Beijing, China, November 2056

  The Phoenix Empress stood like a regal statue

  Back straight and legs spread slightly like a colossal stone guardian.

  She clasped her hands behind her back, surveying her inner circle like one of her imperial generals inspecting her soldiers.

  Her throne room was emptier than usual on account of her brother, children, nieces and many of her strongest scattered throughout her empire. From fighting underneath many mountains against the Stone Lords to the sudden eruption of death worms and their symbiotic slaves from the deserts.

  Thus, she allowed herself a slight smile only noticeable by the most perceptive in her currently diminished court.

  One didn’t truly understand the simple joy of relative silence until it has been gone like a dear friend moved to the other side of the world.

  Truly, the inane bickering between one of her nieces and one of her cultivators didn’t cause her eye to want to twitch like it usually would.

  “Our empress shall sweep across the dog Americans and burn them to ash like the craven, flea-ridden mongrels they have always been!”

  “Ahem!”

  Silence followed the princess’ poor attempt at an innocuous clearing of one’s throat.

  She cradled a tiny ball of fluffy black and white fur in the crook of one arm as she strode right up to the towering cultivator.

  From some reason the ankle biter’s normally white fur had been dyed black in parts.

  Oh…

  The empress sighed.

  She hadn’t been paying attention to the useless creature and only now realized what animal her niece had dyed it to resemble.

  “Master Furious,” her niece said by way of greeting and acknowledgment with all the arrogant dismissiveness that only a teenager could do with such natural, cutting ease.

  The cultivator bowed without the barest hint of a slight.

  “Princess. How may I serve?”

  “Mmm… hmmm… mmmm… perhaps one may explain one’s use of derogatory language.”

  The cultivator took a long moment to consider the not so thinly veiled imperial command.

  He was an old man with the physical appearance of a prime specimen in his middle years. He had been old when the spires had appeared. His class and alchemical potions and pills were of great benefit.

  He was of the generation that didn’t see dogs as replacement children, let alone as pets.

  To him they were lesser creatures meant to serve man. Whether as guardians for livestock or as potential food like all other animals.

  Ah! The follies of pre-spires western society, the empress thought with nostalgic fondness.

  Individualistic greed had ruined them more thoroughly than any enemy actions.

  Its people turned poor by the infinite hunger for wealth of the elite few at the top.

  Too poor to have children, so they had been sadly forced to turn those maternal and paternal desires toward cheaper options.

  Hence the birth of fur babies.

  It was, truly, a very sad thing.

  Indeed, the elite few continued to dig themselves deeper in their greed to the present day. Their ways rotten to the core like a worm-eaten apple.

  How else could one explain their decision to get on their knees and press their foreheads to the dirt at the feet of faceless god-like beings from other worlds? How else could one explain the way they so easily betrayed their own people to be the one crab lifted out of the bucket?

  The thought made her smile wider.

  What the American’s had failed to realize that a crab taken from a bucket of many tended to go in the pot. At best it would be returned to the water. They couldn’t understand that the fisherman didn’t pluck a crab to turn it into a fisherman. They did it to turn it into dinner.

  “I only speak truth,” the cultivator said. “Are the Americans not like hungry dogs fighting for the last gristle-capped bones? For this is what I see. What I’ve seen since the distant days when I was once your age, honored princess.”

  “It’s that analogy that I find displeasing to hear.” The princess held her useless dog up to the cultivator until the two were nearly nose to nose.

  The wise creature licked the wiser creature’s nose.

  Simple though it was, the princess’ ankle biter could sense the cultivator’s strength and knew better than to create enmity by growling, barking or baring teeth.

  For his part, the cultivator merely smiled. He, too, knew not to take the bait by showing the slightest hint of displeasure.

  “See?” the princess continued. “Little Po Tato is brave enough to touch one of our mighty cultivator’s noses. He carries no fleas. Unless, you suggest that this one is incapable of keeping her precious friend clean.”

  “Of course not, honored princess. Your Po is no American.”

  “And yet you say such mean words toward him.” The princess sighed. “Dog this, dog that. You cultivators always use the word against those you hold in great contempt. Why? Are not dogs the most loyal creatures in creation? Do they not carry with them at all times the purest displays of unconditional love? All they want is to be near the ones they love. And yet! And yet! They suffer such slander. Tell me, Master Furious, am I mistaken? Does my love for my little Po Tato blind me to truths that only you can see?”

