"Your Majesty, we have to leave! Your safety is at stake here, and the enemies are getting closer to us by the second!"
"... Where would we go, though, Quintus? According to the priestess, the enemies have somehow managed to seize control over the minds of our soldiers... There's no point for us to go outside..."
"E-even still, Your Majesty! We still have to do everything we can to ensure your survival! You are the living figurehead of the empire, and to lose you would be the greatest defeat we could ever suffer from!"
Panick had already erupted within the throne room, as the few people that remained in the palace continued to converse with each other regarding the actions they had to take amidst the dilemma they were deeply entangled in.
Before the priestess known as Delphina had suddenly disappeared, she had given them one more foresight that instantly set them into an anxiety-ridden frenzy: according to her infallible words, most of the soldiers had somehow already been taken control by their adversaries through some form of mind-shackling, and now there were more of these loathsome enemies who had crept into the palace and had somehow managed to kill many of the royal guards responsible for the emperor's security.
"Come now, Your Majesty! We must leave at once! Staying here will only put your life in mortal danger!"
"I told you already, Quintus... It's pointless... We shall stand here and fight with what little we have left instead..."
To Emperor Titus, his mind still refused to believe the series of devastatingly unfortunate events that transpired before him without respite: in his mind, their enemies had already surrounded them from every point and corner, and the only thing he could do now was to defy them until the very end, though the fact that he and his remaining forces were being forced to do such a desperate measure made his sense of pride and honour shatter into a million pieces as his mind would quickly become blank whenever he thought of it too much.
How had things even come to this? One moment, he had been the successful, triumphant emperor of the invincible Neugomian Empire and its unstoppable armies, all of which were the main source of fear and terror throughout the Continent of Xathra, as the empire itself continued to remain as one of the greatest superpowers throughout the hundreds of years of its own existence. Now however, Titus and his merry-men were nothing more than rebels who desperately sought to resist the fate that had already been forcefully bestowed upon them: they truly didn't want to lose everything they had earned and stood for, and even if they were going to lose their lives in the process, they had all chosen to maintain their pride despite the fact that they would lose their lives should they choose to continue their unnecessary defiance.
BLAM...
"Who the hell...?"
"..."
The wooden doors leading into the throne room had suddenly burst open, and from its entrance came a lone figure in a strange form of armor, a strange man who bore a mysterious tool of metal with his right hand, as his face noticeably had the same features that the emperor possessed.
And of course, without delay, the royal guards within the throne room immediately pointed their weapons toward the mysterious figure who had come barging inside all of a sudden.
"Halt! Identify yourself, intruder!"
"State your name at once! How dare you enter His Majesty's throne room without permission, you heathe-"
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
The strange man's arm moved faster than what Titus' eyes could observe, and in the blink of an eye, the entire retinue of bodyguards inside the throne room, along with their mighty guard captain, Quintus, had all died so quickly without a fight. From what the emperor could perceive though, it seemed that wherever that man pointed his metal weapon at, a red beam of light would emerge from its tip, emitting a powerful force that had been enough to completely vaporize the heads of his supposedly unmatched warriors.
"... Who are you, and what do you want? Are you perhaps one of the enemies who have infiltrated this place to claim my head?"
In an attempt to keep up a facade of calmness, the emperor would try to maintain an expressionless face as he spoke, though deep down, his mind was already beginning to break down due to the stress he was feeling about the situation he was in.
"You don't recognize me at all? What a terrible father you truly are..." Novus scoffed at his plain ignorance: how could this man not take notice of how similar they looked like? Was he truly that cold and uncaring towards his offspring, or had the fear in his mind completely overtaken his sense of reason already? "Well, either way, I still have a lot of time before she's finally done with what she's doing..."
"As someone who had previously been a father myself though... Allow me to express the anger I have for a dad who's as incompetent and uncaring as you..." A dark expression formed on his face as Novus continued while cracking his knuckles.
"... What do you mean by this?"
"What I meant to say was..."
BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
Novus would leap towards him all of a sudden in a fit of cold rage, as a flurry of fists were then unleashed upon the emperor's old, brittle body, making him scream in pain and anguish as each blow struck a portion of his already decrepit flesh.
"ARGHHHH!!!!"
"Let me teach you why you should value your children more, you dumbass..."
...
...
"And that concludes the report of the assessment I made on her body. Even though I don't get along with her... I actually feel so sorry for her now after this.... How is she still sane even?"
