Vaylor had taken Alix back into his office after a short, eye-blinking flight. Alix had grown back his other arm, and his missing leg in the flight. The deep gash in his stomach had closed up, too.
The two were sat at Vaylor's desk on opposite sides, and they were both holding widely different expressions.
Alix was still shocked from what he had heard, and Vaylor was grinning with his arms folded.
"What did you mean back there, crushing the empire?"
"I meant what I said," Vaylor shrugged, "crushing it."
"Yes but, why? You're—you're a soldier! Why would you want to do that to the empire you serve?"
"Why does one do anything?" Vaylor said nonchalantly.
"You sound just like the man who gave me these powers," Alix scoffed, rolling his eyes.
Vaylor beamed and leaned closer, curiosity dancing in his crimson eyes. "Tell me about that man."
"I don't know anything about him, honestly."
"Listen," Vaylor sighed, "tell me what you know and I'll tell you everything that I know. Do we have a deal?"
Alix chewed on that for a moment, and then shrugged his shoulders. "Fine with me."
"Good. Go on then, tell me."
"He just…appeared one day. I didn't even notice him until he came up to us. Us being me and another slave that was there called Leesa, by the way. He only came up because we were about to be whipped by this slaver. Wait, no, he said something about being drawn to me."
"Drawn to you? In what way?"
"Well, he was a worm tamer, too. He seemed surprised that I didn't mock him, and then I told him about my love for worms. And that's when he mentioned being drawn to me."
"Interesting. This is very interesting. Earlier you called him strange, what made him so strange? Besides him being a worm tamer of course."
"What made him strange? Well, he was posing as a slave first of all. And he didnt seem to feel any pain. I told you how he had come up to me and Leesa, right? Well we were about to be punished, and the man stepped in and took both of our punishments. Ninety lashes to his back. And yet he didn't say a word."
"Not even a word!?" Vaylor gasped, he looked like a child that could easily be wow'd by nothing substantial.
"Not even a word," Alix confirmed, "and he was also very cryptic. He said something about being tired, tired of fighting. And he also said that he had seen many things."
"Things? What things?"
"I don't know either. But I think it has something to do with the great reset. What even is the great reset, actually? Is it just a simple war where all the lords, kings, and emperors fight?"
"It's a long story, you'll have to clear your ears for this one." Vaylor said, leaning back in his chair.
"I'm listening."
"Alix, thousands of years before our time there existed a world where every single human was once tamerless."
"What!?" Alix shouted abruptly. He hadn't even realised that he had stood up from his chair. He cleared his throat and awkwardly sat back down. "That's not true is it? It can't be!"
"But it is. None of them could tame beasts at all. They were simple, frail, and tamerless humans like you once were. That was until the world experienced a great cataclysm that destroyed it in its entirety."
"Destroyed it? How so?"
"Well, in many ways. The earth as we know it was not so large. In fact it was much smaller. That was until it merged with every single planet in our solar system. You may not be familiar with them."
"I am. My mother told me about them. Let's see…My Very Eccentric Master Just Served Us Nectarine."
Vaylor blinked. "What? Did you just go mad?"
"My, Mars. Very, Venus. Eccentric, Earth. Master, Mercury. Just, Jupiter. Served, Saturn. Us, Uranus. Nectarine, Neptune."
"Well I'll be. That's one way to remember all the planets." Vaylor commended.
"What do you mean they all merged?" Alix said, raising his brow.
"Again, what I just said. They combined, Alix. Literally. They formed one giant planet in the process, a planet we still call Earth, and then the beasts came afterwards to destroy the remaining humans."
"Beasts? What beasts?"
"Beasts like the one I had summoned in front of you. They didn't exist back then, but the cataclysm brought them into our world. They were violent rulers back then, slaughtering us and devouring us with ease. They almost drove humanity into extinction. And they would have, if not for the voice."
Now Alix was the one leaning closer. "The voice! What is the voice? Is he alive? Does he still exist? He must exist, I hear him every time me and Raina kill something."
"We all do. Nobody knows where The Voice came from, nobody at all. It demanded the remainder of humanity to serve him and remain loyal to him, and in exchange it bestowed to them the power to tame the very same beasts that raided our world. These humans went on to become the very first tamers, of course."
"Where are those tamers now?"
Vaylor shrugged. "Dead, most likely. This was thousands upon thousands of years ago, Alix."
"But you're hundreds of years old. Whose to say they might not be alive?"
Vaylor put his thumb underneath his chin in deep thought. "You do have a point there. But I'm only so old because I take after the lifespan of my tamer types. Dragons on average live up to be 800 years old. There are many tamers who are even older than me."
