The sister of Celestia bypassed them, Ignoring
Them as she took a seat by Celestia. Both of them followed her movements silently before Celestia broke the silence.
"Ahem, no dear sister, we were just conferring with a visiting Monarch." Veretus applauded her smooth transition, she truly had the skill to make what was about to turn into an all-out fight seem to be a minor disagreement.
The Lunar Diarch, her identity obvious both from the way Celestia addressed her and her cutiemark, a black splotch of night sky with a Lunar moon in the center, that and the fact she was an alicorn. She hummed at Celestia's words, and Veretus had no idea if she believed her sister or not, before ringing a bell.
"We are thinking that we might indulge in the fluffery that is Pancakes this night." she commented off-hand. Entirely unconcerned with Veretus being in the room.
"While we wait upon our servants to fetch us this fluffy goodness, may we ask what thou art monarch of?" Luna, he remembered her name was, asked of him. He returned to sitting down, Celestia's transgressions forgotten now that he had a new conversation partner.
"I am Godking Veretus, Ruler of the Planes of Alvaris, or another reality in simpler terms. I have been trapped here by a wizard who had cheated my challenge of combat by banishing me here somehow."
"Challenge of combat? Thou art a fighter then? We suppose the armor and sword make sense now. It is rare to see one who revels in the thrill of fast-paced action like us these days." she nodded at the end, floating a fork and knife in her dark blue telekinetic grip as what she called pancakes was delivered by what Veretus assumed was a servant.
"And Godking? thou art king of a theocracy which worships you as a deity then?"
"No, I am a true immortal deity, like this Discord your sister mentioned. While I do not possess the same reality-bending powers as him, my power lies in my domains of Might, Dragons, and Vindication."
she shook her head confused after swallowing a bite. "Thou art a god of Vindication? How does that work?"
"The mortals believe that any action undertaken or approved by me is justified and right. That is enough to form that particular domain."
Celestia by the side looked miffed and off-put by the fact her sister was conversing so smoothly with him.
"And God of Dragons? Thou looks nothing like a dragon except for your wings, what pray tell is the story behind it?" She asked after swallowing another bite.
"When I was still a mortal, or rather I suppose I was in the transition period of becoming a Demigod since I was regaining my previous incarnation's memories before we diverged, my kingdom went to war with the Queen of Dragons. She was the Goddess of all evil dragons and was the cause of the previous king's death through manipulation. After a long-fought battle, we finally killed her, and before she could resurrect, I stole her divinity and took it as my own. When the Godsfall happened, an event in which my brother killed all the gods and stole their divinity in a misguided attempt to become a champion, the King of all Good Dragons was killed, and I became the sole dragon diety left." He shrugged.
"Our condolences, we are sure the events you just described brought you much hardship." she dipped her head for a few seconds. Veretus felt much better about this Diarch than Celestia, she seemed more accustomed to hardship than the Solar Monarch.
"Enough about myself, your sister and I had just finished a discussion about ourselves, perhaps I may learn more about you? For instance, most of ponykind is averse to violence, yet you did not flinch when I mentioned death." At his question she shrunk into herself, seeming unsure.
"Enough, you do not-"
"nay, sister, we- I must own up to it." Luna interrupted her sister's outburst. "While the ponies have had near a thousand years of peace, we have been trapped on the moon for that time due to my own folly. We had mistakenly believed that we were invisible, not only to the public, but to mine sister's eyes. that we were not being given our rightful dues. Perhaps my fears were true, perhaps they were merely paranoia, but we had... Fallen to our fears, and became a creature of darkness called Nightmare moon, who wished to bring Eternal Night." she looked down in guilt, her sister put a comforting wing over Luna's withers while glaring at him.
"I understand, that pain of falling, of no longer believing in yourself... I was the first Angel to fall from grace in my reality." He spoke softly, the memories still painful after a thousand years.
Both mares looked at him surprised, probably expecting a different reaction.
