CHAPTER 57: ALL HAIL EMPEROR JULIAN!

The punch cracked the ground a bit and then, the wind rolled in air and before the soldiers could think of what was happening...

Whoosh!

They got yanked off their feet and plunged backwards, very far from where Julian was. Very far and very backwards.

They hit the floor with a sickening sound. Well, it was nothing too severe (haha), just the sound of them dying.

The vehicles they came with were also out of the way and that gave Julian time to run towards the commander who was trying to run away.

If the commander was to face Julian, he would at least know how tough he was instead of just running away.

Julian found it very silly.

The commander was now a weakling.

How pathetic!

Julian grabbed him by the neck and plunged to the skies.

Hellfott soldiers halted, staring at Julian with their governor in the sky.

Julian only frowned and as they were staring at him, it deepened.

He wasn’t wasting time. He summoned the costral blade and now looked more fixedly at the people beneath him.

Surprisingly, there seemed to be no battle or spaceship in the sky.

This gave Julian a lead against them.

He looked at the building, the soldiers he sent to bring the dead governor’s head had not returned.

"Look at your commander!" Julian shouted to the crowd watching him from below.

While Drayyors soldiers clapped and cheered, Hellfott soldiers were in shock, some that had earlier been shooting halted when they saw that some bullets were meeting the feet of their commander instead of Julian.

The commander grunted in pain.

"Pardon me, I beg of you."

Julian looked at him in disgust. He wasn’t pardoning anybody, nobody whatsoever was he pardoning.

He flew up to the skies with the commander. So high they were at the clouds and then immediately they reached the tip, Julian summoned the costral blade and, saying to the commander:

"Next time, try to die more bravely."

The soldier wriggled, death was near, he wanted to pull out of it.

Julian wouldn’t let him.

With a mighty swerve, he chopped his head off.

The veins snapped with a sickening stretch—

Snap!

Blood spiraled out like a firework, dyeing the air red as the head tore off clean. Julian didn’t blink.

The commander’s head—freshly cut, eyes still wide in that terrified, almost comedic shock—slipped from his hand.

Down it went.

Spinning.

Twirling.

A drop of blood hanging like a tear from the tip of his nose.

The soldiers below watched, stunned, their necks tilted upward, mouths slightly open as the head came tumbling down from the heavens like some kind of cursed offering from the gods.

"He’s chopped his head off!" half of them shouted, surprised.

The head kept falling...

Whoosh.

Down.

Down.

It whistled through the air like a thrown stone, the wind screaming past its ears.

It spun like a slow wheel—slow enough for every one of those Hellfott bastards to see it. To know it. To feel it.

This wasn’t just death.

This was DISGRACE!

And they could only watch, see their governor’s head chopped off like it’s nothing and now fall towards their direction.

They literally watched their governor die before their eyes. What could be more disgraceful than this?

The almighty Hellfott commander, head chopped off and falling to the ground.

Finally, the commander’s head slammed into the floor with a nasty—

Crkksshhhhh!!

Skull cracked. Nose shattered. The head bounced once, then rolled like a loose fruit, stopping at the feet of one of the Hellfott captains who just—stood there, frozen and shaking.

Then Julian let the body go.

It dropped like a sack of filth.

Thud.

Right beside the head.

Blood pooled and connected them like it was trying to stitch the pieces back together.

Julian hovered in the sky, staring down at the army of broken will. His Mech armor gleamed in the light. His chest rose. His fists were clenched.

No words were needed.

This was Aura.

This was what Julian had always carried in mind. The thing he wanted to do to the Imperium.

This felt good. Really good. It felt like revenge in some sort of way. It felt like he had accomplished something.

And yes, this was not what heroes do. This is very well far from it. Heroes do not behave like this. Heroes do not kill, heroes instead save life.

Seems you have to go read the synopsis all over again. Julian wasn’t a hero, he wasn’t a villain either, because his intention isn’t to harm.

He didn’t wake up one morning and decide to harm and kill people like it was nothing.

No!

