Lord Veal was pacing around the throne room of his flagship. A look of anger and annoyance was spread across his face. Veal's highest ranking servants stood around the room, watching their Lord pace with nervous looks on their faces.

Beside his throne, stood a man wearing black and red robes with a hood. He had no face, where his head should have been was a black void with two floating yellow dots that appeared to serve as eyes. This was none other than Veal's butler: Anut.

Anut was speaking. "...And to conclude what the casino owner told us, Vikal was knocked unconscious and taken away by Sanka."

Veal's eyes became bloodshot, he quickly raised a hand and fired a ki blast at a statue in the room, blowing it to bits. All of the minions present stood silent.

"I was a damn fool to trust Rivel!" Veal screamed. "If he was still alive, I would give him a death so cruel, he would long for something as sweet as pain!" Veal breathed heavily in anger. "Like many others in this room, I helped that idiot when he needed saving, and how does he repay me? He tries to kill Vikal out of some petty feud!"

The minion with the plague doctor mask, Malacari, spoke up. "I warned you about-"

Veal shot a death glare at Malacari. "I am not in the mood for your 'I told you so' speech, Malacari! There are more pressing matters at hand!"

The large minion with the black armor and horned helmet, Krop, spoke up. "Is it time for a rescue mission? I want to level up a bit!" He pounded his fists together while grinning.

Next, a minion wearing blood red armor stepped forward. She was none other than Masali, the childhood friend of Vikal's who was taken in by Veal along with her. "Vikal is a dear friend of mine." She said. "I would volunteer to rescue her for you, m'lord."

Veal rubbed his chin. "True… I cannot accept failure on this. However, you will presumably be going into the heart of enemy territory, I cannot risk sending a team of my very best to go."

Then, Efeb, Veal's second in command stepped forward. "My Lord, I would like to remind you that we have brought in three potential valuable servants earlier today. We can use them."

Veal nodded. "I would like to see them first, before we decide who goes to retrieve Vikal."

Efeb bowed. "In mere moments, I shall set up a demonstration for you to see their capabilities."

Mere Moments Later

There were now three posts in the middle of the throne room. A disciple of Heles was tied to each one. All three were squirming in fear.

Efeb bowed to Veal. "These are disciples we have captured over time. I have decided to put them to use by having them be dummies for our new recruits to demonstrate their abilities on."

Veal smiled. "A fitting end for the love worshippers." He turned to the disciples. "Listen here, your deaths are not a bad thing. For you shall be contributing more for the well being of our Universe here, than you would be in the service of that wretch Heles!"

One of the disciples spit at Veal. "Lady Heles is all powerful! You won't win!"

Veal gave a cold look to the disciple. "Do not think for a second that your goddess is unkillable."

Just then, the door to the room opened up, revealing three figures walking in.

The first was a thin man wearing a black and blue jester's outfit. His face was covered by a white mask with a malicious grin upon it.

The second was some being whose body appeared to be made entirely up of blades. Aside from two openings in his head that revealed two glowing blue eyes.

The third was a small red haired girl in a black dress. She had a cheerful smile on her face.

Efeb gestured her hand to the disciples. "Introduce yourselves by executing these zealots of love!" She ordered while looking at the three new servants.

The one in the jester's outfit stepped up. "I'm Ivennos! I like death!" He said super cheerfully.

Efeb looked at Veal to explain. "He is an infamous serial killer, responsible for the death of three hundred and three people. And he is suspected in the disappearances of many more."

Ivennos did a flip through the air and landed right in front of the first chained up disciple. "Let's have some fun together!" The disciple squealed in fear of his killer.

Ivennos then proceeded to do something so vile, so sick and twisted that even Lord Veal had to look away and cover his ears from the sounds that were coming from it. Malacari was the only one in the room who watched the whole thing. After ten minutes, Malacari gave the others a thumbs up, indicating that the killing was done. Veal then pointed his hand at the scene of the killing, and fired a ki blast at it, destroying it so that he would not have to lay his eyes upon the brutal scene.

