Six black figures arrived at the village where one of the farmers was kidnapped.

“Blink, secure the perimeter. Keep anyone from getting in or out.”

Blink was a tall woman wielding two daggers. She nodded before teleporting away.

Violet turned back to the village in front.

“You know what to do. Make them die screaming.”

The Voyagers quickly armed themselves. A large axe appeared in Ares’s hands as the large man charged forward as the vanguard. An orange crystal sat in the middle of his thick Voyager armor.

“Hey!” One of the farmers working in the grass looked up as he heard the heavy footsteps. His expression turned to horror as he saw the charging giant. “Wait!”

Ares didn't wait. He struck his axe down with all the fury in the world. The farmer didn't even have time to react before being chopped in half. As the axe went clean through, the two pieces of the corpse fell to the side. Blood and intestines fell on the ground.

A nearly invisible wave of red energy entered Ares’s axe.

That unfortunate victim was just the first. The Voyager kill team moved forward without any hesitation. A few farmers that saw the massacre turned and ran, but the rest of the Voyagers have already had their rifles out. Several blasts sent the fleeing farmers to the ground, dead.

One of the farmers further away from the Voyager kill team made the wise choice to run away from the village. With those monsters closing in, the village was already lost. He needed to go to the nearest city and bring the local forces here to put down these demons.

As he ran, he suddenly felt himself flying forward. Everything seemed to be spinning. As he subconsciously squinted his eyes, trying to see more clearly, he suddenly saw a familiar, headless body.

“Oh…” Was the last thing that went through his mind before everything went dark.

In the shadows, Blink vibrated her dagger quickly and got all the blood off.

The Voyager kill team moved further inside the village. A dozen men, women, and children were gunned down mercilessly. Women screamed and children cried, but none of the Voyagers hesitated.

“Die! Monster!” As the Voyagers moved across a street, a large man wielding a giant hammer suddenly charged out of one of the houses. He was the blacksmith of the village, and he just saw a childhood friend of his getting dissected by Ares. This took all the logic away from him.

The large man was fast, and Ares wasn’t the quickest Voyager in the team. But as the hammer landed on Ares’s chest, the sight of the killer collapsing and coughing blood didn't come. Instead, Ares felt nothing. It wasn’t a metaphor. He literally felt nothing. His Voyager armor, powered by the orange crystal, easily absorbed the kinetic energy enough to crush a grown man, even in this world.

Ares smirked in bloodthirst. A hint of fear went across the blacksmith’s eyes as he tried to back off, but it was too late. Ares screamed and slashed his ax horizontally across the blacksmith, severing the man into two across his waist. The man collapsed, but he wasn’t dead, at least not yet. With his lower body a full meter away, he screamed.

The man’s scream echoed through the village. Ares walked to him slowly and raised his ax, but just before he could end the blacksmith’s misery, Violet stopped him.

“Let him scream. Remember, we need to make this world suffer.”

“Please...kill me!” The blacksmith screamed.

Ares knelt down beside the blacksmith, raised his ax, and then turned and walked away.

Minutes passed, and before long, most of the village was empty. The villagers that survived rushed to the house of the village chief. It was the largest and safest house in the village, with tall walls and a thick door.

“Chief! They...they are coming down the main road!”

“They got Ashley! She was just fourteen! One of those...those demons took her head clean off!”

“Bob and his boys tried to get out from the back road, and I saw them getting their throats slit! I didn't even see how did it!”

“Who are these people? Why do they want us dead?”

“What did we do to deserve this?”

“Silence!” The chief was an old man in his sixties, but he was still stronger than most people in the village. Even in this moment of despair, his fighting spirit was high.

The old man was a legend in the village. A single word from him quieted the entire group of dozens down.

He climbed onto a piece of large rock and looked down on his people before starting.

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“Listen to me! I don’t know who those people are, and I don’t care! All I know is they want us dead, and I don’t know about you folks, but I am damn sure I won’t let them take me without a fight!” He jumped down the rock and drew something out of his house. It was a large sword.

“When I was just a lad, I fought and bled alongside the Empress of the Sun against the Empire of the Moon, and today I will do it again to protect our land! For the Empress and for the Empire!”

“For Empress and Empire!”

The villagers screamed. When there was no way of flight, fight was the only option. Most of the men grabbed onto sticks and stones, ready for a battle. Several men barricaded the door with everything they could find. Children wept silently and were quickly hushed by their mothers.

Half a minute passed in silence. A few villagers took some breath of relief.

“Perhaps they left…”

One of the villagers whispered before the wooden door was suddenly blasted open. Before the broken wooden shards could even hit the ground, Ares charged in. His axe was already soaked in blood, but it was not even close to enough to meet the man’s hunger for slaughter.

The chief charged up with his sword raised. A war cry escaped his mouth. Seeing even an old man was this courageous, the other men in the village temporarily forgot about their fear as well and charged forward.

And then Ares sent the chief flying to the side with a single strike.

