I waited at the edge of the lake looking at its waters, the turbidity slowly increasing. There must be a balance of life within the lake. Its natural state should not be just clear but have some dirt and other minerals flow around within. There should be both unity and chaos to be perfection. When the universe was created, chaos and unity bashed against each other, in the end, it created life. The first perfectly balanced creatures were primordial souls, their balance was absolute and unwavering. However as time goes on, this balance has been destroyed. It’s time to bring back a force that acts for neither chaos or unity, but balance. This is no longer my goal of guarding the purity of souls, but the act of reaching strength no one has seen, at least since ancient times.

…

It was about 45 minutes later when the shadow elf, Darius, has come to greet me. He spoke while kneeling in my presence, “the elders have gathered, they are waiting for your audience, my lord. I can take you to the meeting spot if you follow me”.

I looked at the grand elder and spoke, “Good, just point me to the right building then we can go there”.

The grand elder was a little confused, he pointed to a large tree that had a big hut, it made sense as the elders gathered were the leaders of the 30,000 or so elves. I motioned for the grand elder to stand next to me along with my royal guard. Once we were huddled together closely, I sent out spatial waves to stabilize a bubble around us. The grand elder was confused for a second then recognized what I was going to do, he spoke, “ I see my lord… wants to make a lasting impression. I agree wholeheartedly with this action... these elders have turned soft and dull, they no longer recognize true power”.

I figured as much and teleported all of us to the large hut-building in the largest tree within the forest. It wasn’t relatively too far so teleporting us there was easy.

…

Akazul POV:

I was sitting to the right of the grand elder’s chair, there were 39 of us elders here already. I saw the elves who were having a variety of mixed emotions on their faces. Some had anticipation and hope. While others saw this new being as a threat to their power and were in deep contemplation. I just chuckled to my self quietly, they have no idea what this being could mean for our race. All I knew was this lands fate has just changed drastically. However, it seems my silent chuckling hasn’t gone unnoticed.

My nemesis the marshlands elder, a stubborn and ignorant man spoke up; “What the hell are you laughing about?! This is a serious problem, we are supposed to just hand over all of our hard work over these years. We have just stabilized from the battle at the border from the lizardmen and this new being just walks in here saying he is an almighty god more powerful than our ancient ancestor? Are you all idiots or what! This is obviously a scam and we are being played with. So what if his minion fought 30 people almost evenly, what can THIS BEING even do?!”

I looked at the elder with a comical glint in my eyes, during the trip back, we were told not to bring up the megaladora. In this way, our new future lord can see who is power-hungry and will be an obstacle to be eliminated. If I told him what happened to the megaladora this fool would have his trap shut.

Some of the elders were skeptical, some were agreeing, some didn’t know left from right of the situation and just kept sighing. The conversation lasted for another minute until a massive spatial distortion was permeating throughout the room. Within a second four figures popped out of nowhere next to the grand elder's chair. The room was dead quiet, all of the shadow elves were locked onto my new lord, they knew that this power is of the ancients. No space mage in the shadow elves has been able to use such space magic in a thousand years. My lord disregarded them and pulled back the grand elder's wooden chair and just sat in it with his hands clasped interlocking each other as his elbows rested on the table. A faint cyan color flame smile appeared within the abyssal hood.

…

Anubis POV:

I looked at these pathetic creatures within my view. Weak was the first thing I could think of. I scanned across the room. A large wooden table with 40 seats and 39 elders in front of me. The grand elder behind me along with my knight and mage royal guards. I decided to start this meeting off. Nonchalantly asking, “Anyone who needs an example of my power raise your hand, we will go through this quickly as there are many more important matters to discuss than whether or not your willing to follow me”. I could see the hesitation is the shadow elves' eyes, then the elf that was conversing with Akazul just seconds before my arrival rose his hand. He was a pathetic noble-looking elf, like he has been sheltered for his entire life, and even has people that wipe his shit for him. I spread out my shadow domain, cloaking the entire room in darkness, light seems to be afraid of the darkness and only a few torches on the walls looked just like glowing stones, afraid to light a flame bright enough to attract my attention.

I summoned a scythe of pure darkness that absorbed my shadow domain growing in strength to look just like a demonic death reaper scythe. The shadow domain receeded but the scythe remained. It vanished from the shadow elves' view then reappeared behind the marshland elder with its blade around the neck of the shadow elf. The blade just a single millimeter away from the throat of the shadow elf. The shadow elf was sweating profusely and afraid to say a word that could end his life, he just sat frozen in his chair. I looked at the room and spoke, “ok, moving on”. Leaving the scythe in its position completely stopping the elf from speaking a single word. I could see the excited glint in Akazul’s eyes.

