Chapter 446: A traitor’s last words.

A literal mountain of alien weapons materialized out of thin air, tumbling onto the center of the conference table! Armor-piercing stakes, high-tech energy pistols, poisoned daggers, and concealed explosive charges scattered across the wood, knocking over juice cups and pastry plates.

Other weapons that could not be recognized by the humans fell to the ground, filling op most of the empty space on the ground. Zyra noticed a clear glass bottle, corked, tight, filled with what seemed like beach sand.

Solazo staggered backward, his face turning ghost-white as he pointed a trembling finger at a long, jagged metal rod. "Is that... a core-stripper?! I didn’t even know those existed on this planet! With one stake and I am dead!"

Almeida grabbed the glass bottle, dismay on his face. "Dust ground from the bones of ancient beasts, mixed with poison. One grain alone carries enough heat to erase anything it touches by turning it into powder. Imagine what a few grains can do when carried by wind through a city. This dust is a forbidden weapon because when released, it can’t be taken back. It just keeps going until there is nothing left on a planet but the dust alone."

Humans gasped.

"They brought them to massacre all of you," Zyra said coldly, looking at Almeida. "Erik found out that you were planning to take the ship and take your people back to Orakk. He knows that if you go back, you will be a free prince, while the rest of them will be locked back in prison cages. So, he decided to kill you, slaughter the humans, and blame it all on our side of the earth to start a war."

Almeida’s jaw dropped. His eyes darted to Erik, then to Tonio. His brain was spinning. Almost nobody knew about his secret plan to take the ship back home_ only the inner circle knew! He wondered how Zyra knew about this and his identity. Had one of his people told Erik? He had suspected that he was surrounded by a few traitors but he had underestimated them_ a mistake he was realizing only now.

Solazo turned his head slowly toward Tonio. Tonio’s eyes were blinking frantically_ a hundred miles an hour_ as sweat poured down his forehead. "It’s not true! I swear! She’s lying! The girl is crazy!"

Zyra let out a loud, bored sigh and rolled her eyes. "Look, I really don’t have the time or the patience to sit here and play ’Who’s Telling the Truth.’"

System, give me a vial of Oath Sap. She ordered quietly.

[One vial of Truth-Forcing Oath Sap, coming right up!] Beauty chimed. A small glass bottle appeared in Zyra’s hand.

Hunter stepped up right beside her without needing a single word of instruction. He grabbed Erik’s face, forcefully prying the paralyzed alien’s jaw open.

"Hey! What are you pouring into his mouth?!" Solazo yelled, leaning over the table.

"It’s Oath Sap," Zyra explained, uncorking the bottle. "It forces the target to spill every single dark secret in their brain whether they want to or not. Highly effective, zero side effects_ except maybe severe embarrassment."

Zyra tipped three drops straight onto Erik’s tongue.

Erik’s eyes bulged. He tried to clamp his lips shut, but his chest heaved, a strange, choked sound bubbling up from his throat.

"Did you have a plan to kill the Supreme leader?" Hunter asked.

Erik hissed, cursing in three different alien languages, and then_ completely against his will_ his mouth opened wide.

"YES!" he roared out, his voice echoing frantically around the tent. "Yes, I was going to kill Almeida! I was going to rip his stupid core right out of his chest! I was going to slaughter every pathetic human in this room, frame them for a war, and take the ship for myself! Almeida is a selfish royal bastard who was going to send us back to prison cages. Who gave him the right to decide for the rest of us how we should the rest of our lives? This is war. If his side lives, we die."

Zyra nodded triumphantly, the collective gasps of the humans acting as music to her ears. "Which humans helped you?"

?Erik sneered. "That greedy bitch Holly Demerides." He let out a harsh, sarcastic laugh. "After all of this was over and I had become Supreme Leader of this whole planet, I was going to kill her anyway. She talks too much and has a terrible attitude."

?"Holly?" Tori almost choked on her own breath. "My sister would never! We are always together! There is no way you could have colluded with them without my knowledge!"

?Erik let out a sickening smirk that churned the stomachs of everyone in the room. "How do you think you’ve managed to avoid finding the Hollow Cradle for so long? Your sister made sure you never even came close to it." He cackled, a sound of pure cruelty.

?Tori lowered her teary eyes as fragmented memories of their grueling journey beyond the veil clicked into place. Holly was always the one who chose their routes during the search. She buried her face in her hands, shaking her head repeatedly as the agonizing question echoed in her mind: Why?

?"Help me, please..." a weak voice cried out from the shadows. "...I don’t want to die."

Solazo whimpered, he had lost all strength in his legs and flopped backward into his chair, completely speechless.

Almeida stood frozen for two seconds, processing the betrayal. Some of his allies like Belchris were among the people that had been paralyzed by Zyra. Then, a wave of pure, volcanic fury rushed through his veins. His eyes turned a dark, terrifyingly dark.

Before Zyra could even blink, Almeida closed the gap like a lightning bolt. He reached out, slammed his hand into Erik’s chest, and with one brutal, sickening crack, tore Erik’s core right out of his ribs!

Erik let out a sharp gasp, his eyes rolling back as his lifeless body slumped uselessly in the chair.

The remaining trapped Somnivores on Erik’s side started whimpering, trembling violently, and begging for their lives. "Please! Supreme Leader, mercy! We were just following him! We didn’t know!"

"NO! STOP!" Zyra screamed, her voice cracking with pure frustration.

She stared at Erik’s dead body, then looked at Almeida, waving her hands in the air like a madwoman. "What is wrong with you?! That is not what I wanted you to do! At least not yet!"

Almeida blinked, wiping a drop of alien blood off his cheek, looking confused. "Zyra, he betrayed me_ and everyone here! He admitted he was going to murder us all!"

"I told you that, remember?" Zyra yelled, pointing a frantic finger at the dead alien. "But he might be the only one who knew the exact coordinates to the Hollow Cradle! That is where my mother is! How are we supposed to find it now that you have killed him?!"