Chapter 496: Ch
You simply don’t have the instinct for it!" the Dark Soul snapped, his patience wearing thin. "And enough of this pointless bickering!
We don’t have the luxury of time right now. Step aside and agree to my terms, and I give you my word: once this battle is over, we will settle our dispute on equal footing. If you defeat me then, I will accept my loss cleanly and play no underhanded tricks. Now, do we have a deal?"
"Fine," White Kalen grunted, finally backing off. But before relinquishing full control, he leveled a sharp warning: "Let me make one thing clear, old fossil: if you dare play games with me, I promise you, even if it costs my life to drag you down, I will do it without hesitation."
As he spoke, he conjured a wisp of pitch-black flame within his spiritual palm.
The smirk on the Dark Soul’s face faltered instantly. His ethereal form shuddered under the dreadful, oppressive might radiating from the dark fire—so much so that he instinctively took a step back, phantom beads of sweat forming across his soul.
How did this boy get his hands on that thing? the Dark Soul thought anxiously. I need to adjust my plans carefully so I don’t get erased by that cursed flame.
Masking his unease, he spoke smoothly, "My word is my bond, boy. I promised to safeguard our existence, and that is precisely what I intend to do. This will be no different."
Not wasting another second, the Dark Soul surged forward to seize the helm. Behind him, he left a miniature, bell-shaped artifact that expanded into a radiant barrier, neatly isolating his zone of influence within the sea of consciousness.
White Kalen felt a sharp pang of wariness tingling in his mind as the barrier solidified. Still guarding against me? Hmph. Fine, old fossil. I’ll settle the score with you later. With a casual snap of his fingers, a clear projection of the outside world materialized in his space.
In the physical world, Kalen’s eyes snapped wide open. He drew in a deep, measured breath, exhaling slowly before a savage grin touched his lips. "Good. We finally have them locked in."
Dark Kalen raised his chin, his voice booming with absolute authority across the bridge of the Radiant Prime and echoing through every comm channel across the armada:
"All ships, this is Grand Marshal Kalen. You are hereby authorized for unrestricted, lethal engagement against the enemy ahead. Purge their fleet from existence and shatter their battle lines! Unleash everything—long-range torpedoes, missile batteries, and full-power primary cannons! Tear them to pieces!"
Cutting the fleet-wide broadcast, he immediately turned to an adjutant. "Pass down my orders: drive the laager forward and widen the strike corridors. Let our forces vent their fury and burn the enemy to ash."
Aboard a frontline super-battleship, a vice admiral’s face flushed with adrenaline. He barked over his internal comms to his battle group, "You heard the Grand Marshal! Target locks confirmed—fire at will! Torpedo salvos first, heavy batteries immediately following! Let’s strike first and tear off a massive chunk of their—"
Before the vice admiral could finish the command, the ship’s sensor array registered multiple friendly signatures vanishing in an instant. A blaring klaxon drowned out his voice:
[ALERT: Battlecruisers B-91 and B-98 have been sunk. Multiple escorting destroyers lost.]
Simultaneously, back on the bridge of the Radiant Prime, the weapons officer was about to announce the salvo countdown. "All deck officers, missile silos final check—"
The words caught in his throat. The blood drained from his face, leaving him deathly pale. A suffocating silence slammed down on the bridge, snuffing out the earlier battle fervor in an instant.
At the fleet communications array, the chief communications director sat completely frozen. Crimson kill-markers—thousands of them—cascaded down his holographic display, drowning the blue fleet formations in a sea of red. These were not mere warnings of depleted shield grids, armor breaches, or destroyed perimeter towers. An entire quadrant of their rear laager had been wiped off the tactical map in a single blow, plunging the armada into catastrophic disarray with losses mounting faster than the system could process.
Dark Kalen felt the abrupt shift in the room. The cheerful battle cries had evaporated into chilling silence. Catching the paralyzed expression on the communications officer’s face, an ominous prickle traveled up the back of his neck, like a cold blade resting against his skin.
