No Longer Alone

Thunder roared in the sky. The storm bad arrived, it was the third time this week. Out of the two other storms that came before it, the third was the least powerful of them all.

Standing in the middle of the wreckage of airships was the lone man in black who was now a changed man.

True now to his form, he was now half machine and half human, but just the mind and the heart.

Before that eventful night, the long night of pure bloodshed and agony, he was reborn. From the murderous, uncaring, stoic machine man he was, to a less murderous, a bit uncaring, still stoic man machine. 

Complicated as it may sound, there was a difference. Even if it was just a smidge. 

Artemis opened his eyes and was greeted by the field of death he had sowed. He looked around and he felt emotions he never before had felt in such a normal manner until now. 

"So this is what it feels to be happy," Artemis said. 

[The sight of dead bodies makes you happy, dear?] Caitlyn said in her husband's mind. 

Artemis smiled and laughed. 

"So you really kept your promise," Artemis said. 

[Of course, dear]

"Well then, what do you suggest I do from here on out?" Artemis asked his wife. 

[Dear, all I can say is, be you, continue what you've been doing. You've built up so much and done so much, it would be a waste to abandon all of what you've done and start anew] Caitlyn said.

"Like dominating the world?" He asked.

[Kinda]

Artemis looked around the desolate plains and looked up to the sky where the clouds were. The rain poured down from their bellies and drenched Artemis' hair.

"Okay, I'll return," Artemis said. 

[I'll be with you in whatever you decide to do] Caitlyn said. 

Artemis turned to the direction of the Fortress City which was several kilometers away, he was unaware how long he had been out but judging by the decomposition of the corpses around him. 

They were at the late stage of decomposition, rigor mortis.

"It's been a week," Artemis said as he walked towards one of the destroyed Airships and knelt down to observe the corpse of a female mage. 

[It's been 5 days dear, the simulation I put you in was slower than time in the real world] Caitlyn said. 

"Huh, none of them decided to check on me?" Artemis was a bit disappointed. 

[Dear, you literally went on Doom Slayer mode. Even tourists loyal to subordinates would become afraid to approach you seeing how you dealt with an entire army, a Demigod, and even a God alone,] Caitlyn said.

"You're… right, well, time to walk back and hope that they'd still accept my authority," Artemis said before he began his journey back to the Fortress City.

When he ran, he traversed the distance of  12 kilometers in just less than 1 minute. Blazingly fast, letting some corpses of imperial soldiers blown away by the shockwaves of his speed but he avoids going full speed or else he'll destroy the environment around him, since he'll just going to walk back to avoid spooking the garrison by the time he reach a kilometer from the city.

Walking a kilometer in the distance would take him basically at least 30 minutes long.

Just as he was about to cross the last corpses, he detected two individuals a few hundred meters in front of him hiding behind some boulders.

Upon further analysis thanks to his Thermal and Xray vision and other advanced robotic visions he had, especially Caitlyn's help in computing, he determined the two individuals to be Jord and Toby Maquire. 

The fact that they were all the way here and hiding behind some boulders made Artemis think thank they were out scouting for him.

Toby and Jord were there specifically to retrieve their man in black. 

The reason for their actions were simple: without the man in black, several well-known personalities within the Fortress City had already begun vying for power by attempting to manipulate the king. 

Their attempts were so far kept to a minimum thanks to Reinhard and Pandora's interventions but corruption, mismanagement, embezzlement, and unfairness had already begun to spread. 

It wouldn't be long until the man in black's efforts to turn the Fortress City into a self-sustaining and prosperous city would be put to waste. 

Human greed had no bounds whatsoever. 

The two were hiding behind the boulders because, despite their noble quest to retrieve their leader, they were utterly terrified the moment the man in black began walking towards their direction.

Although he was looking at the Fortress city, giving them a sign that he was going to return, his eyes said otherwise. 

They were no longer red nor one color, instead, his eyes were heterochromia, both red and blue.

But for some reason, this makes him even more charming and intimidating at the same time.

If any girls first see him, they'll immediately be charmed by the looks and feel a slight fear in their hearts.

"What the hell does that blue eye mean?" Jord whispered to Toby. They were sweating buckets.

"The hell are you asking me for ? I don't know! We all knew he had red eyes but the blue? We don't know if he's the same Man In black we knew of!" Toby whispered back. 

"Go peek, is he still there?" Jord said. 

Toby reluctantly crawled to the right side of the boulder and slowly poked his eyes out from his natural cover. 

"Huh, he's gone?" Toby said. Indeed, the man in black was no longer in front of them.

"Huh? He's gone? Wait, how?" Jord peeked over the left side. 

The man in black had completely disappeared from their view. Only the thousands of corpses and few wreckage of airships up ahead were there. 

"Shit, mud is sticking around my joints," Jord said as he tried to remove the mud from his armor. 

"My robe is soaked," Toby added. 

As they were about to stand up, lightning struck over the middle of the corpses, and the shadow of the boulder flashed.

But there was another shadow standing on top of the boulder. 

Jord and Toby, after realizing this, slowly turned their gaze to the top of the boulder and there he was.  

As the thunderstorm picked up its intensity and lightning struck the ground further, there he was. 

Standing on top of the rock, the man in black was looking down on them with his heterochromia eyes. 

[Hello there, my husband's servants] The man in black's eyes suddenly shined a bright blue and a hologram appeared behind the two men.

"Eek!" They were both frightened. They feared that this was another strange attack meant to kill them.

But they were wrong to assume. 

A holographic projection of a beautiful and tall woman appeared and smiled at them.

"Hello, I am your leader's wife, a pleasure to meet you all," She said and then smiled. 

This utterly confused the two men who then fainted due to shock.