Legacy of the Void Fleet

Violent explosions ripped through the structures on impact, and the whole structure of the space ships trembled as the massive sky shields developed huge cracks, along with gigantic holes, just like the ones appearing across the surface of the space city structures, which continued exploding violently.

Vast-reaching buildings collapsed onto the running crowds, burying them beneath the rubble and painting a horrific picture, instantly turning a place that had been peaceful just moments ago into a land of fire and destruction.

As the damage to these space stations increased, and the attacks kept raining down upon the same locations, they successfully managed to pierce through the core structural areas of the space cities, striking the anti-gravity systems along with the power systems, damaging them until they could no longer function.

The only fortunate thing was that they didn’t explode, but it wasn’t worth it at all.

Despite the constant efforts of the onboard management crews belonging to these space stations, all their attempts ended in vain.

After the collapse of the vital systems and the majority of the power network, the space cities began to fall toward the planet below, slowly being dragged into the planet’s gravitational pull.

Not long after, they turned into a rain of burning meteors and asteroid-sized flaming debris hurtling through the atmosphere toward the vast planet’s surface.

Some fell toward vast empty lands, forests, and even the seas, but many of them hurtled directly toward the large settlements of the Illyrian people.

Meanwhile, the sky cities hovering near the planetary surface within the atmosphere were also struck.

Possessing far weaker structural integrity compared to the space cities, which had still managed to withstand a few barrages before collapsing, these sky cities endured only a single barrage before they quickly began to plummet directly toward the sprawling land cities below.

To the horror of the watching crowds, who had been celebrating only moments ago, they had thought the explosions they witnessed high above were nothing more than a grand display organized by the Illyrian Royal Family, as the Founding Ancestor’s Day was drawing near.

Instead, they soon realized those explosions were not part of any celebration. They were their own warships and defense forces fighting against an unknown enemy.

Seeing the vast sky cities falling toward them, they all realized that something was terribly wrong, and whatever was happening could only spell disaster for them.

Those thoughts ran through the minds of many Illyrian people who remained calm enough to think, unlike the countless others who were literally running for their dear lives.

Some ran on foot, while many others quickly jumped into their flying cars and rushed away from the cities.

A large majority instead headed toward the spaceports, hoping to escape the planet entirely.

In that chaos, stampedes broke out, and countless accidents occurred as one flying car after another crashed into each other in their haste, despite the constant warnings from their collision warning systems.

The collided vehicles exploded across the skies, quickly turning the once peaceful cities into battlefields of their own.

Meanwhile, many of those so-called calm people were also crushed beneath the stampedes or struck by the falling debris from crashing cars and collapsing buildings, meeting unfortunate deaths simply because they had stood still, trying to think about the situation more broadly.

Poor them.

All of this happened almost instantly, and that too before the eyes of all the watching Illyrian defense forces, especially their Grand Admiral as well as the higher powers of the royal family who were present in the Orentol Star System.

To their horror, they all realized that this foe had come with truly evil intentions toward them and their people.

They were directly targeting and destroying the space cities, each containing hundreds of millions of people, and doing so in such a calculated manner that the outer structures remained mostly stable while only the core systems were destroyed.

At the same time, through their precise attacks, they forced these space cities directly into the planet’s gravitational pull, letting gravity do the rest. Worst of all, the trajectories of most of the falling cities were aimed directly toward their largest population centers.

Then there were the sky cities. Though much smaller than the space cities, their impact upon the land cities below would still bring catastrophic consequences.

"No... no! We... we can’t let them fall onto the cities like that! We need to do something!" said one of the elderly-looking elders of the Illyrian Main Family.

His bright brown wings behind his back trembled with fear and the overwhelming sense of dread that had already sunk deep into his eyes as he looked at the multiple falling space cities and the even faster-plummeting sky cities.

"W-What can we even do now? There are still people alive on those space stations. You can see them!"

As he spoke, he enlarged the live feed of one of the falling space cities.

One could clearly see that from the numerous hangar bays, countless people were still escaping, flying out in their ships and heading toward nearby planets, while many others were simply trying to flee in any direction they could.

An elder with even darker brown wings than the previous one, and who also held a much higher position, spoke with a grim expression.

"Look... they are still escaping. And who knows how many are still inside. If we do what you are thinking, then we would be no different from our enemy. It would mean committing a grave sin against our own people."

Another elder, whose wings were a slightly lighter shade of brown, spoke with visible hesitation.

"But... but if we let those space cities fall onto our land cities, many billions will die. Compared to hundreds of millions, billions are still far greater."

A third elder remained silent for a brief moment before speaking, his voice heavy with despair.

The elder with the darker wings frowned upon hearing those words. But before he could speak, the fourth elder—the one who had spoken first—raised his voice once again.

"W-We don’t have much time. In no more than ten to twenty minutes, they will come down and strike the cities. We need to do something urgently!"

The elder with the darker wings, who was also the Second Elder and far more senior than the Fourth Elder, spoke in a firm yet restrained voice.

"We still have time. Wait. Let’s give the people inside those space cities every possible moment to escape. We will take action at the very last minute."

He then turned toward the Twelfth Outer Elder, the one with the light brown wings.

"You. Go and start evacuating the people toward the hidden shelters immediately. Do it in an orderly manner, and stop whatever is happening out there now. If we let this continue, the people will end up killing themselves unconsciously in their panic, and it will only hinder the evacuation."

He then shifted his gaze toward the Fourth Elder.

"And you, Fourth Elder, try whatever you can to reach the Patriarch immediately and warn him of this. Also contact Grand Admiral Vael and tell him that, no matter what, he must not let these enemy attacks reach our homeworld under any circumstances."

His expression darkened even further.

"And tell that stupid Star Lord to resign from his peaceful way of thinking! The enemy isn’t listening, nor will it. It has come here with evil intentions. That should be clear to him now, more than ever."

His fist clenched tightly as his killing intent leaked into the surroundings.

"Tell him to bring forth every bit of support he can to reinforce our defense forces here. If not..." the Second Elder said through gritted teeth, "...he can wait for me to kill him with my own hands."

"Y-Yes! Yes, First Elder!" said the Fourth Elder with the utmost respect toward the elder before him, a man who was more than three generations older than him and possessed supremely powerful strength.

Even though he too was helpless in this situation and could do little against those terrifying warships, the Fourth Elder had no confusion about who was still superior and who was not.

He exchanged a glance with the Twelfth Outer Elder before rushing out to carry out the orders he had just received.

Just as he left, a warning rang throughout the hidden command room.

Immediately, the main tactical feed shifted, revealing tens of thousands of massive missiles racing toward the planet at terrifying speeds.

Despite the best efforts of Vael and his fleet, they had failed to intercept the majority of them. At most, only around twenty-five percent had been destroyed, because every single one of those missiles was equipped with a small but extremely powerful energy shield, one strong enough to withstand even the main and secondary weapons of battleship- and destroyer-class warships.

The moment the Second Elder saw them, a dangerous premonition surged through his mind.

Without wasting another second, he immediately rushed toward the planetary defense controls and began operating the planetary weapon systems.