From Hell – Chapter 27&28

FROM HELL 

From Hell – Chapter 27&28

→ Craving•The•Unhinged ←

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No part of this publication may be reproduced, copied, or reposted in any form, or by any means without a BOLDLY written permission from ME.

Copyright © 2026

Naomi Cindy B.

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★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★

 

Thirty minutes.

Thirty torturous, painful minutes was what it took for Blood to upheaval the earth out of the hole.

She dug it shallowly, and throughout the thirty minutes of digging ritual, the messengers of darkness stood behind her, watching hollowly.

Each throw of sand out of the grave was followed by a drop of blood from her bleeding head and several rolls of it from her bleeding body.

But that only added to the excitement of the scene for the two.

The blowing air seemed like it’s not even touching them, and when the drizzle turned to rain, they both got wet, their lightweight robes getting trapped with their hot skins.

But what’s going on around or on them isn’t their cup of wine.

They’re too invested in the digging, their four fists folded tightly beside them as if unfolding them would crack a kind of casualty.

By the time Blood finished digging, she didn’t even need a push. She was already out of breaths — out of life — out of zeal to go on.

She crashed to her knees, her callused, swollen palms fell free at her sides, and her neck lost balance before she dropped in the grave by herself, reeking of exhaustion.

Ares lowered his pants and peed on her face, then he picked the shovel and generously threw dirt at her.

He didn’t count the shovelfuls, but he threw the sand inside the grave till it was fuller than required.

Getting the image of Lucia on her knees with a filthy c+vk that’s not his own in her mouth was triggering.

He overfilled it, and he didn’t notice till he started having to raise his hand to throw the sand.

He held the shovel by the blade and the handle, then he raised his knee, bringing the middle of the shovel down to it for breaking.

But the metal only bent, so he slammed it on his knee again and again, the thought of her swallowing Bones c+m maddening him.

Sixteen good times.

He hit the shovel middle on his knees for sixteen times.

By now, his knee is deeply wounded from the scraps and pierces of the metal blade, but then, the shovel broke into two, and he finally threw it away, his sweat mixing with the rainwater, and his blood joining the mix on his knees.

His robe pants is tattered on the knee right now cos of the shovel hits, but is pain even a feeling now?

He doesn’t feel the sensations.

A rough breath broke out of his nostrils as he stood on the grave, and that was when he noticed Lucia’s absence. She’s not here anymore.

“Lucia!” He called out.

The echo of his voice didn’t even return. It was swallowed completely by the density of the forest.

He went down the narrow path around that area, tracing her scent which he can now smell.

The jasmine.

Her psychotic energy.

He found her beside a really small river at the end of that path.

She’s on a squat beside the river, and her face is inside as she drank from the water, but she’s not swallowing.

She drinks, raises her head, rinses her mouth, then spits it out.

She kept doing it, and it’s obvious she has been doing it for minutes judging by the mass of water on her chin and her chest, soaking her bre+sts.

Ares stood behind, watching her repeat the circle.

Drink. Rinse. Spit.

Damn Blood for reminding her of that memory.

May she rot in hell, and may the devil never relent in fanning her flames.

He stayed patient till she did it for the tenth time, then he went closer and pulled her up fast.

Her hair hung wetly on her waist behind, tangling messily with the fabric of her corset.

“You’re not in Blood Camp anymore! Bones liquid will come nowhere close to you again! And Blood is dead!” He snarled at her face.

Surprisingly — or unsurprisingly, she bursted into a sinister laughter. She’s Lucia anyways, the same psycho who threw three of her camp mates into a bottomless pit cos she was bored.

“Dead?” Her voice formed slowly, drowning out the laughter. “Blood? Dead? If Blood was that easy to kill, then I won’t be Lucia, the most feared woman in Zura today. If it was really Blood, then I wouldn’t let you decide her judgment, and I wouldn’t even let you fight her with me cos Blood is mine to kill!”

Ares’s brow clustered, his eyeballs aligning. “What do you mean?”

