บท 17: Want to fight?

Desperate screams echoed all around. The Dracolich and the Death Knight didn't need to use much Death Qi or breathe fire; they simply bit and slowly massacred. The same was true for the army of Corpse Guardians. The minds of the enemy soldiers were easily broken after their generals fell to their knees in fear.

Several demon beasts and other slaves were in the front line, representing almost two-thirds of the army. However, none of these slaves or slave beasts were affected. Only the cultivators who had control over them died, and not immediately, but slowly. Some of them fell with limbs or parts of their bodies mutilated, but being cultivators, they didn't die from that alone. Another blow came soon after, and another, in slow and endless torture.

After a few minutes, the skeleton floating above lit up. A dense mist covered all the slaves and slave beasts before the marks on their foreheads faded. Shortly after, with a movement, the black mist covered their bodies, and they were forcibly thrown out of the domain.

"Being an idiot again. Wasting our death Qi and throwing away combat power," grumbled Alm.

"It won't be necessary. By the way, have you sensed the presence of the Queen nearby? The laws are restless as if converging to a place, and that's the call of a hero," said Bruno, his words dripping with disgust. The hero in their universe always caused the same phenomenon when he appeared to fight.

He then turned, and his runes lit up as he changed direction. Quickly, another golden lance appeared, and a storm of black lightning erupted from the skeleton's body toward a certain humanoid.

*BOOM!*

"Decent cultivation, but your strength falls far too short. Even the necromancer was less pathetic than you," spoke the skeleton sinisterly.

The dust settled as the king lay in a crater with his entire body in pieces. Surprisingly, he was still alive and tried to escape. Too bad Bruno and Alm would never let him go.

"You had quite a bit of fun enslaving the weak and forgot the path of a cultivator. If you had taken the opportunity to unite the races and forms of life against death, you might have had a chance to create true warriors and generals."

"Look at your bastard soldiers and generals. It wasn't a fight at all! I wouldn't even need to intervene; you would lose the war in a few years when all the slaves ran out. A weak king followed by ridiculous generals and pathetic soldiers," said Bruno. He didn't feel the least bit of remorse in dealing with these cultivators.

"Well... karma must be cleansed." Suddenly, everyone's vision was filled with blackness and went out.

Killing the living was much easier and simpler for them, as if it were a natural part of their existence. Alm was energetic, and Bruno struggled to feign indifference, but even he felt some satisfaction. Even Bruno welcomed death if it meant getting rid of evil.

***

The night was only beginning, but a wave of disasters was shaking the entire primitive planet. This universe was very young, and possibly here was one of the first planets with life existing.

In the skies, among the clouds, a black vessel emerged, violently breaking through space. On that vessel, two powerful auras emerged frantically: the Queen and the Real Demon Empress.

Seeing that from afar, Bruno couldn't help but comment. "Say... Empress is a title that stands above Queen, no?"

Alm felt like Bruno was thinking about some bullshit again. "So what?"

"Nothing much. It's just that I didn't expect the so-called Black Queen to not mind having someone with an Empress Title under her," said Bruno.

"She simply doesn't care about useless things like you are doing right now," answered Alm, not really interested in such a conversation.

Bruno sighed and didn't say anything else. Right after, they moved to their position and waited for the Queen and Empress.

Back then, when the rumors of infighting first appeared, the Empress felt it was a deadly trap and didn't go to check the situation like the Dracolish and the Death Knight did. Now, after the Queen issued an emergency order, she felt satisfied with her instincts. The connection with the two generals was severed, meaning they were dead. If she had followed the other two, wouldn't she be dead as well? Only when she received the Black Queen's orders did she move while standing by the Black Queen's side.

The Black Queen had a somber expression as she looked at the circular black domain. The true Queen, the one that Alm and Bruno really want, was a superior existence above all for this Queen. When this Universe's Black Queen was born, the True Queen's will had been clear in her head ever since. The True Queen's desires were very simple: She had to dominate and reign above all races for the true supreme goddess to be pleased.

