions that Tatsumi noted while distinct were situational and really only useful for the giants themselves or those of their size, he also regretted getting her excited as she began stomping harder and thus causing him to have no shortage of stumbles from the hard ground.

Fortunately, that all came to an end rather soon as they arrived at a massive door that was intricately decorated with all sorts of glyphs, pictures, runes, and other things; Tatsumi got only the briefest of glimpse before the door opened sliding upwards after turning. Inside he found the largest throne he'd ever seen, surrounded by piles of treasure, on it sat the Giant Ymir, he wore gold enameled armor and the many layers of scale were apparent, he wore on his shoulder what appeared to be a cloak that was made of a massive dragon, with the large beasts head on his left shoulder, his crown was ornate and made of gold with gems the size of the windows of Melitine's royal palace, the giant had a massive beard that was braided and had dark brown hair of the same color as his daughter's locks, his hand held a massive hammer. "Welcome to my hall little dragon" Ymir greeted.

"I'm- amazed to meet you" Tatsumi replied.

"You need not explain your reason for visiting, I know too well the threat of the demons: my grandfather's grandfather faced them and every Giant since has lived in waiting for their return for our Skalds sing of the day when a hero shall arise to banish their threat once and for all: we noticed the surge of demonic energy, both entering and- well leaving our world: I assume you're doing for the latter?" Ymir replied.

"Yes, we've been blowing up Yeenkar ruins wherever we find them" Tatsumi explained.

"A wise tactic, the destruction releases the demonic energy inside them and returns it to hell from whence it came; we attempted a similar strategy, but our ancestors had not the means to do so" Ymir explained.

"Really? It's been easy enough for us, about 200 pounds of explosives will do it" Tatsumi replied, Ymir laughed.

"We had not that marvel, it was only 2 millennia ago that we grasped the concept of gunpowder even then our needs for it require greater amounts then any human could use in their life time to arm our armies; besides we had little use for it our armor withstands the weapons well enough" Ymir explained. "But the past has little bearing on the now, and now we must defeat and destroy the demon threat, we have the means to do so now and the pact must be honored: I'll send word to my fellow giants to make ready for war but it will take time our kind have not waged war on such a scale for an age. Also we must see to sealing our alliance I know that your Imperial customs for alliances are usually sealed with marriage and I will make no exception, my daughter Diane whom is my youngest child of 17 years will wed you Golden Dragon: an apt name for a monarch whose duty will either make him the greatest ruler and leader our world has ever known or doom him to forgotten as a tide of evil consumes our world and universe" King Ymir replied.

"And having seen you in person you are cute; a good catch for a husband" Diane replied and shrunk once more with her belt.

"You will have to stay for a couple days, preparations must be made for the wedding and you will no doubt want rest before heading further north: also I'll see to sending some of my people with you, about 20 or so should do to provide you aid against the more hazardous areas. Further north you go and the far north is colder, we will provide you means to keep yourself warm but beware the further you go the colder it gets and the sooner you must make shelter for the nights in the far north slay even the hardiest of our kind much less your own" Ymir added. Tatsumi nodded and began to ask the Giant King about himself and about his people. The History of the Sky Titans began in another world where they were near extinction, their solitary nature was a doom and those that survived fled on flying castles; according to Tatsumi they found a way to travel to Eden and built new homes in the North, they were there before the first humans dared venture north and were a thriving community for they banded together to prevent a similar fate as befell their ancestors from befalling them: the bastions were made strong and seldom allowed outsiders entry; but those allowed were those that earned the trust.

Any further knowledge of their history for Tatsumi was simply a case of very similar stories to those of the Empire's own history and could fill numerous volumes of history that in turn could fill a whole library by themselves, with that in mind I must bring an end to this discussion. Suffice to say Tatsumi and those who accompanied him enjoyed their accommodations.

Later that evening… Tatsumi took a hard look from the balcony window of his quarters; the room had been built with humans in mind and the sight he saw fascinated him. The Sky was bright with Aurora, lights of radiate color of so many types too numerous to list and more exotic then any rainbow. "An amazing sight don't you agree" Nora stated coming up behind Tatsumi, dressed in a polar bear fur coat and her crown Nora looked like the queen of winter. "The northern lights you Imperials call them, we call them the Star Dance and they are wonderful for those who've never come here and for those of us who live here they are something you wouldn't want to do without, Dorothea told me that they are caused by blast of energy coming from the suns, according to Dorothea there is a field around Eden and that energy gets absorbed by it but some of that energy gets thrown further north and creates the lightshows" Nora explained, then looked at Tatsumi.

"Our world is so big and then when I look at the sky at night, I think it's so small; and what am I? A single man nothing more: Nora I stand as the ruler of the most powerful human civilization on Eden and yet for all that those lights make everything seem small make me look like a grain of sand in a desert or a blade of grass in a massive grassy steppe no one person in their lifetime could ever see everything that our universe has to offer" Tatsumi commented.

"It's a marvel how that works: anyway I came here for pleasure not to talk about philosophy it is a perfect distraction from one's own issues to talk about the wider world: by the way so Hiromi and Osawa have been making eyes at you and you have yet to make a move; so when are you going to fuck them?" Nora replied.

"When they feel like doing so, I'll let them make the first move but I will have a talk with them about it" Tatsumi explained, he heard the fur drop and Tatsumi turned to find she wore nothing underneath, he looked at her beautiful body and clutched her breasts in his hands to a moan from her.

"Few people know how to warm a cold winter night like we do" Nora replied. Then she kissed him, he breathed as she undressed him letting her do her work. Nora was for being rather new to the whole sex experience and having only had him as a partner quite good at giving him head, and even more so at massaging his length with her breasts. Nora's lips engulfed the upper third of his length and she grinned as her tongue licked pre-cum from the tip. "Such a good taste, Tatsumi I'll keep you nice and warm" Nora thought and stopped pushed him onto the bed. "I'm not about to have you waste that baby batter in my mouth, its going right in the oven" Nora commented and took him into her with an audible moan. A moan that was added to by another who had snuck into the room via the side door and locked that door behind her, Tatsumi took one glance to notice Nancy who was wearing a bondage costume one that left little to imagination and left both breasts and loins exposed she jumped on his face.

"Please me servant!" Nancy demanded in a dominant role; Tatsumi complied and Nancy moaned, then kissed Nora and eagerly fondled her breasts, cooing into her ear after breaking the kiss. "Don't worry gorgeous, I'll take good care of you too" Nancy cooed then took one of Nora's nipples into her mouth to an audible moan one that became louder as Nancy's left hand groped her butt cheek aggressively; she drank forcefully while Nora was left to moan in enjoyment as this continued for the night.

The following morning Tatsumi was approached by one of the giants a large and imposing giant but well dressed in the garb of a diplomat. "Emperor Tatsumi; his highness informs me that Dwarves have arrived seeking you attention; they arrived early this morning from the air: they represent the Silverblood Clan" The giant replied.

"Where are they?" Tatsumi asked.

"They are awaiting you in the south wing of the palace: they wished to speak to you regarding their northern kin" The Giant replied.

"Thank you for telling me this- what is your name?" Tatsumi asked.

"Utgard, the dwarves are waiting for you eagerly" the Giant replied, Tatsumi nodded and turned to go and was joined by his four champions in accompanying him along with Sheele and Seryu.

Shortly… It took about 20 minutes to actually find the Dwarves but when Tatsumi found them he did so easily as a number of them were grumbling rather loudly, as he approached one dwarf noted him and said something in his language the rest popped to attention, from their number came the most well-dressed dwarf. "Your imperial majesty, I Rurin of Minor Clan Smoothspeaker bring you tidings from our kin the Icebeards and their fellow clan the Stonehammers: their Kings extend to you an invitation to Kraka Azgul Drakka: their mightiest hold and greatest city; they have their response to the pact and are willing to join if you right a grievous grudge for them; they wish to discuss the details in person; what message do you wish be sent in return?" The Dwarven Diplomat asked.

"Tell them I'll be there, how far is their hold from here?" Tatsumi asked.

"About five days march north of New Iskgard formally Kalasliv where the Imperial Army is based, about a week from here all that being if the weather holds up; they dwell on the edge of the Far North" Rurin replied.

"I see, we'll finish our negotiations here and then I'll take a force north from there: inform them of this, also find Empress Esdeath and have her go with you as my envoy, also stopover in New Iskgard so she can rally the rest of her army" Tatsumi responded the Dwarf nodded and the dwarves left him be.

Tatsumi at this point in his journey north had been extremely successful in acquiring allies, Imperial troops that had been part of Esdeath's invasion force flocked to him as their new emperor as did the tribes near the old Imperial border and the Yetis joined eagerly though mainly to follow Esdeath rather than him. That said with his efforts of diplomacy he had grown the 10,000 strong expeditionary army he took north to near 800,000 soldiers, with those being largely sent south with orders from him: those troops had two tasks, the first was to contest Volgoth's loyalists and soldiers sworn to the New Empire of Yeenkar chiefly Teketh and the second was to convince thru show of force outlying warlords to either join him or kill them so they didn't pose a threat; the general in charge of all this was Nymeria who along with a few other generals notably Audrey and Lydia took their orders very seriously and who were determined for his sake above all else to get the job done. Any other forces that joined him would be sent to join this force, at the same time in the eastern half of the Empire his eastern armies would make moves to suppress similar threats west of the Matahai Mountains and in the south-eastern provinces where forces still loyal to Teketh via his subordinate General Krolm who was all the perfectionist his superior was and but nowhere near as brilliant or as nasty, granted that didn't mean he wasn't guilty of war crimes he was less despicable then Teketh because at least the women he raped weren't his own daughters but that was a low bar in Tatsumi's mark and the fact that he did rape innocent women and girls was enough to earn him a 'kill in the most brutal method possible once his forces were destroyed' order.

Just thinking of Teketh made his blood boil and he was tempted to send the Elite Seven to kill him but that wasn't necessary and in all honesty he needed them with him because there was no telling what he'd face, something which in about a week's time he'd find something that would give a whole different meaning of no telling what you'll run into than normal, if you could define anything as normal in his world. "The only sense of normalcy I've got in my life is that I'm sure to find myself in a dangerous life-threatening situation that will require me to kill one or more people or beasts; I hate this lot I've been dealt" Tatsumi thought then frowned, Seryu and Sheele noted his frown kissed him and he smiled again.

"Keep your mind on positive things Tatsumi; you don't need to let evildoers trouble you while you're safe inside a Giant's castle" Seryu reassured, Tatsumi looked at her with a smile.

"Always the optimist Seryu, my Justice Queen" Tatsumi replied.

"It helps to be positive after all if I let what troubles me in life show I'd go bat-shit crazy am I right Koro?" Seryu replied, Koro barked. "I know you don't like me keeping it all shut up in my head, would you rather I vent it on the world?" Seryu replied.

"I really wish that I could understand what Koro was saying" Sheele replied to laughs from the four Champions. "Please we all know that as Teigu users we can hear our Teigu's speak to us, I'm fairly certain Koro functions the same way" Sheele replied annoyed.

Tatsumi could not help but shrug at this turn and decided to find for himself somewhere more interesting to be instead of wandering castle halls that made him feel smaller then he already did. That in mind he decided to find a good place for sparring and with that done then he commenced his daily training regimen which was another normal thing for him.

Halfway thru his regiment Princess Dianne showed up. "Hi!" Dianne greeted eagerly distracting Tatsumi and throwing him off-balance thus allowing Seryu and Sayo who were team attacking him to disarm him and begin to beat the crap out of him with training blades.

"Time out! Time out!" Tatsumi yelled and the two stopped, well Seryu did and Sayo gave him a couple more for good measure. "Hello" Tatsumi greeted calmly, then noted the giantess blushing.

"For a human you're- quite fit and strong" Dianne teased, Tatsumi blushed remembering of course he trained only in his trousers and so she had full view of his chest.

"So how do you feel about marrying one?" Tatsumi asked.

"I find it a fascinating prospect, it's not unheard of but rare for an outsider let alone an outside monarch from a distant lands far from our kingdom, an Emperor unheard of? But I always wanted my husband to be someone unique and as one of the younger daughters of my father I have the luxury of being picky; you're a catch and you are rather fortunate that we developed mass-shifting to allow us to become your size otherwise you'd go to pop my cherry and find yourself inside it" Dianne replied then giggled, a rather loud noise that sounded like normal laughter.

