Last chapter, the perspective changed to someone who should have been sealed away thousands of years ago.

The person in question being one of the Five Kings, Hopian himself- who is living luxuriously in an apartment he hired people to build for him many years ago.

After watching his territory's leaders meet with Domino Afolabi, he headed towards the restaurant Italso's Diner- where he would be meeting with Head Commander Prósopsi.

Hopian's P.O.V.

Our car plays some nice classical music, to alert us that we've arrived at our destination. The inner-lights of the... haaah, phasemobile, slowly brighten at the same time, letting us be able to see the brown leather interior of our vehicle.

"Hey- isn't this the back of the restaurant? Unless you did that on purpose?" Taylis says which makes me freeze as I'm opening the door. Glancing out of the tinted window- I can indeed see that we're behind Italso's...

"THIS is why we never drive the phasemobile Taylis. So be it, we'll walk through an alleyway." I say with a sigh as I open the door and walk outside onto the white-neon lit sidewalk next to us. I then walk around to Taylis' door and open it for her, taking her hand as she steps outside in her clicking heels.

I take a glance around, admiring the architecture of the massive buildings filled with "registered citizens" around us. I ignore the big cylindrical tubes above us however that are carrying many unsightly citizens. The tubes ARE necessary for travel though, since the registered citizens obviously can not walk- and on rare occasions need to leave their apartments.

Oh well- I look back down, as me and Taylis start to walk towards an alleyway a fair bit ahead of us.

...

I'm forced to deal with my pride, "Every citizen will be free of their bodies once I take their souls- I do not need to stress about this tonight. I've only let their bodies become extremely unhealthy, because it will make it easier for the soul-transfers into their prepared robotic-bodies to be complete." I think to myself.

"Oop, some thugs are in the alley we're headed towards. Think we should find another way?" Taylis warns as we approach the entrance to our shortcut- but I keep a stern face on as I guide her into it with me.

Just as she scouted out, five seemingly homeless men- some skinny and some buff, are having some drinks together and "enjoying" themselves. A small woman is with them too. But regardless- they stop what they're doing once they notice us walking towards them.

"Oooh- nice clothes, looks like you're pretty fucking loaded... ya wouldn't mind giving us a small donation, would you?" One of the tall men asks as he pulls out a knife from his ripped shorts, and starts stumbling towards us.

"Don't do this, please- you'll regret it." Taylis tries to plead with him, but he completely ignores her and continues to walk towards us.

"Stand behind me Taylis." I say, which makes Taylis look at me with a frown- but she takes a step behind me regardless.

I raise my hands into the air, which makes the man stop in front of me. I blink three times in succession, and make sure to take a look at each of my targets.

As the man starts to dig his filthy hand into my pockets, I flex and abduct my thumb thrice, my index finger once- and finally my middle finger twice.

This causes six lasers to fire down into each of these vermins' heads from above. Seemingly instantaneously at that, but in reality one shot was fired at a time from one of my many turrets set-up on the ceiling of my Hopian-Dome.

I take a step back as the man who approached me slumps forward onto the ground, as well as his other now deceased companions.

"Rest in peace... I guess they deserved it though. If they didn't rob us, they would've robbed someone else or worse, right?" Taylis says as she wraps her arm around mine.

"Correct." I respond as I guide her around the corpses.

"Can you remind me about how you got those lasers fired? It'll make me feel better." Taylis asks with a shaky sigh, and I happily oblige,

"Well, I assume you know that I always have at least one micro-drone monitoring my movements. And so when I blinked three times in under a second- it recognized that, and activated my motion-tracking commands. From there- flexing my thumb three times turned on the closest turret above us. Flexing my index finger then confirmed my targets, AKA the 6 people that I was looking at. And lastly, flicking my middle finger twice fired the lasers." I say as we walk out of the dark alleyway, and onto the brightly lit and lively streets around us.

We take a right, and immediately arrive at the front door to the restaurant. It's look is quite old fashioned with the entrance even being wooden, which is why Italso's is a favourite of mine. The owner was a well spoken man, but he died around 70 years ago- luckily they've kept the restaurant to his standards however even after all of this time.

Anywho, we enter inside- and are greeted by a receptionist with a respectable and well groomed mustache.

"Hello, my name is William Lefos- I have a reservation for 9 PM. Our confirmation code, Taylis?" I ask as the receptionist starts looking through the thick reservation book on his table.

He seems to be having doubts that I'm the one who's meeting Prósopsi, and so Taylis replies, "234-672-AB1."

