“LOOK AT YOU,” LORD-EMPEROR VEXAS HATEFULLY HISSED as he looked down upon the palen, crackled-skinned corpse of the recently executed Lord-King Luxor Pronos.

  Located in the Cargo Hold level in the Hull of the Decimator, Ventrix continued to glare at the Guardinian Lord-King’s mutilated carcass, which was now wrapped up in white medical tunic… STAINED AT ITS MIDSECTION WITH HIS BLUE BLOOD.

  “You have been left with nothing, Pronos… NOTHING,” the Lord-Emperor seared. “All by my doing, of course. For your EXTINGUISHING of my father’s life-force I have personally extinguished YOURS in return. So long, I have waited for this moment… SO VERY THRACKING LONG.”

  With his hands interlocked behind his lower back, Lord-Emperor Vexas stood astutely whilst he informed, “My family hails from a long line of warriors. However, my first ancestors were not royalty… THEY WERE SCAVENGERS. Virtually currenless urchins living in hapless squalor under the oppressive rule of the legendary Galactic Marauder-Warlord Rafon Ledo and his band of life-forceless S.I. Combat-Units back when the ‘Verse was still young. The Vexan Race… MY PEOPLE were NOTHING. That was the truth… The terrible truth until a ‘glimmer of hope’ befell upon us from the ‘cosmic heavens’: THE PYRAMID OF POWER.

  “After watching our race suffer and toil under Ledo’s deranged and tyrannical rule, the High-Elders themselves decided to lend their ‘astral hand’ by bestowing us the Unlimited Power Source. With the Pyramid, my ancestors banded together and rose from the brink of extinction to fight back against Ledo… Much like your people did on Guardinas so long ago. Heh, heh... Tis truly amusing how much our races were alike, Pronos. Tis the ONLY THING that we ever had in common with one another.”

  “So, after overthrowing Ledo and SMASHING his Combat-Units into raxx, my ancestors took control of our world and gave it a name after their own… VEXAS. Then on, for TWENTY TOTAL DYNASTIES, my family flourished in the kingdom of which they had created for themselves. In GRAND THANKS to the Pyramid, we had the best weaponry, armies, and the most advanced technology the Known Universe had ever witnessed thus far… BUT IT WAS NOT ENOUGH. NOT TO MY FATHER.

  “AFTER FIVE THOUSAND CYCLES of peace and prosperity, my father had become Vexas’s THIRTIETH sole-supreme-ruler. Then known as ‘Lord-King Validax’, my father sought to make a grander name for himself… FOR OUR PEOPLE in the ‘Verse. Far grander than any of his predecessors had ever dreamed to accomplish. In order to achieve such a grand act, my father wanted to make his rule known to every single sentient life-form that dwelled within the Known Twenty-Four… And the infinite amount that lied beyond it.

  “CONVERTING OUR KINGDOM INTO AN EMPIRE, my father remade himself as the FIRST VEXAN LORD-EMPEROR and immediately dispatched his entire ‘Wartrooper Horde’ all across the galactic starways… CONQUERING EVERY COLONY, KINGDOM, DOMINION, HEGEMONY, AND EMPIRE THAT THEY CAME ACROSS.

  “After each conquest, my father’s Empire grew more powerful. He became so hungry for power and reverence that he started to search for other ways to gain more of both. My father wanted to be as powerful as the High-Elders and right as he neared the end of the seemingly impossible task the unthinkable happened…

  “Whilst my father and his horde added to his ‘legacy of blood’ across the cosmos, the High-Elders had been keeping a watchful eye over him and all of the unspeakable atrocities he had committed with the Pyramid as his primary source of power. For this, the High-Elders had decided to ‘punish’ my father… But not with death. No. Death would have been a ‘gift’. INSTEAD, they STRIPPED HIM, OUR RACE, and WORLD of the Unlimited Power Source… DECIMATING everything that my ancestors had worked so thracking hard to build through HUNDREDS of decade-cycles in a single instant.

  “Without the Pyramid, planet Vexas was a drained rock destined for imminent ruin. Knowing that he had little time to save our race from extinction, my father gathered up what was left of his horde and journeyed out across the Known Universe in search of the Unlimited Power Source… Hoping to reclaim what was RIGHTFULLY OURS.

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  “A short time after his search’s beginning, my father discovered the Pyramid’s true location: GUARDINAS. Tis seemed that the High-Elders did the same thing with your race as they did with mine, Pronos… Only with the hopes of a less ‘destructive’ outcome, I’m certain.

