A/N: The end of an Empire.
-x-X-x-
Grand Regent, preparations are complete.
Floating in orbit over Viltrum, Argan stares down at the planet for a moment longer before turning to acknowledge Kregg.
Very good, General. The detonator?
General Kregg nods and holds out a device with a single button atop it. Taking ahold of it, Argan looks it over for a moment. To think such a small thing would be capable of destroying their entire planet. Not alone though, of course. No, it would simply set off a cascading effect that would eventually leave nothing behind.
If he could sigh, he would, but considering they're in the vacuum of space he simply turns to regard all of the others. Every remaining Viltrumite floats behind him, their departure imminent. They take with them several large containers filled with what little Argan had allowed to be brought along.
They could leave no traces of where they were going and Argan had no intention of letting the past define his people any longer. That did not mean forgetting everything that had made them who they were, however. Their history, their sciences, their discoveries… they would not let them go to waste. This new planet Earth… while it would not be conquered in the name of the Viltrumite Empire, Argan had no intentions of letting it languish in obscurity forever.
Sweeping his gaze across the lot of them, Argan nods to a few in particular. Carl, for instance, has fully recovered by this point, his Viltrumite Biology seeing to the swift healing of his broken limbs. He's been forever changed by their battle… but Argan likes to think he's stronger than ever for it.
Anissa is another that Argan lingers on. They've been at it multiple times a day since their first 'encounter', all to ensure that his seed would eventually take. Soon, she will bear him a child… the first Pure Blooded Viltrumite born since Argan himself.
Several of the other female Viltrumites have also paired off with males at this point for the same purposes, but not all of them. Argan has not pushed the issue for the time being though. He might have if it wasn't for Nolan's report on Earth, but given there were billions of these humans waiting for them to arrive, things were not quite so dire.
Finally finishing his visual check, Argan nods one final time.
Go. All of you.
And so they depart, leaving him alone floating over the empty world below him. Viltrum, their home… and if his father had had his way, their eventual tomb. Even now, billions of Viltrumite corpses encircle the planet, forming rings around it. Corpses tossed out of atmosphere during the worst days of the Scourge Virus, when millions of Viltrumites were dying by the hour.
Argan cannot claim to have direct experience with those events. He was born in the aftermath, the only living Viltrumite who could claim such. And yet, he floats there all the same, closing his eyes and soaking it in. The bodies. The decimation. The empty loneliness.
He had not reacted well to the news that his father had been working towards finding them a new planet and species to interbreed with in order to save their race. Parts of Viltrum had been utterly demolished in his resulting rage. Ancient architecture that had stood for thousands of years had been reduced to rubble beneath his fists.
Whether Thragg meant it as a token effort or simply didn't have any faith in Nolan's mission… it didn't matter. That he hadn't told Argan even when the younger Viltrumite had him dead to rights was infuriating, but also ultimately meaningless. His father was dead. Argan was all their people had left to rely on now. And so he would succeed where his father had failed.
Eyes snapping open, Argan presses the button on the detonator Kregg gave him. He watches as explosions begin to alight upon Viltrum's surface, the first wave of devices eradicating cities that have stood since the time of Emperor Argall.
But of course, that's just the beginning. It's not enough to simply destroy their presence on the planet. If their enemies come here… and they will come here, then they cannot be allowed to find anything they might reconstruct. Nor can they be allowed to know just how low the Scourge Virus laid Viltrum's people.
That is, in Argan's estimation, the greatest achievement of the Viltrumite Empire in the past thousand years. The Great Lie. That they were as strong as ever before. That there were still millions if not billions of them. That they had not truly lost anything to the Scourge Virus attack.
If their enemies came and found an empty Viltrum, even one with a scoured surface, they would also find the corpses orbiting the planet. They would learn just how much damage they'd done and just how successful their underhanded attack had been. This chapter was copied from NovelPing without permission.
Now, an argument could be made that letting them find the bodies might lead to them believing they'd succeeded in completely annihilating the Viltrumite Race. However, Argan found this unacceptable for two reasons. One, he did not like the idea of surrendering such information to anyone, let alone their greatest enemies. And two, tangentially related to one, giving the enemy access to billions of Viltrumite corpses to experiment upon was… unconscionable.
And so, even as explosions bloom across the surface of Viltrum, they're quickly joined by much larger blasts. While the Viltrumite Empire had never needed weapons of mass destruction to wage wars of conquest because of their own inherent biological superiority… that did not mean they didn't have access to some truly dangerous technology from the planets they'd conquered in the name of the Empire.
Viltrum's continents begin to bulge up, the first array of explosions dwarfed by the second and ultimately looking like nothing more than small mushrooms on the surface of a series of massive beasts moved into action for the first time in millennia.
It's almost beautiful in a way… until the third explosion starts. And then everything goes white as the planet's very core is detonated and the planet itself finally explodes properly.
