The Empire of the Moon. Lance City.

Blink sat on the ground in her mansion. The mansion was a gift from now Emperor Leon. After coming to power, Leon did all he could to show the Voyagers his appreciation toward them. He was well aware that the only reason he could sit on that throne was because of Jean and her pals. The giant house was just one of the many things he sent as tribulation.

Suddenly, the gate of the mansion was pushed open forcefully. Blink opened her eyes. A dagger appeared in her hand as she readied herself. The local servants would knock before entering. Whoever it was, chances are it wasn’t just popping by to say hi.

Thankfully, it wasn’t a bunch of assassins seeking to spill her blood. It was Demon, and he looked pissed.

He tossed something onto the ground. It was a severed head.

Blink frowned.

“What is it?”

“Someone tried to assassinate me.” Demon’s fury could barely be contained. “24 assassins broke into my house. They had some powerful weapons.” Blink spotted a few minor injuries on Demon. “They almost killed me.”

Before Blink could say anything else, Demon turned around.

“I just thought I should tell you this so you know why I’m doing this.”

“Doing what?” Blink suddenly felt concerned. “What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to that son of a bitch that we put on the throne and ask him what he was thinking, right before I pull his soul from his body and torch it for an eternity.”

“Wait...what?” Blink could barely believe her ears. Did Demon just say he was going to kill Leon? They went through all this trouble to make him emperor! “We still need him…”

That was when Demon snapped.

“I almost died at the hand of a bunch of pathetic locals! Someone needs to pay for this!”

If Demon was a bit more like Jean, he would realize his condition wasn’t normal. It wasn’t rare for a Voyager to be attacked or even killed by locals. Maybe his rage could be justified by fear, but...but Voyagers that survived multiple missions shouldn’t be placing their own feelings over the overall victory.

But Demon wasn’t Jean. His anger quickly overwhelmed whatever logic he had. All he knew was he was frightened, frightened, by what just happened, and after the initial fright passed, he felt ashamed. Deep down, he shared a trait, a flaw, that all Voyagers had: arrogance. He looked down on locals as pathetic, ignorant fools who had no idea what was going on outside of their tiny world. If he was terrified by these fools, then what did that make him?

He was ashamed, and he needed a good slaughter to put down that shame. No one would notice his fear if they were trembling in fear and pain themselves.

Blink gulped. Things were seriously wrong.

“Don’t do this…we still need Leon...Jean said...”

That was like a can of gasoline tossed onto a blazing fire.

“Jean! Jean! Jean!” Demon suddenly drew his Voyager blade and jammed it into the ground. The entire blade went in, leaving only the hilt. “I am not Jean’s pawn or underling! I don’t have to obey her orders. I’m not her lap dog...” He suddenly glanced at Blink viciously. “unlike you.”

Blink was taken back. She could see Demon was completely in over his head. What type of Voyager says things like this to fellow Voyagers? This was beyond stupid. This was making enemies out of allies for no real reason at all! But there was very little she could say. As an assassin, talking wasn’t exactly her strength.

Demon pulled his Voyager blade out before tossing one last glance at Blink.

“Try to stop me and this one goes into your heart.”

He quickly walked out of the mansion, stepping on the severed head on the way.

Splat!

Blink stood there for a few seconds, completely confused. She wasn’t afraid of fighting Demon. In fact, Demon’s power was pretty much useless against her. If she gave it her all, she could take down Demon, but she didn't want to. Demon was her close ally just yesterday. Unless she had to, she wasn’t going to kill him.

All she could do was follow him and see what he would do. With that in mind, Blink charged out of the mansion and followed Demon in the shadows.

Demon didn't pay attention to Blink as he made his way toward the royal palace. Blink’s house was located right next to the palace. It was a sign of good gesture, but at the same time, it also meant one could go from one place to the other in a heartbeat.

At the palace gates, dozens of Moon soldiers were standing guard. A few of them saw Demon coming. They recognized him, but they decided to stop him nonetheless. It was a fatal mistake on their part.

“My lord, please remain here as we inform the Emperor of your visit…”

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Demon didn't even look at the soldiers as his eyes suddenly turned pitch black. Immediately, all the soldiers standing guard felt chills creeping into their bodies. They tried to resist or scream, but no voice came out. In seconds, they were no longer them.

Normal Moon soldiers were no match for someone as powerful as Demon.

Demon walked past the gate and deeper inside the palace. The former Moon soldiers followed close behind. Under their helmets, their expressions were ice cold. They were no longer the men and women who picked up arms to serve their country. They have become undead puppets of a Voyager who was out for blood.

More and more soldiers that came across Demon encountered the same fate before Demon reached the Emperor’s residence.

“What the…” A few guards on duty weren’t blind. A horde of men following a man with an expression cold enough to freeze penguins to death was obviously not normal. But before they could shout out a warning, they felt themselves being lifted into the air by an invisible force. That same force gripped on their throats, choking them.

As these men slowly died, Demon stormed into the mansion.

Inside his mansion, Leon and a woman were laying in bed. Both were naked. Hearing the commotion, Leon looked up from the bedsheets with a mad look. After all, any men would be pissed off if their fun was cut off. But when he saw it was Demon, he did his best to suppress his anger.

