Maintaining his calm demeanor, Tian looked to the soldier and nodded, “I did as I said I would. General Cao Hu is presently not able to attend to his duties, so Ms. Red will step in for him. You would do well to remember that in the general’s absence, she holds the same authority as him in matters of Rigport’s occupation.”

“Right…” the soldier nodded, stepping towards the throne without even the slightest show of deference, immediately breaking into description of his request. He audibly expected to simply be given the go-ahead for what he asked to do. “See, we’s been seein’ Snow Devils bein’ a lil’ too at-ease, they’s been gettin’ too uppity n’ demandin’ we do stupid shit like “respect muh rights”. Fuckers’ve even got the gall to call over the Greks to ruin our fun when me an the boys caught ourselves a bit of fresh meat…”

This went on for some time, and throughout the soldier’s speech, the Woman in Red shifted her attitude from dismissal to death. It was clear this man was one of the many criminals Cao Hu had recruited directly out of prisons to bolster his forces, and while she wasn’t one to just dehumanize anyone who happened to fall on the wrong side of the law… This wasn’t a person.

It was a beast in the skin of a man.

“I see,” she nodded for the nth time, turning to Tian Meng. “I believe I understand now. I believe a hand-written Expedited Commendation is in order.”

A code phrase that effectively meant she wanted him dead, by her own hands.

“Tian, before we proceed, can you confirm that this one is fit for an E.C., please?”

“Of course,” nodded Tian Meng, himself turning to the soldier. “Wait just a moment.”

He walked back to the elevator, closing the doors between it and the office, locking them. Then, after leisurely walking back over, he delivered a swift jab to the soldier’s spine, grabbing him at the base of the neck before he could fall, effectively paralyzing him in place. A useful technique that only really worked on normal humans, though its principle carried through to the dizzying heights of pressure-point induced total organ failure and blockage of chi flow even for powerful cultivators.

“You know, you’re not the first to come to me with a request like yours,” Red said, no longer concealing the vile disdain in her voice as she stood from the throne, permitting the robe’s Fog-infused fabric to slip from her form. She pulled the mask off her face, the three slots at its top sliding past her horns before she tossed it aside.

“I suspect you won’t be the last… In fact, I count on it. You who so eagerly call others beasts and demons, when in reality it is you who are the rabid beasts,” she continued, extending the blade of her right arm to its fullest whilst her left remained folded across her chest.

“And you make it oh so enjoyable to put you down.”

That woman was a monster. A beautiful, terrifying monster, wearing the countenance of a sacred mantis, twisted and distorted. He’d seen mantis seers before, and this creature was their polar opposite, violent in its very nature. Its mere aura erased any sense of ambition present in the soldier’s mind, replacing it with sheer awe and terror.

Her face was a twisted image of beauty, blue eyes staring down with authoritative disdain. Raven hair flowing around her shoulders, parted by three iridescent horns.

A left side entirely armored in bright-red chitin, swirling patterns spiraling across the great plates. Her left arm was clawed and possessed of a golden-edged blade running nearly parallel to the forearm, her left foot wrought of gold-edged blackstone.

Her right side was mostly bare skin, with a single large chitinous growth covering the upper portion of her right leg, from the outer side of the thigh to the knee and top of the calf.

These were the last sights of a criminal-turned-soldier.

The last thing Bang Yi ever felt was a golden-edged blade entering his stomach and swiftly moving upwards.

That night, as he had on many nights before, Cao retreated to a ship anchored off the coast in order to partake in depravity and sleep in what he perceived to be safety… And she had no choice but to follow suit, onerous mask and all.

Cao’s pleasure-ship had food, drink, dancers, servants, even a miniature palace-like structure which itself was the size of a house. Staffed entirely by Pateirians, it was the general’s small slice of home away from home, and were his proclivities looser, she wagered he would’ve been very much willing to exploit the natives for pleasure and entertainment. The ship was also utterly useless for anything else. It was just barely able to survive proper nautical voyages, had maneuverability inferior to a raft, and was altogether a glorified floating platform - it had been towed to this place by a merchant-ship escort, as far as she was aware.

The Woman in Red spent her evening sitting pretty by Cao Hu’s side, occasionally eating and drinking, whilst she spent the vast majority of the time drowning out her surroundings that the overly traditional music and the old man’s obnoxious antics would not drive her mad.

When at last it was appropriate for her to retreat from the public eye, she did so gladly and, upon laying on the ship’s suffocatingly-soft bed, she instantaneously fell into a sleep-like trance. It had been like this ever since that day, a semi-conscious delirium of feverish dreams throughout which she remained semi-aware of her surroundings.

She dreamt of that day, of when she invoked the Talisman of the Fifth Heavenly Wind that she might be spirited away to a safe place beyond the dungeon’s walls.

By the abominable metamorphosis that the Queen had forced her to undergo through imbibing the Dungeon Core’s essence, the soul-binding contract’s grip on her had been made to unravel.