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A slight breeze disturbed the morning calm. It was a slightly chilly spring morning and a low fog covered the ground. Six figures slipped through that fog without causing the slightest noise. There was definitely purpose in their motion, but no one else would notice that and they made sure to keep it that way. They were efficiently making their way toward the only thing that was making any noise at all in the early morning hours. There were other figures in the long grass that covered the area, but the six figures were moving far too stealthily for those other figures to detect. The wind made more noise than they did as they moved.

There was only one occasion when the six had to make contact with one of the other figures. One of the six figures, a tall muscular lion with a trimmed mane tied back in a pony tail, edged within no more than a foot of the figure before he struck. The other man probably never knew what hit him. One moment he was alone, the next there was a hand clamped over his mouth and a knife sticking out of him. The hand was to keep him from screaming, but it was unnecessary. He was in so much pain that he could not draw the breath needed to scream before the life left his body and he was slowly lowered to the ground.

Then the six figures moved on, undetected. As they moved what was at first a low rumble became something more. The sounds of thousands of men preparing to march filled the air. Orders were yelled, metal clanged against metal, beast of burden bellowed their complaints, and the six figures made their way to a ridge overlooking it all. They made sure that no one was within range that could hear them before anyone said a word.

"Prince Evrame, why did you feel the need to kill that guard when there are five others here perfectly capable of doing so," said a slender but rough looking snake.

"Because he was an extremely large man just like me and it would have been awkward for the rest of you to put a knife into him and make sure he did not fall in such a manner that would alert everybody in the area that he had fallen," responded the lion. He could tell that his scouts were all a little annoyed with him at the moment. They knew he was right though. A falling body can be heard from quite a distance on a relatively quiet morning like this. The big problem was that they did not want the forces they were here to observe to know that the person they had been sent to kill was within striking range at the moment and that he only had five scouts to protect him.

Another scout spoke up to say, "Even so, you should trust us to handle these things. Your brothers sent the Third Legion here to kill you specifically. If they found out you were within spitting range of them..."

"They would be on us before we ever had a chance to make it back to camp," said Evrame. All of his scouts still seemed a little dissatisfied so Evrame told them what they wanted to hear. "Very well, I'll let you handle any other guards that we come across. Now, let me finish what I came out here to do."

The expressions on the scouts' faces barely changed, but Evrame could tell that they were pleased with his words. They were also happy enough to let him get on with his business. None of them liked being this close to the enemy with their prince in tow. If Evrame had not been a genius when it came to military tactics and strategy no one would have let him come out here in the first place. At the moment it was only Evrame's genius that had allowed them to avoid being wiped out by his brothers' forces for three long years. Personally, Evrame would have preferred that none of them had to rely on his genius, but his brothers made that impossible.

Three years ago Evrame's brothers, Marame and Talame, had managed to assassinate his father. They had also managed to make sure that Evrame, the oldest brother and the one in line for the throne, was the one that took the blame for the incident. The only reason Evrame had been able to escape the royal palace in Alancia was due to the royal families personal guard, the Emperor's Own. Many of them knew Evrame, Marame, and Talame very personally. The Emperor's Own, or Empress' Own depending on the gender of the ruler, had been the personal guards for the royal family of the Nolveran Empire since it was founded close to 4,000 years ago. Evrame's family, the Valhane family, had founded the empire and they had managed to rule it for all but a ten year gap in its long history.

It had caused quite the uproar when the Emperor's Own had fought its way through those loyal to Marame and Talame in order to escape with Evrame. Even Evrame had been amazed at the way they were able to cut their way right out of the city despite being outnumbered more than five to one by his brothers' treacherous forces. They were still ashamed that they had let his brothers assassinate the emperor and that they had not noticed them placing their loyal stooges in charge of the rest of the forces throughout the city of Alancia. From Evrame's point of view they had nothing to be ashamed of. They had fought with honor and not even Evrame had suspected that his own brothers desired the throne that badly.

Evrame was not fighting for vengeance against his brothers now. He was not willing to war with his brothers over the throne when it meant that thousands, maybe millions of his people would die as a result. Evrame would have been content to leave the country and try to avoid his brothers' assassins quietly in exile if they had shown that they could make good rulers for the empire. That was all that mattered to Evrame. Unfortunately, his brothers were incapable of even giving that to Evrame. His father had not been dead for two weeks before the reign of terror had begun. When you came to power through assassination, you tended to believe that everyone else desired to come to power through those means. Marame and Talame had begun ruthlessly suppressing any supposed dissidents and troublemakers. As a result, entire villages had been burned to the ground and the people lived in fear of the time when a rumor about the disloyalty of their village would reach the ears of their new rulers.

