Chapter 50
Chapter 50
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Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 50
Chapter Title: Aaron's Frenzy and the Void Serpent
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Aaron was breathing raggedly, his gaze blank and unfocused as it slowly drifted between Heinrich and Gavin's faces.
"You... you..."
His voice was hoarse and gravelly, laced with hesitation. Heinrich's temper flared instantly. He lunged forward in a flash, grabbing Aaron by the collar and snarling, "Aaron! What the hell kind of game are you playing?"
Gavin's expression shifted.
"Stand down!"
But it was too late. Aaron had only hesitated because their faces seemed vaguely familiar, but the moment he was attacked, his feral instincts exploded. He seized Heinrich's hand and shoved it away with brutal force.
"Get... off!"
With a sharp click, countless gears sprang from the palm of his armored gauntlet, slicing Heinrich's hand open in an instant, blood streaming everywhere!
"You bastard!" The emperor roared in fury, beyond enraged. He seized Aaron and slammed him hard against the wall. "Anders Aaron! What the fuck do you think you're doing—?!"
A thunderous crash echoed as Heinrich was kicked flying several meters, crashing to the ground. Aaron leaped into the air, drawing a longsword of Axel alloy from behind his back. Just as he was about to bring it slashing down from above, Gavin rushed in and blocked it with his forearm!
There was a resounding clang as the fruit knife was predictably cleaved in two, the flying shards of the broken blade embedding deeply into the wall.
The immense force sent Gavin staggering back half a step, bringing him face-to-face with Aaron in that split second. Aaron's eyes grew even more bewildered, and he murmured,
"C-Celia—"
Smack! Gavin backhanded him across the face without missing a beat, then grabbed Heinrich on the rebound.
"Run!"
First, someone had eyed his ass, and now his best friend had turned traitor. Even the emperor's usual good nature couldn't take it anymore. The two stumbled through the hall, the emperor bellowing with veins bulging in his neck,
"What the hell is going on—!"
"He's been controlled! His memories have been wiped!" Gavin shot back furiously. "What did you send him to do?!"
The emperor was suddenly speechless.
Aaron pursued relentlessly, swinging his longsword viciously from behind. Countless arcs of electricity erupted from the blade, lancing toward the two men ahead. Heinrich and Gavin both dove forward flat to the ground; the electric arcs whistled past their scalps, and in an instant, the entire hall was lit up like broad daylight by the crackling flashes.
"Stop right there!"
Before the two could scramble to their feet, Aaron pounced, slamming down on Gavin so hard he nearly vomited up his stomach. Heinrich rushed forward to intercept, but the berserk Aaron was beyond human. In the chaos, Gavin took several brutal kicks. As he tried to break free, a fist smashed into his cheek, sending a spray of blood from his mouth.
"You—" Gavin's own ferocity ignited. He wiped the blood viciously from his mouth and struck like lightning, clamping his hand around Aaron's throat!
The timing of the choke was perfect, and his grip immense. Aaron's eyes bulged instantly.
Heinrich grabbed Aaron's hair, trying to bash him unconscious, but at that moment, a rift tore open in the void behind them—
The black dragon knight burst forth silently, smashing Heinrich flying!
This was a testament to Alpha physiology. Even in incomplete form, the dragon knight weighed several tons, yet Heinrich—struck square in the chest and sent tumbling—only spat up a few mouthfuls of blood. Lucky it wasn't Gavin, or his brains would have been splattered!
"Goddamn it..." Heinrich struggled to his feet, only to see the dragon knight flash through the air. Aaron, nearly passing out from the chokehold, barely raised a hand. The dragon knight swooped down with a howl, yanking him up off the ground!
Gavin's grip slipped in the struggle, all ten fingernails snapping off and leaving gruesome bloody gashes on Aaron's neck. Aaron flipped onto the dragon knight's back, his gaze sweeping over his two foes before locking on the Omega—the one with the higher grudge score.
He seized Gavin and dragged him forcibly onto the dragon knight, then drew his blade to hack at his neck!
Gavin Celia had lived over five hundred years, but death had never loomed so vividly and abruptly.
In that instant, his pupils dilated wildly, his heart nearly stopping. The wind whistled past his ears, as if the hand of time stretched that single second into eternity.
