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Feast Fit for an Emperor

Once known as The Great Detective, Enigma’s capture and subsequent rebirth at the hands of the titan Volpes had molded him into the image of perfection: Strong, cunning, ruthless, and dominant in all aspects. It was then that he knew what his mission would need to be. His duty, from that day forth, would be to evolve the human and beastkin population of Crossroads, transform them as he had been changed.

In this world, strength was the only thing that matters. And since he was both the strongest and the smartest, it was up to him to impose his will upon the masses. Along with a retinue of brainwashed titans, he would lead “recruitment drives” on villages, cities, and settlements across the plane.

Returning to the palace after each such drive with captured men, women, children, and all of their possessions, his forces would feast and revel, as was their right. Among it all, Emperor Enigma would sit at the head of the festivities, hardy titans dancing and drinking to their hearts’ content.

That is not to say the captives were unlucky. No, they were the blessed ones. Men, women, and every adult in between would be “reeducated” by the Emperor’s psionic powers, made to understand the sin of their weakness so that they would be ready to receive the power of Volpes’s titan elixir.

Their children, not yet old enough to be made true soldiers, would be trained and more properly educated until they too were old enough and wise enough to be inducted into the empire as true citizen-soldiers. As the Emperor was so fond of saying, perhaps as a vestige of his previous life, the mind is a muscle as powerful as any other.

Every day was a good day to be a citizen-soldier of the empire.

When I wrote that initial story about Enigma become a titan and tyrant, I had every intention to making that a simple one off that was never going to come around again. But then I saw a YCH from LittleBadWolf back in December of 2022 that would’ve been perfect for the character, and I couldn’t resist tapping into the well again.

Villains are always fun to write, but especially in the embody things that that the writer enjoys, like muscle growth, corruption, personality changes and mental conditioning. And that’s why I would keep going back to Emperor Enigma every now and then.