“That wasn’t Blood, that was her twin sister.” Lucia muttered. “Blood ain’t human, and killing her won’t take just roughly two hours like we did with this twin sister of hers. You trained in Pain Camp, Pain trained you, and you know the level of his brutality. You know it’s limitless just like my trainer—Blood, so why would you even think we killed Blood just like that?” She snickered.

“You were probably thinking my trainer was lenient. You think because Bones pretends to favor me in court, he gave me a merciful less cruel trainer!” She continued.

“That’s not it!” Ares found his voice, the cluster on his brows disappearing, replaced by a glare.

“Oh, you think because I swallowed his c+m in camp, I had a life of roses and flowers in camp?” She moved closer to him.

He stood his ground, glaring harder.

“I said that! Is! Not! It!” He spat.

The rain seemed to get heavier, beating them wickedly.

“Is that why you’ve been trying to get acquainted with me? You want me to swallow your c+m too?” She laughed again, the rumble of thunder in the sky curling with her voice. “Huh? You want your c+vk in my mouth too, is that it, Hellion?” She smirked.

“Shut up!!” Ares got a hold of his sword, sliding the cold wet weapon on her throat.

She didn’t even shake.

Her smirk stayed intact, darker now as another low thunder rumbled, accompanied by faint lightning which soaked into their faces briefly.

“There are too many c+nts in the brothel, and I get anyone I want—wet or tightly untouched, in my bed whenever I want it! I have any mouth I want around my c+vk anyday! Yours isn’t a special package I have to wait twelve years chasing you for!”

“I only request for your cooperation! Without that, Bones will remain power-drunk. The years we spent in camp, he spent them gathering power, huge enough to become the most untouchable Emperor living!”

“Even after we came out of camp and became his shadows, he were forced the help him amass more power cos we know nothing about the truth of twenty years ago, and without the truth, we can’t do anything! Stop being a hardhead!”

Lucia used her index finger, slowly pushing Ares’s sword away from her neck so she could come closer.

The second lightning crossed the sky, showering their faces.

“There are too many c+nts in the brothel, and you can get anyone you want. Under no circumstance will you ask for my body later.” She whispered, sounding like a warning and a s+duction in one.

Ares gulped shakily, but not visibly. The veins at the back of his palm stretched as his grip on his sword tightened to the bones.

“I would never,” he looked her in the dark eyes to say that line.

Lucia’s smirk disappeared, replaced by her eerie blankness.

Then she stepped back, taking her scent away with her as if she hadn’t just tickled his brain when she stepped closer earlier.

“I kept the anti-venom pill and told my sidekicks to investigate it. Let’s hope they have something when I return to Somara City. I’ll inform you.” She said, detached.

“I sent my sidekicks to investigate too, they’ll have news. I trust them.” Ares replied, taking the second gulp.

Lucia’s eyes went to his palm when she heard drops on the ground.

The rain has stopped now, so it can’t be the raindrops.

And it’s indeed not.

It’s his blood from his palm.

The palm that got cut from her knife that he grabbed during his musket venom madness in her house.

The cut was initially deep, but after the fight with Blood twin, it got even deeper, and now it’s bleeding much.

Lucia removed the red hair tie dye she uses for her ponytail from her robe sachet, and she threw it at him.

He caught it and looked at her, but she was already going down the path.

He saw her wrist is bleeding too.

The wound she got from Blood twin hit during the brothel fight. The wound must be deep.

He hurriedly tore a part of his robe and rushed to catch up.

She turned before he could get to her cos she sensed him coming.

“Here,” he tendered it.

“Won’t be needed,” she muttered darkly, turning around and resuming her walk down the path.

Two minutes was all it took for her to disappear completely.

Ares reluctantly threw down his torn piece of clothe, then he tied her hair-tie around his palm.

But why would Bones send them to go off the twin sister of Blood?

No answer, and the most infuriating part is they can’t ask questions from Bones. He might just order their killing for just asking questions.

They’ll just have to wait for that part to play out naturally.

And they killed the target together, so which of them will they report to Bones as the killer?

That’s another angle.

And…

Tommorow is the war, and he’s Lothar’s strategist.

He hasn’t drew a strategy for Lothar for this war, yet.

