IMPERIUM INSECTUM

Apollinaris pov:

“Stop crying. It's pitiful,” I snapped. Ahab didn't respond; instead, the tears flowed harder and faster. Pathetic.

<Send in the child>, the order rang out to all the warriors. Honestly, I was hoping this would happen; it gives me an excuse to torment this bitch. Not that I need an excuse anyway.

“UNHAND ME. LET ME GO. DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM!> she hollered

Ahab instantly snapped awake. “NO. NOT HER ANYTHING-“

“Then start talking! I want to know the names of the people you spoke to and why.”

His eyes darted between me and the girl; “I can't... You dont understand, these people……. are powerful....”

I growled and looked at the warrior. Holding the girl hostage.

“Wait, WAIT! Please don’t hurt her! Please. I'll talk. Just-“

“Don't do it, Ahab-“ His brother chimed. I felt my eyes roll. “This mushy killed you’re wife. Don’t sully her name by giving into her thrEAGHHHHHHHHHH-“

The warrior moved on its own, its claws clamping around his hand and slowly crushing it with ease. I walked up to his brother and stared at him in his bloodshot eyes.

“Don’t interrupt me again, also if you call me a mushy one more time, it won't end well for you… Do….you……understand. ”

The man's eyes glared at me with hate, but his body betrayed him. The shivers and cold sweats down his face spoke the truth; he was petrified.

“Good. Now, where were we, Ahab?”

“Will you leave my-“

“TALK!” I snapped, “My patience is getting thinner by the second”

“Okay! Okay! The first thing you need to know is that I don’t know their name.”

“WHAT?” I yelled. The warrior holding him instantly clamped around His neck.

“ACCCKHHH Ahhhh Wait…..But I …… can ….. tell… you….His…emblem….”

His face started to go pale as the oxygen wicked away from his body. It was tempting to execute him here, but any information is better than none.

<Let him go.> Immediatley its arms loosened.

“explain and quickly”

“*cough* yes *cough* of course.”

An annoyed groan came out of my body. Can he hurry it up?

“*Cough, cough* I'll start, every member of the ministry has an emblem. Emblems are a way of uniquely identifying rank and the individual who holds it. The man you are looking for has a shield-shaped emblem with an arrow going through it. Studded with 12 diamonds. Each emblem is unique to each member of the ministry.”

“Okay, that’s something, I guess. Now answer the Why? Why did he come to you of all people? Nothing about this makes sense. Sending assassins to kill me just because I bumped into your daughter is too extreme even for you, pure spirits.”

“I……I don’t know”

“BULLSHIT. YOU MUST KNOW. ”

“It's true! Look, you must understand. All I wanted to do was send some people to rough you up and scare you a little. Sending those assassins, it was their idea! I HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. I DIDN’T WANT ANY OF THIS!”

“I don’t care about your damn excuses, Pure spirit! You talk like what your original plan was somehow better! What if those people you planned to hire took it too far and hurt me, raped me or hell, just killed me! You would still be just as guilty! Now stop your useless yapping and give me some useful information, or the dumb bitch gets it!”

On cue, the jagged claws of the combat unit sank into her flesh, causing her to scream wildly.

“STOP! STOP! Enough! I'm sorry.”

“Information! Now,” I snapped.

“There is one other man! He has a smiley face tattooed on the back of his hand. He was the person who actually ordered the hit”

“Explain…”

“I …I don’t know much. Not even a name, but what I do know is that he is part of one of the families down there. What he does for them, I don’t know, but from what I hear, he is a big name down there. So much so that nothing happens without him at least knowing about it”

So that confirms that part of her information. Now for the next part.

“How did you convince them to do the hit? I refused to believe he heard your story and suddenly felt sympathetic for you.”

“Honestly, I don’t know.”

I looked at Ahab and let out a deep sigh.

“That’s your final straw”, I looked towards the warrior towering over his brothers and nodded. Without missing a beat, the warrior kicked him to the ground, sending his head into the floor with speed. He groaned in deep pain, but the warrior didn’t care. Swiftly, it grabbed his arm.

“NO STOP! PLEASE, I’M SORRY,” Ahab begged, but I ignored him and urged the warrior to continue. The warrior twisted, causing a sharp POP to go through the room, followed by agonised screams from his brother as the warrior kept twisting. The sounds of flesh tearing bones snapping and blood splattering onto the floor filled the hall until, with one sharp pull, the warrior tore the arm clean off.

Ahab watched as his brother's body suddenly went limp as the pain put him into shock. The warrior, however, didn’t even notice as it threw the arm into its mouth and ate it in 2 big bites. The taste of blood ignited the warrior's bloodlust as he pounced on his body and tore it asunder. Blood splattered on its armour and the floor. Chunks of pink flesh and organs splattered onto us and his daughter. Ahab tried to close his eyes. Instantly, I moved behind him and held his eyes open wide for him to watch as, moment by moment, more of his brother disappeared into the belly of the warrior.

“I hope you understand. If you say that one more time, your daughter will suffer an even more gruesome fate. That is a promise”

Ahab stared at the scene as the once yellow warrior slowly turned a deep shade of crimson. His eyes fell on his daughter, and the realisation hit him.“Just kill me. Please. That’s what you want. Leave my family alone, and you can do whatever to me.”