"So, Dianne how are you as a fighter, I need every one of my wives that travel with me to be as good or better than me so I don't have to be worried about them in battle" Tatsumi asked changing the topic.

"Tatsumi I'm a very good fighter by the standards of my people which for the record I've trained extensively for war as is my lot as a younger daughter, you needn't worry about me, my armor is far stronger than anything you wear and my skills with my hammer are unparalleled, also you'd be surprised how terrifying a giant can be to those who've never seen one before" Dianne replied "I'm looking forward to our wedding ceremony and the bedding, don't worry I'll be human-sized during both so you shan't have to worry about me crushing you during either" Dianne replied then shrank to human size with her mass-shifter. "You up for a good spar I'll demonstrate my skill" Dianne replied, Tatsumi nodded.

Despite the fact she was wearing a frilly dress Dianne fought as if she wore no clothing whatsoever and the raw strength of her attacks came swift, Tatsumi's practice blade snapped like a twig after a few minutes under the onslaught and she rapidly dropped him down to the ground with a series of strong and swift punches. "Ouch" Tatsumi groaned, luckily extremely luckily, he had no broken bones or an injuries bare a couple bruises.

"Yeah, I move faster than you'd think I've no idea where humans got the idea that giants are slow moving dimwits as they are as wrong as they are about world being flat, but you lasted remarkably long compared to my other sparing partners; do you think you have to worry about my safety?" Dianne teased.

"Nope; not remotely; still though you rely a lot on raw strength and unrefined attacks: there are a few things I could teach you to help refine that style but not much" Tatsumi replied, Dianne returned to her normal size

"When you're my size raw strength goes a long way, also most of the time enemies are too busy running around scared to fight back and we move rather quickly" Dianne replied, Tatsumi picked up another practice blade.

"Alright well I've got to continue my instruction you want to watch?" Tatsumi asked.

"Oh, I'll watch" Dianne replied and then sat down a respectable distance away crisscross.

The training was a well spent and lasted a few more hours the rest of the day was spent by Tatsumi doing a mixture of things chiefly reading and getting laid, that latter one was limited to his own kind as the other giantesses that weren't Dianne or her handmaids which were going to be wed to him as concubines regarded him with uninterest, they seemed overall to him to be interested only in other giants. Despite this they were nice to him as were the male giants, as a whole the giants were a cordial jolly people even if they were massive people.

The rest of his stay was spent in this fashion, the only other moment of interest was his wedding to Dianne who looked like the queen of summer in her orange wedding gown, it was a risqué and revealing gown too showing off a good deal of cleavage an left her mid-section bare. The wedding as a whole though was an amazing affair, the cake was great, the food was good, and the drink well he limited himself to water and soda as his hosts warned him that if he were to consume any of their alcohol he'd be hungover for a week something which he had no desire to experience at any point let alone when he was out to save the world from destruction at the hands of demons. He noted also that the Giants however were rather jolly about the occasion and the only thing keeping him from danger of being stomped was that before any giants could consume any alcohol of any type was the rules of hospitality towards humans that required them to drink in a separate room that was locked from outside to keep drunken giants from wandering out.

Yet all of this paled before the bedding which in place of him carrying the bride off she carried him, in normal form to her bedroom which was locked behind, she then dropped on what had to be the biggest bed he'd ever seen on a massive pillow that had been filled with goodness knows what and that resembled Aria's a good deal before she sat on and shrunk herself to his size. "Oh you are in for quite the experience Tatsumi, there isn't a human monarch still alive that has been with a giantess princess much less married one left alive in the world anymore, it has been over 200 years since then, I hope you'll forgive my inexperience I've only read books on the subject and I'm not sure the same rules apply to humans, I won't be rough with you and you will treat me the same" Dianne explained then stripped teasing him, Tatsumi removed his clothing and waited for her to climb up to him, naked apart from her garter and stockings.

She took one look at his erection and smirked. "For a human its big I wonder how it'll fit I'm not teasing you and there won't be any foreplay at least not for our first time, all I want is for you to do what I say and what I want right now is total control I do want I want and you just get to enjoy it, not a peep outside of your moans from you" Dianne explained then flaunted her amble E-cups and kissed him full on the lips before kissing him down his body and taking his length in her hands. "Small by comparison to any giant's in fact you'd be about average size, but as a human at human size its big" Dianne commented then began blowing him, she was sloppy with it but gentle: her lips slowly licking it and tongue played with it teasing it. Tatsumi immediately shut of his brain and his worries and just lived in the moment, letting Dianne do what she wanted to do to her new husband, the blowjob lasted for about 2 minutes before she decided to shake things up and wrap the length in her breasts before resuming her licks with lust in her eyes; Tatsumi kept his cool in and restrained himself from release until she had found and pushed his limit and he released, she grinned as the white seed covered her face and her breasts before licking her face.

"Salty, I like salty, now for the main course" Dianne remarked then sat up, moved towards him in a teasing manner before hovering over his length. "You're still hard; good you'll need it" Dianne replied, then held his length with her hand, steadied herself and impaled herself on the length. "OOHHH!" Dianne moaned not in pain but with pleasure and she immediately began to bounce up and down with enjoyment. "So good! I have never felt this before! AHH!" Dianne moaned then as Tatsumi began to open his mouth to speak she leaned down and kissed him, her tongue invaded his mouth pinned his down and she kissed long and hard.

The kiss caused Tatsumi to lose himself in bliss as the happy princess rode him for a solid 10 minutes before he released and when he did, she was not done no she had her rear spread out invitingly. "More please" Dianne asked and at this point Tatsumi lost track of himself as his pent up tension was drowned by a sea of pleasure and with it his sense of anything else around him, right then only he and Dianne mattered and nothing else did and they spent the whole night doing so as Dianne despite being a virgin before they started was a giant and while her mass-shifter has made her human in terms of size and weight as well as brawn (on par with Esdeath's) it didn't suppress her stamina.

The following morning Tatsumi had to process the fact that he was on a giant pillow the size of a carriage naked with a giantess sleeping next to him, after processing this development he then woke up Dianne who after a few more rounds of last night's enjoyment helped him and herself down from her bed. Tatsumi's clothes had been brought to him by a servant and he dressed into the change of attire. Later that morning he gathered his retinue and the 20 giants and 40 Cyclopes that had decided to join it and left to fanfare and was reminded that he was in the north by the biting cold that had been kept out of the Giant's castle city by the high walls and an energy field that kept it in a state of warm weather year round.

The rest of the day was spent traveling to the city of New Iskgard where Esdeath awaited him with her legions that were fully armed and ready on their general's say so for their orders, her subordinate commanders then pledged themselves to him in short order. Then came the journey further north.

One week later… "Well look at that!" Sayo declared and Tatsumi turned from Merraid, Chelsea, Taeko, Saraya and Cassandra with whom he had been hammering out details regarding the Oarburgh Clan's role in the New Empire and faced the sight to the front and gasped. Looming tall and silently as it rose into view and in the sunlight of a clear day was a massive mountain peak about 18,000 feet high if he had to guess, the mountain however was carved out, with large statues decorated with gold, silver and gems and made from the finest stone loomed at the front of massive gates the size of Melitine's walls, in front of the mountain and surrounding it were looming statues of smaller size then the goliath structures carved into the mountain's face but still taller than a four story building. In spite of having seen a fair few impressive Dwarven holds in his time in the east Tatsumi was still amazed by the ones he had yet to see, particularly due to the fact that no two holds were the same in design or scale, also there was one feature that set this one apart and that was that the peak of the mountain was carved into the stone figure of a massive dragon, which loomed over the lands below. Tatsumi then heard the noise of rotating blades and looked up to note Dwarven Gyrocopters flying above, he could barely make out the clan crests however their colors were enough to tell him that they were not from the eastern clans and that they were clearly the northern dwarves taking a good look at the new arrivals to their doorsteps.

However that wasn't to say the Eastern Dwarves weren't waiting, he noted outside the hold gates as they arrived at them an eastern Dwarven party easily distinguished by their attire and style of beards were debating with Dwarves that Tatsumi assumed were from the Northern clans, their long blonde and red beards lighter skin tone and mammoth tusk horned helms along with the fur cloaks made of polar bear pelts along with their style of craftsmanship with regards to their armor and weapons made that clear as the Eastern dwarves had a darker skin tone and black beards in addition to eastern-style attire, also looming near both parties were Dwarven automatons of different styles but armed to the teeth and armored like a battle tank. "Umgi on our doorstep" one of the Northern Dwarves declared as Tatsumi's party closed in meaning it was time for Tatsumi to work his magic with diplomacy and for Merraid to shut up about Oarburgh politics that as he saw it really didn't matter until Volgoth was defeated and really would have bored him to sleep if Aria, Spear and Akame weren't constantly jostling him to stay awake. Speaking of Aria, she had taken to wearing a dwarven style dress in place of her usual traveling garb that was purple and gold in place of her usual blue and white and the reason for that was quite apparent as she approached the delegation first as his diplomat.

"Humans, well come forward manlings our eastern kin-folk say ye are to be trusted we'll see for ourselves and here what you have to say before Oathgold" a northern dwarf commented he was clad in the garb of a Dwarven Thane which meant he was in charge of the delegation his beard was white which meant he was an older dwarf.

"Greetings master dwarf, I am Empress Aria Gildenstrom and my husband has appointed me to speak first" Aria replied courteously, Aria noted a small group dwarves carrying a chest which they opened up to reveal well-crafted small gold brick-like tablets decorated with runes. "I swear before Oathgold to speak no untruth and not act with guile" Aria replied and then looked at Tatsumi and those with him, indicating for them to do the same which they did in short order.

"Good well done Umgi, we'll now speak earnestly, know that any untruth spoken will result now in a grudge that must be righted" the Dwarf Thane indicated. "But where are my manners you've introduced yourself young Empress and it is only right that I do the same, Thane Hrothgar Icebeard at your service and your family's, Doorward of Kraka Azgul Drakka the mightiest of Karaks in the North and seat of the Icebeard Clan, I speak for King Frori Icebeard as his nephew and if you prove worthy I will grant your party entry and an audience with my royal kin" The Thane explained.

"It is a pleasure to meet you Thane Hrothgar, I'd like to introduce my husband, Pais if you will" Aria replied, the Empress Herald stepped forward and read aloud the normal introduction, Tatsumi then stepped forward.

"Greeting Thane Hrothgar, I come this day invoke the Oath of the Great Pact against the Demons" Tatsumi explained, the Dwarf's face was surprised but recovered quickly.

"That is an old pact; one that is not invoked lightly, our kin have told us of the demon threat and we have seen the signs, a great host gathers to the north here in a looming black city, one of the ancient abominations of Yeenkar and one far too intact for my liking, it's a strong bastion inhabited by the worst of the savage tribes of the North, led by an vile monster of a man, my adopted human son escaped from him as a child who had been enslaved by him and knows more of this monster Oskak Svengold his name is, the name of that vile city is known in our tongue Ushan-Vogkar-Drooka; which means in your tongue City of the many skulls though they call it by another name Trondhehm, which in their tongue means Iron Bastion, many Dwarves fell in the past purging the fiends of Yeenkar but alas we had not the means to destroy their vile city, also they live on in the spirit of those who call the place home in these days: We'd gladly help you against this threat but we need something done for us first, our King will explain suffice to say while you have proved yourselves to our Eastern kin you have yet to do so for us, prove your worth and we'll aid ye" Hrothgar replied. "Because of your knowledge and the word from our Eastern kin you have earned the right to enter our hold, however you must swear first the oaths of hospitality that you act in accordance with our rules and laws whereas we in turn will swear the oaths to see that you are treated fairly and well, also note that if you wish to trade you will be allowed to under these oaths just mind the fact that all purchases must be done honorably and that all our merchants have their own scales, an old saying about humans is when trading with them be kind but also firm and keep an eye on them, also to keep your own scales ready for trading and your axe ready in case of a thief" Hrothgar explained then bid the entire retinue to step forward, four more dwarves arrived carrying an Oathstone which had engraved on it the dwarven rune for hospitality, said dwarves set the stone down and the one carrying the chest of Oathgold brought it over to them, the dwarves then set out an Oathgold brick for Tatsumi's entire retinue, 75 bricks in total and, then bid them come over.

