Prologue

'Is this the end?'

"PRINCESS!" A loud yet polite call brought out the teenage girl from her mental reverie. She turned back to see the kneeling warrior - a San Soothsayer, one of the strongest among the strong who was her personal guardian appointed by her father.

This old soothsayer, whom she politely called her uncle as he had been with her since her birth, today looked unrecognizable. The old wrinkled face that was an embodiment of strength and pride today looked too feeble, despite wearing the heavy armor of a warrior.

The man she had always seen with a gleam of self-confidence, was now kneeling before her with eyes devoid of any hope. The crushing weight of their grim reality had long erased any sense of pride in his heart. It was the dawn of a nightmare for her.

The princess of the soon-to-be defeated kingdom wanted to provide some solace to this kind elder. But to her astonishment, she found her voice quivering. Before too late, she hurriedly shut her mouth to reveal the state of her heart.

"PRINCESS! Please…. provide all the remaining people of the palace your orders."

The man who appeared to have lost his spirit, thundered suddenly. It was unknown how but he managed to gather all remaining vestiges of his crumbled spirit to make himself appear worthy - one last time. Fully aware of the implication of his words, the old man tried to make himself appear heartless but was still unable to look upwards to meet eyes with his Princess.

"Don't worry, Uncle. It is my sworn duty to carry this burden into the afterlife along with you all."

A slightly sad voice ringed into the ears of the man, but by the end it had become as cold as the voice of the ruler of the kingdom ought to be. And this was the final breaking point for the heart of an old man.

'Agne….'

The feeble girl of seventeen years took a step forward, bypassing the guardian who was on verge of breaking down. Though she could see it, she made herself ignore it.

Agnes Cross was surprised yet proud of herself at this moment, she had thought that fear of death would have her at her knees any time now, but the spark of dying fire in her uncle's voice in turn fueled the fire of royal blood within her veins, not realizing that this blazing fire also burned away the remaining innocence of childhood.

Agnes's green eyes turned cold along with her heart, as she stepped out of the Royal Court and advanced towards the balcony of her Cross palace, the heart of the city in seige. In the absence of her brothers, royal uncles and of course her Father - the Cross King, as the eldest Princess it was her duty as King regent for leading the last stand of her falling kingdom.

With each of her steps, the crowd behind her began to swell with all remaining Survivors and people of royal families, not only including soldiers but also palace servants and maids who had decided to stay back instead of escaping along with women and children. They were all ready to burn themselves away in the lead of this princess, who was carrying the fate of the Cross kingdom on her feeble shoulders alone.

"My subjects, soldiers and servants who are still loyal to the kingdom and King Cross. The people who feel that the Cross kingdom has done justice to their lives, who feel that the Cross King had always shown kindness to them and protected them from harm. It is time to repay the kindness of the very Empire that had given us all of our lives

In this final hour of my Kingdom's era, I, Princess Regent Agnes Cross, call all of you to sacrifice your souls, along with mine to the goddess of war.

I, Princess Agnes, command you to step up. Step up and offer your lives for the last stand of the falling kingdom. To show these bloodthirsty and cruel invaders that even if Cross Kingdom is destined to die it has the capability to take some of these sinners of nation to the grave with us.

To show them we people of Cross kingdom, will..."

Suddenly the sound of a crash came from the front, cutting Agnes' speech short as a soldier rushed from outside in a hurry and stumbled to his knees in front of the Princess. Guardian's uncle wanted to take a step forward to protect her, but Agnes raised her hand to stop him.

"Are they here?"

Her indifferent eyes bore an unseen pressure on the terrified soldier but contrastingly it made him calm down a little from his earlier panicked emotion. He hurriedly bowed and explained the situation to her.

"My Princess. Close to three hundred enemy men have broken through the Castle wall, they have already started pushing inside. The palace guards and a few servants are stopping them with their lives to buy the princess … some time to escape."

Agnes found her brows furrowed to such quick advancement of enemy troops, but soon her face cleared as it was inconsequential. Without a word, she stepped forward and finally reached the balcony from where the palace overlooked the whole capital city.

From here, she could see the burning city in the dark night and chaos caused by hordes of terrifying shouting of the invading army. If that wasn't enough to make one lose his heart from terror, far into some distance just outside city walls, one could see nearly five thousand enemy soldiers encircling city gates, determined to not let even one Survivor of the royal family escape.

