The city of Turkistan no longer looked like a capital.
Its walls still stood, but they had the hollow stillness of something already judged. Blackened banners of the Hakim Sultunate hung from broken towers, not as symbols of resistance, but as markers of conquest left there deliberately by Imperial order.
Emperor Victor Luxenberg stood in the upper chamber of the old administrative palace, overlooking the inner court where disciplined Imperial units now controlled every gate, stairway, and archive hall.
Below, Sultan Mehmet Hakim waited. Not in a throne room. Not in chains displayed for spectacle. But in a stripped stone chamber once used for war councils, now repurposed for something far more dangerous than battle: conversation.
Two Imperial guards stood at the doors. No weapons drawn. They didn't need them.
Victor entered alone. The door shut behind him. For a moment, neither man spoke.
Mehmet Hakim sat upright, hands free but resting on the table, as if refusing to acknowledge confinement through posture alone. His robes were unchanged, though dusted with ash from the collapse of his city. His expression carried none of the chaos outside. Only calculation.
Victor studied him for a long moment. Then he spoke first. "Zandar."
The Sultan did not react.
Victor continued, voice steady. "You funded it. You backed the Red Visconte's and helped plunge that continent into war for two decades."
Still no answer.
Victor stepped closer, placing a folded intelligence report onto the table.
"And Gu Tian."
At that name, something shifted, barely perceptible. Not surprise. Not fear. Recognition.
"You didn't just support his war to eliminate the Kingdoms of Sun and Zhao," Victor said. "You made sure that after that war, he would target me and my Kingdom."
Finally, Sultan Mehmet Hakim leaned back slightly.
"Were you not a threat to me? Were infidels meant to be allowed to thrive?" he said quietly. "
Victor's gaze hardened.
"Then explain why you threw yourself into these situations. Why you got so involved when you so easily could have remained in your continent untouched."
A pause.
Outside, somewhere in the captured city, distant orders were shouted. Metal clinked. Life was being reorganized. Inside the chamber, it felt like another world entirely.
Mehmet Hakim finally looked directly at Victor. "You assume I instigated this war because I wanted your daughters to be my son's wives. You assume I wanted conquer and pillage your lands."
"And?" Victor replied.
A faint smile appeared on the Sultan's face—not warmth, but resignation.
"No," he said. "I instigated it because I believed you were a threat to my religion. I watched as you turned those mongrel in Simbar into Christians. Do you think I would allow my faith to surrounded by Christians on all fronts?"
Victor did not move. The words landed heavier than expected.
Mehmet continued.
"Zandar was not my weapon, my father funded that war, and then I did. It was my test to see if I could get the Christians to deal with each other. Gu Tian was not my ally. He was a pressure point. And you…" his eyes sharpened slightly "...you were the response I needed to see."
Victor's expression tightened.
"A test? You caused the death of tens of thousands for a test? " he repeated.
"Yes," the Sultan said simply. "I needed to see whether you would unite Christendom, or fall its collapse. Unfortunately you unified Christendom, and as such we are here now."
Silence followed. Not the silence of confusion. The silence of calculation.
Victor stepped back slightly, turning away as if to break the line of influence in the room.
"So you burned continents for religion," he said.
"Of course I did," Mehmet corrected. "Allah chose me to spread his teaching and eliminate infidels that stood in our way. My father, was a prime example of my devotion. He was weak, and believed that Christian could coexist with us..."
Victor turned back. "And now? Do you believe that you acted piously. Do you think all of this death and destruction was worth it. "
For the first time, the Sultan smiled. Not warmly, but ice cold, an almost sinister smile. "Yes… yes it was." he said.
By the time Victor left the chamber, no sentence had been passed. No mercy had been granted. No execution scheduled. Only containment.
The decision had already shifted elsewhere.
In the administrative halls of Turkistan, Imperial scribes prepared transfer documentation. Not for immediate movement, but for a future extraction across the sea routes to the Bulgar continent.
Destination: Hannover, the imperial capital.
A prison not designed for spectacle. But for time. And thinking. And forgetting.
Victor paused at the edge of the palace steps as dusk settled over the conquered city. He looked back once. Not at the Sultan. At the system he had just stepped deeper into.
Then he spoke quietly to his attending officer. "Prepare the transfer when I return to Hannover."
The officer nodded.
When Victor had a moment to himself he received a message from the system.
'Historic Quest Complete!: Conquering the Sands!'
'Rewards: (All these summons will be foreign) 1x Legendary-Level Commander Summon, 8x 10,000-Man Infantry Unit Summon. 4x 10,0000-Man Cavalry Unit Summon, 4x 100-Gun Artillery Summon, 200,000 Store Points, and a Asharan Continent History Book.'
Victor was surprised that the system had blessed him with such bountiful rewards. But the shock was non-existent. He was tired. This war had taken much out of him. He lost many good men, including three great Generals.
The rewards would be put to good use in reaffirming control on the continent. A standing army would mean any rebellious elements or religious zealots would have to think twice about causing a stir.
Victor went ahead a summoned every summoned he had. The five-star commander he got was a man named Khalid Bumra. He would be granted the title of Field Marshal and preside over the continent.
To support Field Marshal Bumra, Victor dipped into his savings of 410,000 Store Points. He bought 4, 10x Medium-Level Foreign Follower Summons with 100,000 Store Points. This was so that this massive continent had enough administrators to look after it.
12 out of these 40 summons held menial roles like maids, servants and merchants. The other 28 held promise. 20 of them were some form of administrators, most were civil and industrial, while some were financial.
The remaining 8 were all unique. There were 3 scientists that would go back to Hannover with Victor. There were another 3 engineers that would stay in the city and rebuild. Then there were two 5-star summons. They were two brothers, one was Yusuf Khalid, a high-level legal administrator and the other was Bashir Khalid a high-level military administrator.
Victor had laid the ground work for a sustainable control of Asharan after him and his forces returned home.