CHAPTER 67: The Twin Sovereigns of the Starlight Passage
(ARC 4: COSMIC DOMAIN & THE STARLIGHT BEACON)
The pitch-black void of the Starlight Passage hummed with the oppressive energy of twelve hundred heavy red-and-black dreadnoughts.
Inside the central orbital citadel, Warlord Malakor of the North stood at his viewport, his four clawed arms crossed over his massive chest. A cruel, arrogant sneer twisted his four-eyed face as he watched his fleet complete its three-hundred-mile surround envelope on The Sterling Sovereign.
"They haven't even raised their energy shields," Malakor chuckled darkly, his voice booming across the bridge. "The rumors of House Sterling's greatness were nothing more than commoner fairy tales. All batteries—PREPARE TO FIRE!"
Before his gunners could initiate the targeting sequence, two slender figures stepped out from the launch bay of The Sterling Sovereign directly into the airless vacuum of space.
Ethan took a single step forward into the void.
He held his wooden spear shaft loosely in his right hand. His dark navy-and-gold coat fluttered in the solar winds, but his eyes... his dark golden eyes burned with the newly absorbed power of the Void-Dragon Heart Core.
THUMP-THUMP!
An ancient, primordial heartbeat echoed through the vacuum—a sound so massive and resonant that the metallic hulls of twelve hundred dreadnoughts vibrated like tuning forks!
VOID-DRAGON SOVEREIGN DOMAIN — UNLEASHED!
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
A golden-and-obsidian dragon domain expanded out from Ethan’s chest, instantly covering a hundred miles of open space!
The raw, mountain-crushing gravity of a cosmic dragon flattened the vanguard formation of four hundred Northern dreadnoughts in an instant! Their heavy anti-matter shields collapsed under the sudden, divine weight, their hull plates buckling inward as if crushed by an invisible, cosmic vice!
"W-WHAT IS THIS GRAVITY?!" Malakor shrieked from his citadel, grabbing the command console as his entire station lurched downward! "A domain that can crush four hundred heavy dreadnoughts simultaneously?!"
Ethan raised his wooden spear shaft, pointing it calmly at the panicking vanguard.
"Dragon Strike," Ethan murmured softly.
SWOOOOOOSH!
A three-hundred-mile golden Void-Dragon projection erupted from his spear tip, roaring through space as it tore through the crippled vanguard, vaporizing four hundred dreadnoughts into floating metallic ash in a single breath!
While Ethan’s dragon domain crushed the forward line, the remaining eight hundred dreadnoughts tried frantically to scatter, turning their thrusters toward deep space to escape the golden gravity well!
"Retreat! Retreat!" alien officers screamed over the fleet comms. "They aren't human! They're cosmic monsters!"
Standing fifty miles above the fleet on a floating spatial ripple, Elena looked down at the fleeing ships, her sharp azure eyes cool, precise, and completely unfazed.
"Leaving so soon?" Elena whispered gently.
She unsheathed her azure blade by two full inches.
MULTI-DIMENSIONAL SPATIAL SWORD ARRAY — THOUSAND-FOLD SEVERANCE!
BZ—ZZZ-T!
Elena’s body blurred into eight distinct spatial reflections that materialized in an octagon formation around the remaining eight hundred fleeing dreadnoughts!
SWISH—SWISH—SWISH—SWISH!
A web of ten thousand azure spatial threads woven from multi-dimensional sword Qi crisscrossed through space! The spatial threads didn't produce loud explosions—they moved through space-time itself with absolute, silent, razor-sharp perfection.
CLICK.
Elena sheathed her azure blade completely.
Microseconds later, all eight hundred fleeing dreadnoughts froze in mid-motion. Then, in utter, terrifying silence, the ships slid apart into thousands of perfectly square, metallic slices, their power cores severed so cleanly that they didn't even detonate!
Twelve hundred heavy dreadnoughts—the entire Northern Core Fleet—were wiped off the galactic ledger in less than ninety seconds.
Silence returned to the Starlight Passage.
Inside the trembling command bridge of the thirty-mile-wide orbital citadel, Warlord Malakor sat paralyzed on his throne. His four arms were limp, his four yellow eyes wide open in sheer, unadulterated mental collapse as he looked out at the empty asteroid field.
BOOM!
The reinforced blast doors of the command bridge shattered into dust.
Ethan and Elena walked through the smoke, their clothes spotless, their posture relaxed and serene. Ethan rested his wooden spear over his broad shoulder, while Elena walked quietly beside him.
Ethan walked up the throne steps, looking down at the frozen, terrified warlord.
"So," Ethan grinned warmly, his dark golden dragon eyes flashing with effortless dominance. "Are you going to hand over those fourteen cosmic adamantite mines willingly... or do we need to call our dad?"
Malakor dropped from his throne, bowing his head till his forehead shattered the obsidian steps.
"I surrender! The Northern Core bows to House Sterling!" Malakor wept in total submission.
The galaxy had learned its lesson: House Sterling’s children were just as terrifying as the Sovereign Monarch himself.