His jaws tightened hard, and his legs moved as fast as they could, down the narrow path.

He needs to arrive at Somara City before daybreak and give Lothar something. Otherwise, things would go really, really sour.

—

Ruyi and the Fenxi guards didn’t meet anymore obstructions, surprisingly.

Not at the border.

Not at the Post Station.

They left Northern Zura too peacefully, it got suspicious.

Even the border that’s always crowded with guards switching duties all day…it’s not guarded.

Why??

Ruyi kept wondering throughout the horse ride away from the territory.

She rode in the front with her brother on the same horse, though Zaine is still unconscious.

But he woke up after they rode for an hour. He jerked awake with a cough, groaning at his wounded arm.

Ruyi dropped a flagon of water on his chest, and he groaned again before picking it up, drinking.

“The next time you make this heavy mistake of stepping into the enemy’s territory alone, I’ll leave you to die!” Ruyi threatened meanly.

“We’re…out of… we’re out of Northern Zura?” Zaine gasped, studying the geography of the environment they’re in.

“Yes, Your Highness.” The guards on the other horses replied.

“How? Why?” Zaine’s eyes widened. “How did we slip out so easily?”

“We have no idea too, but our journey out of the territory has been smooth. Too smooth.” The guards responded to him again.

“This doesn’t feel good,” Zaine faced Ruyi. “Sister, you don’t feel this chill? Something is going on.”

“Nothing is going to happen. We’re winning the war tommorow.” Ruyi replied, focused.

“Are you still on your plan to lure Lucia with her parents info tommorow?” Zaine asked eagarly. “Let me follow you!”

“Stop talking, Zaine.” Ruyi rolled eyes.

Zaine smiled.

—

[Somara City – Palace of Fortune]

Princess Ina came alone.

The soft lights that spilled on her figure came from a lone lantern hanging from her right hand.

Her silk robe dragged the ground as usual as she slid open the front door of the Palace. It might have been abandoned since her grandfather’s death, but her father made sure it was cleaned weekly, so it’s sleekly clean like the other inhabited Palaces of the Empire.

She sighted the burnt main chamber, razed completely to the ground by the fire from twenty years ago.

The fire that was intentionally started by Mulan and Ren after they poisoned her grandfather in that same chamber.

She stood in front of the burnt chamber, staring deeply for a minute before moving forward, passing by several yards, gardens, pools, pavilions and outer balconies before she arrived at the library.

‘Meadows Core Library’ was plaqued boldly in front of it.

Meadows.

The surname of the royal family.

If she were an ordinary woman, she’d have changed from Ina Meadows to Ina Hellion after she married Ares, but she’s the Princess anyways, and he’s a live-in domestic husband, so she got to keep her family surname.

But her husband is a smart one who’ll never give her what she wants unless she gives him something first, and that’s why she came here to find him something from her grandfather’s stash of humanity books.

She pushed the library door open, and she entered the largest library in the world which looked like a nest from outside but a grand insurmountable castle inside.

Her grandfather loved books, so he gathered journals, documents, novels, poems and poetries from across the twenty five dynasties every year. That’s why he owned the largest library existing.

But Ina hates the smell of books.

Books are boring.

The tasteless hermits and recluses are all bookworms. She hates it.

But she’d enter a place she hates just to get her husband something to make him grind her c+nt hard.

That’s how much she loves him.

If she goes for checking the books one by one to know which she’d pick, she’d get lost here, so she just closed her eyes and grabbed the closest book to her then turned to leave, and that was when she sensed it.

Another presence.

Someone else is here.

Who could it…

Her hand worked faster.

She grabbed her musket gun from under her robe, aiming back sharply, only to meet another musket gun behind, facing her.

But the face behind the gun made her gasp, dropping her own gun.

“Grandmother!”

The old woman dropped her gun too. Though, her face is deeply touched by ages, her sternness is unrivaled, and her back is straighter than any old woman in this Empire.

Also, her grey hair didn’t take over her head, it’s moderate.

Her robe embroidery is chrysanthemum shape, and her blood-red robe looks like rebellion.

Empress Dowager…

Bones mother…

The late Emperor’s wife.

