[Thragg's P.O.V.]
Lightyears away, drifting through the cold void of deep space, the atmosphere aboard the flagship of the Viltrumite Empire was lethally tense.
I sat perfectly rigid upon my throne, my crimson cape draped immaculately over my broad shoulders. The massive, cold steel chamber was empty save for myself, General Kregg, and the broken creature kneeling on the polished floor before me.
Anissa.
One of my finest executioners. A warrior who had conquered dozens of star systems and personally drowned entire civilizations in their own blood in the name of Viltrumite Supremacy.
Now, she was shivering uncontrollably. Her arms hung uselessly at her sides, her joints swollen, the tissue had knit itself over her severed tendons, locking her limbs in a state of rigor mortis while she still drew breath.
She was a crippled dog. A mockery of Viltrumite perfection.
"Explain yourself," I commanded. My voice was quiet, barely a murmur above the hum of the ship's engines, yet it carried an authority that demanded unquestioning obedience.
Anissa swallowed hard, her eyes darting nervously to the steel floor, unable to meet my gaze. "Grand Regent... the humans... they were not primitive. They possessed Geldarian weaponry modified to bypass our durability. It… it incapacitated Kradd instantly. The indestructible one... his cellular density defied all physical laws. He tore through Lucan. And the half-breed boy... he moved with a precision I have never encountered. He cut me apart while I helplessly watched."
"You were bested by mud-dwelling primates," Kregg sneered from beside my throne. His cybernetic eye whirred in disgust as he looked down at her. "You should have died in the dirt rather than return to shame this chamber with your presence. You are a disgrace to your blood."
"I tried to fight!" Anissa snapped, a desperate flash of her old fire returning. But it instantly died out, smothered by a trauma so profound it physically shook her. Her breath hitched and her pupils dilated as she became trapped in a memory she couldn't articulate. "The man... no, the beast. He... he broke my mind."
She collapsed forward, her forehead resting against the cold steel as she gasped for air, acting as if the phantom pressure of the presence she encountered was still actively crushing her lungs.
"It was paralyzing," she sobbed, a sound a Viltrumite should never make. "It felt like staring into the end of the universe. He told me... he told me to warn you..."
In a blur of motion, I was off my throne.
My hand was clamped around Anissa's throat like an iron vice. I hoisted her broken body into the air, my grip cutting off her pathetic whimpering. Her boots dangled inches from the floor.
"I would crush your skull right now for displaying such repulsive cowardice," I hissed, my face inches from hers, my eyes burning with a simmering, volcanic rage. "But the Scourge Virus has left us with too few. We have already lost Kradd, Lucan, Vidor, and Conquest. I cannot afford to lose another pure-blood, even a crippled one. Speak the warning clearly, Anissa. Or I will reconsider my mercy."
I loosened my grip just enough for her to draw a ragged breath.
"He said..." Anissa rasped, leaking tears of pure terror onto my wrist. "He said the Great Betrayer... and the heir to the betrayed... are on Earth. He said to leave them alone, or he would personally clear away your Empire."
I dropped her.
Anissa hit the steel floor in a heavy heap, coughing violently and curling into herself.
Turning my back to her, I slowly walked back up the steps to my throne and took my seat. My face remained a mask of stoic fury, not allowing a single muscle twitch.
But inside my mind, a massive wave of insecurity crashed over me.
The heir of Argall.
I ruled the Viltrum Empire through unyielding strength, yes—but the foundation of my authority, was built upon a promise. I was an usurper and held the surviving Viltrumites together through terror and the ironclad 'truth' that Lord Argall's bloodline had been completely extinguished by the Great Betrayer. I had convinced them that I was the strongest, therefore I was the rightful ruler.
But Viltrumite loyalty to the royal bloodline was fanatical. It was baked into our very DNA.
If the true heir was alive and was hiding on Earth, protected by these so-called beasts, plotting his return, my rule was fundamentally illegitimate. If Kregg found out, if the other generals and surviving pure-bloods discovered that the true king lived, they would turn on me. It would spark a civil war that would fracture the remnants of my Empire.
I would lose my throne. I would lose everything I had bled to build.
I couldn't allow that. My power, my legacy, my very survival rested entirely on the annihilation of that planet before the secret could spread. I didn't want to conquer Earth anymore. I wanted to split the planet in two. I wanted to burn it down to the bedrock and scatter the ashes into the space.
I turned back to the room, my eyes burning with a genocidal fury that made even Kregg take a subtle half-step back.
"I am giving you one last chance to serve the Empire, Anissa. Report to the medical bay," I ordered coldly, watching her scramble awkwardly to her feet and bow her head in shame before floating out of the chamber.
I shifted my gaze to my second-in-command. "General Kregg."
Kregg snapped to attention, slamming a fist over his heart, the sound echoing sharply in the large room. "Yes, Grand Regent!"
"Prepare the remaining warships for immediate deployment. Summon every surviving warrior in this sector, recall the outposts, abandon the fringe worlds if you must," I commanded, my voice cold, hard, and absolute. "We are going to Earth. And we are turning that miserable mudball into a graveyard."
[Third Person P.O.V.]
On Talescria, Thaedus leaned heavily over the massive holographic map of the galaxy, his ancient eyes fixed intensely on the small, unassuming blue marble of Earth.
Aboard The Conqueror, Thragg stood on the bridge of his dreadnought, his fists clenched behind his back as he stared at the exact same planetary projection.
Both rulers, separated by vast, unyielding oceans of dark space, were independently mobilizing the greatest armadas the galaxy had seen in a millennia. A terrifying, world-shattering realization drove both.
Earth was no longer a primitive backwater. It had been weaponized. Its defenders were brutal and hyper-efficient, wielding powers that defied logical biology.
But as Thaedus and Thragg analyzed the combat data, a secondary, much more sinister truth emerged. The heroes, the Tech Jackets, the reality-warper, the indestructible man, even the terrifying butler, they were just the pieces on the board. They were the muscle.
The true threat was the architect who had unified them. The man who had taken a fractured planet and turned it into an impenetrable fortress capable of breaking the universe's apex predators.
Thaedus narrowed his single eye, tracking the massive financial, political, and technological web of Chaos Incorporated, realizing that a single corporate entity had monopolized planetary defense.
Thragg ground his teeth, calculating the strategic anomaly of a human CEO who seemingly owned the planet from the shadows, dictating the flow of battle without ever throwing a punch.
Across the galaxy, speaking in perfect, synchronized dread, both leaders looked at the sprawling, terrifying corporate footprint covering the globe and asked the exact same question.
"Where is John Kaisen?"
[A/N]:
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