City of Dat glamor in the style of Ren Xiong, as interpreted by DALL-E in February 2025.

  Chapter 47: So: This empire is nothing

  Countryside, Diankoran dimension

  Pa?ka yug 88 (local time)

  The heroes now rode towards the splendorous city of Dat. Pausing on a small hill, they watched the city glitter like a diamond in the distance. Dat was the metropolis and the holy city, the money and the power, the seat of all that was good and true. Peasants were not allowed to enter.

  The four riders of the apocalypse approached the city via hidden paths and backstreets. They hid in the fog and the smog and the darkness like panthers in the night. None could see them. There were guards surrounding the city, whole armies guarding every entrance, but the heroes rode up the rivers, down forbidden tunnels, in through the bushes.

  None could stop them. They were the wind blowing through cracks in your walls. They were water dripping into your cellar. They were fire spreading onto your roof. They were the earth moving under your feet. They were the spirit penetrating the flesh.

  On a hill close to the old city walls, the riders of the apocalypse paused to get a better look at the grand city of Dat. They watched its splendor in silence for a while, Tatiana noting a hint of disdain on their faces. She thought they were perhaps upset at the contrast between the resplendent capital and the poverty of the countryside surrounding it.

  “All that makeup that you wear / Will never hide / There’s a devil under there,” said the Hero of the Sword.

  “No swallowing of the lies you spit,” said the Hero of the Ring.

  “Really think you’re running this?” said the Hero of the Shield.

  “We always knew it would come to this / That I would be the one to eliminate you,” said the Hero of the Pendant.

  And with this the city of Dat changed. It was as if a magic glamor lifted, and the city no longer looked like a glimmering diamond. It looked, instead, like a huge slab of grey, of endless drab sameness, of something made on the cheap. It looked like poverty and deprivation, like sadness and sorrow, like the ugly and the sick. Tatiana gasped; the four captured overseers sneered.

  “I’m in the car, under the stars, I’m on the way to your house,” said the Hero of the Shield.

  “I am a shadow in the shape of a girl,” said the Hero of the Pendant.

  “Won’t stay till morning cause I am the night,” said the Hero of the Ring.

  “You should sleep with the light on,” said the Hero of the Sword.

  The heroes of the apocalypse pressed on. Sneaking easily past the guards, they found their way into a secret tunnel passing beneath the city wall. It was as if they knew they knew the sad city of Dat by heart, as if they had grown up here and knew its every nook and cranny; as if they owned the place.

  They continued towards the palace. It was a walled complex situated by a river, but the heroes passed beneath both river and walls. Inside the palace complex, moving through the dungeons beneath it, they had an uncanny ability to avoid the guards, as if they knew everything the guards were doing and thinking. Eventually, however, they reached closer to where the Ruling Council was based, and all the access points to that area were carefully guarded. It seemed that the four horsepeople of the apocalypse would have to confront their opponents directly.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  City of Dat in the style of Dadaism, as interpreted by DALL-E in February 2025.

  City of Dat glamor in the style of Férnand Khnoppf, as interpreted by DALL-E in February 2025.

  City of Dat in the style of Abstract Expressionism, as interpreted by DALL-E in February 2025.

  City of Dat glamor in the style of Gaganendranath Tagore, as interpreted by DALL-E in February 2025.

  City of Dat in the style of Egon Schiele, as interpreted by DALL-E in February 2025.

  City of Dat glamor in the style of Gustav Klimt, as interpreted by DALL-E in February 2025.

  City of Dat in the style of Félicien Rops, as interpreted by DALL-E in February 2025.

  City of Dat glamor in the style of Gustave Moreau, as interpreted by DALL-E in February 2025.

  City of Dat in the style of Gaganendranath Tagore, as interpreted by DALL-E in February 2025.

  City of Dat glamor in the style of Ju Chao, as interpreted by DALL-E in February 2025.

  City of Dat in the style of Hieronymus Bosch, as interpreted by DALL-E in February 2025.

  City of Dat glamor in the style of Mikalojus Konstantinas ?iurlionis, as interpreted by DALL-E in February 2025.

  City of Dat in the style of Neorealism, as interpreted by DALL-E in February 2025.

  City of Dat glamor in the style of Utagawa Hiroshige, as interpreted by DALL-E in February 2025.

  City of Dat in the style of Punk Art, as interpreted by DALL-E in February 2025.

  City of Dat glamor in the style of William Blake, as interpreted by DALL-E in February 2025.