Most of the nobles ran for their lives, not wanting anything to do with Shiv and Briggs and the bleeding, bruised men climbing over the wall behind them. They ran all the way to the opposite wall, where Briggs' remaining men slaughtered them.
'I guess Wells was the odd one out for being so skilled and having such a high level.' Shiv thought as he shadowed Briggs, who was approaching the trembling princess.
"Hello, Delilah. It's been too long since we last had a talk on the roof of this wonderful castle." Briggs said.
Shiv initially wondered who Delilah was, then realized he hadn't known the princesses' name until now. 'It's ironic for a traitor such as her to have that name.'
"I-I… yes, it's been a long… a long t-time." Delilah seemed to have developed a severe stutter since she'd ordered Shiv and his comrades' deaths.
"Someone recently told me that you believe the past to be irrelevant. Is that true?" Briggs continued ascending the stairs.
"I-I…" She shifted uncomfortably in her throne.
"I think it is. It sounds like something you would say. So, as your irrelevant past, I would like to say hello." He came to a stop right in front of the terrified woman and leaned forward until their faces were just inches apart. "How've you been? I hear your husband died. Must've been rough." She began to cry, tears streaking down her reddening face. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you cry. I am curious, however… did you cry when you kill- I mean, when your husband from the irrelevant past died?" More tears came down, only these were from Briggs.
He was crying as well.
"Did you cry even a single tear?!" Briggs suddenly screamed in her face, his tears pouring down.
Shiv was slightly uncomfortable as he watched the scene play out before him. Though seeing this side of Briggs had him intrigued.
Abruptly, Briggs pulled back from the princess and began pacing in front of her. She still looked terrified, but a spark of disdain could be seen in her eyes. Briggs did not see it.
"It was on our wedding night. Do you remember?" She nodded. "Yes… the wedding was a wild affair. The king had to scramble to get everything ready. Did you even tell him about the little game you played with me? No. It doesn't matter. As you said, the past is…" He laughed hysterically. "The past is irrelevant."
Shiv's attitude went from intrigued to concerned, so he walked forward and placed his hand on Briggs' shoulder. "Hey, man. Calm down a bit. If you want me to kill her for ya, no problem. Let's just move on. No use dwelling on the past, ok?"
The short man froze the instant Shiv stretched his hand out, and didn't even breathe for the entirety of Shiv's little speech. He did flinch when Shiv offered to kill the woman for him, though.
When Shiv finished talking, Briggs remained motionless for several long moments, then closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath. "I… I'll kill her. But first, is there anything you want to ask her?"
At first, Shiv had no idea why he'd want to ask the princess anything, but quickly realized that there was, in fact, a question he wanted an answer to. "Actually, yeah. Hey, princess, why were your knights green?"
She stared at him, having paled even more than should have been possible when her death was confirmed beyond a shadow of a doubt. "Go to hell. Just kill me already and get it over with."
It seemed she'd found some courage in her final moments. 'I hadn't thought about it till now… but destroying an entire world is probably like buying a guaranteed one way ticket to hell.' The thought didn't make him feel too great.
Briggs had stood still during their little dialogue, but when she said to kill her, he stepped forward and jabbed a knife of ice into her throat. There was a brief moment where surprise took over her features, and then she went limp.
The nobles had all been slaughtered, so the total number of living human beings in the room had been brought down from over a hundred to exactly ten. And all of them were staring at Briggs with complicated expressions. Briggs was frozen again, with tears rolling down his face as he held the knife in her throat.
Something was bothering Shiv, and it wasn't the macabre scene in front of him. 'There were over a hundred people in the room… what am I missing?' He turned around and examined the place carefully. The ground was covered in dead bodies and there was a wall splitting the room in half… 'where did the freakish performers go?'
They were gone. Shiv thought about telling Briggs' men to keep an eye out, then shrugged and walked over to the open portion of the wall. When he did so, he was given a view of the large doorway to the throne room, and caught a glimpse of a strange shadow disappearing around the corner. 'Found em.' He briefly considered going after them, but had an eerie feeling that they'd meet again, no matter what he did. 'Did Lucille tie me together with her freaks?'
He shook his head. He had more important things to deal with.
He walked back to Briggs, who was still frozen in front of his dead ex-wife, and gently pulled him away from the throne. Then, he stepped forward and used his flames to completely incinerate the princess, leaving only her metal crown behind. With that finished, he manipulated the material that made up the throne a little bit, adjusting it so that it had a wider seat, and removed the blood stain as well as the dark mark left by the heat. "Take a seat." He bowed slightly to the short man and gestured at the modified throne.
Briggs had regained his composure by now. He nodded at Shiv and picked up the crown, examined it, then tossed it to the side and sat on the throne. He rested his chin on his fist and stared into the distance. "I am now the king of an uninhabited, destroyed city."
"Congratulations. What are you going to do next, King Briggs?" Shiv sat down heavily on the ground next to the throne and also stared into the distance. He felt tired. There had been a lot of killing over the past day, and it had taken a lot out of him.
"Do you enjoy killing?"
"Uh, no. Not at all."
Briggs was silent for several minutes, then, "what did you hope to accomplish in all of this?" He gestured at the dead bodies littering the floor before them.
"The answer to that is… a little strange."
"A strange response from a strange man. How surprising." Briggs said in a dead tone.
"Hey, I'm not strange." Shiv said with mock seriousness, then with actual seriousness, he said, "A deity tasked me with destroying the world."
"Is that why you can wield multiple elements… the deity blessed you?"
"Hah. More like he cursed me."
They sat in silence for a long while.
"So what are you going to do next, now that you've taken revenge and all that?"
"What will you be rewarded with when you destroy the world?" Briggs replied with a question of his own.
Shiv sighed and wiped some sweat from his brow. "When I destroy this horrible place, I'll finally get to go home. And maybe I'll be able to bring a couple folks with me."
"Home to your country… Earth?"
"No, my planet, Earth." Shiv corrected.
"What is so special about your… planet?"
Shiv smiled and began to talk with a wistful expression. "It's where my family lives, for one. But it's also got cold places, and not cold like in some of the richer mansions. No, it's so cold your body will vibrate to try and stay warm." He went on to talk about the food, and the beaches, and the air conditioning, and lack of killer bugs the size of a human skull and much, much more. When he finally finished speaking, there was complete silence in the throne room. Briggs' men had long since left, heading off to meet up with the soldiers outside and get healed and do other soldier things that Shiv didn't know about.
"Who are you going to take to Earth when you leave?" Briggs broke the silence this time.
"The little girl who always follows me around, Blaze. She's become a little sister to me. And I might take the talking wolf, Uriel as well. I haven't decided yet." He glanced up at the short man. "I'm sure I could find room to bring you along as well, if you want me to."
Briggs' voice shook when he spoke next. "I… I might take you up on that offer."
"Great. Destroying this place will be much easier with you helping me out."