I rolled my eyes. This man, everything he does pises me off. However, maybe I can use this.

“How about this, Ahab?” I said, moving around to face him, “ If you tell me everything, I'll spare your daughter.”

“Really?!”

“Of course. You will die here and now. But your flesh and blood will still live on. That’s something at least.”

“I don’t-…I”

“DAD DON’T!” the daughter yelled. “You can't trust a word she MMMMPHHHH” The warrior holding her wrapped its claw around her mouth, shutting her up.

“I recommend you shut up, girl, unless you want to end up as your uncle” I looked back towards Ahab. Panic plastered across his face. Too easy.

“What do you do, Ahab…. Clocks ticking, you have 10 seconds to decide.”

“What! That’s”

“10”

“No stop”

“9,8,7,6……”

“JUST WAIT! DO BE SO HASTY”

“3,2.1”

“I AGREE! DAMMIT I AGREE!”

A small chuckle escaped from me. “Good. Now tell me. Why. Why would the royal family go through all this? Just for one moon spirit. It doesn’t make sense. Any of it”

Ahab looked at his daughter and dropped his head. “It’s the queen.”

“Yes….Elaborate…”

“To be the leader of the Spirits, you have to have a unique ability. This ability is a closely guarded secret among the top.”

“And what is this ability?”

“The ability to glimpse into the future, to prophesy”

“What, that’s ludicrous." Is he making this up? That’s not possible. Then again, a lot of what diva says seems impossible.

“I thought the same, but that’s what the man with the emblem told me. This ability is one that only the royal family possesses.”

“How do they do it? How do they prophecy? What magic do they use?”

“It isn't magic. Something related to the bloodline itself. What we do know is that each member does it differently. The previous leader would have fits, and during those fits, he would see the future, whilst our current queen gets them in dreams. “

“Let me guess. She had one recently”

“It's more complex than that. A long, long time ago, and we are talking several generations ago. The then leader prophesied of a moon's spirit in control of armies of monsters, unleashing destruction on the city; Said moon spirit would kill without remorse or sympathy; man, woman, child, all of them were just lambs for the slaughter. I didn’t believe it when he told me. But here it is. Staring me in the eyes. This prophecy was passed down for generations and treated as a warning; however, nothing happened until recently, when the now-sitting queen had a dream, a dream that retold the prophecy.”

That raises even more questions if I am the moon spirit in the prophecy. How did they know to come after me specifically? I'm just one moon spirit in an ocean of thousands.

“How interesting…. Final question. How do they know I escaped?”

“He didn’t say…….All I can do is speculate”

“Then speculate…”

“I can't…..I just can't…. I'm tired…. Just let it end already….”

Ahab shut down completely. I looked out the window. The glimmer of dawn was starting to show. I want to push him more, but we can't stay here much longer. Moving this many units is best done under the cover of darkness. Kidnapping would be nice, but annoyingly, the ministry knows him. If they find out he is missing, not dead, they might chase after me, trying to shut him up. Yes… It's best they believe they all died. Besides, it works in my favour; it makes it look more like petty revenge than intel gathering.

“Thank you, Ahab,” I said, moving up close to his face. I gently cupped his face and lifted it up.

“You were very useful….”

“My daughter….”

“Yes… I'll make sure she lives an interesting life…” I felt my fangs drop instantly, my vision changed, and blue channels glowed under his skin. Tasty blue channels that called to me. Before I knew it, my fangs were buried in his neck.

His mana burned with an intense but delicious heat. Like eating a fiery curry or something similar

I felt my mana swell as I slowly ingested more and more. This is incredible! Why don’t I do this more?!

I drank more and more until suddenly it stopped. Why? I was enjoying that. I opened my door and was met with a wrinkled, shrivelled-up corpse. Ah. How could I forget? I dropped him onto the ground.

I looked out the window. The sun hadn't risen yet, but it was getting close. I turned around and locked eyes with the girl. Tears stream from her eyes as I move closer.

“Wipe your tears. It's revolting.”

“SHUT UP! I'll KILL YOU FOR THIS. ON MY FAMILY'S NAME I'LL MAKE YOU WISH YOU WERE NEVER BORN!”

I chuckled, “How pleasant. I promised your father I wouldn’t kill you, but that doesn’t mean I'll treat you nicely either”

My attention fell on the nearby warrior. “If it isn't too much of a bother”

The warrior nodded and easily slung her over its shoulder as we headed out.

“Oh, how could I forget?” I rummaged in one of my pockets and pulled out the business card I was given.

“Just pour mana and leave it at the scene. That’s what she said, didn’t she?” Mana flowed from my fingertips into the card, causing it to glow a bright green. I dropped it on the floor and left the building, where several workers were waiting for me in the front yard. I called one of the others and patted his head.

< I've got a gift for diva. Tell her she can be especially rough with this one>

The worker nodded as the warrior dropped her on the floor. Quickly, the worker sprayed wax onto her legs and arms before quickly grabbing her with its claws and taking off.

My eyes fell on the nearby spitter. < Follow them. If she tries anything, execute her.” Quickly, the spitter took off.

<Right, everyone, thank you for tonight, it's been fun. Now let's head home…”

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