Planet Master

While undercurrents were happening on the Solont Planet. On the nearest military planet, Zenollium, it was the biggest military base of the Yul Municipality, which boasted that its bases were impregnable.

At this time, a red alert was announced on this military base.

“What’s happening? Can someone explain to me what is going on?” a capybara was asking while his face looked like a lazy person.

“Sir, the fleets of Zenollium have detected fleets of enemies! We are engaging in battle with them.” The adjutant said.

“In my name, Osmond, don’t let them enter the base on the planet!” Osmond the capybara was actually an acting general on this planet. The fact that he used his name meant that he truly meant to defend the planet to the end.

But sadly, what attacked him was the merciless Undead race and the transcendents with the Necromancer’s Trait, which meant that they used the living as an incubator for more undead element. Since there were only enemies on the planet and its surroundings, the fleets did not restrain themselves and started to bombard the enemy fleet using their own means.

The Undead race, despite being confined to the center of the Cerulean Planet, managed to develop their own version of spaceships. It was made from the mixture of the Withered White Trees and bones of the Dragon of Ruin Smagenrog, at least what mostly remained of it as a hull, while the rest were the bones of the deceased stitched together with the undead element forming a shield.

“Transcendents and the Undead race, prepare to enter the enemy spaceships! Loot them all!” Long Wu was in high spirits. It was rare for the Necromancer’s Trait transcendent and for the Undead race to act.

The moment they acted, they needed to be decisive and never hesitate.

The Wraith entered the spaceships of the enemy, causing chaos while the transcendents were eliminating and propagating the undead element inside.

Then after doing that, they absorbed the undead element, refining them on the spot and increasing their strength before continuing the advance.

Although there were some countermeasures by the Rodents for the undead, they were quickly destroyed by the undead element wielders.

“Oh, so they used this old trick.” Long Wu grabbed a ball full of bioenergy. Since bioenergy was the very vitality of every living being, they were closely related to Ether and had similar properties.

But to the Cerulean Defense Force, this was actually the oldest trick in the book.

Long Wu then stored it inside his spatial ring before continuing to eliminate his enemies and used their corpses as a breeding ground for the undead element.

Zhask was also present, overseeing the entire battlefield theater. They were on the geostationary orbit of the Zenollium which was heavily defended.

Clusters of energy cannons hit the undead spaceships while the undead spaceships used their special attack to neutralize the shields of the enemy spaceships and infiltrate their spaceships.

The technique for intangibility was taught to all transcendents and they could master it given enough time. This was for the case of the space battle where the spaceships had limited entry and had to be able to enter it from any position of the enemy’s spaceships.

“What’s going on?” The Rodent marine was surprised by the quake caused by the hull being hit without its shield.

Then he saw an appearance of another race that the entire command had designated as the primary enemy race.

Then he raised his weapon, intending to shoot at once but the moment he saw the figure, his fate was sealed.

His head was pierced by a dagger that was imbued with the undead element. No, it also contained the catalyst, which prevented the effect of the enemies’ anti-undead move. Soon, the corpse of the Rodent fell and was then changed into the undead with its flesh rotten and its body moved by the will of the source of the undead element.

“Go, cause mayhem!” Long Wu finally had something to distract the interior’s unit. While the undead moved to one side, Long Wu moved to the opposite side.

The undead’s task was to propagate the numbers of the undead and the catalyst in the undead element was now making the recently raised undead several times stronger, strong enough to ignore the anti-undead measures taken by the Rodents.

Long Wu then found some of his fellow transcendents and together caused more chaos on the spaceship as they made way to the bridge.

Of course, the interior of the spaceship was made so that when an internal infiltration occurred, the cabins and the sectors of the spaceship could be separated by a separator door.

But transcendents deployed to the battlefield was actually strong enough to ignore this. With their intangibility, the task of going to the bridge became so much easier and the captain on the spaceship revealed a terror on his face.

While the Rodents were trying to outnumber the spaceships in battle, and also trying to infiltrate the undead spaceships, the effort needed was greater than the enemy's effort to infiltrate theirs.

Then….

“Argh-“

Hearing the last communication between the invaded spaceship, the rest of the still active spaceship captains realized that the undead was somehow able to counter their anti-undead measures.

“How in the world can they counter our anti-undead measures!?” one captain roared in denial. He had thought that the Undead Race and the primary enemy race had been suicidal, acting on the Zenollium, but who would have thought that they were the sharpest blade that penetrated the heart of the military bases?

From the direction of the enemy spaceships, even the commander on the base on the Zenollium knew that the target of the Undead Race and the primary enemy race was their utter annihilation.

Why did they know it? Because everything that the undead element touched was converted into the undead race, becoming part of their members.

