Jade Emperor's Warning: Gildamoore's Fate Unfurls

After enduring over a trillion epochs through the harsh crucible of evolution and tribulation, numerous intelligent humanoid beings ascended the Golden ladder, reaching the Seventh Realm—what they believed to be the Heavenly realm, the ultimate destination. However, this assumption proved false. 

Upon their arrival, habitable planets, moons, and celestial bodies, once populated by diverse beasts and monsters coexisting with occasional minor conflicts, witnessed a radical transformation. The intelligent humanoids constructed grand infrastructures, ushering in a civilized society that inevitably brought forth the specter of war. Fierce conflicts erupted among factions vying for resources and territories, leading to the relentless devastation of worlds over Twenty Thousand Years (Herculean Calendar). 

War after war continued, ravaging several worlds for the next Twenty Thousand Years (*Herculean calendar) and resources were constantly exploited to meet the needs of the war. The cataclysm of war drew even the former inhabitants—beasts and demons—into the maelstrom. In response, alliances formed, with the Thousand Savagery Fangs, the Legion Of Gods, and the Four Directional Beasts Alliance emerging as dominant forces.

The Thousand Savagery Fangs comprised humanoid species from Assassin, Thief, and Pirate Tribes, alongside cunning beasts such as Heavenly Wolves and Ashuras. Driven solely by the pursuit of resources and victory, moral qualms were absent, and alliances were tenuous, with betrayal a constant threat. All they cared about was resources and victory. 

 The Four Directional Beasts Alliances comprised four Heavenly Beasts; the Azure Dragon Tribe, the White Tiger Tribe, the Vermilion Tribe, and the Black Turtle Tribes, and the other twenty-three thousand species of Beasts that were loyal and had the traces of the four Heavenly beasts.

Considering the former alliance, the Four Directional Beasts Alliance was a bit neutral as they had their particular agenda of safeguarding against the exploitation of the Humanoid Creatures. This also didn't mean they were as soft as once when a group of pirates from the former alliance entered the edges of their territories and kidnapped some baby beasts. When this came to light, their anger lashed out and destroyed every last one of the people belonging to the particular pirate tribes. From that day on, the name of this alliance spread like wildfire.

 The Legion Of Gods, a coalition of twelve major clans and tribes, leaned toward a righteous path. With an agenda to exploit resources without harming natives, they sought a balance in their conquests. It consisted of twelve Major Clans and tribes; the Jade Clan of Eastern Ridge Worlds, the Thunder Clan of Hidden Cave Worlds; the Dark Elven Tribes of the Sandalwood Worlds, which comprised over fifteen thousand worlds overgrown with only tall Sandalwoods, the Ferries Of Black Poison Lotus Tribe, the Centaur Tribe Of the Mountain Ridge Worlds, the Ten-Tails Tribe Of Fox, the Peacock Tribes of the Green World, the Nine Lives Cat of the Shallow Valley Galaxy, the Crystallizer Clan, the Moon Celestial Clan of the Ten Lunar World, the Shaolin Monastery of the Ten Thousand Buddhist Worlds and Three Eye Monkey Tribe. Together, they aligned more toward the righteous path with an agenda to exploit the resources without exhausting and harming the natives. 

After centuries of warfare, a wise old Saint from the Nine Lives Cat and the ancestor of the Crystallizer manipulated the Four Directional Beasts Alliance into a full-scale war against the Thousand Savagery Fangs. Victorious but at a heavy cost, the Four Directional Beasts Alliance fell prey to an ambush by the Legion Of Gods, leading to their decisive triumph and the end of the Seven Realm war. 

Subsequently, the Legion Of Gods asserted dominance, unifying the vast Seventh Realm under the rule of the Jade Emperor. Successors like Hashan the Eleventh Jade Emperor continued the reign, maintaining a semblance of peace by inviting princes and princesses from former rival tribes and clans to the Forbidden City as envoys-cum-captives. 

Meanwhile, in the Kuk-long World, a world ruled by the Azure Dragon Tribe, a commotion occurred as recently, a vigilante called himself Danzo hauled all riches from all over the world and distributed them to the poor. All the bureaucrats and higher tier citizens grouped to hunt this Danzo character, they even hired trackers in the expanse of a large fortune. However, it turned out all for naught as they failed to even sniff his shadow. Failures after failures, today they finally decided to go to the palace and take his Majesty Shuilong, the Dragon Lord's help. The Dragon Lord readily accepted their plea to capture the vigilante, the Shadow Dragon as among the loots, there were many secret relics of the Azure Dragon which shouldn't fall into wrong hands.

