Bloody small and frail hands clutching the hem of her dress as her wavy long black hair cascaded onto the floor. The nonstop flow of her tears fell on the bloody floor. The thirtieth empress, Empress Ivynia Ilorde Bezarius, the last monarch of the Bezarius Empire, dangled upon the cliff called death—the sharp tip of a bloody sword only an inch close from her sweaty neck. Her amber eyes that shone like gold stared daringly at the captain of the White Knights, Crown Prince Travis Albert Vhuztaria, from the enemy kingdom of Vhuztaria.

“Your reign will fail. The beasts of Bezarius will not accept you as their one true master, prince.” Ivynia spat her words in front of the man who she once treated as a friend. She realized Travis was a monster far greater than her late husband.

He is a monster hiding in a sheep’s cloth. Behind those peaceful grins lies a snake that has already poisoned the surrounding prey.

Blood trickled from her chin as the serious-looking Prince Travis tilted her head to look up at him with the use of his sword. The glaring eyes of the empress showed no hint of submission, even after being forced to kneel.

“You are such a curious thing, Empress Ivynia. How lucky. I need a queen like you. Though I heard you are carrying the late emperor’s spawn, do not worry. I will kill that beast inside you.”

In reflex, Ivynia held her stomach. There were spies planted in the Imperial palace from the moment that he first visited. Or maybe there were spies long before he visited. And the late emperor, who was not in the right state of mind, would not know. Even if Ivynia tried to protect the empire and her child from the greed of the noble faction and aristocratic faction - she still lost. She failed to realize the danger from the enemy kingdoms who seek revenge.

The child in my womb is the only one left to me. With His Majesty gone, the only reason I am fighting for this crumbling nation is because of the child he left me. But if surviving means living a desolate world devoid of His Majesty’s traces, I will rather die with this child. I know that in my afterlife, His Majesty Hyan Rezenia Bezarius will never love me. After all, I have loved him from afar.

She looked around her for a split second. Ivynia’s tears fell as she saw her trusted chancellor’s headless body, along with her ladies-in-waiting that were bathing their blood. With her new resolve, Ivynia spoke her last words as a monarch before Prince Travis could withdraw his sword from her neck. “I, Empress Ivynia Ilorde Bezarius, the last monarch of the kingdom of beasts, the Bezarius Empire, declares all the beasts under my command to devour the intruders of this land. Heed me, Goddess of Beasts, Rhea!” Ivynia held Travis’ sword. With a swift move, she got her neck slashed open.

“No!” the resonating voice of Travis boomed inside the bloody throne room. Before she fell to the ground, Ivynia met his eyes and smiled triumphantly.

This time, I won.

Her frail body laid to rest on the cold floor. Ivynia’s labored breathing was slowing down. Her vision on the grand ceiling of the throne room grew darker. The taste of blood became stale. A prickling cold turned her numb to anything. The warmth in her womb was gone. The last sense to rest before she succumbed to eternal sleep granted her the joy of hearing the enemies’ screams of agony as the beasts tore their limbs piece by piece.

That’s right. Devour the intruders. After all, this is the kingdom of beasts.

What Ivynia failed to hear was the howl of sorrows from countless beasts as they regained their kingdom from the intruders—a howl as if it was the serenade of death.

“JUST WHAT the fuck am I watching? And who is the weird voice narrating at the ending part? Dude! Give me back my money, Netflix!” After watching the last episode of the last season of the Netflix Series entitled “Serenade of Death”, Yorenheim, also known as Yuri, threw popcorns onto the screen of their television,

“For someone who is a wanted criminal, you sure are a sucker for happy endings.” Kelsie, her partner-in-crime, took the seat next to her as she watched with her, the credits of the series still rolling on the screen.

“I wouldn’t give a damn even if all the male protagonists die. But why did Ivynia have to die? She is the coolest character though, and if you observe the ending, it is like she is the main character, right?”

“Yeah, yeah. Rather than discussing some fiction, how about we talk about our next target?” Kelsie handed her tablet to the sulking Yuri. “Here, read this.”

Yuri scanned the details of the mission before snorting. “Isn’t he the Russian mob the CIA hates? Are you sure this is not a trap from those pesky agents?”

The CIA was still targeting them. After issuing an international assault unit for her arrest, Yuri and Kelsie had to fly to Budapest to lie low for a while. Well, Yuri could not blame them for sending them the big guns since her recent mission made her kill the U.S. vice president.

“Why do you think so, Yuri?”

