Legacy of the Void Fleet

Nothing was going according to plan. Not a single maneuver managed to shift the momentum of the battle, let alone stem the catastrophic losses bleeding his armada dry. If anything, the nightmare was only getting worse.

Damn you, old man!" White Kalen complained from within the sea of consciousness. "Here I thought you were someone great, a true genius with real talent in commanding fleets and armadas. But looking at this—"

White Kalen didn’t finish the sentence, but the implication was glaring: your previous enemies were simply too weak. Against fodder you might shine, but against someone truly formidable...

Dark Soul clenched his teeth hard.

Frustrating as it was, he didn’t refute the jab. On some level, it held a grain of truth, and he couldn’t afford to waste energy arguing about pride right now.

Compounding the crisis, a faint, foreboding sense of dread began welling up in his chest, whispering that something infinitely worse than the current disaster was looming just over the horizon.

"Where is this dread coming from, old man?" White Kalen asked. Though he had been mocking him just moments ago, Kalen knew that if Dark Soul fell, his own fate would be sealed as well. Taunts aside, his instincts were now screaming in terror.

"You feel that too?" Dark Soul asked internally, genuinely surprised. He had assumed he was alone in sensing it—perhaps an illusion born from the crushing, mountain-like pressure on his soul as he fought in vain to stabilize the crumbling battle lines.

"I do!" White Kalen replied solemnly. "If you’re feeling it too, old man, then it’s no trick of the mind. Keep your guard up. Something catastrophic is coming."

The moment those words registered, Dark Soul’s expression shifted drastically. Any lingering thought of it being stress-induced paranoia vanished in an instant. He immediately expanded his divine sense outward, scanning every corner of the void with razor-sharp focus.

"Report to me the second anything unusual occurs across the frontline, the rear, or our flanks!" Dark Soul barked down at the command deck. "Stay sharp—I will not tolerate a single oversight. Put all High Admirals and World-Building tier powerhouses on standby for immediate deployment at a moment’s notice!"

The bridge crew dared not question the sudden urgency in his voice. They nodded instantly, transmitting the Grand Marshal’s supreme directive to high-ranking commanders across the entire armada.

Just as Dark Soul transmitted the order, his eyes snapped narrow. A colossal spatial shockwave rippled through the void not far ahead, and the icy sensation of dread washed over him anew—this time with overwhelming, suffocating intensity.

"Reroute all shielding power to the forefront of the fortress immediately! Now!" he roared at the top of his lungs.

Without waiting even a fraction of a second, his aura erupted violently. Chanting a rapid incantation, he manifested a radiant, deep-blue barrier ahead of the Radiant Fortress, solidifying it into a dense wall of magical energy.

Simultaneously, the fortress’s primary defensive shields adjusted forward to meet the impending threat. Just as the reinforcement completed, the fabric of space directly ahead was violently torn asunder.

From the spatial fissure, a concentrated beam of crimson light surged forth.

BOOM!

The crimson ray slammed head-on into the blue barrier Dark Soul had conjured.

The magical shield shuddered violently under the impact. Crack... crack! Fine fissures spiderwebbed across the surface, expanding at an alarming rate.

SHATTER!

In the blink of an eye, the barrier burst into glittering shards.

"Uggh—cough!"

Dark Soul was thrown off balance as the spell fractured, suffering violent magical backlash that forced a mouthful of blood past his lips.

His divine spell hadn’t even held for a full second. The crimson beam pierced forward unabated, slamming directly into the fortress’s reinforced shielding. Just like the barrier before it, the fortress shield buckled and shattered in moments.

"Dammit!"

Flustered yet resolute, Dark Soul vanished from the command bridge. He materialized directly in the void before the fortress, seated within the cockpit of a towering mecha over a hundred meters tall. Resembling an armored knight, the machine wielded a massive white tower shield in one hand and a crackling greatsword of raw energy in the other.

"Begone!" he roared.

Swinging the energy blade with everything he had, he met the incoming red beam head-on. "Ahhhhh!"

Channeling all his mana into the weapon, he reinforced the blade to withstand the devastating force of the crimson projectile.

CLANG!