Violet started fighting as well. Two villagers were gunned down by her rifle, but the rest were already in melee range. A look of impatience appeared on her face as she suddenly put her gun away and took out a whip. She struck down on one of the attackers and wrapped her whip around the man’s neck before he could even react. As soon as the whip made contact, life was drained out of the man.

In moments, a grown man was reduced to a pile of bones.

Violet smirked and turned to the rest of the men…

Jean ignited her plasma blade. The Voyager blade was better, but she didn't have that many crystals to power it. The first villager was severed into four pieces with a couple quick strikes. The second collapsed when Jean punched him in the chest and removed his heart. The third got swiftly beheaded.

Cassandra merely waved her hand, and three men were literally compressed together into three balls of gore. Bones cracked and flesh were smushed together. It was not a pretty sight.

One of the villagers found his way to the quietest one in the group. Demon was a tall man with white hair. With just a Voyager rifle in hand, he seemed innocent enough. But as the villager thought he was facing an easy foe and launched himself forward, Demon turned around and sent a ball of powder flying.

The man collapsed and screamed. His face was dissolving like ice being dropped into boiling water. Almost in moments, the skin on his face was gone. He clutched onto what was left of his face, trying to wipe the powder off, but the only thing achieved was to get his hands into trouble as well.

Demon smirked at the man before walking forward.

Within moments, all the grown men in the village were slaughtered. Not a single one of them survived the Voyagers, well, except the chief.

Ares walked to the old man, but just before he could do anything, Violet came over and pushed him to the side. As invincible as Ares was against all the villagers, he didn't dare utter a word against Violet.

Laying on the ground, the old man coughed blood, but even as Violet knelt down beside him, his eyes were still fierce.

“You will not get away with this. The Empire’s forces will crush you and the band of fools that decided to follow you. Your fate is sealed.”

Violet smiled wickedly.

“Perhaps, old man, but the empire’s forces are far away, and right now, we are the ones holding the sword...or shall I say the torches?” She turned to Jean and the other Voyagers.

“Round the rest up.”

The Voyagers obeyed without question. Immediately, the cries and screams of women and children filled the field. Dozens of defenseless people begged for mercy, for none of the Voyagers listened. Within minutes, all the villagers that were still alive were forced to come together in an empty field in front of the chief’s house.

“What are you doing…” The chief’s eyes widened with fear. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Making a point.” Violet turned to one of the Voyagers, Cassandra, and nodded. Suddenly, Cassandra reached inside her watch and took out something Jean was very familiar with.

Hellfire Trap.

She tossed the weapon into the middle of the rest of the village.

The Hellfire Trap exploded. Flames capable of burning through both body and soul, powerful enough to burn the Queen of Blades to crisp, was unleashed on these defenseless women and children who had a average CAS of below 15. The result was devastations.

Screams of extreme pain covered the ears of the Voyagers as the burning victims ran around and collapsed. Skin, flesh, and bone alike were bitten away. The damage the weapon did to its victim’s soul didn't help either.

Thankfully, in seconds, the screams died down, and everyone inside the blast radius was dead. Even so, the flames were still burning through the corpses. A sick smell of barbequed meat covered the scene of slaughter.

None of the Voyagers flinched.

Jean tilted her head. Why did Violet do this? A Hellfire Trap costs 250 coins and could be an easy kill against anyone with a CAS below 200. Using this against a group of individuals that could easily be killed by plasma blades and particle disruptors was just a waste. Is Violet too rich or what?

Violet didn't bother to enlighten Jean, at least not yet. She turned to the chief, whose eyes were red.

“Run, old man, run, and tell everyone what has happened here. And tell them this isn’t over. We’re not done. As long as we live, we will ravage through every village in the Empire of the Sun, and we will slaughter and burn every citizen we come across.”

The chief collapsed on the ground. Suddenly, he leaped forward and tried to punch Violet in the face. Violet didn't move, and as the chief’s got closer, he suddenly felt his right arm burning.

Behind Violet, Cassandra’s eyes were silver.

The chief fell down again. This time, the bones in his right arm were completely shattered. Bits and pieces of bone shards in his flesh only made things worse.

Violet spoke again.

“Think about it. Do you prefer to die here and have us attack more unsuspecting villages, or live and spread the words of our brutality?”

The chief stared at Violet for a few seconds, as if trying to carve her form into his memory, before going to the other Voyagers. He looked at them one by one. When he was finally done, he stumbled up and left without another word.

When he walked past the field of ashes that used to be his people, a drop of tear fell down his face.

Blink appeared next to the other Voyagers.

“The entire village is cleansed. Apart from the man you let go, everyone else is dead.”

“Good.”

“I don’t get it.” Blink asked curiously. “Why the Hellfire Trap?”

“Violet has her reasons.” Surprisingly, Violet wasn’t the first person to answer. Cassandra was. She seemed a bit defensive.

Odd.

Blink held her hands up and took a step back to show she meant no offense.

“Now what?” Jean took the liberty of asking. “You have warned the locals about our presence. I’m assuming there’s a reason behind that.”

Violet smiled.

“What do you know about the Art of War?”