After realizing the code is correct, his eyes open wide for a moment and he quickly does a bow.

"What, do you think my body is too inadequate to meet someone like that Head Commander? You'll see one day..." I think to myself in anger on the inside, but manage to keep my composure on the outside.

... Actually, I suppose it is smart of them to ensure that no mix-ups occur, so I'll admit I may have been too harsh there.

Anyways the man stops bowing, "Welcome back William- thank you for the confirmation. Your second guest has not arrived yet, in the meantime please- follow me." The receptionist says which is a big weight off of my shoulders- I do hope the Head Commander of the Army himself won't be TOO late however...

A few minutes later...

Taylis continues to click her nails on our white-clothed table, it's already 9:03- and she just informed me that Prósopsi has finally arrived.

Shame aside, our dining area is quite nice. We have a well-made thick blue cloth separating us from the rest of the guests here. It stretches all of the way up to the ceiling, leaving us with a isolated cubical "room"- and it should be soundproof as well like I requested.

As for the lighting- we have slowly color changing LED lights above us. Mainly because I know this will better suit Prósopsi's tastes.

Speaking of which I see Prósopsi open the curtains- and he begins to walk inside towards his seat with a wave.

"Hi- sorry for being late, got tied up in the aftermath of a rough meeting. It's nice to meet you two." Prósopsi says, hmph he's just like Taylis. By "aftermath", my wife told me that Prósopsi was trying to calm Domino Afolabi down- after he learned the truth about me and my brothers.

All the more reason as to why I need to make Prósopsi my ally quickly, before he starts to rely too heavily on his emotions over his rationality.

"No biggie, it's nice to meet you too. Wow- your robe looks so much cooler in person..." Taylis replies as she admires his white and golden robe, gifted to him by that awfully immodest naked "goddess", Aphrodite, who's standing next to him.

Of course I keep my eyes off of her however- out of respect for Taylis. Instead I keep on looking at the now smiling Prósopsi who replies, "Oh, thank you haha- your dress looks great too. So- I know you of course go by Mrs. Magic, but is there any formal name I should call you by? And I don't know your name yet either." Prósopsi asks as he looks at me.

"My name is William Lefos, you might have heard of my company Steelworks. As for my wife- her true name is Taylis. It's... a pleasure to meet you as well, punctuality aside. Now then. I know quite a bit about you- but yes, you know very little about me Head Commander." I say as I click the buzzer on our table, which should summon a waiter to come to us in a moment.

"Please, just call me Prósopsi. But yeah- I am curious. So you said that Taylis takes tactical orders from you? So- when she went after Quilline, that was your call I'm assuming? Sorry again, for being so quick to accuse her of making a mistake back there." Prósopsi asks, and a moment later the buzzer on my table turns red- which is meant to notify me that a waiter is waiting outside our "room" if I recall correctly.

I press it, and respond to him, "Sure, in a moment." A second later, a well dressed female waiter walks inside with a glass pitcher of water- and she has two menus with her as well like I requested.

"Any drinks I can get for you three?" The woman asks as she hands me and Prósopsi the slim but long menus- then starts to pour water in our glasses.

"Mhm, I'll take a glass of Seralis Red. My wife will have the same- right?" I regretfully ask Taylis just so that she won't be able to embarrass me- and as I suspected she nods, we're both fans of red wine after all.

"Prósopsi- right, you haven't been here before. Are there any types of beverages you're a fan of? I can give you some recommendations based on the type you prefer, I've been here many times." I ask, trusting in him choosing the formal option.

"No worries. Well... hm... you know what? I honestly don't like alcohol much- are there any good juices, or heck even sodas here?" Prósopsi asks which makes his goddess companion start to laugh obnoxiously loud, meanwhile I'm filled with dissapointment- maybe even a bit of anger.

"...Yes. There are, I suppose. But you're at one of the finest restaurants on this continent, with some of the finest drinks. Are you sure you want to resort to something to simple?" I ask as I struggle not to sigh...

"Yeah. I used to fake liking alcohol at events before so that I could look professional- but honestly, I'm done with that. I don't want to put on a facade of who I really am anymore." Prósopsi says with a nod and a smile as he continues to look at me.

"That's nice, the people may trust you more that way too maybe." Taylis says as she takes a sip of her water, which seems to please Prósopsi more. Ugh.

"Oh yes, I'm sure the people would love to know that your strength comes from being a goddess' prostitute..." I imagine myself saying to him, which allows me to keep my composure.