'At Least they don't intend to murder the innocent civilians….' Thought Agnes.

The Guardian witnessing the hopeless situation felt the mood of the crowd dampening rapidly, but it was imminent in this situation. Before he could even say anything, he heard the indifferent voice of the Princess which seemed to slice a thousand cuts in his heart.

"Uncle, is it ready?"

Tears finally broke from the eyes of the old man as he sobbed, not caring about his image in front of all the people present. He wanted to burst out crying, saying many things but in the end, watching the mature face of the girl standing before him all he could manage was,

"Agnes, Uncle is very very sorry. We all are very sorry. This burden of blood, How could you ...."

A cold thin hand grabbed his shoulder stopping him from falling down, as Agnes pulled him forward into her embrace. Her eyes trembled violently, threatening to release tears that she had been holding back for some time. But ultimately she pushed him away.

"Don't worry uncle. It's just death, what is to be afraid of? And I am here not alone doing this… all of you are with me to do our duty as part of the royal family."

She consoled but the Shaking of the old man instead of stabilizing further destabilize. He wanted to speak out, because this was the final moment, a final chance to come clean but…..

It was too late. Next second without any delay, Princess Agnes jumped from the balcony towards the darkness.

In the cacophony of the destruction of the city, a clear bell-like laughter resounded, and for a moment it suppressed the chaos of the city owing to its magical nature. The cold yet sorrow-infused laugh of the young girl reverberated through the whole city, even reaching the outskirts of the city to the main camp of enemy soldiers.

"At this moment of bloody dusk of my kingdom, let you all accompany my kingdom into the bowels of the earth. Let lives of the last of the Cross kingdom be exchanged with all of you…..

MY CROSS KINGDOM WILL NOT FALL WITHOUT BLOOD OF INVADERS!

Soul Sacrifice!"

*************************************

Nearly two days later, far away in the main battlefield where two armies of the kingdoms were fighting a heavily contested battle. In the main camp of the enemy side, it was an occasion of leisure and joy.

Right then a messenger soldier walked inside with his head bowed low, breaking the atmosphere of the ongoing banquet. Inside the large festive draped tent, a banquet which was being held with various generals of ranks enjoying wine and delicacies, for their predestined victory, was stopped due to sudden unannounced intrusion.

"My APOLOGIES GENERAL. THIS SOLDIER BRINGS EMERGENCY MESSAGE!"

One general burped in a chuckle as he put his wine glass down to address the messenger.

"Finally the messenger is here. We have been waiting for you since yesterday.

Come on, quickly, tell us that the enemy palace is raised to the ground and the Cross kingdom is no more. As for prisoners…"

"PLEASE GENERAL!"

The sudden and unexpected shout of the messenger hurriedly sobered every one of the people present there. The discipline of the main army of a large empire was displayed as the people inside the tent immediately sensed something wrong.

Sensing the right atmosphere, messenger continued with low voice,

"Sir, we had almost taken over the palace. The resistance of hundred-something soldiers was like paper in front of our five thousand-strong army. But when we breached the palace and were about to take the princess captive…the enemy in the palace used some kind of inhumane sacrifice and…"

A gloomy Look appeared on the face of the lead general who quickly interjected,

"And what?"

"Our five thousand soldiers were killed on the spot, along with the whole of the city. From the preliminary investigation we carried, it is determined that the ten thousand residents of the city along with the Princess and the remaining royal family, offered their souls to a very powerful 'San Artifact' and exchanged them for the lives of our five thousand soldiers"

'SHATTER!'

The chair broke into pieces as the lead general stood up with anger visible on his face, along with all other generals who were a beat late. Not wanting to delay the message any further soldier continued uninterrupted.

"The whole army is wiped off. And not only them, but the whole capital has now become a ghost city with lifeless unharmed corpses scattered everywhere. There is no living thing remaining in the radius of ten kilometers of the city. It has become a complete ghost city."

After a brief span of silence, the sound of teeth grinding in anger could be heard in the camp.

"How Cruel! They didn't even spare the civilians. Very cruel of you, Cross king."

The lead general immediately turned to his side and commanded the left general.

"Enough playing around. Issue retreat to our training recruits. Give orders for the main soothsayer army to wipe them out of the battlefield. Do not leave even a single prisoner alive. I want these cruel monsters to be killed to not leave a single intact corpse behind.

Empire's blood is not something these vermin could exchange for."