“Grandmother!” Ina gushed again, too happy to sight her after a year.

“You hate books. What are you doing here?” the woman sighed, her tone crisp.

Ina held her hands.

Luckily, the book she took is in her robe chest now, carefully hidden.

“That’s not important, grandmother! It’s been a year! — a full year since we all last saw you outside, and you forbade anyone from coming closer to your sacred Palace! You didn’t even come to my wedding grandmother!” She sulked.

“Your wedding with the son of a criminal who killed my husband?” The Dowager replied, curt.

“But grandmother—

Ina’s remark was interrupted by the entry of Empress Sally.

She intended to come here to drag Ina, but seeing The Dowager made her heart stop momentarily.

The Dowager has never liked her.

The Dowager likes no one.

“Empress Dowager? It’s so pleasant to see you after a year!” She flashed a forced smile, bowing and bending her knees respectfully.

“Take your daughter, and leave the library.” The Dowager snapped, giving no hint of niceness.

Empress Sally didn’t argue.

She’d better not.

She took Ina’s hand.

“Grandmother you should allow some time with you at least!” Ina shouted as she got dragged out. “Grandmother I missed you! Gran—”

The library door was thrown close when she exited with her mother, but till they left that Palace completely, Sally didn’t stop dragging her.

“You didn’t let me spend much time with my grandmother!”

“What were you doing in that cursed library in the first place? What were you doing in the cursed Palace altogether?” Empress Sally queried, her expression bitter.

“Mother, I know you have bad blood with grandmother, but—”

“No buts!” Sally snapped. “Look at me working my age off to secure this Empire for you, but all you do is laze around!” Sally cut in meanly.

“You mean…” Ina gasped. “Fadey and his mother?”

Empress Sally nodded.

—

[An Old Brewery]

The sidekicks choose this location.

Actually, Meng and Limon did, and Qui and Falcon didn’t object.

Strangely, the ideas of Meng and Limon have been aligning tonight to the surprise of Qui and Falcon.

There has been less fight and arguments.

Now, the doctors are tied to standing iron poles. They’re fearfully shaking, sweating, stuttering through the words of their answers.

They woke up ten minutes ago, and they’ve been getting slapped in the face by questions, but they’ve not been able to answer any.

“If you claim to not know the ingredients of this anti-venom or who made it, then why did y’all doctors look shaken when we showed you at the medicine valley?” Falcon asked.

He sat on the top wooden rails of the brewery with Qui.

Meng and Limon are the one at the base with the doctors.

“That’s because everyone heard about the pill and how dangerously powerful it is, and that if you get to know any information about it, then your life will be in danger cos the Emperor would send his shadow assassins to kill you!” The doctor by the right pole said fearfully.

Meng released her arrow into his shoulder, stinging cruel.

“Arhhhh!!!!! I’m really telling the truth!!” The doctor cried out, blood spilling. “Please!!! Please!! Please!!!!”

Meng shoved a rag in his mouth to muffle his screams.

Limon looked at the sky, studying the time by the dark clouds movement.

“We’ve been here for two hours. Yet, nothing beneficial.” He muttered, taking over.

“Who made the pill? What are the ingredients?”

“I’m one of the best doctors in the valley, believe me. By the smell of a pill, I can list all the ingredients, but this anti-venom is scentless and I can’t — agghhhh!!!!!!”

His explanation broke into a shriek when Limon thrusted his dagger into his chest, stabbing hard.

Limon’s face received a splash of his blood, and Meng came closer, placing her index on the man’s chest.

She touched blood, then brought it to her tongue to lick savagely while holding eyes with the second doctor who instantly peed on himself.

By now, the first doctor has breathed his last, so only the second doctor is left for questioning.

As Limon and Meng moved closer to him, he felt death pulling at his soul to an abysmal end.

“Meng and Limon are not arguing? Weird.” Falcon muttered.

“Meng loves blood,” Qui said.

“Limon loves watching people in pain,” Falcon said.

“Makes sense,” Qui shrugged.

“You’re a Fenxian?” Falcon asked, again, and just when Qui faced him to say something, the second doctor talked on the ground.