The next hour and a half was spent by every member having to recite the same oath in dwarvish "I swear on my honor and that of my family to honor the laws of hospitality, to treat those that dwell here with respect and honor, to act with integrity and honor and to speak no insult or lie within to my hosts, and I swear under pain of death that I shall not seek harm my host in a dishonorable fashion and if I commit wrong to set the grudge right in accordance with traditions for the grudge" Tatsumi had done this before in the Eastern holds but they had at least allowed him entry beforehand, this was the first time doing so at the gates and outside in the cold snows of the north so it caused his tongue to stumble a bit. The Dwarves then swore a similar oath also in their own tongue but it was the inverse and went as so "I swear on my honor and that of my clan and family that I will treat my guest with utmost respect, with honor, and fairness, to provide the best of my labors for both trade and as gifts, to not raise arms against my guests in my halls save under threat of death, to treat with respect those that enter into my home and offer the best of my ale, meat and accommodations as I can do so; this I swear in behalf of my hold and my clan and should break this oath I must take the oath of shame and seek an honorable death either as a doom-seeker or in accordance to the law lest my name be forgotten and I be barred from resting in the halls of my ancestors"

With these oath sworn Hrothgar approached the gates and said words in Dwarvish, the gates opened inwards to allow them entry. As soon as the last of their party passed the threshold the gates shut behind them and they entered the First Deep. Horns blew and Dwarves began to sing the song of their keep. "Welcome here our honored guests to home our hold of warming hearth, for here we dwell with happy hearts to work and warm the heart. For here the keep is warm, from fires bright that roam, here we do our best to make you feel at home. We welcome you to be, in the North's mightiest keep, we welcome you to the Dragon Keep, Dwarves of the Deep welcome to new friends to meet, we welcome you from the cold we welcome you to the Dragon Hold, welcome to the Dragon Hold" they sung.

The song was short and to the point and from the first hall of the First Deep they entered the second hall where the merchants and diplomats lived along with the first lines of defense, Dwarven warriors in barracks, also there were taverns and guesthouses along with a couple of other structures meant for visitors to see, also on this level lived a number of the craftsmen who were at work and as Tatsumi noted a mechanist's animoculary where Dwarven Automatons were built and maintained, the lesser ones at least, along with a few temples to the Dwarven gods but these were smaller shrines and Hrothgar explained that the structures here were lesser compared to what was further down, he also explained that the further down one went into the keep the more grand it got and the more respectful he would have to be as the upper classes and grander works were stored.

"Why are the ceilings so high in here?" Tatsumi asked.

"Why indeed, well mainly for the Giants, we trade with them often enough that we need to keep them large, secondly for our larger constructs and vehicles, and thirdly it allows us room for our engravers and stone-masons to practice their craft and make our holds greater" Hrothgar explained. Tatsumi thought that over and noted that Dwarves must have built some larger machines and remembered the one that was used in the battle for Nova Atlantea and noted that the roof was at least five times taller then it.

"They must build even bigger ones then that" Tatsumi thought, Merraid leaned on him then spoke to him.

"Aren't Dwarven holds a marvelous sight Tatsumi, it makes me feel at home, the great tunnels beneath Tokorra were made by Dwarven hands as were a number of other structures in the city above not mention the undercity; plus being inside a mountain let alone near one it makes me feel at ease; I dare Volgoth to try and attack this place I don't think the demons could get past the front gate" Merraid commented.

"They couldn't get within a mile of the gate Empress Merraid, the great Rune-wards in the lower deeps disperse and banish the energy that allows the demons to take shape in our world; and many such stones dot the hold, by the way the other holds and the Stonehammer clan lords have sent their emissaries to the royal court, our kin's words asked for it and we have granted, earn the respect of our King and you earn the respect of all the Northern holds, such pacts will be sealed with blood, oaths and a feast" Hrothgar explained.

"Sealed with blood?" Tatsumi asked.

"A bloodoath, but also it is customary to ensure a lasting alliance thru marriage to the royal family of the clan; one of the King's Daughters will wed the young Emperor if he succeeds, such is our custom for sealing such pacts however you must prove your worth to him first of course" Hrothgar explained. "Anyway the King's halls are lower, in the Seventh Deep to be precise, and if you'll follow me we have a way to expediate your journey there" Hrothgar explained, the dwarves then lead them to large room which had an elevator, the doors of which opened to a button and was large enough to fit a Dwarven throng of about 200 warriors, a dwarf once everyone was inside then turned to a panel and spoke his tongue "Seventh Deep" and the elevator descended and arrived about 40 seconds later at the floor in question, then after exiting the elevator Tatsumi saw a truly marvelous sight.

The Seventh deep was a marvel, a wonder to human eyes and to the eyes of Dwarves as well for in this level were some of the grandest works, most of them in fact: gold was abundant and glistened from buildings, the roofs of the deep were covered in gold and engraved in murals of great Dwarven feats, history and runes, with the ceilings occupied by shining giant chandelier lamps of ruby that shined with the light of sun, star and moon, other smaller lamps abounded along with roads of true-silver and structures made from the finest stones, along with statues of Dwarven kings, the buildings were marvels of engineering with great towers rivaling the skyscrapers of Triton in height, aqueducts that were intricate and spread about bringing water that was pure as true-silver and shimmered in fire light, statues from the mouths of which flowed molten magma, fountains that were made of silver and decorated with ornate figures, vehicles that moved with speed on both ground and air, in fact the technology itself was about a thousand years at least ahead of anything offered in Atlantea or the Empire, and while Tatsumi had seen such sights in the Eastern holds they were of a different style of construction and focused less on aesthetics and more on actual practical structures and what aesthetics they did make were completely a world away from what was depicted by the marvels of the North, also Tatsumi noted large scale factories more advanced and far more clean then any in the Empire as no smoke came from them and foundries were smiths were at work shaping all sorts of crafts, weapons, armor and jewelry, there were also great towers full instruments used to measure all manner of things. But above it all was a massive Dwarven citadel with high walls plated with gold and statues that loomed over the city, it was every bit as grand as Melitine's Royal palace and equal in size and was topped by the massive golden statue of a Dragon in flight, Tatsumi also noted vehicles flying above the streets and above that patrolling gyrocopters that came and went in out of the caverns from airfields.

"Welcome to the Seventh Deep, the heart of Kraka Azgul Drakka; here is the heart of the North, look well upon it for centuries of Dwarven hands have made it what it is and will continue to grow it in splendor thru centuries to come, you are the first humans from the Empire to see it in five centuries and possibly the last if the world ends but hope it does not come to that: come follow me into the heart of our city for here dwell the greatest of our number and of our crafts, thru the hardest of work one earns a place here and it is considered a great honor to even visit it let alone live within" Hrothgar explained and then led them onward, Tatsumi was given a tour of the many sights on offer or rather those on the path to the palace and by tour only explanations of them before being led along, the King was waiting for them and it would be rude of them to be late even to take in the marvels of their hold, there would be time for that later well not really as Tatsumi was on a tight schedule to save the world before either Volgoth got too strong or his wives went in the later trimesters and thus wouldn't be able to aid him something that was worrying for him as Aria and Najenda were well into the second trimester.

When they came to the palace hill, they were halted by guards in the finest armor Tatsumi had ever seen, it shimmered of Mithril, Adamantine and of metal far rarer, some even wore armor that was Teigu like in design and wielded weapons that were clearly Teigus. That aside each soldier while having personalized his or her own armor, especially when it came to beards for the men, wore over that the same sash and plumed helm in addition to badges that while they varied some were similar. Tatsumi had been told those badges represented their minor clans and families within the Great Clan as a whole and the sash represented the Clan Icebeard as a whole, while the helmets were for their rank as they were of the elite guards of the King, and most abundant of these carried massive Warhammers and were called hammerers it was explained that the Hammerers were guards of kings and the tradition came from the far past where the first High King had been saved by Dwarven warriors wielding said weapons and thus it became common practice for such warriors to guard their most important leaders, in fact it was considered the highest honor and the most elite wielded Teigu hammers and wore Teigu armor, also looming above these were massive automatons which Tatsumi had thought were statues at a distance but were actually Grand Ancestor Centurion Sentinels, these massive machines were powered and controlled by Dwarves whose bodies had suffered injuries beyond treatment and had voluntarily transplanted their spirits inside to guard their kin and these ones specifically had ancestors from ages ago, for a Dwarf to become one with one of these machines was considered a high honor and glory for their family and clan, these machines according to Hrothgar numbered in the thousands throughout the holds of the north as many warriors had faced grim fates in the many battles faced against the monsters of the north, both beast and otherwise. "Imigi!" a Dwarf captain shouted in Dwarvish and the guards readied themselves in swift fashions with weapons at the ready. (Imigi: Halt)

"Hogdul!" Hrothgar replied, the dwarves relaxed. (Hogdul (Hoeg-dul): At Ease)

"Thane Hrothgar!" the Captain replied. "The King has been expecting you; you bring Umgi into the Seventh Deep, Imperial Umgi by the look of em" the Captain continued.

"They've sworn the oaths of hospitality, the King requested an audience with the young Emperor" Hrothgar replied.

"I see they may enter but they'll leave their arms at the door to the throne room as is custom" the Captain explained, Tatsumi nodded and this was where he had to dismount his palanquin to go inside due to diplomatic rules and the fact the Dwarves were not likely to let him take it inside also it would be rude to present himself as taller then he already was, he was accompanied by half of his retinue with the less ceremonial guards staying behind. The inside of the palace was about as grand as the outside of it, however the moment he stepped in he was surprised by what looked like a human sized construct made of gold and well a desk next to it.

"Throne room" Hrothgar stated, and the construct activated to reveal its actual height was about a foot taller than then the average Eden human.

"Follow me" the Robot replied and lead them along.

"Here G3-86 will guide you to the throne room, I must inform my family of the news: also you'll have need of an experienced tracker for the task the King has planned for you and my adopted son is the best one I know, he's the Master of the Hunt" Hrothgar explained and the Dwarf walked away, Tatsumi was confused by the turn of events but followed the strange machine that was leagues ahead of anything he'd ever seen.

"Greetings Human, I am G3-86: Fully autonomous and intelligent robotic droid page, a model Gravakk-Kagul Engineering product, I am programed in every known language on Eden, armed for defense, trained in etiquette and programed to act as a page for his majesty King Frori IV Icebeard, High lord of the Icebeard clan, King of the Northern Holds, Slayer of ten thousand foes, and humble servant of the High-King Durin III Goldenbeard; I will be your guide in his majesty's palace and will lead you to his throne room" G3-86 explained.

"Ok" Tatsumi stammered out surprised by this advanced machine as the Easterners hadn't used machines of this model and while they had similar advances, they were focused towards warfare rather than service.

"I understand your confusion, most Umgi have never seen a service unit of my model, I'm a recent model produced within the last decade last year in fact, further advancements are made daily in all industries, the animonculii you have likely encountered before are obsolete models built 3 centuries ago, old model machines are presented externally for humans to acquire for the proper sum, as since of the War of the Umbarakai Emperor human contact trade limits were instituted by the High King on technology deemed too advance for humans and said technology was banned from sale in the Empire, technology obsolete by 300 centuries or more is eligible for sale to non-imperial humans according to the decree limited such trading, any violations of this law by any dwarf is considered dishonorable and punishable by banishment to the Lower Deeps to act as Ironbreakers for the rest of that individual's life" G3-86 replied.

"Umbarakai does that mean mad?" Tatsumi asked.

"No, it means Oathbreaker, there is no higher crime in our society and eyes, to atone for such mistakes cannot be made by the Oathbreaker themselves but can be made by a descendant" G3-86 replied

"Any information on Teigus in your information banks" Dorothea asked, the Droid looked at her and then looked at her again.