  “One can only say that as all humans can’t be judged based on the peak of existence that is the Eternal Empress, nor can they be judged based on the lowest garbage pile of existence that is the American.”

  The peak of existence pondered clearing her throat to end the rising argument.

  She felt her niece’s anger raise the temperature.

  The decision was taken from her hands by an impertinent voice in her tiny ear piece.

  “Phoenix… uh… Queen? Er… your… majesty?”

  It sounded like a literal child.

  Damn, Cal Cruces and his lack of respect for her station.

  She mastered her annoyance.

  “Yes.”

  It wouldn’t do to snap and be rude to a young person.

  That’s what he wanted.

  To make her seem the petty and entitled sort to take out her ire on a simple messenger.

  She was no American.

  She was the empire! The dynasty!

  And the empire could be as magnanimous as she decided.

  “Um… five minutes.”

  “To what exactly?”

  Honestly, did Cal put a random child in front of the comms?

  “Uh… the portal… Are you still going? Did you, um, change your mind? They said that might happen.”

  She almost demanded the names of those that would impugn the empire’s honor and integrity by suggesting she would go back on her word.

  Instead, she confirmed her participation in a pleasant tone.

  …

  American soldiers died in droves with each graceful wave of her hands.

  The super-heated matter she willed into existence ignited the air in waves as they flowed across the street.

  Dark asphalt bubbled and ran like magma from the intense heat.

  Was she not a merciful combatant?

  Instant death was a painless one.

  She couldn’t speak for the soldiers, but only a fool would think being raped to death by a horde of rabbit-like people was preferable.

  The white-furred abominations fared no better as they went up like fireworks for a split-second before crumbling to ash.

  The night sky above her was filled with those that dared to attempt to outshine her glorious flames.

  She tamped down the urge to shape them into the phoenix that gave her dynasty its name. She only did that for worthy moments.

  “Um… please stop… your… excellency?”

  The slightest of frowns creased her immaculate forehead.

  The urge to take her ear piece and burn it almost took her.

  “I have stopped.”

  She decided that Cruces would pay for the continued insult of the child he had assigned to her.

  Irrational anger flashed through her as she imagined that the others had proper, professional liaisons.

  “Thanks! Uh… there’s a few buildings up ahead of you with people still in them.”

  “Civilians?”

  “Some soldiers and mercs too. But, don’t worry. We’re only getting the civilians out.”

  Sure enough, she saw people floating with decent speed into the sky.

  They hadn’t traveled far when they suddenly vanished.

  There were no telltale signs of teleportation, nor the portal she had used to cross the Pacific and the entirety of America.

  She focused like a bird of prey, looking for the trick, but gave up when the child on the comms chirped at her to continue to her scheduled meeting with a demigod.

  Buildings and the combatants inside burned in her wake.

  Conflagration to ash in a handful of eye blinks.

  Complete destruction was not, strictly speaking, agreed upon.

  Indeed, she had been asked to keep it to a minimum if at all possible.

  Sadly, for the American capital city, she found it rather impossible to bring her power’s aura down to its smallest size, which was a few centimeters from her skin.

  It was simple self-preservation.

  Better to burn incoming enemy attack at a safe distance.

  Not that things like bullets or tank shells could threaten her even without her aura active.

  Her clothing and armor had been enchanted by her finest to handle many of hits from those and their ilk.

  When those invariably failed her then her body would laugh at man’s weak weapons.

  A voice chirped in her ear.

  Well… not chirped, for this voice was deep as befits a powerful man.

  “You’re doing more damage to the city than the literal Godzilla,” Cal Cruces said.

  “Not by intentional design. It is an… unfortunate byproduct of securing my safety. You know, you should be happy. I’m doing this because I chose to trust your scouting report.”

  “Convince me.”

  In that moment fate delivered a gift as if it was a cherished friend.

  An American tank rumbled around a distant corner, took aim and fired.

  The shell hit her aegis and went from solid to molten to nothing. From dark gray to red to white to nothing.

  All within the length of perhaps a dozen meters.

  She looked to the sky and opened her hands magnanimously.

  “We both know that you could’ve caught that with your hands.”

  “And risk an esoteric enchantment or payload? I think not.”

  “You could’ve dodged it.”

  “Proximity triggers are a thing.”

  She thrust an imperious hand at the tank.

  Super-heated matter shot out in laser-like stream down into the dark barrel of its main gun.

  The shells ignited a split-second later, blowing the turret and what remained of its occupants into the sky.

  All that was left of the once mighty war machine was a pile of glowing slag.