“I know something! I know something! I swear I know!! Please don’t kill me!!!”

“Speak!” Meng ordered.

“Truthfully, the pill is nearly scentless, but my nose is sharper than most—sharp enough to catch the faint trace of saffron hidden within the anti-venom. Saffron must be its primary ingredient… and twenty years ago, in this Empire, the only family that gained outrageous wealth through saffron trade was the Draven family!” the doctor cried out.

“Draven?” Limon frowned.

“The Draven family only have one family member left,” Meng said.

“The General,” Falcon said.

“Lothar Draven,” Qui muttered, her single earring dancing symbolically inside her ear hole.

—

[A Secret Pavilion]

Two people sat under the dim illumination of paper lanterns, both talking in hushed, careful voices, their shadows crawling on the walls like horror from Hades.

The environment has no roaming people or even animals. It looks secluded, too quiet.

The hush of the two people stopped when the third person joined them.

Edwin.

He looked at the two for a minute, then he grinned, taking his seat.

“What took you so long?” Minister Kai queried.

“Come on, uncle. I had to be careful and not get caught attending a secret meeting by this time. Also, I had too many tributes to collect, and I had too many people to send to prison.” Edwin sighed, pouring wine.

Minister Kai grunted, giving Dakota a short glance.

As usual, Dakota stayed mute.

“What are we here to discuss though?” Edwin asked curiously.

“I’m planning to involve the Dowager in this circle,” Kai said.

“That’s not a good idea,” Dakota spoke up immediately.

“Why?” Edwin raised his shoulders. “The Dowager hates His Majesty. Since her husband was killed, she lost the ability to love anyone again. And don’t forget she wanted to kill Lucia and Ares even after their parents were executed, but His Majesty stopped her and instead sent them to camp, had them trained to become his shadows. Because of that, the Dowager hates His Majesty too. If anyone deserves to be with our circle, then it’s her.” He nodded.

“No matter how hard she hates him, he’s still her son,” Dakota said. “I’m just saying, we have to be careful. In this Empire controlled by His Majesty, one can’t be sure.”

“Why are you talking like you’re wiser than the two of us?” Edwin faced Dakota. “You know I’ve always hated your guts.”

“Edwin!” Kai cautioned.

Edwin backed down with a nod. “I won’t let you ruin my good mood. I just found out a secret about Lucia’s weekly milk when she was in camp. She swallowed His Majesty’s c+m weekly, y’all! I can’t wait to shove that at her face!” He laughed.

“And I hope you keep a close eye on your wife and daughter, too.” Dakota said slowly, suspiciously.

“Why?” Kai asked.

“My Lord! There was an abduction at the medicine valley!” Dakota’s closest man announced outside.

Dakota stepped out.

“Two doctors, abducted by four masked people. The doctors were found at the brewery, but one of them was dead, and the other one comatose.” The man reported further.

“Four masked people?” Dakota’s brows merged.

“Yes. Two males and two females according to the doctors we asked. And before they abducted the two doctors, they were asking about the anti-venom pill.” The man said.

Dakota didn’t talk further.

He led the way out of the place.

—

[Daybreak – Fenxi Empire]

“Ahhh!!!!!” Prince Zaine’s scream rented the Offsprings Palace as his shoulder wound got tended to by Empress Teyana herself.

She refused to let the doctor do it.

She choose to attend to him herself, so the doctors just stood and watch.

“You could have picked a milder treatment! This one’s stinging so bad! Mother!” He yelled childishly again.

“You knew what would follow if you went, but you still went to enemy’s territory? I should have you secluded!” Empress Teyana scolded, throwing the powdered treatment vial away.

It shattered.

“I already said it won’t happen again!” Zaine frowned, touching her shoulder.

But then, the drum of war began rolling, reaching their ears and shaking the Empire to it’s deepest foundations.

Empress Teyana spranged up, rushing out of the room.

Prince Zaine quickly pulled on his robe and followed her.

Together, they went to the City Wall where Emperor Ashes already stood with officials.

From there, they watched the assembly of armies at the base, all clad in their Fenxi armour, earnestly ready for war.

In front of them, on his high horse, stood their General…. Sima.

