Chapter 355: First wild sanctum territory

Night had fallen by the time Julia and her heavily armed soldiers landed in Twigs Blue Crossing. The moment those noisy transport beasts touched down on the dirt, the poor townspeople nearly lost their minds. Residents screamed, dropped their dinner bowls, and dove into bushes, under beds, and inside chicken coops like terrified rabbits hiding from a hawk.

When the town was surrounded, Julia picked up a bright yellow megaphone, cleared her throat with a loud ahem, and blasted her voice across the empty village.

"Hello, citizens of Twigs blue crossing!" Julia boomed, sounding like a fake TV salesperson. "I bring you warm greetings in the name of our glorious Divine Maiden! I have come to deliver wonderful, amazing news straight from the Sanctum!"

Silence was the response she got. Not a single soul poked their head out.

Julia’s smile instantly froze. She pinched her lips together, her blood pressure spiking. Ungrateful peasants, she thought angrily.

She turned and shoved the megaphone right into Lucian’s chest. "You. Fix this. Lure them out."

Lucian, who was still naively thinking he was the hero of his own little story, took the megaphone with a confident grin. He stepped forward, using his softest, most gentle voice. "Hey everyone! It’s okay! It’s safe! You know me! Come on out, nobody is going to hurt you. I brought these people here to help us."

One by one, the foolish townspeople started poking their heads out of the dark.

"Is it really safe?" an old man whispered.

"Lucian is with them, it must be fine!" a woman said, pulling her kids out of hiding.

Soon, the entire village had gathered in the main compound, standing together like a herd of confused sheep. Lucian did a quick headcount, feeling extremely proud of himself. "All accounted for, ma’am!"

Julia gave a sweet, sinister nod to the military commander standing beside her. "Great. Kill them all."

Before the residents could even process what she said, the slaughter began. The armed soldiers closed the circle, plunging their swords and firing their guns into the defenseless crowd. Blood sprayed like rusty fountains! Screams ripped through the night air as people stumbled over each other, trying to run from the rain of bullets and flashing blades.

Julia snatched the megaphone back, casually lifting it to her mouth over the loud sounds of chaotic dying.

"Ahem! Attention, traitors!" Julia shouted over the massacre, reading off a paper like a bored bureaucrat. "You are hereby charged with high treason and blasphemy for daring to worship that fake, Zyra Scorpion, as the Divine Maiden!"

She pointed a long, blood-red fingernail toward a large tree that provided shade for wooden statue in the center of the village. The tree was decorated with flowers and handmade wooden tokens_ a cute little shrine the villagers had built for Zyra.

"Burn that wooden eyesore to ashes!" Julia ordered viciously.

A soldier threw a torch, and the shrine erupted into a roaring fireball. Some desperate residents tried to scramble over the wooden fences to escape, but the soldiers caught them mid-climb, stabbing them down like helpless sacks of potatoes.

Lucian stood in the middle of the bloodbath with his family, his jaw practically hanging down to his shoes. His eyes were wide as saucers, and his skin turned ghost white.

Wait_ hold on_ this_ this isn’t what was not the deal! he thought, his brain short-circuiting. He looked at Julia. Her face was completely calm, covered in tiny red blood splatters, and she was actually smiling while watching people get chopped up. Realization hit Lucian like a speeding truck: Oh crap. She’s crazy!

His family was pulled from him, and they slit their throats in his presence.

Terror seized Lucian’s heart. He took a few quick, trembling steps backward, trying to sneak away like a thief in the night.

He tripped and lost his balance and fell flat on his back, landing directly on top of a warm, squishy dead body.

"EWW! get off me!" he shrieked, scrambling backward on all fours like a frantic crab.

A sharp, burning explosion hit his stomach. Lucian froze. He looked down and saw a neat little hole in his new silk shirt, with red liquid rapidly soaking his pants.

"Huh?" he gasped. "What...what just happened?" He lifted his head and saw Julia walking slowly toward him, smoke still curling out from the barrel of her shiny silver handgun.

She looked down at his crying, pathetic face and burst into a fit of cruel laughter. "Hahaha! Look at your face, fool! Why are you looking at me like a heartbroken lover who just got dumped on Valentine’s Day?!"

"Why?" Lucian cried out, clutching his bleeding tummy, his voice squeaking like a wet rubber duck. "B-but... the Divine Maiden... she promised! She promised to grant me a full pardon if I helped you guys!"

Julia stopped right in front of him. She nodded sympathetically, waving her gun around casually like a baton.

"Oh, yes, yes! Of course!" Julia chuckled, leaning down to whisper in his ear. "And she is a woman of her word! She has granted you that pardon_" She straightened up and offered him a brilliant, fake smile. "_In your next life! Bye-bye!"

"Wait, NO_!" He screamed.

Julia pointed the gun straight between his eyes and pulled the trigger. Lucian’s eyes rolled back, and he slumped over the corpse beneath him, dead as a doornail, his face forever frozen in utter disbelief.

Within twenty minutes, the entire town of Twigs Blue Crossing was completely cleared of all living things. The only sounds left were the crackling fires and the night wind.

Julia wiped a tiny drop of blood off her cheek with a silk handkerchief. "Raise the Sanctum flag. Right now."

The military commander marched over, stepping over a few fallen chairs, and gave a sharp salute. "Ma’am! The area is secure. What are our next orders?"

"Lucian mentioned that Zyra and her little rat pack deliver supplies to this town once a month," Julia smirked, looking around the ruined village. "We’ll stay right here and wait for them. Twigs Blue Crossing is our new main headquarters in the Wild lands." She turned toward the south, pointing her gun into the dark horizon. "Our mission to conquer all territories for the Sanctum continues," Julia declared with a twisted smile. "Next stop: Hollomgad. That bastard Tobias has a whole lot of explaining to do."