  “I am simply preparing the ideal battlefield for myself. It wouldn’t do to have enemies laying in wait to strike my back at an inopportune time. Part of that safety measure is to deprive them of hiding places.”

  “You know that these men and women lack the capacity to do you actual harm. I know you know because I checked and I shared that information with you.”

  “Ah… but have you considered that even the mightiest tiger may be felled by the tiniest thorn in its paw?” She allowed herself a satisfied smirk. “If my activities are truly a problem for you, then say the word and I shall leave.”

  “Just don’t hurt civilians.”

  “Have I harmed one strand of hair on their heads?”

  “yeah, you singed quite a lot.”

  “Please, my skill and control is beyond your comprehension. Those people were in no more danger than when they cook on their stoves and grills. If I harm one civilian I shall pledge a percentage of the Universal Points I gain from these Quests to their healing and recovery. Over one hundred percent. Yes, in my generosity as the Phoenix Reborn, I decree that their costs will be covered in full and I shall provide them with a stipend for a year’s worth of a comfortable life.”

  “How generous. Will that come out of the points you’ll get from the Quest to not hurt civilians?”

  “Unreasonable of you to demand I separate that from the rest of my earnings. I don’t believe that’s truly possible. But, if it’ll make you happy, I’ll draw points from those first. Hmmm… these people do need new homes after this,” she mused as she gazed across a cityscape charred flat like a freshly mowed field of black grass. “Perhaps, I shall decree an immigration program. Except, I shall treat my immigrant subjects well. Less exploitation and more… what’s the word?”

  “Human? No different from you and yours.”

  “All are valuable in my empire. They will be given all the opportunity to prove themselves worthy.”

  “Okay… no… just focus on that guy first.”

  Golden light flashed, blinding her.

  …

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  They traded boasts for a bit.

  A few offers.

  The Phoenix Empress and the demigod of war.

  Sallaiades towered over her.

  He was basketball player tall, but without the long, lanky limbs.

  He was pleasingly proportioned with broad shoulders tapering down to a narrow waist.

  The armor failed to hide a muscular physique to put to shame the best specimens Earth’s humanity could put forth.

  An easy smile on a handsome face completed the package.

  Although, he looked off to her.

  He was pale of skin.

  Paler than any naturally occurring on Earth.

  Yet, his face didn’t fit the skin color.

  She suppressed a giggle unbecoming of an eternal empress.

  The facial features were those of what she imagined a hypothetical son of her and Cruces would possess.

  “Salla is your mother. A war goddess.”

  “The Goddess of War. Although, her dominion is much larger than a single word can contain.”

  “Then what about Sesre. I believe an eidolon of that god made war on me some years ago. Middling mercenaries under my employ slew them. Does your pantheon contain two gods of war? And you said mother, correct? My information must be confused. I thought it was gods of war. Not goddess.”

  Sallaiades’ smile didn’t waver.

  “A single word, yet containing so many different things. What’s more natural than siblings dividing such a broad dominion of multitudes?”

  “Siblings fighting each other for sole power.” She smiled. “The history of my world has made that clear many times over its long span.”

  “A child’s span of life. You speak of mortal rulers. Our Gods are beyond. Consider Salla’s generous offer, empress.”

  “I’m not interested in servitude. Golden chains are still chains in the end.”

  “Don’t let pride blind you to the benefits for you and your people. My mother holds dominion over many worlds, lands and nations. She holds empires that dwarf yours. Ones that have existed for more years than your people’s entire history. Empires that reached their heights when your people were learning how much better cooked food was. Kings and queens swear to emperors and empresses. Is it not natural then for an empress to swear to a God?”

  “Where is your mother, then?” She grinned. “Why would one send a weak child if one was all powerful?”

  “There are rules of engagement.”

  “How can one be all powerful if one is bound by mere rules?”

  “The spires—”

  “Perhaps we should be praying to them instead.”

  The demigod shook his head with a rueful laugh before placing his helm back on.

  The mohawk-like crest of animal hair undulated in the wind whipped up by the violence of the fighting all over and above the city.

  The Phoenix Empress stood purposefully regal for the hidden drone cameras floating and hiding all around her.

  Thousands of kilometers across the ocean her people watched, scarcely breathing.

  She cut an impressive figure despite being dwarfed in stature by the demigod.

  She was, after all, a perfect specimen in her own right.

  Beauty unhidden behind a helmet.

  Dark, lustrous hair bound into tight braids.

