The shadow of a shadow

Acrux laughed,

"You truly have good eyes my son Raze. Now why don't we have a talk? Like father and son?"

Though, Raze wasn't pleased when his father wantad to have a small conversation. Instead, Raze tunrned furious and pointed at Acrux,

"Tell me father, are you the real Revelas king?!"

Acrux just crossed his arms proudly,

"The one and only."

Raze refuted and stomped his foot,

"So that makes you our prime enem—."

Acrux just grinned,

"You wouldn't turn against your own father would you?"

Raze was just tight lipped. He just sat on his chair and held his hands together, while he was staring at his father,

"Alright, I'll hear you out, as courtesy of being your son, even if we're enemies."

Acrux was delighted,

"Now that's the boy I've been raising!"

Then, he sat on the chair provided,

"So, how's it been? Did you get a huge harem already?"

Once more, Raze didn't look happy,

"I don't have time for needless banter father. But to answer your question, I have two wives. And I love them very much."

Acrux just sighed in disappointment,

"Only two? Less than I've expected."

Not much soon, he grinned,

Do you want another one? We have lots of fine and desperate beautiful women at Revelas."

Raze just declined,

"I don't need any! And if this is how you do dealings, I won't oblige, Revelas king. I'm not like the other lords of carnage."

There after, he just looked away,

"Mother would be disheartened if she heard this from you above the heavens. I wonder what happened to the right-hand of king Zero?"

Instead of becoming furious, Acrux just praised his son,

"As expected from my son! Such cunning analysis. Yet, I already knew you'd spout disrespect to your father's offer. Also, since the king Zero changed, why not change myself? After all, he tried to kill me before."

Raze was just silent.

Though, soon enough, Acrux changed the subject,

But why don't I give you a nice gift."

He patted Raze's shoulder,

"I'm sure you'll like it."

Raze just made a long sigh of sorrow,

"Just give me your gift already."

Acrux struck his cane into the wooden floor. The next moment, the air turned into the stagnant gales of the netherworld. Swirling dark spheres appeared throughout the whole place, turning Raze to feel a cold shoulder.

When the spheres dispersed from the fray, Raze's eyes were filled with excruciating pain and shock.

Acrux held his hands together, as he was a shady merchant,

"Happy birthday disrespectful son of mine!"

In front of Raze's eyes, there he saw a scene that scarred his very core,

"Xiera? Xola?"

He took witness that his beloved twin wives Xola and Xiera were battered and beaten up, while they were dressed in bondage of scarlet lust. More so, they were shackled by the other devious lord of carnage behind their backs such as the twins were just bitches in heat. Not only that, his wives were wearing stockings made for strippers, yet those were tattered such as they were recently ravaged as abused toys. His heart could feel that his loved ones were crying their heart out.

The only thing he could express was to pour out crimson fragments from his eyes, thanks to his father's diabolic gift.

Acrux gave out his hand to Raze,

"So what do you say?"

Raze just smacked his desk filled with volcanic rage,

"YOU DEMON!"

Meanwhile, Thelamia was wandering around the bright and vast marketplace of Azuria,

"Woooow!"

The people didn't have the look of anxiousness anymore. Birds were chirping. Magical crystal homes were shining. Everything was full of life in this enchanted kingdom. More than that, the crowd wasn't wearing the same uniforms. Now, they're dressed in casual various clothings such as they hail from different nations in a magical era. More or less, she looked-like a country bumpkin who had been in a city for the very first time.

Not much soon, she took a seat at the nearby bench. While she was eating her assorted cottn candy, she was witnessing the people's joy and activity,

"Here's your change little boy and please do come again!"

"Gee thanks!"

"Waaaahhh! I'm late for school!"

"What did mom asked me to buy again? Oh no...I forgot!"

Goddess Thelamia's hair was combed by the breeze, when she turned to her right and looked at Spheera,

"This feels like a real town now, right Spheera?"

Spheera jumped with joy while its metal mouth was chocked with a dozen of assorted corndogs,

"Yeauuuh!"

Thelamia was shocked and tried to stop Spheera from eating the dozen of corndogs,

"Wahhh! No Spheera don't eat all of those! Those are our lunch and dinner for the whole day!"

She cried for mercy,

"Someone help me!"

Sadly, the people didn't answer the call of the Goddess. Instead, they just laughed joyfully, as they watch the pitiful Thelamia,

"Gahahaha! The poor Goddess's living ball must be hungry again!"

As Spheera gnawed upon it, Spheera only felt its own metal fangs,

"Huh?"

When it shifted to the left, it saw Destruct had snatched the dozen of scrumptious corndogs.

Thereon, Destruct offered the corndogs back to Thelamia. Thelamia accepted his offerrings,

"Thanks again lord Destruct!"

