“What happened to you, my Emerald?” Who was saying this? He felt something move inside his mouth and he spat another maggot. They were going to eat him from the inside out. They were doing it just now; he could feel himself regenerating. His temperature raising, trying to burn all the parasites in his body. He knew a chant for that, but every time he tried to say it another maggot crawled from his gut up to his mouth and he could only move to the side and heave.

“I tried to warn him, noble ladies. But…”

“Corpses don’t infect the living! They eat them! Why is his body stiffening as if he is dying?” Cold hands brushed his forehead. That must be Wei Caihong, the vampire was always cold. Nikola had robbed him of his warmth and made him into a creature. Was his own blood poisonous now? His veins filled with small worms or their larvae? If Wei Caihong didn’t drink from him by nightfall then the sun will burn him to a crisp. His soulmate, dead. And all because Nikola himself had tried to play the hero.

“The Maggot knifed him, lady. There is nothing to be done. It is a miracle he is still alive. If you two love him you’ll slit his throat before the maggots eat him whole.”

“You could have told him about this Maggot! He wouldn’t have risked it had he known!” Nikola smiled the best he could. He would have still gone. A part of him wanted to die finally and pay for all of his crimes. Another wanted to live. These maggots were not normal ones. They felt dead inside him. He spat another one and opened his eyes. The world was blurry around him. He had one shot, just enough magic to do this.

The necromancer was trying to take over his body. Nikola had challenged him, that cursed child, and he had come to corrupt him. He needed a cleansing ritual by someone who knew what they were doing. This land had something called cultivators. Magic users that focused on martial arts and medicine. There had to be at least one in these parts. He breathed in, spat a maggot out, and let his magic send a distress call in a fifty-kilometer radios. The message was simple for those who could understand it.

A necromancer is pushing my soul out. Help.

Whit his magic gone he collapsed and he was immediately placed on someone’s lap. Someone, a woman, was humming. He knew that voice, but which one of the two of them was it? He hoped it was Wei Caihong. For all that he still loved Penemue he hoped to the creator that his soulmate stood by him until the end. Nikola had no doubts that his shell will survive, but if his call for help was left unanswered then the Maggot would have access to Nikola’s immortality and strength. He heard childish laughter in his ear.

We’ll be together until death does us part. Well, mostly. You will be in the Abyss, Emerald Emperor.

With the final thought that the necromancer knew who Nikola was he fell unconscious. And then the nightmare begun.

He was in Siberia in the dead of winter. Baren land that could be made fertile with magic, yet he made no move to do so. Nephilim marched in columns before him. It was a parade for his victory, his conquest of this land during the time when everyone had told him it would be suicide to try.

“Why did you even bother, your imperial highness? There is nothing but forests and snow here.” There was a child in strange black robes next to his throne. The boy looked like an urchin.

“For revenge. The ice demons which inhabit this particular region sacrificed one of my sons four hundred years ago.” That and he could make all kinds of deposits in this land, it being so vast. But the main reason was his son. Who, at the ripe age of a hundred and ten had gone off on a ship and crossed the ocean to reach here, only to see the Jotuns.

“Very noble of you, oh wise leader.” Said the child, smirking. Was it one of his grandchildren to speak to him so boldly? Then the drums quieted down and Nikola knew what will happen because it had happened before. A Jotun, their King, stepped before his throne. A cube in his hands. A storm suddenly enveloped the forest, a mist decked it completely. Nikola tried to summon fire but he found himself frozen in his throne. The child sighed.

“You have to always win, don’t you? What of all the people you trampled on to get where you are?”

The giant opened it’s mouth and spoke together with the child.

“What of me? When will you mourn me? When will you let me rest, Emerald Emperor?”

Then Nikola was frozen on the throne. He felt his flesh turn to ice. He became a statue and the Jotun screamed in triumph.

“No chains for us!” Screamed both the Jotun and the child. Then the child took out a hammer from somewhere and smashed it in Nikola’s head. The entire statue of Nikola shattered into hundreds of ice particles. Then he heard singing and felt warmth and the pain of being torn apart stopped.

He opened his eyes. There was a dead elephant at his feet. There was a saddle on the elephant’s back. Nikola breathed deeply. Only one nation fought with these beasts. He searched for the child but didn’t find it. A strange elephant that could almost pass as human fell in front of Nikola. It had been an angel once but it’s hatred for the world had morphed it into this. Nikola dodged a strike from a cleaver and looked for a sword or a dagger or anything, really. He had been no match for the fallen angel the first time it had attacked and he wasn’t right now either.

“You promised us peace for fifty years!” Roared the angel as it finally caught Nikola on the leg with one of it’s cleavers. “And you came as soon as you installed the Wei family in China! It hasn’t even been five years!”

This was just a dream. The necromancer wanted him to give up. For him to vacate his own body and guilt was his only weapon. That and the maggots. But Nikola knew this angel. And if it was indeed Ganesh and not the child then he knew what he had to say.

“You think my conquest is going to stop, ever? Even if I don’t wear a crown people will look up to me. They’ll think of a title for me. Every thing I sit on will have the feeling of a throne! And you, Ganesh, swore to me your undying loyalty. You swore it when I healed Parvati. Now stop this nonsense and wake up!”

Ganesh blinked and then he looked around.

