From the original nine only three remained they were still caught up in trying to understand how the 'Sun Ruptures' had been reflected back to them and they barely even registered the deaths that followed.
All it took was one mistake, no not even a mistake but a misjudgment of the situation and five comrades died in seconds.
Anya floated above them and could see the look of people with no hope left, one mage, one warrior, and one psychic, it was ironic that once those three titles were the pinnacle of power but as time flowed and the world advanced such people would die so easily.
The mage had a look of hopelessness on his face, he looks pretty Anya thought for a second but didn't think too much of it, there was always a look of beauty to those who had become desperate she thought.
"Even if your power is from the second accord, this is still not possible, y-you must have taken the road of transcending the first step to immortality," he spoke in a defeated voice as if the world was unfair, they had just taken a job with a slightly large reward, it shouldn't have been like this.
Anya looked at them with pitying eyes and shook her, they had given up already so there was no need for her to force things anymore two of them would die and she'd take the last one prisoner, "No I'm nowhere close to transcending," as she spoke a slight tremor passed through her body as she remembered the time that the empress had shown her the power of a half-transcender, they had gone to a barren planet with no purpose and she unleashed her full strength.
In those moments Anya thought only of death as her skin began to peel back from her body and her every cell longed for release, after five seconds had passed the entire world had turned into a pool of lava and floating debris, according to the empress the mortal realm cannot handle such power as it damages the world instead of helping it, thus all those who complete the immortal transformation are rejected and pushed beyond the realm veil.
"The powers of the second accord are split into realms just like the first accord, warrior, mage, and psychic realms are split into, elementary, basic, intermediate, advanced, and perfected. To the outside world, only the most prestigious of military offices will ever receive a second accord cultivation method and the highest will be basic, to those of the outside world they will only see the power of the basic second accord combatants, however even to royals such as myself the perfected techniques are pipe dreams, we fight and claw our way up the ladder and only those who are selected as emperor/empress candidates are gifted advanced techniques."
"The difference between a first accord and second accord member is vast, but I suppose the key difference would be that a warrior of the first accord infuses the energy of the world into their every cell and releases it to deal damage, however for a saint such as myself the energy is a small part of our strength, rather we infuse the very laws that govern the world into our every cell which results in our every move bending the world to our will."
"I see," the mage said dispirited, his skin slowly started to resemble a dried-up prune, he looked at his hands and realised that a red vapor was flowing out of him towards Anya, he didn't even have the power to fight back as he looked at his two remaining companions, he saw that the warrior was also releasing a red vapor like him but the psychic was fine.
"Dying to an advanced saint I suppose it can be considered our honor," he said with a withered chuckle.
"Hehehe," Anya giggled, "What do scumbags like you even know about honor," she laughed at him like he was silly.
"But you should know a little secret about me," she spoke with a teasing smile on her face, "I'm no advanced saint... I'm a lot more, I stand on the crossroads to the third accord."
He looked up at her with the last vestiges of his life, to cultivators like them reaching the second accord was a lifelong dream that only the luckiest could achieve, the term saint, pugilist, and warlock were the highest they ever dreamt of but attached to the third accord was a myth, or rather a legend that they could hardly fathom the only term they knew of that realm was esper nothing more nothing less.
The next second his body dried up and fell to the ground, as it hit the ground it broke apart like crumbling rocks and dust filled the air, not long later the warrior fell and only Anya and the psychic remained.
The psychic looked at her with agitation, "I thought that only advanced techniques are passed down,", she spoke hesitantly, because it sounded like Anya had revealed a secret that even the empire didn't know and if that was the case she might just go back on her word and kill her.
"Hehehe," Anya giggled, ", are you scared?"
The psychic felt her heart racing, and as the fear surged inside her Anya grew closer and put her hand under the psychic's chin, "I never break my word silly."
"My power is no secret to the empress and the reason is simple while it's impossible for the empire to pass on anything above the advanced methods there is no rule forbidding us from creating our own techniques, of course, it's not an easy task and those that do mostly end up killing themselves or causing irreversible damage to themselves so it's very rare for someone to take such a risk."
"Now come along silly it's time for us to leave."
The psychic looked up in surprise, ", but you said..."
"That I'd let you live," Anya cut her off and frowned, "I never said that you'd be free."
"But cheer up silly, now that you're my prisoner you will get the opportunity to meet the empress herself, I suppose that it's only right that I congratulate you on this opportunity." she smiled brightly and wrapped her in her slaughter energy.
She looked down and shook her head as the energy wrapped around her, one move to escape and she didn't doubt that energy would start to drain her, "I don't get it what could be so important about a transport vessel, what does it have to do with the empress?", she cried out in despair.
"Oh," Anya gave her a meaningful look, ", I guess that it's my fault for not saying anything it's not like it's some big secret and soon the whole universe will know about it anyway," Anya looked at her big-eyed like a child who caught doing something naughty.
"If you must know that ship carries a bunch of war orphans and the empress plans to adopt one of the children on that ship."
"Your crime is the attempted murder of the future child of the empress."
The psychic's eyes turned wide and she looked at Anya in horror, "N-n-n-n-no, please, please just kill me, I'll do anything please just kill me quickly." she started shouting in terror, a millennia ago she had seen a broadcast that the empress had released it detailed the torture and killing of one of the women that had conspired to leave her infertile, after five minutes she had been unable to watch anymore and that broadcast had lasted for three months, the only moments more terrifying than the screams were the moments when there were no screams.
If she were to end up in the empress's hands, she didn't think she would even be able to last that first five minutes.
Anya knocked her unconscious before she tried to use the slaughter cage to kill herself, she shook her head and looked at all the dead fools, 'They thought that the survivor would be lucky, they are so stupid,' she thought to herself.
She was only beginning her journey as a cultivator when the empress was poisoned and she had watched the whole broadcast of course it took her many years to do so, the images had been very disturbing to her back then but it's what thought her the most about torture, deboning a living person was one on her favorite methods and she had learned it from the empress herself.
She collected the unconscious psychic and headed back to the ship, from the beginning to the end she never bothered to learn their names, none of them were worthy enough for her to remember even the psychic was just a little more than a germ to her, why would she have ever bother to learn the names of such filth.