“Demon...to which do I owe the pleasure?”

Demon smirked before waving his hand. Four undead soldiers stepped forward and grabbed onto the two figures in bed and dragged them out. Both struggled, but the undead soldiers ignored them. No matter how loyal to the crown they were before, now, the only person they obeyed was Demon.

The soldiers kicked on the back of the two people’s knees and forced them to kneel.

Finally, Demon smirked and gestured to the woman Leon was sleeping with.

“Ask your bitch.”

The woman stared back at Demon with equal anger. It was Teresa, the assassin that served former Emperor Benedictine. She went undercover at Leon’s mansion when he was a Crown Prince. When the Voyagers took over, her entire team was massacred by Blink, but she herself was kept alive due to the request of Leon.

Demon knew the two started hooking together. In fact, all three Voyagers did, not that they cared. In fact, they would be happy to see Leon burying his head in women and beverages. This would make it easier for them to control the empire through him.

Unfortunately, when Demon interrogated the assassins for the one who sent them, he got Teresa’s name.

Leon turned to Teresa in slight shock, but Demon didn't give him the time to process it.

“There’s no need to pretend like you’re so surprised. I doubt your bitch was acting without your knowledge. So tell me, you ungrateful son of a bitch, why did you want to kill me? Have you forgotten who got you onto this throne?”

Leon frowned. Being pulled out in the middle of sex and interrogated about an assassination he had no knowledge of was a little too much for him to process. Plus, he had no intention of answering Demon’s questions. If Demon came to him in a formal setting and asked him what was going on, he would answer. He might even authorize Demon to investigate this matter. But what did Demon do now? He charged into his royal palace with an army and took him and his woman, naked, prisoner! Who does he think he is? Just because he made Leon emperor didn't mean he could humiliate him like this!

At this point, whether Leon was responsible for the assassination attempt no longer mattered.

“You will pay for this transgression!” He screamed, trying to stand up, but the two undead soldiers behind him forced him back down. “And you two! All of you! You will pay for this!”

Demon smirked.

“Oh I’m sure someone will pay, but not me.” He reached inside his watch and pulled out a small dagger. It was sharp, but it was obviously not a good weapon because it was too short, not that Demon wanted to use it to fight.

“Tell me, your grace, what do you want me to do to you? Huh? How about flaying?” Demon tilted his head cruelly. “I know how to strip all of your skin off your body and still keep you alive. In fact, I’ve had quite the experience.” He tapped his chin. “Oh how I miss the winter.”

“You...you monster…” Leon was already shaking. Partly due to fear and partly because the door was open and the room was chilling. “You can’t do this to me! I’m the emperor! Where...where is Jean? Where is your leader?”

“Ok…she is not my leader, and for that...” Demon growled before smirking viciously. “I’ll take an arm.”

His Voyager blade was ignited in an instant and slashed down.

Leon screamed for two whole seconds before realizing he wasn’t feeling any pain. In front of him, the orange Voyager blade was met with another blade of the same color.

Blink.

“He lives.” Blink declared clearly and concisely.

The Voyager assassin knew she couldn’t just let Demon execute Leon. Jean wouldn’t be happy when she returns and finds the puppet she worked so hard to set up gone. It annoyed her slightly to acknowledge it, but Jean was the brighter one in the trio. Her army of machines wasn’t something she wanted to mess with either. Demon might be having a fever or something and has forgotten about what Jean was capable of, but Blink didn't.

Demon’s eyes were burning. How dare Blink choose a local over him, a fellow Voyager? But the determination in Blink’s eyes was certain. Finally, the Voyager summoner backed off. As menacing as his army of the dead looked, they wouldn’t even be cannon fodders in front of Blink.

He turned to Teresa and got another idea.

“He lives, but what about her?”

Blink frowned. She was willing to go to war for an emperor, but the emperor’s whore...plus, if what Demon said was true, then Teresa was involved in trying to assassinate a Voyager. If she truly did that, then Blink believed she deserved whatever torture would come to her.

After all, Voyagers and locals weren’t even of the same species.

She might be a little more logical than Demon, but she still believed a thousand locals weren’t worth as much as a single Voyager. Leon had some importance. Teresa, on the other hand…

Realizing what was about to happen, Leon’s expression changed.

“Leave her alone! In the name of the emperor, I command you to stay back!”

But Demon didn't stay back. Leon was pressed down on the ground by Demon’s undead soldiers as he watched Demon slowly dig his blade into Teresa’s flesh. The girl screamed for hours as Demon, slowly and carefully, skinned her alive. In the end, when Leon’s throat was torn from shouting, Demon was finally satisfied.

Holding onto a layer of human skin, he waved at his underlings.

“Toss her in a tank of saltwater and hide the tank in a place no one would ever go to.”

Leon’s throat was already too dry to say anything.

Finally, Demon glanced at Blink. His black Voyager armor completely stained by red blood. Blink didn't look away. She has seen worse. She has done worse. But right now, all she could think of was one idea.

Jean is going to be so pissed when she sees this.

An observer hummed lightly above the palace.