Chapter 20: Ch 20 Rules for Rulers?
One of many planets subjugated through unjust causes by the tyrant, a women made of metal had another day of work before her, it was designed to break her, like so many others before her. With nothing but an iron will has the metallic lifeform, survived till now, switching between being a robot and person, depending on who was assigned to oversee their death. It has been years since she last saw the sky or rather anything besides this damn furnace she was working on. Everybody knew it wasn't critical or even necessary infrastructure, this was but one place for the most painful eradication of many species.
Disarmed and without much means they were starved and beaten, some crippled if not outright amputated, forced to watch their flesh burn down in the deaths. The parents with children sometimes even now touched her metal heart, one or the other would always die on the first day here, with the others stay then extended in the living world for as long as possible till the pain became a dull ache, then would the perfect time come to brutalize them too.
This was torture under their ruler Thana, everybody knew it and if the guard didn't perform enough on them, then they would be here by the end of the week, the times afterwards would calm, ripping one of them apart would satisfy them briefly for the short span of their time here. It was why she was here after all, abandoned for slacking on her duties of punishment. The favourite toy of the guards to demonstrate the newest methods of pain on, just showed how being made of hardier stuff can backfire on one. But without those demonstrations she would never have received pity of compassions from anybody down here in the deepest pits of what she could only describe as hell.
They maintained the instrument of their destruction, or did they sometimes the cultist, the brainwashed, the most loyal of Thana herself would be thrown down here, the loved it and it repulsed everybody. Even the guards were never ready to deal with the fate of being like them, and she herself didn't think anybody ever would be.
It could happen to anybody of them, at anytime, when was it, just once her highness the monster herself with one of her daughters, went on a viewing tour of all her torture dungeons to find her favourite method, they had to vote on who was ready to die for the sake of the others. Accepting their fast approaching end was laughable easy to so many, only to be spared and have everybody with a sliver of hope of survival be burned alive, slowly dipped into the hot metal over and over again. Till they resembled candle sticks, slowly layer for layer would be put over them, but they had to be careful, because it the stick wasn't pulled out fast enough a layer below might melt of starting the process anew. The first layer was a massive pain going by the screasm but they survived maybe with the power that monster lent them or whatever really, their determination, better biology, heat resistance.
It would have broken her such a treatment, but she was guard at the time, not high enough to ever meet her in person or anything just enough to be told the orders and execute them. Encased in metal, with some holes left do to air exchange, while the metal was still hot or do to movement, she still remembered the first one she killed because she lowered him to slow and yet to fast, he was then just dropped, the spared forced to watch with a guard at their backs ready to fire should they make a hasty move.
This place needed old blood, otherwise if just the unexperienced were dropped here, their missing knowledge on how to maintain this place how to falsify data, or change the temperature, would have them shot by the end of the day. It was why she was tolerated, now the oldest nobody new anymore that she once help suppress them, but even for her it was follow or get killed and now she is on the receiving end, and shew will never get out of here again.
Or so she thought until the central screen was turned on remotely and what happened next would have just hinting at such a screen would have gotten her executed a hundred times over.
"Hello my dear citizen and slaves this is your emperor and new ruler specking. With the old monarchy coming to a most unfortunate earlier end, the effects of how that happened will be studied and dissected by scholars to come, the leadership falls to me and my power!", the purple guy was a dwarf compared to her majesty. He was sitting on her buttocks with her on all fours a collar and leash around her neck, his fingers exploring her abyss, the liquid pulled under her who knows for how long they were at it.
"We will do away with the old racial cleansing, most forms of torture and the general bad attitude with mass worshiping your deaths, yes? Good, consider your situation to improve massively for even the average citizen of my empire within the next few weeks a month at most, thank you everybody, this would be all."
It was too good to be true, was it a new marriage partner, did something they or their empire possess have enough weight on the table for that monster too behave this way? Was it a new mate ever since the last ones unfortunate demise, was she a love bird?