Evrame felt compelled to take action, but there had not been much that he could do. The Emperor's Own only consisted of two thousands soldiers and five hundred of them had been killed in the escape from Alancia. Nolveran was a vast empire that maintained a standing army of well over three million soldiers. Those soldiers did not consider themselves kingmakers and, for the most part, they would follow the orders of whoever was the acknowledged ruler of Nolveran. For now it was recognized that Marame and Talame were the rulers of Nolveran and that Evrame was guilty of regicide. Still, small numbers of forces would desert Evrame's brothers and join up with his meager forces. Grateful villagers that were saved due to Evrame's interference would also join up only to be put through what Evrame liked to call a vigorous training program by the Emperor's Own. More often than not, the villagers liked to call it torture, but they still remained loyal to Evrame. Now his forces had grown ten thousand strong.

Even with his present forces, Evrame did not expect to be marching on the imperial capital any time soon. He did not even know how he was going to defeat the Third Legion since they numbered around 45,000 soldiers at the moment. Evrame was just happy that his brothers had not dispatched one of the grand legions to deal with him or he would have no chance at all of achieving victory. The whole point of the scouting mission that Evrame was currently on was to get a good look at the forces pursuing him and to see how the local terrain could be used to his advantage if he did have to fight the Third Legion. Evrame tried not to show it, but things were not looking good.

Whoever was currently commanding the Third Legion was definitely competent and his soldiers were quick and efficient. Evrame's own soldiers were good, but they were tired after three years of running. The past four months had been especially bad while having to dodge the Third, Nineteenth, and Seventeenth Legions one after the other. They were going to catch up with Evrame's soldiers in no more than a day or two. If he could not come up with a plan by then he was likely to suffer a crippling defeat. Now that Evrame had had his look at what to expect, he signaled that it was time to return to camp.

Things were tense as Evrame and his scouts made their way back to friendly lines. Evrame ran strategy after strategy through his mind and discarded each one. The terrain did have a few advantages, but nothing that would upset a numbers disadvantage like the one Evrame was about to face. Especially not when the Third Legion seemed to be lead by a competent commander and made up of well trained soldiers. They probably were not as good as the Emperor's Own, but their numbers would more than make up for that. About a quarter of the way back to his camp something happened that would change everything for Evrame.

The world around Evrame started to lose focus and he stopped in place. Things started to get fuzzy and slightly distorted, then everything snapped back into focus before losing focus once more. The process kept repeating and Evrame tried to raise his hand to his eyes to rub them. That was when he found that he could not move. When he tried to ask his scouts for help he found that he had no voice to talk with. The only thing that could move was his eyes. Evrame was barely able to see one of the scouts at the edge of his vision and that scout appeared just as immobile as Evrame was. His eyes looked around wildly for the source of his immobility. He thought he had been caught in some sort of spell by one of the Third's sorcerers. There was nothing that Evrame could do and he cursed himself for falling into such a trap.

"Be at ease Evrame Valhane," said an odd voice, "I mean you no harm. In fact, I have a gift for you." It was hard to tell just what was speaking. It kept shifting between a masculine and feminine tone. At some points it sounded so deep it was like being talked to by a mountain and at other times it was like a common field mouse had decided to strike up a conversation with him. Evrame tried to ask who was talking to him, but he was still unable to say a word.

"I am Sarbon, the one true God of this universe," the voice, Sarbon, continued after making that bold declaration. "After 14 billion of your years, I have decided to step aside and let a new set of gods take control of this universe. You, Prince Evrame Valhane of the Nolveran Empire, have been chosen to be one of those gods. I can sense your disbelief, but you will see that I speak the truth in time.

"Don't think that just because I have decided to make you into a godling that everyone I am turning into a god will be like you. Your concepts of good and evil mean nothing to me. Some of those that are receiving this gift at this very moment would be considered quite evil by your standards and you will likely come to blows in the future. That is why it would be a good idea for you to gain the power needed to oppose those people before that happens. And there is plenty of power to gain. Most of you will be starting out weak and vulnerable. Any fool with a blade will be able to kill you if you are careless, needless to say another god. It will be some time before mortal weapons are no longer a problem for you.

"You can give up your powers if you wish. I know some that plan to do so even as we speak. It is possible to give up your powers to someone else at this point or you can place your powers in something else. If you gain possession of something with a god's powers stored in them its powers will grow with your powers. It is also possible to steal another god's powers by slaying them or you could leave them with enough power to survive, forcing them to become lesser gods that would be subservient to your will. Others can also become gods by slaying a god and I am sure many will jump at that opportunity when it becomes widely known.

"You do not have to slay all the other gods or make them subservient to your will if you don't want to. If you wish, you can figure out how you want to rule over this universe with multiple partners. It makes no difference to me any longer. This universe is now to do with as all of you, my creations, so desire."

When Sarbon stopped talking Evrame thought about what he had been told. It all sounded ridiculous, but he was happy that he was not dead. The whole speech had sounded a little mechanical to Evrame. It was like Sarbon was giving out a prepared speech that it was too bored to get excited about. Evrame tried to understand why something that claimed to be the one true God would do something like this.

