"Sirius 2-9 to Assassin Queen," the voice on her intercoms held over the firestorms and sirens filling the blackened sky, "our squadron has managed to send the Zudrian police on a run for it."

Excellent. Anastasia looked to her left, and plumes of black smoke rising from an industrial district corroborated 2-9’s report. The detonation went well, and surely the police would scramble across the city to reach the perpetrator.

"Excellent, Sirius 2-9," the Assassin Queen paced across the surface of the coliseum's sole remaining wall, "Fire a few shots at the stations. Make them feel insecure, everywhere."

Sirius 2-9 immediately responded. "Following, Assassin Queen.”

They had better move quickly. For all their administrative incompetence, the Zudrians had troops to waste, which meant that they could respond to the explosions with overwhelming force.

"Assassin Queen," Watcher #5173 entered the intercom discussion, "we've got a small problem?"

Small problems. Why did Watcher always call them “small problems.”? Small problems grew into larger ones if left unattended. Something would have to be done, and quickly.

"How small are we talking?" Anastasia's voice was collected and cold, almost enough to dampen the heat around her.

"The Zudrians have already amassed their forces and are marching north toward Sirius 2-9's location." Well, that was surprisingly efficient for an empire that didn't even see the "Solares" coming. "They have a couple regiments of spirit manipulator units."

"Regiments of them? I want classes and elements."

"Drones are estimating class B and C. Elements are fire and earth, standby for more data."

The Zudrians of Corona Eternus were responding to the little game being played with them. And with everything at once. A totalitarian hellhole country like them needed to have military units placed everywhere even in times of peace, and many of these troops were provided by the mother country. But now these units had been gathered into a herd of class Cs and Bs, an incredibly rushed strategic measure.

Those were only the lower mid-tier types of spirit warriors on the Ritondra scale. The Revolution, though without political legitimacy, had plenty of squadrons of class A and above, and was buttressed by the Summa Legio. At the top of the Summa Legio, the infamous Shadow clan of class S, SS, and SSS manipulators pulled all the strings, and fought all the wars.

Zudra is screwed, Anastasia chuckled to herself, and she knows it.

“Rigel 6-2 reporting,” came another voice, “we are south of 2-9 and can cover them if needed.”

"Retreat," She spat into the microphone, eyes blazing with hunger and thrill. "Forget further attacks for the moment. Watcher will send intel about their route." Rapid response was everything in a battle, great when done with adequate resources, and the Assassin Queen always had an abundance to work with. "Get out of sight and out of mind, spray a bunch of smokescreens, make Zudra cough, keep them confused."

"Ma'am? What about the manipulator units? They are quite the deadly force when put together."

And we are not? Confidence brimmed within the Assassin Queen's mind. Tell that to the Quatopedipans, who were reduced to scaly slag when we got our hands on them.

"We have more dangerous people," she whispered and licked her lips, "who can make the monsters of old blush. Not a hair will be touched on 2-9."

With that being said, Anastasia put her communications with Sirius on hold, and sifted through the queue: Crown-0667, Mei Tanaka, CRITICAL-SUPERNOVA-0666, and finally Sagittarius A-Star. There were jobs for the latter to do, an entire group of them.

She commanded her communications device to call.

Someone groaned from the receptor, as though Anastasia had interrupted a vacation or a nap. She wished she was kidding herself.

"Sagittari!" she barked at the human through the microphone.

Sagittari exhaled and sighed. "Anastasia? What do you have in mind?" So, the black hole girl was aware of her annoyance. "You want Flabio dead yet?"

"No, not yet," the Assassin Queen rolled her eyes, "you've got targets at 10 o'clock, better known as west of you. Kill them. Pretend they are Mr. Incardriss if it gives you some kicks."

"Don't call him Mr. Incardriss with me again."