“What are you doing back here, Emerald Emperor?” He started to fade away slowly and he glared at something behind Nikola. The cleaver in Ganesh’s hand flew pass Nikola and Nikola heard a childish scream.

“You were supposed to say that you won’t accept chains!” The child screamed and Ganesh smirked at him as he disappeared completely. Nikola turned around but then suddenly he was on a boat. Vikings were all around him and he was tied up, a gag in his mouth. The wound from Ganesh was still there but Nikola felt no pain.

“Your grandson stole our Freia and then didn’t even bothered to raise her son!” Screamed one of the Vikings. Nikola had never seen him before and he was sure that this had never happened. The necromancer knew tidbits about him and drew both the souls of the dead and the living in this game. So, Nikola was going to do the same. This was a dream and so Death was not going to be mad at him for bringing back the dead. Hopefully.

Wordlessly he searched for Freia’s soul and he dragged her to the boat. The Viking who had addressed Nikola fell on his knees.

“Daughter!” He said happily but Freia was already removing the gag from Nikola’s mouth.

“Grandfather, don’t play with time!” She chided and Nikola laughed at being lectured by someone who had gotten the world in a Groundhog Day just so she can have the perfect wedding.

“A necromancer is playing with me, untie me, granddaughter.” Freia cut him lose with the dagger her father gave her and the child appeared hovering over the water.

“You cheating sack of shit!” Said the Maggot but Nikola was already drawing a bow he got from one of the Vikings.

“My soul can disappear here, or get send to the Abyss, which is the same in my eyes, really.” Said Nikola as he let loose an arrow. The child dodged. Why would he do that if it couldn’t be hurt here?

“The next one will break you. It did so the first time.” Nikola could hear Freia calling out to him and then he woke up. He was in the palace of Atlantis and his body felt wrong. He looked down at his chest and then he touched them. These were breasts! He looked around and he saw that he was in Pallas’ old nursery. No, this was supposed to be Ryota’s nursery.

Penemue entered the room with a smiling Rin following close behind.

“I told you he liked to play at being a mother in this room.” The fox bitch said and Nikola lost all of his composure. He lashed out, flames and ice trailing towards both angel and kitsune.

“You don’t need anyone.” Wei Caihong had told him once, in an attempt to get him to abandon Penemue. Nikola begun summoning the dead then. Almost all of Rudra’s dead brothers and sisters. Penemue didn’t stand a chance and Rin was dead in seconds. The angels bowed to him, not understanding why they were here but knowing they were still dead. Nikola laughed and sat down in his chair.

“Was that all? I can bring back Penemue with a snap of my finger here. Come out if you’re strong, brave, weak and all that nonsense. Oh, why do I even bother challenging you? Get him.”

The angels flew in all directions and soon one of them dragged a familiar child in black robes from a corner.

“You can stay here.” Said the child fearfully. “Give birth to Ryota. Raise him.”

“Die from giving birth to a Nephilim, you mean?” Asked Nikola and then he shifted his form to that of a man, killing the child within his stomach. “I am a cruel piece of work, kiddo. What broke me before can no longer break me. I will pay for all that I have done. But not because of you. Someone, give me your sword.”

Just as a blade was handed to him Nikola coughed. The child trashed against the hands that held it and maggots begun to fall from it’s robe. There was something white piercing it’s chest. Then Nikola coughed again and he opened his eyes.

This time it was to a man in a black robe and Nikola at first thought it was another necromancer. There was a sword made of light piercing Nikola’s chest and he reached out to touch it. It burned his fingers.

“You have to be cleansed. You shouldn’t have gone to the Maggot’s Lair alone.” This was a cultivator. It had to be one. Nikola relaxed back into someone and he turned around to see it was Penemue. Guilt overflow him about what he had done in the dream world. But he wasn’t about to let history repeat itself. He searched with his eyes for Ryota, the son he had so carelessly killed. He found him with Han Fengfan in his arms. These two were inseparable. He was so happy for them.

The sword grew even brighter and Nikola could hear a child’s screams inside his head.

“You have to think about reasons why you should remain alive or the technique won’t take hold.” Said the cultivator. Nikola could think about a couple of reasons. His six children waiting to be born. More screaming and the sword grew brighter. The children he already had. A wail and pleas which fell on deaf ears. Everyone in the village, especially granny Nuo Nuying. A gurgle was heard and Nikola spat out a maggot. It wasn’t going to be long now. Penemue. Black ooze begun dripping from his eyes. The windows to his soul. Wei Caihong, his precious soulmate. The one who he had hurt the most. The one who loved him the most.

Silence reigned and then Nikola felt sick. He bend down and begun to throw up maggots and ooze. Then it was stomach acid and when even that was exhausted, he simply heaved over the side of the wagon.

“If you are a cultivator.” Said Nikola between heaves. “Then why was there a haunted tomb to begin with.” He was angry at this man for not doing his job. If the answer was something as mundane as money, he was going to punch him.

“The Maggot killed off the Samjin cultivation sect. I am the last one left. I kept a barrier in place to keep the corpses inside, but I couldn’t do anything for the Maggot and his apprentice themselves.”

“Dead.” Rasped Nikola. He felt like a victor. The same way he had felt when he had bend the Celts to his will without bloodshed. “And now I’m going to sleep and I better not hear anyone say are we there yet.” He smiled to his own joke and drifted off. When he dreamed, he dreamed of all the angels he had resurrected in his nightmare and of Freia. Odd.