A COUPLE OF MINUTE-CYCLES LATER… Magnus, Kaze, Elliat, and Justan had all made it down into the Prisoner Pits.

  Once the golden doors had slid open, both Magnus and Kaze were met with a truly depraved sight.

  “HELP ME! PLEASE! SOMEBODY! HELP ME!!!!!” an emaciated-looking enslaved man cried out from a small, golden-barred cage that his frail body had been cramped down into.

  “SILENCE, THRACKER!” one of the two Voltairan Knights that were guarding the slave shouted after kicking the side of the tiny cage.

  The cries of women and childlings filled both Magnus and Kaze’s ‘helmet-enhanced’ ears as Elliat and Justan looked down the ‘Commons Corridor’ as if everything was completely and totally normal.

  As for Magnus and Kaze, they retained ‘haunted looks’ in their lens-covered eyes as they were greeted by more acts of depravity, shame, and brutal torture.

  SKIN AND BONE ‘husk-like-beings’ stumbled and tripped in the decadent streets whilst men and even a few women fought one another to eat a little dirty ‘gutter urchin’ that was desperately trying to scurry away to freedom.

  A frail male with a patchy head of hair and a scraggly beard won ‘the prize’ by biting off and fully engulfing its head.

  The male’s primal cries of victory rang in both Magnus and Kaze’s ears whilst Elliat asked with a grin, “So, brothers… WHAT DO YOU THINK???”

  “THRACKING PUTRID… Is it not?” Justan sourly asked as he looked over the corridor in true disgust. “And to think, this place has been gaining more ‘Kren-sympathizing’ skoggers for nearly the past ten cycles.”

  “Ten cycles,” Magnus gasped as he looked to Justan in confusion.

  “Yes, Raedyn… TEN THRACKING CYCLES,” Elliat backed. “Ever since ‘the Kren Wars’ began, the Grand Emperor has kept all ‘surrendered’ Kren-sympathizers down here… IN THE ‘RAXX PITS’ where they work day-cycle after day-cycle and night-cycle after night-cycle in ‘grand’ service to our people up on the surface. All in secret, no less…”

  “Tis a GRAND achievement,” Justan said proudly. “ALL HAIL THE GRAND-HOLY- EMPEROR!!!”

  “Aye,” Elliat nodded. “All hail the emperor.”

  Elliat and Justan waited for Magnus and Kaze to follow, but they did not.

  They simply just watched more of the unbelievable horrors and tortures play out before their very waking eyes.

  Scrunching his brow, Elliat asked, “So, men… Where shall we be going first on your grand tour? Heh, heh, heh...”

  Kaze gritted his teeth in anger as Magnus continued to stare across at all of the enslaved that inhabited the elongated commons corridor.

  “Over here, World-Breaker,” Little Jaiya’s voice suddenly whispered in Magnus's ear.

  Magnus then looked across the corridor with the use of his Battle Helmet’s enhanced vision feature.

  “Over here, World-Breaker… OVER HERE,” Little Jaiya said again, causing Magnus to direct his eyes over towards her location.

  And there she was, the little Crixan girl who plagued Magnus’s dreams… AND NIGHTMARES.

  Standing before a big, square ‘black impenametal’ door was Little Jaiya, who stared directly at the ‘Killer of TRILLIONS’.

  “Come here, World-Breaker. You must see what lies behind this door,” Little Jaiya said to Magnus ONLY.

  “Raedyn???” Elliat treaded to Magnus who kept his eyes locked on Little Jaiya’s visage. “Where do you wish to go fi--”

  “THERE,” Magnus ushered whilst pointing over towards the big black impenametal door. “I wish to go over there.”

  Looking to see where the Breaker of Worlds was pointing towards, Elliat lurched back and said, “Huh? You wish to go to…”

  “THE MAXIMUM SECURITY SECTOR???” Justan ushered in a bewildered tone, gaining a curious glance from both Magnus and Kaze. “Why in the thracking starblazes would you want to go into that wretched squalor?”

  “Yes… ‘Raedyn’,” Kaze said in a suspicious tone to Magnus. “Why?”

  With Little Jaiya still standing beside the mysterious door, Magnus gritted, “Because ‘something’ draws me to it.”

  “What?” Justan huffed in confusion as Magnus immediately broke away from the group and headed over towards the heavily secured entrance to the ‘Maximum Security Sector’.

  “Where in the thrack is he going?” Justan asked angrily.

  “Over to the Maximum Security Sector… For whatever reason,” Kaze answered.

  “But for what?” Elliat asked as he turned to look back at Kaze. “For whatever reason would Raedyn want to go there, Teaug?”

  Not knowing the answer to Elliat’s question, Kaze shook his head and said, “I don’t know… But I’m going to find out.”

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  Kaze then shoved past Justan and Elliat to follow Magnus, leaving the two Voltairan Knights standing behind in utter confusion.

  As he trekked on over towards the Maximum Security Sector entrance Magnus walked past several different horrific sights.

  Decaying and emaciated corpses lined the crackled streets as slaves who were still alive… BARELY stared at his ‘golden armored frame’ in total fear.

  The World-Breaker gave these slaves… THESE PEOPLE who he SOLELY put down in the horrid ‘Prisoner Pits’ unknowingly a grief-stricken look as he finally reached the Maximum Security Sector entrance.

  With Little Jaiya now vanished out of sight, Magnus looked over the large door as Kaze approached him from behind.