I then began the meeting completely ignoring the dense atmosphere as if nothing happened, “My name is Anubis, and I will tell you that I was born a shadow elemental, however, there is much even you don’t know about such beings. I was once a god, I was also once a soldier of death. I have had many experiences, many lives, and took so much more. I came to this world as a shadow elemental, not as a killer, not as a monster, nor as a god. I came here to rule, I have seen things you people can’t begin to understand nor can even think about. You are currently unworthy of my rule, your species is underdeveloped in technology and warfare. You have fallen low and are nothing more than insects. It is obvious you can’t rule by yourselves so I have come here to rule for you. I suspect that since you are still alive, though, that means the other races of this continent are not much better off”. The look of fear within the elder's eyes slowly was replaced with awe, then it was replaced with shame. The shame of falling so far.

“If you think that I will just ask for undying loyalty without producing anything in return, then you would be far more wrong then you can even think. I have already fixed your racial’s weakness, infertility”. With my words, the elders paused in their thinking instantly. Everything that was in their minds was instantly replaced with, Really? Impossible. We have had this problem even in ancient times. I knew their disbelief but waited a little longer to set their disbelief into hope. Even if they don’t believe me at the moment, it will still create a spark of hope. I spoke after a few seconds of a break, “this brings me back to the point of you people not understanding shadow elementals. Shadow elemental barely has any intelligence, until they are tamed their only goal is to consume the lifeforce of the world. In the deepest part of the lake at the bottom was, this guy”, I pointed behind me to my void-mage.

I continued, “He was consuming the life force of the atmosphere, just enough to the point that giving birth, unless a sacrifice of a spike of lifeforce, nothing new could be born. Whether that be the grass, trees, or anything in the lake”. My explanation seemed to be groundbreaking for the dark elves, they finally connected their deficiency and the flaw of being too close to a shadow elemental that has yet to be tamed. Their hope and awe soon growing more and more, right along with this eye-opening information. I waved to motion the grand elder to speak on my behalf for now. We had discussed much along the way from the fight with the megaladora.

The grand elder stepped up to stand to the right of me and spoke, “We have fallen, fallen so far. In the ancient ages, the power that I currently have is nothing but the common citizens of then. The kings back then were tier 4 and tier 5. When we first discovered the areas which became ashes from my new lord, those were just small tests of power coming into this world for him. We are currently weak, and I have already stepped down from the leader of the shadow elves. We are no leaders, leaders have to be strong both physically and mentally. We have long ago lost our true strength. In the ancient ages, we had our god, this god allowed us to thrive under his wings. But even then he fell to incompetence. Our new lord here is his replacement. Our new lord's strength will allow us to once again be strong, live without fear of starvation, being so weak that we're unable to protect our loved ones, and even have numbers strong enough to not be threatened to extinction”. Darius turned to me and knelt with his hand on his chest in both a salute and promissory of loyalty. He spoke, “I have failed as a leader, but I will not fail again. I, Darius pledge my loyalty. I pledge that I will protect thy lord from harm, follow thy lord’s orders. In return, all I ask for is the honor of serving thy lord”.

I stood up from my seat to look at Darius, “I, Anubis, Shadow Emperor, accept your loyalty. Your work has is not done, but has only just begun. If you bring me absolute loyalty, I in return will bring absolute glory, honor, and prosperity. Darius, your position within the shadow elves is no longer grand elder, but now the Shadow’s Messenger. When I speak you will be my voice, when I act, you will be my arms”. I turned to the rest of the shadow elves, “If you all pledge your loyalty I can guarantee that the demons of hell and the archangels of heaven will fear your prowess. Right now you are nothing but a pebble. However, I will shape you to become diamonds and gems. You will shine so bright that the sun is nothing but your eyes. Your strength will make the moons shudder. The stars will be nothing but stepping stones. I can provide you everything, all I ask in return is unwavering loyalty. I don’t plan to stop with the shadow elves, I will also make the lizardmen, humans, beastmen, and even the wildlife submit to my will”.

One by one the shadow elves knelt, they all kneeled to their new lord. The marshland elder would’ve kneeled but the scythe was still there. I snapped my fingers and the scythe vanished in a puff of black smoke. The marshland elder sighed a breath of relief as he also knelt in submission. I looked upon the 40 elders and two royal guards that knelt in subservience. I spoke with my voice firm, just as the gods speak in such a majestic presence, I too spoke in such a presence. “We still have much to discuss, I will tell you how to solve your food problem, and will have my guards train you. I will spend a month with you when the month is up you will be changed. I have my eyes on these lizardmen, they seem to give you much trouble in their warmongering ways. I will conquer them next, and afterward the humans. I have much to learn of this world so we will first begin with the local geography. I need to know what I have to work with”.

The room within minutes turned into discussions, the meeting lasted until sundown, hours passed and many of the other shadow elves have begun to worry about their elders. One thing everyone knew, something is changing. For better or worse, the change will come and their lives soon will change along with it.