When the anti-undead measures were becoming obsolete while the enemy became stronger, there were limited things they could do, and that was exactly how the Rodents acted.

When the entire spaceship was already saturated with the undead element, Long Wu knew that the spaceship now belonged to his side.

“Turn around and fight the rest of the Rodents’ fleet in Zenollium.” Long Wu ordered the undead who still could control the entire spaceship. Now, the main energy for the spaceship had changed into the undead element since the conversion process was done.

“Today, let us feast on your physical bodies!” Long Wu had a gleam in his eyes that signaled the rise of the Undead race and the undead element user.

All the enemy corpses had turned into their own, increasing the number and concentration of the undead element, making it abundant and slightly purifying. Furthermore, the numbers started slowly due to the quick response from the Rodents and their other races, but soon the balance was broken by the Federation's skilled and experienced transcendents.

Although the Rodents also had experienced transcendents, they were unable to defeat even one of the Necromancer’s Trait transcendent despite overwhelming them with numbers.

But the Undead race never feared numbers; barring the anti-undead measures being effective, the Undead were thriving in numbers.

Long Wu even swung his dagger and the injury caused by the dagger laced with the undead element started to take effect and convert them into the undead.

“Their transcendents even outnumber us ten to one but they are weaker. Are they actually also like the Undead race, thriving in numbers? Too bad that their anti-undead measure is being countered.” Long Wu murmured as he moved through the dense Rodents’ marine as he slaughtered them and converted them into the undead.

But Long Wu knew that the Federation wanted to be overprepared rather than underprepared and this showed in this battle. There were various thoughts on the anti-undead and the think tank on the Federation stipulated three methods to minimize the effect of the undead element.

First, make the undead element react to something else other than the bioenergy as well as life force. This was the easiest thing to do, but to counteract it was also easy. Make the undead element so berserk that it could bypass the element that caused them to react, reacting to all basically.

Second was to isolate the undead element. This was the second-best option since most of the races used this method not only to limit the spread of the element but also to be able to use it for other purposes.

The third was to convert the undead element. There were methods in the universes that could do this but they were limited in numbers and the circulation on the Universe Market was so rare that most of the Planet Masters had seldom heard of it.

This was due to the Undead race being unpopular and hated almost universally.

Of course, the first and second were the most likely to be encountered during the Star Battle and Dian ordered the civilization to develop as much as possible and this was one of the results.

Now that they knew what kind of countermeasures were in place, the transcendents of the Federation could finally focus on neutralizing it while strengthening their own units.

The Zenollium’s geostationary orbit barrier was finally breached with the combination of various factors. Now that the Rodents realized that their unit was being converted, they decided to annihilate all of them, even if it meant sacrificing themselves in the process.

“We have defeated most of the enemy spaceships. Now we need to land on the Zenollium soil itself. But beware that the enemy now has a chance to retaliate so fiercely that it would be shocking even for us.” Long Wu used the communicator to reach all of the transcendents as well as the top members of the Undead Race.

“If the intelligence from various remnants of their spaceships is true, they most likely used nuclear methods to eliminate us. Their development was similar to ours in both technology and transcendent means. But why do I feel like ours are superior compared to theirs?” Zhask replied and also asked something that even surprised him.

“I don’t know but we are more thorough in means and grasping the truth closer to the source. We even imagined stronger enemies than ours as adversaries to fight against and prepared for that.” Long Wu knew that the Federation always assumed that they were going to fight stronger entities, not weaker.

And that preparation saved them a lot of trouble when in the Star Battle. It did not mean that the enemy was weak; it just meant that the Federation had more options when encountering a problem.

“That is why we have the advantage. But it does not mean that we have won. On the contrary, we welcome the most vulnerable point in our battle.” Long Wu added.

Even Zhask knew that was the case. The moment the momentum of the battle was in their favor, the enemy would most likely use drastic measures to seize the lost momentum.

“We need to be cautious but it doesn’t mean we are afraid. Send the units to reach Zenollium!” Long Wu was the highest leader in this place so his words were regarded as the highest command.

“It shall be done.” Zhask then picked up the best units among the Undead Race while Long Wu picked up the best transcendents to go with him.

Just as they were ready to descend and position the spaceships for orbital bombardment, numerous Interplanetary Missiles were coming to their position.

“Don’t let them explode near us. If I guess things right, these missiles are nuclear warhead ones. Intercept them.” Long Wu gave his latest order before he prepared to drop into the Zenollium with the others.

The Wraiths were intercepting the missiles, trying to make it explode early. They successfully done that by attacking the warhead but it exploded with great force and radius, confirming that the missiles were actually filled with a nuclear warhead.

