Relentless

Emperor Kruos sat at the largest window on his spherical ship, a telescope in his hands as he periodically looked down at the dwarf planet Prince Basileus was cleaning up for him.

"My, Prince Basileus has certainly gotten stronger as of recently," the emperor said to Ebari who was standing off to the side with a neutral expression on his delicate features. "Do you think he'll be able to overpower me when he's reached his full size?"

Ebari answered without a thought, "Of course not, sire. You've been honing your ability for nearly a century."

"If he finishes eradicating this planet in less than a week, I have no choice but to go down there and remind him of his place as my subordinate. Isn't that a wonderful idea, Ebari?"

"A wonderful idea," Ebari repeated, emotionlessly. The elf-like alien bowed for his master so he couldn't see the wavering expression on Ebari's face.

After speaking with Varya the night of the party, Ebari started wondering if she was developing feelings for the prince. It pained him to know she might be affected by Emperor Kruos's rough treatment of Basileus, but he was in no position to speak out against his master.

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On the dwarf planet, bloodshed ensued for three days straight. On the morning of the fourth day, the task was complete and Basileus and his men returned to their ship so they could rest.

The ship was small and spherical, a light grey metal with Emperor Kruos's geometric-looking crest on the side to signify their place in his army. It had a captain's room which was larger and five additional rooms for soldiers to rest in.

Basileus sat outside of the ship in front of a fire where he had started cooking an animal he had found in the forest. His stomach was growling and he was hungry more than he was tired, so he opted to eat rather than rest. He could tell his fire aura had worn out from overuse the past few days and his hands shook from fatigue with each movement he made.

The entire mission, he experienced such conflicting emotions, he hardly knew who he was anymore. Normally, surrounded by this type of carnage, his mind shut off and he acted on killing instinct alone. However, thoughts of a silver-haired woman kept creeping into his mind. He justified his murderous actions, telling himself he could get back to Planet Ptoma faster if he finished his mission quickly. Another part of his mind said that she would hate such a murderous beast and it would be better for him not to return at all.

The flames of the fire matched his eyes as he stared into it. He almost burned his food, he was so distracted. He was at a point where he would take any kind of meal at this point and started tearing into the meat, feeling better as his body became nourished again.

As he finished eating, an explosion rocked the surface of the planet and he dove away from the heat he felt behind him. The prince stood up on his feet and waited for the smoke and dust to clear.

The scene before him became more apparent and his eyes narrowed in confusion. The ship, with all of the low class soldiers resting inside, had been completely destroyed, leaving pieces of burnt metal scattered across the rocky surface of the planet. If he were to look closer, he would see bodies as well.

His head turned left and right as he tried to seek out the offender who stranded him here, but he saw nothing.

Laughter erupted over the communication device on his wrist and he felt sick, knowing exactly who caused this.

Emperor Kruos's ship warped above him and he lowered himself into a stance that would give him the opportunity to block an attack or spring away at a moment's notice. As expected, the gray skinned alien was beamed onto the ground in front of him.

"What is the meaning of this?" Basileus, who tried to normally stay calm around the emperor, snapped. "The men did their assigned tasks and were resting."

While he did kill without remorse, he was loyal to the men who had joined him in battle.

Emperor Kruos hadn't stopped laughing since he stepped foot on the rocky ground.

"Do you really think such an insignificant civilization as this would have the means to rebel against me?" the tyrant questioned Basileus and his skinny, nailed hand gestured to the city in the distance that was no more than houses carved into the side of a mountain and the occasional wooden structure.

The prince's eyes widened in horror, now realizing he had played into the tyrant's game and eradicated an entire planet of innocent beings. His anger started to surge inside of him and his fists clenched.

"I needed new training grounds, after all. I think we should test them out together." The tyrant's laughing ceased, and he took on an icy tone as he said, "After you made a fool of me in front of my brother and left the party early with that whore, I think you need reminding of your place, prince."

Emperor Kruos threw off the cape that had been covering his shoulders and revealed black armor over his usual dark-purple spandex suit.

With no warning, he easily broke through Basileus's protective stance and a burst of ice sharper than a dagger flew from the tyrant's hand, piercing the skin of the prince's arm and melting soon after.

Basileus sprung away, no time to think of the pain, and tried to engulf Kruos in flames. He hadn't completely recovered from the past couple of days and the attack was nowhere near as big as it should have been. His mistake was putting so much into the attack and depleting himself of his fire aura even more.

Basileus could still fight, but was going to have to rely purely on strength. Emperor Kruos's ice aura had been building for decades if not hundreds of years. His level of precision was not going to be easy to evade.

For two days, the fairness of the fight was similar to that of a fly trying to evade a blowtorch.

Basileus's skin had been pierced many times over with ice, only to have it melt, leaving bleeding holes all over his normally flawless, tanned skin. His back had been annihilated particularly badly as he did his best to evade the monster. Just when he thought he had nothing left in him, the tyrant would back off, giving the prince a chance to regain some energy, before going in with the ice attacks all over again.

The tyrant's ice aura was unbelievable and never seemed to waver. It was now day seven of Basileus being away from Planet Ptoma and Kruos threw an attack at Basileus that would have crushed him to death if he didn't throw a ball of fire in time. However, the measure that he used to save himself is what ultimately pushed him over the edge. His fire aura had completely depleted and he fell onto his knees, making eye contact with Kruos, knowing he was going to pass out.

The tyrant walked forward to the prince and loomed over him, a smirk on his pale features. He crouched down and took Basileus's chin in his hands.

"I win. I always do," Emperor Kruos whispered. "The way you look with blood covering your warm body, you're lucky I don't help myself to your precious virginity right now."

The emperor broke into a smile as consciousness left the prince and he fell forward. Kruos dropped the unconscious man before standing up to his full height and tasting the blood on his hand from Basileus's chin. His eyes closed in blissfulness.

Emperor Kruos sighed and opened his eyes, hearing his ship land in front of him. The door opened and one of his guards soon appeared. He asked the guard to take Basileus to the med bay as he walked inside the ship. He could really use a nice meal and cold bath after so many days of fighting. His mood was now contained and he felt the need to be pampered.