"It's because I am bored godling," Sarbon responded to Evrame's thoughts, "This universe is no longer of any interest to me. But, I do not wish to just throw it away, so I am giving it away instead. I am only granting the potential gods of this universe a finite amount of power while my power is infinite. None of you can ever be a threat to me, so I do not see why I should not do this. And...well, that is quite a development on the other side of the world. I did not think any of them were left or that they would make a deal with one of those creatures. But what am I telling you this for? It need not concern you for now. Maybe in the coming years you will find out what has occurred, if you survive. Farwell Evrame, god of knowledge and virtue." Then Sarbon was gone. Evrame tried to get him to respond, but the voice of Sarbon would never be heard by Evrame again.

The world came back into focus and stayed in focus for Evrame. Mobility returned to Evrame's body. He was about to ask if scouts if they had heard the voice of Sarbon and alert them to the presence of a crazed sorcerer if they had not. As he opened his mouth to speak there was a wrenching sensation in his stomach. Evrame fell to his knees in pain and his scouts gathered around him in panic while looking for any threats. They thought he had been shot with an arrow until they saw that he was not bleeding. There were still other means to harm a person without making them bleed and the scouts were worried about all of those means at the same time.

The feeling of pain within Evrame soon gave way to pleasure. It felt like little tendrils of power were flowing from his previously pained belly to every part of his body. He was still panting from the pain and he had one hand on the ground to support himself as he struggled to understand what was happening. Then something else started to happen. Evrame noticed the arm that was holding him up begin to thicken and lengthen. It was not just his arm either. It was his entire body that seemed to be growing as well as his clothes, but not his weapons. His scouts took a step back in fear at the strange magic that seemed to be in effect. They prayed that their prince was not about to just swell up and explode. Then, Evrame stopped growing and he stood up before quickly crouching back down.

He hoped that he had not been seen when he stood up to his full height just then. None of the scouts were much more than waist height compared to him. Anybody that was looking would have been able to see him above the grass. Fortunately, he heard no one raising any alarms as he and his scouts exchanged startled looks. They all quickly recovered from their shock as best they were able. They did not ask any questions just yet. It was not the time for questions. They were still in enemy territory and unless Evrame decided it was time to talk they remained silent.

Evrame lead the way into a forested area. It was hard for him not to lead at his size. He had to struggle to keep from leaving the scouts behind. There was something nagging at him as he walked silently through the forest. Evrame halted the rest of the scouts. There was a group of people ahead. They were hidden, but Evrame just knew they were there. He was not certain how he knew, he just did. There were about a dozen of them up ahead and they were waiting to ambush his group. It was too late to avoid them and Evrame was sure that he had been spotted. Instead of trying to run, he just ordered his men to draw their weapons and handle the situation as quickly as possible.

When Evrame's men drew their weapons the ambushers knew that they had been spotted. Some slowly emerged from hiding. The forest was a little far from their forces, so Evrame doubted their fight would be heard by anyone. They were probably scouts themselves and they may have spotted Evrame's group when they had entered the forest. Evrame thought that they may have hoped to keep his group from ever reporting back to camp and maybe take a few captives at the same time. They had been well hidden and their plan might have succeeded if not for Evrame. Without the element of surprise Evrame thought they would be able to take these scouts, especially now that they were the ones that were surprised. Not only had they been spotted, but they now noticed that Prince Evrame was with people they intended to ambush and they noticed that he had somehow become a giant.

Evrame's scouts did not hesitate to take advantage of their enemies. While they were still surprised Evrame and his companions attacked. It was a short battle. Most of Evrame's companions killed their initial targets within the first two or three blows. Things were different for Evrame. No one he fought was able to block his blows. His size and strength made any blows to his opponents fatal. He knew where their weapons would be at all times. It was easy to slip past their guard and deliver a swift blow that would end their lives. Evrame had always been good with a blade, but even he was surprised at how easily he was able to tell what his opponents planned to do. By the time the small battle was done Evrame had managed to slay four men in less than a minute. Even his own comrades were startled at how easily he dispatched his opponents.

One of the scouts asked, "What happened to you my prince?"

"I'm not certain what has happened myself, but I am starting to think that it might help us in the near future. Let's just get back to camp and I'll try to figure out what's going on along the way," Evrame responded. His companions were staring in awe at him. That look had always made him uncomfortable as a child. People had always looked at him like that in the royal palace and on the few occasions he had been allowed to travel throughout the various cities that made up the empire. He understood why they stared at him like that now, but he still did not quite like it. That was not of any particular importance to him now though.

Something in this world may have changed. If he really had become a god then it was probably true that others had as well. Many people may have found themselves coming into more power than they had ever had before. That was going to cause disruptions. If there were a significant number of these gods within the empire then that would further destabilize it in these already unsettled times. Evrame thought about what he could do to protect his empire and its people all the way back to camp not noticing that he had grown a little bit since the little battle in the forest.