Muscular. Vicious. Rigid.

Princess Ruyi is beside him on another horse, wearing her armour too since she’s also going to war.

The drumrolls of war kept thudding, sounding from the hits of the ridiculously giant drumsticks on the drum skin by a guard.

General Sima bowed to Emperor Ashes, and the whole army bowed too, including Princess Ruyi herself.

“Go!!!!!!!!!” Sima yelled, his voice jumping over walls and causing the hoofs of the horses to rise.

Dust flew.

Sima’s horse moved first, then Ruyi’s, followed by the rest of the army.

“I don’t feel good about this,” Empress Teyana muttered.

“About Ruyi going on her first war, or about the war as a whole? Or General Sima?” Emperor Ashes asked.

“I don’t even know what to feel at this point,” Empress Teyana said restlessly.

Prince Zaine left the City Wall unnoticed.

—

[Aloof Dessert]

The water deliverer should have delivered water again since yesterday, but there has been no signs of him. Both Prince Fadey and Concubine Devora have been getting too anxious, unable to rest.

Fadey doubled his staking out hours from night till daybreak, but throughout last night, nothing happened.

No water.

No jar.

Dejectedly, he head back home, but few steps away from home, he heard scratches, screams, familiar pleas.

His walk halted, and his ears moved to the sound of the pleas coming with the dessert air.

“Plea…se… don’t… don’t…Fadey!!!”

He dropped the bag of deer on his back on the ground, picking an unhealthy race towards the house.

And the scene in front of the house?

Heartbreaking.

Empress Sally’s special guards are surrounding the house itself, but in front of the house, Devora is on the ground, naked.

And the guards are on her.

One is on top of her, raping her.

Two different guards are on each side of her, and each of them have one of her br+àsts in their mouths.

Three whole men on her.

Fadey’s mind scattered.

Tears fell from his eyes before he could even start running forward.

“Mother!!!!!”

He pulled his hunting gun.

“Fa…Fadey!!” Devora cried, broken, helplessly.

He opened fire as he ran madly, and the guards immediately responded, coming for him.

—

[Zura Empire – Army Camp]

The drum of war is louder than ever, pounding the grounds and disturbing the air so much it’s probably reaching the whole Zura hemispheres.

The armies are assembled at the campground, ready to March to the borderland for the war.

Some carried the red Zura flag that has a black dragon crest in the middle, waving boldly, waiting for the General to come out.

General Lothar is still in his tent with his close comrades, staring uncertainly at the strategy he drew by himself.

He has been staring for few minutes now, wondering if he can really win this war with it.

It’s the first time he drew a strategy himself.

“We need to move now, General Sir!” His comrades urged beside him. “We’ve never lost.”

Lothar remained there.

“If we lose this war, I’ll kill everyone you’ve ever seen in your life.”

Emperor Bones warning resounded in his ears.

“Lothar!” Ares entered the tent suddenly, and Lothar eyes went up so fast, filled with hope.

He sent his comrades out.

“I thought I’d arrive from the North before daybreak, but I was wrong. My horse moved too slow.” Ares explained quickly.

“I understand, but what if I lose this war, Ares?” Lothar asked, panicking.

Ares took the strategy he drew from him, and he almost started making corrections when Lothar took the drawing from him fast.

“Lothar!” Ares looked up.

“I want to use my own strategy this time. Let me try.” Lothar said.

“Loth—”

“Trust me, just trust me this once. Give me your trust.” Lothar said.

Ares grabbed his shoulder, giving him a brotherly pat.

“You better come back. If you die, then you’re a fool.”

Lothar smiled. “I know.”

“General Sir!” The comrades called from outside as the war drum heightened in volume.

Lothar rushed out of the tent, leaving Ares who immediately sat.

He should have gone to the Palace to report his mission before coming here, but right now, he only cares about Lothar’s safety.

Actually, that was a lie.

He also cares about Lucia’s mouth around Bones c+vk.

That picture has refused to clear off his mind since he heard about it.

Bones was twenty, Lucia was seven.

Just seven, back then.

And she…was forced to suck??

