Chapter 268: Through the Portal
Jarek lay on the ground in both physical and mental shock. In a moment, Xenia had stolen his identity from him. He wasn’t simply no longer the strongest ki user on Earth, he wasn’t a ki user at all anymore. Furthermore, as he lay on the ground, he reached down to feel a smooth surface of skin where his cock once hung.Findd new stories on nov/e(l)bin(.)com
He rolled over to look at Xenia’s stealth fighter jet which had been abandoned in favor of traveling via void portals, and he muttered to himself, “The southern tip of Africa is likely too far away; however, I have to try. Someone needs to warn the new world of her arrival if Xenia can truly activate the portal again.”
Jarek picked himself up off the ground and walked over to the jet. He walked along the perimeter admiring its design thinking to himself, “I haven’t flown since my young days in the Great War.”
He then stopped in front of the ladder which Constance had left in place leading up to the cockpit. He took a deep breath, “Let’s see if I’ve still got it.”
He climbed the ladder, stepped into the cockpit, and took a moment to look over an elaborate digital readout of the controls.
“I know Constance made several upgrades before the Sage-Heraklinos wedding. Let’s see here...”
He flipped the ignition switch, and a loud, controlled explosion began to vibrate the jet as the engines spooled up. He then closed the cockpit and donned the helmet complete with an air mask.
As an experienced pilot from a time long ago, Jarek found the controls to be intuitive. He soon performed a vertical take off and looked over the destroyed capital city with bodies thrown asunder for as far as his eyes could see.
He could only shake his head in defeat as he engaged the thrusters and took off towards the southern tip of Africa within the Starfallen Empire.
Jarek felt the crushing force of climbing G’s as the speed of the jet climbed and climbed continuing past the natural limits of fossil fuel engines.
He then noticed a red hue encompassing the structure of the jet, “Is this ki? But how?! Constance must’ve found a way to store her excess ki within the jet.”
He grit his teeth and prepared to submit his body to a potentially lethal G-force now that he had no ki of his own to protect himself, “It must be done. I have to push through. Every second matters!”
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Elsewhere, Xenia, Nero, and Constance stepped out of a portal in front of a white dome-shaped building in the Starfallen Empire.
Xenia smirked to herself with her hands on her hips as she used her ki to survey the internals of the building.
She then said aloud to Nero and Constance, “54 people inside. Let me address them before we enter.”
Xenia outstretched her hand and used her bloodbending to form a connection to each and every individual within the building. She then began to relay a silent message heard only within their minds.
“This is Empress Xenia BloodStar of the BloodStar Empire. Your master has fled not only her empire but also this world. I am your empress now. You may show your submission by bowing your head to the floor upon my entry. Or you may show your defiance by disobeying. You are free to choose. Either choice of yours will bring me delight. I am coming in now.”
Xenia then led the way as she entered the building to find several men and women bowing to her upon her entry. They had fallen to their knees with their heads bowed all the way to the ground afraid to even dare look up at her.
She continued deeper into the building reaching a blast door guarded by twenty soldiers of the Starfallen Empire. Nineteen of these soldiers had fallen to the ground in a show of submission to their new empress. However, one did not.
A lone soldier stood with his body trembling from head to toe. Nonetheless, he held his arm out aiming a pistol directly at Xenia.
“Oh, good. I thought all of Starfallen’s soldiers would be spineless pussies.” She walked over to the man smiling, “You’ve proven me wrong.”
She then put her lips together and kissed the tip of the barrel, “Well, brave boy. Go ahead. Shoot me.” She then opened her lips and took the barrel inside of her mouth sucking on it like a cock.
Xenia then shot her eyes up towards the man. As they were locked in eye-contact, Xenia urged him on, “Don’t be shy. Squeeze one off for me. Right into my mouth.”
The man trembled more than ever, and whether or intentional or accidental from his trembling anxiety, his finger squeezed the trigger firing a single shot into Xenia’s mouth.
Xenia moved her jaw around before slowly presenting the bullet between her lips and spitting it out to the ground.
She stuck her tongue out and grimaced, “The taste of gunpowder and metal. Yuck. I suppose I’m conditioned to expect a different flavor when I find myself sucking on something.”
