1121 Old Enmity
Centaurus was huge. Its population, despite being one of the worst Duchies, was still more than 500 billion.
Due to its vastness in both size and population, people on the borders lived in a different world compared to those in the core parts of the territory.
The population that was following the torture of two men by Havocs was mostly on the borders. Few people elsewhere cared about those two lives. Under the lure of drugs, worse things happened.
All this culminated in the end result of the video failing to gain much popularity. Varian had no idea about it—just like almost everyone else in Ubiq.
Only Princess Catherine who was already following the drug cases closely learned about Havocs torturing two innocent civilians.
If it's just another two people, while Catherine would've felt bad, she wouldn't take action herself. There's too much suffering already.
But when the Havocs claimed that these two people were related to the man who dealt the fatal blow to their tribe, they became too important to be left alone.
Catherine always felt guilty for not solving the drug problem. It was her sick obsession to end this cancer eating away Centaurus. That's the reason she'd reached rank 2 at such a young age.
While everyone else saw it as torture of two nobodies, Catherine saw it as attack on the Hero who saved the Duchy.
That's why—
"I got this. I got this. I got this!"
In a hilly range of a barren planet with no life, Princess Catherine crouched behind a boulder and stared at the Havocs encircling the two.
Ash and the Captain were strapped to metal poles which were heated to high temperatures regularly. Havocs beat them hard with spiked maces, ice rods and poisonous gauntlets.
The two were pushed to the brink of death and healed back to life every single time. They had long fallen into a state of coma and weren't even aware of what's happening to their bodies.
The havocs knew it too. But they tortured them just for the sake of it. This was an impulsive plan in the first place and the only ones participating in this suicide mission were people who weren't rational enough to leave.
Despite the Havocs not showing any joy in the torture, despite the ones tortures remaining unconscious, Catherine felt a deep revulsion at the sight. Her stomach churned and she almost retched.
Varian remained hidden in the distance, his expression ugly. 'How did the Havocs knew it's me?'
While he tried to make up a plan to rescue the two, Princess Catherine made a move.
A dazzling gemstone shot into the sky from her pouch and a red light enveloped the Havoc guards.
Regardless of their rank, they stiffened for a moment and collapsed onto the floor.
Catherine's body blurred as she moved at a speed beyond ordinary rank 2s and grabbed the two men. But as she's about to leave, the poles they're strapped to lit up and a complex formation circle engraved under them surfaced.
The Princess seemed to have expected this as she threw a spinning crystal onto the formation and the shining engravings instantly dimmed.
The guards nearby already recovered and rained her with a sea of fire and rain of lightning.
The small horn on her forehead, unique to the dominant race of Centaurus, lit up.
Her aura intensified and she kicked the ground with the tip of her feet.
BOOM!
Catherine jumped straight into the outer space in a blink. She was so fast that everyone was caught off guard and only realized that she left a second later.
"Stop there!"
A lightning phoenix soared into the space and an old man sat on top it. The phoenix flapped its wings once and the distance between them halved in an instant.
It flapped its wings once again and the distance was non-existent.
"Shit!" Princess Catherine cursed under her breath and her horn shone brighter. Her speed grew and she flew just a bit farther before a sphere of lightning exploded right behind her.
BOOM!
Catherine's bracelet reacted in time put up a barrier around her, saving her from injuries. But it didn't help her from being blasted away into the distance.
The Princess used the momentum and fled at her best speed. The spaceship she secretly parked a few thousand miles away was already flying towards her.
"Just wait a bit! I got this!" Catherine said to the two men who just regained consciousness.
Once she got into her spaceship, even if it's a rank 3 chasing her, there shouldn't be any problem.
"I said stop, you wench!" The old patriarch blasted the space with endless lightning explosions, trying to kill her brutally.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
But her bracelet continued to protect her with barriers. However, every barrier was more fragile than the last.
"Oh shit!"
The energy reserves in her horn ran out and Catherine's face paled. Her bracelet could block one or two more attacks at most.
But she could no longer run away and now, she's even a bit weaker than normal rank 2s.
"Is that it? The end of your escape?" The old patriarch grinned viciously and raised his hand to strike her down. At that moment, a light flashed and her spaceship finally reached her.
Catherine's pale face disappeared as if it was all act and she threw the two men into the spaceship.
"You'll die soon, bastard!" Cursing the Havoc powerhouse, she was about to get into the spaceship when two figures flashed.
BOOM!
Catherine slammed into the spaceship and coughed out blood. There were four fist prints on her stomach.
"We're late."
"But not too late."
Helga and Hagen nodded at the Old Patriarch.
"Tsk." The old man had nothing to say and growled at the bleeding princess. "So, is this bitch the one?"
"Not her. It's a man who met our director a few days ago." Helga said with a cold smile. "After the two met, the director disappeared and shortly after, your Ancestor was killed. That same man was also the one who had a conflict with us in the beginning. It's a big mistake that we didn't kill him off when we could."
"Then this is just a girl with savior complex?" The old patriarch grabbed Catherine by her neck and a golden light enveloped her body.
"Arghhhh!" As the lightning coursed through her body violently, Catherine twitched like a fish out of water.
"Say, who the hell are you? A rank 2 with those many treasures?" The old man placed his hand on her injured abdomen and it began to heat up.
"Arghhhh!" Catherine cried out as her abdomen's flesh began to melt under the heat.
"Say, who are you, you little bitch!" The old man pierced his hand into her stomach and gripped her entrails.
The twins also watched the interrogation quietly.
When the Director threatened them with Hex's life a few days ago, they were ready to obey him. But contrary to everyone's expectations, Hex killed himself and everything fell apart.
Now, all they wanted was revenge. And revenge alone.
As their minds burned with hatred, the spaceship nearby quietly drifted away, not alarming anyone else.
Once it was sufficiently far away, the space around it fluctuated and it disappeared.
"Huh? Where did it go?" The old patriarch and the twins looked in its direction with vigilance.
"I have some old accounts to settle." A voice sounded right behind the Old Patriarch and a heavy force struck his back.