"Information restricted: no information on such objects are permitted to be discussed with Humans in accordance with the High King's decree outlawing trade of Teigus to non-dwarves, humanity is not allowed to know such information unless deemed so by the High-King. Also my record banks have identified you as Dorothea Amber Carstein, you are a previous grudge offender who has since made recompense however your line of query is no longer authorized, continue this line of inquiry further and this unit will be authorized to detain and remove you from the palace" G3-86 replied, Dorothea shut up with a face of utter humiliation and a blush that could light a room and invoked laughter from nearby people namely Leone and Nancy.

"Carstein?" Tatsumi asked.

"That is my family name, rather prestigious one but like my family nonexistent in the Empire anymore: though technically any of our offspring could take up that name if you wish but it's a formality: anyway droid update your memory banks and that of the global Dwarf Network, the name is now Dorothea Amber 'Carstein' Gildenstrom, I am married to Emperor Tatsumi Gildenstrom the seventh of that name in the Imperial dynasty but first of the new Empire: so he is both Tatsumi the VII and Tatsumi the I at the same time, note that for records" Dorothea replied, the droid as Dorothea stopped for the moment its eyes flashed green then back to the blue they were before.

"Global Databank updated to correspond to new information; let us continue" G3-86 replied and led them further. As they passed thru Cosmina was constantly going "Ooh!" and "I like it!" as they passed thru rooms about various objects. When they arrived at the throne room Cosmina was absolutely giddy.

"Tatsu-kitty can I be the herald please!?" Cosmina begged insistently.

"Ok just this once" Tatsumi replied, hoping mentally Cosmina acted with grace and respect not wanting to offend the Dwarven King. His fears were not to be realized as they entered the room Cosmina carried herself with an extremely refined grace and calm demeaner smiling her eyes shining with kindness behind her glasses, clad in what had to be the most purple gown he'd ever seen her wear and with the grace of an empress she outstretched her hand in his direction.

"Presenting his Imperial majesty Emperor Tatsumi Gildenstrom, the seventh of his family name, Golden Dragon Emperor, Bane of the Revolutionary Army, prince consort of Nova Atlantea, rightful ruler of the Empire from the Western Borderlands to the Eastern Seas and from the Icy North to the Farthest Southern Jungles of Mukulmukan, Emperor of the Golden Dragon Empire and liberator the Imperial territory, Dwarf Friend to the Eastern Clans and the Silverblood Clan, Demonslayer Protector of Civilization and Shield of Eden" Cosmina introduced and added the remaining titles to name.

In response a Dwarf stepped up from his throne, his beard was snow-white and he wore armor made of blue adamantine and over that a cloak that had clearly been made from dragonhide with the head of a small drake on his right shoulder his eyes were blue as ice and his expression was both stern and cold, his crowned helm was made of silver fair with dark blue sapphires shining like stars in the winter sky and at his side was a massive great axe and in his hand a large book, the king breathed in then made a reply. "I welcome ye to my halls Emperor Tatsumi, I am King Frori Icebeard, forth of my family name, King of the Icebeard Clan and of Kraka Azgul Drakka along with any lesser holds in my domain, slayer of the Drakk Volgador the Ravager whose hide I where as a cloak to this day, Guildmaster of the Miner's guild and engraver of Zogothul the tablet of runes, Master Runesmith and mightiest of the North's rulers; now I here tale from your emissaries: you have my ear, I know that the demons threaten our world now tell me before I commit to any pact I must know your measure and ask what are you willing to do to save our world" King Frori replied

"King Frori, on my honor I swear that I will do whatever it takes to save our world to secure a future for my family along with every other family to live in peaceful times" Tatsumi replied.

"Well young Emperor you've given me your word and I'll hold you to it, now I have a task for ya I've heard tale of your deeds but words are not the measure of an individual their actions are and I want you to prove yourself, I know you wield Teigus and they say you are the best warrior the Empire has seen in centuries, Umgi I want you to prove it, a test of your strength and skill, there is a great monster that broke one of our greatest holds: the name of the hold is Karak Gurstokk, the Golden Mountain, the mountain holds the richest gold mines the world has to offer yet it fell in ages past to a monster unknown; now the men of north call it Tyrant Peak and my scouts have tracked a monster to that peak. That monster is called an Ijirok by Umgi and Dwarf, it is large and formidable and it has been a menace to our merchants, we have lost much in trade with our friends the Giants and the lands of your Empire to this beast which has also destroyed many a village of men and mining outpost of our own kind beneath its feat: I want you to head to Tyrant Peak and slay this monster, the peak is far to the Far North where the cold reigns year round and the suns rarely shine, it is a harsh land inhabited by monsters both Umgi and Danger Beast and it is a killer to the unwary or those not native to it" King Frori explained.

"I see, I'll accept this task, I need a guide, do any of your people explore those lands?" Tatsumi asked, Frori chuckled.

"I know one guide who'd be able to lead you thru that snowy hell, or rather my nephew Hrothgar knows him, he is Umgi like you, from the Empire but he was enslaved by the Northerners of that Far North, he is a hardy sort a freed slave who survived the cold wastes of that land and was taken in by Hrothgar after he found him on a patrol, near death from frostbite and trench foot but he has since recovered and thrived here and we consider him one of our own" King Frori replied, the door opened and Tatsumi turned to notice Hrothgar but also a very tall human man, about 6'8 and- he had bright blue ice eyes, bright blue hair, eyelashes and eyebrows and walked with a familiar posture but had a stern cold expression on his face which while handsome was marred by scars the largest of which was across his brow, his attire was dwarven but his coat was made of the fur of a rather large animal and he wore the head of a dead animal on his shoulder and at his side was a large battle-ax dwarven in make but decorated with the bones of his kills.

Esdeath turned too and her jaw dropped.

"Ah speak of Hrothgar and Hrothgar will come" King Frori remarked.

"Indeed Uncle" Hrothgar replied. "Emperor Tatsumi this is my son in all but blood Yandral Stonehammer; he is the best tracker in the north and the greatest guide you could ever have, and he has an obsession with hunting the great beasts of these lands" Hrothgar replied.

"Yandral?" Esdeath asked confused and took a good look at him and he looked back at her in amazement, then quicker then Tatsumi could breathe the two had run across the room and hugged. "YANDRAL!" Esdeath cheered.

"Esdeath!" Yandral replied. "I thought you were dead" Both said at the same time.

"No way" Mine remarked, Tatsumi feigned surprise as best as he could knowing this would happen thanks to the Mirror of Time, but this was not too hard as Tatsumi has a knack for doing so.

"Little Brother!" Esdeath cheered hugging him and bringing him into a glomp and bear hug.

"Nii-san" Yandral said muffled, Esdeath loosened her grip and let him go. "That's definitely you Esdeath-nii-san your hugs always are painful and likely to kill someone" Yandral remarked. "I thought you were dead, and I was the last Patras, and what have you made of yourself?" Yandral added.

"Well I've made a lot of myself, now- wait a minute why didn't you seek me out when I was conquering the north?" Esdeath replied.

"You conquered the north?" Yandral replied confused. "I heard the Empire had moved in but I didn't ask questions about it, what happens to those idiot tribes that attack the Empire isn't the business of anyone here and- to be honest I long gave up hope of any other Patrassi being left on Eden apart from my wives and children" Yandral explained.

"I see, well I was much the same- now you asked what I've made of myself, well I'm the Empire's Finest, no military mind on all of Eden can defeat me in battle, I'm also Grand Marshal of the Empire's Armies, conqueror of both South and North, and Ice Empress of the Golden Dragon Empire this is my husband Tatsumi the Golden Dragon Emperor and I'd love to tell you at length everything but there is pressing business that must be attended to less the world end in demonic domination" Esdeath explained, Yandral looked at Tatsumi looked him over, smelled him, and regarded him with that same gaze that Esdeath had given Tatsumi when he first met her.

"Tatsumi" Yandral began after a minute. "That's an ancient name, a name I bet you know the significance of it to, as for your title you must have either thought you would be Empire's best Emperor and thus worthy of it or you'd die and the world would blow up so no one would remember you" Yandral remarked, Tatsumi grinned at that. "My sister chose you as her husband correct?" Yandral replied.

"Indeed, I did brother, after he proved himself in a tournament, I held to find the right husband" Esdeath explained. "He slew every other combatant and fit perfectly the description inscribed on the scroll that went with the Demon's Blood Teigu which resides in me" Esdeath replied Yandral winced at mention of that particular weapon.

"You drank that? Esdeath I took you for strong but really that has got to be the craziest thing you've ever done" Yandral replied.

"Stronger then you think Yandral, I drank the whole thing" Esdeath replied at this he looked like he was going to faint, but he recovered.

"That explains how you were able to conquer so much with that power no army of men could oppose you much less in the North where you can turn the land itself against its defenders" Yandral replied.

"Indeed, now the King said you were the greatest tracker in the North, my husband needs to find and kill the Ijirok, we need to get to Tyrant Peak can you lead us there?" Esdeath explained getting down to business.

"Oh that I can certainly do, just be aware that you'll be marching into the harshest North, also that every monster that we were told about by the shaman as kids is as real as you or me and we need to treat them with caution and skill" Yandral explained then indicated the large head on his shoulder it was of a large beast with long horns on the sides of its head and covered in white fur with sharp teeth. "That my sister is a Wendigo, a dead one, they are real, and they are extremely dangerous, they hide in the icy gales and attack with speed, the unwary are swiftly dispatched Esdeath, this one was unwary and thus weak and perishes at my hand" Yandral replied

"I'm surprised, I expected the head to be bigger" Esdeath replied with wonderment. "How many have you killed?" Esdeath asked.

"Wendigos? About 76 that attacked me, twice that number I was actively hunting; there are nastier things out there big sister, Cun Annun run rampant the further you go and they roam in packs those vile hounds the snow makes them hard to spot, also there Ickyaks giant looming behemoths of fur and tusks, Thunderhorns which are even bigger mammoths then there are south of here, the Ijirok which while rare and you hunt are monsters that can lay low entire villages if left uncheck, and things best left undisturbed, but you said you're seeking Tyrant Peak, that is a dangerous place, it's near the mighty city of the Far North's most vile tribe the White Bears Trondhehm: those men are large in stature and feast on the flesh of men I know a good deal about them and they are not to be taken lightly: they were the ones who destroyed our clan, they were warriors who slaughtered our people that the Saika's barely kept on a leash; if they wore one at all" Yandral explained. "The White Bears are led by a giant of a man Oskak Svengold, he- enslaved me and our aunts, they died allowing me to escape" Yandral explained. "Also, I've seen demons moving about their lands of late and the number of warriors they can muster is great" Yandral added.

"A large number? How many? I thought I slew most of the North's warriors during my conquest" Esdeath asked.

"About 10,000 that can be mustered on notice, their tribes haven't gone south in years; you'll need thrice their number to have a chance" Yandral replied. "And that's not even mentioning Tyrant Peak itself, people who go there and get too close don't come back and large mountains of bones from the largest creatures in the north dot the valley even during blizzards some unknown horror dwells there" Yandral added.

"Are you weak or strong Yandral? Do you fear this place?" Esdeath replied

"I am no such person I'm strong I had to be to survive here, if you thought your life was harsh Esdeath mine was way harsher because at least you didn't have to deal with being abused I can see it in your walk, I have and for me survival of myself and my clan takes foremost, but I will guide you to Tyrant Peak I'm not sure how much use I can be beyond that, though I do know the weaknesses of an Ijirok mind you this beast is hard to kill, it is able to project images of the familiar things lost by a person to lure them in, its hide is thick with layers of fur concealing it, this monster also is able to regenerate: best advise kill it with fire" Yandral replied.

"That is enough for me" Tatsumi replied. "We'll slay this monster anything you want me to bring back to show as proof?" Tatsumi asked.

"The tusks of the creature, they are strongest part of the body, they have many uses; bring them back and we'll make good use of them" King Frori explained, Tatsumi nodded.

Shortly… Tatsumi after his audience immediately sought out a largest dwarven library in the city to learn more about Ijiroks, but also to learn about the particular history of this dwarf clan and some other things he could do. To put a long story of a detour short he found little more about the Ijiroks then Yandral had already told him but he found a great deal about the Northern Dwarves, dwarves that set themselves apart from even other Dwarves by their remote dwellings, what he did learn however was that despite centuries of war with the human tribes that dwelled in the North and lusted after Dwarven riches they had not lost a hold to their external enemies, records did report wars with Skaven and other hostile peoples that dwelled beneath the world but those had been sporadic and holds that fell to these had since been reclaimed in recent years and as such no Dwarven hold remained that wasn't in their hand save one: Tyrant Peak and not for lack of trying as according to records many expeditions had been sent and none returned with the bones that pilled in the vale beneath the mountain rose higher: underground expeditions fared no better as Skaven had infested the deeps beneath the mountain and their numbers were vast and allowed them to contest the ways into the hold both apparent and secret.