"Whatever," Anastasia looked to the far west, witnessing a swarm of Zudrian spirit manipulators marching across the road, "do me a favor, do your little death hole gateway thingy right under the coliseum, and march your forces west to intercept—"

The ground began quaking, even the leftover bits of the coliseum fell one by one. Dirt fell deeper into the floor, police vans stretched and tore into shreds, and a horrific shrill stabbed Anastasia's eardrums. Sinkhole after sinkhole, the very crust of the planet was swallowing itself, and those on the floor could not escape even if they ran anti-gravity machines. Such was the power of a singularity.

I should have told her to wait on my cue, the Assassin Queen applied spirit energy to her legs, holding firm in resistance to the gravity from the black holes moving toward one another on the floor. The amount of control she has over her powers is mortifying.

Four event horizons slammed into one another. Flashes of light, bold and white, blanketed the coliseum whilst matter flew from the singularity. Anastasia fell flat on her abdomen, fingers deeply sinking into the brick of the wall upon which she was perched only moments before.

"Shit!" Anastasia exclaimed as the black hole shattered the skies in rumbles. Even she was struggling against the object's persistent pull. "This is too much! Sagittari! I swear to the stars, let me fucking finish my sentence before you open black holes, damn it!"

A pop, like a water droplet from a faucet, caressed the air in an oxymoronic contradiction of the singularity's power.

Anastasia, the mighty Assassin Queen behind this whole operation, was reduced to crawling to the edge of the coliseum's wall. She wanted to get a peek at the madwoman behind this horrific symphony and tell her that her music was horrible.

Peering over the edge, Anastasia saw something phasing into reality from inside the event horizon. In a move that contradicted most civilizations’ understanding of physics, the figure defied gravity itself, sauntering as if the singularity never occurred. Waving black hair followed suit, eyes glowing in the face of the gravitational collapse.

Her hard gaze met that of the recognizable, infamous woman, who beamed up at her.

"Hey, precious!" The woman's voice was so loud that the Assassin Queen's ears began bleeding. "Your favorite black hole princess is here!"

Anastasia jabbed her fingers into both her ears. "Okay, Sagittari, I get it, you're here! No need to out-shout the galactic core!" Troops were flooding from the event horizon toward the Zudrian army several miles west of the coliseum. "You know the deal, sister! The Zudrians are pretty far and so you'll have to advance toward them!"

An earth-shaking cackle burst from the one on the floor below. The sound was loud enough to restyle the Assassin Queen's hair, which only furthered the voice's amusement. With righteous anger running through her veins, Anastasia rose to her feet, fists planted on her hips, and glowered down at Sagittari, who was practically rolling with mirth.

"Is something funny, Sagittari?" Anastasia coldly questioned.

"Stasia baby," Sagittari caught her breath and spread out her arms, "you said long range, right?"

Stasia baby. What in the universe's name did Delilah just start?

"Yes, I did, what's so funny about that?"

The black hole princess extended a glowing palm. A roaring whirl formed within them, much like Delilah and Solares when they charged entropy. She looked up at Anastasia, shimmied her hips, and commanded her soldiers to stop moving.

"Ob-serve!"

Oh my galaxies, the Assassin Queen laid flat on the ground and closed her eyes in preparation for what would come, why did I ask her that question?

Less than ten seconds, one whirring sound, air molecules tearing themselves apart, and finally the distinct noise of a building eating itself. Anastasia rose to her knees with eyes squinted and then she widened them.

Several miles away, a building was imploding. Matter sank into a singular point, nothing even falling without interference. Chunks either redirected into the swelling core or crashed into other structures. Bodies that the Assassin Queen recognized as distinctly Zudrian were helplessly pulled into the gravitational dance of erasure.

"You…" Anastasia was at a loss for words. The succinct smirk on Sagittari's face wasn't helping her predicament. "may not need to go too close range."

"I was kidding about the long-range part, though." Sagittari's voice lost all the playfulness in a matter of seconds as she spoke. She placed her hands on her hips and looked up at Anastasia. "I'm going to eat the Zudrians alive, up close and personal, like the Queen wants it.” And then the playfulness returned, “March, soldiers! March! We do this for freedom!"

