BLOOD MUTANT SYSTEM.

Satisfaction.

The pitiful sight of Granian Ace and Cherry’s unresponsive, bleeding bodies brought an eerie smirk to Ace’s face and filled him with a slight sense of satisfaction. The clones—which were mere mockeries of him and his sister—were not so indestructible after all.

That realization calmed the Blood Prince and momentarily made him forget about his grudge against the Granians for doing nothing to retrieve Jim and Anya. What made him feel even better was Gravax’s distraught demeanor.

The cocky Granian Lord had shown a rotten attitude—in Ace’s eyes—towards the Blood Prince ever since his clones became active. It only worsened when he saw Ace grow unsettled by the regenerative abilities the clones possessed.

Now, all of that pride, ego, and "attitude" had been stripped away from him. What was left was a wounded Granian mourning over two bodies, one more gravely injured than the other.

"A success." Gravax’s sorrow turned into a smile, making Ace frown. "This has been a success. All my expectations of the clones have been met. I’ve gathered all the information I so desperately needed."

The Granian Lord snapped his fingers, and the clones made in his image approached with two cylindrical containers. The containers were filled with a crystal-blue liquid, and within them, the bodies of Granian Ace and Cherry floated.

With a satisfied grin, Gravax turned to Ace, glared briefly and thanked him.

"Thanks to you and your Blood Warrior, I have witnessed and learned of the flaws and weaknesses my creations possess."

"Thought you didn’t want me to kill them?" Ace wondered. "Why’re you smiling all of a sudden?"

Gravax didn’t respond. Instead, he smiled, shook his head, and walked away with the containers.

’I hate when he does that.’

"Our job here is done," he declared as the ship that brought them prepared to transport them back to the warehouses and the Granian Palace. "Lord Gravax, everything you asked of me has been delivered and is ready for us to put into use. By the time the sun rises three more times, a quarter of our forces will be ready to fly back into battle.

"The soldier clones are ready as well. Their equipment and weapons have been forged and prepared. I can have them demonstrate what they’re capable of whenever you wish."

"Perfect!"

The Granian Lord spoke loudly and then patted Gravax on his back forcefully. Suddenly, his demeanor shifted, and so did the atmosphere around them. The vain, pompous energy that constantly oozed from him transformed into something far more imposing—something Ace and Cherry had only felt the first time they met him.

His posture, his body language, and the look on his face all changed. He nodded briefly at Gravax, speaking to him without words. The red-scaled Granian nodded back and bowed before boarding his ship, leaving with his clones and the containers holding Granian Ace and Cherry.

However, just before Gravax took flight, a Granian scout ship sped towards them. It didn’t touch the ground before its pilot ejected, crashing to the ground and stumbling—in pain—toward Lord Grania and Gravax.

The Granian Lords were not pleased with the scout’s recklessness and complete disregard for the ship.

"For your life, Granian," Grania addressed the scout coldly, "you had better have a good reason to justify why you destroyed one of my ships..."

The scout interrupted, his voice expressing the terror.

"Ethisians," he cried, "they’ve begun their attack. Twenty of our colonies closest to their territory have been pillaged. They’ve killed everyone, taken everything that we had, and reclaimed the colonies..."

Grania and Gravax’s eyes widened in shock. They expected the Ethisians to attack, but not this soon.

"...High Ruler Enor’s offspring has taken command of the attack. Because we’re so understaffed and lack the equipment, they struck us so easily. None of our people have survived, Lord Grania, none of them. I’m only here because that damned Ethisian allowed me and a few survivors to return and report what has happened to us."

"Oh really?" Grania wondered. "So out of twenty colonies we’ve lost, only twenty of you survived?"

"I-I wish I could say yes," the scout began to shed tears. This was the first time Ace and Cherry had seen a Granian reduced to such a pitiful state because of an Ethisian. "But even those twenty were picked off one by one..."

As he sobbed, the scout suddenly froze and turned toward Ace and Cherry. Their presence made him grow even more terrified as his body trembled violently.

"...t-them," he cried even louder, crouching and retreating closer to the Granian Lords to get further away from the humans, "the Ethisians...they’ve commissioned their first Blood Mutants, the ones who look like them..."

"Oh!"

Gravax and Grania exclaimed. Ace and Cherry saw the color flush from their scales as a sense of uncertainty crept in.

’So that’s the influence the Ethisian Blood Mutants have, huh? Just how strong are they?’

"...and that’s not all," the scout continued, "they have a large army, my Lords. The YYrejites, Soxans, Haisojans, and other species I could not identify have joined the Ethisian fleets. If they were to attack now, they’d overwhelm and overpower us. And the Ethisians...their ships...they now appear in the blink of an eye, my Lords. That’s how they struck us! They just appeared without warning or detection and slaughtered our people.

"My Lords, I’m afraid we can’t win this, not with every soldier hiding here. We’re...we’re outmatched. They’ve prepared too well for this. We’re going to lose this war. We’re going to lo..."

*CRUNCH*

Lord Grania crushed the scout’s head under his foot, killing him instantly. A darkened frown etched on his face as he clicked his tongue in irritation at the scout’s cowardice.

"Well then," he sighed, "it seems our enemies have been preparing as much as we have, maybe even more."

"Should we be worried?"

Cherry asked, not out of concern for the Granian race, but for her own survival. Their loss meant certain death at the hands of the Ethisians or their Blood Mutants.

"Nonsense," Grania replied, "those are merely fear tactics the Ethisians are deploying. If they believe their large numbers will overwhelm us, they’re surely mistaken. Prepare me a ship, Gravax. And you two, come with me. It is time our allies pay back what they owe."

"And what about the Ethisians?" Gravax asked. "Do we attack now? Or wait for you to return."

Grania glanced at Gravax and replied, "I leave that decision to you and the Council. You made the clones; you understand them best."