Chapter 104
Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 104
Chapter Title: Desperate Pursuit
The next morning, in the council hall of the New Kremlin Palace.
The emperor sat ramrod straight at the head of the table in his black-and-gold formal uniform, his face stern and gaze icy sharp—like a spear. There was no sign he'd gone half the night without sleep. The other military leaders, headed by General Aaron, fanned out around the massive conference table. Though there were many of them, the vast hall was utterly silent, not even a cough to be heard. The very air seemed to thicken and settle.
Before long, an adjutant pushed open the doors and bowed. "The Alliance delegation has arrived, sirs."
The Alliance group filed in, led by Karyan, with attendants pulling out chairs for them solicitously. The emperor cleared his throat and flipped open the agenda for today's talks. He was just about to speak when his gaze paused slightly.
"Where is Legion Commander Celia?"
The spot at Karyan's side where Celia usually stood was empty. The Imperials didn't react much, but Aaron, Isaac, and the others in the know had their expressions shift subtly all at once.
"Urgent military intelligence came in from the Alliance capital on Jinshui Star. It required immediate consultation with Lord Celia, so he couldn't make it today. Lord Celia asked me to convey his apologies to Your Majesty." Karyan's reply was airtight. He smiled faintly at the end, sat down on his own, and asked, "Where did we leave off yesterday? The matter of military funding after the joint forces withdraw?"
Heinrich and Aaron traded quick, discreet glances. A few seconds later, the emperor's right middle finger tapped the tabletop as if idly.
"Please pass on my regards to the legion commander. With that said, let's begin today's discussions..."
At the same time, in the monitoring room outside the hall, a military intelligence major glued to the camera feeds whirled and made a sharp gesture to his subordinates. He didn't need to say a word—they bolted for the comms station and urgently patched through to their colleague lurking in the state guesthouse. They asked just one question:
"Where is Lord Celia?"
Inside the opulent hall, the talks had barely gone ten minutes when the doors suddenly slammed open!
General Aaron's speech cut off mid-sentence. The intel major strode forward and bent to whisper in the emperor's ear. The emperor's face changed abruptly!
He turned to Karyan and asked coldly, "Where is Celia?"
The room erupted in uproar!
But Karyan's face remained calm and unruffled. He even countered quite placidly, "Jinshui Star sent urgent military intelligence that needed reporting to Lord Celia. Didn't I already say so?"
The emperor enunciated each word: "So he went back to Jinshui Star to hear the report, did he?!"
That was like kicking a hornet's nest. Every Imperial general shot to their feet!
"What the hell?" "What are you playing at?" The Alliance side jumped up too, and shouts, demands, shoving—it all exploded into chaos. Tensions were on a knife's edge when suddenly—
Boom!
The entire hall shook violently!
That jolt sent plenty of people who hadn't braced themselves crashing back into their seats. Amid the roar, some bellowed "What was that?!" while charging for the exits. The guards who'd stood like statues around the hall surged forward to shield the emperor, but in the chaos, Heinrich waved them off sharply and decisively, then strode out at a march!
At the same moment, Isaac's wrist comm beeped. He glanced down and blurted, "Your Majesty! The defense perimeter's under attack—the 3S mecha Gryphon is fleeing out of the atmosphere!"
"Assemble the space mech squadron—position and intercept at once!" The emperor reached the hallway outside and barked, hand outstretched, "Bi'an—"
The black-gold bracelet arced brilliantly through the air, disassembling in an instant before reassembling. The cockpit shot from the swarm of metal parts and scooped the emperor up in one fluid motion!
Then the golden Bi'an, rising from flat ground, threw its head back in a furious roar and rocketed skyward amid pillars of flame!
This was perhaps the most heart-stopping moment in the fifty-year history of the New Kremlin Palace since the Empire's founding:
War sirens wailed across the planet. The ground rumbled dully. Towering buildings groaned and swayed. Fully armed palace guards poured out, staring slack-jawed at the sky—
The 3S mecha Golden Bi'an streaked upward like a rocket, trailing a vertical blaze across the heavens. Amid the cascading firefall, countless mechs surged against the flow, streaking through the brilliant sky like a host of stars!
"Target: Gryphon mecha—!" The emperor's roar thundered across the comm channel, shaking every eardrum like lightning. "All mechs, safeties off weapons—engage targeting systems, full speed intercept!"
·
By now, Gryphon had punched out of the atmosphere. Through the cockpit viewport, the pale planet receded behind them. Ahead stretched endless void and the gorgeous golden haze of stellar wind.