 To his surprise, even the Azure Dragon was helpless as the culprit possessed a certain unique escaping ability. So, after deep consideration, he used ten drops of his Dragon Essence Blood in the Ancestor's Reverse Scale Armament to activate and finally catch the vigilante. He removed the mask and to his surprise, it turned out to be his youngest son, Gildamoore who was infamous for being a good-for-nothing spoiled prince. In addition, he was regarded by the masses as a perverted debaucher, who flirted and slept with every beauty without any care for whether they were married or not.

Inside the palace, a handsome youth with a pair of golden horns kowtowed in front of the throne as he pleaded, "Father, I was wrong. Please give me another chance." He repeated the same sentences again and again.

After two hours of silence, the middle-aged-looking man sitting on the throne opened his mouth, "I hope so."

Hearing that, a mischievous smile appeared over his face but the next words coming out of the Dragon Lord's mouth froze him stiff. "So, I'm sending you to the Forbidden City as our next envoy." Then he stood up and scuttled toward the exit of the throne room. Dragon Lord was even faster as his shadowy figure appeared in front of him. "Father, I thought Second Brother is the current envoy. Please, change your mind I'll do anything you want me to do from now on."

"Nope, it's already decided," Shuilong added with a melancholic tone. "Another bad news, yesterday, they sent us the news of your Second Brother losing his life in the God Pilgrimage trip in the Shallow Forbidden Ground. So, boy-ya, just go there and do whatever the hell shenanigan up your sleeves. Be prepared, you're leaving tomorrow." Then he walked out of the room.

Either because of the news of the demise of his royal brother or forcing him to become a captive, the youth stood up and stormed off the room in a depressive mood. 

The next day, a ship came from the forbidden city. After bidding goodbyes to all his lovers, in front of the masses, he strode inside the sleek ship, and shortly after, the ship raised in the air and darted into a faraway place in a matter of seconds coursing through the emptiness of the dark space.

After two days of smooth sailing, the ship entered the territories of the Eastern Ridge Worlds. Not long afterward, it landed smoothly somewhere inside the Forbidden City. As Gildamoore disembarked the ship along with his crews, he was taken aback by seeing the marvelous infrastructure. The tall buildings were so aesthetic that his dragon palace back at home looked like a toilet in comparison to these. But sadness filled his heart again as he started to miss his home a bit. He was then guided to the palace to see the Jade Emperor as the first duty of every envoy was to gain the blessing of the Jade Emperor. The citizens of the Forbidden City took this ritual as an opportunity, a good fortune to meet the emperor and empress. Hardly, each one of the envoys didn't share the same feelings as them it was pure suppression of their identity as the proud races.

Inside the palace, looking around curiously, Gildamoore was forced into his knees by those heavily armored guards in front of the Emperor and Empress, who were sitting elegantly on the thrones at the high platform.

"Now, greet and introduce yourself!" said a guard in a cold tone.

Clasping his palms in the Dragon's culture, Gildamoore announced neither in a servile nor in a haughty tone: "Greetings my Good Emperor and Empress. I, Gildamoore the Seventh Prince of the Azure Dragon Tribe am reporting today as the convoy of my tribe. And wish only the good blessing from both the great god and goddess." His words seemed honest but inside he was cursing both of them in his head.

"Oh, interesting! So, the Dragon Tribe sent you this time." Jade Emperor spoke calmly.

"You know about me?"

"Your reputation proceeds you, Gildamoore, or shall I call you Danzo or the Shadow Dragon? The spoiled prince who vigilantly stole from riches for the poor. So, noble of you." said Hashan, the Jade Emperor. 

Making an awkward smile, Gildamoore responded, "I'm flattered, your Majesty. Anyway, you can call me by any name as you please."

"As much as I like you, take this as my first and last warning, don't even think about any funny idea inside my Forbidden City." Acknowledging Gildamoore's reputation, the Jade Emperor issued a warning against any mischief within the Forbidden City. 

"Fred not my good sire, Gildamoore is a new man from today onward."

"Alright-alright, Lunar Goddess, what are you waiting for? Go and mark the status of his envoy over his head." Ordered Hashan. 

Gildamoore was expecting some of the maids to do the ritual but not as the empress walked down the steps and touched his forehead with the tip of the greenish butterfly longsword, leaving a crescent-shaped moon tattoo.

But unbeknown to anyone, he was enamored by seeing the beautiful goddess in front of him.

Hmm, now the thing here will be more interesting. Who would thought the woman I've been seeing in my dream is the Empress? So, you're the one plaguing my sleep all this time.

*******

*Herculean Calender: A solar calendar based on the habitable planet Hercules, of the Crystallizer and its revolution around its sun, Thale. A day on the Hercules Planet is 24 Seroi. (1 Seroi= Approximately, 2.5 Hours;) And twelve months a year. As a highly scientifically advanced species (Crystallizers), all the other exoplanets, and habitable planes, adopted their calendar as standardized versions in the vast expanse of the Seventh Realm.