Rebellion (After the Haunted FF)

Chapter 40

This chapter mainly focuses on Armen and Xavier. I didn't originally plan to write this chapter and I definitely did not intend for it to be so long. I began writing a different version but it lacked important information and details that this part has. Although I'm not happy with how rushed the ending feels.
The picture above is from SammyTheDragonLord. I'm glad that I finally found the opportunity to use it.
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One year later-

Grayson's point of view-

"Alright men." I caught everyone's attention as I slammed the paper onto the table, the mumbling echoing off of the walls finally coming to a halt.

Silence swept through the large room with columns holding up the ceiling and torches along the wall. Their eyes fixated upon me as they waited for me to discuss our plans. I looked down at the map in front of myself, looking at the drawings of ink that depicted the northern west region just beyond empire boundaries. The cult had taken over most of the south, the west, and pieces of the north, but they did not dare to touch my empire...not yet at least. Fortunately, throughout my time as the emperor, we were slowly getting rid of those parasites.
It had been over a year since we had lost Drake. A year since Drake lost complete control over his body to a fallen god... A year since Drake died, and I still could not set aside the blame I placed upon myself. I was doing everything in my power to avenge my best friend's death, including claiming the throne of the empire that once despised my very being.
It took three months for Armen, Lalea, Mia, Nathan, and I to even reach the boundaries of the Northern empire. When we finally did manage to reach this place, the palace was under new rule by yet another tyrant that many claimed to be even worse than the previous one. Despite how powerful the army was, it was not too much of a challenge to march in and claim the throne when I had a powerful magic controlling dragon by my side and with help from the fact that the empire was beginning to fall apart to riots and civilian rebellions.
When I claimed the throne, some praised me while others continued to view me as the treacherous thief that they had grown to know me as. Not everyone took too kindly to having an ex-criminal on the throne, especially the most wanted criminal in all of the region. Moving into the palace was one amazing benefit to claiming the highest position in the nation, and another was the fact that I was thankfully able to revoke my comrade's statuses as wanted criminals and allowed them to move into the imperial cities if they pleased.
Of course my time as the new emperor has been far from simple. There were battles after battles and weighing loss with each drop of blood spilled, most of our battles with the armies of the cult. I hate bloodshed, but I suppose that in order to end the bloodshed, you have to willing to spill just a little more. A few times civil war nearly broke out because of those who refused to accept that an ex-criminal was their new emperor and by those who claimed that my plans to bring an end to Herobrine's reign was psychopathic.
In some of our battles...we encountered Drake, or his possessed body as I should verify. He sometimes summoned monsters to keep us at bay, but we always pushed through. We took down multiple bases in cultist territory, and now we were so close to the end. I could feel it.

"According to our recent findings in our last siege upon a base in the territory of the cult of him, and our interrogations with our prisoners associated with the cult, this..."

I pointed close to the opposite end of the map, towards the center of the western north of the region. There was an old kingdom that had fallen to Herobrine many years ago, before Armen was possessed, but it became populated by people once again only fall once more and became part of the cult of Herobrine's territory.