Celia stood expressionless before the viewport. Suddenly, the system blared shrilly: "Warning! 3S mecha Bi'an detected six astronomical units out! Warning! Imperial mech squadron approaching at full speed!"
"Gavin!" Gryphon's green neural band lashed out from the console. "His Majesty figured it out! What now—initiate combat protocols?! Launch nuclear fusion missiles?!"
To the 3S mecha's surprise, Celia's face didn't change. He gazed quietly at the brilliant nebula in the cosmic depths, then finally said, "Shut down weapons."
"Wh-what?!"
"Shut down weapons. Full speed ahead." Celia's tone was flat. "If the Empire wants a fight... ignore them."
Gryphon froze solid. Only after a long pause did it hesitantly retract to the controls, methodically powering down the tens of thousands of weapon ports across the frame and channeling all energy to propulsion. The 3S mecha's tail erupted in even brighter fire, accelerating fully in mere seconds—like a supernova's burst lancing forward!
Meanwhile, six astronomical units back, the Gemini Emperor let out a earth-shaking bellow: "Celia—!"
Celia whipped around!
The cockpit fell silent. Gryphon leaped from the console with a whoosh:
"Bi'an requests comms! It's His Majesty's private channel!"
The young Alliance legion commander stared at the comm screen. His bright black eyes didn't flicker, his face betraying no emotion—as if peering through the endless void to some distant figure in the depths of space. After a long moment, he smiled faintly, his voice remarkably even:
"Accept."
If any god were looking down from above the universe at that moment, it would behold a wondrous sight:
The vast cosmos had become a battlefield chase. Countless fire trails converged into a radiant torrent surging forward. Far ahead at the forefront flew the massive golden Bi'an, like a warship, surrounded by an endless swarm of glowing dots—that was the nuclear fusion drone fighters, weapons offline but still blazing with menacing light.
Pursuer and pursued wove through the gorgeous starfield. Not far ahead, the hyperspace gate shimmered gloriously in the void.
In Gryphon's cockpit, the life-sized holo-projection of the towering Gemini Emperor stood before the viewport, his back to the distant ring-shaped stargate. Shadows carved his profound features into stark severity:
"—The talks aren't over, and you're in such a hurry to leave, Celia?"
Outside, the meteor-like pursuit raged on. But inside this tiny pocket world of the cockpit, all was frozen stillness.
Celia eyed the emperor as if amused. "The Alliance has urgent military intel. Why can't I go?"
It was the exact excuse Karyan had used—clearly rehearsed. The emperor's gaze chilled with faint mockery. "What urgent intel couldn't be handled from the palace? Don't tell me Dark Star Hall's troops stormed Jinshui Star—if that's it, I'll gift you a million troops right now, Empire foot the bill, and drive the bastards out myself! How's that?!"
"Cut the 'We' crap around me," Celia drawled lazily, "or I'll smack you."
The emperor never expected that reply—he actually froze.
"I'll keep flying at this speed straight to Jinshui Star. Unless you shoot me down, I won't stop." Celia's tone had nothing lofty about it—more like he was joking. "Of course, you could always coordinate the mech squadron, use raw mechanical force to snag Gryphon. I've shut down weapons, so if you do... I'll just ram Gryphon right into you..."
Gryphon shuddered but nobly stayed silent.
The emperor didn't shudder, but his eyes flashed. Anyone with vision could see the tidal wave crashing through his mind via the holo-projection!
"You can't do that, Celia—you—"
"Why not?"
Heinrich lunged a step forward, his image nearly nose-to-nose with Celia's. Even as a virtual projection, the massive, banked fury in those ice-blue eyes was crystal clear. In that instant, he downright hated Celia's offhand attitude!
—How can you be so casual about this! That's my child too!
Do you know how long I've been longing for this child?! Do you know how it's driven me insane with this fragile, agonizing fear?!
Afraid the child won't be born. Afraid he's born but not mine. Afraid I'll never see him again. Afraid one day I do, but can't claim him... The endless cycle of anxiety and doubt is suffocating—and you treat it like nothing?!
How can that be?!
"You can't leave..." Heinrich locked eyes with him, speaking slowly. "You can't leave, Celia. You have to stay by my side..."
Just then, a massive impact rocked the cockpit. The alarm shrieked: "Alert! Enemy forces inbound! Alert—!"
The holo vanished. Celia glanced back—the screen showed the Imperial mech squadron barreling in, Golden Bi'an at the lead, swarmed by the light-sea.
At the same time, Celia raised his hand. The mecha neural band shot forth and snapped around his wrist!