He grabbed his head with an hand, trying to control the demons trying to break free up there.

Why his second hand, he grabbed the edge of the tent table.

Now is when he started feeling pain from his deeply wounded knee which he broke the rusty shovel with.

Lucia’s hair-tie is still around his palm, and seeing it only worsened his situation more.

He has always been able to control them, but not now.

Not when the memories has been lingering for too long.

The ride from the North to this place, he couldn’t think of anything else.

He has been plaqued with it.

By the time he raised his head, he looked like a starved animal with overly crimsoned eyes.

He stormed out of the tent.

—

[Ivory Pagoda Temple]

Beyond the mountain cliffs of Zura, stood the Ivory Pagoda.

It’s pale towers disappeared into drifting clouds like a stairway to the heavens, one of the tallest buildings in the Empire.

Monks and taoists lined the stairways and prayer rooms, all muttering in whispers with their clothes tied on top of their shoulders.

Naturally, this temple should be flowing with people who came to pray or worship Shenvar—the god of the Empire.

But Emperor Bones is here today—not to pray, but to stare at the statue of Shenvar.

His late father spent so much time here. He was the most devoted worshipper of the god, so after his death, Bones would come here seldomly to stare at the god and wonder what’s so important about it.

He sat in front of the statue, staring habitually when his guards whispered the arrival of Lucia.

He consented to her entry, and she was immediately led in.

She came here straight from her journey cos she knew he’d be here.

“Ares killed the target,” she said stonily, each word following her steps

Bones back stayed unturned.

“Or you allowed him to kill her?” He rasped.

“I have no reason to allow him to kill a target, but I choose to go easy when I noticed she wasn’t Blood. She was her twin sister! Why would you send me to off her!” Lucia snarled.

“Because as much as I like you, and as much as you belong to me, I needed to remind you that you cannot betray me! If Blood twin was this hard to kill, then think about how Blood herself would be! I won’t hesitate to let her lose all hell on you if I smell the slightest rat!” Bones said.

“The mission was your way of threatening me,” Lucia scoffed, the evil in her eyes darkening harder. “I get it, Your Majesty.” She bowed, turning around and taking her leave.

“You have no plans to ask why I left the Northern borders open and allowed entry and escape of the Fenxi people?” Bones said, turning around.

But Lucia was already out.

He rose to his feet, and his guards quickly led him out.

—

Lucia received another note from the anonymous person who told her to investigate the musket gun.

The note got to her immediately she arrived from the North, but she only decided to go see Bones before acting on the note.

Now that Bones is solved, she’s on her way to the borderland.

The person told her in the note to come meet at the borderland.

At war.

She’s very interested in meeting who it might be, too.

Her black-red pigeon is flapping it’s wings in the sky, waiting for her to receive the note under it’s wings.

It’s surely note from her sidekicks about the pill, but she’s not interested at the moment.

She gripped the handle of her knife at her waist hostler, heading fast to the borderland.

She stopped walking.

She started running.

—

[Borderland]

The borderland between the Fenxi Empire and the Zura Empire had not known peace for decades.

The land itself looked wounded with dry grass bent beneath restless winds.

Old watchtowers stood half-broken from forgotten battles, and black banners fluttered from opposing cliffs like warnings from the heavens.

The two armies finally met, finally.

The Fenxi forces descended first from the eastern ridge, thousands of armored soldiers marching beneath their silver banners.

Spears gleamed coldly beneath the pale morning sun, horses snorted clouds into the air, and war drums thundered hard enough to shake the ground beneath their feet.

Across the wasteland, the gallant Zura army waited.

Dark armor.

Curved blades.

Rows upon rows of mounted warriors standing motionless like an endless shadow.

Their massive red banners snapped violently in the wind, each carrying the black dragon of Zura.

Between both armies stretched a single empty field stained by old blood.

No bird dared fly above it.

No soldier spoke.

Then, the commanders rode forward.

The Fenxi General Sima sat tall atop his brown warhorse, his crimson cape rolling behind him.

Opposite him, Zura General Lothar wore black iron armor etched with gold markings.

His face is unreadable beneath the shadow of his helm.

