Ruler Of Iron And Flesh

Inian said his goodbyes to Tecale once they escaped the Titan level monster.

His wings sprouted out of his back, and he took off into the air. The wind rush passed his face, cooling him from the hot days in the monster lands.

"Alright, let's go." He said aloud to himself. It took him only a few days of flying to reach Irigia, where he began to scan for his servants.

He closed his eyes while in the air, trying to sense where they were at when he finally caught something. He flew down to land on the ground when Kraque and Reclusa went to greet him. "Welcome, sire! We have been expecting you for quite some time now." Reclusa nodded her spidery head in agreement.

Inian looked behind them, "where's Janae?" Kraque was fidgeting with his antennas, "well, you see, Janae hated staying with us in the forest, so she went to the nearest city. We can't follow her into a human town, so we haven't seen her for a couple of months now."

Inian clenched his fist, glaring at Kraque. Kraque flinched back and averted Inian's gaze. Reclusa then stepped forward, "I'm sorry your majesty, but we could not stop her without harming her, and that would've gone against your orders."

Inian's anger faded, and he rubbed his temples, "okay. Thank you for doing what you could. Which city is she in?"

Reclusa thought for a moment, "I do not know the names of human cities, but she is in a city with no walls. There are only mechas patrolling the outside of it.

Inian then knew where she was. There was only one city in the world that had no walls to protect them from monsters. That city was Preah.

He thought back to the history he was taught growing up in Seyukha. Irigia had no airsh.i.p.s, and it is one of the smaller nations, but it had the most advanced walking mechas out of any other nation, that included the Empire.

Preah had no walls but had many mighty mechas defending it. They even had a behemoth level mecha patrolling the outskirts.

Despite the Irigia's small size, no other nation has dared to make a move against them due to those powerful mechas.

"I'll go and find her," said Inian, "until then stay here and don't make a ruckus with any people. There aren't that many monsters down here, so you are both at a disadvantage here."

Kraque and Reclusa bowed and scattered off into the woods nearby.

Inian sprouted wings and shot off in the direction of Preah. He had always been good at finding his way, so he got there within a couple of hours.

He landed a distance outside the city. He cringed a little after he noticed the state of his clothing. He had been in the wilderness for several months and hadn't paid any attention to himself.

Inian observed his body; he had gotten numerous scars along his torso and arms. His shirt was barely hanging onto his body anymore.

'I'm going to look a bit suspicious walking in like this,' he thought. So he decided to sneak into the city.

Luckily it was nearly dark out, so he activated his mirage ability to blend into the background. He walked towards the open city, making sure to stay out of the way of any mecha patrols.

He dived forward as he was nearly stepped on by a six-legged mecha rushing around the city. He sighed with relief as he got through the mecha perimeter.

Looking forward, he could see the city with buildings 50 stories in height. The smaller buildings were on the outskirts and looked more worn down, but the city got cleaner and brighter the closer to the center you were.

Inian moved towards the outer buildings. There, many people were either hard at work in shops or were living in old homes.

Inian still had is mirage ability activated, but he needed to find clothes before he could turn it off.

That's when he saw one cautious man slink into an alleyway. Inian followed and saw two other men inside the alley.

The cautious man looked behind him to make sure no one else was listening and didn't realize that Inian was standing right there, so he started talking to the two men, "I have the codes for two titan mechas with me right now. You can hijack them with enough men to crew it. Do you have the payment?"

One of the two men nodded and tossed the cautious man a huge bag of gold coins. "The Empire thanks you for your efforts citizen."

After that, the man slinked away with a smile on his face.

'Some spies! Perhaps their clothes will work,' thought Inian. He crept up behind the two men, keeping his mirage ability activated.

The two men checked the codes and nodded their approval; then suddenly, their vision went dark.

Their necks snapped as Inian smacked them.

He cringed hearing the crack of each of their necks.

'I need to be careful. I'm a little stronger than a regular human now.'

Inian took their clothes and put them on. They were a little loose but comfortable, and they helped him blend in.

He walked out of the alleyway back onto the crowded streets where he tried looking for Janae.

He asked around, but nobody knew where she was or who she was.

He continued asking for several hours when Inian stumbled across a bar. He was tired and wanted to take a break, so it wouldn't be harmful to spend a few of the spies' gold coins.

Walking in he heard a familiar voice, "I already told you ya bastard, I don't want to be apart of any crew around here."

A handsome young man was talking to none other than Janae, who was leaning against the wall with a drink in her hand.

"C' mon Janae! They are always looking for mecha crews, and I hear that you are amazing! You would be well taken care of in my crew," the man said as he c.a.r.e.s.sed the side of her face.

Janae snarled at him and spat in his face.

The man's appearance went from kind and welcoming to frigid in a second. "That's fine if that's how you want it. You can rot with these other folks when the Empire comes!"

He c.o.c.ked back a fist and Janae prepared to defend herself when the man's arm was grabbed behind him.

"I don't appreciate you doing that." Said Inian. The handsome man was furious. He nodded to a couple of large men sitting at a table; they nodded back and stood up.

The man smiled at Inian, "don't get involved where it doesn't involve you, friend."

Inian's stone-cold glare shot down on the man. The man looked into Inian's eyes and trembled. The power he felt was overwhelming him. "Your arm is in the path of my business," Inian said and crushed the man's arm. The man screamed out in pain; his arm looked like an hourglass where Inian broke it.

"Inian!" Janae said, tears coming to her eyes.

"I'm back Janae, so let's go." Inian pulled her out of the bar, leaving the man screaming in pain and his lackeys frozen in shock.