Within a massive laboratory in a faraway place, Novus was reading the important documents that had been given to him by Thurien- it was a collection of papers that contained special information regarding a certain someone who was greatly important to him, which was the reason why Novus had requested the medicae to conduct such an analysis on her in the first place.
... In truth, however, the main reason for this secretive research they were conducting was because of the serious injuries he witnessed on her body when he put her inside that glass pod to treat her after their 'duel' back then: they were unsettling marks of pain that hinted experiences of abuse rather than accomplishments in battle, and it instantly gave Novus a sense of 'worry' for this woman, even though she wasn't truly his older sister in a sense...
"... Dear Lord... You're right..." his eyes would widen as he continued to read the contents. "This... How the hell is she even mentally functional after all of that?"
There were many underlying injuries that Thurien managed to detect both on and within her body, though Novus would pay the most attention to the particularly serious ones that the medicae highlighted in the document...
Multiple flagellation wounds on her back that were suspected to have been made by several whippings... A nullified sense of pain, touch and pleasure, which had clearly been the result of some sort of brain tampering made on her body... A permanently destroyed set of ovaries that would forever prevent her from ever giving birth and raising a child...
Most importantly however, the lack of a 'soul' within her body, a unique footprint of existence that was once thought to have been nonexistent but was now a widely accepted thing that truly existed: unlike most of the other beings that Thurien had conducted several analyses on, the princess known as Aldyth completely lacked such a necessary component entirely, almost as if she was nothing more than a doll who was only managing to live through sheer willpower alone...
"No wonder she hates that bastard so much... It all makes sense now..."
During one of their conversations, Novus could remember his older sister mentioning about how she hated their father so much, and he could also remember her remarking their father as a miserable excuse of an existence that she loathed to such an incredible extent: unfortunately though, whenever Novus tried to know more about such a dire matter, Aldyth would often try to shift the topic to a more light-hearted one, which only made him wonder even more about the reason why this seemingly emotionless woman possessed such a negatively strong collective of emotions for the man who was supposed to be her father...
Now however, it made perfect sense, and it was almost as if the puzzle pieces within Novus' mind were connecting themselves rapidly without even being guided by the mental whispers of his mind: Aldyth had not only been forced to serve as a tool of war who had no will of her own, but she had also most likely been a subject of abuse and discrimination whenever she would fail the tasks and responsibilities given to her by the one person who was supposed to care for her the most...
The most important question however, was just how much abuse did Aldyth have to endure after all those years, and why did she choose to remain compliant after all that time?
"... Could we... Treat her injuries and make her normal again?"
"... While I was able to patch up most of her superficial injuries... There seems to be something that's preventing me from fully repairing her body using my nanomachines..." Thurien explained with a hint of sadness. "It's almost as if... She's cursed or something... Ah, sorry for the term..."
"A curse? Could it be some form of magick?" Novus asked inquisitively.
"... Not really. It's something that's deeply rooted into her, and it's almost as if it's like a vital organ that's firmly connected to the tissues of her body..." Thurien described. "It's not something I could possibly remove, even with the help of the advanced medical procedures I can implement on her..."
"I see... That's truly quite unfortunate..."
It was disgusting... A rising sensation of cold wrath began brewing within the inner chambers of his mind, as the thought of such an innocent, young woman who had not only been forced into war for most of her life, but had also experienced terrible anguishes that no woman should ever experience at the hands of their own parent-figure, made the very ichor that flowed through his veins boil with an anger that made his body nearly tremble in rage.
Well, it was apparent that this 'father' of theirs held not too much regard about his children in the first place- when Novus had gone missing all those years ago, the emperor didn't even bother sending at least a single search party to look for their missing prince, and if their father was already that uncaring to someone that most of the family considered as useless, how much more terrible could this monster have been towards his poor sister who their father only saw as a tool to expand and accomplish his ambitions?
He also couldn't help but wonder however, as he thought of that 'curse' that Thurien mentioned that was present in Aldyth's body- just what sort of magickal abomination had been done to her, and how had she even managed to survive from all these terrible experiences after all this time?
How vexing... Novus thought to himself in silence: by now, he had already made a solemn oath to himself that he would fulfill no matter what, a promise that consisted only of the fact that he was, quite literally, going to beat up that useless father-figure who had never truly cared about either of them.
"Thurien... Could you remind me of something important later? I don't want to forget about it, so I need your help in remembering it..."
"Hm? Sure, go ahead and tell me then..."
An expression of cold, silent anger formed on his face as Novus made his reply.
"I'm going to beat up that worthless fuck of an emperor for all the crap he's ever done."
...
...
