A man of strong build stood at a towering 6’5” with his hands behind his back as he looked on at Jacek and Jarek training in Perfect Warrior.

The mountainside no longer had peaks and valleys. Instead, it was a pile of earthly rubble with large chunks of rock and earth carved up and toppled by the Heraklinos men’s attacks.

The tall man stood peacefully as he watched on with pride for his empire thinking, “Xenia is in trouble now. I recall Jarek saying he would never sustain Perfect Warrior for this long because it was too dangerous. But here we are now, the beast and his son have both been unleashed.”

“BOOOOMMM!!”

A massive errant ki blast exploded directly where the man stood; however, as the dust settled, he stood unharmed with a shield of his own ki surrounding him in a sphere. He smirked to himself and thought, “I wouldn’t last two seconds against either of these men. I really do pity the wrath the young Empress BloodStar has brought upon herself.”

“Stop!” Jarek yelled to Jacek and both men paused their attacks.

“Begin meditating to consolidate the accumulated ki from this round. I will join you shortly after I speak with General Secutor.”

As Jacek assumed his meditative lotus position, Jarek walked over to the edge of the battlefield, “General! Thank you for meeting me all the way out here. I wouldn’t ask a lesser man to come this close to our training, but I knew you’d have the mettle to survive this close.”

General Secutor laughed alongside Jarek, “Just barely, Master Heraklinos. Just barely. You two create quite a hostile environment. I wouldn’t want to be Xenia at this moment.”

Jarek shook Secutor’s hand. Both men were muscular and tall, and the clasp of their hands made a firm, strong noise as if two huge metal gears of a ship’s engine were interlocking.

“Yes, well, it will come to you as no surprise, that I have asked you out here regarding Xenia.” Jarek assumed a serious expression.

Secutor smirked, “No surprise at all.”

“I am sorry General Secutor. I have failed not just our empire, but also our world as we know it. Xenia has always been one step ahead of us. Even when we thought we killed her, she was lurking in the shadows laughing at us. I should’ve known better seeing as she was raised by Victoria for so many years without meaningful contact to the outside world.”

“Master Heraklinos, no one has championed our cause more so than you. And no one knew Empress Victoria better than you. We all stand by your decisions. This outcome was inevitable to some degree, and my royal guard is ready to see it through.”

Jarek nodded his head with an apologetic gaze, “So you’ve guessed as much then.”

“I have. Just give us the word. Let us loose. Our goal has always been to perish with glory.”

“Xenia has given us a day or two at most before she attacks the Sage Empire. I suspect it will be centered around the Sage Palace in the capital. I need you and your guard to go there now and buy me as much time as possible.”

Secutor nodded with a breath of relief, and Jarek gave a wry smile, “I’m relieved you are so eager, General.”

“After seeing you train, my biggest fear was that you would dismiss me and my 10,000 men as unneeded. We are a legion of 10,000 of the empire’s finest ki users second only to you and Lord Heraklinos. We crave action on a large scale especially if it means risk of death.”

Jarek put his hand on Secutor’s shoulder, “Thank you, old friend.”

“My legion has always been purposed with protecting you, Master Heraklinos. Leaving the palace grounds and capital city will be an adventure for us if you don’t mind me saying. We will buy you as much time as possible.”

Jarek nodded, “Xenia is powerful. Even more powerful than me at the moment; however, she is not without weakness. She is young, and she does not appreciate the seriousness of her actions or ours. She is blinded to the consequence because she enjoys fighting as a sport. She sees us as toys. She could’ve killed me and Jacek several times over by now, but she hasn’t.”

Secutor smiled at Jarek, “A glaring weakness indeed. I suppose that is one lesson she didn’t learn from her mother.”

Jarek laughed softly, “As it is her weakness, I am hoping she sends in her own army before she arrives. The more time we have the better. My strength has never been greater, but Jacek lags behind me by quite a lot. I fear I may be too late in starting our training.”

Secutor then put his hand on Jarek’s shoulder, “Keep training the boy until you lose all radio contact with us. My men and I will be waiting for you to avenge us on the battlefield.”

Jarek nodded solemnly, “You and your men will never be forgotten.”

Secutor nodded back with a fervent energy, “For crown and country. To war. At last.”

________________________________________

Elsewhere within the BloodStar Empire at the front steps to BloodStar Castle, Constance looked down a long staircase leading down to the plaza. The sky was overcast and dark, and two Sage Empire curse priests stood behind her at her side. The two priests were young women in their late twenties, and both held umbrellas to cover Constance should it start raining.

