Zerus.

A zergling crawled through the piles of dead. Its lower body was completely gone, but the zerg’s tendency to not die easily kept it alive. In a pool of its own blood, ittried to crawl forward. That was before a goliath stepped on its head and crushed its skull.

Another pack was completely wiped out. The ground stink of rotten flesh. Blood flowed like a river. Mechanical units walked through the piles of dead and finished off those who were unlucky enough to survive the previous onslaught. Before the brutal scene a girl stood back up. Her legs sank into the ground, earning a frown from the girl.

Making another mental note, Jean turned to a primal beside her, but before she could speak her earpiece vibrated. Feeling the alert, she touched the device and nodded as she processed the information.

Dehaka stood obediently beside her. He showed no regret of bring death and destruction upon his own people. The more primal killed here, the easier it would be for him to eventually come to power. He was slightly curious at what she heard, but he knew better than to ask.

After receiving the transmission, Jean tapped her earpiece again and turned to the primal.

“Is there any more essence that you know about?”

Dehaka shook his head and pointed at the piles of fallen primal. “That...last essence...others...scattered...” For the past several days, with the help of Dehaka, the Warden forces have cleared the planet of all the packs. Everyday thousands of primal were turned from living, breathing weapons to dead bodies and then finally to an insignificant of Jean’s body. Now that all the packs were gone, those that were still alive had very few essence and were scattered all over the forest. The amount of essence that could be absorbed wasn’t worth the time needed to locate and hunt them.

“Are you sure about that?” Usually this was the part where Jean betray and backstab Dehaka, but this time she merely stood around thoughtfully. “I sense someone else. Someone strong. Someone large. Someone... ancient.” Her eyes turned blue as she scanned the surface of the planet with her newly enhanced psi energy.

“This way.” She turned and ran toward a direction. Warden units turned their engines to maximum efficiency and followed her.

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Jean stopped at a crescent shaped field. Dehaka, exhausted, took a few more seconds to catch up to Jean. Sometimes he wondered how the thin legs of the girl could run so quickly. He knew it was the zerg essence helping, but the habit of judging by look continued to take part.

“It’s...empty.” The primal stated as he glanced around and realized the place was empty.

“Empty?” Jean smiled, toying with the words. She didn’t say anything for a few seconds. It was when the Warden forces caught up that Jean finally spoke.

She didn’t want to scare away her target before she was ready to engage.

“I have never expected a primal to hide from battle.” The girl taunted as she looked around.”I am truly, truly, disappointed to realize someone as experienced with the way of the zerg to be a coward. No allegiance but to self. Kill or be killed. Am I correct, Zurvan? Or should I call you the Ancient One?” She stopped turning and faced the center of the field.

Dehaka frowned. For a few seconds he thought Jean had lost her mind from the amount of essence she ingested. “I...don’t...understand.” For all his time here he had never heard of a primal named Zurvan.

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There was no response, so Jean smirked and continued. She walked closer to the edge and held her right hand out down toward the bottom of the cliff. A blue psi blast formed in her palm. It took two seconds to charge up before flying out down the cliff.

For a second nothing happened, but before Dehaka could ask another question a pained growl came from below the cliff. Hurt and pissed, a giant figure poked his head out into the open.

“Who are you?” The ancient one spoke, trying to cover his anger. Anyone would be angry if he was just having a nice nap and suddenly got woken up by an energy blast in the head. Usually he would just crush, literally crush, the intruder, but unlike the lower primal fools Zurvan could sense a dangerous feeling from the girl. He had a feeling that if he attacked he would be in a life threatening danger. This was enough to keep him back and force him to speak nicely. He was old, and he didn’t live for millions of years so he could risk his life for being impolite.

“I have came with a secret. A deep, dark secret that can change everything in this sector. It can change the concept of life and death. It is worth dying for.” Jean said mysteriously.

Zurvan frowned. Whatever the girl was talking about or whoever she was, this secret sounded important. His curiosity was completely drawn. “What is it?”

“It is…” Jean peaked into the sky before looking back at Zurvan. Her mouth shut.

And then three orange blasts came down from the sky and smashed into the curious creature’s skull.

Jean was never a talkative person. Every word she spoke had a purpose. The only reason she was talking was because she didn’t want Zurvan to run away. If he had turned around and fled it would be very time consuming for her to chase him down. A few shots couldn’t kill him immediately and attacks powerful enough to do real damage took time, giving Zurvan time to dodge. The psi blast, which was neither strong enough to scare Zurvan away nor weak enough to be shrugged off, brought Zurvan out of his hiding and into the open. After that she was merely distracting Zurvan with a random made up secret and buying time for the killing blow. Either because he was stupid or because it had been a while since he had dealt with someone intelligent enough to lie, Zurvan was tricked.

Whatever the reason was, Zurvan paid for it with his life.

Zurvan screamed. His size and armor could hold most attacks. That psionic blast the girl hit him with brought him more pain and annoyance than real damage. But the three Yamatos were different. The immense kenetic energy penetrated his armor and roasted his brain. His primal carapace was evolved against direct attacks of other primal like claws and teeth, but they were simply insufficient against the terran weaponry.

Three shots, and the primal who had been alive for millions of years was gone. The power of an individual was so insignificant against an army. In a fair fight Zurvan could take down an entire pack. He might even stand a chance against Jean, but three Yamato cannons from three capital ships destroyed him with absolute ease.

The last thing the ancient one saw was the girl kneeling down and absorbing his essence.

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It took her nearly an hour to absorb everything that made Zurvan so powerful. When she was done, the giant body was completely grey. Every single drop of energy was drained.

Scanning around and realizing all the insignificant essence sources were gone, Jean knew it was time to leave.

“I will be leaving. I have done my part. You have done yours. Our deal is done.” Jean said straightforwardly to Dehaka.

“I...understand.” Dehaka nodded, barely able to hide his satisfaction.

Again, usually this was the part where Jean pretend to leave but stab Dehaka and take his essence, but Jean realized she didn’t need to. Upon taking over ninety percent of the essence on Zerus, the amount of contribution Dehaka’s essence could make was next to nothing. Just like a single drop of water couldn’t change the level of an ocean, Jean found no real purpose in killing Dehaka. Plus, Dehaka stayed true to his part of the deal, and normally Jean would stay true to her deal as well, especially when there was no real gain for her to turn.

This was why Jean merely turned around and warped away onto her Warden flagship.

As the Warden forces departed, Dehaka remained and plotted his plan to take over the planet. He had no idea how lucky he was. After all, he was the only one that made a deal with Jean and was still alive when the deal ended.