Chapter 6: The Empress
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Every step I took felt like torture. I can’t remember a single time a wound has hurt this bad. That bitch must have put some kinda poison on her blade.

 

Finally getting to the bottom of the watchtower I could see the chaos of my command. Watching Bishops and fellow Praetorians get overrun by dozens of soldiers and knights storming them was something I could watch all day. However, the Queens and Princesses seemed relatively unphased as they were killing soldiers with what looked like flicks of their wrists. It was only a matter of time before the soldiers and knights I controlled were all either dead or free from my control.

 

Agh fuck. I don’t know how long before this wound kills me. Fucking shitty idea thinking I could command a Princess for even a second. Chances are they’ll have her replacement ready within a couple days too. This sucks, I was hoping I would at least get a chance to fight the Empress before I die.

 

Actually, I still might be able to. I won’t win, but maybe I can at least wound her. Maybe.

 

I still remember where the Empress’ chamber is. Although to be fair it is hard to miss. It is the second highest point in this castle, standing on top of a raised platform in the center.

 

Moving from alley to alley, hoping to avoid as much of the fighting as possible, I eventually reached the building that contained the empress’ room. The crystal laden vines that covered the entire castle seemed to originate from here. A massive crystal glowing a bright purple was on top of the building, almost like an ornament. Something about it was beautiful, so very beautiful.

 

Suddenly something knocked me to the ground. Looking up I saw what looked like a Bishop. She was completely focused on fighting the three knights surrounding her. Casting a fireball spell to push away one knight, swinging her sword at the second, and then being run through with a spear by the third. As soon as the Bishop fell to the ground the knights then moved onto the next target. 

 

Hehe, if those knights were able to take out a bishop, maybe I had a chance. Wishful thinking, it was three versus one and there was only a single rank difference, but I can dream.

 

The sounds of the fighting continued as I climbed the stairs to reach the building’s door. 

 

“One, two, thre… aghhhh fuck!”

 

Just as I pulled out the knife that was still embedded in my stomach I heard hundreds of screams coming from around the castle. Looks like I was sharing my pain with them too. I was afraid of bleeding out too early so I had kept the blade in the wound. However, whatever poison or something this blade had could help me out, if only to bring the Empress pain after I die. 

Yeah. I’m not going to survive this. Funny, I am more upset at the fact I won’t be able to kill the Empress rather than the fact that I am going to die. Well, the more I think about it the more blood I lose and the weaker I get.

 

Finally psyching myself up I shove the door open.

 

Leading from the door I see a carpet made out of brightly colored glass depicting different figures I cannot recognize. The glass carpet leads directly to a massive golden throne covered by the same vines from outside. Standing on each side of the door I came from I can see two women. I… I don’t know what rank they are, for they have two branching horns coming out of their foreheads. Two branching horns coming out of the foreheads are something that nobody but the Empress should have. I don’t remember them being here last time, Maybe I wasn’t paying attention?

 

On the golden throne I can see the Empress. Her “armor” is more akin to a wedding gown adorned with purple crystals. The gown extends down to her legs, just barely covering her feet. Covering her gown seems to be two veils. One originating from her shoulders like a cape, and one originating from her hair, pulled back enough to not cover the two horns on her forehead. 

 

Looking at them now, they are a deep black color with what looks like veins flowing with glowing purple blood. Instead of being straight like mine, or lightly branched like those two around the entrance, the Empress’ horns look like they are forming a wreath or a crown above her head. 

 

Her face was flawless, not a single scratch or blemish on it. Her face and body both looked young. Not the proportions of a mature woman like those two by the door, but slim and elegant. She did not look a day over 20. But the most striking feature was her skin.  Every abyssal I have seen so far has pale white skin, something that is best compared to a porcelain plate or a dead body, but the Empress’ skin was different. It looked alive. Her cheeks had a beautiful rose colored blush to them. 

 

If I continued to look at her, I knew that I would give up and pledge my allegiance to her once again. But I was not going to let that happen. I came here for a reason.

 

Tightening the grip on my knife I charged straight at her. I put every ounce of energy I had let into my dash, I closed the distance so fast that neither of the guards were able to react before I swung the dagger down into the Empresses’ neck.

 

Clr-ack

 

The dagger shattered in my hand.

 

Letting go of the fractured dagger I wrapped both my hands around her neck in an attempt to strangle her

 

I saw her eyes open, and then I stopped being able to see anything at all.

 

The last thing I heard:

 

“I was expecting more.”

 

I wasn’t too fast for the guards to react, they just knew that I was never a threat.

 

And with that the prologue is done. Time to begin the actual first story arc and make the description make sense. Technically this series is actually a sequel to something that I wrote about years ago. The prequel if you want to call it that is the story of the protagonist's life before their encounter with the Abyss. Since the original is private (and really bad), I have been writing so far with the idea of learning about the events of part 1 at the same time as the protagonist, hence the memory loss. I have already included a couple of details that are insignificant now, but will be very important to the story in the future. Still, I am but a novice when it comes to writing so I hope that the prologue chapters weren't too hard to read. I might eventually redo the original series and post it if I get better at this whole writing thing, but not completely sure on that yet. Although, I was already thinking of a potential spin off of this series and even a fanfic based on gfl or something. Well, the most important thing is keeping my ambition in check. No point in starting like 200 different series I will never finish. Anyways, apologies for the rant and thanks for reading up until now. Also, a second thank you to those that responded to the poll. Arc 1 begins on Monday. Probably.

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