Even further knowledge about Tyrant Peak told similar stories, many had gone missing over the years and even an expedition that brought Dwarven Juggernauts and a War Sentinel had gone missing and thus was presumed wiped out by whatever horror dwelt there; the Dwarven King had given him what in all intents and purposes was a near impossible task. "Near impossible not impossible" Tatsumi thought to himself and reminded that doubting part that it was do or the world dies and everyone with it which was enough to keep him optimistic after all there had to be at least a snowball's chance of hell in succeeded but likely those chances were higher than that analogy suggested. "What a stupid analogy: where would you get the snow to make the ball in the first place? Besides I've got way better odds then that, remember I was told that it was impossible to defeat the Empire well look how that turned out" Tatsumi thought, then poured thru more books learning whatever he could and even then he was uncertain of the endgame: too much was at stake for him to take needless risks and he wasn't going to charge in without doing as much preparation as possible, he knew that an army would be needed, well he had a small one but there was a lot of snow and ice and he had Esdeath to turn that ice into more soldiers.

Esdeath looked at Tatsumi. "I need you to make me a massive army of ice soldiers don't care how many but a lot of them, how long will it take you?" Tatsumi asked.

"A few days to build something comparable to my ice legions that helped take the north but those were multiple armies I'll need about five hours to make a sizeable force; I want an exact number though" Esdeath replied.

"About 50,000 no less but feel free to add in more" Tatsumi replied, Esdeath smirked.

"With all this ice and snow, I could make fifty million and still have more" Esdeath replied, Tatsumi grinned.

The following day they left the hold and marched north, because of the climate they left behind anything that was liable to get bogged down and they dressed for the cold as best they could and marched north, Tatsumi noted that they only had to travel two days before the temperature was below zero. "It gets worse the further north we go, up there the nights are fatal so we need to find shelter by midafternoon, once it starts getting dark it gets real cold really quickly" Yandral explained, he fortunately had maps of this area that he had made himself and he had traveled this place before. "I'm one of the few people who've been near to Tyrant Peak and survived granted though I never got too close to the place" Yandral had told him before leaving. As the day began to fade, they took shelter in a large cavern that they evicted a family of Cave Bears from and made camp: the ice warriors had taken care of the beasts so they hadn't lost anyone.

The following day they went further north and noted movement on the plains. "Methreki: Cat people they live here and are the only people in this part of the lands that won't try to kill and eat you outright which is better than I can say of the human tribes in these parts: up here they eat what they can and anything that doesn't survive the cold, no tombs are built for those who die here they eat their dead down to the marrow and use the bones for all sorts of things, the Methreki are civil by comparison" Yandral explained.

"You think they'd help us?" Tatsumi asked.

"Not with Ijirok they fear those creatures and avoid them like the plague, but with the Northman yes they'd be eager to do so, the tribes of men up here hunt them for sport and for their pelts: they'd be more then eager to take up arms, but if you want their aid against demons that's another angle entirely they are ritualistic and superstitious to the extreme and take things very seriously, but I'd wager they'd help if you can convince them but I'll not they aren't a unified people and they are nomadic not unlike the Patrassi were and they tend not to linger in one place so you'd have to treat with each tribe: be grateful they know the differences between use and a locals; the attire is a dead giveaway" Yandral replied.

"Should we approach them now?" Tatsumi asked.

"Not while they are moving: they are very defensive when on the move so best to approach them when they are encamped: I'm betting a good number of their merchants know about the Empire moving in and have spread word of the good intentions of its ruler: I doubt they believe it but at least they won't shoot you where they would shoot Saikas, Icebloods and White Bears but they have good reason to: speaking of best not mention the word Saika to anyone up here; the name is regarded as piss to them and people that speak it are likely to be in the dinner pot later" Yandral explained, with that advise Tatsumi led his force in a different direction away from the Methreki.

Their journey took another five days and they came unto the valley of bones by the afternoon of the sixth day the weather however was horrible and while it wasn't a full blown blizzard it was near close and trying to keep together would have been a whole lot harder if not for Esdeath using her powers to keep the weather in check somewhat: the cold however was not dispelled and Tatsumi had dawned the Dragon Armor to keep warm and that armor itself was covered in frost that melted on contact every second thus putting up a flow of steam from him. "At least I need to stay warm and ready" Tatsumi thought, then noted the reason why the valley was called the Valley of Bones, in spite of the snowfall massive mounds of bones peaked thru the snowfall and a the smell of a dead mammoth was in the air.

"Mammoth, couldn't have died less than a few hours ago, beware we're near the den of the monster" Yandral warned, Tatsumi took a step forward.

"Tatsumi" a voice stated, a voice too familiar, and Tatsumi noted in the snow ahead was his mother Akame which by all means was impossible as she was about 3000 miles away at least if not more he knew immediately that the Ijirok was there and waiting for him.

"Mom? I don't think you should be here" Tatsumi replied.

"Oh, why not my son?" the fake Akaa replied

"Because you're not her, I know for a fact my mother is in the Southern Empire acting as my diplomat you're not her unless she's managed to travel 3000 miles and fancies freezing her ass off in this biting cold in that dress" Tatsumi replied, the fake Akaa smiled.

"I've not feasted on an Emperor before: this will be quite fun" the Ijirok replied and the lure vanished and from near behind came a massive behemoth about twice the height of the largest giant in his company: the monster walked on four legs and had massive blue tusks from its jaw of vast amounts of teeth the size of grown men the eyes blue and full of knowing venom but Tatsumi noted at the same time its weakness, huge tracks of white fur.

"Smaug: Grand Inferno!" Tatsumi declared conjuring up a massive fire ball flames burning outwards into a large ball the size of a meteorite and a massive fire blast hit the creature setting it alight.

The Ijirok's screams that followed were in Tatsumi's mind the most horrifying sound he'd ever heard a creature make when mortally injured and they echoed thru the valley, but as suddenly as those screams had given the echo something else happened, massive amounts of snow began falling as the valley shook as if the screams caused an earthquake. "Quake!" Tatsumi shouted and moved about to avoid the falling snow with the rest of the people with him following suit to find some semblance of cover from the masses of ice falling down the mountain with the party shortly taking cover behind a bone pile.

"Look up" Valruost warned Tatsumi and he did as a loud sound like a massive bell tolling echoed, Tatsumi looked up and saw something he really wished he were not seeing that something being the mountain moving or what had seemed part of the mountain. A loud stomp was heard and a primordial roar of the kind that had not been heard in the Empire for five centuries. The Mountain rose or rather the monster that had been sleeping on the mountain to the point of becoming blanketed beneath the snow rose, the Ijirok's pained cries still echoed as the monster stumbled to the ground in an attempt to extinguish the flames.

The Monster towards huge, rising about 1000 stories into the air, its head was draconic and its maw was filled with teeth the size of towers, eyes were red and as it rose it spread forth massive bat-like wings that caused the wind to change direction as it stretched the, the feet of the monster were the size of houses connected to legs that rivaled skyscrapers but this thing then loomed over with the most intimidating feature, two massive claws attached to two massive arms: Tatsumi had only heard stories and read books on this creature, had seen the armor made from one used by his mentor and good friend Bulat, he knew what it was.

"Tyrant" Tatsumi stated with surety, it was a Tyrant: a Type SSS Danger Beast: the largest known species of Danger Beast and something he thought had was extinct. Thoughts of it being a dream in his mind were shattered when one of those claws grabbed Ijirok: it was screaming still, and its screams became more to begs of mercy.

"Mercy! Mercy!" the Ijirok begged.

"You: food" The Tyrant replied in a beastial voice and brought the Ijirok to its maw and chomped; screams were silenced as the lower half of the Ijirok was chomped and swallowed, the other half was thrown to the ground on a pile in the distance, the Tyrant then looked out then made a loud sniffing noise.

"Humans" the Tyrant said. "I smell you humans; I see you not in the snowstorm, but I know you're there, I heard your voices a" the Tyrant continued. "I've not fed on humans in many weeks, and men of the Empire, not in centuries: humans: you- all of you- vermin! What did you think you could achieve by coming here, did the Dwarves send you to claim their mountain: I HATE DWARVES! Their kind took my mate from me, killed her and then trapped her soul in one of their vile abominations: I shall not suffer the same fate: I killed all the dwarves that lived here and every dwarf that has returned since, they killed my mate took my Krertschi! Made her into suit, I will not suffer the same fate I will not suffer you to live I am Godroussil! I am God! And you mortals will suffer the same fate as all who come here!" The Tyrant ranted and then looked down.

In the valley bellow suddenly barrages of ice went up the Tyrant roared as it blocked the ice, on the ground Esdeath looked at Tatsumi. "Get back everyone except those who can fly I've got a plan now hide" Esdeath ordered and the party split up with most hiding under the bone pile. Esdeath looked at the Tyrant. "Tyrant! Vakuvakul Gulga Galboroth Imga Echia: Inagai Rockthi Esdeath! VATURE UNSUUTH!" Esdeath yelled in her language. "Demon's Blood: Ice Titan!" Esdeath declared and suddenly the snow and ice closed in from around Esdeath pulled upward into an icy sphere which was then surrounded by a massive construct, a looming colossus of ice shaped in the form of Esdeath herself with a massive sword of ice.

"PATRAS! MONSTER! EGG BREAKER! ABOMINATION! OF ALL THE FUCKING HUMANS TO FACE ME FATE YOU THREW A PATRAS AT ME?! A PATRAS WITH THE DEMON'S BLOOD! I'LL DESTROY YOU!" Godroussil shrieked and charged Esdeath.

(Song begin: Live and Learn by Crush 40)

Esdeath sidestepped the charge with rapid speed, beneath her on the ground bellow the cyclopes and giants retreated to a high ridge, while Tatsumi and Sayo took off into the air followed by Susanoo and Amaterasu.

"Alright what's the plan?" Sayo asked Tatsumi over the wind.

"We kill the Tyrant, we need to target it while Esdeath distracts it, we need to hit weak spots like the joints we'll divide and conquer the main target will be the head, if we take out the brain we take out the threat" Tatsumi replied.

"I will destroy you PATRAS!" the Tyrant yelled and Esdeath made the first strike after letting the Tyrant take an initial swing that missed, from the center of her titan's body Esdeath controlled it like a puppeteer would control the strings mixed with a series of movements that to the untrained eye would look like dances but were actually the katas of the fourth ring of the Imperial Fist, the fourth ring was meant for countering a single opponent and used aggressive blows intermixed with any weapon that the wielder had, the blows were meant to be swift and effective targeting parts of the body. This style of fighting was unknown to the Tyrant as his species had no such need for such movements as they had no natural predators.

The effects of Esdeath attacks were quickly apparent: strike one was a punch to the upper torso near the right shoulder where the arm connected to the torso, this blow stopped the momentum from the Tyrant and Esdeath followed up with a slice from the ice blade which dealt a minor laceration across the midsection, this strike did not draw blood but it did cause pain. The third strike from Esdeath was not dealt by the ice titan but by a barrage of Wiesschneil ice spiked spears Esdeath conjured from the mountain glaciers that had been left unscathed by the awakening of the Tyrant, the spears tore the back and wings of the Tyrant penetrating the outer layers of skin causing the Tyrant to lurch forward in pain as Esdeath struck again punching in the gut staggering him backwards and crashing the beast into the mountain side the blow opening the doors of the Dwarf Hold from the force.

By this point Susanoo and Amaterasu had managed to fly to an advantageous position near Tyrant's upper hip. "Mirror of Yata!" Susanoo declared and the giant mirror appeared.

"Righteous wrath of the Sun!" Amaterasu declared and a blast of focused plasma was fired by her thru the mirror and into the side of the Tyrant causing extreme damage and pain for the Tyrant which lurched to the side as Esdeath drove an icy spiked punch into stomach.

