Chapter 537: Ch

Trek replied almost immediately, "Yeah, I’m sensing faint, nearly imperceptible spatial ripples originating from the Star Emperor’s position."

"Not good! Look at his hands!" Velcia suddenly shouted, darting toward the Star Emperor like a bolt of lightning.

Trek’s pupils contracted as his gaze landed on the slip of paper clutched in the Emperor’s hand, feeling the spatial distortion coming off it. As an elite of the Annihilation Armada, his knowledge far exceeded that of ordinary nobles; he recognized the artifact instantly and realized why Velcia was moving with such desperate speed.

How did he get his hands on one of those? Trek frowned deeply, accelerating right behind her in hot pursuit.

Meanwhile, the Star Emperor had already spotted the two Armada elites hurtling toward him. His expression twisted into a scowl. Channeling the absolute dregs of his remaining mana into the ultra-teleportation talisman, he glared at the four Archdukes and the rest of the assembly.

"I may have failed today, but the game is far from over!" he snarled. "I will return! And when I do, not a single one of you will be left drawing breath! The empire will finally be cleansed of your filth—free of this rot to ascend to heights you could never fathom!"

With those parting words, a blinding white sphere engulfed him.

Just as Velcia and Trek closed the distance—whoosh!—he vanished entirely.

BOOM!

Velcia’s strike, aimed straight for the Star Emperor’s face, and Trek’s claw-hand, aimed to seize the teleportation talisman, struck empty air before crashing brutally into the stone floor. The devastating kinetic force of their impacts obliterated the foundation beneath them, gouging out a deep crater spiderwebbed with violent fractures.

"Dammit! We missed him!" Velcia cursed through gritted teeth.

"This is bad... this is very bad..."

Meanwhile, the four Archdukes, who had backed away just in time before the strike hammered into the ground, stood frozen as the dust cleared. Seeing the Star Emperor gone and hearing an elite of the Annihilation Armada curse aloud, their faces paled instantly. The Star Emperor’s parting words echoed in their minds like blaring alarm bells.

His threat posed an existential danger to them and their entire bloodlines. Now that he had escaped to heavens knew where, they were completely at a loss for what to do.

Meanwhile, within the ancestral grounds of Stellar Prime, inside the 2nd Elder’s compound.

Rio had just finished reporting the treasonous actions of the Star Emperor, as well as the approaching grand eruption that threatened the very existence of the Star Empire as a whole.

BOOM!

A terrifying aura erupted from the 2nd Elder without warning.

Rio, who had anticipated this reaction, had already enveloped himself in his own protective energy. He managed to withstand the oppressive pressure rolling off the 2nd Elder, though the sheer weight of it still pressed heavily against his chest. It was barely inferior to the Supreme Elder’s own presence.

Rio’s pupils trembled with a flicker of solemn dread. Stable as the council of elders might seem on the surface, fierce rivalries brewed beneath. He had no way of knowing how the 2nd Elder would truly view this catastrophe—or how he would exploit it—now that his strength nearly rivaled the Supreme Elder’s. At least, that was how it appeared from where Rio stood.

"Damn that fool! How dare he?! How dare he!"

The 2nd Elder roared in fury. His aura, mirroring his boundless rage, went completely berserk. The surrounding courtyard suffered immediate devastation: the flagstones fractured beneath his feet, while floating chunks of rubble disintegrated into fine vapor under the crushing weight of his power.

High above, the sky trembled violently, and endless expanses of dark clouds were torn to shreds by the ascending tempest feild created by the 2nd elder raging power.

"S-2nd Elder, please calm yourself!"

As much as Rio dreaded speaking up at a moment like this, he knew he had no choice. Silence was dangerous; who knew what the 2nd Elder might do in such a state? Rage was useless now anyway. What was done was done, and everything was already far too late. Better to rein in the fury and focus on something that might actually help against the looming crisis threatening the empire—that was the only thought running through Rio’s mind.

Hearing his words, the 2nd Elder snapped his gaze toward Rio, his voice shaking with venom. "Calm myself? Commander Rio, you tell me—how can I calm down?!"