With a desperate, earth-shaking effort, he barely managed to parry the strike off course.

BOOM!

Even deflected, the sheer proximity caused the red blast to clip the forward port section of the Radiant Fortress. A blinding miniature sun detonated against the hull, unleashing a catastrophic shockwave. The violent kinetic blast hurled Dark Soul and his hundred-meter mecha hundreds of kilometers away through the empty void.

Only after a few seconds was he able to pull his mech out of its spiral with great effort, dizzy birds practically circling Dark Soul’s head.

He was dizzy! Yes, dizzy! Somewhat confused! But in the next second, the confusion vanished—the dark clouds clearing away to welcome a bright sky. He quickly looked back and saw a chunk of his fortress’s forward port blasted apart, with severe damage across the surrounding sections.

"G—"

Just as he was about to speak, he detected another vast spatial disturbance tens of thousands of kilometers away.

Dark Soul’s face immediately paled as he sensed another devastating strike inbound. He tightened his grip around the mech’s controls and prepared to defend, barking out orders over the comms at the same time: "Immediately move the super battleships in front of the Radiant Fortress and prepare for defense! Don’t let anything happen to the fortress!"

Dark Soul urged his subordinates back on the bridge of the Radiant Fortress, which remained unharmed primarily because the blast hadn’t struck the command center. Still, the fortress had suffered immensely; its shields were completely gone and part of its hull was shattered. Given its massive size, it was now a sitting turtle without a shell.

"SB-2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, per the Marshal’s order, quickly move ahead of the fortress and guard it against enemy attack, no matter the cost!" The operating officer sounded even more desperate than Dark Soul, urging the super battleships to scramble into their new defensive positions.

Space tore open once again, but what emerged wasn’t an energy beam—it was a human fleet. A fleet rushing straight toward them.

Dark Soul was stunned for a moment before a flicker of joy crossed his face, a sentiment shared by White Kalen.

"Old man, this is our opportunity! The humans were attacking us from afar, which caused us problems, but now they are right in front of you. I can’t believe you’d be so useless as to not deal with them!" White Kalen pressed Dark Soul to act immediately. To him, this was the perfect chance to take down the human fleet while deterring the other two closing in on the rear of their armada.

Dark Soul shared the thought, though a tinge of displeasure flashed across his face as he coldly retorted, "Don’t order me around, boy. You’re far too green for that. You think I couldn’t figure that out myself?"

With that, his mech burst forward, charging toward the emerging human fleet at extreme speed.

Behind him, his armada followed suit. A wave of massive battleships and cruisers, flanked by lines of Star Fishers and mechs, surged forward to crush Ritika’s fleet.

"High Admiral, a high-energy signature has been detected!" the surveillance officer reported immediately.

Ritika was in no rush to speak. With a simple thought, she pulled up a live optical feed of the charging enemy.

On screen, a mecha rushed toward her fleet at high speed. It was shrouded in a white aura, appearing heavy and imposing, yet its movement was anything but slow.

Oh? Interesting.

She observed that the mech was faintly absorbing mana from its surroundings into specific sections—its frontal armor, the dual back-mounted cannons, and the energy sword held firmly in its hand.

"High Admiral, Republican forces are on the move! They have deployed, and they are now rushing toward us," a tactical officer quickly reported.

Ritika dismissed the feed of the charging mech and pulled up a wider tactical view. Like a swarm of unleashed beasts, a massive formation of warships—primarily heavy cruisers and battleships—surged toward them, flanked by dense lines of smaller craft, starfighters, and mechs.

Their advance showed no signs of slowing down.

"Sinthiya, Luna, Lunava," Ritika called out over the comms.

Quickly, three holographic figures materialized on the holoscreen, saluting in unison.

"You three lead your starfighter squadrons and mech divisions to tear through the Republican forces. The fleet will provide fire support from the rear! Do your absolute best not to let the enemy slip past and reach our ships, or pull any strange tricks. You three got that?"

"Understood, High Admiral!" the three girls replied immediately.

Ritika nodded with a confident smile. "Good! Get to it. I’ll take that person down first, then join you to launch a full-scale assault on the Republican armada."