Soon, Destruct just brushed his hair upwards and sighed at Spheera,

"Please don't bully your own master, ball kitten assistant."

Spheera just pouted.

There after, Thelamia opened up a conversation,

"By the way, how's it going between you and Fae?"

Destruct had a charming smile as a response,

"Things have been going quite swell between us."

She remembered something and pulled out her finger,

"Oh yea! You're entitled as one of the lords of carnage like Geno right?"

Destruct nodded with respect,

"Yes you are correct on that. Why you may ask?"

Thelamia touched her lips,

"Well, there are otger lords of carnage other than you, Geno, and...lord Raze right?"

Destruct agreed to her words once more.

There after, Thelamia swayed her legs as she was an eager little girl,

"So ummm...do you know where are the other lords of carnage might be? I wanna ask them to help upon rebuilding the kingdom."

She sighed and looked down into the sorrowful pond,

"Since I can't really much help with these negotiations and politics thing you guys and Geno do. Ummm you see, I just wanted to help, that's all."

Destruct just gave back a smile of a prince,

"Thank you for your kind concern our dear Goddess of creation. Yet, I don't even know their whereabouts as of now."

The Goddess herself just made a subtle frown,

"Oh..."

Not much soon, she observed that there was lively commotion going on at the distant plaza to the east,

"Brother! There's a wandering minstrel at the central fountain area right now. I heard she's beautiful! Even more beautiful than the Goddess herself!"

"Did you say she's beautiful? Then, what are we waiting for!"

Thelamia was filled with sudden intrigue. She rubbed Spheera's shiny head,

"Oh yea Spheera! Let's check her out! I wonder who's this beautiful minstrel other than me!"

Spheera just rolled its cybernetic eyes,

"You're just envious Thamy. Since you can't sing well."

"Mmmmph!"

Thelamia pouted.

Thereon, she bid her goodbyes to Destruct,

"See ya later lord Destruct!"

Destruct waved back,

"Yes. Fare thee well Goddess of creation. If ever I was able to contact the other lords of carnage, I'd let you know. Though, I must suggest to bring Genocide with you, if ever you wanted to see them."

Afterwards, Thelamia stood up. She grabbed Spheera and sprinted away in a snap, as she was an overexcitedly excited girl of curiousity.

Spheera was having a rough ride with its carefree master,

"Waaah! Thamyyy slow down!"

Destruct just scratched his chin, while he was engrossed in his deep thoughts,

"I wonder why those other lords of carnage don't contact us or show up anymore."

Returning to Thelamia's instance, she and her assistant had arrived at the wondrous fountain plaza. There, she witnessed that an angel was sent down from the heavens, when she witnessed Fae had the voice of a heavenly virgin. Golden notes and tones of the celestial world were heard by the folks when Fae was enacting her performance. Melodies of holy soprano echoed around the area. Curtains of divine lights basked the place in warmth. Doves were flowing their wingspans along the calming breeze. When Thelamia looked at the circling crowd, their faces were rid of all worries. To all of their eyes, Fae was a Goddess to behold.

When the dazzling songstress was done with her performance, everybody made a round of applause such as it was a standing ovation.

As the audience calmed down and went on with their fruitful lives, Thelamia went to Fae such as the Goddess was a fangirl,

"Wooow! That's amazing Fae! Who knew you have a nice voice!"

Fae giggled,

"Thank you for those kind words, Celestia Goddess of creation."

Later on, both of the beautiful maidens sat at the concrete edge of the fountain. Thelamia started up a conversation with Fae,

"Ummm, I just wanna ask you, how do you know that I'm a Goddess from Celestia Heavens?"

Fae looked above and held her hands of a shining lady,

"How should I explain this, let's just say I was a heroine from another world who was sent here for some reason I still don't know."

Thelamia agreed,

"Oh yup! Male deities who share divine knowledge and transfers heroines to other worlds is quite a common trend in Celestia Heavens."

Though, Thelamia just made a sinister grin, while she was absorbed in her devious thoughts,

"Yea...those male deities just love to transfer their heroines to other worlds to test their loyalty and purity. But, I think they're just sadists who just want their heroines to actually break for their divine entertainment. I truly pity these heroines fates. They're just playthings to these perverted divine males."

It seems, this Goddess is in her shady world of her thoughts once more.

Not much soon, she was puzzled by something,

"I wonder who's this male deity who sent you here Fae? But that's classified information that a Goddess can't ask to a heroine from another world."

Fae was surprised,

"Oh yes! I did hear that from my deity while we were in Celestia heavens. Though, I still don't know what was his reason upon transferring me to another world."

Spheera just sighed,

"Yet, Thamy likes to break those rules, since she's a curious kitten."

