Chapter 535: Ch Fallen or not

Even after three more Archdukes intervened, the Emperor had stubbornly held the upper hand, pushing them back step by step. It was only when the remaining eight Dukes joined the fray, combining their powers in a desperate joint strike, that they finally managed to overpower, batter, and pin down the star emperor.

"You... all of you! Do you even realize what you are doing?!" the Star Emperor roared, thrashing violently against the floor.

He tried to force himself up, but his injuries were far too severe. He could barely lift his torso, let alone gather enough momentum to muster an attack. Even in peak condition, breaking out would have been a fantasy. Pinned under the crushing Aura pressure of four Peak Star Law Realm Archdukes and eight High Star Law Realm Dukes, he knew better than anyone that he had zero margin to build up momentum.

Yet, knowing reality and accepting it were two entirely different things. He was keenly aware that if he simply lay there and surrendered to their mercy, a far darker fate awaited him.

Desperate for an escape, his eyes darted sideways, catching sight of the two figures from the Annihilation Armada standing silently near the chamber's perimeter.

Though their expressions remained concealed beneath their sleek, full-face combat helms, the Emperor could distinctly feel the icy detachment radiating from them. They were coiled like predatory vipers—ready to strike and neutralize him the split second he made another reckless move.

His heart chilled immediately. In an instant, the grim reality sank in—he knew that the news had already reached the Supreme Elder, and preparations were likely already underway to take him under the custody.

Dammit! How did it reach him so fast?! His mind spiraled into sheer panic.

He knew better than anyone that the gambit he orchestrated carried life-and-death consequences for the entire empire. But he hadn't moved blindly; every step had been meticulously calculated. Even with the Outer Realm ruptures tearing open ahead of schedule, he was far from out of answers.

Yet, if he were struck down now, everything would unravel. He wouldn't just fail to purge the rot and parasitic nobility festering within the empire—he wouldn't be able to quell the grand cataclysm or halt the apocalyptic beast horde surging from the depths of the Outer Realm once the barriers shattered completely.

If that happened, the Star Empire would squander its ultimate opportunity: a golden chance to leapfrog past the Super States entirely and ascend straight into a Tier 4 civilization.

All he needed was to weather this initial onslaught and claim the supreme inheritance of the Ancient Celestial Race—the primeval progenitor clan from which the modern Star People and their celestial bloodline had originated.

Considering that hundreds of thousands of years of careful planning would go straight down the drain if he failed to act, a frantic question echoed in his mind: What should I do?

I can't just blurt out, "Hey, I received the ancient inheritance of our progenitor race, whose bloodline flows through us all!" That wouldn't absolve him in the slightest. It would never erase the crime of driving the empire to the very precipice of total annihilation.

All around him, the deafening roars of the Archduke of Darkness, the Archduke Lich, and the assembled nobles droned on relentlessly. They hurled vicious curses, lambasting him for desecrating the imperial throne, degrading the supreme authority of the crown, and gambling the lives of trillions of imperial citizens on his madness.

The Star Emperor tuned out the deafening noise, his thoughts racing at breakneck speed. Suddenly, his eyes flared with frantic brilliance.

Yes! I can use that thing to tear through their blockade, regroup with my hidden group's and allies, and prepare for the grand eruption! In the panic and being suppressed, he had momentarily forgotten the ultimate trump card that he had on his spatial ring at this moment.

Flash!

A subtle, nearly imperceptible spatial tremor rippled through the broken stones beneath him. In the palm of his bloody hand, a slip of paper materialized—crimson as fresh blood, inscribed with intricate, pitch-black runes of an unknown primeval script.

The instant the talisman touched his flesh, the hollow frailty in the Star Emperor vanished, replaced by an unshakable, defiant composure.

He raised his battered head, glaring cold fury at every noble pinned around the hall, his gaze locking with venomous precision onto the Archduke of Darkness and the Archduke Lich.