"Be glad you were stopped Luna, My own circumstances... Caused even more destruction and pain since I was left unchecked. My own pain at being betrayed by the mortals, surrounded by eight beings of equal power to me, and the hopelessness and powerlessness I felt... I wanted to die, and take all of reality with me." He chuckled, it rang hollow throughout the room. "Angels are beings of Law and Belief, when those give way to despair... An Angel falls, and I was one of the most powerful, made directly from the essence of the Lover and Deceiver, two cosmic entities even more powerful than this Discord. I became the Champion of Death and began plotting not only my own demise but that of Alvaris itself. And when the Lover returned, if she returned, that of the immortals in her rage. Now Alvaris is a Demonic Wasteland because of me."
Luna shrugged off her sister's touch before standing up. "fight us."
"Sorry?" He looked at her, she had a serious expression on her face.
"Fight us, thou art a warrior correct? We find that our frustrations, despair, and melancholy are banished after a fight where it is only you and your opponent. So fight us, and let us learn more about each other through our Hooves!" She reared up before slamming a hoof on the table to emphasize her point. The last time Veretus had fought for the sake of fighting had been... never actually. It was always a matter of saving lives, either those of others or his own, or training. He did not even hold back when training his son... Putting those memories away before he got caught up in them, he answered the mare's challenge
"I must warn you, I have never... sparred before, I do not know if I can hold back."
She snorted at him. "We would expect nothing less than full power, only when you lose yourself in the thrill of battle will your frustrations leave. And healing magicks have come a long way from our day, so as long as we do not kill each other, any injuries will eventually heal."
Celestia looked like she was about to protest before her sister gave her a withering stare. He guessed she needed this as much as she thought he needed it. And to be honest... Veretus was not averse to this, his power was weakened, and this meant perhaps she might actually give him a challenge. Something he had not had in a thousand years since facing his brother.
Luna led them out of the dining room before finding the nearest balcony. She turned back to look at him. "We hope those wings are not just for attracting mates!" she chuckled before spreading her own and flying off. Veretus spread his six wings, a powerful flap of his sending him flying after her.
They only stopped when they were on the other side of the mountain from Canterlot. Luna's horn glowed before she was engulfed in full Aqua-colored plate armor. A sword as large as her in her telekinetic grip.
"We hope thou art ready for thine butt to be kicked!" She shouted over the winds they were kicking up with their wing beats. He moved first. His six wings propelled him faster than her singular pair. His sword was a blur as he attacked, causing trails of blood and sparks to fly through the air. He felt her magical aura trying to freeze him.
She was surprised at his speed, which allowed him to get his hits off, but even being attacked she was smiling, her horn glowing brighter as the area descended into darkness. He could still see due to his ability of Truesight, he assumed Luna had a way to as well.
She retreated with a flap of her wings, moving so deceptively fast that he had no chance to get an opportunistic hit off before she merged with the darkness, making it impossible to tell where it began and she ended.
His answer of where she had gone was answered as she struck him in the back with her greatsword, his armor instantly repairing itself, but not before his amber ichor splayed lazily into the air. The wound wasn't as bad as it could be, his Draconic resilience to cold preventing the chill that came with her every attack from affecting him too badly.
Her attack off-balanced him, causing him to begin falling, she trailed after him, attacking him. he only regained his balance in time to deflect her final attack.
He smiled, perhaps this was going to be fun.
In retaliation, he used his power to mark her, a power leftover from when he was the executioner and hunter of one of the old gods. Now fueled by his own power, he could feel it on her. In addition, he used his power to shield himself before raising his sword up in the air. The area was suddenly awash with light as her spell of darkness faded.
He looked up in time to see a gigantic block of stone being hurled at him, awash in Luna's magical glow. He retreated downwards to reduce the impact before using his immense strength, he reared back and stabbed his sword into the stone. It shattered into pieces as he flew through the debris.
Unfortunately, it seems this gave Luna enough time to prepare, as she deflected both of his attacks before her horn was aglow once more. He was cautious of what she was doing, was it going to be an attack spell this time?
He was not prepared for the moon's light to suddenly disappear. His effort by casting the daylight spell was ruined as she once more merged with the darkness. repeating her trick of attacking from behind him.
He couldn't dodge her first attack, the sparks in the air revealing herself rather than the feeling of his back being cut open. He was more prepared this time however, parrying two of her heavy telekinetic swings before she teleported the sword past his block and cut into his left wings.
