End of the Kingdom

Dominic looked over his shoulder to check the source of the noise. One of the windows was broken, with something entering the room. The main thing was that wasn’t a demon. The person stood up and looked towards Dominic. Then towards Ulrich and Lainey lying on the floor.

“Excuse me, was this you?” He asked, his British accent dripping in utter sophistication.

Dominic turned around to get a good look at this guy. Jet black hair to match his smart tuxedo, with his right eye being blocked out of view by his hair.

“Tryhard.” Dominic muttered under his breath, trying to hold his laughter.

“That hair of yours isn’t blocking your ears, is it?” The man asked, lighting a cigarette. “Is this your doing?”

“It is!” Dominic replied enthusiastically. “The two on the floor are my humble assistants. He had a tough battle against the king, but we won the day. Now, observe!”

He confidently stepped aside and revealed the kings dying body.

The man’s eye widened, and he almost swallowed his cigarette. “You killed the king? Wait, weren’t you that man who threatened him a bunch of times?”

“Sure am!” Dominic replied. “How does it feel to be the first to bask in my oh so successful glory?”

“To be honest, I didn’t think you were real.” The man replied calmly. “Your story is so ridiculous, I just thought you were a tourist thing.”

“The people can think whatever of me.” Dominic replied with his best attempt at an evil laugh. “For I am about to land the killing strike!”

He turned to the king, raising his axe for what better be the last time today, ready to land the killing strike. But the man struck him in the side of his stomach with a single punch. He felt like the secrets of time revealed themselves before leaving just as quick once the impact was made. He was left tumbling across the floor. His axe was thrown into the air, and the man casually caught the blade in his hand. No blood, no reaction. He just casually tossed it to Dominic’s side.

“A death like this is too good for you.” He snarled towards the king.

Dominic tried to get back up, but whatever this guy landed on him screwed up his senses. He tried to move his right leg down, but his left leg would go left. All he could do was watch as rage looked to consume the face of the new guy.

“And so ends your reign. Maria sends her regards.”

Lewis snarled something Dominic couldn’t hear. He just watched as the guy stubbed his cigarette on one of his eyes, causing him to scream out in pain. He then watched as his hands were wrapped in some kind of white energy, before he started pummelling the king. He watched as his skull was pierced and the wall behind him was painted red with white spots. When he was done, the king wasn’t recognizable. The man walked back towards the broken window, giving it a thumbs up.

Two figures jumped from the window. One was a younger looking guy with short blonde hair, a sword, and a white dress shirt with a black t-shirt underneath, followed by a blonde girl with a blue shirt with gold spirals on it. The blonde guy looked horrified at what happened, while the other girl just said "Damn, they actually went for it. Hey Bart, they have the gem?"

But just as Dominic’s senses came back, the realization hit him on who this was. These were the guys Ulrich and Lainey were talking about.

“Hey, Bart!” Dominic yelled.

“It’s Bartholomew.” He replied calmly, walking up towards him. He was slightly taller than Dominic, and already looked disinterested in what he was about to say.

“Like I care, dickhead!” Dominic yelled with an accusatory point of his finger. “You know how hard it is to find killable royalty these days? He’s one of like, seven! What gives you assholes the right to kill him like that when I did all the work?”

Bartholomew looked at him with confusion as he continued ranting, looking back towards Gene and Vivian having their own argument.

“I feel the need to ask you something.” He cut in. “Did you have an actual reason for wanting the king dead?”

“Yeah, dummy! The start of my glamorous career of blood and glamour! A world of beauty intertwined with danger, where I emerge the progenitor of a millennium defining criminal empire!”

“So it’s a status thing?” Bartholomew asked. “Look kid. I had actual reasons for doing what I did. Go play killer somewhere else, we have a job to do.”

He picked up the sceptre and snapped it over his knee. The black gemstone fell out of its holder. He picked it up and went back to the other two.

“Are we done here?” He asked calmly, but Gene and Vivian were still at each other’s throats.

“Look, I know you consider them our enemies, but they’re good people! They don’t deserve to die, anyway!”

“They made their choices, Gene. I said I’d kill them next time I saw them.”

“That isn’t needed!” Gene yelled back, grabbing her shoulders. “Trust me, we’ll all be working together by the end of this.”

“Bart, could you back me up here?” Vivian asked, exasperated.

“It’s Bartholomew. And I don’t have enough reference to make a decision.”

“Pick one.” Vivian demanded.

“Well, the blonde one is annoying, but I don’t think killing misguided people is a line we should cross.”

“Look, Vivi.” Gene gasped. “If…the final part of the prophecy has to come through, then it’s better to have more people around when that happens, you know?”

Vivian took one look at Lainey. The flow of blood was slowing down, and her demon was trying to cover the wound.

“Fine.” She sighed.

Vivian looked over at Ulrich, before touching his forehead, and the colour in his face noticeably went up a shade or two, and then towards Lainey, now unconscious from blood loss, and covered her bloody wound with her hand, causing the wound to close up. She then touched her forehead, and she too started twitching, and so Vivian sighed, took the black gem from Bartholomew, and coated the three in light before leaving the room. Dominic watched the duo slowly get up.

Lainey was the first to get up. When she saw Dominic looking over her, sighing with relief, she was immediately filled with rage.

"What the hell happened to me?!" For someone who lost an alarming amount of blood, she was pretty agile, immediately jumping up at him, only for her to slip on the small pool of blood she lost and fell over into it face first. She looked at Dominic, getting even angrier. Dominic tried to get away, but he was grabbed by her demon, and brought over to her, who grabbed him by his shirt.

"H-hey, let go! You know how hard it is to wash blood out of this shirt?" He yelled, tugging at her hand. It wouldn't budge.

"You think I care, dipshit? Hey Ulrich, what are we gonna do to this guy?"

"Yeah, I'm also furious, but we got bigger things to focus on." Ulrich replied groggily.

Lainey looked over in Ulrich's direction in front of the door and looked over.

Sure enough, there were police officers, and lots of them. And all of them were armed with body gear and weapons. And all of them were pointed at their faces.

"Well, shit."