“Withdraw now, and your citizens may still keep their homes,” General Sima finally said, his voice carrying across the dead field.

A low chuckle came from General Lothar before he spoke.

“Tell your Emperor,” he replied coldly, “that Zura did not come here to retreat!”

The unsheathing of his sword followed those words.

At the same moment, Fenxi war drums exploded across the borderlands.

“Archers!!” someone roared.

The sky darkened instantly.

Thousands of arrows tore upward like a storm of black rain from the Fenxi army.

Thousands, thousands of horses broke into the battleground from the Zura army. The horses have fire slings on their backs, so as they ran into the Fenxi people, fire flew, flames formed, inferno bloomed.

Flames met Arrows.

War awakened.

Armies clashed.

General Lothar against General Sima, and the rest of the thousands of armies against each other.

The battleground blackened with smokes, fire, anger, grudge.

Screams. Yells.

It was only the start.

On top of one of the forgotten watchtowers around, Qui stood with Meng, both watching the war.

Qui is searching for her brother with her eyes, wanting to really watch him fight Lothar.

But the black fumes that covered the borderland blocked her view.

“It’s just starting, and it’s already this brutal?” Meng muttered.

It was this time… Lucia entered the borderland, running, unrelenting.

Princess Ruyi sighted her first.

She smiled satisfactorily on her horse, then she jumped down, shooting one of her twin swords forward to go meet her.

Lucia’s feet left the ground. She pushed a army off his horse and took his horse, jumping on it.

Her back lay flat on the horse, and the swords flew past her eyes.

General Lothar and General Sima both stood on top of their houses, facing each other.

“That’s my brother!” Qui gasped.

—

From the temple to the Void Palace is roughly twenty minutes ride in the carriage, but Emperor Bones is still on the tenth minute.

In ten more minutes, he’ll arrive at the Palace, but someone decided to elongate that abruptly.

From nowhere, a figure in wrapped black cotton clothes with a black iron mask landed in front of the carriage, blocking it’s way.

Tall. Intimidating. Rooted.

Like he came here to collect lives, souls, minds and bodies.

Single bird wings was melted in scattered patterns on his mask, and he’s unarmed, alone.

But his gait screamed danger.

“Off the way!” The imperial guards shouted at him, but maybe that sounded like an invitation to him.

He moved forward, each step faster than the last.

The guards sensed his dark intentions and lunged forward too.

Ares smirked under the mask.

Using his fist would give him away, so he switched to a combat blade which he drew from his pocket.

He moved like a phantom loosed from hell itself, landing in their midst when they least expected.

The first guard barely raised his sword before Ares drove the combat knife beneath his jaw and ripped it sideways, spraying blood across the dirt while the corpse dropped twitching at his feet.

Two more rushed him together, but he ducked low, sliced one across the stomach so deeply his insides spilled into his trembling hands.

Ares then spun behind the second and buried the blade into the man’s spine repeatedly until bone cracked beneath the force.

The remaining guards surrounded him. Yet, Ares moved through them like a storm, slitting throats, crushing windpipes with brutal kicks, carving tendons.

Men collapsed, screaming into the mud before he finished them with cold efficiency.

One charged from behind, only for Ares to seize the man’s wrist, snap it backward, take his sword, and drive the sword straight through three bodies in a single vicious thrust.

Panic spread too late.

But Ares isn’t here to kill Bones.

Bones can’t die now.

He only needs to have a taste.

So, Ares did a needed jump which hurled him to the top of the carriage where he landed hard.

Emperor Bones sat inside, holding his royal musket intact, ready to shoot, but his first and second shot missed Ares completely.

Before the third shot could come, Ares’s pants went down slightly, and he only had to stroke his c+vk thrice inside his underpants.

He came, readily.

He was already on edge before coming here, so the three stokes were the final push.

His cum spilled out, leaking in through the broken edge of the carriage, dropping on Bones lips, but that wasn’t the end.

Ares’s pee followed.

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Hot, hot pee, mixing with his warm salty c+m on Bones lips.

The moment Bones moved his lips, he had more than a taste of the two powerful mixtures.

He ran mad.

TBC.