His crimson eyes narrowed. "What happened? Report!" he demanded, rising from his command chair. "Someone answer me! Now!"
His command was met with deafening silence. Neither the chief officer nor any of the bridge crew could find their voice. Instead, trembling hands pointed helplessly toward the central holographic display.
Dark Kalen’s brow furrowed in anger as he turned toward the main screen, but what he saw rendered him utterly speechless.
Two of their three massive Lunar-class fortresses and three of the eight medium Stellar fortresses—along with thousands of battlecruisers, destroyers, assault ships, and frigates guarding the rear formation—had been wiped out. Vaporized in a single, inexplicable strike.
A bone-deep chill gripped his spine, forcing him a step back in sheer dread. For several seconds, his mind refused to accept the reality flashing on the display. It felt impossible—a nightmarish hallucination or some horrific tactical illusion played at the height of battle.
"Are you playing a joke on me?!" the Dark Soul roared, his voice trembling with fury. His tyrannical aura erupted, bearing down violently upon every officer on the bridge. "How could a Lunar-class fortress fall—let alone two of them, and so suddenly?! A minute ago they were fully operational with complete shield integrity, and now they’re gone in a single heartbeat?! Along with three Stellar fortresses and an entire wing of capital ships?!"
He stepped forward, his aura intensifying with every inch until the oppressive spiritual gravity pushed the bridge crew to their knees, leaving them shivering in pure terror under his wrath.
"Speak! If there is even a single fabricated line, then you can all prepare yourselves for the worst," Dark Soul spoke in a grave tone.
Meanwhile, inside the sea of consciousness, White Kalen frowned at how Dark Soul was acting and couldn’t help but speak up. "Calm down, you old fossil! At this hour of battle, why would they lie to you? Instead of putting on this act, you should actually assess the situation. What if that is exactly what happened? Instead, you are torturing your own officer. Did I injure your soul so much that you can’t even make a sound observation, and yet you dare condemn me for dealing with this battle with incompetence?"
White Kalen held nothing back, berating Dark Soul completely.
Snapping back to normal, Dark Soul felt an odd sensation rising across his chest. What just happened? Did I just suddenly go berserk? he thought. Looks like that thing is trying to cause problems for me again.
He coughed and spoke, "Indeed, boy, your methods did cause me some harm."
With that, he quickly reeled his leaking aura back into his body. At the same time, one of the officers spoke up. "Grand Marshal, by the ancestors of my family, this is no joke! It is certainly not a play!"
It was the communications officer speaking, stammering over every word that left his mouth. Panic was written plain across his face. Even though the mountain of pressure weighing on him had dissipated, the lingering terror remained. "Just see for yourself! Take another look at the feeds, Grand Marshal!"
With a frantic swipe, a massive holographic screen appeared in the center of the bridge, flanked by two more on its left and right. On the left screen, warnings of multiple kill marks flashed in rapid succession.
On the right was an optical feed from the long-range sensors, magnifying the damaged combat zone where enemy starfighters could be seen darting across the void, evading volleys launched by their fleet.
Because the distance between friendly ships was so tight, several stray blasts were even striking their own vessels.
Meanwhile, the central, larger feed replayed what had transpired just a few minutes ago.
The central screen split into two, with a different recording playing on each side.
At first, everything appeared normal. Long-range attacks rained down from a distance while their port and starboard quarters launched counterattacks in unison, neutralizing a fraction of the incoming fire while the rest battered against the shields of their Lunar and Stellar Fortresses.
Then came the catastrophe.
As if manifesting out of thin air, a massive red beam of light and two blue beams surged forward at terrifying speed. The red beam slammed directly into the Lunar Fortress’s shield, while the two blue beams struck the Stellar Fortresses.
Crack! Crack!
A sickening fracture echoed one second, followed by a resonant clang, clang the next. The energy barriers protecting the one massive and two smaller fortresses shattered like fragile glass.
The three beams slammed directly into their hulls with a deafening roar, punching straight through the structures as the metal groaned and trembled violently.