By the time he was done with him, Titus had been left as nothing more than a beaten-up husk of his former self, with terrible bruises visible throughout his skin as several of his bones and muscles ached from the pain of being torn and shattered so violently.
"You know, I had a daughter once... She was frail and sickly, and she couldn't even get up from bed and eat properly without my help." Novus said as he gave one more kick to the old man's body, making him scream for the terrible pain that had been inflicted upon his chest again. "Though that fragile kid made my life even harder after my wife left me... Never in my life did I choose to do the kind of shit you did..."
He gave Titus another crippling blow, though this time it came in the form of a stomp that had been made against his battered head, and it was enough to immediately make the emperor bellow in agony as he felt the pain course through his nerves in a fraction of a second.
"You're disgusting, you know that? If I could, I would've burned you alive, but I can't just break a promise I made with her, now can I?"
After being pummeled until he was reduced to a helpless, writhing body on the ground, the resulting pain only continued to grow more unbearable as it kept gnawing away at his very skin: this bastard, whoever he was, and whatever corner of the world he came from... If Titus were to ever manage to escape from this dreadful situation he had been caught in, then he would absolutely make sure that this man suffers a pain that was far greater than the one he had inflicted upon him.
For now though, Titus had to do everything he can to survive the situation he was in: he couldn't afford to die here right now, as he had already achieved so much in his long life, and his death would forever mark the end of his empire's age of conquest and uncontested decades of military might.
"... Y-you... How dare you... I am the emperor of the Neugomian Empire..." Titus would try to stand up, only for his weak, battered body to fail and make him remain on the ground he was lying on. "I am the... Ruler of everything that exists in this damn continent... Who are you to... Brutalize me to this extent?"
"Oh please. Nobody cares about your status as a tyrant. Now keep quiet, or I'll beat you up again, and I'll make sure that it's going to hurt even more this time."
Those words made the injured emperor shiver a bit in fear; despite his great sense of pride as someone who couldn't be ordered by others, he ultimately had no choice but to listen to what this man had told him to do. He didn't want to get pummeled into submission again, as the anguish he felt after all those blows made on his body were still aching quite dreadfully...
BLAM...
"Great, you're finally here. I beat him a little since he got a bit too annoying, but he's still alive, don't worry."
The door leading to the inner chambers of the throne room had opened themselves again, and from the unlocked exitway came a tall, red-haired figure, who wore a strange form of armor, as well as an iron-mask modeled after a fake human face, as she also carried a bloodied, silverine spear with one of her hands as she walked into the room.
"... I don't mind that you roughened him up a little. He deserves it after all... And... Thank you for fulfilling the promise you made to me..."
The mysterious woman then took of her mask, undoing the straps that fastened her false, face of iron to her head as she simultaneously took it off with her left hand: as Titus saw the face that remained concealed within the eerie, metal apparatus that hid it however, shock immediately became the primary emotion that fogged his thoughts, and for a few seconds was his mind completely unable to believe the imagery he had recently just seen...
"... W-what... It can't be... A-Aldyth?"
She was supposed to have been lost to their enemies after those monsters took Polonia away from their grasps- in fact, the entirety of the empire thought that she had been slain already by the mysterious, daunting adversaries who were making them suffer defeat after defeat. However, the fact that she was right here now, seemingly cooperating with the same enemies she was supposed to have died fighting against, only made the emperor fall into a greater sense of confusion.
"... I've never had the chance to do this before ... I always had to kneel before you whenever you called me here... Out of fear that you might punish me severely again like all those punishments you gave me whenever I failed your expectations..."
"ARGHHHHH!!!"
Aldyth's hand quickly moved to seize Titus by the throat, effortlessly lifting him up into the air as she stared coldly at him with an unbridled fury that she had rarely ever chosen to display. Due to her sheer strength however, the emperor slowly found himself unable to breathe more properly, as the constricting force surrounding his neck steadily became tighter and more constrictive.
"... Mercy... Mercy... My daughter..."
"Is that all you can say for yourself? Then again, you're unable to so much as breathe right now, so..."
THUD!
He hand would let go of his breathless throat, making Titus fall to the ground as he then began to take in more of the air he had been denied for such a long moment of time. After taking a while to catch his breath, the emperor then stood up limpingly from the ground in a silent manner, almost as if he was about to say something.
"... T-thankyou... My daughter... I knew you still had some love for me-"
A frown formed on her face as Aldyth quickly interrupted him. "No, I don't. The reason why I let you go... Was so that I could do this..."
"???"
SLASSHHHH!!!!