At the same time Tatsumi and Sayo had managed to navigate to the rear of the Tyrant. "You go left I go right: focus on the Tyrant's arm he seems to be favoring it, put as many arrows as you can into this monster" Tatsumi ordered, Sayo grinned.

"While you try and get to the top of the matter; look don't try a repeat of your trick with the Dreadsaurian, I don't want you literally jumping into the jaws of death a second time" Sayo replied.

"I had no intention of doing that, besides the Tyrant is way smarter and you know me I don't do crazy shit like that twice: I'm going for the eye this time" Tatsumi replied, Sayo smirked.

"Your extremely brave and extremely ballsy Tatsumi, come back to me alive" Sayo replied then both flew to their attack paths

With Sayo… "Icarus, I need pointers, the most effect arrow attacks here" Sayo asked mentally.

"Use the Hawkstorm Barrage and Wild Gambit and when you break an opening use the arrow of Galleom: it will do major damage" Icarus advised, Sayo then flew towards the her target the elbow, the Tyrant was using its claw to hold back the blade of Esdeath's Titan and Sayo both noted that it was good because she knew where she had to hit it to break leverage, the goal wasn't to sever the limb with her attack but to weaken the Tyrant's grip so Esdeath could bring the icy blade down thru the claw and limb.

Seeing her target Sayo took a deep breath and focused her grey eyes on her target looking for a weak spot which she found as a number of the monsters scales had been broken off when Esdeath had slammed it into the mountain side. "Bingo: Now let us see how deep my arrows will go" Sayo thought and declared presently "Hawkstorm Barrage!" Hundreds of golden colored arrows made of pure energy were loosed by Sayo her hand pulling the strings with the speed of sound and in that moment those arrows flew, some missed the mark but many more struck true burning holes in weaker inner scales, to the Tyrant this was not felt any more than a person feels the skin cells that they lose with every movement, the holes however did expose actual skin. "Wild Gambit!" Sayo declared and with that she did a battle-dive towards the opening divided the bow into the two Khopeshes and carved thru the exposed skin like it was a stuffed goose, the slices were extremely fast with hundreds of them per minute and each tore deep.

The Tyrant would have noticed this pain if not for that moment Esdeath had decided use her magic to create an ice blade from the fallen snow bellow and sent that blade into the groin of the Tyrant which let out an ear wrenching shriek, pain was added to as the Giants and Cyclopes were now unleashing firepower from their high powered cannon sized rifles into the exposed legs causing the Tyrant to get knocked of balance and slam into the mountain side again if not for the fact it maintained the grip on the icy blade it would have taken serious damage.

That grip was soon lost. "Arrow of Galleom!" Sayo declared after having flown back as her onslaught had revealed the nerves, and fired from her bow and arrow that while small at first grew to enormous size rather quickly, the arrow by the time it made contact was comparable in size to a 40 story building and it impacted with the force of about 400 mps. Rather quickly the Tyrant lost its grip and the ice blade tore thru first the claw and then the rest of left arm and wing behind it before Esdeath drew the blade back and drove it into the exposed midsection of the Tyrant directly thru the stomach, the Tyrant however still lived.

Tatsumi had in the meantime flown to the right side which had taken longer they he would have liked but he was flying against the wind. "Smaug: Flaming Sword of Rhuin!" Tatsumi declared and both his blades let up.

"Tatsumi 12 o clock high!" Valruost yelled and Tatsumi flew up as a pained random strike from the right claw came his way.

"Valruost: Bloodbind!" Tatsumi declared and the limb force in its tracks.

"Smaug: Inferno blast!" Tatsumi declared and a fiery ball flames surrounded him and went forward before Tatsumi flew back and then forward, the velocity was brutal and the momentum as Tatsumi flew right towards the second talon of the claw and flew right thru phalange amputating the digit as the fire seared the other four, then Tatsumi flew upwards along the arm towards the neck tell he was right in front of the Tyrant's eyes. "YOU WON'T STOP ME FROM SAVING THE WORLD!" Tatsumi yelled. "YOU ARE A TRAITOR TO EDEN AND MY POLICY IS THIS: EXTINCTION TO ALL TRAITORS!" Tatsumi declared and flew right into the left eye of the Tyrant which saw only a fiery blast as the eye saw nothing more Tatsumi then flew forward right to the brain.

"Now time for your trump cards" Tatsumi explained mentally. "Valruost! GRAND BLOOD INFUSION!" Tatsumi yelled and assumed the form of a bloody-handed god. "Smaug! GRAND INFERNO OF AQSHY!" Tatsumi declared and out from him came a massive explosion, the blast fried the Tyrant's brain and sent fire down the entire nervous system as Tatsumi flew out the back of the creature's skull with the momentum and dived backwards over it before flying away to freedom. The Tyrant let out one more pained bellow before it collapsed forward Esdeath then declared "Mahāpadma!" and time froze as she grabbed the Tyrant's body and smote it into the side of the mountain itself using the ice from her titan to bind it firmly in place as time resumed she then descended to the valley below on wings of ice with Tatsumi and Sayo landing at her side before she collapsed to the ground exhausted.

"Sleep my Ice Queen you need it" Tatsumi remarked after feeling her warm body for a pulse, having resealed the energy of his Teigus.

"So Tatsumi which of us is going to carry her sexy ass while we find the others" Sayo replied.

"Look up Sayo" Tatsumi replied and looked amazed at the sight of the Tyrant its face frozen in death along with its body to the mountain like it was a trophy on the wall.

It took less than 20 minutes to get everyone back together with the fortunate news that no one had died bar the Ijirok and the Tyrant in that battle. Speaking of the former's half eaten body lay nearby the snow having yet to completely burry it and unable to cover the massive tusks. Four Cyclopes took on the task of removing and carrying one while four more did the same to the other, Tatsumi was glad that he had such allies to carry those trophies he thought it would take a hundred men just carry one of those tucks. "One hundred men or four Cyclops? I'll take the later" Tatsumi thought then chuckled.

The real trouble was that he was now going to be carrying Esdeath as he was not going to let her out of his sight, he knew by looking at her that she had spent A LOT of her power on that fight and she'd need rest to recover, so in order to make sure she got it they first needed shelter and fortunately the doors to the mountain were wide open having been opened by the impacts from the fighting, with that they made their way inside to the first deep and readied warm fires, the first to be lit in those halls for about 500 years.

The first deep of the hold had a number of buildings that had were still fully furnished with Dwarven furniture which was made mostly out of stone but also of gold that had been shaped into chairs, while they lacked any bedding that was no issue as Tatsumi's company had brought plenty of bedding; once the night began falling they barred the gates which while they had been knocked ajar by the fighting hadn't been broken so they could be sealed, and with those gates shut the entire expedition slept soundly with Tatsumi having his first peaceful night's sleep since leaving the Dwarves before.

The next morning Tatsumi awoke to find Esdeath sitting on a chair opposite the bed he had been sleeping on. "I take it you carried me to this wonderful place, how does it feel to be the first Emperor to enter this hold of the Dwarves which hasn't seen an Emperor of the Empire ever visit because of the distance involved in addition to being among the first expedition to set foot inside this hall in 500 years" Esdeath greeted, Tatsumi sat up and stretched noting the warmth of the room.

"Personally I'm not sure how to feel, besides I'm less concerned about this place let the Dwarves deal with it as far as I'm concerned: there may be treasure here but I'm not going to either risk offending the Dwarves by taking anything or risk the lives of my people in this place: I only chose to have us rest here because the door had been opened when you pinned the Tyrant to the Mountain, no sense in looking for caves when night was falling" Tatsumi replied.

"I see, good I wasn't even going to mention Dwarven treasure: Sayo told me you carried me here, that was rather gentlemanly of you" Esdeath replied.

"Speaking of are you alright? That fight must have taken a good deal out of you" Tatsumi asked.

"Tatsumi my dear Tatsu-bunny you need not trouble yourself with worry about me, I'll admit that was by far the most I've ever used my powers and I hope I won't have to use them again on that scale any time soon: but as to how I'm feeling at the moment: I'm well rested, I've had breakfast and I'm ready to begin our journey south" Esdeath explained, Tatsumi smiled at that, Aria walked in carrying breakfast.

"Good you're awake I made you breakfast" Aria explained to Tatsumi and put his breakfast on the nearby stone table: freshly cooked pork jerky and some waybread. Tatsumi got up and sat down at the table.

"Thanks, my Capital Angel, hey why did you let me sleep in?" Tatsumi asked.

"Because you just did something that hasn't been done in centuries my dear Tatsumi-kun, you dealt the killing blow to a Tyrant and what may have been the last Tyrant in the known world, that entitles you to having extra sleep and breakfast made for you by yours truly" Aria explained, Tatsumi grinned and then ate up. Afterwards he changed from his pajamas into his imperial attire, Aria and Esdeath helped with his armor, then put on the furs needed to keep him warm.

From there on it was smooth traveling heading back south to Kraka Azgul Drakka, but on the way there Tatsumi took time to interact with his protectors…

In a cavern not too far from Tyrant Peak or Tatsumi's Peak as the expedition had taken to calling it much to Tatsumi's irritation, Tatsumi wasn't a fan of having places named after him but given the fact there was absolutely no way to get people stop and because it gave them some small hope in a dark world on the edge of destruction he let them do so afterall what did it matter much like his title it could easily be meaningless if he died before he saved the world. "Even then I'd hate to die having saved the world to leave my children without a father: I refuse to let that happen" Tatsumi thought, he was sitting in a portable chair that had come with his tent (The cave was large enough to set up a few) reading a book on the Dwarves of the Stonehammer Clan who were the other great clan of the North, those dwarves were renowned for their cold demeanors but jolly laughs along with red-hair and beards which were a dominant trait amongst the Dwarves that clan, they were also according to the book found of making simpler crafts like toys, furniture, tools, watches and other items one would expect to find in a home.

Tatsumi's reading was interrupted when Esdeath's two former subordinates Hiromi and Osawa walked in. "Greetings your majesty" Hiromi greeted.

"Hi Tatsumi" Osawa greeted cheerfully, then smiled at Hiromi's reaction of shock that she had greeted him so informally. "Esdeath said we should talk to you, because- well you'd be interested in what I have to say" Osawa replied.

"What do you have to say Osawa" Tatsumi asked relaxed.

"Oh just- you know uhh—Hiromi adores you, she has a massive crush on you, she adores you and it's so funny at night the things she says in her sleep" Osawa blabbed, Hiromi looked at her with even more shock and then shook with anxiety before recovering her composure.

"I mean no disrespect but- Osawa you're one to talk you get giddy like a schoolgirl whenever he's not looking in your direction" Hiromi replied, Osawa blushed at this her face a cherry red. "Anyway that is one way of getting around to the elephant in the room- we- love you my emperor, we really do, our duty to you as your Elite Seven requires the utmost faith and trust and- well Esdeath once told me the story of a city that faced invasion by a superior foe so in response the cities defenders raised an elite unit of soldiers who were all lovers: it was said that their love made them an unbreakable force and because the rest of your protectors have made the commitments of love to you we figured its high time for us to do the same" Hiromi explained diplomatically.

"Tatsumi will you have us, we really love you we do and we'll do whatever you want, anything you ask we'll do, I'm just worried you don't want us to be like that, we- just can't be willing to let you go, I'd happily lay my life down to save you: to swear myself to you and bare your children and help bare your burdens, I just don't want to die without knowing you felt the same or otherwise" Osawa explained, Tatsumi took a look at them and with the expressions on their face he couldn't help but laugh. "My liege did I displease you in some way, did I speak above my station?" Osawa asked seriously.

"No not at all, I accept your offers my sworn swords, I'm just surprised it took you so long and the fact that you put all this effort in well I found the whole thing amusing: don't worry I accept your feelings and gladly welcome you to my harem, only one stipulation though" Tatsumi replied.

"Name it my Emperor" Hiromi replied and bowed to the ground.

"That you two restrain yourself from spreading your legs for me until after we finish off our enemies up here: I want to have complete focus on finishing our goals here, if you prove you have the patience for that as you have so far and that you love me not just because of my physical traits but for other reasons then you will have earned my love and affection, also if you want to go the extra mile prove yourself as my defenders just do me one other favor: Don't DIE dying is not allowed at all for any of my protectors" Tatsumi replied, both agreed and then laughed at the final statement, they then spent the rest of the evening talking about themselves.