"Now I see and understand this might be hard for you to understand, many of you generals, soldiers and assassins or other somewhat now coon to be carrier changing citizens but-", at that he let the leash fall from his hand and manifested a pitch black orb straight into Thana herself. Shredding most of her upper body into atoms, without care or shame, levitating her decapitated head closer to the camera only to see it thrown into a manifestation of a minute black hole, it was gone for good.
"I took this by force, I defanged your fleets, I embarrassed your leaders, I can control your very lives as I throe power alone, do test me if you do not believe consider that you will be dealt with using the old methods should you fail to end me,", he slapped her ass, the collapsed form by the third slap on her body started glowing white, not her usual orange manifestation of her white no this was his power.
All knew she could resurrect herself and that she had a wide variety of other powers, others not so much that she could be resurrected using outside forces, was that sacrilege?
In 2 seconds her flesh was regrown, her body anew, her mind in working order, "Rise my chair, and clench your walls I want to feel something!", he ordered her, he ordered her and she obeyed immediately with a smile on her face and then orgasmed on camera for her whole empire to see as her kicked her wide hanging utters.
She was psionic a telepath and so much more and she obeyed willingly, the thought of her being controlled was ludicrous in all aspects, right? Why were her own loins burning?
"This lesser degree of mine is effective immediately any who do not follow it will be ripped apart by their resurrected victims for all times immemorial! I thank you for your understanding and we will dedicate ourselves to making this nation flourish.", suddenly there were two of them, and one of them called for someone offstage. It were the empresses own two daughters, heads of the executive and judicative, with collars around their necks too, ready to serve as carriers for the new leader.
She was glued to the now black screen, what did she just witness, did anybody else saw that as well. The guard did and stood dormant, rooted to the ground her mind racing, wondering if the empire fell got taken over without anyone the wiser or if it was on behest of the empress herself.
The guard wondered ow was she supposed to be referred to now, what was her job, would she be killed if she continued her work today. Did she have to let the prisoners go today? She and the other guards and the stationed overseer would be ripped apart in minutes if they didn't use lethal force.
They had to kill them all now and erase any and all traces, scatter their remnants to places they couldn't be recovered from now and then claim this was all done before they saw the transmission.
She was already reloading her weapon, waiting for reinforcement, but then came the knowledge that it wouldn't matter, the information could simple be plundered from her body and mind, if anything she would have to be executed to in order to hide it lobotomized at best, should she just kill herself now.
She pointed the loaded weapon at herself and should any prisoners come closer with deception or aggression in mind she would have to blow her brains out immediately. This was all perfectly expected of her she told herself tried to rationalize her coming suicide, what would she do anyways without a job all that kept this war economy going was the empress and her net of mind controlled drones ready to execute all that opposed her or didn't heed her every word or whim. Where would she get food not that she expected to live for long, but with even that necessity stripped from her now?
Some of the prisoners in their delirious state thought this was torture porn meant to break them further by giving them a last bit of hope to make their deaths prettier, nobody expected rescue or salvation. Hearing the guard reload didn't help or maybe were the Seed warriors finally able to break the encryption and this was just test call, but even then why show this, it could have been anything else, a short message not more powerful emperor maybe more cruel and sadistic than their old one.
It would never get better for them, and shot was fired, so who died.
A man in purple skin put his head in the guards place, as she tried to end herself. Just a silly little surprise kiss and she immediately fired. Only stopped was fast enough to interfere at that point, damn was that close.
The guard watched the headless form of her ruler she shot, the ex-prisoner saw a headless aberration stand without flinching air gather and the body regenerate. "You are free!", was all he proclaimed and to the prisoners it stopped mattering if the show they watched was propaganda or not, truth or lie, from the empire of the Seed warriors, they had their freedom back.
Some shouted in joy at the revelations, others lay down awaiting their death as all of reality was falling down on the outside, others were liberated but with their mothers or daughters melted and fused to the metal down below, they were now free to jump after them no longer was anything stopping them, they were now only prisoners of their own minds, breaking down at the emotional upheaval of ordeal they have went down. Maybe in sadness or happiness nobody not even they themselves could tell.