Over time, the Black Queen felt several golden runes emerging and merging with her being as a lot of information was conveyed to her, greatly aiding her in every way. Dominating a few pawns like the Dracolich and company was just the beginning. Everything was going perfectly well... until now.

The Black Queen knew that not even the true Queen wanted a disaster to happen in that place, as it would harm the universe as a whole. But now, something terrifying seemed to be devouring all her pawns and even the living races she was fighting against. Compared to this evil, she looked like nothing but a child playing house.

Suddenly, right before their watchful eyes, the black domain trembled and dissolved out of nowhere.

Inside, there was only a black and desolate wasteland fused with the dense power of death. Both of them were shocked to feel the Yin laws in the air. "This... is far above anything I know," said the Demon Empress in astonishment.

The Queen was even more shocked; she could perfectly see a skeleton-shaped creature at the center. All the time and space around it seemed black and demonic. Its empty eye sockets were turned in their direction, and she felt that it was giving an even more sinister smile as cold sweat ran down her back.

"Just a skeleton... it has several things carved into its bones. It seems to be storing Qi as if they were its meridians... but the total power shouldn't be enough even to kill the Death Knight," analyzed the Empress after realizing the skeleton belatedly.

The Queen drew a golden saber that lit up in contrast to the dark Qi emanating from her body and spat. "Attack with everything from the start; that is not a mere skeleton. It is an ancient and malevolent being, far above me."

The Empress trembled in awe. The Queen had supreme eyes that could see through everything. If that skeleton was above the Black Queen, she wouldn't even be considered fodder. The Demon Empress felt like her life hung by a thread.

"I don't know how this can be here, but now it has a skeleton body. Its capacity and knowledge are infinite, but its raw power isn't. That's the only advantage we can exploit."

"I'll deal with him directly; try to hold the Dracolich and the Death Knight under his control," the Queen said, her entire body glowing as she unleashed all her power.

With a move, both of them descended from the sky directly into the center of the battle. To their surprise, the skeleton stood there, just watching, along with its sinister group of generals and the Corpse Guardian.

That only increased the Black Queen's guard as she didn't hold back, flying straight at the skeleton. Yet, it was at this moment she heard an eerie voice. "Do you have any connection with her, brat?"

'She, the true goddess?' thought the Queen, who, despite everything, was only a hundred years old.

"Don't want to talk? This way is more fun. I'll remove her presence directly from your bodies," spoke the malevolent skeleton. That caused the bodies of both the Black Queen and the Demon Empress to freeze for a moment; it was like a decree from a demon god.

But shortly after, sanity returned to their minds. 'He is powerful but not invincible; if we fight, we can-'

Yet, they couldn't even finish that thought when the skeleton let out a strange laugh, saying, "Did you want to fight? Too bad... I'm not inclined to win, only to massacre."

Suddenly, all the hundreds of runes on its bones lit up, and similar things appeared on the bodies of all its vassals. The world seemed to fall silent, anticipating disaster on an unbelievable level. And they couldn't move, as if a thick slime were holding their feet to the ground.

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!*

The entire planet shook as if it were being rocked by a titanic force. A tremendous shockwave swept across the land, creating devastation rivaling the fury of a thousand storms. A dense and oppressive cloud of dust rose from the depths of the earth, obscuring everything with its dark veil.

Fortunately, the slaves and slave beasts had had enough time to flee before the Black Queen and the Demon Empress arrived. Otherwise, they would surely have died just by the shockwave alone.

In the center of that turmoil, where beauty once reigned, now lay only a colossal crater. It was as if the very crust of the planet had been torn away, leaving behind a deep and striking wound.

Inside the destruction, in a tiny point at the center of everything, two souls connected by a thread watched the golden runes floating before them.

The golden runes then exploded completely. "It really was her in the end," Bruno said bitterly.

Suddenly, they saw only a screen appear before them.

[Congratulations, main mission completed]