Xenia then bloodbent the man holding him still as she took the gun from his hand, “My turn to squeeze one off.”
She stuffed the barrel into the man’s mouth between his lips, and laughed as she slid it in and out of his mouth while watching the fear in his eyes. Then, without warning, she pulled the trigger firing a round. The man’s head exploded, splattering brain and blood on the wall behind him.
Nero stepped up to the portal and faced Xenia. She leaned in and kissed him on the lips before saying, “Our first true conquest of the unknown. I enjoy the thrill of conquest so much more with you by my side. You’ll need this. Wherever we may go, there will always be those who deserve death by your hammer.”
Xenia reached into a small void portal and pulled out Nero’s warhammer, Blood Cry.
Nero grabbed his warhammer and grunted as he turned and walked through the massive void portal flickering with electricity and whirring as ki fed into it from the mana stone.
Next, Constance stepped up and faced Xenia. Before Xenia could act, Contance jumped forward and kissed Xenia on the lips. After kissing for a moment, Xenia then said, “Let’s conquer our first kingdom and immediately get married. How does that sound?”
“Perfect.”
Constance smiled and maintained eye contact with Xenia as she stepped backwards into the portal and disappeared while blowing a kiss to her empress.
Lastly, Xenia opened another small void portal and retrieved Blood Scourge and BloodBane before addressing Elliot, “Thank you Elliot. You will find that I have also held up my end of the deal. Your bank account has been funded with one billion dollars as requested. Should you need anything, John Vand has been more informed to take very good care of you.”
Elliot bowed his head, “Thank you, my empress.”
Xenia smiled at him one last time, “See you again, eventually.”
She then stepped through the portal herself, disappearing from Elliot’s sight and the Earth.
Elliot let out a loud and exacerbated gasp of air as his sky-high levels of stress began to abate. He had no idea where the three of them would land on the destination planet, and he could only hope for the best.
He sat at the control panel and initiated the process to shut down the portal; however, he found that the rate of dissipation of the ki from Jarek’s massive mana stone was miniscule in comparison to the previous one.
Elliot frowned as he looked at the data in front of him, “At this rate, it could take 12 hours to fully disconnect.”
He laid back in his chair with his hands behind his head and settled in as he prepared to take this opportunity to gather data for his future research.
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Eight hours had passed, and the portal had decreased in size by 50% on its way to shutting down entirely. Elliot sat at the control panel napping with his arms crossed as the digital readouts continued gathering data. All was quiet save for the occasional blinking and beeping of digital readouts.
Then, overhead, a loud rush of a jet performing a low fly-by shook the building, waking Elliot. He grabbed his glasses and looked up and through the roof just in time to see a black jet fly across the sky again.
Up in the sky, Jarek was preparing for another fly-by of the white dome.
“It looks like the portal is still active by some miracle. Who knows who is guarding it though. Xenia could’ve left Nero or Constance... or anyone to guard it. Any ki user, any skilled soldier with a gun could stop me in my tracks if I land.”
Jarek hated that he had to think and account for his newfound weakness and vulnerability.
After his last fly-by to assess the roof and portal, he then gained altitude and lined up the jet with the dome, “Here goes nothing.”
He hit the throttle and began to descend while gaining speed. Elliot looked up and realized what was taking place, “That pilot is crazy. Crazy!” He ran for cover through the tunnel Nero had created in the blast doors and threw himself on the ground with his hands over his head.
Jarek yelled as his jet gained more and more speed as he flew towards the ground, “AHHHHHHHHH!!!!”
In an instant, the jet flew through the hole in the roof tearing the wings from the plane, and the momentum of the plane carried the body without wings forward as Jarek and what was left of the jet plunged into the dying portal.
The impact of the wings smashing into the roof cratered the remaining portion of the roof as rubble fell onto the control panel and portal itself crushing the entire system.
After the dust had settled, Elliot ventured back through the tunnel of the blast doors to find the entire control center demolished with no sight of the fighter jet pilot.
“Who the fuck was that???” Elliot was lost in thought as he reached down and picked up the mana stone which had been thrown to the ground. He dusted it off and concealed it away in his lab coat.
“I need to find John Vand.”