Julian wasn’t like that. Of course, to the Hellfotts he would seem like some sort of villain, he didn’t care.

He was a villain to the Hellfotts and a hero to Drayyorsains.

Now this is where this all makes sense.

Julian was more of an anti-hero. Only that he wasn’t an anti-hero even.

An anti-hero is a hero with flaws whose aim is to do good, but not in the traditional way. Someone that was likely to kill to do a good thing.

Julian wasn’t that. His aim for this whole stuff isn’t to do good, rather to take revenge on the Imperium.

But it’s not all about revenge, along the line he’ll have to do good which makes him lean closer to an anti-hero.

And conquering the Imperium of Archos. Well, that will be a tough nut to crack. It would take time but he was sure he would do it, even if it was the last thing he ever did in his life.

"All hail the new governor!" Drayyors soldiers started to shout.

Julian expected Hellfott soldiers to do same.

And if they were thinking otherwise, he didn’t need to stress himself...

They just had to look at the head.

But then, still, they were not assured he was their new leader.

Julian pondered on the reason for that.

Suddenly, the reason came. The chanting of his name was halted.

A loud, engine-like sound.

Everyone looked up. Julian turned, narrowing his eyes.

A monstrous warship was descending from above, its engine scream drowning every whisper of wind. It came blazing through the sky, hovering just above the battlefield like it owned the place.

Gasps followed.

"That’s our governor!" one soldier screamed.

"H-His Excellency!" another cried, dropping to a knee.

The ship’s cannons powered up, red energy swirling at the tips. Its presence was like a demon in steel—powerful, terrifying, regal.

Julian sighed.

Damn!

He had totally forgotten about the governor of Hellfott. It was not that he was expecting one. How was the governor here?

Julian sighed again, he was simply tired of fighting, he needed to rest. And the governor coming like this, making his entrance known. Did he think this was a children’s cartoon or something?

Julian could see his ugly face by the window in the spaceship. He consulted Xea.

"Know how I can explode this spaceship."

’[Well,]’ Xea said. ’[You can actually. You’ve done a lot of stuff these few hours you’ve gotten an upgrade in your system. When you’re less busy you can check your stats. As for now, just shoot with the Mech Rifle. You’ve gotten a boost. It should explode the spaceship and end this quickly.]’

Julian simply summoned his Mech Rifle. His system flared.

[System Notification: Boost Module Activated – MEGA BURST MODE]

He nodded in the affirmative. Finally, his system was very useful.

His rifle grew larger in his hands. Glowing, an orange light of pure energy wrapped around it. The air around him snapped, cracked, vibrated.

He eyed the spaceship. The governor didn’t know what was about to meet him.

He aimed once.

And—

BOOOOOM!

The blast tore through the air with the scream of a thousand burning souls. A giant beam of golden energy launched from his rifle, slicing straight through the ship like a god’s sword.

Kaboooooooooooooom!

The governor’s spaceship burst into a volcano of fire mid-air. Flames engulfed the skies. Screams from inside never got the chance to escape.

Bits of metal rained down like confetti. A wing slammed into the ground.

THUD!

The parts fell and then, the spaceship’s nameplate clattered to the dirt near the headless commander.

Silence.

Julian looked at the Hellfott soldiers. He noticed they had been too shocked to call the name of the governor in his last moments.

The Drayyorsain soldiers?

Well, they were shouting and hugging each other.

Officially, the war was over, unless the remaining soldiers wanted to die.

But then, one of the Hellfott soldiers dropped his gun and fell to his knees.

Another followed.

And then the next.

They all went down—one by one.

Hands raised.

Voices trembling. "All... All hail..."

Julian stared at them, the smoke from his rifle still curling through the air.

"All hail Emperor Julian!" they screamed.

And they kept screaming it.

Over and over.

Louder.

Even the Drayyorsain soldiers joined in, banging their fists to their chests in salute.

"ALL HAIL EMPEROR JULIAN!"

Julian stood there in the sky, face unreadable behind the helmet.

Inside though?

He grinned.

Emperor?

He thought he was governor. Well, emperor was dope...