He watched wide-eyed as the blade hurtled toward him, even feeling the icy killing intent of its edge against his neck—
But in that very moment, Heinrich soared in, and with a deafening boom, rammed Aaron off the dragon knight!
Everything happened in that instant. Heinrich and Aaron were still airborne, not yet landed, when Gavin tumbled off the dragon knight.
The Enforcement Hall's ceiling was extraordinarily high, and the dragon knight was now several meters up. Hitting the ground headfirst from that height meant death or a severe flaying at best. In a flash, all the blood rushed to Gavin's temples—
But right then, a golden light flashed at his earlobe. The small ear stud erupted in blinding radiance!
"Gryphon—!"
The roar nearly cracked, the final note still hanging as the gryphon launched skyward. Mid-air, it shifted form in an instant, becoming several slender steel cables that shot out, hooking the hall's crossbeams!
Gavin's body swung a perfect semicircle through the air, then the cables retracted, reforming into a military blade. With howling gales and the momentum of a thousand charging cavalry, it swept down, cleaving the dragon knight in half at the waist!
The strike was earth-shattering. The dragon knight exploded in a massive roar, flames blooming as Heinrich and Aaron thudded to the ground.
Gavin landed with his blade, panting as he wiped the blood from his face. Leaning on the sword, he looked up to see Aaron dazed and groggy, crawling up from the floor. Heinrich kicked him back down and whirled furiously.
"How the hell do you have the Gryphon?!"
Gavin: "..."
Gavin remained utterly calm.
"Is Aaron okay?"
The emperor had been toyed with enough. Heinrich's ice-blue eyes were nearly reddened by the firelight as he demanded harshly,
"How is the Gryphon here?!"
Gavin looked down.
"Gryphon, how are you here?"
"..."
The gryphon exploded in rage.
"What have you done to my master? Why the hell can't I be here?!"
Gavin was a master at deflection, and the gryphon a hothead idiot ready to blow. The emperor, seething with nowhere to vent, was about to shift from iceberg to volcano when the ground suddenly shuddered violently beneath their feet!
The quake was devastating. Not only the already dizzy Aaron, but Heinrich and Gavin all toppled. The burning dragon knight in mid-air shattered into pieces, flaming debris raining down and smashing gaping fissures in the floor. Then, a mound bulged up from the hall's central tiles, as if something enormous was thrusting upward from below.
"What the fuck is that—"
The gryphon shrieked, struggling desperately as if to rush save his former master. But Gavin grabbed it.
"Wait!"
"Wait for what? You've slept with the emperor and now you don't care about our Aaron anymore? Is there really that much difference between sleeping and not?!"
The gryphon wailed tearfully, calling out with deep affection,
"Aaron—! General Aaron, don't be scared, I'm coming to save you—!"
Gavin clutched the gryphon, his calm finally cracking.
"How do you know we've slept together?"
"I just know! When are you gonna sleep with our Aaron? Tell me! When the hell are you gonna sleep with our Aaron!"
"..."
Gavin's expression nearly shattered. Just then, the ground heaved as if punched. The mound burst open, and an enormous black creature exploded upward!
This was probably the most undignified moment in the lives of the emperor, marshal, and general. The floor's shattering quake dumped all three flat, then a black whirlwind rocketed to the ceiling, nearly punching a hole through the sturdy metal panels.
A nauseating stench hit them full force. In the dim light, sparkling glints flashed within the whirlwind—then it halted abruptly, its massive body swaying mid-air, emitting shrill hisses.
"Oh god... it's a snake..."
The gryphon gasped in awe.
"What a massive serpent..."
The giant serpent lowered its head slightly, swinging it to whip up a blast of foul wind. Its murky yellow eyes swiveled, then locked onto Gavin. From its two gleaming fangs, a bright red tongue slowly flicked out.
"Serpent of the Void Expanse..." Gavin murmured, his tone filled with undisguised astonishment. "It's real... a Void Serpent!"
Meanwhile, in a distant star system millions of light-years from Shourong Star, a colossal warship the size of a space fortress glided slowly through the cosmos.
In the corridor outside the command center, a man in his thirties, dressed in a white military uniform, strode forward under the escort of black-armored warriors. At the corridor's end, the tungsten alloy doors slid open silently. The warrior bowed and stepped aside.