Technically, Argan was supposed to begin his retreat the moment that he pressed the button. He certainly should be flying away from the blast now in order to escape its range.
Instead… he lingers. He watches. And he lets the power of a sun wash over him as their history and the remains of their dead are erased from the universe in one final, massive detonation.
-x-X-x-
Kregg stops along with Carl and the others on the edge of the star system. They all turn and watch from afar as the detonation takes place. Kregg's eyes, one biological and one mechanical, strain as they focus on the extremely bright explosion, trying to find the Grand Regent as he makes his way towards them.
… He should be making his way towards them.
General?
Kregg's jaw clenches as Carl's question floats through the void. The other Viltrumite's depth perception is absolutely atrocious since he refused to take a prosthetic eye like Kregg did, back when he'd lost his eye and arm to the Rognarr.
… Kregg glances to Anissa, wondering if maybe she sees more than he does. She too is peering out at the blast, uncaring that she's staring the blinding light right in its center. And yet, he can tell from her narrowed gaze and intense focus that she hasn't located Argan yet either.
Which is a problem, because Argan is quite literally the best of them. If he had begun flying to them the moment he pushed the button, he frankly should have already been before them by the time the final blast took place. If he'd begun flying to them only after he saw with his own eyes that the final blast was happening, he still should have been visible by now.
That he wasn't went beyond troubling. Especially since, with Nolan sent ahead of them all to prepare Earth for their arrival, Kregg was the only Viltrumite present who knew precisely why Argan might… purposefully fail to escape the blast.
Of course, the younger Viltrumite's anger while they finished preparations had been felt by every other Viltrumite. He had destroyed so much of Viltrum's surface while they were getting ready to depart that some had whispered that he was making sure to destroy any emotional attachments they might have to the planet.
Kregg knew better though. He knew why Argan was angry. Not just angry, but frustrated and possibly even grief stricken. Why had Thragg kept quiet about Nolan's mission? Argan had been advocating for a shift in the Empire's priorities for centuries. So why?
Kregg didn't know the answer to that question anymore than he suspected Argan did. What he did know, however, was that if Argan was dead now… they were doomed. The infighting that would ensue in the wake of the Grand Regent's demise would finish them off as a species. They would be-
There!
Kregg jolts as Anissa's mental voice rings out. The female warrior points and every other Viltrumite follows her finger, including him. After a moment, the General spots the black dot in the middle of the planet's explosion steadily growing a fraction bigger every second, and breathes a sigh of relief.
Then, he damn near swallows his own tongue when Argan gets a bit closer and becomes fully visible. The Grand Regent's cape and uniform are gone, completely and utterly burnt from his body. The Grand Regent is therefore entirely naked, but even as he crosses the vast distances between them in two more blinks of an eye, he is entirely unharmed.
Indeed, the only sign of the fact that he'd clearly been in the middle of the blast that just erased their planet and the corpses of their people… is a light sunburn across every inch of his body.
Argan looks at them all unfazed for a long moment before arching a brow… at which point Kregg immediately snaps out an order. This story is hosted at g.com.
Clothe the Grand Regent! Now!
It takes a handful of seconds for a Viltrumite to retrieve a set of fresh set of clothing from one of their storage containers.
Their Grand Regent takes the clothes from the Viltrumite in question and offers them a simple nod of acknowledgment before getting dressed. Though not before giving every female Viltrumite still alive quite the show.
Kregg huffs at Argan's antics. He truly was his father's son in many ways… while also being an entirely different headache in others. And yet… he can't help but feel pride knowing that Argan had stood in the midst of their past's decimation… and came out largely unscathed and unharmed.
He truly was the leader they needed to bring them forward into a brighter future. Kregg would do everything in his power, both as General and a proud Viltrumite Warrior, to follow him down this path.
Once he's completely dressed, Argan looks at all of them. Perhaps sensing that they would like him to say something, he looks back at the destruction behind him and inclines his head.
The planet Viltrum is no more. The Viltrumite Empire is dissolved. But we are more than our homeworld. We are more than an Empire. The people of Viltrum still live… and we still strive. We now go to our new home, where one of our best and brightest has already gone ahead to prepare the way for us. A place where we can rebuild and recover in full. Until one day in the future, we will remind this universe of one truly inescapable fact.
He looks back to them then, face solemn and serious.
All is ours.
ALL IS OURS!
The call and response is instantaneous across the thought-transmission devices they're using to communicate in space. And Kregg feels his chest swell with pride as Argan's lips curl back into a savage grin.
Good. Come now… let us be off.
With that, they turn and follow their Grand Regent, leaving the decimated star system behind them. A moment later and their star detonates as well, the delayed timer going off to thoroughly erase all remnants of the Planet Viltrum from existence.
And yet… not a single Viltrumite looks back.
-x-X-x-
A/N: And the beginning of something else entirely~
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