I don't think she's kidding about the eating part, though. Anastasia reflected, knowing how Sagittari loved using her black holes to tear enemies apart. I have to keep her away from Fabio, at least until he's useless.

Sagittari marched away at the lead of her armored troopers. With most of the roads eradicated, they only had themselves to rely on, and Anastasia planned on doing something about that. She reached into her suit and pulled out the tachyon communicator device.

Upload planetary road map?

It would do better to text this rather than talk.

Anastasia Velos Parazonum: Sagittari, I'm sending Corona's map to your systems! I am sure you forgot to bring one.

UPLOAD CONFIRMED.

Sagittarius A-Star: Nice of you to expect so little of me. I already have a map, but I'll take the extra data in case I want to move to this shithole.

Anastasia giggled at the notion of giving up the Shadow Clan's luxurious space cruiser suites to live on a place like Corona Eternus. It would be like Solares returning to planet Haven. The two destinations had one thing in common: being xenophobic hellholes. Granted, the Demon King pretended to enjoy himself on Haven, despite his accounts of all the cults and "armies" there. Every other week, some intercultural turf war occurred, but that was back then. As for today, absolutely nothing had changed apart from the king leaving.

Anastasia Velos Parazonum: Of course you always want to prepare before a move to a wealthy, racist circle of hell of people who want you enslaved or dead. Am I right? -_-

Sagittarius A-Star: Hey, if it means that I get to torment Flabio…

She's never going to let that one go, is she?

Explosions. Anastasia shot up, hairs on her skin spiking as she turned north. A black cloud of smoke and incense plumed from a nearby cylindrical power plant. Like dominoes being tipped over, the other power plants exploded as well, splattering the air in metal and fluids.

“Detonations detected.” the Assassin Queen said into her intercom, and slowly nodded. “Good job, assassin squadrons; the Zudrians will only be capable of powering a simple house vacuum.”

“Affirmative, Assassin Queen,” a voice encased in static spoke, “but we’re running out of time. The Zudrians are sending units to deal with us and they’re closing in quick.”

“Zudrian communications were flatlined a long time ago, so they shouldn’t have their most optimal strength… they shouldn’t be able to handle what I’m sending to help you.”

Anastasia looked at the sky. Helicopters, space planes, and airships were swooping over the area. They were headed for the power plants to drop bombs on the assassin squadrons. Zudra was desperate enough to start pouring out their whole air force.

Fine then, the Assassin Queen switched across several channels, let’s invite Mei Tanaka to this little call. Fire on fire, for more fire!

“Mei!” Anastasia called into the intercom, breathing a sigh of relief when the human registered as online. “There’s an air force the Zudrians deployed and—!”

For the second time this day, destruction interrupted Anastasia’s call. A tall jet of flame emerged from a city block in the same manner as an interplanetary missile launching into action. That poor city block was covered in wildfire, buildings falling into pits of flame that ate through asphalt.

The flame became a shadow, and Anastasia did not fumble with puns in times like these, and attached itself to a sinking airship. Then, a torrent of white heat exploded from its location, swords swinging in midair and lashing through a helicopter directly behind. Aircraft after aircraft succumbed to fire, and the sight was so beautiful that the Assassin Queen’s jaw dropped.

“Okay,” Anastasia skipped across the still crumbling coliseum wall, “note to self; Mei should be on air defense duty.”

“Thank you,” a voice shouted through her comms, “nice to gain compliments from the Assassin Queen—get over here you! Get over here!”

The spaceplanes to whom she was extending the invitation didn’t want to play. They banked away from the flaming rocket, seeming to pay little attention to their being heavy bombers and not sleek fighter units.