Thelamia fumed again,

"Shaddup Spheera! I'll let you know I won't ask her, since I want to follow the rules now!"

Spheera just scoffed back,

"That's a change."

Soon, they saw Genocide came by, but he was panting hard, while he was holding his bent knees.

Thelamia waved at him with glee,

"Heya Geno! You look exhausted, what happened?"

Genocide brushed off his sweat,

"Tell that to my fuckin' brother. I had to carry lots of heavy equipments and materials back and forth. Since the requested time to finish was too short for the suggested manpower to manage."

Thelamia's eyes sparkled with excitement,

"So can I help?"

Genocide nodded and tipped his hat,

"Yeah sure. Just wear a bunny outfit."

Thelamia's expectation went down the drain and she just responded back with a look of innate disgust.

Somehow, Fae just burst into laughter, while keeping her poise,

"Pppffft! I think I'm starting to know you dislike him Goddess Thelamia."

Thelamia twitched her eyebrows at Genocide,

"Good thing you noticed Fae."

Genocide was kinda hurt by Fae,

"C'mon Fae, don't be like that."

He just scratched the back of his head,

"Okay I'll be serious. But first, prove to me what you can do about manly work Thamy."

Thelamia stood up looking fired up,

"Yea! Sure, why not!"

Genocide crossed his arms,

"Okay. Grab Spheera."

She did as she was told and Spheera was lifted by her arms.

Spheera was just a tad bit surprised,

"Thamy?"

Genocide pointed at the castle dynamically,

"Then throw Spheera as far as you can. I'll be convinced if it hits a part of the castle."

"HERE IIII GOOO!"

Thelamia threw Spheera with a forceful throw such as she had the skills and power of an olympics athlete. While Spheera was heading to the castle at top speed, it was crying in misery,

"WHYYYY THHHHAAAAMMMMYYYY!"

Fae giggled.

Genocide just whistled when he saw that Spheera was flying high at the clear skies,

"Now look at it go!"

When his eyes laid witness that Spheera had smashed upon the windows of the royal castle, he sweated hard,

"Ummm Tha-Thamy? Can we go n—

His smartphone from his pocket rang hard. When he was about to answer it, Thelamia could see that he was turning white.

Genocide answered the call,

"He-hell-hello?"

There was a long deafening silence from his phone. Not much soon, he heard the abyssal voice of Julieth, such as her tone was colder than the frosty blizzard,

"My dear son? Could you come here for a second? I'm sure this your doing and you tricked Thamy again somehow."

She sighed and continued to command him,

"Also, bring Thamy and the others with you now, immediately!"

There after, the call hang up, while his face was drenched with fright from the terror of his Goddess mother.

Genocide breathed in and looked at Thelamia and Fae,

"Tha-Thamy? F-Fae? Could we go to the castle now? We're being called upon."

Thelamia was just dumbfounded,

"Uh okay?"

Fae just made an elegant courtesy,

"As the queen wishes."

As soon as they barged-in at the destined audience hall of the castle, Thelamia was caught with surprise, when her eyes saw Spheera heavily armed,

"Whoa Spheera! Why the sudden heavy arsenal mode!"

There, Spheera had aimed all of its missile pods, and gatling submachine guns at the neatly bound lords of carnage around the area. It's as if Spheera was a secret weapon of some sort.

Genocide just scratched the back of his head,

"Huh...I wonder what those other lords of carnage did?"

When he looked to his left, he observed that Sylvia, Syvil, Marla, Raves, and the other representatives were pointing their weapons at the deranged captured Crack and his armored cohorts.

Genocide sighed,

"Even Crack huh."

Julieth tightened her queenly dress and approached her dumbstruck son,

"If you didn't know my son, these former lords of carnage had the gall to threaten us. More so, they were about to abuse us yet again."

Then, one of their Goddess friends shouted out loud,

"They even have the nerve to instignate a rebellion against us!"

Sylvia brought out her fan and made a sinister smile,

"Though, thanks to a meteor-like metal ball jad smack their said leader's head through the window, we got to counter back."

Crack made a vulgar spit,

"Heh! Vampia should always be shrouded in darkness and terror so everything will he in order!"

Then, the lords of carnage joined in,

"This weak kingdom known as Azuria will crumble like any kingdom we've destroyed!"

"Yeah!"

"And we'll keep their prized female leaders as our possesions!"

"Heh! They're our bitches alright!"

The high ranking females around them were just disgusted by their statements and presence. Even the Valkyrie queen herself couldn't stand them,

"Such vulgarity! I can't believe these are the lords of Vampia before!"

Zero who was about to dislocate the arm of Burn, just sighed in disappointment,

"Turning these monsters into lords was truly a mistake."

