“Keep a hold on them, we got him!”

Chains whipped into the opening created by Delilah’s first volley, wrapped around the shrouded warrior’s arms, just as she made her entrance. Anastasia watched them tighten, a pique of interest in her eyes; Delilah wasn’t like Solares, at least the actual one, but by the gods could she fight like him.

The nobles were caught up fighting one another, not even bothering to send the same jeers they gave to the Assassin Queen to the supposed King of Demons. Bottles flew across the mayhem and the Solares impersonator let out a feral growl.

The commanding officer took several steps back and yelled, “Look out men! The Solares is struggling at this range! Just don’t come too-”

Close.

The chains yanked directly toward the masked menace, taking the officers along for the ride. Lacking the time to scream, rows of policemen only had one chance to look while their allies fired rounds at the dreaded one's breast.

Then, the monster's torso flashed a fiery orange.

With arms around Fabio's neck, Anastasia hauled the blubbering lord away from the line of fire. Her ears may have come close to bleeding, but at least she tried pretending to care about him.

One officer, closest to the spiraling inferno’s facial expression, fearlessly flung a chain around the enemy's neck. His plucky endeavor would draw a reward.

“Oh shit-”

Just not the one he wanted.

A bright orange flash, as hot as those class K stars, sliced through the chains without the slightest effort. Within a heartbeat, the brave officer met his demise, and was left only as a liquid on fire.

As for the rest of them—the ones who had unintentionally approached the fake Solares at the yank of her chain—they became victims of that same orange star, which was a spinning, phosphorescent death. Massive blades were rotating around the imposter’s waistline, blinding those who dared look, and grinding the floors whenever she lowered her stance.

“By the gods,” Fabio cried and shoved Anastasia away, “by the gods…”

A sickening scratching of melting floors and burning bodies accompanied the blissful whir of the orange blades. Those smart enough to release their chains earlier now began falling back, whilst those on the eagle’s nests were struggling to cover the front lines. Yet at each round unleashed, the blades titled as if they were on an orbital axis.

“Motherfucker,” someone screamed as the Assassin Queen coughed onto the floor, “we can’t land a single fucking shell on them anymore! It’s like the Solares simply let us waste all our rounds!”

No, officer, Anastasia mentally cackled, “he” just couldn't give less of a shit about your bullets.

The imposter, better known as Delilah Polaris, shot a sadistic grin at Anastasia. The Assassin Queen knew it was friendly, and that the human had no intentions of harming her, but between that-

CRITICAL-SUPERNOVA-0666: PARAZONUM, GET AWAY FROM THE RANGE OF THE TOWERS!

She did as prompted just when another whine shrieked from the destructive whirlpool nearby the coliseum’s growing cavity. Anastasia clasped her dress, seized her burdensome dance partner's hand, and made tracks across the coliseum. This time she had no care for who got in the way. The nobles were too frantic to give a damn anyways.

The police commander jogged ahead of her, not even giving the slightest glance at the sprinting Nashiyegan succubus or her luggage.

Although Incardriss was not the kind of luggage Anastasia would bring with her on vacation.

“Take cover, towers,” Anastasia could hear the tears and desperation in the commander’s voice, “please take fucking cover!”

His desperate plea was bound to go unanswered, for none of the policemen could even hear him over the whines of the whirlpool and the distinct sound of diminishing ammunition. Delilah sucked in a mass of air, leaned back, and unleashed a blanche white beam at the eagle’s nest across from her. The policemen manning the device only had their tears as their memoir. From there, the heat ray swept across the coliseum, melting bricks, armored men, and whichever nobles were dumb enough to be in range.

The very floor of the coliseum began shaking.

“Can you fucking hear me,” someone bellowed over the horrible white noise of the beam, “can… hear… HELP… ME…”

The white was too much even for Anastasia, despite being safe in the shadow of the beam attack. Clinging to loosened bricks, in a spot that was only safe because the imposter Solares would have needed a very hard left to hit any of it. To make matters easier, the Assassin Queen fled whichever location the emergency exits were, for that was where the nobles fought.