During this time Tatsumi found out about the two and their experiences regarding Esdeath, they weren't much older than him but they had quite the amount of stories; they had actually been under Esdeath's personal command for a long while in fact before she even commissioned the Three Beasts, Hiromi told him details about those three: Tatsumi noted that from theirs and Esdeath's opinions really only Liver would have gotten along with him if they had lived, Nyau was as cold and vicious as a razor and was mainly kept by Esdeath in his position to keep him from causing trouble as Esdeath viewed Nyau as a safety hazard to other commanders while Daidura was little more than a direct towards the enemy and let him loose and he'd do whatever he wanted to. Liver on the other hand had been a decent soldier but had been disgraced and subordinated to Esdeath after he had suffered a horrible defeat during the Robber Baron war two and half years prior and had been force to leave after his troops mutinied in the aftermath: Tatsumi had heard of that incident from Bulat and Spear the former actually having been under his command during the mutiny and the real reason for it according to Bulat was that Liver had actually left behind a good partition of the supplies and thus had taken more rations for himself and the more elite troops, Spear had told him though that the mutiny occurred due to a lack of faith in Liver personally, in either case it had ruined his career and if not for Esdeath's interest in him as he had been her military mentor his career would have ended after that fiasco and for all intents and purposes it was over and he would essentially serve as Esdeath's advisor and vanguard commander until his death at the hands of Spear during his failed attempt with the other three beasts to assassinate her father.

Osawa and Hiromi speculated Liver's reasoning for following Honest's orders over Esdeath's was out of fear for his own life after the disgraceful defeat and the mutiny and it had been meant out a desire to save his career. "That was rather selfish and foolish of him" Tatsumi remarked after that.

"To be fair I doubted he expected Spear and her father to be the target let along you and Night Raid to come to their defense" Osawa commented.

"Still though it was stupid of him to follow Honest's orders Esdeath could have easily invoked her authority as Grand Marshal- you know what forget it, Liver's death is the chief reason I've come as far as I have" Tatsumi replied.

They eventually went to sleep, the following morning they resumed their journey back to the Dwarves, during which they were attacked by Wendigos, the creatures were rather ferocious and came by surprise in the snow if not for the fact they had attacked Esdeath there might have been some actual damage done, but they foolishly attacked Esdeath who used Mahāpadma and cut down the attacker as time was frozen along with a few nearby ones, this confused them and allowed Esdeath the time to skewer the remained with ice spikes. After that Esdeath insisted on skinning all 20 of the creatures before they moved on and fortunately that left a clear impression on nature and nature decided not to send anymore of her aggressive fauna or horrid weather their direction for the rest of their journey south.

That journey lasted five days and was without further incidents or hardship and they arrived at the gates of Kraka Azgul Drakka, the one thing Tatsumi had done before they left was to make sure he took one of the many broken Tyrant scales in addition to the Ijirok tusks, that was an extra workload for the two Giants tasked with carrying it but they weren't hindered by the task nor was in trouble for them: Tatsumi thought that at least a hundred men would have been needed to move that scale but two giants did the job well enough. The Dwarven sentries including Hrothgar who had been waiting for their return were amazed.

"I knew you'd return it was in my gut Emperor Tatsumi but I didn't expect you to bring that thing, the Ijirok Tusks yes but that massive scale what creature produced such a thing?" Hrothgar asked.

"A Tyrant" Tatsumi replied then looked the Dwarf clear in the eye and said "Hopefully the last of its kind, and I'm fairly certain it is the reason the hold fell, why every expedition has failed too and why it's called Tyrant Peak" Tatsumi elaborated.

"A Tyrant? Such a beast has not been seen for centuries, not in my years not for over 1800 years" Hrothgar explained, Tatsumi looked surprised.

"I'm sure the King will be quite amazed by my accomplishment and we can seal the pact am I right?" Tatsumi replied rather curtly and in a down to business tone of voice.

"Ye'll have to talk with the king on that, but he'll accept, his word is as good as Oathgold: anything you've got in mind?" Hrothgar replied.

"A lot" Tatsumi replied.

At the same time Esdeath looked at Yandral who looked at her solemnly. "Sister this is where we go our separate ways for now: as much as I'd enjoy joining you on your quest my place is here: you and I both have the sworn duty to restore the Patra Clan, you have your future but my family is here now and my duty as you know is to them first though I'll be honest with you sister when all this is over and the demons are beaten we'll visit often but until then I must stay here and protect my children to help them become strong: also my duty is to my clan and I must provide food to feed them" Yandral explained.

"I understand brother you have your duties I will return though and visit in about a year and you'll meet your new nieces or nephews" Esdeath explained.

"Nieces or Nephews?" Yandral asked confused.

"Oh, didn't I mention I'm carrying twins" Esdeath replied, at this her brother grinned like a sheep.

Trondhehm one week later… the Blackstone fortress of Trondhehm loomed tall and ominous over an otherwise white plateau, Tatsumi took a firm look at the fortress. "That is by far the biggest Blackstone structure I've ever seen" Tatsumi remarked.

"Ai there is no grander abomination in the North and no more dangerous one; the Nexus there is live and you can see the demons moving about intermixed with the Northerners: we can destroy the rest of the Ruins on our own but this bastion we'll need the aid of the willing" King Frori replied.

"Be grateful then the Old Alliances are upheld" Dianne replied.

"And new allies have joined since" A newcomer replied, that newcomer was the Methreki chieftain Kordus Longtail, his species were a cross between the saber-cats that roomed the north and humans, he was average height for his race and wore bronze armor as was typical of his warriors: the Methreki eagerly joined the Alliance of Order as it had been called when given the chance to face their enslavers and wipe them out once and for all.

The armies arrayed that day consisted of about 40,000 Imperial soldiers brought up from the Northernmost Imperial forces, 60,000 allied Northern auxiliaries largely Yetis but some humans, 50,000 Dwarves not counting their Automatons, 5000 Giants with 10,000 Cyclopes and 20,000 of their human subjects that were spared for battle in the North, and about 30,000 Methreki as well as 200,000 Ice soldiers that Esdeath had been producing in the course of the time it took them to journey there, the forces would have been larger had it not been that Tatsumi insisted on sending the bulk of all of the forces south to aid his forces in reclaiming the Empire from both the forces of Volgoth and Renegade Imperial Warlords that had taken arms in what they saw as a power vacuum.

That said the Alliance army was against an extremely formidable adversary, the White Bears had not been ideal when the North had fallen and had subdued all the other tribes in the far north, at Trondhehm they had 200,000 Northern warriors against them: Tatsumi wondered where that army had been when Esdeath invaded but his knowledge of affairs noted that Oskak Svengold who led the White Bears did not recognize the Saika clan's authority after Numa's failed first war against the Empire and his humiliating capture at the hands of Najenda: this also in turn drew a number of other Far North clans away too and since then every Northerner who wanted to continue the practice of the Old Ways which had been outlawed by Esdeath's command as they were practicing human sacrifice, cannibalism and anarchic acts of raiding raping and murdering for sport, while the bulk of the Northern manpower under the Saika's had been decimated and destroyed by Esdeath there were still survivors that clung to the old ways and those of the Far North had not spent any strength in that conflict and did not immediately invade the newly conquered Imperial provinces out of a manpower disparity. But since then they had gathered their strength and had acquired new allies according Syura; the Arch-Devil General Daeva had been sent North by Volgoth and had reactivated the Far Northern Nexi allowing demons to pour in somewhere in the neighborhood of 2 million at minimum fortunately however most of that was spread out and they were weaker demons that only offered quantity rather than quality due to wards that held back the tide of dark energy.

Trondhehm's nexus was the largest of the five ones in the region and armies from the other Dwarf Clans and the Giants had marched to destroy those while Tatsumi and the leaders of the Alliance had taken their troops and marched on Trondhehm with the goals of killing the Northern leadership and banishing Daeva. This siege was different from others Tatsumi had been thru, but this was because artillery was now readily available, but not of the conventional or imperial type. The artillery was provided by the Dwarves and the Giants, the Dwarves brought highly advanced batteries of heavy guns that were automated and easy to move and rapidly deploy, the Giants brother their own artillery in the form of the average rifle used by a Giant soldier. In addition to the artillery other siege engines in the form of Massive Dwarven constructs, mobile fortresses and aerial vehicles were there to commence various attacks with their massive array of weapons. There were also the living Siege engines in the form of every single Giant and Cyclops on the field, especially the older ones which were as big Zogothal had been.

"Our forces are outnumbered but not outmatched: the main target is a central nexus, their leadership will undoubtably be defending it at all cost; this where our elites need to be focused, we'll attack from multiple directions our main attack will come from the least expected area of attack the one that also happens to be the harder of the routes to the Nexus in the central citadel it won't be easy and will take time but it's the best way; the rest of army has the job of drawing attention away from our main force which will be led by me personally: I'm not going to shrug off the responsibility, myself and my honor guard will be the first ones in and the last ones out: we need to win or we all die and our planet with us" Tatsumi explained to the other leaders.

"I see who will command the diversion?" King Frori asked

"Empress Esdeath Patras Gildenstrom will be in overall command of diversion attack, I want you to put your best commanders with her, we as the leaders of this alliance will lead our best into the heart of the enemies bastion: they won't be expecting that" Tatsumi replied, Frori smirked for it was a bold and unexpected tactic but also one that had its risks.

The following hours were spent finalizing the attack plans and giving out orders: after those orders were distributed the battle began with a barrage of artillery the Blackstone walls that had stood for centuries were shattered in various locations the broken structures faded out of existence, Northern Warriors charged out of their broken walls to an attempt to avoid being thinned by further bombardment, this is where they were at their most gallant as dark iron armored warriors with great axes charged towards the amassed legions of the alliance each race been distinct from the rest. But as gallant and bold as the ferocious charge was it was not going to reach its destination as the frontlines erupted ranged fire at them, arrows, bolts, bullets, shells, rockets, missiles, plasma energy bolts and other ranged projectiles were unleashed and poured into the charging Northerners as their valiant charge was stopped in its tracks with bodies quickly piling up as hundreds fell from the first volley, then more came until the Northerners fell back, with their forces in retreat the proper attack began in earnest, the ranged lines behind the foot troops as the artillery tore into the city behind.

The order of the day was simple kill any Northerner that resisted, anyone that surrendered was to killed too Tatsumi wanted their warriors slaughtered to the last to avoid them rising up and in this case these people had thrown their lot in with the demons any innocents left had been sacrificed as some bloody offering to the demons to a vain attempt insure victory there were no civilians left, no children or elderly to save all that was against them were the warriors of the Far North out for blood. The first into the breach were the Dwarven Juggernauts and Sentinels that while not designed with the paths of the fortress in mind opened new ones as the order was to raze the city to the cold hard ground and let that ground remain forever buried beneath snow, as such any structure was regarded as being scheduled for demolition and the machines along with the Giants and Cyclopes that followed them smashed wide open fields that allowed the full formations of the attackers to be used as if on an open plain.

Tatsumi's elite vanguard had broken thru resistance arrayed against them easily; demons had been deployed throughout the city but their numbers had been focused as Tatsumi had wanted on the main attack: Tatsumi noted the Northern warriors that had been quick to rush against them now ran in terror as these had been the green troops, an actual force of veteran warriors backed up by a type of Demon Tatsumi hadn't yet seen now marched towards him led by a rather large man though he was not Oskak Svengold but some minor warlord that was in charge of this group.

Tatsumi attacked him first not giving a chance for the man to speak as his head was decapitated by Valruost following that he looked at shocked Northerners and yelled "Smaug: BURNING HEAD!" and summoned a massive fiery screaming skull that charged at the enemy in a line incinerating man after man for a good 20 seconds and good distance before disappearing, Tatsumi had in that single act killed about 500 enemy soldiers and his soldiers were amazed by the act but let not their amazement linger long as the demons had not been phased by the attack and thus began to charge at them; the demons were by contrast much hardier however they still were slain easily enough as while they had been of a stronger type then the imps and horned enforcers that were the bulk of the army these creatures were still outmatched by their opponents, few fell on Tatsumi's side less than two dozen and only a third were actually dead but the demons had been defeated and his forces pushed on not even the wounded dared linger they kept pressing on so fervent was their devotion with the leaders of their army so close at hand their pride did not allow them to linger regardless of pain.

