Chapter 300: No Way Out

Rhea finished the enemies in front of her and raised a hand toward the next group.

A Gate opened at Cassian’s paid command. She stepped through and emerged ten kilometers away, directly in the path of a fleeing Legendary squad.

"Going somewhere?"

She was thoroughly enjoying the pursuit when Cassian’s voice reached her through the Lord’s Heart.

"Rhea, Aurelia, Celia, Liora. Kill the three War Marshals."

All four answered together.

"Yes, Lord!"

Damon had reached the coalition’s flagship by then.

"Ravenscar! Get this ship moving!"

Tavian’s face was livid. The odds had already turned against them, but Damon’s retreat had made a hard battle collapse into a rout.

Their great expedition had achieved nothing. They had delivered a fortune in Battle Essence and equipment to Divine Province instead.

"This defeat is your responsibility, Veylan!"

"Mine?" Damon rounded on him. "Whose decision kept us here? If we’d withdrawn to our own waters sooner, we wouldn’t have suffered these losses!"

Nearby, Garran and Corbett listened with grim faces. The promising Lords of the newcomer sector had expected easy military credit. Now the expedition was ruined, and their own lives were in danger.

"Enough!" Vivienne shrieked. "They’re coming! Start the Skyreaver!"

Both men turned.

A Gate had opened not far from the ship. Divine Province’s strongest fighters stepped out. The golden Dragon followed, its body reduced to ten meters to fit through the passage.

As it emerged, it swelled to hundreds of meters again. Its tail swept toward the flagship.

"Damn it! Most of my troops aren’t back yet!"

Tavian could wait no longer.

The Skyreaver was only a hundred meters long. The flames bursting from its stern stretched several times that distance.

It vanished from beneath the Dragon’s descending tail. A moment later, the Legendary ship was a black speck on the horizon.

On Seabreaker, the observers stared.

"That speed..." Darian sounded bitterly disappointed. "Even the Tempest Wyverns couldn’t keep up. It’s faster than the Dragon!"

He watched the distant speck disappear.

"Even if Cassian opens Gates ahead for Rhea, it’ll be gone before she can catch it. No wonder Tavian paid so much to bring that ship down with him. The older he gets, the more frightened he is of dying."

"Beating someone and killing him are different things," Elara said. "Especially a War Marshal from an older sector."

Cassian said nothing. His brows drew together.

Let them escape? The men and woman who had led this invasion?

He gave a quiet order through the Lord’s Heart.

"Lethria. Work with Rhea. Stop that ship, and keep it clean."

"Yes, Lord."

At the Abyss Gate, Lethria left her post and entered the paid passage Cassian opened toward the pursuit. Suzette and the three veteran Nine-Star Faerie Dragons went with her. Before Suzette crossed, seven newly bought Legendary Troop Souls entered her body. Cassian paid the Battle Essence for her advances, bringing her from Two-Star to Nine-Star.

Beyond the Gate, Lethria slipped into Phase Wander.

——

The sudden change had caught even the Homeworld’s audience off guard.

[Has Divine Province really won already?]

[With that many troops, the coalition could have kept fighting for another day.]

[Look at what they’re facing. The fleet, the armies, that Dragon... Even Damon Veylan lost his duel. Who wants to be the last one left?]

The result was becoming clear. The killing was far from over.

The coalition had driven five thousand kilometers into waters covered by Cassian’s Provincial Gate access. Every kilometer now lay between its remaining ships and safety.

Gates flashed above the sea. Cassian and the authorized Wardens closed old links, paid for new positions, and sent their fighters ahead of the retreating forces. One registry after another served the pursuit without exceeding its own limit.

Below them, warships burst into flame.

Each explosion claimed another part of the coalition’s shrinking shelter. Its command structure had broken down. There were no timely warnings, no orderly transfers to neighboring ships before a damaged vessel sank.

Ground troops went down with their transports. Those who managed to jump clear struggled in the sea, left with barely a fifth of their fighting strength.

Even reaching another deck would only delay the end if that ship was destroyed next.

The flying troops at least had a chance.

The expedition’s commanders had planned to strike straight at the Provincial Capital. They had never expected to fight this battle at sea. No force of Hydras waited beneath their ships to save them.

For Cassian, the rewards came in a flood.

In less than an hour, his force earned another forty billion Battle Essence.

Darian was laughing too.

"Nearly ten billion already! This is wonderful!"

Across Divine Province’s forces, Lords urged their troops onward with growing excitement. A single day’s gains were matching what they normally earned in a month.

——

Five thousand kilometers from the main battlefield, clouds streamed past the Skyreaver.

Damon finally allowed himself to relax.

"We’re clear."

They had passed beyond the sea covered by Cassian’s Provincial Gates. Without those shortcuts, the pursuing fighters could not hope to overtake the ship.

Tavian slumped into the captain’s chair. For the moment, he seemed to have lost the strength to blame anyone.

"Nine-Stars from a newcomer sector," he muttered. "How are they stronger than Heroes we’ve trained for decades?"

He looked toward Damon.

"And that Dawnwing. Attack and defense together. Even you could barely break her ward."

They had no idea how much practice those few months had contained.

The Folded Sanctuary’s paid acceleration had given even Aurelia, who often left on missions, years of training. Celia spent far more of her time in the Enclosure. The Tea Tree helped them understand their arts, and Life Water supported practice that other Lords could never have supplied so freely.

Thirty years in the Realm did not necessarily mean thirty years spent improving at that pace.

"None of that matters now."

Vivienne took out a bottle of Legendary champagne and poured a glass for each of them.

"We’ve lost a battle, but we can rebuild." She lifted her glass. "We’re alive. That’s what matters."

Some spirit returned to Damon’s tired face.

"We’ve all fought our way through mountains of corpses. We’ll leave our names in the Homeworld’s history. Perhaps even ascend to the Sixth Realm and live another thousand years."

He raised his own glass.

"We weren’t going to die at the hands of a boy like Cassian."

Tavian nodded and touched his glass to theirs.

"The Sun Mother has sent us a trial. We’ll emerge stronger for having survived it."

Vivienne frowned.

"And God."

A cool voice interrupted their toast.

"Bullies when you have the advantage. Cowards when you lose it. And still so pleased with yourselves."

Everyone froze.

"No wonder you managed to anger Celia. She’s one of the easiest people in our Domain to get along with."

The ship slowed beneath their feet.

Tavian turned toward the view beyond the rail. His voice broke into a shout.

"What in the hell is that?"

Space was folding across five kilometers of sky. Blue-green chains emerged from its creases, more with every instant. They crossed and joined until an immense net held the Skyreaver fast in midair.

Damon sprang upward.

"Show yourself!"

A thousand-meter blade of sword energy swept across the sky toward the chains.

For a moment, the people on the flagship forgot their fear. This was the strength of one of Sector 632’s most famous fighters. Losing to Aurelia had not made him weak.

Her strength had simply been greater.

Then the sword energy struck the net.

Metal rang against metal. Sparks flashed where the two powers met, but the chains held.

Damon stared.

"How can a skill cover that much space and still have this much strength?"

His own vast attack was far less concentrated than the swordlight he had used against Aurelia. He had expected the same weakness from an enemy spreading power over an even greater area.

A thought struck him. Disbelief flooded his face.

"Sovereign Bindings! Those are Sovereign Bindings!"