Nullus raised a crimson eyebrow. "Oh? And who exactly do you want me to hunt down for you?"
Rexus leaned forward, his blue eyes burning with a deep, historical rage. "You know about the fucking massacre that happened in the Human Kingdom? The disaster where Beatrice's daughter unleashed her true lineage? She turned into a goddamn primordial dragon and completely obliterated the entire human realm, reducing a Tier 3 civilization into a floating pile of ash and bone."
Before Rexus could even finish his sentence, Nullus raised his hand, interrupting him mid-breath. "Sorry for interrupting your tragic story, Rexus, but if you want me to go out there and find those rogue dragons or capture Beatrice's daughter, you can forget about it. I'm not courting death for your sake. If the records are correct, Beatrice herself is a monster. I am still trapped in the Initial Stage of Tier 2, while that bitch was already at the Middle Stage of Tier 2 before she vanished. Even with her supreme strength, she couldn't control her own daughter's dragon mutation and got overwhelmed. If she couldn't beat those dragons, how the fuck do you expect me to do it? I like my head exactly where it is—attached to my neck."
"Shut the fuck up before I dismantle your entire soul structure piece by piece!" Rexus roared, standing up from his throne. The sheer volume of his voice caused the diamond ornaments in the hall to shatter into dust. "You think I care about the dragons? You think I care about that mutated brat? No! I want you to find Beatrice herself!"
Nullus froze, his casual demeanor slipping for a fraction of a second. "Beatrice? Why the fuck do you want her? She's been missing since the fall."
"Because the people of Aetheleon are losing their goddamn minds," Rexus hissed, his fingers digging into the sapphire armrests of his throne. "After that massacre, the lower kingdoms lost their faith in our absolute protection. The outer realms—the barbarian factions from the void borders—are seeing our hesitation as weakness. They are preparing to launch a coordinated assault on Aetheleon. If we don't bring Beatrice to the public square, if we don't hold her accountable for her daughter's cosmic crimes, the guards and the citizens are going to revolt against the throne. We will be pushed into a state of pure, absolute disadvantage. I need her head to pacify the masses, Nullus. And you're the only one who can track her darkness signature."
Nullus's purple eyes darkened into a deep, stormy violet. His knuckles turned white against his blazer. Beatrice wasn't just a random target to him; she was a woman he had known for centuries, a person who had shared his path through the bloody wars of the upper realm.
"I refuse," Nullus said, his voice dropping into a cold, flat register. "I'm sorry, Sir Rexus, but I am not going to hunt down my friend just so you can play public relations with her corpse. Find another dog to do your dirty work."
Rexus didn't explode in anger this time. Instead, a terrifying, mocking smile stretched across his noble face. He let out a low, sickening laugh that made the hair on the back of Nullus's neck stand up.
"You refuse because she's your 'friend'?" Rexus mocked, his voice dripping with venomous sarcasm. "What a beautiful, touching story of loyalty among thieves. I knew you would say that, Nullus. I knew you would try to protect her. But I was wondering... what's the real reason behind this deep affection? Is it truly because Beatrice is just a 'good friend' to you... or is it because Beatrice is your blood-related elder sister?"
The words hit the grand hall like a kinetic strike.
Nullus snapped out of his chair, his galaxy-like purple eyes widening in absolute horror. His pale skin turned translucent as the blood drained from his face. The silver chains on his blazer rattled violently as his hands began to shake. "How... how the fuck do you know that? That's impossible. No one in the entire upper realm knows about that connection. My lineage records were burned before the first tier war! No one knew besides me and my sister!"
"You really think the absolute King of the entire Aetheleon realm doesn't know about your fucking disgusting family relations?" Rexus sneered.
Before Nullus could even gather his Gnosis to defend himself, Rexus vanished from the throne.
SHIFT.
In a zero-frame teleportation, Rexus materialized directly in front of Nullus. The speed was so immense it shattered the air pressure in the room, creating a vacuum that locked Nullus's movements. Before the red-haired king could react, Rexus's hand shot out like a lightning bolt, grabbing Nullus by the throat and slamming him against a marble pillar.