“CALL...THE...AAACCCHHH!”

The commanding officer was lucky to be left this long untouched by the beam, but this would be his final command and the last anyone would see of him. The awesome power of the “Solares” (more like Delilah Polaris) disintegrated him in a sea of unending heat and entropy.

“By the gods,” Fabio’s voice was nearest to her, “I need to… I need to get out of here!”

He was going to run away, flee, and maybe leave her behind? Whatever the reason, Anastasia was grateful that she had placed a tracking device on his back when he spent all those minutes, which felt like hours, “dancing” with her.

Sometimes idiots did the work for you. Though it may have been too soon to think she'd be rid of him already, since his high clearance security guards were out of sight.

Guess I owe Delilah another thank you, Anastasia mused to herself as she watched the imposter Solares seize a drunkard Zudrian in her hands, she’s warmed my heart up so much.

Snap!

“The Solares snapped his neck!” A Zudrian woman had the nerve to run in front of the mangled corpse of her husband. “They snapped my beautiful Solomon’s neck! What am I going to tell the-?”

A finger blast from Delilah cut through the woman’s skull like a torch against metal, carving a fine ‘U’ shape on her face. A shockingly intact, feminine carcass dropped to the floor, head laid on her husband’s chest. The Assassin Queen looked at the imposter Solares, who shot a wink at her.

CRITICAL SUPERNOVA-0666: XOXOXO, Anastasia baby! A psycho down and a sycophant with him!

Her baby sister was rubbing off on her already, the thought of it brought Anastasia’s hand to her own throbbing heart. Delilah was such a gem in a universe filled with gilded abominations.

Anastasia Velos Parazonum: XOXO to you too! You're such a ray of sunshine in this nightmare of a night!

CRITICAL SUPERNOVA-0666: Thank you so much! You get a group hug as a gift when you get home! I know tonight has been very hard on you. It will even be on my page! Group selfie! Yay!

Anastasia Velos Parazonum: Awww, thanks, but who'd join in?

CRITICAL SUPERNOVA-0666: Solares, Krystal… whichever one of us Shadows who has nothing better to do?

Anastasia Velos Parazonum: Won't Matty be angry if we just bring him into a group to snuggle and take a picture of him being soft? I don't think our "King of Demons" likes being seen as cuddly.

CRITICAL SUPERNOVA-0666: Eh, the Solares is always grumbling about his reputation. We'll just ignore his infernal highness and have a wholesome photo.

Little sisters may not like their brothers, but they sure could force them into things. Anastasia’s glares were just enough to scare Solares into submission with everything she wanted. If she were to be honest, she was the queen of this arrangement, and he knew it.

Now was not the time to think about this. Cute moments later, killing moments now.

“Okay,” someone shouted from yet another eagle's nest, which stood behind the evacuating orchestral stage, “taking aim! We’re bringing this fucker down!”

The Assassin Queen narrowed her eyes, but then they widened. The police weren’t using bullets, they were going to use RPG missiles. An urgency took over all the thrill of the attack, slaves could be caught if Delilah dodged, and with that thought came a flurry of anxiety.

Anastasia Velos Parazonum: Delilah, they don’t just have guns, they have RPGs, they’re seriously going to fire rockets.

CRITICAL SUPERNOVA-0666: Then, no more holding back.

Anastasia Velos Parazonum: Destroy the nest, but make sure no one dies!

CRITICAL SUPERNOVA-0666: You forgot that I could just disintegrate the missiles before they hit?

Anastasia Velos Parazonum: No beams, please!

CRITICAL SUPERNOVA-0666: I can do Solares’s other useful trick. Perfect for this situation. Just watch me, Anastasia baby.