  “What in the thrack are you doing, World-Breaker?!” Kaze asked Magnus an intense whisper. “We are here to free these people… Not to thracking sightsee!”

  “Something lies behind this door,” Magnus responded.

  “What?” Kaze asked curiously.

  “I do not know,” Magnus replied whilst shaking his head. “But something… THAT I MUST SEE.”

  The World-Breaker then started looking for a way inside of the Maximum-Security Sector as Kaze stressed, “Magnus… LISTEN. We do not have the thrack time for this pointless raxx. We MUST free these people before we are dis--”

  BEEEEEEEEP!

  “There,” Magnus said after he had found a palm print scanner on the wall to the left of the door that was linked to the door’s automated locking system.

  Using his gauntlet covered left palm, Magnus placed it up against the scanner for it to read that he was a ‘Voltairan Knight’.. CAPTAIN-CLASS.

  Once the locks had disengaged, the doorway slid open… Revealing the ‘cursed insides’ of the Maximum Security Sector.

  “Thrack,” Kaze gasped in shock as both he and Magnus were greeted with dozens upon DOZENS of emaciated, Enslaved Prisoner CORPSES who hung from the high ceiling of the long corridor that ran down the Maximum Security Sector.

  The horrid smell from their rotting bodies was thankfully blocked out from Voltairan Knights via the usage of their battle helmets.

  As for the rest of the ‘still living’ enslaved prisoners that resided outside (and inside) of the Maximum Security Sector, they were all forced to smell the ‘indescribable scent’ that radiated from the morose bodies of the dead.

  Whilst Magnus and Kaze both stared at the hanging bodies in shock, both Elliat and Justan finally joined them once again.

  “Quite the thracking sight, eh?” Elliat asked both Magnus and Kaze in an unfazed tone. “I find it to be a little ‘much’, but I do not make the rules around here.”

  “THE GRAND EMPEROR DOES,” Justan answered as he marveled at the corpses in sickening glee.

  Kaze’s eyes began to water as Magnus’s brow lowered whilst he stared at all of the hanging bodies in pure rage.

  “This way, World-Breaker… THIS WAY,” Little Jaiya instructed after she had reappeared to Magnus once more.

  ZEROING IN on the ‘ghost’ of the little Crixan girl that he had killed, Magnus spotted ‘Little Jaiya’ standing down at the other end of the corridor in front of a ‘windowless’ holding cell.

  Not wanting to enter the Maximum Security Sector, but wanting to know where Little Jaiya was leading him to, Magnus clenched his jaw and stepped foot into the ghastly area.

  Kaze reluctantly followed the World-Breaker inside as both Elliat and Justan followed the duo from behind in ever-growing suspicion.

  Striding down the corridor like a zombie, Magnus had a cold look in his eyes as the corpses of the poor, deceased prisoners hung overhead from gilded hooks, ropes, and CHAINS.

  They surrendered for ‘survival’ only to be cast down into the pits of despair… AND DEATH.

  The worst part about the whole ordeal was that nobody knew.

  Nobody on the surface… Or on any other planet in the whole Galactic Sector knew the truth… The TERRIBLE truth of Emperor Alixandr Corvinux Voltair’s Empire and what… Who it was built upon.

  The prisoners and their unfathomable tortures were kept a secret. A secret orchestrated by Emperor Voltair only to be carried out by the Galactic Deciders… Unbeknownst to their own knowledge… Carried out under the orders of Magnus… Unbeknownst to HIS own knowledge.

  This angered the Breaker of Worlds… GRANDLY and he wanted to release his ‘frustrations’ upon ALL of the Voltairan Knights who guarded the Prisoner Pits… AS WELL AS the droves of Knights who festered upon the surface above, but for now… He kept on following Little Jaiya.

  TRUDGING DOWN the mortifying corridor, Magnus, Kaze, Elliat, and Justan finally reached the door that Little Jaiya was standing in front of.

  “In there, World-Breaker,” Little Jaiya said to Magnus whilst referring to the door. “What you seek… LIES IN THERE.”

  Magnus stared at the door whilst Kaze continued to stare up at the several hanging bodies in mixtures of anger, disgust, and sadness.

  “Raedyn… What are you doing?” Elliat asked Magnus. “Why have you journeyed here?”

  “You know that this ‘holding cell’ is off limits, yes?” Justan asked the World-Breaker.

  “Justan is correct, Raedyn,” Elliat nodded. “This particular holding cell is only accessible to the Holy Emperor himself.”

  “The Holy Emperor himself?” Magnus thought as he continued to stare at the heavily fortified door.

  “You know what you must do, Magnus,” Little Jaiya said to the World-Breaker whilst she still stood before him, invisible to Kaze and the others.

  Stepping forward, Elliat said, “Come now, Raedyn. Let us be away from this holding cell and leave the Maximum-Security Sector… AT ONCE.”

  “YES,” Justan followed in stern annoyance. “I grow with grand disgust of seeing these putrid pieces of lifeless raxx dangling above our heads. Ugh… So sickening, they be… ALL OF THEM.”

  “All of them?” Magnus thought to himself as he looked down at Little Jaiya.

  “You know what you must do, World-Breaker,” Little Jaiya said to Magnus again whilst calling him by his ‘infamous title’. “You know what you must do… SO DO IT.”

  “RAEDYN,” Elliat then urged in a sterner sounding and commanding tone of voice through his battle helmet’s voice modulator. “I SAID…”

  SPLATTER!