In Rexus's other hand was a sickening, glowing green knife. The blade wasn't made of steel; it was constructed from a semi-living crystalline material, and squirming inside the edge were millions of microscopic, transparent parasite beasts. They writhed and chewed against the green surface, their microscopic jaws clicking with a ravenous hunger for living tissue.
Rexus pressed the glowing green blade directly against the pale skin of Nullus's neck. The razor-sharp edge drew a single bead of crimson blood, and the moment the blood touched the knife, the parasite beasts inside let out a high-pitched, silent shriek of excitement, trying to break through the crystal to invade Nullus's flesh.
"Listen to me very carefully, you red-haired piece of shit," Rexus whispered, his electric blue eyes inches from Nullus's face, his breath smelling of ozone. "If you do not go out there, track her down, and drag her back here by her hair, I am not just going to strip you of your kingly title. I will reveal your illegal bloodline connection to the entire high council. I will lock you in the deep abyssal cages, and I will execute you in the most brutal, agonizing public display this realm has ever seen instead of your bitch sister Beatrice. Those parasites in this knife? I will inject them into your spine and let them eat your marrow over three hundred years while you remain fully awake. Do you understand your options now, you arrogant cunt?"
Nullus stared at the green knife, his purple eyes reflecting the squirming parasites. He felt the cold sting of the blade against his throat, the absolute disparity between Tier 2 and Tier 1 crushing his pride into the dirt. He knew Rexus wasn't bluffing. In Aetheleon, survival was the only law that mattered, and a dead king can't protect anyone.
Nullus closed his eyes for a split second, his teeth grinding together until a thin line of blood ran down his chin. When he opened them, the panic had replaced by a cold, fake veneer of submission.
"Fine," Nullus hissed, his voice trembling with a suppressed, lethal malice. "Take the fucking knife off my neck, Rexus. I'll find her. I'll track her down to whatever garbage lower-realm she's hiding in, and I will personally execute her in front of the whole Aetheleon kingdom to prove my loyalty to your supreme throne. Satisfied?"
Rexus let out a smug, satisfied bark of laughter, releasing his grip and spinning the green knife before vanishing it back into his space ring. "Good dog. You have thirty days, Nullus. Don't disappoint me, or your sister won't be the only one whose lineage ends in a ditch."
With a flick of Rexus's hand, a violent gust of wind slammed into Nullus, throwing him backward out of the royal chamber, the grand jade gates slamming shut behind him with a definitive, deafening boom.
While the high lords of Aetheleon played their political chess games with blades and parasite daggers, the target of their hunt was existing in a reality that was far more primitive, brutal, and bloody.
Deep within an unnamed, uncharted lower-world plane, far from the shining diamond towers of the capital, sat a small, damp cave. The air inside was thick with the suffocating stench of copper and raw, rotting flesh.
Sitting in the center of the dark cave, illuminated only by a faint, sickly green moss, was a woman. She had long, tangled blonde hair that was matted with dried mud and fresh, clotting blood. Her eyes were a piercing, feral green—the exact shade of the emerald tracking crystals used by the royal guards, but devoid of any human intelligence. They were the eyes of a starving apex predator.
This woman was Beatrice, the fallen legend of Aetheleon.
Her royal garments, once made of the finest celestial silks, were now torn into rags, completely soaked and stained in a deep, dark layer of beast blood. She was kneeling over the fresh carcass of a Phase 5 apex predator—a wolf-like entity she had hunted down with her bare hands.
She didn't use a knife. She didn't use fire to cook the meat.
With a savage, animalistic growl, Beatrice buried her face into the open chest cavity of the still-warm beast. Her sharp teeth clamped down on a massive hunk of raw muscle, her jaw locking as she violently ripped the flesh apart with a sickening crunch of bone and tearing sinew. She chewed ravenously, the hot, thick crimson blood spraying across her pale cheeks and dripping down her throat, staining her dress even further.
She swallowed the raw meat whole, her green eyes flashing in the darkness of the cave like two demonic lanterns. She was a woman who had lost her kingdom, her daughter, and her sanity—leaving behind only a feral, blood-soaked shell that was waiting for the universe to come and try to take her head.