  Slim, yet with proper curves unaffected by the inexorable pull of time and gravity.

  Form-fitting armor and clothing to accentuate rather than hide.

  Enchantments allowed for form to take precedence over function.

  Even the material of her breastplate, pauldrons, vambraces and greaves followed that ethos.

  Jade did not, historically, make for good armor material in real battle.

  Neither did silks and thin cloth.

  But they did look good on her.

  Glassy green and fiery reds to contrast with the demigod’s gold and white.

  “I’ve conquered many empires. Put them to my blade. Ground them under my heel. You know what those emperors and empresses said, at least the ones that managed to survive?”

  “I’m sure you’re going to tell me.”

  “Regret. Had they accepted my mother’s generous offers they would have not been forced to struggle and suffer through servitude to even glimpse the heights they had once grasped in their iron grips. Why bear that for centuries when you can take the open hand and live without much changing?”

  “Now that is a loser mentality.”

  “There is no other outcome for those that set themselves against Salla, Goddess of War.”

  “I heard your gods make children like a farmer scatters seeds. Will she mourn you? Or are there dozens just like you ready to take your place?”

  Sallaiades shrugged armored shoulders before pulling a short spear out of air.

  Gold like his armor.

  With his other hand he pulled a handful of tiny, dark gray finger bones from a pouch on his belt.

  She was ready for this, sending fire to meet them even before he threw them.

  Cruces had been right about the demigod’s tendencies.

  How had he known?

  Now, that was the question.

  She turned the bones to ash before the insectoid myrmidons could emerge.

  The demigod pulled a plain-surfaced golden shield from nothing.

  She turned up the heat, igniting the very air around them.

  Black ash swirled in small, fiery tornadoes.

  He stood undaunted inside a golden aura that turned back the hungry tongues desperately licking to taste his pale beauty.

  Spear clanged on round rim, sending a wave of force to wash over her.

  A moment’s time bought.

  A sudden dash forward.

  Long spear thrust in a blur.

  Too fast for her perceptions to do more than desperately twist her body to one side.

  Gold sliced. Jade shattered.

  Pauldron destroyed.

  But, it did it’s job.

  She remained untouched when such a strike meant a deep, burning gash through the hide of the toughest monsters.

  The Phoenix Empress respond with a warcry.

  Super-heated matter lanced forth from the air in front of her.

  The thin, focused stream burned blindingly into the demigod’s golden shield.

  It lasted but a split-second.

  Enough time for his superior reflexes to move out of the way of the stream as it pierced through the ancient relic.

  He cast it aside with a grimace before it could melt on his hand and arm.

  She suspected it was an emotional pain rather than physical.

  He responded with a swipe of his spear, firing a golden beam.

  She answered by igniting the space between them with her power.

  Everything burned if she so willed it.

  Even divine energy.

  He leapt back, dashing with superhuman speed ahead of her expanding aura.

  All the while testing, probing with spells from his free hand.

  Every element and several she didn’t recognize.

  All burned.

  “Weapon of My Allies: Artillery Bombardment.”

  The sky opened up, raining shells beyond her ability to count them all.

  She laughed as she directed her power skyward, exploding them into ash that drifted down like black snow, melting to nothing long before they could reach her.

  “If your greatest allies are the Americans then you and your mother aren’t nearly as powerful as you pretend. You face the Phoenix Reborn! Do better or kowtow and beg for leniency.”

  The demigod alighted atop the burned remnants of building that resembled the charred skeletal remains of some great monster.

  “I have been often accused of fighting down to my opponent’s level. And I’m not a champion, who duels. I am a general. A leader of armies. Of brave, loyal soldiers in their hundreds of thousands. A sea of them, sweeping across the land from horizon to horizon. This,” he waved his spear sharply across the burned ruins, “is child’s play in field.”

  “Excuses.”

  “There’s also the matter of building rapport with my allies. I’m superior, but that must be displayed. It must be earned. Defeating you while destroying their capital city would be a failure. And, perhaps, most crucially of all… Adrasiades will never shut his loud mouth if I cause more collateral damage than him.”

  “… I see…”

  She swept her arm out to the side.

  A burning line of super-heated matter carved through mostly empty structures several blocks away.

  The conflagration died down as quickly as it erupted, leaving more swirling black ash to join the small, fire tornadoes spontaneously appearing and disappearing at random.

  “You. Are. A. Child.”

  “Compared to you? Yes. I believe you said that.”

  “Then you are in need of harsh lesson.”