He grunted in pain, since it wasn't on his armor, he didn't have metal blocking the massive amounts of amber blood that spilled into the air. A long gash down his wings, his draconic one almost completely severed. Ignoring the pain he beat his wings hard, causing a gale to knock Luna away, and allowing him to retreat into his daylight spell.
He put a hand on his almost severed wing and cast a healing spell, causing the leathery flesh to knit back together once more. He then focused on his sword, he could feel it lose its charge, transferring over to his reflexes.
Luna melded into the shadows, and he began to slightly smile when a beam of blue light streaked past him, his guess that she couldn't move into the light without revealing herself was correct. he parried the last three beams before realizing that the laughing sound wasn't from any spectators or Luna, but himself...
When was the last time he laughed he wondered... probably in the better days when they created the Adventurer's Guild.
He teleported above Luna, his Divine fire attacking her in a rush, trying to overwhelm her with its power. She tried to resist before she lost out to probably having never felt a Deity's Divinity, her body subconsciously locking up.
He flew after her as she fell, his sword aglow with his divine power, lighting up the night as he dived, being careful not to actually sever anything important that he would have to fix. Two slashes under her wings in her sides caused streams of blood to trail behind them before he reared back and pierced her in the lung.
She coughed up blood and fell unconscious as the blood loss no doubt finally caught up with her. He dived under her and caught her before gently spreading his Divine Fire over her wounds, causing the worst of her injuries to heal.
She slowly opened her eyes as she was met by his smiling face, lightly awash in his halo of lights. She sighed, before weakly speaking.
"While tis' was a glorious battle, we might ask that we return to the castle before somepony sees us and believes you to be trying to take over Equestria."
"I only have one more Diarch to defeat before world domination is mine." he joked, surprising himself.
she shook her head. "Two more, thou must still defeat Mi Amore Cadenza, an Alicorn who had ascended during our banishment. Thou will have much trouble against the Alicorn of love." She joked with a smile on her face.
He shook his head in mock sadness. "I can never match the power of love, not in my current state, we must retreat and find a new avenue of attack."
They both laughed lightly as he alighted upon the balcony they had taken off from. Luna was surprised that all of her injuries had already healed in the time they had flown back when he let her down.
It felt... good to laugh. While others would probably call him insane, he missed fighting, he missed the companionship of new people, or in this case new ponies. Going on adventures and delving into the deepest of dungeons. He now realized why in a thousand years he never fully became the champion of Life. It was because for almost a thousand years he wasn't truly living.
He decided then and there, World against him or not, he was actually going to live while he was stuck here, not whatever he was doing before. Which meant he welcomed whatever this world threw at him, he would continue to live until it killed him.
"LUNA!" both Luna and Veretus turned their heads to the Irate Solar Alicorn, the smiles slipping off their faces. "A. WORD." She spoke through gritted teeth before lifting her sister in her magical aura, not even giving Luna the chance to respond. She walked through a door, slamming it behind them as Luna floated inside, giving him a shrug before disappearing behind the portal.
Of course, neither of them probably knew that he could still hear them, especially since they weren't exactly being quiet
"He is a violent, dangerous self-proclaimed god Luna! He could have killed you and had no remorse about it!"
"He is not-"
"How do you know Luna! He admitted to solving his problems with murder! How do we not know he is not worse than the only other king we know? Sombra."
The room was silent for a few seconds. Veretus thought that whoever this Sombra was, he must have been terrible to give them this impression. Eventually, Luna's voice spoke up.
"I never expected the previous Element of Kindness and Generosity to act like this. He is a creature far removed from friends and family. I understand we have had some awful experiences with kings and gods dear sister, but that does not mean we should judge all beings in good and bad." he could hear the clops of hooves on the marble floor. "Perhaps you should do some introspection yourself, because, after the battle we just had, all I found in him was a gentle soul willing to do whatever it takes."
The door opened up, he could see a stunned Celestia as Luna shut the door gently behind her.
"Now come, we believe you were promised a room in our castle, we should see that taken care of post-haste."