The regal stone staircase leading down to the plaza was lined with Sage Empire and Heraklinos soldiers numbering well over 100 men. The soldiers and the priests were all under Constance’s control via Shadow Slave.

Constance wore a beautiful crimson-red ball gown dress that fell to the floor. The top half of her dress hugged her toned, slender body while the bottom half flared out in beautiful Victorian fashion. She beamed with bliss as she waited for her empress to arrive.

Constance’s eyes scoured the plaza for any signs of a void portal forming with unceasing attention until she was interrupted by one of the priests.

“Lady Khan, we have been waiting for over an hour. Maybe you would prefer waiting inside as to save your energy for the arrival of Empress BloodStar.”

Constance turned around with obvious and overwhelming anger, “And miss the arrival of my Empress? I will wait until my death if I must!”

Constance then slapped the priest across the face with such force that it knocked the young woman to the ground.

“Stand up!” Constance shook her head in anger, “I would kill you where you stand if you didn’t serve a more important purpose.”

The priest bowed her head, “Forgive me, Lady Khan.”

Constance turned back around and rolled her eyes, “You are not forgiven. You will serve your punishment shortly.”

Then a flickering of electricity in the center of the plaza below caught her eye, “Here she comes! My empress!”

A black circle manifested with a ring electricity, and out stepped a long leg clothed in black leather pants and black leather boot. Xenia’s entire body then exited the portal, and she looked up the staircase to Constance with a smile.

Xenia walked over to the base of the long staircase leading up to the castle doors and stopped, and Constance called out, “Your empress has arrived! Salute her!”

In a display of unison under the control of Shadow Slave, every soldier lining the staircase from top to bottom raised their right hands holding a knife to their throats. Then in unison, they all slit their own throats.

Each soldier fell forward dying as blood gushed out of their slit throats creating a ‘red carpet’ for Xenia as blood trickled down the staircase. However, as more and more blood gushed from the now dead soldiers, the accumulation turned into a small red waterfall running down each and every step until reaching Xenia’s feet.

Xenia smiled with excitement up at Constance and then looked down at her boots. She promptly removed them and began to ascend her ‘red carpet’ barefoot with the flow of blood caressing her feet at every step.

With blood-soaked feet, Xenia finally made her way to the top of the staircase. She looked down upon a kneeling Constance and two young women behind her.

Xenia walked directly up to Constance kneeling at her feet, and without instruction, Constance began to kiss Xenia’s blood-soaked bare feet.

Xenia moaned to herself for a moment with a smile before saying, “You may all rise.”

Xenia eyed the two women behind Constance, “Are these Sage priests? Where on Earth did you find these jewels?”

“War makes it so easy to make people disappear. I love war. A Sage priest goes for tens of millions to the right buyer on the black market. Their knowledge of cursecraft and the internal working of the Sage Empire are quite valuable; however, these two have a much more valuable purpose.”

Constance held out her arms with two wine glasses in each hand, “You may serve us our drinks. Now!”

Under the forced command of Shadow Slave, both ladies moved into position over the wine glasses and slit their throats with razor-sharp knives without hesitation. The blood rushed into the wine glasses filling them each about halfway until the young women fell to the ground and bled out further on the ground to their deaths.

They were completely ignored in their final moments as Constance reached out a glass of blood to Xenia, “Cheers.”

Xenia took the glass from Constance and immediately poured the blood out on top of the dead priest beside her. She raised her hand and bloodbent Constance to do the same pouring her glass out on the other dead priest.

“A fine taste, the priests of the Sage Empire. But I have something much much more desirable.”

Xenia then bloodbent her fingernail into a razor and cut her own neck allowing blood to fill her glass halfway before promptly healing herself.

She then reached out the glass to Constance, “My blood.”

Constance’s hands were shaking as she cupped the glass with both hands as if she were receiving a priceless treasure to hold. She raised the glass to her lips, and Xenia used her finger to push the glass up prompting her to begin drinking.

She tipped the glass upwards with her finger until Constance had drank the entire glass.

As she lowered the glass from her lips, Constance had a heavy breath of overwhelming passion for her empress. She turned her head up and to the side exposing her neck, “Please, take as much of me as you want. Until my death, I plead. Drink until my death.”

Xenia grabbed Constance’s chin with one hand forcing her to look back at her, and with the other hand she tore away the lower half of Constance’s beautiful Victorian style dress, “I don’t want your neck.”

Constance shuddered with pure pleasure as Xenia leaned in to her ear and whispered, “I want to eat and drink from between your legs.”

Xenia then aggressively pushed Constance backwards through the large double doors of the castle leaving the blood-soaked stairs and dead priests behind them.