CHAPTER 369: VISIONS OF CARNAGE! II

Even hearing the name in this vision of the past sent ripples of unease through Achilles’ consciousness.

This was a power that made even these monsters- these Kings of the Virgo Stellar Expanse, speak with careful deference.

King Edmond smiled, the expression transforming his handsome features into something that belonged in nightmares.

With movements as casual as reaching for fruit, he grasped one of the crystalline beings by the arm and twisted, the sound of snapping bone mixing with the creature’s musical cries of agony. He brought the severed limb to his mouth and bit down, crystal flesh crunching between his teeth like spun sugar.

"The forces of the Sovereign Void Imperium barely tolerate our existence as it is," he said around his mouthful of sentient crystal, drops of luminescent blood spattering the golden table.

"Let us not give them a reason to wipe us out entirely. Their patience with lesser beings has limits, and I have no desire to test them."

HUUM!

The vision held, crystalline clear and utterly damning, as Achilles watched these self-proclaimed kings feast on the suffering of innocents while discussing tribute to powers even greater and more terrible than themselves!

The gaunt king across from Edmond leaned forward, his pale fingers drumming against the armrest of his throne in a rhythm that matched the desperate heartbeats of the bound victims.

His voice, when it came, was soft, cultured, and utterly without compassion.

"We need to expand our sphere of influence," he said, his crown of woven gold and shadow shifting like living smoke above his angular features. "If we could obtain two or three Planes of Existence, or perhaps ten Minor Worlds, that would constitute sufficient tribute. We simply must ensure our Regulation of Carnage..."

He paused, savoring the words like fine wine, "...does not eliminate everything in those Planes or Worlds before we present them as offerings."

HUUM!

King Edmond’s laughter filled the hall like the sound of breaking glass, beautiful and sharp enough to cut.

He raised his hand, and the air around it began to shimmer with power that made reality itself seem to recoil.

Purple-black energy coiled around his fingers like living serpents, and in that moment, Achilles understood what he was witnessing.

The Regulation of Carnage.

A Regulation!

He had known of Destiny, had wielded Time, had dipped into Space.

A Regulation was something fundamental.

A Regulation was reality itself bent to serve a singular purpose. It was the universe rewritten, its laws and constants altered to accommodate a new truth.

Like gravity pulling matter together, like time flowing forward, like space expanding into infinity- a Regulation became as natural and inescapable as the breath in one’s lungs.

Destiny was a Regulation- the binding of fate, the threads that connected all possible outcomes into the weavings of what must be.

Time was a Regulation- the river that carried all existence from past to future in its inexorable flow.

Space was a Regulation! It was the canvas upon which all things existed, the distance between stars and the void between atoms.

And Carnage...

Carnage was pure destruction elevated to law.

It was a Regulation to serve hunger, to transform suffering into sustenance, to make the consumption of sentient life as natural as breathing.

Under its influence, those who followed its dictates became living embodiments of entropy given purpose and direction.

Edmond’s entire form blazed with this profane authority, his handsome features lit by energies that existed to unmake, to devour, to transform the screams of the innocent into the sustenance of monsters. When he spoke again, his voice carried the weight of a Regulation behind it.

"We can all take the next few months to ensure we discover new worlds or planes to present as tribute," he said, and there was something chilling in the casual way he discussed such a horror.

His eyes gleamed with predatory anticipation as he continued, "I will only destroy and consume about half of each population, leaving the others intact. After all, the Sovereign Void Imperium prefers their tributes to include living, intelligent lifeforms."

HUUM!

The casual horror of it- the reduction of entire civilizations to mere percentages of acceptable loss...sent waves of revulsion through Achilles’ transformed consciousness.

The massive king with the crown of light-absorbing metal nodded, his voice a rumble.

"Of course. While we treat lifeforms as sustenance and tools for carnage, for them, intelligent lifeforms are commodities that can be traded and made profits from. Different purposes, same end result."

The distinction was lost on none of them- they were parasites feeding on suffering, while their masters were merchants dealing in souls. Both monstrous, but in entirely different ways.

The bronze-skinned woman licked the last traces of blood from her lips and smiled with the satisfaction of a predator that had already chosen its next meal.

"Then we are decided. We shall move with purpose and discover new worlds and Planes of Existence in the coming months to present as tribute to the Sovereign Void Imperium."

Nods of agreement passed around the circle like a dark benediction. The decision was made with the same casual indifference one might use to choose wine for dinner- except this dinner would consist of entire civilizations.

And then, as if the business portion of their gathering had concluded, they turned their full attention to the feast that awaited them.

The sound began as whispers- wet, sliding sounds that spoke of anatomy rearranging itself in ways that defied natural law.

Five mouths opened wider than any normal throat should accommodate, and from each emerged tentacles that writhed with their own obscene life.

Each appendage was studded with rows of jagged teeth that gleamed with hunger, dripping with saliva that hissed and steamed where it touched the golden altar.

The screams that followed were the breaking of spirits, the shattering of hope, the final moments of beings who had learned too late that the universe contained horrors beyond imagination.

The vision held for one more heartbeat, long enough for Achilles to see the true faces of his enemies revealed in all their monstrous glory, and then...

The purple light of Continuum Vision faded like a dying star, leaving him alone in the cosmic void with nothing but the memory of what he had witnessed and the growing storm of his own fury.

His expression had transformed into something that belonged among the stellar phenomena around him- cold as the void between galaxies, yet burning with an inner fire that promised retribution!

Around his transformed form, space itself began to respond to his emotional state, gravitational waves pulsing outward in patterns that spoke of controlled, calculating rage!