"How go your efforts?"

A hooded figure spoke in a deep, ominous voice as he paced about a dark cavern.

In front of him kneeled a huge icey blue figure adorned in animal pelts.

He spoke in a gruff, unrefined manner that made it clear he had a diminished intellect.

"Seven tribes fallen so far."

The hooded man froze in his tracks instantly.

"...That is far too little. What have you been doing with all of the time you''ve had?"

The frost giant growled and puffed out his chest in defiance. "We would be a lot further in our conq-"

The ground underneath the hooded figure cracked with his surging displeasure. Even though he was currently astral projecting, he had left very real footprints in the bedrock.

"Do. Not. Invoke. His. Name. Lest it is your sole desire to see all of your efforts crumble before you even make any noticeable headway in your endeavor."

The ice giant gulped and backed away timidly.

There were many conditions the ice giant was given before he was given the black book that made these recent victories possible.

Among them was the condition that a handful of words were basically banned from his tribe''s vocabulary.

Hell, they weren''t even supposed to write them.

It may have seemed like a silly and unnecessary condition to pose, but it''s importance had already been stressed several times over.

"A-Apologies, Emissary..."

The hooded man snorted.

"A-About our efforts..." The giant continued. "There would be be more sacrifices if we were to attack during the day instead of at night. Our people are not nocturnal and sleeping during the day is-"

"I thought you all were supposed to be the ''smart'' giants..? Or perhaps I am finally realizing that there is no such thing." The emissary interrupted.

The blue skinned giant suppressed a growl.

"You haven''t sacrificed enough to the book for it to still hold onto it''s same level of effectiveness in the daytime. If you want to march with impunity, then I suggest you put in the necessary effort first."

The frost giant leader lowered his head timidly.

"This one understands.."

"Well what do you know? It''s a fucking miracle."

The hooded figure fitzed out of view and left without so much as a polite goodbye.

Once he was alone, the behemoth finally unloaded his frustrations on a nearby wall; pumping it until the entire cavern had nearly collapsed.

"Leader?!"

A female ice giant came rushing in to the cavern from outside; clearly lured by the sound of the chieftain''s tantrum.

"Is it the Dark On-"

"Never mind him for now!" The leader snapped back.

He pointed a thick, crooked finger at the young giantess and she flinched as if she were waiting for a blow to land.

"You go back out there and warn everyone to rest while they can! Tonight we march until the sun rises and every stone giant we find has been torn apart!"

-

For whatever reason, night seemed to fall much quicker that day.

Torches were lit to illuminate the darkness of the night and rouse the fighting spirits of a small encampment of jo?tunar.

The Elder Disciple was confused by so much of that statement. "...I''m sorry princess, but which of your mothers could you be refer-"

"YOU BETTER GIVE HER THAT FUCKING BOOK OF I SWEAR TO THE DARK GOD I WILL SHRED YOUR SOUL AND SCATTER THE BITS INTO COUNTLESS THEORETICAL TIMELINES AND FORCE YOU TO DREDGE YOUR NUTS IN LEMON JUICE AND GLASS IN EVERY ONE!"

"I-I DON''T UNDERSTAND WHAT MOST OF THAT MEANS!! M-MERCY!! PLEASE!!!"

"NO!!!"

The Senior sister nodded her head slowly. "Ah.. Empress Seras then."

"Uh-huh." Mira smiled proudly.

Needless to say, the Frost Giant leader ended up dropping the book shortly after. This was not done of his own volition, but more so out of an inability to maintain consciousness.

But when the dark tome slipped from it''s owner''s grasp, the pages accidentally slipped open.

A deluge of dark energy flooded out, and horrific creatures burst from the parchment into reality.

As the Stone Giant Chieftain had specified, the creatures were of an ''icky'' sort.

Some looked like they were made from chunky oil and the eyes of several different kinds of beasts. Others looked like wretched eels with arms and legs dripping with mucus.

The possible combinations of these monstrosities just went on and on.

"We have the dark creatures on our side! Take the fight to the demons!!" A frost giant roared.

The Senior Unongendi at Mira''s side lifted her veil.

Her face was more dragon-like than humanoid, but it was still undeniably beautiful.

She fixes her dark yellow eyes on the parade of creatures falling from the sky and curled her lips into a smile.

"Boo."

The creatures immediately halted in the air.

They let out several screeches loud enough to shatter glass and turned tail like rats.

Miraculously, the beasts ran back inside of the book even faster than they broke out of it.

Continue reading on empire

The last creature to go inside promptly shut the tome behind them.

Somehow, the book fell to the ground without opening this time.

Mira switched her gaze from the book to the frost giants who were still frozen in their tracks; unwilling to believe what they had just seen.

"What''s gotten into all of you? Cold feet?" She snickered at her own good natured pun.

A calamitous thud struck the ground hard enough to cause avalanches nearby.

The frost giant leader had been beaten within an inch of his life and dropped from 300 meters in the sky for everyone to see.

And of course, the one responsible was still a long way from calm.

"Anyone who takes even another step towards the princess gets their miserable skull cracked open!" Disciple Alexandra yelled with her full chest.

The Frost Giants collectively took one massive step backwards.

Mira looked at her senior disciple once again with an even bigger smile than before. "Do you see, Angi? I told you she was precious."

Senior Sister Angelina had known Mira for many many years now.

And she was no closer to figuring out if words like ''cute'' and ''precious'' meant something different to the entire royal family or if she was just the exception.

"...Well... Far be it from me to argue with you, Princess."

"I''m glad you agree!"