Numerous explosions like fireworks happened intermittently, as if it were a blooming flower in the dark and black void.

Although most of the Interplanetary Missiles were intercepted, some of them still hit the spaceships, causing some damage. Fortunately, they had harvested several undead elements and used them to repair the spaceships.

Then they proceed with the previous plan and position themselves according to that.

“We only cause them little damage.” Osmond frowned and even sighed. He knew that things went wrong and this was the result.

Their anti-undead measures were bypassed by the Undead Race and their forces were converted to the enemy ranks, causing their numbers which was usually an advantage to be the deadly factor in their defeat.

“Even the Interplanetary Missiles were unable to effectively damage them at this point. From now on, we will fight until the last individual.” Osmond said things in a leisurely way but the words he spoke were nothing but that.

The other races that were conscripted were holding their anger at the Rodents; their inability to gain advantage in the Star Battle, despite their numerical advantage, was also a large factor why they now in their current situation.

But they knew that the opponent was also a monstrous entity that commanded not only the infamous Gling but also the Undead. That was not something they could see in their previous Star Battle. The forces that could defeat those two should be so formidable that it inspired fear and a speck of admiration.

“Yes, sir!” all the races and even the Rodents’ in the Zenollium planet saluted at Osmond before they went into their station, trying to intercept the descent of the enemy units.

The drop pod was ready and Long Wu entered one of them. He looked at the militarized planet with a curious look.

‘What kind of defense have they prepared? It should be a good reference for our civilization to use.’ Long Wu thought as he prepared himself inside the drop pod.

He was not worried about getting hit with a surface-to-air weapon. His transcendent energy would protect him and the drop pod was sturdy enough to withstand the descent from beyond the atmosphere.

The others were also in a similar situation and thought similarly. If the enemy could stop their descent, then they would have deployed such a thing from the start, preventing the landing from even happening in the first place.

“Beware of anything after you land. Convert every living being there into the undead.” Long Wu gave one last order before the drop pod was launched from the spaceship. He also realized that the Undead Race needed to be more confident in their endeavor.

Because the humans believed that the Undead Race's potential was not limited by the Death Sovereign’s words, but by their own will, determination and mindset.

They believed that anyone had the potential to reach the peak. Anyone meant that any race could reach the pinnacle of existence even the Undead.

“See, believe in yourself more that you can definitely reach a higher height.” Dian said to Ghylea.

He often said that despite different circumstances, anyone had the potential to reach the pinnacle. But due to the overall assessment from the Planet Masters and the Universe Council, the Undead Race was considered a low-potential race.

It meant that the maximum powerscale that the Undead could reach was actually at Rank 3 in the transcendent tree. But after seeing the way that the humans with the Necromancer’s Trait developed something entirely new, even in the eyes of Ghylea as an Undead Race Planet Master, he started to believe that he could elevate the Undead Race to greater heights.

Now, he could see the seeds that he had sown were growing stronger. As for what the future held, he reserved it for now.

“But it is actually the human race’s research and development of the undead element that the Undead Race can benefit from. This shouldn’t be credited to my race.” Ghylea said with a determined tone.

“No, the source of the undead element is the Undead Race. Even the humans who had the Necromancer’s Trait are considered half Undead Race. Developing the undead element and the transcendent who uses it are of the utmost importance to the human race. They believed that this has the potential, no less than the other.” Dian shook his head as he explained the thing during his observation.

That was the reason why some humans had the Necromancer’s Trait. This would not disappear, so might as well study and develop it further. For the humans, though, this development was worth it.

But for the Undead Race, this was an immense form of trust and investment. Something that even their revered Sovereign was not confident in.

Ghylea was stunned but he had a palpitation. If the undead could become stronger, then it would prove that their races could be on the pinnacle.

“The pinnacle…is it achievable by us? Can we become equal to the Ten Venerables?” Ghylea then turned his head to look at Dian, who was on the throne.

Ghylea was on the battlefield theater while Dian was sitting on his throne in the Planet Master Space. Although separated by the space, their communication was not interrupted due to some means of the Planet Master System and their relationship.

“You only thought about being equal to the Ten Venerables now? Shouldn’t you do this sooner?” Dian put his chin on the back of his hand.

“You only have a limited perspective that the furthest your race could reach was just a rank higher. But the human race doesn’t want to stop there at all. I can tell you that the human race wanted the entire existence, that’s their goal.” Dian smirked as he revealed the ambition of the race under him.

It looked like Dian was agreeing to the goals and objectives of the human race. Ghylea was stunned but then he felt that he was truly underwhelming his own race.

Even the human race was confident in the potential of the Undead race, why would he still have a shallow goal when he could aim higher?