  “Show me weapons I’ve never even dreamed of! Show me how they make war on alien worlds! So that I may show you how my empire shall burn them all to ash!”

  “If you can earn that honor. Until then, the weapons of your world are good enough.”

  The demigod used an ability that she had been prepped for.

  American soldiers appeared out of thin air outside the current range of her aura.

  Interestingly, he didn’t bring in any pantheon fighters, like the harpies.

  She supposed it was only natural to use up a client state’s soldiers first.

  Armed men and women died before they could fire their weapons and cast their spells with each graceful gesture she made.

  Hungry for battle one moment, black ash the next.

  A trio of attack helicopters popped into existence a good distance from her. Each formed the point of an equidistant triangle centered on her.

  Bullets ripped the air, burning to nothing well short of their target.

  Missiles followed.

  Hellfires?

  A cool breeze compared to the flames of the phoenix.

  She turned each helicopter into molten slag with those same dance-like gestures as streams of white hot matter flew from her fingertips like long, silk sleeves undulating in the wind.

  The demigod appeared behind her, shattering the jade covering her back with a thrust of his short spear.

  She flew forward on fiery wings.

  A second strike from the long spear cut through her protections to nick her left ear.

  The spear grew and shrank without visible indication.

  At any moment she perceived it as always having been short or long and everything in between.

  An interesting weapon.

  One she would like to take back to her cultivators.

  An empress was much like a mother.

  Stern and strict, but also giving and generous when her children had done something to earn it.

  Sadly, she knew that the weapon was bound to the demigod.

  Death meant destruction and a rather explosive one at that.

  The demigod blurred and appeared in front of her.

  She deflected the spear and punched a fiery fist toward his grinning face.

  A flash of gold light blocked and blunted the strike before it could connect.

  She flowed into a combination like a cultivator without the class.

  Furious fists and flashing kicks.

  Each accompanied by a burst of super-heated matter at the point of impact.

  The demigod’s golden nimbus strobed rapidly. So fast as to appear as one continuous burst of light.

  She ducked a short spear thrust and launched a two-fisted punch into his armored stomach.

  “Kiai!”

  He flew back, tumbling across the black ash-coated street and sending great clouds billowing.

  The demigod rolled to his feet with cat-like quickness, spinning and jumping in between her whip-like streams of super-heated matter.

  Golden beams shot from his spear, only to burn in her aura.

  She pulsed, sending a wave of fire wider than the street and taller than the homes that had once stood there.

  “Rogue Wave!”

  She favored him with a smirk even as the magic wall of water erupted into steam against her fire.

  The scouting report had said that Sallaiades favored acting as a general. He enjoyed single combat, but wasn’t obsessed with it. He did not enjoy using the divine energy within him to cast spells.

  He was growing concerned.

  Now, she had to keep him from thinking about retreat.

  Like a true general he understood the value of living to fight another day.

  From her experience it was rather surprising how many people didn’t grasp that simple and rational concept.

  “You’re getting tired?” she called out. “As your natural superior I’ll allow you a break. Maybe the time will let you think about how badly you’re upholding your mother’s name? If you are her best offspring then…” she sighed sadly. “Well, as a mother, I can tell you that some of the greatest pain in the world is for a child to disappoint. I can’t help but blame myself for that, you know? Since it is my responsibility to raise them to be the greatest they can be. I wonder if your mother shares that.”

  Sallaiades laughed.

  “You can compare experiences when I bring you before her in chains!”

  He blurred toward her, trailing golden afterimages.

  Wings of fire flapped, carrying her backward away from the gleaming spear tip.

  She sprayed fire from her hands.

  He skidded to a halt.

  The golden afterimages continued past him, spreading out into a fan-like arc.

  Translucent golden copies of Sallaiades armed with shield and spear.

  A wall to eat her fire.

  “Starfall.”

  She lost sight of him as he rocketed into the sky.

  Bright lights, many more than there had been a moment before twinkled like distant stars despite the bright flashes of combat between the dark skyships and the harpies with their monster minions.

  Once again she had been well-prepped by Cruces’ information.

  Focus her power into a giant umbrella.

  As dense and hot as she could make it.

  Not a moment too soon as the twinkling stars turned into falling ones.

  Had she not cleared the area of American soldiers, they would’ve been instantly destroyed by the stellar bombardment.

  One had to credit the demigod for the ability to focus such a destructive ability into a relatively small area.

  When the Americans had bombed cities in the past the destruction covered vast swathes of a city or town and hundreds, if not thousands of innocent civilians. Not even women and children were spared.