"Gryphon!" Celia bellowed. "Cosmic coordinates 9832749—hyperspace jump, full speed!"
The scene was breathtaking: In the light-sea, the massive Golden Bi'an surged ahead of the pack, slicing behind Gryphon at unimaginable lightning speed. The entire Imperial squadron shifted formation, arraying along the axis from Gryphon to Bi'an into a colossal ring!
Like a deity from legend unfurling [its] wings, blinding white light exploded like a star cluster, engulfing Gryphon entirely. Bi'an pierced the towering waves, its wings of a million razor blades reflecting stellar brilliance!
"Celia—!!"
The soundless roar stirred no waves in the vacuum, but the called-out target sensed it in a flash—Gryphon twisted back, fist slamming up to block the strike!
"That's mine, Celia!" Heinrich's voice blasted across the comm channel, so shrill the end cracked. "—That's mine—! You can't kill him!!"
Celia blinked in surprise. In that split-second, Gryphon didn't move—
Then Bi'an deformed at blinding speed. Its warship-huge frame shrank to a micro-shuttle in the blink of an eye—like an invincible giant turning into a gleaming needle, plummeting to impale Gryphon's heart!
—Sublight transformation!
A feat unseen on battlefields for centuries!
Even Celia couldn't morph a 3S combat mecha to full state that fast in an instant!
His pupils contracted. He could only watch the forward viewport as Bi'an closed in. In the last instant before the black-gold needle struck, he finally roared, "Gryphon! Open the landing bay!!"
Time didn't even allow the words to fully land—Gryphon's forward bay irised open, snaring Bi'an in the final millisecond. The black-gold shuttle bored through unhindered, blasting past layer after layer of opening hatches straight into the cockpit!
—Boom!
The violent internal impact flung Celia before he could cry out, slamming him against the metal bulkhead amid the shockwave!
On the other side, the needle-shuttle gouged white smoke into the deck, then split in two with mechanical whirs. Heinrich vaulted out with inhuman agility!
Celia hadn't even lowered the hand shielding his face before a powerful, searing chest crushed him in a tight embrace, pinning him hard against the wall:
"That's mine—what the hell are you doing? What are you doing going back to the Alliance?!"
Celia's first instinct was to snap that he was insane!
That physical docking was insanely risky. If any hatch lagged even slightly, the micro-shuttle would've smashed into five-dimensional alloy plating—the likeliest outcome total destruction. And if Celia hadn't opened the bay at all? The shuttle would've erupted in a fireball against the hull!
"What the fuck is wrong with you?!" Celia looked up, but froze at Heinrich's expression.
In that moment, he wasn't an emperor—not that he ever really was. Right now, he was utterly, completely a desperate, raging everyman. If Heinrich's defining trait was never forgetting his politician's instincts, he'd cast them aside entirely now—maybe even the Empire too. In his frenzy, he could only pin Celia to the wall, one hand rubbing hard over his abdomen again and again: "This is mine too, you know that, right?! You know that?!"
"I know, I know..." Celia gripped his hand tight in return, voice steady. "Calm down, Heinrich. What you're afraid of won't happen... It absolutely won't. I promise."
Their eyes met. Celia's face was faintly pale, but his gaze was rock-solid and potent—even carrying a rare plea.
Perhaps soothed by that gentle force, Heinrich's feral rage ebbed. He still stared unblinkingly into Celia's eyes for minutes before rasping, "It won't happen?"
Less question than desperate bid for reassurance. Celia's answer was a silent nod. Then he eased his grip, uncharacteristically yielding as Heinrich's hot, rough palm roamed his abdomen.
"..." Heinrich's tensed muscles finally uncoiled inch by inch. He rested his forehead on Celia's shoulder. After a long pause, he mumbled into his collar, voice muffled: "...I'd prepared a gift for you..."
Then he trailed off. Moments later, he lifted his head, noses nearly brushing: "So why the hell are you going back to the Alliance?"
Celia's gaze turned profoundly odd—like he wanted to laugh but was exasperated too. He started to speak several times, only to shut his mouth wordlessly. Seeing that, Heinrich's brows shot up, madness brewing again. Celia shoved him at once: "Alright, alright—didn't I say? The Alliance has urgent military intel!"
The emperor's voice jumped an octave, dripping sarcasm: "What intel?!"
"You..." Celia was at a loss for words. After a helpless shrug, he said, "Dark Star Hall sent an envoy to the Alliance suing for peace. They're at Jinshui Star's military HQ right now with their letter of submission... Don't believe me? Come back to Jinshui Star with me."