BloodStar

Upon her return to the BloodStar Empire, Xenia kept a low-profile as Empress Victoria had informed her of King Ramses and Queen Zara’s betrayal.

Victoria instructed her, “Have Constance cast illusion ki on you wherever you go until the ceremony tomorrow. I spoke with too many heads of states at the conference who were more than cocksure that you were dead.”

Xenia replied, “I wouldn’t blame them. After seeing the footage of my battle, I looked to be dead.”

Victoria breathed an aggressive sigh and said, “No. They would never be so sure of your death given your talented and unique healing abilities. They would always account for that risk. However, when I spoke with Jarek, Erika, Gregory… they all believed you to be 110% dead.”

Xenia narrowed her eyes, “What are you saying?”

Victoria told her, “There are only two people who I ever told that you were certain to be dead.” She looked at Xenia, “King Ramses and Queen Zara.”

Xenia frowned and scowled, “They are so power hungry that they would betray our empire? They will pay.”

Victoria quickly said, “No! Let them be. And give them no information. The world needs no warning of your survival. By the time Ramses and Zara can tell the world after the ceremony, it will be far too late. Until then, let’s raise no alarms.”

Xenia nodded, “Very well. As you wish.”

Constance walked alongside Victoria as to make it appear that Victoria was talking to her while Xenia remained largely invisible to both the naked and trained eye.

Xenia said, “Come with me Constance. We have to prepare Peter for his long term stay with us.”

Xenia and Constance parted ways with Victoria and traveled to the lowest depths of the dungeons below the BloodStar Castle. The dungeon was even lower underground than the family tombs. No light shone in from any crevice, and the air was stagnant. The dungeon was largely empty, and the silence was pervasive.

No guards stood duty as there was no need. The BloodStar holding cells were infamous for a foolproof lockdown. Any prison could hold a regular prisoner especially given the scant food rations that were enough to keep them alive yet also keep them in a perpetually weakened and famished state.

However, the BloodStar dungeons were infamous for housing a technology lost to time that could be found nowhere else on earth. Some say it originated from infusing nightmare ki into metal. Some say it is a unique metal not native to the Earth. Others don’t even dare to speculate about its origins. Three cells in the dungeon housed void daggers.

Void daggers were jet-black stakes connected to rungs of looped metal chains. Any prisoner or person unlucky enough to be impaled would have their ki drained in mysterious fashion. The ki wasn’t canceled out, it wasn’t lost to the ambient environment, and it wasn’t suddenly gone. The void dagger measurably decreased a person’s ki over time and then held their ki levels at or near zero. Where or what happened to the ki was a mystery lost to time.

The daggers were infamous yet never used outside the dungeon for fear of losing possession of such an artifact. Furthermore, the void daggers could be easily removed by those not shackled or imprisoned already.

Xenia and Constance traveled through the dark, damp dungeon by torch light until they finally reached one of the three cells in the darkest depths of the dungeon.

Constance swung the door open and removed her illusion ki from Xenia revealing them both to the prisoner, Pope Peter.

Peter shriveled up into the corner as they entered, and Xenia welcomed the sight with a huge smile as she said, “Peter. How are you liking your new accommodations? I thought I would come down here and introduce you to my best friend, Constance.” She then looked to Constance and then to Peter, “Constance. Meet Peter.”

Constance maintained her bubbly attitude in stark contrast to her surroundings, “Peter! How lovely to meet you. Xenia has told me all about you. What you like, what you fear, your abilities. But I would still like to get to know you on a more personal level. Like for example, what makes you hurt the most?”

Peter looked up at the two women. Xenia wore her all-black leather military outfit, and Constance wore the same exact outfit hugging her body in all of right places just like Xenia’s. The matching uniforms made the two women look to be nearly twins. He submissively said, “Please don’t hurt me. I can arrange a diplomatic solution to your expansion in the world. I can cede land to your empire. I can facilitate so many wonderful things for you and your empire in the world.”

Xenia crouched down beside Peter and pet his head with her black leather gloves. She admired the fear in his eyes. A void dagger was staked right through his thigh, and his hands and feet were shackled together. A neck shackle chained him to the wall, and he was naked with no clothes and no comforts to sleep on in his cell.

“That’s not what she asked, Peter. If you won’t tell us, then we will just have to find out ourselves.” Xenia stood up and walked over to a ledge on the wall and unfurled a roll of very sharp knives.

She looked over the knives as she said, “Which knife to use? That depends on what cut of meat we wish to have for dinner. What are you in the mood for Constance?”

Constance leaned against the wall with her arms crossed and said, “Hmm, I know you like the tender cuts Xenia. But I think I would enjoy my meal more if I knew the pain it caused to procure. How about the transversus muscles? Deep and layered.”

Xenia picked up a very fine and exquisitely sharp scalpel and said, “I love that idea.” She turned around with the scalpel in her hand and looked at Peter, “She has the best ideas.”

Xenia slowly walked over to him and removed his shackles to free him. She then looked to the side of the room and said, “My favorite part about this cell is the stone table. It’s perfect for my play.”

She healed his physical body without restoring his ki and then bloodbent him over to the stone table about three feet off the ground. She directed his body to lay down flat on the stone table, and she held his body in place with her bloodbending with no need for additional restraints.

