Galaxy's First Ruler

"Can… Can I have some of that bread?"

"Fuck off!"

Pah!

A kick came flying to the head of a child. The child could be 8 to 9-year-old or he could be 14-15, given his long but frail frame, it was hard to decide.

The child had coarse brown hair, brown eyes, and the color of his skin was brown too. Despite the stabbing pain from the kick, his face didn't show any emotion. Blood trickled down from his head above his right eyebrow, but it got swiped away as if it was mere sweat.

He struggled to stand up and walked away. As he dragged his dying body, unnoticed within the buzzing crowd of workers, his last breaths felt like his face was underwater. Not a feeling he fancied much.

"Are you hungry, my child? Come with me. In the house of Almighty Perun, everyone gets to eat and drink. Come!"

The child looked up and found a white-garbed priest smiling at him. The white teeth shined between his black beard and mustache.

Horror!

Terror!

Emotions no one should face before death ravaged the child's mind. The cut on his forehead that hadn't given him any trouble sent stinging pain to bring him to his senses. The child's leg brought out the hidden strength and tried to bring his body away from the smiling priest, but a hand reached out and grabbed his shoulder.

Even if it were to an ant that had grabbed him, it could have held him back.

"Don't be afraid! I am here to help you."

"NO! Help! Save me!"

The shouts filled with despair got buried under the scene portraying a Priest standing by the child.

Two other helpers appeared near the Priest and put the child in a carriage. The carriage took the child to the temple, having high domes glowing with mighty red and white colors. The helpers dragged the child to the back of the temple, followed by the priest.

There was a small domed building behind the temple. The Priest went inside the building, which was filled with books covered in dust, and opened an iron door in a corner. The child's lifeless eyes saw the lock, bigger than his head, coming off and the stairs that were going deep down in the darkness.

As they kept going down the coiled stairs, an enormous hall opened up in front of them. Candles lighted the center of the hall, making its corners even darker. The hall had two rows of beds and two or more children had occupied each of them.

Their eyes were deader than the newly arrived one.

The two helpers threw the child into the middle of the hall, but none of the children looked at him. Their eyes had turned away to any place other than the priests and the child.

The Priest scanned the hall with his hawk-like eyes. His smile had vanished; his teeth didn't seem white any longer; the white cladding seemed blacker than the darkness of the stairs behind him.

"Bring him!"

The Priest pointed at one of the children at the far end of the hall. The two helpers went and dragged him to a room in one corner of the hall.

The child, sprawled on the floor amid the rows of beds, stared at the unseen roof of the cellar. A bruised face appeared between the roof and his face. The child stared at the long untidy hairs of a little girl and wondered if this was the last face he would get to see.

"We… We only get food late at night. You will be dead by that time. Here… Mmm! You can have this!"

The child saw a fist-sized piece of bread, covered in mold. Soundless tears came pouring out from the corner of his eyes as he sat up and took the bread. The little girl sat down facing him in a fetal position, making her tattered red frock show the bones under her skin.

The surrounding children stayed silent as the brown-haired child took a bite of the molded bread. The salty-sour taste got overshadowed by the whimpered screams coming from the room in the corner. Yet, none tried to look in that direction.

"It's good."

The little girl smiled hearing the child's voice, but the smile felt empty. It seemed like she was waiting to hear anything from anyone there.

"Hehe! You won't die now."

The child gulped down the last crumbs of the bread. His dry throat craved for drops of water, but the way the girl kept licking her chapped lips made him not ask for it.

"Thank you… My uncle used to call me Tomislav."

The little girl looked around before coming close to Tomislav and tried to whisper in his ears.

"I… You… My name is Christin."

*

"Hehe! Come out, Pussy-Pussy!"

A purple glow took over the gray ghostly surroundings of the group. And a cloud of purple mist came blasting out of the mirror.

The purple mist, on closer inspection, could be found comprising extremely fine sand particles. The sand churned in a rhythm as they took the shape of a small purple kitten.

Meoww!

The purple kitten licked its paw as the cave-like mouth kept coming closer and closer. Just as the foul breath reached the noses of others, the purple kitten dashed towards the giant Crawler.

Its speed was unimaginable, saying this was an understatement. Even with their senses, the two Viscounts only saw flashes of purple light. The flashes felt like they had taken place at almost the same time.

The kitten appeared on Christin's shoulder, leaving many purple paw-prints on the body of the Crawler.

Shrrrr!!!

The enormous Undead Wolf burst apart in a cloud of purple dust just as its teeth were about to bite Christin's head off. The dust gathered in front of the mirror and took the outline of a pup.

Christin reached out and embraced the pup made of purple dust and looked over at Tomislav.

"Captain! Look, it's so cute."

The Viscounts gaped at the sight, and a memory buried deep in their mind resurfaced. They remembered hearing how storms of Purple Dust had made an entire planet uninhabitable, annihilating all life.

And they also remembered the name that got infamous after that incident.

Christin, the Demonic Purple Death.