CHAPTER 66: The Shadow Council of the Northern Core
(ARC 4: COSMIC DOMAIN & THE STARLIGHT BEACON)
Deep within the hollowed-out asteroid belt of the Northern Star Core, three hundred light-years from the Central Star Market, sat the obsidian orbital citadel of Warlord Malakor of the North.
(Not to be confused with House Sterling's loyal Void Sovereign shadow, Malakor—this was the tyrannical, red-skinned alien warlord who had ruled Sector 7’s northern mining belts with an iron fist for two centuries.)
Inside the grand, torch-lit war chamber, Warlord Malakor sat upon a towering throne forged from melted star-ship hulls. He was a nine-foot-tall, four-armed behemoth whose body pulsed with the destructive energy of a Late-Stage Void Sovereign.
Standing at the bottom of the throne steps were three surviving lieutenants, their heads lowered in trembling fear. On the holographic display screen floating between them played the recorded footage of Ethan and Elena utterly dominating Captain Kargon in the Central Star Market.
"Two teenagers..." Warlord Malakor’s voice boomed through the chamber, making the obsidian pillars vibrate. "Two hairless human teenagers from a newly ascended realm flattened Kargon, paralyzed twenty Void mercenaries without tripping station alarms, and extracted my strategic territory map?!"
"M-My Lord!" a lieutenant stammered, sweating blue slime. "Reports from our deep-space scouts confirm that the Vorathian Fleet didn't retreat... they were completely annihilated by the ruler of House Sterling, Gabriel Sterling! He holds Peak Void Sovereign power!"
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
Warlord Malakor slammed his heavy, spiked fist into his throne's armrest, shattering the obsidian stone into dust! A wave of blood-red, destructive Qi swept through the chamber!
"Peak Void Sovereign?!" Malakor roared, his four yellow eyes burning with furious ambition and greed. "A primitive realm ascends for a few days, and suddenly its ruler claims Peak Void power?! Impossible! He must be using an ancient, high-tier cosmic artifact left behind by a fallen dynasty!"
Malakor stood up, his massive, spiked broadsword igniting with crimson plasma.
"If we capture those two heirs... Gabriel Sterling will have no choice but to surrender his cosmic artifact and open his planet's spirit veins to us!" Malakor sneered maliciously. "Mobilize the twelve hundred dreadnoughts of the Northern Core Fleet! We intercept their flagship at the Starlight Passage!"
Meanwhile, inside the quiet, luxurious tea room of The Sterling Sovereign, flying back through the interstellar hyper-space corridor toward the Starlight Gate...
Ethan sat on a plush silk couch, happily munching on a spirit-fruit pastry while inspecting the glowing crimson data-cube containing the Northern Warlord's territory map. Elena sat opposite him, sipping warm tea, her dark hair glowing softly in the ambient light of the ship's displays.
"Dad and Mom are going to love this map," Ethan grinned, tapping the data-cube. "Fourteen high-grade cosmic adamantite mines! With these resources, the Metal Spire can build fifty more heavy dreadnoughts for our orbital fleet."
Elena set her cup down smoothly, her sharp azure eyes shifting toward the main viewport screen.
"Don't celebrate just yet, Ethan," Elena said softly. "Look at the spatial density readouts."
Ethan blinked, looking over at the tactical console.
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ TACTICAL SPATIAL WARNING — READOUT │
├───────────────────┬────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ THREAT CLASS │ HIGH-DENSITY FLEET INTERCEPTION │
├───────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ SIGNATURES │ 1,200 Northern Warlord Heavy Dreadnoughts │
├───────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ SPATIAL STATUS │ Hyper-Space Corridor Interrupted by Gravity Anchors│
└───────────────────┴────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
BZ—ZZZ-T!
The six-mile-wide flagship shuddered slightly as it dropped out of hyper-space, coming to a halt in the middle of a vast, pitch-black asteroid field known as the Starlight Passage.
Surrounding The Sterling Sovereign in a massive, three-hundred-mile ambush perimeter were twelve hundred heavily armed, red-and-black dreadnoughts of the Northern Core Fleet! At the center of the formation hovered Warlord Malakor’s thirty-mile-wide orbital citadel!
A loud, mocking transmission broadcasted directly onto The Sterling Sovereign’s main bridge screen, revealing Warlord Malakor’s ugly, four-armed visage grinning triumphantly.
"GREETINGS, HEIRS OF HOUSE STERLING!" Malakor roared through the comms. "You took my territory map in the market, but you walked right into my net! Surrender your flagship, kneel as my hostages, and call your father to hand over his cosmic artifact... or I turn this ship into floating space dust!"
Ethan wiped his mouth with a napkin, taking a slow sip of tea before looking up at the screen. He turned to Elena with a bright, almost amused grin.
"Hey Elena... do you think Dad will be mad if we take out twelve hundred dreadnoughts by ourselves?"
Elena unsheathed her azure blade by half an inch, a rare, razor-sharp smile gracing her lips.
"Dad said not to start fights, Ethan," Elena replied smoothly, stepping toward the launch bay doors. "He didn't say we couldn't finish them."