Legacy of the Void Fleet

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

"Intercept those missiles! We must not let them reach the planet! Keep them beyond the atmosphere at all costs!"

"Damn it, Vael! What are you doing? Stop them, no matter what!!"

He roared as he opened a direct communication channel to Grand Admiral Vael using a communication device shaped like a short cylinder with a conical head, much like a small handheld microphone.

Vael was furiously shouting at the top of his lungs, ordering his forces to bring those strange missiles down. Even he had sensed a dangerous feeling coming from them. But damn it, because those missiles were protected by powerful energy shields, his forces were unable to destroy them at all. Even when cruiser- and destroyer-class warships locked onto them with their main batteries, the shields held firm.

Thus, he could only watch helplessly as the majority of the launched missiles sped past his formation.

Only then did he hear the furious roar of the Second Elder through the communication channel.

"Stop them, no matter what!!"

Vael couldn’t help but shout back in frustration.

"Damn it! Can’t you see I’ve already tried my best? Now what do you want me to do?" he countered, slamming the armrest of his command chair.

"Huh? You want me to order my ships to move directly in front of those missiles and let them hammer my fleet? Damn it!"

The Second Elder was stunned for a brief moment upon hearing that, but soon his face turned an even darker shade of red with anger and frustration.

"If it comes to that, then do it! If it means saving the lives of billions, then you have to do that as well!"

Now it was Vael’s turn to be stunned.

After a brief silence, he burst out in an accusing tone.

"Are you stupid? Has your brain stopped working because of old age, Second Elder? If I do as you say, do you know what will happen? My fleet will suffer devastating losses! Then who will protect the other planets of the Orentol Star System and the people living on them? Huh?"

His voice rose even louder.

"That would mean sacrificing countless more lives because of it! And with my fleet gone, what do you think those attackers will do next? Huh?" Vael shot back fiercely.

"W-What... what do you mean by that?" the Second Elder asked angrily. "You mean to say that the lives of billions mean nothing at all if, in the end, you save even more than them? What—"

Before the Second Elder could finish, a panicked voice rang throughout the bridge of the Moon Fortress as a high-pitched alarm wailed.

"G-Grand Admiral! Y-You need to see this!"

Almost at the same moment, Vael heard nearly the same panicked voice coming through the communication channel from the other side.

Ignoring the Second Elder completely, Vael quickly turned toward one of the tactical feeds showing the primary planet that was under attack.

The surviving missiles, the ones they had failed to intercept, had already entered the planet’s atmosphere.

But instead of crashing into the ground and unleashing the catastrophic explosions he had expected, the missiles suddenly burst apart high above the clouds.

There was no massive explosion agian unlike what he had expected

Instead, they released an enormous crimson fog that expanded at terrifying speed, quickly spreading across the entire sky of the planet.

Seeing that, Vael frowned deeply.

The Second Elder, who was watching the same feed from his own hidden command center, wore an equally grim expression.

Murmurs immediately spread throughout both command rooms.

"T-The planet’s atmosphere... it’s changing color..."

"W-What is that?"

"W-What are the effects of that red fog...?"

Very quickly, the crimson fog that had enveloped the primary world of Orentol began reacting violently with the atmosphere. Thick clouds rapidly formed under its influence, or at least that was what it looked like.

Even those newly formed clouds were blood-red instead of the usual dark gray of storm clouds.

Then it began to rain.

A crimson rain spread across the entire planet and started falling upon the surface... and onto the Illyrian people.

The red fog did not stop there. It seemed to corrupt the very air itself.

Those who came into direct contact with the crimson corrosive rain or breathed in the now-tainted atmosphere suddenly began coughing violently, as if their lungs had caught fire from within. Some collapsed onto the ground screaming in agony as the raindrops burned through their skin, dissolving flesh in mere seconds.

Many didn’t even leave bodies behind. They died agonizing deaths.

Though for some, death came so quickly that they never even had time to scream before collapsing to the ground, lifeless within three minutes.

The rain did not only affect the Illyrian people.

Almost every form of life, other than the trees, began dying under the combined assault of the corrosive rain and the corrupted air. Beasts roaming the planet perished one after another, collapsing wherever they stood.

In no more than ten minutes, the entire world had fallen completely silent.

Yet the crimson rain continued to fall.

The corrosive air still lingered.

The horrifying scene unfolded before the eyes of Grand Admiral Vael and every member of his fleet, as well as the Second Elder and his subordinates, who were hiding somewhere else within the Orentol Star System.

It was now painfully clear that they were not on the doomed primary planet itself, the very world where all life had just been exterminated before their eyes... and before the eyes of countless others watching across the star system.

"No... NOOOO!!"

Suddenly, someone shouted in absolute terror.

Their minds had gone completely blank after witnessing the horrifying sight, but as the initial shock slowly faded and their thoughts began functioning once more, some of them finally realized what had truly happened.

To their horror, their entire bodies trembled before they collapsed directly onto the floor.

Some still couldn’t believe that what they had just witnessed was real.

"T-This... this is an illusion!" someone shouted desperately.

Not hearing any response, he grabbed the shoulders of the person standing beside him and shook them violently.

"T-That... that was an illusion, right? Tell me it was an illusion... right?!"

The situation on Vael’s side was not much different.

The command room of the Moon Fortress had turned into half a battlefield of terrified voices, while the other half of the officers desperately remained focused on countering the enemy attacks and preventing them from breaking through and damaging the fortress once again like before.

That, however, was proving to be an increasingly difficult task.

As the number of defensive installations continued to fall, and more of their warships were destroyed one after another, the frequency of the enemy attacks only increased further. As a result, their already poor interception capabilities declined even more. From an initial interception rate of around forty-five percent, it had now dropped below twenty-five percent.

With every enemy barrage that struck the fortress, several more secondary weapon batteries were destroyed again and again. Their total weapon battery losses had already climbed to thirty-nine percent.

And after what had happened just now, the situation had grown even worse.

Many personnel had their attention divided by the horrifying scene they had just witnessed. Taking advantage of that brief lapse, the enemy suddenly increased the intensity of their assault once again, this time focusing primarily on their main battleships instead of the Moon Fortress itself.

For some reason, they had stopped targeting the fortress.

Much to everyone’s relief.

Vael noticed it as well. A strange feeling immediately rose within him and he felt that something was definitely off.

He quickly forced himself to regain his composure and calm down, though the redness in his eyes did not fade in the slightest, obviosuly he was furious as well.

"ENOUGH!!"

His thunderous roar echoed throughout the entire command room as he released the overwhelming aura of his Genesis Law Realm, Comprehension Stage.

The crushing pressure instantly swept across the bridge, snapping everyone out of their despair, fear, and disbelief.

"Focus on the battlefield!" Vael roared, his voice shaking the entire command room.

"The enemy still remains! Many planets with our people still remain! We cannot—no matter what—allow ourselves to fall into despair at this moment, despite the weight of what has happened just now!"

His words echoed across the bridge.

"There are still countless people across the entire Orentol Star System depending upon us for their protection. We may have failed one world... but we cannot fail the others. Not at all."

He spoke those words while forcefully suppressing the surging anger, grief, and countless other emotions raging within him after witnessing the massacre of his own people right before his eyes.

While he had remained utterly helpless as well much like everyoe.

It was the first time in his life he had ever experienced such a feeling.