“WAR… TIS ALL I HAVE EVER KNOWN,” Lord-Emperor Vexas said to the still-restrained Guardinian Lord-King Luxor as he hung before him. “When my brothers and I were in our youth, our father was already well on his way to reclaim what was taken from him, our people… AND WORLD so long ago… THE PYRAMID OF POWER.
“We rarely saw him, our father. For a GRAND PART of our younger cycles, we were raised by several of his House Maidens… AND CONCUBINES… For they were the only ‘parental figures’ we had at the time due to our mother, Vixtra, having passed on to the Outer-World during the birthing process of my youngest brother, Titanus.
“We went on not knowing who… OR WHAT our father truly was… UNTIL YOU AND YOUR THRACKING GUARDINIAN COHORTS DESTROYED HIM!!!!!!”
“You… Your father… WAS MAD,” King Luxor stated whilst barely clinging to consciousness. “Huff… Huff… Mad in his quest for the… The Pyramid. Huff… Huff… Huff… If… If he hadn’t been stopped then… then he would’ve destroyed the whole Known Universe.”
“BLASPHEMY!!! HE WOULD HAVE SAVED IT!” the Lord-Emperor furiously thundered up at the Guardinian King’s weary, pale-skinned face. “He would have PURGED the Known Universe of THRACKING SKOGGER SCUM like you and your FESTERING, WORTHLESS race! You are WRONG in your claim, Pronos! Our father did not seek the Pyramid to ‘destroy’ the Known Universe. He merely sought to use its UNLIMITED POWERS to cleanse the Known Universe of its ‘imperfections’... ALL OF THEM!!!””
“Imperfections. Huff… Huff… Tis where you are lost… BOY.”
The Lord-Emperor’s eyes then widened as King Luxor continued, “The Pyramid of Power is not a tool meant for destruction. Huff… Huff… Tis meant to be used for creation… Huff… Huff… Huff… TO CREATE LIFE!!!”
“YOU ARE THE ONE WHO IS ‘LOST’, PRONOS! You speak of your race in such ‘high regard’ and mine so foul… BUT IN ALL REALITY, you thracking Guardinian SKOGGERS are no better than ANY OTHER RACE that exists throughout the Galactic Starways!!!”
“And what of your father? Did he not think of… AND REVERE himself as ‘better’ than ALL SENTIENT LIFE, Ventrix? A ‘higher’ being???”
The Lord-Emperor (who had previously turned his back on the fallen lord-king) slowly turned back around to face him as King Luxor continued, “Huff… Huff… Your father sought to use the Unlimited Power Source to surpass the High-Elders and then, in turn, rule over the WHOLE THRACKING KNOWN UNIVERSE. Huff… Huff… HE WANTED TO BE A GOD! A power-hungry… AND MADDENED God! Can you STILL not see that, Vexas?! CAN’T YOU?!?!”
“No, Pronos… I CANNOT,” Lord-Emperor Vexas calmly replied. “The ONLY THING that I can see is an old Guardinian kroone who thought he ‘had it all’ until the fated day-cycle befell upon him like plague… AND ALL THAT HE CHERISHED AND LOVED MOST DEARLY WAS TAKEN FROM HIM. JUST AS YOU TOOK EVERYTHING FROM MY PEOPLE AND WORLD!!!!!!!!”
“Huff… Huff… You shall pay for your crimes, Vexas. The crimes and atrocities that you and your cursed empire have committed across the Known Twenty-Four in your mad quest for power are unforgivable… IRREDEEMABLE. Huff… Huff… Mark my words, you vile fiend; you shall pay. Huff… Huff… YOU SHALL THRACKING PAY!!!!!”
Silence now filled the room. Silence that was soon disrupted by… SNICKERING.
“Pronos. Heh, heh, heh… Ohhh Pronos,” Ventrix sneered whilst looking back up at the old Guardinian Lord-King. “Save your ‘hollow threats’ for someone who gives a raxx… OLD SKOGGER. They do not frighten me… ONCESOEVER.”
“‘Twas not a threat, Vexas. Huff… Huff… ‘Twas a promise.”
“Really now???”
“YES.”
“LORD-EMPEROR VEXAS!!!” Commander Thoran suddenly cried out as he rushed inside of the Extraction Room as soon as the doors slid open.
“Ugh… Thrack. YES, XAVIUX???” Lord-Emperor Vexas asked in a distasteful tone as he turned around to face the Decimator’s Commander.
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“I come to you with important word, Your Majesty.”
“Important word? What be it?”
The Lord-Emperor then noticed a look of unease of the Commander’s tensed-up, aggressively perspiring face.
Scrunching his dual-brow now, Lord-Emperor Vexas pressed, “Xaviux… WHAT BE THE THRACKING DISTURBANCE???”
“The Scout, my Lord-Emperor,” Commander Thoran fumbled out. “THE MAWL.”
“The Mawl? GRAND! I was beginning to wonder if it was successful or not!”
“It wasn’t.”
“WHAT?”