Thus, the infernal swords of the Shadow Clan’s firebird stabbed into the bellies of Zudra’s aerial units, which plunged into the city. The sight of brick and mortar falling to shreds within seconds was a humbling sight, at least it should have been for the Zudrian Empire. Maybe they shouldn’t trifle with the Cruvelian Galaxy anymore, and one thing was for certain: the Shadow clan would destroy more of Corona Eternus than it saved.

Then again, the Zudrians here did run a slave auction, the Assassin Queen reminded herself of her enemy’s cause, perhaps we’d teach them a little lesson on what happens when you put the boot on the necks of whole cultures. If only they weren’t allergic to the truth.

"Don't get too crazy with the helicopters," Anastasia flipped her ruined hairstyle and warned, "my nephew still needs his mothers, both of them."

An engine block flew just over the coliseum wall, exploding as it struck the ground. Anastasia took a whiff of the smoke: warm air, cold texture, and an odd mint flavor. This had to have been a hyperdrive. The Zudrians apparently had leftover engineering prowess grand enough to add these to their ships, how interesting.

"I'll be fine, Anastasia!" Mei exclaimed.

She'd better be.

The Zudrians would probably dispatch a bunch of armored cars to surveil their attacked power grids. Paranoia might have served them well in this area, but they weren't paranoid enough about certain things; Anastasia ordered sniper units to take hold in leftover buildings while standard ground troops intercepted the Zudrian emergency convoys. That should slow them down. After all, enemy reinforcements were too inconvenient to be allowed.

The Assassin Queen liked a Zudra straining on resources.

Despite the pleasure of that thought, Anastasia felt anxious. Animal cunning got the nobles' ancestors to where they were, so perhaps the Zudrian military could outwit her tit-for-tat planning. She tried thinking of a scenario in which Zudra played feline and rodent with the rebels, but they were a superpower amongst the galaxies: guerilla warfare was never their thing.

They either won open combat, or they lost. That was the unwritten law of Zudrian warfare.

"Having a good time, commander queen Anastasia?"

The voice on her intercom was calm and pleasant in addition to being entirely recognizable. Anastasia let a cool smile come to her face, Delilah Polaris wasn’t remotely tired from her little two on one affair with those two idiots in the coliseum.

“I am doing fine,” she replied while shooting glances into the burning sky, “a little uneasy, but fine, what about you? What’s our extra Licentian champion doing?”

"Excellent question!" A row of dread ran across Anastasia's belly. "So, I know that nobody in the Shadow clan likes that Fabio guy, I mean, I told Xeshna about it and she wants to eat his soul!"

Oh galaxies, Anastasia facepalmed at the thought of other people in the clan getting in on the "Fabio hunt", the soul-eater probably gave the go-ahead to abduct him. Excellent...

"You should be laying low and destroying people."

"I know, but it's nice to stalk people I don't like! What's got you uneasy, queen bee?"

"Delilah," Anastasia peered over at a cluster of collapsing buildings, "I feel like this may be going too well… we are having too much success against the Zudrians."

Delilah paused for a second, but then answered. "We're only having too much success because we've grown too much together." A Zudrian pilot parachuted off a plane in the distance, hope in sight for him, until the firebird cut his chute. "All the challenges that would've ended us if we came alone, we've conquered together." Anastasia watched yet another plane get shot down by flaming missiles, and Sagittari’s rumbling, voracious singularities sent vibrations through her feet as they swallowed the far west ground. "As for today? You gave us yet another reason to be proud; the decimation of Zudra on this planet is tied to you, Assassin Queen."

Those words soothed a small amount of her anxiety. Anastasia turned her attention on ordering the soldiers to fall back from where any Shadows fought. Friendly fire wasn't needed today, and she wasn’t just going to tell the clan to hold back.

Not that they could hold back in the first place.

Then, a peculiar road seized her attention away from those thoughts.

Asphalt diagonally cut through the city grid, peppered with multiple intersections, and finally ending at a rotary next to the coliseum. Anastasia was by no means a city building expert, but upon seeing multiple dots marching down that diagonal road, she grew alarmed. Revolutionary forces didn't route there, the tachyon communicator told her so, and this had to have been… a Zudrian convoy.