Kindness did as kindness had to, make more of himself, some to look after the other guards and overseer or find their corpses at least, others there to hand out, create food and calm the prisoner, one more to descend down below and rescue all that was beyond help.
One step at a time, down below into the metal, with just a thought a spell was cast, made to tell him of mortal remands in the furnace itself. Blood splatters on the wall, scratches from the desperate on the walls were filled with dead brunt skin cells, but even cretin or bone was enough, no not even the particles of ash were needed to resurrect the way he did. But they certainly fucking helped who was he supposed to resurrect if even their memories were dead so long before he ever even came to this world that finding a sign of them ever having existed was ludicrous at best.
Who in the world had a perfect mind capable of recalling all info in the world, he had and who was he Kindness not even a real person just a brainwashed clone made to act as kind as possible, in the vain hope it would alleviate all that he would do in the future, that too was preposterous.
With psychometry this place would tell him all that ever happened in it, of every prisoner, every beating ever received every drop ever spilled every death, every torture setting, and all beyond so the question was how much did he have to know and could he even selectively limit the spell without it breaking him, oh he was to kind.
A spell came first, with his ankles submerged in steel the buoyancy refused to let him sink deeper, with a touch on the walls he knew to much as his mind was consumed by the atrocities, it was nothing compared to what he will do, tears spilled from his flesh as he wished to be undone, but he had a mission. Simply alleviating all symptoms of his mind breaking down with autohypnosis he got to work counting the missing bodies.
He was Kindness and he had to be Kind to all creatures and things, was he included in that he hoped not, he was failing that part.
Flying up on to the edge, mothers and daughters would be reunited, those alone even in death were welcome to the living, and those who had dues long overdue were restored, better than long before they ever arrived to this facility. He had to be kind and he had to be better or what would he be, nothing of what he learned was allowed to disturb him, to influence him or have power over him.
Weeping was heard all around the entire facility from guards and prisoners alike. He had to overlook those people, he had to take responsibility until the empires economy was fixed he had to feed them cloth them and make them do something better than destroy themselves.
"Who are you?"
"Your emperor if you accept me."
"Where did you come from?"
"Who knows?"
Not all questions he received would be answered but at least some of those who didn't watch the transmission weren't so on edge, only because they were told I was the new ruler and nothing else.
Some were waiting for the rug to be pulled from under them and to burn to death again, their minds weren't healed yet, and unless brainwashed it would take time, and maybe a long time in with they would be averse to all even themselves. He could understand their mistrust, he started the rescue and infiltration mission the second he learned of Wraths doing, Lusts transmission only accelerated the timetable.
There were still many places they had to help, more to rescue and so much to repair in this broken empire, he had to replace the main faith of a suicidal religion, or was that automatically replaced with himself. Lust most likely didn't even want to run this place so more work he had to pick up on, he had to wonder if he was just enabling Lust to get freaky with billions without any real repercussions.
Sitting on Gallowglasses force field while she technically was on all four, she was still levitating. And Rona was useless without a rod to use or other equipment still powerful just nowhere near even some of the other collected super individuals of the empire, she was mostly protected by her mother's influence and part of her knew but still thought about rebellion.
Lust should have maybe thought about what it meant to take over Wraths many hot messes, but still the thought about a future version of him reworking the timeline and retroactively change every single thing of reality certainly made sense when he thought about it. The child reality warper was in her thirties, and not a child or even a teen. The world's population while in favour of women should have men in it but he hasn't meet or even heard of one, certainly one of the moves he would pull if nobody was paying enough attention, now the actual question does the main mind care or does it stay passive. And how does global population control work, were do babies come from how are they made with no men around or was she supposed to take care of that in a few years months decades.
Nothing happened in the following minutes while Lust was ready to just get smitten to the face and disappear from reality only to be recreated slightly tweaked, just enough to no longer be a considered a downside.
Noel did not care he, his hand he wasn't going to pay attention to nor had conformation for possibly did something, in the future, and he wasn't to ask time about, he wasn't scared of her at all, he promised. Well Lust wasn't scared of her and therefor her assigned handler. Lust knew all of them knew what he knew the question was how much were his actions and comprehensions on their mind.