The fight continued as Tatsumi and his bodyguards hewed legions of northern warriors cutting thru their iron armor like it was butter and continuing to push forward thru the city streets with the largest of the Giants breaking down every building their path, centuries old structures made of dark material were shattered and destroyed forever, a bastion that hadn't been assaulted in such a matter for thousands of years was fast becoming smaller with each advance as more energy was released back to hell where it belonged with demons and the damned souls of Northerners following it, as for every Alliance soldier slain 20 foes fell down with them and that number went up when Giants were factored into the count.

Hours of fighting later and they had reached the Citadel of Trondhehm, a massive black circular stoned pyramid with one gate which was allowed only the lesser Cyclopes and those smaller than them entry as the Giants held back to reinforce the rest of the battle. The inside of the citadel proved rather linear with few branching paths and Tatsumi needed to make little turns sending squads off to each one, the heart however was massive.

At the center of the Citadel Pyramid was a massive room the size of Melitine's central bazaar with the centerpiece being a massive circular portal that poured forth demons, standing in front with utter discipline and in lockstep were the best of enemies armies and above them stood their leaders: Daeva looked down from her chair yawned and sat up and applauded. "Oh goody you're here Emperor Tatsumi, I've been eagerly awaiting your arrival now can you do me a favor and free me of this dull planet, the way I see it either two things happen in this fight either I kill you and your friends and I can go home or you're allies kill me and I get to go home too It's a win-win for me either way" Daeva replied.

"Surrender I'm giving you one chance to leave and return home to hell of your own volition" Tatsumi replied.

"I'd love to return home the only issue is I can't flee like a coward I have a reputation to uphold especially if I hope to impress Darkar with my accomplishments so I'll need to fight unfortunately but it will be exciting compared to the rest of my day so I hope you and your allies put up a fun effort" Daeva replied.

"I am Oskak Svengold Chosen of the Old Gods: I will desecrate your body rape your women and make a cup from your skull" Oskak Svengold yelled at Tatsumi. "Starting with that silver haired looker there" Oskak added looking at Najenda.

"Susanoo, defense order 67! Target Oskak Svengold you know the drill" Najenda ordered.

"Yes, my lady" Susanoo replied his eyes took on a red hew.

"Chew Chew Koro!" Seryu shouted and threw a ball at the nearest soldier

"Kill them!" the northerner shouted before Koro tore his face off and with that the throne room fight began.

(Song begin: White Death: Sabaton) The room quickly became a battle, the charge came quickly Tatsumi, his bodyguards along with Najenda, Aria and Seryu and their protectors charged the center: first however came a clearing of the grunts if you could call elite Northern Housecarls grunts, for this Susanoo and Amaterasu along with Koro did the job moving faster than the average warrior on both sides the three organic Teigus tore a path thru the enemies: Kuro after Seryu threw a barrage of Chew Chew balls at the enemies, Susanoo with his giant spiked mace and Amaterasu with her twin blades, these three cleared the room out slightly allowing the rest of the force room to maneuver: Tatsumi and his vanguard followed Susanoo who had been given a focused kill order on Oskak and by extension every enemy in his path, his mace grinding thru fully armored warriors like they were made of wax and pulverizing demon knights into pancakes that faded out after being smashed.

Tatsumi then was set upon by five Hell Knights that were armed to the teeth and yelled "For Valtor!" before coming in his direction; to his sides however Mez and Akame leaped forward followed by Kurome and Suzuka, his four champions then each engaged a hell knight while Tatsumi engaged the remaining one, a series of rapid sword fights broke out with blows by the two combatants in each duel meeting each other blow for blow, but this was a ruse for while the Hell Knights were distracted the Three Sacred Blades along with Nui and Shastavi each flanked that target and dispatched the hell knights with strikes thru the necks where their armor was weak before moving onto the next targets. To the side more Northerners charged at Aria and her honor guard, but those northerners were abruptly surprised by the Angel Empress vanishing from sight. Fatality! The first rank were cut by a slice from Razordawn as Aria reappeared, she then did a flip off of one the falling corpses jumping onto the shoulders of the Northerners rapidly dispatching each one. "Einz Zwie Drei!" Aria yelled as she dashed from target to target, her bodyguards by this point having charged into the shocked enemies which before had numbered about fifty were now about a dozen shattered souls that put up minimal resistance before Aria and her guards finished the rest of them.

This opening Aria made was what Tatsumi and those nearest to him needed to get to Oskak, Daeva and the other leaders. A familiar form of Graal came charging towards Tatsumi. "GRAAL SMASH TATSUMI!" The demon yelled, Tatsumi sidestepped the axe which glanced a hit the side of his armor. During the exposed momentum Graal has thrown aside his guard and was quickly decapitated by Womyn who had long since learned her lesson about two-handed axe users attacking her courtesy of Tatsumi who told her the best tactic is wait for them to commit their strike then when their momentum was committed to the downswing bypass their guard and Womyn's Teigu blade easily bypassed that guard.

Another angry demon charged Tatsumi only to fall over with an energy arrow in each of its eyes courtesy of Sayo who was flying above the room raining death from above onto the enemies, Tatsumi then cut down two elite demon lords before having to parry strikes with Daeva who danced passed him with a rapiers grace towards an unready Balluck. But fortunately, at that moment Hiromi blocked her strike crashing her Teigu great-mace onto the demonic blade.

"Oh you just made this interesting: two vs one I like those odds" Daeva commented drawing a second blade and locked blades with the two women in front of her Balluck countered her sword strikes with parries while Hiromi pressed Daeva to dodge power attacks, things got more interesting when Balluck threw one of her needle daggers at Daeva who blocked the blade with the grace of a coin-toss.

"Nice" Balluck complimented and then attacked, both women had Daeva where they wanted her, completely away from their Emperor and distracted from the true threat. That threat was Osawa who had in the time that the two had been distracted Daeva crept up behind Daeva after she and Nui carved thru a few very determined Northern Warchiefs: Osawa grinned and drove her daggers into Daeva's throat slitting it grinning the grin of a yandere who just successfully protected her senpai.

"Thank you for the fun" Daeva thanked.

"Your welcome" Osawa replied before the demoness departed in flame, Oskak aimed a swing at the distracted Osawa with his great axe only to have Tatsumi cleave the axe in two and both his arms off, at the same time Susanoo drove down his mace grinding the man into a crushed pulp of iron and gore.

(Song End)

With that the enemies panicked and were cut down full slaughter demons retreating into the portal tactic fully as the portal itself hummed. "Now how are we going to destroy that?" Seryu asked.

"Junko, Najenda with me: everyone else begin to the leave the room" Tatsumi ordered, the two women who were covered with blood on their luxurious armor walked over to him as the rest of the people cleared out slaughtering the dying or wounded northerners on the ground as they left with the exception of Amaterasu and Susanoo who came to their mistresses' sides.

Shortly… "Alright I'm worried that we are going to need more than the usual amount of force to take down this live sucker; we've not actually destroyed a live nexus yet the ones we've been taking out were inactive but this is a live portal and we're going to need some serious power to bring it down" Tatsumi explained.

"I see and what do we have to do with that hubby-bubby?" Junko asked.

"Not you specifically my dears but rather your Teigus: I'm fairly certain Susanoo and Amaterasu can destroy that thing" Tatsumi explained.

"And why have them do that and not plant explosives?" Najenda inquired.

"Because by the time we clear the room to set off said explosives demons could have come back and removed them: this is a sure-fire way without the risk also I'm fairly certain those two can withstand the energy" Tatsumi replied.

"Very well Susanoo, do you think that you and your sister can survive this?" Najenda asked.

"I'm perfectly capable of doing so mistress Najenda, I once had mountain vault collapse on me: this will be no problem" Susanoo replied, the three of them

"Then you have your orders give us 10 minutes to get out of here and then blast the thing back to Hell where it belongs" Najenda ordered, at this Susanoo nodded. Tatsumi took on last look at the ruined pulp where Oskak had been.

"Yandral missed out on an epic fight" Tatsumi replied.

"He did indeed but he did say he was staying with his family" Najenda replied, then lurched over as the baby decided to kick her. "The Battle isn't over: don't do that or you'll get both mommy and you killed" Najenda lectured her belly as Tatsumi picked her up and carried her over his shoulder. "You know that's not necessary" Najenda stated.

"Yeah and I bet you our little girl will kick you again, I swear we need to finish this war faster; knowing our luck our child will decide it wants to be born during a battle" Tatsumi replied.

Momentarily… Susanoo and Amaterasu took deep breaths and noted their mistresses and those that had come with them were now a good half mile away from the pyramid citadel. "Mirror of Yata" Susanoo declared summoning a giant mirror.

"Disc of Helios" Amaterasu declared summoning a second in front of the first the two then faced the mirror.

"Light of the Three moons" Susanoo declared projecting a beam of energy

"Light of the Two Suns" Amaterasu declared projecting a second beam of energy, the two beams crossed and infused thru both mirrors merging into one massive beam of energy that impacted the portal to Hell, the portal cracked like it was a mirror and the two Teigus quickly blasted holes into the ceilings flying out them as the portal collapsed draining the energy from the ruin.

Across the city black stone went flying harmlessly past ordinary beings into the rift that was draining anything and everything demonic in nature into it like a bathroom drain that had been unplugged: hundreds of thousands of demons were torn kicking and screaming into the hole as spaghettified masses, also too were dragged the northerners that remained as the devil was now calling for his due wasn't going to let the fact that some of those in service to him were still living stop him from dragging them into his domain. This spectacle occurred for about ten minutes before the portal collapsed inward as if it hadn't been there in the first place.

That Evening… Tatsumi found himself once more inside the mountain that was once called Tyrant Peak but was now called to annoyance Tatsumi's peak, as soon as the battle had ended he and his forces had followed the Dwarven army to aid them in reclaiming the upper deeps which according to the Dwarves would only take two days with the aid of his troops and because the mountain offered warmth and safety from the icy wastes around it. The body of the Tyrant still was above the mountain side as he had arrived frozen in its death for as long as the world would last as Esdeath's power had made it a permanent fixture, Tatsumi had smiled when he thought of what stories he'd be able to tell his kids with that encounter; in fact that desire to be able to tell his children and grandchildren stories was what drove him.

The Dwarves despite their dour and serious nature along with their practical mindset had done their best to make him feel at home taking the liberty of furnishing his quarters for his stay in advanced, despite having just fought a massive battle and marched ten miles Tatsumi was not remotely tired and was expecting to just have to lie down and let sleep take him, that was until…

Hiromi and Osawa walked into his room after having Nui and Shastavi take their places out front. "You're still full of energy my Emperor?" Hiromi asked.

"Yes" Tatsumi replied, the two of them removed their kimonos to reveal nothing underneath save their garter belts and stockings.

"Then allow us to relieve you of that energy just relax and enjoy" Osawa replied and the two removed his clothing. Osawa was first as she had gotten the killing blow on Daeva and she moaned loudly as her barrier was snapped: Hiromi sat on Tatsumi's face and Tatsumi worked his tongue to its best and from that point on his energy was devoted into rewarding the ladies who'd just won him the north.

"Tatsumi-kun" Hiromi moaned, Osawa fondled her breasts then kissed her friend.

"Just let him take care of you- oh- this is big I've never felt anything like this before" Osawa commented.

"He's as much your first as he is mine" Hiromi commented. "Besides I'm just- OH! Waiting for the roles to reverse and it will be my pussy his cock is in" Hiromi replied.

"Indeed well you're going to have to wait five minutes" Osawa replied, five minutes later Tatsumi filled Osawa to the brim, Osawa danced off and started licking his length, Hiromi didn't hesitate and moaned as Tatsumi entered her, her hymen snapped and Tatsumi gently pulling her down into a kiss while Osawa licked his balls then smirked as things got all the more interesting from there because Tatsumi had all sorts of things he wanted to teach them and all the energy to do that.