The Assassin Queen gripped her holsters.

"Delilah," she said into the intercom, "thanks for getting my confidence up. If you need anything from me, I'm open and available."

"No problem, and thanks."

Anastasia squatted down at the very edge of the wall, noticing a heavily armored Zudrian spirit manipulator battalion. "I need you to keep a lookout. The Zudrians have a platoon of special operatives who've managed to survive Sagittari's offensive."

"Of course they do, they're pouring everything out like you've said before," Delilah chuckled while Anastasia's hands jittered at the soldiers' arrival at the rotary, “keep a lookout, and relax."

Relax? She couldn't just relax. She had to jump off and fight. The Assassin Queen wiped her blades against the brick structure, letting the dried blood plaster off. Anastasia was ten seconds from losing her mind.

As if Delilah heard her thoughts, she went on:

"And since relaxing is a big ask, you’re rolling with us from here on. Don’t worry, we already harassed Watcher into agreeing with this.”

"Thank you?” agreeing with what?

Rumble. The ground was shaken like a saltshaker depositing salts into a dish. Only two people in the Shadow clan could do this: Delilah and him. He had been absent all night and he was the one the nobles feared so much.

Something cracked below her.

Anastasia laughed at the buildings shaking all around.

“Finally!” she beamed at the skies and flipped off a couple of spaceplanes. “Some real entertainment!”

The Assassin Queen shot up to her feet with energy swirling into her limbs. Asphalt began tearing itself apart on the road beneath the coliseum, and so she added more acceleration to her legs. The wall began tilting, that hideous coliseum wall good for only one thing was going to die.

"Beautiful," Anastasia roared into the deafening sound of shattering glass and metal, "this horribly designed city of horrors is falling apart!”

She jumped into the smoke, aiming to land on another building. If she could strike a landing on that apartment complex, then a swift climb down to the road would suffice in keeping her own feet. When the building began to crack, her smile began to fade away, he really was overdoing his attacks on whatever it was.

Crashing on the roof of the collapsing building, Anastasia coughed specks of dirt and cement out of her mouth. Zudrian construction tasted as terrible as it looked. Pain lacerated her knees, which took half the brunt of her landing, but she would be fine. The structure, on the other hand, shuddered.

Alright, buildings were a shit idea, the Assassin Queen charged spirit energy into her feet, but running won’t be!

She took off at an acceleration that led her to an instantaneous velocity of one hundred miles per hour, aiming at a building with a hatch that opened up onto its roof. It was no doubt meant for the maintenance crew to enter the top. Chunks of her current foothold were falling around her, but the Assassin Queen either dodged or sliced them with her blades.

It's been too long since she had a good run.

Anastasia jumped through the air, another building in sight. This time she tucked and rolled onto its surface.

"Well, this one better prepare for an Assassin Queen," Anastasia locked her eyes on the door, sonic waves tearing the roof as quickly as the earthquake, "showtime!"

Her entry wasn't silent. For once, the Assassin Queen made a lot of noise this evening. The door flew off the hinge and crashed against the opposite wall. Anastasia glared at the swirling steps.

It seems that her enemy was unconventional this time.

She sprinted down the stairs. Keep the speed constant. Don't slow down, don't go too fast. If she followed those simple instructions, she'd be scotch free and out of the building in a matter of seconds. Every step she took ruined the stairs, which fell apart under her feet.

In no time, she was done with those stairs, and judging by the incredible noises they made when she ran down them? They were done with her. At the moment she exited the building, the whole frame caved into itself, releasing clouds of debris and splinters into the atmosphere.

And then, as quickly as it had arrived, the earthquake ended. Anastasia began her walk on roads that may as well have been an urban forest of Zudrian slaver ruins. A shockwave of this magnitude ruined many buildings, but not to the extent of Sagittari's singularities.