“Oh please, Kelsie. A Russian mob? For real? That is so easy that I can finish that mission with my eyes closed. That could be a trap.”

Kelsie sighed. “We can’t take big jobs, since like you wanted, we have to lie low. This is lying low, Yuri!” Kelsie finally snapped, which reminded Yuri that she was being unfair to her partner. Kelsie was right. They were international criminals at the moment, and the territorial conditions of the law won’t be able to protect them now.

“Fine, I’ll take that mission,” said Yuri in a bored tone.

“Finally! The cunt makes some sense. Now, I’ll prepare our gears.” Kelsie stood up and went to their workshop area where their gears and Yuri’s chemicals were being kept.

Now, Yorenheim Lantis is finally an international criminal who specializes in poisons and espionage. Gosh, I am so cool. Who would have thought that I will be here while studying at Harvard? The universe is truly awesome!

Yorenheim Lantis graduated from Harvard with the highest GPA at eighteen. She worked as a chemist for years under a government agency, and that’s when he met her ex-boyfriend, Roy. Yuri should have guessed that the conniving bastard would frame her for his crime! All those times that she thought they were in love, it was all a scheme to erase her from the competitive world of chemistry. She got two choices. The first choice was to surrender and rot inside the prison cells, while the second choice was to run away and live beyond the prison cells.

Yuri made the obvious choice. She feared death more than anything else. For her, it would justify any action as long as she lived. This belief led her to the life of a criminal. With a mind like hers, she survived the wicked world of darkness and still got time to enjoy Netflix.

For a criminal like her, she only desired to live a long life—or so she thought.

The next moment, their apartment was in flames that were roaring like demons while Kelsie laid dead with a gunshot wound on her forehead. Disoriented from the explosion, Yuri coughed out blood when the smoke infiltrated her lungs. “Damn agents, I’ll fucking screw you to pieces!”

Yuri took the gun under her shorts, wherein its bullets got some poison coated on it. One graze could make anyone and anything drop-dead in a matter of seconds. Covering her nose with her left arm, she used the other hand to aim and shoot the agents who were attempting to cross the sea of flames.

Every looming shadow fell in a matter of seconds with an interval of less than a minute. Yuri crawled to the ground. The broken glasses scattered everywhere pierced her knees.

“Kelsi—oh fuck, yeah, she croaked.” Yuri had no choice but to hope that her last three bullets would be enough to escape.

Yuri was about to stand and attack those beyond the walls when she coughed up more blood. The sticky dark red substance on her palm made her check her body only to freeze upon realizing that three grenade shrapnel could pierce her chest and stomach.

“H-How?”

In the middle of the sea of flames, cold sweats broke free from her body. The gun fell with a loud thud when her hands lost all their strength upon the realization of dying. For the first time after they framed her for a crime she did not commit, Yuri felt fear. But this time, there were no choices available for her.

BLUE TULIPS everywhere. The scent of tulips lingered anywhere she faced, and the sensation was so overwhelming that Yuri questioned if she was already dead.

“I died by a lame death. A fucking arrest with dead or alive bounty, that’s the best death I can come up with? I, Yorenheim Lantis, the greatest criminal, died right after binge-watching that wretched Netflix series? No way!” Yuri continued to rant as she laid on a bed of tulips.

Still clad in her clothes when she died, Yuri contemplated how she would continue from this moment. She still had so many things to do. Yuri wanted to hunt the fucking cunt who threw the damn grenade. Heck, she wanted to invade the White House and take a selfie while at it, and she still wanted to fall in love and poison her husband when she would catch her cheating.

Reaching out to the endless horizon above her, Yuri mumbled beneath her breath. “Good fucking bye, my lovely dreams!”

“Do you want to live and pursue your dreams? I can help you.”

Not moving her head, Yuri nonchalantly gazed at the woman, who was wearing a black robe embroidered with golden tulips in an upside-down point of view. “Sorry to burst your bubble. If you are here to offer me some heavenly insurance about meeting my Creator and all, then I am not interested. I'd rather go to hell and find the motherfucker who framed me up. I killed him, by the way.”

The woman’s beastly yellowish eyes smiled at Yuri as if entertained, earning a scoff from the latter after feeling a bit insulted as she thought the intruder mocked her. “You are truly one of a kind, Yorenheim Lantis. Among all the souls I have watched, yours stood out.”

Ding! Ding! Ding! Stalker alert!

“What do you want from me?”

“Let me answer your question with a question. Do you want to live once again?”

Hell yeah!