"Waiter- tell him about those drinks." I say with a fake smile as I shake my head.

"Sure. Well, I saw on a meeting a while ago that you like oranges- right Head Commander? If so, we have a nice sparkling orange drink that you may like- it's house-made, very sweet, and non-alcoholic of course." The woman asks- not seeming fazed by Prósopsi's tastes, she must be well trained.

"Oh jeez, I did that interview around two years ago right? Sheesh- good memory, yeah that drink sounds great, thank you." Prósopsi says with a laugh as he seems to be filled with nostalgia.

"I guess you can say I'm quite the fan of yours. Thank you for your service sir, I'll be back with your drinks in a moment." The woman says with a bow as Prósopsi tries to tell her it's not necessary- but regardless she leaves a second later.

I continue, "Right. So back to my role here. Taylis, as you know, is able to "read the minds" of many people across the continent. She tells me if anything she spots seems concerning- and from there, I give her orders on how to deal with such threats, and when. I'm... relatively hands off on her combat however- that's all her, hence why she's joining the army." I explain with half-truths.

"Got it. How will that work once Taylis joins us though? She'll be taking orders from her superiors while on duty, as you probably know." Prósopsi asks as he idly slides his cup along the table.

"That should not be an issue. If anything- there may be some orders that I may be forced to tell her not to follow. I hope you'll accept this compromise due to how much of an asset she'll be to your ranks." I ask as I rest my chin on my hand.

"Hmmm. That depends on what kinds of orders really- and how important they are. Like for example- if she refused to help us take on King Metallica and co., that could be a pretty big issue. And sorry, is there anything you want to add here Taylis? We're talking like you aren't even here." Prósopsi says with a small laugh as he looks to my wife, and she quickly shakes her head to say no as expected.

"So I'll have to make up excuses to keep Taylis away from Quilline then." I note to myself, annoying but the pros of her being in the army still outweigh the cons. She'll both lower crime, and also make me seem like a better person to Prósopsi- in the 50/50 chance that he does become my ally.

"Understandable. That should be fine, as long as some lesser orders can be nullified at least. On that note. Taylis- can you leave me and Prósopsi alone for a few minutes? I need to talk about somethings you may find distasteful, the washroom is to the right of us if you want to go there." I ask, and she gives me a puzzled look before she shrugs- and finally stands up and starts walking to the entrance of our soundproof curtains.

"And no peaking, I mean it- I'll come get you soon." I say, to make sure she won't use any micro-drones to monitor us here.

"Yep." She replies with a pop as she opens the curtains, walks outside, and closes the curtains.

"No offense but, couldn't she just read our minds anyways?" Pròsopsi says- a smart question.

"None taken, and no- not exactly. You see, Taylis doesn't have a Blessing at all actually." I say, which seems to intrigue Prósopsi.

"She has the ability to, with limitations, monitor people from a distance for a certain amount of time- but she can not actually read minds. Before I say anymore- sign this." I partially lie as I lower my hand into the now dirty pocket that homeless fool was digging into before. I then take out a folded paper form, and a pen I shoved in there as well.

I unfold the paper, and place both of the items in front of him.

...

"A non-disclosure agreement? Ok, then- sure. But by the way- if you're about to tell me anything illegal here, I can't-"

"No. Nothing illegal. Now go on." I say with a smirk, and Prósopsi seems unamused- but he starts signing the form regardless.

"How much you wanna bet this guy's a freak? With the way he was treating his wife and all- I bet you're about to hear some screwed up stuff Prósopsi." Aphrodite says which makes me clench my fists under the table.

"I've killed your kind before you know, first Apollo- and then Poseidon. I have Apollo's skull on display in my house, and I'm sure you've noticed Commander Ontarus using Poseidon's blade. This isn't a threat, but I hope you'll take this into account regardless and shut your ignorant mouth." I close my eyes and imagine myself saying those words to Aphrodite, which helps me to calm down. And that's ignoring the fact that she's a horrid "partner" to Prósopsi as well...

But good news- once I open my eyes, Prósopsi hands the signed forms back to me.

"Right. Well- I'll be blunt with this. My wife Taylis is not physically human, nor does she have a soul. She's a robot, who's been built over the course of 100 years- with the project being carried on by my family's generations of engineers." I say, the first part being true but the last part of course being a lie- I built her entirely on my own over the course of 200 years.

A/N: Thanks for reading!