Chapter 829: Tide of Shadows

Chapter 829: Chapter 829: Tide of Shadows

In the midst of the fireball devouring the Divine Wind flagship, Ethan, who had hidden in the void at the final fraction of a second, emerged floating in midair. All around him, the flaming wreckage of the warship plunged toward the dunes below.

With a coordinated leap, thousands of undead bounded from the shattered frame onto adjacent enemy vessels.

[Ready, master], Crul’s voice echoed through the neural link. [I managed to breach the central system via the micro-warp. Buy me just two minutes to assume operational control of the enemy fleet.]

"You got it," Ethan replied with a cold smirk.

He bounded through the air and materialized atop the hull of another enemy cruiser.

The Divine Wind Empire fleet plunged into chaos. Desperately attempting to break formation and disperse, the enemy captains maneuvered blindly as the dark tide of the undead infected their ships. Like a plague of shadows, the creatures clung to the metal, using claws and weapons imbued with necrotic mana to tear through hulls, breach hatches, and pour into the corridors.

Panic seized the crews, forcing them to bank sharply in a bid to avoid being boarded by the spectral host.

Noticing that his undead servants’ destructive frenzy threatened to obliterate the vessels, Ethan issued a mental command:

[Spread out! Do not inflict severe damage to the hulls. Just keep them pinned and buy time.]

The creatures obeyed, shifting their tactics from total annihilation to a suffocating siege—clogging engines and blanketing the decks to prevent the enemy from reorganizing or launching a counterstrike. ℯℯ𝑙.

Amidst the flames and smoke of the shattered flagship plunging toward the desert, three figures forced their way out by shattering the debris around them. They were the three generals of the Divine Wind Empire. Their foreheads were bloodied and they spat blood onto the sand; despite belonging to the formidable Dao Transcendence realm, taking a direct impact from a Rhino cruiser and its subsequent internal detonation had inflicted severe injuries upon their bodies.

"Damn it! What kind of suicidal tactic was that?!" roared one of the generals, wiping away the blood clouding his vision.

Upon looking up into the firmament, the scene left them dumbfounded: their fleet was being boarded by a dark tide of undead, and several destroyers were already plummeting toward the ground engulfed in flames.

"Shit! Where is that bastard?!" barked the second general.

Floating in midair a few meters above them, Ethan observed them with arms crossed and a mocking smirk across his lips, enjoying every second of their bewilderment.

Seeing the ridicule on the youth’s face, the three generals shot into the air, surrounding him at close range in a triangular formation.

"Cursed brat! Who on earth are you?!" demanded the first general in a threatening tone.

"You are a general of the Divine Wind Empire and you don’t even know who stands before you?" replied Ethan, letting out a soft laugh. "I don’t know whether to think you’re an idiot or if your command failed to inform you so it would be easier for me to kill you."

The third general, keeping his guard up, narrowed his eyes and spoke in a cold voice:

"You must be the champion of the imperial tournament... How strange that you are stationed at this remote border. Did your Emperor decide to hand you over to us as a sacrifice?"

"Hand me over? Why would he do that?" retorted Ethan with disdain. "You are nothing more than a bunch of weaklings. Furthermore, instead of answering your nonsense, I would like to know how you took control of this base. Are there traitors within the Golden Dragon Empire?"

"You stand at the gates of hell and yet you act so haughty!" bellowed the first general, drawing a massive mana blade. "I don’t know if you are overly brave or simply foolish!"

"Before speaking so much...", Ethan said with a sinister glint in his eyes, "...you ought to turn around and look behind you."

Instinctively, the three generals whipped their heads around. To their horror, the dozens of warships from their fleet had halted in midair, aligning every single one of their heavy cannons directly at them.

Seized by panic, the three men tried to communicate through their tactical earpieces, screaming for explanations about what was happening aboard. Through the viewports of the command bridges, they could see the undead slaughtering the crew; yet, the vessels remained still and under absolute control, entirely oblivious to the internal chaos.

Crul had taken full control of the central system.

"What on earth is going on here?" barked one of the generals, his eyes wide with shock as he stared at the barrels of his ships pointed directly at his head.

"What does it look like to you?" Ethan replied with a calm, icy smile. "You are completely surrounded. I recommend you drop your weapons and surrender; additionally, you will swear upon your souls to serve me until your very last breath."

"You are a raving lunatic if you think we, Generals of the Great Divine Wind Empire, will submit to a brat like you!" roared the central general, his mana exploding into an emerald flare.

"A pity," whispered Ethan, narrowing his eyes.

[Crul... fire at will.]

Before the three men could even finish channeling their domains, dozens of warships opened fire in unison. A deafening torrent of hyper-concentrated mana beams tore through the air, converging precisely on the spot where the three generals hovered.

The impact illuminated the entire Great Desert as if it were mid-day. The spiritual barriers of the three Dao Transcendence experts—already cracked from the prior Rhino collision—shattered and collapsed within seconds under the combined firepower of their fleet.

When the explosions finally subsided and the smoke cleared, Ethan’s necrotic mist rapidly descended upon their broken, mangled bodies before they could fully perish, binding their dying souls into the pact of the Orb of Death.

Three new Dao Transcendence shadows knelt in midair before their new master.

Welcome to your new home...