Genocide saw that Destruct galred at one of the former lords,

"So, who sent you here? I'm sure all of you didn't plan this out all for yourselves?"

Burn made a devious grin,

"We are not talking unless the queen of Azuria will strip for us!"

Zero's eyes were filled with raging wrath,

"Don't you dare disrespect your queen and Goddess, barbarian!"

He bent Burn's arm as he was about to cause a fracture of excruciating pain. Though, Burn just scoffed,

"This pain is nothing!"

Crack sighed,

"Yeah and who threw that ball at us huh!"

Fae and Genocide pointed at Thelamia without any warning.

Thelamia panicked,

"Wah?! Hey Geno made me do it okay!"

Burn just laughed as he was a deranged demon lord,

"GRAHAHAHAHAHA! You think you caught all of us?! There's one more and ya know? We were just a decoy!"

Then, he shouted from the top of his lungs,

"DEATH TO AZURIA!"

Zero just knocked him out, since he had grown impatient from the needless banter of the terrorist. As he stood up, the cerulean armored royal guards came just in time,

"My liege! We dearly apologize for the late entry."

Though, Zero and Julieth didn't mind.

Zero just straightened himself and crossed his arms,

"Julie? Let us bring these menaces to the underground prison. I'm certain that these demons would like to live in the same bars they placed their slaves before."

Julieth kissed Zero's ring as he was a noble king,

"As you wish my king. We shall treat them fairly. The same way, they treated their poor slaves before."

Not much soon, Thelamia took witness that Zero, Julieth had dragged along the unconcious Burn away from the audience hall. Most of the representatives and the royal guards did the same to the captured lords of carnage. Then, they followed the royal couple's lead.

Thelamia perceived that Genocide, Destruct, Fae and Spheera were the only ones left at the audience hall.

Genocide kept on guessing,

"One more lord of carnage who rebelled?"

Destruct brushed his hair,

"The only ones remaining are: me, you, and Raze."

Thelamia touched her cheek as she was just dumbfounded,

"Raze? I haven't seen him for quite a while. I hope he, Xola, and Xiera bring that delicious meat pie again!"

Genocide's and Destruct's eyes had widened,

"IT CAN'T BE!"

Genocide patted both of the maidens' shoulders,

"Thamy! Fae! Stay here, things'll get screwy outside."

There after, Genocide and Destruct sprinted down with their spectral movements of the shades. When they rused to the plaza, there they saw people were screaming and running away.

They heard a sudden gunshot and Raze's desperate voice,

"BACK OFF! THIS GIRL HERE NOW IS AN OFFERING!"

Genocide and Destruct observed that Raze had put a gun at his terrified female hostage's head.

Genocide just crossed his arms at Raze who was just from a short distance away from him,

"Offering huh?"

Destruct scratched his chin,

"To who we may ask?"

Raze just grit his teeth, while his eyes were swirling with rage and insanity,

"TO THE NEW SUPREME GENERIA, THE REVELAS KING!"

The woman was just frightened and let out more tears.

Though, Genocide wasn't fazed and just scratched the back of his head,

"You're hesitating dear cousin? Is there something we don't know?"

At the speed of light, Genocide vanished and jabbed Raze's stomach with a hard blow of a piston. Thereon, Raze felt intense pain of a missile and let go of his captive.

Destruct caught the freed woman as he was a knight-in-shining armor,

"You're safe now milady. Now run along now."

The woman thanked him and fled.

Genocide went close to the nearly paralyzed Raze. Then, he grabbed Raze's collar and lifted him in front of his face,

"Honestly, when you're hesitating, you become weaker. I wish we could've had a nice duel though."

Destruct brushed his hair upwards, while giving the weakened Raze a glare of a panther,

"Now could you tell us why did you cause this chaos? I doubt you have the same reasons, as those savages we've encountered recently."

Raze cried down to the bottom of his aching heart,

"It's to save Xiera, Xola, and my daughters!"

Genocide just sighed with pity,

Then, Raze continued to ask for their mercy,

"Please! If you're going to put me behind bars, just please save them for my sake!"

Genocide's phone rang. He picked it up,

"Yeah mom?"

He heard Julieth's complacent, but serious voice from his phone,

"We just got info from the lords of carnage that Raze was the last one."

Genocide nodded,

"Yeah, he's with us now."

Julieth sighed,

"There's something I must tell you. They held Raze's beloved ones at a nearby bar just near the outside walls of Azuria. Please do save them."

Then, the call hang up.

He gave a cool smile at Raze,

"You're in luck cousin, we got direct orders from the queen that we should save your girls."

Destruct nodded,

"Let us go dear brother."

Genocide made a grin of optimism,

"Yeah!"