The first missile flew from the tower, barreling straight for the imposter Solares. The projectile roared, smoke piling from the thrusters, and then it began to stretch. The missile was thinning to the breadth of a piece of paper, and the sight reminded the Assassin Queen of black holes swallowing stars. It was a humbling five seconds of warfare, beauty, bliss, and filled her with agape love for her allies.

Delilah lowered her palm. Nobody made a move. Not even the screaming people bothered to do anything, and they were slack jawed. All they could do was gasp, and even the veteran officers did nothing.

Nothing.

Time passed by at such a slow rate that it may have just stopped. At least that's what the tone felt like, hours moving by within seconds. No movement, not even the slightest heaving of chests to breathe, entered the stillness.

I love the blissful silence of a Zudrian policeman terrified, the Assassin Queen mused to herself, it sings to me.

“The Solares,” the officer manning the guns shouted, “he-he-he he disintegrated the missile!”

Delilah’s palm extended, a blurry oscillation bathing the hand. The missile had faded from existence. Anastasia's eyes lit up at the familiar sight, because the actual Solares had done this many times before.

But Delilah doing this was entirely unexpected.

Anastasia's baby sister had come so far.

CRITICAL SUPERNOVA-0666: Trust me, sis.

Words can't describe how proud your big sister is of you, Anastasia fawned to herself, so powerful and so young…

“Fucking fire!”

They unpacked everything from their cartridges, while the empties clattered on the floor one by one. Delilah stood there with her hands drawn and still giving off that same blur. The effectiveness of the bullets was wishful thinking on the part of the men behind the guns, as the warrior still stood unaffected.

"The Solares is disintegrating our rounds," the gunman panicked, "he's fucking disintegrating them! We can't even hit him!"

Delilah, you cruel, cruel bastard, the Assassin Queen licked her lips, you have them on the ropes.

A pernicious whining rippled around the coliseum. This time the sound was accompanied by the same oscillation that broke apart the bullets. To make matters worse, both of Delilah's hands were glowing a blinding white instead of cool orange.

"Shit! Call the military!" The gunman who had fired the rocket disembarked from the eagle's nest behind the orchestral stage and ran for the hills. "Call the military-"

Milky white flames hugged the eagle's nest and sent the structure tumbling down. Fire coated the stands and instruments, blazing gloriously in their final moments as the nest made contact with the musician stand. Violins and cellos exploded with the frequency of firecrackers popping within air.

The cloaked warrior lumbered throughout the dead bodies. The Assassin Queen could see the tiniest of saunters in Delilah's waist, and she wasn't sure whether the human was sending a signal to her or just bragging. Fires burned through the seating areas, bleeding carcasses, musical instruments, eagle's nests, guns and armor, and anything it touched.

Meanwhile, a certain someone's plans to flee hadn't gone very well or gone at all. Fabio coughed into Anastasia’s lap, eyes dreary and dead, but he managed to speak. "No wonder they call him the Demon King." The once prideful Lord Incardriss lost all his bravado and neared tears. "He can do all this… to our finest police forces…" Anastasia gave him a blank look throughout the crackling fires, shooting the smallest of glances at the stalking Delilah. "Long live… the king…"

The survivors screamed a song of terror and agony. They fought one another, fists shooting for faces, arms yanking each other aside. With angered screams and cursing, the nobles threw one another either away from the exits, into the line of fire, or in front of Delilah herself. A pitiful sight for Anastasia to bear witness, for in the face of a crisis the so-called nobles opted to fight each other to survive, not an inch of collaboration occurred to them.

This was the best Zudra had to offer? These were her elite citizens?

Pathetic.

Long live the king, Anastasia only had pity running through her mind, and Hail Holy Queen, all the angels and all the free joyfully scream…

Delilah turned her steps toward the slaves at the entrance, who were far and away from all the fires she had caused. When she did so, Anastasia’s gaze followed suit, eyeing the Nashiyegan child in particular. In this direction, the faux Solares began a calm walk, serene and relaxed even within the terrified howls around her. Her head was straightened, and her blood-soaked clothing glinted in the light of the flames nearby.