"Well…" Veal said. "I'm not entirely sure what you did, but it was horrifying. I trust we will find some use for you."

Ivennos bowed. "Thank you Lord Veal!" The psychotic jester then backflipped away.

Next, the bladed man stepped forward. He bowed to Veal. "'Allo, Lord Veal. I am the Shiv-a. It is very knife to make your acquaintance."

"Glad to have you with us." Veal said. But in reality he was thinking. "Oh no. He speaks entirely with knife puns. Great…."

"Well show us what you can do, mighty Shiva." Veal ordered.

Shiva bowed. He then proceeded to rush the middle disciple and in a flash, cut the disciple, the post he was tied to, and the chains that tied him to the post all to ribbons. Everyone in the room looked on with awe at what the bladed warrior had done.

"I'm impressed." Veal said. "You will do well here."

Shiva chuckled. "You could say that I am a cut above the-"

"On to the next one!" Veal quickly interrupted.

The girl with the red hair stepped up. She smiled. "I'm Ekutrey!" She happily exclaimed.

Veal rubbed his chin as he looked at her. "You… You are of the same species as the three maidens, are you not?"

Ekutrey smiled bigger. "Yep! But instead of using love to transform, I use HATE!"

"Show us what you can do then." Veal ordered.

Ekutrey spread out her arms. Several black hearts came floating out of nowhere, they circled her for a moment. Then all of the black hearts shattered creating a large smokescreen. All of the people in the room watched curiously. When the smoke cleared, Ekutrey was now taller, with purple hair, and glowing red eyes. Her skin was ghostly pale. But the biggest change was that several spider like limbs had sprouted from her back.

Ivennos clapped. "I like it!"

Ekutrey then descended upon the last remaining disciple and shot out several strings, eventually wrapping up the disciple like a spider does with prey. She then opened her mouth and bared down upon the disciple, making him a meal much like a spider.

Veal smiled. "You will make a fine addition to our cause." Ekutrey bowed to Veal upon hearing this.

Veal turned to all of his servants. "I have come to a decision." He said. "Ivennos and Malacari will be the ones to retrieve Vikal for us. Shiva and Ekutrey will train with Masali and Krop. Understood?"

Masali raised her hand. "My Lord, wouldn't it be beneficial to send me instead of the newcomer?"

"I considered that." Veal responded. "But, assuming Vikal has been taken to the maiden's home planet, Malacari has been working on setting something up there for quite some time now. I also do not wish to risk more than one of my more experienced servants."

Masali bowed. "Understood, Lord Veal."

Veal turned to leave the room. "Now, you may leave. I must return to my research."

Masali tilted her head. "Research?"

Veal nodded. "Over the years I have been studying and perfecting a certain technique. I am on the verge of successfully performing it."

"What kind of technique?" Masali asked.

"One that will allow no one to stand in my way." Veal responded.

And with that, Lord Veal left the room.

Vikal

Vikal suddenly awoke. "...Was I dreaming about my childhoo- Where am I?"

Vikal looked around at her surroundings, which featured a ton of people yelling and screaming rather rude things at her. Vikal then noticed she was tied up to a chair. Vikal looked closer at the room she was in.

"A courtroom?" She realized.

She then looked in front of her. At a high table, sat an old, orange man with a crash helmet and mustache. He wore a black judge's robe.

"I am Zarbuto, Knight, Judge, and Stuntman. I shall be presiding over this case." He said. He swung his gavel down. "This court is now in session."

I hope you enjoyed that chapter. It was focused entirely on the OC's of this story so I hope you were able to bear with it. Now, the next chapter will be focused on the court case. And the court case chapter is one that I have been looking forward to writing for a long time now.

As for the minion's name puns this chapter: Anut is an anagram of Tuna. Ivennos is an anagram of venison. Ekutrey is an anagram of Turkey. And Shiva is instead based around knife puns with his name containing the word shiv. I can tell that joke is going to get dull pretty quickly.

As always, constructive criticism is appreciated.