There was zero hesitation in the killing blow that Aldyth chose to deliver- the spear she carried with her moved faster than what Titus could perceive, and without fail, the halberd's all-piercing blade would instantly cut through the soft flesh and bone that were the only barriers against its trajectory: in the blink of an eye, the once renowned emperor of the Neugomian Empire, Titus von Neugomia, had been slain brutally as his body was cut cleanly in half by the powerful splitting force that Aldyth unleashed, as the 2 halves of his body then slumped to the ground lifelessly while blood began pouring all throughout the filthied floor...
"... I've finally done it... I'm finally... Free..."
Aldyth muttered this as she remained both silent and motionless for a few moments. Afterwards though, a few tears began pouring out from her eyes- they were not tears of sadness however, as instead, they were the result of the combined expressions of happiness, disbelief, and triumph, which had all combined as one within her heart after she violently took the life of the father who had abused her for most of her entire life...
She was finally free, and no longer would she have to endure a life of being used by the very same man who was supposed to have loved and cared for her without fail: she no longer had to endure those experiments and punishments that made her the soulless being she was now, and she could finally live the life she had always wanted, and with the fact that she had finally been reunited with the only family member she truly cared for... For the very first time, a smile formed on Aldyth's usually expressionless face, as she could also simultaneously feel a great, endearing emotion that she could only describe as 'happiness'...
"... Need a shoulder to cry on?"
Without a word, the warrior-princess quickly moved towards her brother as she wrapped her arms around him and continued to cry. As her tears continued to flow down from her face and began getting onto Novus' armor though, he wouldn't mind it at all, as he would still continue to accept Aldyth's embrace as he too began wrapping his own arms around her.
"... Thank you... My little brother... Thank you... Really..."
________________________________________
It was over... She had now lost many of the abilities that made her who she was, powers that had been bestowed upon her by her now-dead lord and benefactor: a dragon who was worshipped by the emperor and many of his cohorts, the same being who she had faithfully served for many years of her life already.
Delphina fled the scene by escaping through one of the many secret tunnels within the palace, a concealed exitway whose route reached beyond the city walls: being an oracle who directly served the emperor provided her many advantages, and the knowledge of such important escape routes during an enemy invasion was one of the many things that the priestess had earned after her countless years of servitude.
Now however, all of the things she had done were now meaningless, and a great sense of frustration and regret remained in her heart as she was constantly reminded of today's unfortunate series of events: the Neugomian Empire was being defeated in their battles against their new, unknown adversaries, and multiple enemy infiltrators hailing from the same enemies had already made their way into the imperial palace. What was even more terrifying though was that their enemies were managing to succeed in their attempted incursion, though surprisingly, this wasn't the reason why Delphina had chosen to run away like a coward just now.
She could feel it after all: the connection she had with the one she worshipped, the Dragon Lord known as Beelzebub, the Lord of the Flies... The deep, unbreakable bond she had with this monstrously powerful being, where once it had previously been strong and practically unshatterable... Including the fact that his presence was no longer something she could feel, there was also the fact that their connection now felt as if it had been severed permanently, and there was only one good reason as to why these things could have happened in the first place...
The only thing Delphina couldn't understand however, is how did her lord even 'perish' in the first place? How did he meet his end, and what exactly caused it in the first place?
Because of this sudden arrival of weakness though, the priestess had lost many of the abilities she obtained thanks to the gifts presented to her by the draconic lord she once served: from her immense magick potential and vast arcane reserves, to even her ability to see the future and call upon her very lord in her most desperate times...
"... I have nothing left... And there's only one thing left for me to do..."
She had one more thing to get back at the world that had been cruel to her, a contingency plan that she and her lord had devised at the very moment that the empire would no longer serve their whims: multiple runes secretly etched throughout every nook and cranny of the capital, magickal tools that would erupt into a cataclysmic series of explosions that would engulf Vishnal in a sea of fire and brimstone.
Ultimately, it was a self-destruct mechanism of a magickal kind... Now however, Delphina was planning to activate this contingency through the rune etched on her left hand: all she had to do was to say the specific phrase to activate it, and the entire capital would be destroyed in an instant.
For now though, the priestess was solely focusing on making her escape first before she was to trigger that massive spell of destruction, as she still held a lot of value for her own life after all, and she wasn't, in the slightest, that willing to die along with the city she was about to blow up.
... Unfortunately however, Delphina was fated to lose one more thing amidst the escape she had made amidst the situation- it was going to be a loss so great, one that would take something of incredible importance from her forever...