  She thought it fitting that their capital suffered as they had made others suffer.

  The proverb covering that slipped her mind at the moment filled as it was with the strain of reinforcing her umbrella lest it fail.

  She held back the stars, but not the demigod.

  Sallaiades cut through behind his gleaming spear.

  His golden nimbus failed, earning him scorched, melted skin and one eye popping like a tomato left too long in a microwave.

  Divine energy tried to heal, but couldn’t keep pace with her power.

  He fell upon her, driving his spear into her shoulder, through enchanted armor and clothing.

  She had prepared.

  For the phoenix’s flame burned hottest within.

  She clamped a burning hand around his wrist.

  She was so much smaller that it resembled a daughter’s around a father’s.

  A second hand grasped the spear shaft, preventing him from withdrawing or retreating.

  The Phoenix Empress laughed in his face as she rose on a white hot jet.

  Explosions surrounded them.

  Projectiles crisscrossed the sky, yet nothing could penetrate the intensity of her aura.

  The phoenix took shape under her will.

  The demigod’s golden nimbus looked weak and insignificant compared to the enormous fire bird engulfing the two.

  Harpies flew desperately at some kind of mental call or perhaps they could see their demigod’s impending death.

  They burned, for the empress’ fire was an angry one at the moment.

  Allies steered clear, keeping their distance.

  The gray aliens from another world in their sleek power armor like in the movies from her youth.

  And a man in green and purple armor standing atop a flying wing.

  Oddly enough, also like in the movies from her youth.

  Sallaiades glared twin beams of gold up at her.

  The energy burned before it traveled a finger’s length.

  “I’m supposed to accept surrender,” she said as though discussing the nice weather. “But that would benefit another more. For the Phoenix Empress to slay a centuries old demigod in single combat… it sends the right message to your pantheon. This world belongs to me. My eternal dynasty is only at its beginning. Its rise shall not be impeded by outworld invaders. I know you have people watching and listening. They will carry my words to your mother. She should not have sent her son with violence for there can only be violence returned.”

  Her inner flame melted the ancient spear.

  A weapon worth entire nations turned to liquid gold, then nothing in the time it took for her to make a speech.

  Sallaiades let out a roar of pain.

  Physical and something deeper.

  She knew.

  The pain of losing a part of one’s soul sounded terrible.

  “Let me release you from that.”

  The vambrace around the demigod’s wrist melted under her touch despite its powerful defensive magic.

  Flesh followed.

  He kicked and punched, but she blocked them with more burning matter.

  “Spirit Army: Winged Lancers of Suraki.”

  They formed out of nothing.

  Ethereal humanoids with broad wings on their backs.

  They lacked detail so she couldn’t tell if they had bird-like heads or bird-shaped helms.

  Almost like the Eidolons of Ekra if not for their small size.

  The spirit army soldiers resembled large children or small adults.

  “Too late!” She laughed. “You should’ve used your spirit armies earlier! You should have sent them in their thousands to hide behind! Not that they would’ve saved you in the end. Your fate was sealed when you dared challenge me.”

  Hundreds of winged lancers burned as they desperately tried to close.

  The Phoenix Empress gave Sallaiades one last disappointed motherly glance before hurling him to the ground.

  The fiery phoenix surrounding her screeched and shot down like a falling star at her graceful gesture.

  The thought made her smile.

  It was always satisfying to use the enemy’s weapons to kill them.

  Thunder crashed.

  Fire bloomed.

  A great cloud of it nearly reaching her where she floated high above it all.

  Once the light faded and the ash cleared only an enormous crater remained.

  In the center were blackened scraps.

  Charred bones and bits of armor.

  The chime in her ears told her of a Quest completed.

  She briefly considered fulfilling a few other Quests that Cal Cruces didn’t know about.

  Old enemies roamed the battleground city.

  Kill them and strengthen her empire.

  Then again, she didn’t think Cruces would fall for it.

  He’d know, despite what her advisers said of the man when they were in the safety of her throne room and they were certain he was faraway.

  While it would be nice to take out the men that kept her from simply conquering Korea and Japan, she didn’t want to draw actual effort from both the Cruces.

  She still harbored hopes with one if not both.

  Perhaps, her display of power would sway them to her thoughts on the matter of securing the Earth’s continued freedom from outworld imperial ambitions.

  Thus, she gave Sallaiades’ remains one last satisfied look before flying higher into the sky.

  She could always learn something by watching how everyone fought.