"Like the emperor?"
"Yeah," Vaylor frowned. "Like the emperor. Most of us call him the eternal emperor for obvious reasons."
Alix was puzzled by that. "And this is the man whose empire you want to crush?"
Vaylor looked down, and Alix could feel the gears turning rapidly in his head. "Do you know how many emperors we've had?"
"I don't really care to learn about the people who enslaved me," Alix replied.
Vaylor ignored that. "We've had four in total. Only four."
Alix's eyes widened. The number seemed…impossible. The empire had existed for centuries, how could there only be four emperors? Just how old was this eternal emperor?
"How is that even possible?"
"It's possible because three of the late emperors were phoenix tamers, as is the current one. And they are immortal because of their tamer type."
"That's just absurd," Alix said, scratching his head. "I have to ask you again, Vaylor. How do you plan to crush the empire when it has a leader that's immortal? The man can't die, it's a losing fight!"
"Many said the same thing about your fight against Luwyn, and look who came out on top?"
Alix rolled his eyes. "I would've died if you didn't step in, most likely. Did you not see the creatures he summoned?"
"Aye, if I hadn't have stepped in. Do you think I'm going to fight the emperor alone? There will be many who will step in to help me kill the man, as many did in their fight against his ancestors. They all fell in battle, as will he."
"But still, immortality? That's insane. Are you waiting until the war to fight him?"
"Ah, that question brings us back to the great reset. We went a little off track there, eh? Listen up, the first tamers spent eight centuries taming, capturing, and killing most of the invading beasts. When there were no more beasts to fight, the tamers began fighting among themselves. They had many, many fears back then that emperors still share today."
"What fears?"
"Oh, you know, the usual. There were those that feared a rivaling kingdom may use their beasts to destroy the others land, and there were those that feared the strength of many tamers and sought to bring them down through coalitions, cohorts, and even through assassination. There were some that tried to ease their fears peacefully, though, offering marriage pacts, alliances, and even various goods. When those failed, they relied on the violent options which sparked century-long wars, claiming billions of lives in the process."
Alix pondered for a moment, met Vaylor's eyes, then said, "But that still doesn't explain the great reset. Isn't every empire at peace right now? Why go to war for five hundred years when they could continue that peace?"
"I was getting to that. You see, after the voice bestowed us with the ability to tame, it went silent for centuries, only appearing to tell us of our merits and to grant us our rewards when prior to that, before it even gave us our tamer powers, it used to actually speak to us. That was until it appeared again one day, seeing nothing but destruction. I assume it expected us to co-exist and live independently with our new powers."
"But humans will be humans." Alix sighed.
"Exactly. And I think the voice finally realised this, which is why it established a new system that the surviving tamers of war had to adhere to, lest they face its wrath."
"What system?"
"Why, the great reset, of course. A five hundred year war where tamers can kill to their liking in exchange for five hundred years of peace. It is a war where tamers and their beasts lose all of their strength, and have to fight their way back up to reach the same level or surpass it."
"What!? So me and Raina will lose everything that we've achieved?!"
"I'm not too sure with you. Probably? You gained your powers after the first reset and the 57th reset, which was one thousand years ago now. You're an anomaly, truly. You most likely will, and most likely won't. Only time will tell."
"The great reset." Alix said as if he was reciting lines. "Everybody loses their strengths, as will the emperor…"
"Why do you think I'm waiting for the war to happen? That's the the only shot I have against that man. And if I succeed, I'll build an empire without slaves. An empire where the tamerless can live with the tamers."
Alix gave a disparaging roll of his eyes. "Yeah, right. As if you care about the slaves."
"Truthfully, I don't," Vaylor yawned. "But I want you on my side, Alix. Don't you envision a world where the tamerless can live freely? Or are you going to continue selfishly worrying about your own freedom?"
Alix could feel the guilt creeping up his neck. He wanted to reply to that, but replied with his own question instead. "How did we tamerless even come to be? Why are some tamers while others aren't?"
"You have your ancestors to blame for that." Vaylor said. "There are many who did not use their tamer powers or had used them poorly and never progressed. When they had children, they passed on a weaker form of their powers. And then their children passed on even weaker versions until eventually those further in the family tree became powerless."
Wow. Curse my ancestors!
"Let me ask you again, Alix," Vaylor said with an austere tone in his voice. "Do you envision a world where the tamerless can live freely? Or are you going to selfishly continue worrying about your own freedom?"
Alix took in a deep breath, and exhaled in frustration. He looked around the room aimlessly, and then turned back to face Vaylor. "How long until this war starts?"