"So you were here, you sleazy little rat. It took me a while to find you, but now I've finally done it..."
"... W-why are you here?"
An ethereal construct, a gateway of brilliant light, had suddenly appeared in front of her all of a sudden, and out from it came a woman with black hair and a mesmerizing set of purple, seemingly-glowing eyes: Delphina, however, was all too familiar with such a figure, as she had already seen that face countless times throughout the prophecies she made before she eventually lost her power a while ago...
Whitlea... Or so was her name pronounced... That name brought a great fear to Delphina's very body and soul, as within most of the futures that Delphina could once foretell, this woman had always managed to succeed in the one objective she wished to fulfill, a goal that involved the oracle in an incredibly dangerous act of violence that she was only able to resist in a few of these possible timelines...
In short, Delphina already knew that she was about to die at the hands of this insane lunatic, and she was also aware by this point that the future she was about to experience was one where she wouldn't be able to escape from this terrible fate.
"Don't you already know by this point? I'm here to get rid of you, silly~" Whitlea's voice oozed with a sadistic joy as she spoke. "Why don't you just accept it? You won't be able to resist me anyway, and if you still want to fight me, your death definitely isn't going to be pretty, to say the least..."
The oracle's mind began to break down as despair began clouding her mind in an instant: why was this happening to her all of a sudden? She had done everything she could to live... Even after having lost everything important to her just now, she had still managed to keep her life by escaping the devastation being wrought throughout the capital by running away while never looking back.
It was unfair, Delphina thought to herself: what did she even do to deserve this? Was it because she had sacrificed a few of those insignificant slaves to her lord in a bid to appease his presence? Was it because she chose to run away and had effectively abandoned the very emperor she was supposed to serve? Or was it because of she had chosen to worship that damned draconic being who had forsaken her so suddenly?
In any case though, Delphina still had one more method of making sure that she was going to survive, and this method came in the form of a magick weapon she had brought with her amidst the secretive retreat she made so hastily...
"D-don't you doubt my ability! I'll make sure that I'm going to survive here!"
"Oh, really? Do your best then, you heretical demon worshipper~"
A jet-black, demonic staff with a blood-red crystal attached to its very tip... A tool she had crafted made from the essence of pure magick: while the deity she served did indeed have a part in its creation, strangely enough, the tool itself was still relatively functional even after the disappearance of her lord, and now Delphina had chosen to unleash its powerful magicks against the woman before her who was about to take her life.
In truth, it was a powerful arcane staff that required not even a single drop of her mana for it to unleash its spells- all it required was instead the surrounding environment's mana, as well as the very soul signature of her body to be activated, and the rest of its might would then begin to work accordingly with her desires and do everything it could to fulfill them.
[Thunder Lances.]
[Wind Storm.]
[Hellfire Burst.]
[Magick Missiles.]
[Astral Fissure.]
Multitudes of exceedingly powerful spells were unleashed by the magickal staff at once, as each of these attacks then proceeded to make their way toward their target in lightning-quick speeds: it was over, Delphina surmised triumphantly, as there was no way for that bastard to block or avoid these spells, and now Delphina thought that she had managed to defy the future that was set to happen to her...
"My, how... Bright..."
A thin, see-through barrier absorbed all of the attacks without fail, neutralizing their destructive power as their target remained perfectly unscathed: simultaneously however, several, hovering metallic constructs of small proportions would come out of the portal behind Whitlea, as a bright, blinding light began radiating from what seemed to be their singular, cyclopean eyes.
"Was that it? Anyway, it's time to meet your end~ Farewell dear, and I hope you die as painfully as possible from this~"
ZAP! ZAP! ZAP! ZAP! ZAP! ZAP!
"AAHHHHHHH!!!!!"
Scorching, blue lights would emerge from the glowing eyes of those hovering insects of steel, and within seconds, Delphina was quickly peppered with holes as those violently brutal attacks struck most of her body with a fatal accuracy.
It was a merciless form of assault, as even after she had already died, the drones would continue to fire upon Delphina's dead corpse with their searing laser barrages, eventually melting the very ground that the oracle stood from while turning her entire body into nothing more than a vaporized, mist of blood, with a stain of ichor on the scorched earth serving as the only reminder that she had once existed and had already died.
"There we go... Now my beloved is safe... I'm always going to make sure he's safe from now on... No matter what..."
And that was how the priestess Delphina, the 3rd Disciple of the one known as the Glutton Lord, had met her end at the hands of her fated slayer, and forever would her name be forgotten in time as her death had finally come to pass...