"Heh... 'Supreme authority'? In what way have I tainted it?" The Star Emperor let out a harsh, sinister laugh, as if he had just heard the most pathetic joke in his entire life. "How can one taint something that was already rotten to the core before I even sat on the throne?!"

Puh!! Spitting blood onto the destroyed ground stone of the council, he bared his teeth, his voice slicing through the chamber like a jagged blade.

"Tell me—in what true empire is the sovereign's will contested at every turn?! Where else in the vast cosmos is an emperor battered on the whim of decrepit fossils clinging to life from bygone era?! Where do even small nobles not to mention big one's dare spit in the face of imperial decrees?!

And where else does a pack of treacherous parasites claim they are 'loyal to the empire, but not to the sovereign who rules it'?! Is that the supreme authority you dogs dare preach to me about huh?!"

His menacing words ripped the veil off their sanctimonious posturing, laying bare the hollow reality of their so-called legitimacy and supreme authority of an emperor: an empty title that was constantly reshaped, defanged, and molded to serve their selfish personal interests after all a weak emperor is the best emperor.

At his words, the faces of the assembled Archdukes and Dukes darkened instantly, flushed with fury and stung by the bitter, undeniable truth.

"Heh..."

Seeing the fury and discomfort written across their faces, the Star Emperor laughed with dripping mockery.

"The Emperor is the Empire, and the Empire is the will of Emperor! The Supreme Will of the Emperor is the sole supreme authority—it must never be questioned, and it must never be defied and it must never be challenged!

That is the only true supreme authority in this empier that does not exist anymore , just like the toothless sham you hypocrites have conjured in your twisted minds!"

He sneered, his gaze sweeping over the assembled lords like a judge passing a final sentence.

"Your perception of supreme authority was corrupt from the very start. Mine is pure. At the end of the day, if an emperor cannot even decree the fate of the empire that he rules, can this sham of a nation even be called an empire?!"

Veins bulged along his neck as his voice ripped through the shattered chamber, shattering the silence:

"NO! IT CAN NEVER BE CALLED AN EMPIRE!"

His final roar detonated like thunder across the grand hall. Even pinned down and drenched in blood, the staggering, imperious momentum he summoned at that moment left every Archduke and Duke momentarily frozen in shock.

"That is... that is precisely why I was left with no choice but to resort to extraordinary means," the Star Emperor said softly.

His voice dropped to a calm, icy stillness, the fury washing away as his expression turned serene. In that instant, a terrifying imperial majesty—an aura far purer and more majestic than anything he had ever displayed before—shimmered into existence around his battered form. The overwhelming presence struck the assembled nobles like a physical blow, leaving even the two Annihilation Legion guards visibly rigid beneath their combat helms.

Rumble... RUMBLE!

Abruptly, apocalyptic thunder detonated across the blackened sky outside, its deafening cadence tearing straight through the reinforced dome of the Imperial Council. Beneath their feet, the bedrock groaned—no, not merely the chamber floor, but the entirety of Stellar Prime shuddered to its core.

"This is..." The Archduke of Darkness was the first to regain his footing, his pupils contracting sharply as he stared at the golden radiance materializing behind the sovereign, coalescing into an ethereal dragon before dissolving back into the void.

"Th-that was the Empire's Destiny!" Archduke Ice Soul stammered, naked astonishment fracturing his cold demeanor. "His words... his conviction has resonated directly with the Empire's collective fortune! Wh-which means—"

"—which means that, to some degree, the Star Emperor's words are true," the Archduke of the Golden Sword cut in, his mental transmission echoing with heavy resonance in the minds of the council. "Yet that might merely be because his status as the emperor.

Fallen or not, he remains the reigning Emperor—the thread connecting him to the Empire's Fortune hasn't snapped just yet.

And within certain limits, he can still bend that Fortune to reflect his will. What we are witnessing right now could merely be a projection of that authority."

"'Could be'?" Archduke Lich interjected sharply, his gaze fixing onto Golden Sword with thinly veiled skepticism.

Archduke Golden Sword met Archduke Lich's gaze and gave a slow, deliberate nod.