"In my millions of years of existence, I have seen countless emperors. Some were great, some were wretched, and a few nearly dragged the empire’s foundation to the brink. Yet even then, none of them truly wished to destroy the realm—it was merely their unchecked greed running rampant. Never, even in those darkest hours, was our empire placed at a crossroads where absolute destruction was the only outcome!"

"And now, this fool... all over some petty, pathetic grudge, all because of his own sheer incompetence to command respect as a true ruler, he has committed an outrage so vile that the true bedrock of our empire is shoved directly into the maw of this raging tempest!"

The 2nd Elder’s chest heaved, his breaths growing ragged and violent as his aura surged even hotter.

"We cannot pull ourselves out in time, nor are we remotely prepared to face it. Yet we have no choice but to brace our bones, step into the fire, and pray we survive!"

"..."

"This..." Rio was momentarily taken aback by the 2nd Elder’s furious articulation. He hesitated, but ultimately let out a long sigh. "You are right about all of that, 2nd Elder. But what choice do we have now other than to brace our bones, step into the fire, and pray we survive? Truly, we have no other path.

If we stand our ground, there is at least a chance that some of us—and the empire itself—might endure. But if we do nothing and merely vent our rage over what is already beyond our control, we won’t stand a chance of protecting anything at all."

"..."

This time, it was the 2nd Elder who fell silent, struck by Rio’s plain truth. He drew in a slow, deep breath. His raging aura began to recede, settling until it vanished as abruptly as it had flared up.

Having regained much of his composure, the 2nd Elder spoke gravely, "You are right, Rio. Indeed, we have no other choice. To protect what must be protected, we must brace our bones and confront the coming storm."

Rio was caught off guard by the elder’s sudden acceptance. He had braced himself for a prolonged confrontation, expecting to spend far more effort talking him down—much like his earlier ordeal with the First Elder. Yet here they were, resolved in mere moments.

Without lingering on the matter, and paying no mind to the stunned expression lingering on Rio’s face, the 2nd Elder pressed on:

"Tell me, Commander—what did the Supreme Elder have to say about this?"

"The Supreme Elder instructed me to..." Rio began, relaying the Supreme Elder’s thoughts along with the orders that needed to be dispatched to every elder, the planned countermeasures against the Star Emperor, and the broader strategy moving forward.

Just as he was about to conclude his report, the communication wrist-device on his arm vibrated sharply. An encrypted transmission flashed in from his two subordinates.

As he listened to the voice on the other end, the color drained from Rio’s face. His brow locked into a deep frown.

The 2nd Elder caught the abrupt shift in demeanor immediately, sensing that something had gone terribly awry. "What happened, Commander Rio?"

"Ah..." Rio faltered, at a loss for how to break the news. He looked up at the 2nd Elder with an intensely conflicted expression.

Seeing the hesitation, the 2nd Elder’s own brow furrowed as his bad feeling intensified. His tone turned sharp and commanding: "Speak, Commander Rio."

Hearing the authority in that voice, Rio let out a heavy sigh and blurted it out:

"The Star Emperor... he has escaped. He used an ultra-teleportation talisman. That is the message just relayed to me by the armada elites. And before vanishing, he left behind a vow—promising that when he returns, not a single noble or soul among us will be left alive."

"A teleportation talisman? How did he get his hands on one?!"

The 2nd Elder scowled, voicing his disbelief aloud. "Even the imperial treasury holds only three across its entire history, collected over the course of our empire’s existence—and I checked just recently, all three remain safely accounted for..."

His gaze hardened as the gears turned in his mind. "Don’t tell me he uncovered it inside the ancestral secret realm? Given that abrupt change in his temperament... if I remember correctly, the shift started right after his return."

Connecting the dots in real time, the 2nd Elder looked straight at Commander Rio.

"..."

Rio was taken aback by how quickly the elder pieced it together. Just moments ago, Velcia and Trek had attached their own suspicions along identical lines based on what they observed.