Chapter 709 --709

Chapter 709: Chapter-709

Heena smiled, a bright, cheerful expression that was completely devoid of human warmth. "And in exchange, I got a really good soul to be my slave. So, I thought I would just take a look at the woman who caused it all. But I must admit, I have genuinely enjoyed this."

The Empress stared at her, the blood completely freezing in her veins as Heena leaned closer to the iron bars.

"You know what is going to happen after the Emperor executes you, don’t you?" Heena whispered, her voice light, airy, and dripping with an unfathomable, sadistic glee. "After you die, I am going to take your soul."

The Empress let out a ragged, suffocated gasp, trying to press herself further into the damp stone wall.

"You would look really good as a vase, I think," Heena mused, her dark eyes scanning the Empress’s face. "Your skin is still quite fair. When you become a soul, I will simply flay the spiritual skin from your essence and stretch it over a porcelain frame. It will be a beautiful, translucent vase."

Heena raised a hand, her slender fingers hovering just inches from the iron bars, pointing directly at the Empress’s terrified, bloodshot eyes.

"I’ll pluck your eyes out and use them as glass balls to play with," Heena continued cheerfully. "And you have such lovely hair..." She trailed off, admiring the tangled, blood-matted strands. "I think I will tear it all out by the roots and make a really nice, soft broom out of it to dust off my courtyard."

Heena’s cold gaze drifted down to the Empress’s bloodied hands clutching the straw, and then further down to her bare, dirt-stained feet.

"I’ll tear off those fingernails and make a really nice decorative lotus flower out of them," Heena said, tapping her chin thoughtfully. "But well, ten wouldn’t make for a very full bloom. Ah, but with the ten on your toes... twenty might still make for a small flower, but it will be fine. It will look lovely on my new vase."

The Empress violently shoved herself backward, scampering away from the bars like a frightened animal until she hit the back corner of the cell. She pulled her knees to her chest, shivering uncontrollably, her broken jaw hanging open as she let out a silent, hyperventilating scream of absolute, primal terror. She looked at Heena not as a political rival, but as a literal demon from the deepest pits of hell.

Inside Heena’s mind, the golden lion was practically pulling its digital fur out.

"Host?!" the System shrieked, its voice cracking with genuine, terrified bewilderment. "What the hell are you talking about?! When did we ever collect souls?! We don’t have a soul-flaying feature! What is wrong with you?!"

Heena slowly straightened up, the bright, sadistic smile vanishing instantly, replaced by a mask of cold, untouchable apathy. She turned her back on the cell, leaving the Empress to drown in her own terror.

"Calm down," Heena replied silently in her mind, her mental voice perfectly flat as she began walking down the dark corridor. "We both know a tyrant like her doesn’t fear an execution block. She doesn’t fear normal death. So, you have to make her fear what comes after."

Heena paused, looking back through the iron bars at the shivering, pathetic figure huddled in the corner. The sadistic, mocking facade melted away, leaving only the cold, calculating warlord.

"I don’t know where you procured those children," Heena said, her voice cutting through the damp, heavy air of the dungeon. "Whether you stole them, bought them, or orchestrated some other vile scheme. But looking at their faces, I know they do not share the Emperor’s blood. And now... the Emperor is not going to forgive them. Thanks entirely to you."

The Empress’s breath hitched. For the first time since Heena had shattered her jaw, a genuine, human panic flashed across her ruined face. A violent tremor racked her body. Throughout all her lifetimes, through all the blood and fire she had orchestrated, she had meticulously tried to keep her children completely isolated from the political crossfire. Now, because her treason had been so spectacularly exposed, she had practically dragged them onto the execution block herself.

"You were given so many chances," Heena said, her dark eyes completely devoid of sympathy. "But you forgot the fundamental rule of existence. If you had just stopped for a single second and thought, Why am I getting reborn again and again? What is missing? What is the actual price of this miracle?... maybe you could have stopped this cycle long ago."

Tears finally spilled from the Empress’s bloodshot eyes, cutting clean tracks through the grime and blood on her face. But the sorrow was completely overshadowed by the sheer, unadulterated hatred burning in her gaze. She glared at Heena with the venom of a cornered viper.

Heena watched her, her expression perfectly calm, almost bored. She could see the rusted gears turning in the Empress’s desperate mind.

"What?" Heena asked softly, her voice echoing in the stone corridor. "Are you currently sitting there, thinking that you will simply get reborn again and tear me apart in the next timeline? Are you plotting to be reborn directly into the Vanguard Marquisate before all of this happens, so you can smother me in the cradle?"

The Empress froze. It was as if Heena had casually reached into her skull and read her deepest, most desperate thoughts.

But the shock quickly gave way to a twisted, defiant smirk. The Empress dragged herself up slightly, her broken jaw shifting grotesquely as she sneered through the iron bars.

"Yes," the Empress hissed, her voice a wet, ragged rasp of absolute malice. "This time, no matter what I have to lose, I will tear you apart. I know I will."

She clung to that belief like a drowning woman clinging to a raft. It was her ultimate safety net. The Emperor could torture her, Heena could mock her, but it didn’t matter. She would simply close her eyes, die, and wake up twenty years in the past with all the knowledge she needed to slaughter them all.

Heena looked at the smirking, delusional woman. A small, chilling smile graced Heena’s pale lips.

"And who said you are going to get reborn?" Heena asked gently.

The Empress’s smirk faltered.

"What should I do with people like you?" Heena sighed, shaking her head in genuine disbelief. "Do you truly believe you are so spectacular, so incredibly beautiful and unique, that the universe will just hand you endless chances to play god? Are you completely insane, you arrogant fool? Or do you honestly think the fabric of reality just exists to work for you?"

Heena slowly stood up to her full height, smoothing out the elegant, sweeping folds of her crimson silk skirt. The towering, untouchable aura of the Vanguard Madam returned, casting a long, imposing shadow over the cell.

"The Emperor is not going to kill you, for sure, and I know it," Heena said, her voice dropping into a pitiless, echoing calm. "He is going to keep you breathing just long enough to watch your entire bloodline be systematically reduced to meat on the execution block. But speaking as a woman... I find you utterly repulsive. You aren’t a mastermind. You aren’t a queen. You are just a parasite that finally rotted its host."

The word parasite snapped the very last, fragile thread holding the Empress’s sanity together.