The man entered casually, ignoring the array of icy glares, and greeted them with a lazy smile.
"—Yo! Looks like a few people are missing, huh?"
A handful of high-ranking warriors sat around the circular command dais, their faces uniformly sour. Barnett, missing an arm, idly stroked the face of a honey-skinned youth kneeling at his leg with his remaining hand, drawling indifferently,
"A crippled dog like you has no business mocking others, Major General Kaleyan?"
Kaleyan glanced around.
"The one the Phoenix kicked out of the Royal Military Academy back to the outer systems wasn't our Alliance exile government, was it, esteemed Dark Star warriors? Of course, maybe you think getting thrashed by the Phoenix beats getting thrashed by Heinrich, but... compared to us getting beaten by the Empire's trillion-strong legions, shouldn't you lot feel more shame for getting crippled by Heinrich alone?"
Before the words settled, he jerked his head aside. A crystal cup shattered against the wall by his ear, shards flying everywhere.
"Kaleyan—!" Barnett surged to his feet, bellowing. "Don't get too cocky! The Alliance is just our lapdog for galactic domination now. You think Dark Star Hall can't do without you?!"
"Shut up!" Before Kaleyan could reply, Osroed cut in sharply. "Go sit in the corner! Shut your mouth!"
Barnett slumped back down fuming, the rage stuck in his throat. He vented by kicking the youth viciously into the corner!
These men's power was no joke. The youth didn't even have time to scream before convulsing on the floor and going still. Moments later, blood began oozing slowly from the back of his head.
Kaleyan narrowed his eyes, turning coolly.
"No need to get so heated."
"You all know about the Royal Military Academy incident?" Osroed countered.
Among the high-ranking warriors present, idiots like Barnett were rare. Osroed, Yunis, and the others were no pushovers. Kaleyan scanned the round table, then drawled after a pause,
"Yeah, we know all about it—including your failed assassination attempt on the marshal that he escaped. Parliament's been debating it for a while."
Osroed paused, only for Yunis to reply coldly,
"That wasn't my plan. Some people's reckless initiative has me puzzled too."
Instantly, the warriors who'd acted with Osroed that day looked grim. But Kaleyan pretended not to notice, smiling faintly at Yunis.
"So Dark Star Hall really did intend to hand over the marshal and the Phoenix to the Alliance government?"
"I thought our sincerity in cooperating with the Alliance was already clear."
Kaleyan leaned against the command dais, arms crossed, his expression leisurely and inscrutable.
Yunis was fed up dealing with this old fox, his voice cooling.
"—Spare me. Without Dark Star Hall, could you even contact the Void Expanse people? Master soul refraction tech completely? That Omega body prepped for Celia—your tech couldn't produce it. And those Red Earth Star losers got routed by the Empire's Ninth Fleet, so now you can't even get a single hair from Celia..."
"The Alliance Parliament thanks you for your help," Kaleyan said flatly, without inflection. "But it's no big deal. You've made plenty of test subjects, after all—resources so plentiful you can kick one or two to death on a whim—"
He glanced at the still-bleeding corpse in the corner, mockery in his eyes.
"We can even give away a couple casually." Yunis fired back. "How about it? They're for you anyway—want to take a few back for a taste?"
Kaleyan's expression turned subtly odd for a moment, then he shook his head.
"Thanks, but no thanks."
Yunis was probably the one who hated Kaleyan most here. Though duty forced him to negotiate, he couldn't resist a jab when he could. As he opened his mouth again, a black-armored warrior from the door hurried in, whispering,
"Lord Yunis, something's up on Shourong Star in Ophiuchus—"
Yunis frowned.
"What?"
Ophiuchus had always been the exile government's base. Kaleyan's ears perked. The warrior continued,
"A massive fleet is approaching Shourong Star through the warp gate. Can't identify yet, but the models match the Gemini Empire's Ninth Legion. Also—there might be a civilian uprising on Shourong Star. Looking out from the Void Serpent's eyes, two people broke into the base and killed our apprentices. One of them looks like..."
The black-armored warrior hesitated. Yunis pressed warily,
"Who?"
"...Not certain," the warrior said after a pause. "Just looks like... the Gemini Emperor, Set Heinrich."