With all joy having immediately left his vessel, Ventrix now stared with widened eyes as a slight smirk started to grow upon King Luxor’s bloodied and wrinkled face.
“The ‘Mawl-Scout’, Your Highness…. IT WAS NOT SUCCESSFUL,” Commander Thoran poorly informed.
As anger started to grow within himself increasingly by milli-cycle, the Vexan Lord-Emperor demanded, “WHAT HAPPENED???”
“Not long after its arrival on planet Aeshlara, the Mawl-Scout encountered one of the two Guardinian Refugees who escaped from Guardinas during the Invasion. ‘Twas the last remaining Guardian Warrior…”
“Duh-Dexius,” King Luxor muttered through his blood-crusted mouth and beard.
Ventrix then glared back at the fallen ruler as Commander Thoran continued, “The Mawl and the Last Guardian then engaged one another in combat, my Lord-Emperor. The Mawl bested the Guardian and was near extinguishing his life-force before…”
“WHAT?!” Lord-Emperor Vexas seared as he went back to glaring at the Commander. “WHAT THRACKING HAPPENED?!?!”
“AMBUSHED,” Commander Thoran revealed. “The Mawl was ‘ambushed’ by a group… OF AESHLARANS.”
“Humans???”
“Yes, Your Highness. SIX OF THEM.”
The Lord-Emperor continued to stare at the Commander, who gravely continued, “They zeroed it. The Aeshlarans… The Humans took down the Mawl, Sir… WITHOUT the aid of the last Guardian Warrior.”
A shocked look then struck Ventrix’s pale green face.
JUST THEN, entering the Extraction Room whilst the Guardinian Lord-King continued to laugh madly were Lord-Princes Axius, Drellix, and the towering behemoth Titanus.
“BROTHER! HAVE YOU HEARD THE NEWS?!” Lord-Prince Drellix furiously raged.
“Tis seems that your Mawl has been eradicated by a band of ‘adolescent humans’, Ventrix,” Lord-Prince Axius followed.
“KROONES, YOU ARE! THRACKING KROONES!!!!” King Luxor went on to spout as Lord-Emperor Vexas seethed in his bitter anger and fiery hot rage. “HA-HA! Fools who have been made mockery of by PRIMITIVE LIFE-FORMS!!! HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!!!!!”
Ventrix desperately tried to block Pronos out, but he unfortunately could not.
Feeling embarrassed after realizing that his plans were thwarted by six adolescent humans… CHILDINGS, the Lord-Emperor did not know what to think.
“SHUT IT, YOU RAXX-EATER!!!” Lord-Prince Titanus shouted at the restrained and suspended King Luxor, who was at his eye level.
“Luh-Lord-Emperor,” Commander Thoran nervously stuttered whilst Ventrix kept his head down and lips sealed. “Are… Are you well?”
“I TOLD YOU, VENTRIX!!!” Lord-Prince Drellix violently thundered at his eldest brother. “I thracking TOLD YOU not to send the Mawl! We should’ve just invaded Aeshlara outright and all this thracking RAXX would have NEVER occurred!”
Lord-Emperor Vexas still remained motionless and wordless as he internally cursed at himself for following Obrron’s truly unwise orders.
“You thrackers think that you are the strongest race through the Known Twenty-Four?! THE KNOWN UNIVERSE?! LIES! THRACKING LIES!!!” King Luxor intensely scolded. “YOU ARE ALL MISTAKEN!!! The aeshlarans have bested you! Their victory has shown what you truly are! INCOMPETENT SKOGGERS!!!!”
“Silence,” Ventrix muttered under his breath as the fallen king continued his chuckles and verbal lashings.
Lord-Prince Axius scrunched his dual-brow at his eldest brother whilst he said again, but this time in a louder, more irritated tone, “SILENCE…”
With King Luxor’s laughs seemingly echoing throughout the Astro-Battle Cruiser, Ventrix finally had enough.
“I SAID SILENCE!!!!!!!!”
KA-SHING!
PLOP!
King Luxor’s maddening laughter and verbal taunts had come to an abrupt end.
Eyes widened and mouth dropped, the fallen Guardinian Ruler looked down to see the LONG horizontal cut in his abdomen that the Vexan Lord-Emperor had made with his Pulsar Lancer after swiftly drawing it from his cloak.
The three other Vexas brothers, Commander Thoran, and Wartroopers all watched in shock and horror as a PILE of King Luxor’s blue blood-covered ENTRAILS fell out of his exposed abdomen and landed on the floor between himself and Ventrix’s boots.
“HUFF… HUFF… HUFF… I WILL FIND PYRAMID,” Lord-Emperor Vexas stated sternly as he now met eyes with the mortally wounded King Luxor. “I will find the Pyramid, Pronos. Huff… Huff… And then… I SHALL DECIMATE THE EARTH AND ALL WHO DWELL UPON IT!!!”
Extending the other blade to his Lancer, Lord-Emperor Vexas swung it upwards once more and struck King Luxor in the right side of his neck… LOPPING OFF HIS HEAD WITH ONE CLEAN AND SWIFT STROKE.