Anastasia's thoughts were cut off by the sight in front of her.

The soldiers she saw from overhead on the coliseum wall were dead. Many of those special operatives Zudra sent were carcasses lined on the roads. Either the clan or he got to them; maybe it would be more accurate to say both.

A decent chunk of the enemy squadron had survived, but from the look of things, their luck would not last. After all, they were under attack, and the attacker, wielding a single sword against all of them at once, wore an all-encompassing shroud. As he plunged his blade into yet another victim, Anastasia saw the mask.

Cloak and mask.

Matthias.

"Matty!" Anastasia drew out her blades and gleefully charged into a volley of Zudrian freeze guns.

The soldiers heard her scream and turned their guns. The Assassin Queen, however, showed the power of uncontested joy, which poured into a sonic wave that followed her acceleration. Enemy troops were sent careening into the sky or against the now-vertical slabs of road, those who drew near met her blade on their necks, and even the swordsmen surrounding Solares were blasted out of sight.

He had less than a second before she hit.

The Assassin Queen threw her arms around the King of Demons and tackled him to the ground. A clawed hand lifted as he spoke,

"You dare to challenge me—Anastasia?" the claw fell.

"It's been eons, Matty!" Anastasia rubbed her cheek against his, not caring for complaints. "So long!"

Solares had the strength to get up, even with the Assassin Queen stuck to him. As he did, his groans were pointed and exaggerated to convey displeasure. Anastasia didn’t care too much though; one, she needed this and two, Matthias was a soft pastry on the inside, and therefore he enjoyed the affection.

"I could have thought you a foe," Solares sighed and narrowed a glowing, spiral eye at her, "you are well, correct?"

"Fabio couldn't hurt me even if he tried—"

"I do not care for that conniving, shit-stained, Zudrian pervert. You have spent an entire night being assaulted by a cabal of shameless Zudrian accidents. I just want to know if you are okay."

The Assassin Queen placed her chin on Solares's hood. "I'm fine, Matty. Though… some of the Zudrians… they made me feel… well I’m going to need one hell of a shower after this." She didn't want to continue, and Solares held onto her a few moments before replying.

"Quote 'I' unquote, finished most of those nobles," Anastasia felt Solares smiling beneath that shroud of his, "they will never bother you or anyone else again."

"So, you can clone yourself human and female, right? And slightly more powerful? That was a sight to behold!" Anastasia winked while Solares laughed audibly. A wave of warmth entered her heart: hearing her brother heartfully laugh brought pleasure.

“Delilah did an astounding job impersonating me,” Solares tutted, “she sent that bastard lord crying for his god! I am so proud of her!”

“And when he couldn’t bring me along with him?”

“The best part of the film! Now, I just need to see the end! I heard he gets castrated, and I am,” his eyes began pulsing, voice growing deeper, “very excited to see that scene…”

Anastasia chuckled, “I’ve never seen you love a show so much before!”

“Because no creature has angered me this much since Attila of the Deathless, and at least he had use to his people.”

“Isn't it amazing how much power Zudra awards to its most useless citizens?” Solares laughed again, and Anastasia flicked his ear. “Speaking of ancient enemies we’ve erased before, we have work to do, a planet to conquer, and a Zudrian empire to kick in the groin.”

Anastasia released her hug.

"Let's go, brother of mine," the Assassin Queen sheathed her blades and smirked, "these foes aren't going to destroy themselves?"

"Or are they?" Solares shrugged.

She cackled at the gallows humor her brother loved so much. The pair walked across the ruined urban world; tachyon communicator held up for reference. Several red dots appeared on the screen, and the deadly duo examined them.

They nodded to one another without a word.

The time had come. Once again, the King of Demons and the Assassin Queen would humiliate Zudra together. Finally, the minutes she lost in the coliseum would be rewarded.

And now that the terrifying duo had brought a whole damned pack, Zudra would pay for every damned second.