A tower, the only left behind by Delilah’s invasion, reloaded a round and aimed for her. Without changing her gait, the shrouded attacker raised only one finger to deal with it. A thin particle beam shrieked from her nail, careening directly for the tower. The officer ducked with a scream, and then sighed with relief.

Until the tower tilted forward.

With wood and metal falling down, the military police unit met his fate with a horrified scream. Alas, a somber thud silenced him. Delilah nodded and briskly walked over the scene of devastation. She was a queen of her own circle of hell tonight, and that circle was the coliseum. The slaves were in her sight, and the closer she got to them, the gentler her body language grew.

The Nashiyega boy’s face was buried into his mother’s chest, sparing his innocence from the war around, and the Assassin Queen's heart jumped as Delilah fell to her knees next to the family. The woman nudged the boy's mother, whispered something to her, and pressed a kiss on both their foreheads.

CRITICAL-SUPERNOVA-0666: I made sure they were okay. They are free to go now. The ones under the platform as well since I blew up the doors there.

This human never failed to warm Anastasia’s war-hardened heart or her war machine.

Anastasia Velos Parazonum: I love you, sweetie.

CRITICAL-SUPERNOVA-0666: Love you too, sis.

She walked into the building’s center once again, putting herself far enough from the slaves to protect them from the crossfire. Her sardonic glare prevented the nobles from saying so much as a consonant, and even then the shock on their faces was apparent.

Anastasia had to do one thing on her retinal device. The revolution had been busy tonight planting plenty of soldiers around the coliseum for extraction once the slaves were free.

Anastasia Velos Parazonum: Watcher, alert the troops that fleeing slaves are on the way. Make sure they're protected. Tell this to EVERYONE.

Watcher: With pleasure. Our probes came close enough to the planet to find a vast tunnel network hidden underground. It must be for transportation, probably for soldiers since there were defenses. We secured areas of it, and thanks to the communication shutdown, the Zudrians don’t even know we’re there. We have the perfect extraction route.

Anastasia Velos Parazonum: Zudra does us too many favors.

The crackling and cracking of anti-matter bullets announced the arrival of the extraction forces outside. A few entered the coliseum through its many holes and escorted the slaves out in their convoys. The shock and horror of not just a "Solares" attack, but property being lost during the former, paralyzed the Zudrians. They clearly never saw anything like this coming.

It's not just your favorite monarch, the Assassin Queen mocked the Zudrians in her mind, he brought family and an army… and he’s not even here yet.

Then came the ice blade. The exit wound of Delilah’s opening volley was a gaping hole in the coliseum’s northern wall. From this hole, with a scratching sound as though it were slicing through the air itself, an ice blade shot almost directly at Delilah, landing immediately in her wake. Anastasia's eyes widened: the Zudrians had backup, and they were sending them to the coliseum at exactly the wrong time. She worried for the slaves, who were still exiting through the walls of this monstrosity. Yet along with that, she felt a wave take over her, another personality coming into play; Anastasia was worried and anxious, but as the Assassin Queen, she had dealt with worse. This act of Zudrian desperation paled in comparison.

Therefore she was calm.

CRITICAL-SUPERNOVA-0666: It looks like... An ice manipulator and… another assassin.

Another assassin. The battle was going to be a two on one type of conflict. The Assassin Queen regretted having to just come in and seduce a bunch of useless degenerates already. She could have joined in and helped.

The first of these warriors was armored, and dare she say it armed to the teeth. Cuisses, breastplates, and he even wore a helmet. Anastasia would have to say that he was the only one prepared for today’s occasion. As for the one beside him, the Assassin Queen raised an eyebrow at their figure, for they were slender and almost feminine.

Zudra never allowed women to fight, so if the assassin beside the armored figure was female, what was she doing here?

Anastasia was knocked out of that tangent by the remainder of the Zudrians cheering. Suddenly, the urge to fight for their lives had gone, and they opted to curse out the supposed "Solares" for attacking their festivities. Delilah clenched her fists and stood absolutely still as the pair circled her.