  “Upon learning of this, my father instantly invaded your world. He thought it would have been an ‘easy feat’ to retake the Pyramid… But he did not expect ‘who’ was waiting for him.

  “My father and his forces were instantly met with the might of the High-Elders’ newly created personal warriors: THE GUARDIANS, who were made with the SOLE PURPOSE to protect and defend the Pyramid from all those who seek to ‘abuse’ its power. Urgh… What a load of raxx.

  “Having NEVER FACED such a mighty… AND GODLY force, my father and his horde were immediately defeated by the Guardians. Though five were slaughtered in the ensuing battle, two Guardian Warriors survived.”

  Getting in King Luxor’s covered face now, Lord-Emperor Vexas scorned, “‘TWAS YOU, PRONOS! You were the Guardian who destroyed my father, nearly caused our species to go extinct, and sent our world even FURTHER into chaotic ruin!!!”

  Lurching back after screaming in the dead Lord-King’s face, Ventrix in a calmer and collected sounding tone, “But alas… Something ‘grand’ did arise from the ashes of ruin and defeat. WHEN I CAME OF AGE I took my father’s place as the new Lord-Emperor of the still standing and forever eternal Vexan Empire with MY BROTHERS standing by my side.

  “When I first took the royal, imperial Vexan Throne, I swore to my father’s life-force that I would avenge his death and make our Empire and people stronger and more powerful than ever… AND I SHALL CONTINUE TO DO AS THRACKING SUCH!!!”

  Gently placing his right, gloved hand on King Luxor’s covered forehead, Ventrix stated, “I do not care for your plans, Pronos. The Last Guardian… DEXIUS SOLAS and his six aeshlaran allies pose no threat to me or my Horde. Sure, they may have slain one of my hundreds of Mawls… BUT WHO THRACKING CARES??? They are but MINDLESS BEASTS whereas I am one of, if not, the MOST intelligent mind in the whole Known Twenty-Four… AND THE WHOLE KNOWN UNIVERSE.

  “I excel at warfare and battle strategy, as do each of my brothers… SO THEY CAN TRY TO THRACKING OPPOSE US. THEY CAN TRY TO OPPOSE MY HORDE… But none of that matters… FOR IN THE END, PRONOS, TIS THE VEXAN EMPIRE AND RACE THAT SHALL COME OUT ON THRACKING TOP!”

  Bringing up his right hand from King Luxor’s head and balling it up into a tightened fist, the wicked tyrant powerfully proclaimed. “Tis shall be I, LORD-EMPEROR VENTRIX VEXAS, who will DESTROY the Guardians and righteously return the Pyramid of Power back to my people and world! With the Pyramid’s Unlimited Power I shall become a god! AND NO ONE WILL BE ABLE TO STOP ME! THRACKING NO ONE!!!!!!!!”

  “LORD-EMPEROR VEXAS… Your presence has been requested to the Primary Docking Bay… AT ONCE,” called out Commander Thoran through the Cargo Hold’s Intercom System, breaking the ‘momentum’ Ventrix had been building up towards his whole time alone with King Luxor’s Corpse. “The Lord-Prince Axius has just returned from his journey to planet Skilia.”

  “WELL … Tis has been an ‘honor’, Pronos,” Ventrix said with distaste lingering heavily in his voice. “THOUGH WE SHALL FOREVER BE ENEMIES I still wish you ‘grand tidings’ in your journey to the Outer-World. DO NOT FRET. You will not be alone much longer. I shall send your daughter and Solas to join you soon enough. Heh, heh, heh...”

  Backing away from the fallen lord-king’s corpse, Ventrix turned to the Cargo Hold Tech Crew that monitored the station on the other side of a triple-thick paned sheet of impenaglass.

  “I am done here,” Lord-Emperor said to the Tech Crewmen in a sour tone. “GET RID OF THIS THRACKING GUARDINIAN TRASH!”

  The Tech Crew confirmed their Lord-Emperor’s command with a joint-head nod as they started to prep the hold’s hatchway door to pry open.

  Entering the elevator that led out of the Cargo Hold, Lord-Emperor Vexas turned around to face Pronos’s Corpse one final time.

  Once the elevator doors had slid shut, Ventrix watched through a circular, impenaglass window as the Cargo Hold hatchway doors started to open.

  With the hold now left defenseless against the vacuum of Outer Space, Ventrix watched in demented glee as King Luxor’s shrouded body spurted out into the Grand Void instantaneously.

  Once the Lord-King’s body had been sucked out of the ship, the Tech Crewmen closed the hatchway doors, bringing a big and twisted grin to the Lord-Emperor’s slime-coated face.