She straddled and sat on him just below his abdomen and proceeded to run her fingernails down his chest and abdomen as she said, “I’ve really brought your skin tone back to a healthy appearance. Now let’s find out if your muscle is ready to be served as well.”

She took the scalpel and began to make a shallow vertical incision down the length of his abdomen cutting away at the skin and subcutaneous fat. “All those cutaneous nerves must be so painful as I sever them.”

Peter had yet to scream, and he was determined to withhold any physical signs of pain as to not give her the pleasure she sought. She then made a horizonal incision at the same depth at the top of his abdomen and began to peel back the skin from the intersection of the two incisions as she cut away the subcutaneous fat from the underlying fascia.

She worked meticulously as if she had done it over a thousand times, and it wasn’t long before she had completely removed the skin on his abdomen to reveal the thin layer of fascia overlying his rectus abdominus muscles.

She ran her fingers over his rectus abdominus muscles and said, “Not a single cry of pain so far from you Peter. Are you not enjoying this?”

She looked down admiring his exposed muscles, “The abdominal muscles are beautiful. The layers are beautiful. The layer I want is the very bottom layer. Let’s see if you scream for me by the end.”

She took her scalpel and began to peel back the vertically aligned rectus abdominus muscles starting with the left and then the right. Peter grimaced and opened his mouth with a silent scream. Xenia smirked knowing that he would break soon.

She tossed the muscle to the ground and looked at the next layer, “I don’t really need to remove your external and internal oblique muscles, but I think I will anyways just for fun.”

She began to carve out his obliques saying, “The external obliques run diagonally downwards from left to right, and the internal obliques below run diagonally downwards from right to left, and-“

Suddenly Peter let out a cry of pain. He screamed and screamed and then grunted for air. He tried his best to refrain; however, the sensitive oblique areas shot so much pain to his brain that he couldn’t resist anymore.

Xenia smiled and hopped up and down where she sat atop him, “Oh it’s the oblique muscles that hurt the most!? I’ll keep going! Just wait until we reach the next layer!”

She continued to carve him up as his screams were music to her ears. She felt like an artist listening to her favorite music as she continued. As she peeled away the last of the oblique muscles, she threw them to the floor with the rectus muscles.

She ran her nails down his exposed abdomen sending streaks of pain through his body, “The abs are so beautiful. The vertical rectus abdominus, the diagonal external obliques, the reverse diagonal internal obliques, and then finally what I’m after… the horizonal transversus muscles.”

She began to salivate as she eyed his transversus abdominus muscles, the final layer. She laughed and said, “This is the final layer. Beneath this muscle is your abdominal cavity housing all of your intestines. Things could get messy from here.”

She grinned and leaned over him as she continued. She took her time and sliced the transversus muscles with utmost care as it was the cut she wanted most for her dinner given Constance’s request. She was so meticulous that she removed the entirely of his transversus muscles without puncturing the underlying serosal cavity. The feat was phenomenal from an anatomic perspective.

She lauded herself, “I guess I’m somewhat of an expert at dissection given all of my experience. While it’s nice to know I can do it, I really didn’t want to be so clean.” Constance brought a silver platter tray over for Xenia to place the muscle on. Xenia carefully laid each piece on the tray before Constance walked away with it.

She looked back to Peter and said, “Now before I heal you and leave, I want to hear you scream louder than you have all night.”

She then took the scalpel and pierced into his abdominal cavities to reveal his internal organs. She began to stab randomly at his small intestine, colon, stomach, liver, and spleen. Stab after stab produced a mess within his abdominal cavity as fecal matter, blood, and serous fluid pooled.

Peter screamed at the top of his lungs and Xenia reveled in it. She stood up and left him on the table for a moment while she cleaned her hands and outfit off with a towel. She then turned back and threw an energy ball of healing ki at him. His body began to heal at a rapid pace and his screams slowly subsided.

She bloodbent him back to his shackles and instructed Constance to restrain him once more within the shackles. Xenia grabbed the chained void dagger and stood over Peter waiting for Constance to finish.

Once he was shackled, Xenia took the void dagger and stabbed it through Peter’s thigh and into the underlying stone completely pinning him to the floor.

She walked over and picked up the largely intact pieces of his rectus and oblique muscles and threw it at his feet as she said, “Dinner is served.”

Peter was quiet and looked to the floor. Xenia yelled, “Thank me! This is a meal even I would happily eat.” She slapped him across the face, and Peter thanked her profusely, “Thank you General BloodStar! Thank you for this luxurious meal.”

She scoffed and folded her arms, “You’re welcome. Since you like it so much, we can do this again very soon.”

Xenia and Constance exited the cell without further word and made for the kitchen to eat their papal dinner.

As they walked by torch light, Constance remarked with glee, “Let’s skip the kitchen and take this straight to your villa. It’s been so long since I had a proper raw meal. It’s like eating fresh sashimi but better!”

Xenia laughed and replied, “That’s a great idea! If it tastes that good, then we really will have to do this again. I hope Peter is a glutton for pain because I’m a glutton for his screams. He turned me on so much the way he tried to resist at first.”

Constance laughed, “Maybe next time he will be even harder to break!”

Xenia smiled, “I love a challenge.”

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