Anastasia Velos Parazonum: You feel confident?

CRITICAL-SUPERNOVA-0666: Ya think? Stasia, come on… you know I've dealt with worse, or have you forgotten the Deathless Wars already?

No kidding, Delilah was the prodigy of the group. She was almost as powerful as Matthias without even reaching a century in age. The woman could fight.

Anastasia Velos Parazonum: Good. I leave them in your hands. Go crazy.

"We have hope," Fabio suddenly shot up to his feet and cheered like the moron he was, "we will be free!" he seemed ignorant of how free he already always was.

You have hope, now? The Assassin Queen watched as Delilah turned her attention toward the armored knight and the agile assassin by his side. The impersonator glared at them, and her confident smile was felt even through her mask.

"Your destruction ends now," the armored individual drew a crystalline blade, "as Frost and Vincreir, the protectors of this world, we end your reign here, Solares!"

The nobles let hideous smiles come to their faces. Alas, they had hope that they could be "free" to own and sell people on a market exchange and exploit them. Anastasia suppressed her nausea; Zudra's elite disgusted her to no end. The fact she hadn't thrown up yet was a miraculous feat on her part.

Lightning sparked, producing blue-white flashes that swallowed Anastasia's vision. Corpses lit up, allowing the yellow-red, rotting skulls to show themselves. People shrieked at the sight, smothering one another at the exits, but the Assassin Queen focused her eyes; the electric bolts were flowing across the imposter's arm, arcing in a cylindrical dance, and her pupils flashed the colors of hell itself.

"Protectors of this planet?" Delilah finally spoke, but in a deeper voice than typical. "Is this a joke? I protect this damned galaxy!" She took two steps closer, energy flaring about her form with a rage Anastasia hadn't seen on her in months. "Cruvelia is mine: the stars, the molecules, the black holes, the gas… it's all mine. And all who live within it are under my protection! I protect them from you."

Frost shouted. "You’ve annihilated this entire coliseum, Solares! You're a demon, not a protector! You don't know anything but destruction! You are worse than the Deathless Legions you destroyed!"

"Tell me, Frost, did anyone ask for Zudra to come to Cruvelia? Did anyone want your disgusting culture of Zudrian patriarchy and this slave trade?" Delilah was so soft in this statement that even Anastasia grew unnerved. "Don’t act like the angel here; if I am a demon, then you and the country you fight for are the Twelve-Pointed Star of Death!'' This allusion to one of the vilest deities in the known universe echoed the whispered curses of every lower caste “non-person” in Zudra’s domain. "Your empire has caused too much evil within this universe: the trafficking, genocide, extermination, and destruction of beautiful societies… Zudra ruins them all, and for nothing. It’s only justice that this coliseum burns, and it’s still not nearly enough!"

Coming from Delilah, who had an adopted Zudrian child with her wife and who had to resist all of the might of Zudra trying to rip her family apart—there was a reason, and a damned good one, for her fury.

“What the hell do you want, then? Just to cause endless war?” Vincreir had the nerve to speak up and was surprisingly not shut down by anyone for being a woman.

“No… the war will end… and your empire will cease to exist in the aftermath!”

Delilah took in a mass of air, heaved her chest, and let out her second piercing cry of the night, filled with both her own rage and that of the one she impersonated. Anastasia blocked her ears, but spared a glance at Fabio, who turned whiter by the minute. He was now witnessing the wrath of a woman scorned… and by people like him.

Those rejected by the village will return to burn it.

"Solares" bent her knees and propelled herself forward. Orange swords sprung from the waist, blinded everyone in sight, and ripped the floor as if it were composed of papyrus. Frost drew his blade and swept down, Delilah raised her swords, Anastasia’s jaw dropped, and Fabio cried for his mother.

A shockwave emitted from the point where the three blades collided, sending the remaining nobles off of their feet again, and delivering them a message of wrath and coming annihilation.