Legacy of the Void Fleet

Kael spoke with a sense of urgency, and on that moment letting a few attacks hit him as he watched the beam of heavy, destructive energy racing toward the planet, unobstructed.

”Make a choice, and be quick, Master Kael, or you won’t have the last laugh—the Minotaurs will,” Dark Blade intruded. The AI forced Kael to look at the Minotaur fleet again; he saw a couple of them jumping into warp space, followed quickly by many others.

Though he was angry at this completely unexpected and new development—something Kael never thought would have any chance of happening—he rightfully ignored such a move and never considered it at all.

After all, throughout the war, be it here or in other star systems with different battle fleets whose reports he had heard, Minotaurs had never taken any desperate measures.

If anything, when realizing their own lack of strength, they chose to run away at the first chance—though, yes, they were not succeeding in that for obvious reasons.

And yet here, somehow his maneuvers had pushed the Minotaurs into such a corner that they were able to take such desperate measures against him.

Although he wanted—he really wanted—to go and crush those Minotaurs and prevent them from fleeing this star system, he knew he couldn’t do that. For if he went for them, he would lose one valuable resource that the Void Empire needed for its expansion, not in the far future, but in just a few mere months.

He couldn’t let that natural habitable planet be destroyed just to chase and kill these Minotaurs. Though they were mere playthings, he should have known better—that even a rabbit bites when pushed into a corner, much less a race with less sentience, but a sentient race nonetheless.

In the end, he sighed and looked at the Minotaur fleet as it disappeared second by second, entering warp space. ”You Minotaurs have played a good game on me indeed... you have played me well.” A look of resignation and helplessness crossed his face. Even though he suffered a ”defeat” when it should have been his victory—and a complete, overwhelming one at that—he knew there was no use regretting it.

What was done was done. Kael shrugged it off; though it was hard, he wasn’t someone to be held back by such a small setback. He turned his focus toward the attack heading for the habitable planet called PW-1 (Prime World) at breakneck speed. It would strike in no more than thirty seconds.

Slowly, his mana began to cycle through his body, releasing into the air until it covered the entire cockpit of his mech. Just as quickly, his own superior mana surrounded, covered, and overlapped with the Dark Blade’s own unique power source: an Origin Mana Stone.

Kael’s own unleashed, superior divine sense covered almost a light year and a half of space. Slowly, within this affected area, time began to slow down compared to the space outside of his sphere of influence.

While Kael’s own time accelerated, he pushed Dark Blade’s power in tandem with his own to its absolute limit—the first time he had done so since stepping onto the battlefield with the mech. Expertly controlling Dark Blade, he maneuvered through the line of ships, destroying those in his direct path. The vast energy field surrounding Dark Blade acted like a sharpened drill in the universe, boring directly through the enemy lines.

As he moved, Kael didn’t forget to leave a few ”gifts” for the Minotaurs. He quickly intercepted the trajectory of the massive beam of pure, destructive energy. Passing through the wake of the attack, he positioned himself a few hundred kilometers from the targeted planet, blocking the direct line of sight of the incoming strike.

He watched the attack coming at him in slow motion. Similarly, at a crawling speed, he saw the Minotaur ships attempting to transition into warp space—though they couldn’t actually complete the transition because of the slow-time field he had created.

Anyway, he didn’t think much more about such pointless matters before concluding his retreat. I really should have been more serious from the start instead of playing around. If I hadn’t been, would they still be alive and able to run away? Would they have been able to leave this trouble for me? Never!

But whatever happened, next time would be different. I’ll show no mercy, nor will I play games. I will show them what true terror is, so they can never even conceive of such a plan against me again. Ever.

As he spoke, he expertly controlled Dark Blade, reaching its right arm out into the void of space. A massive, futuristic rifle manifested in Dark Blade’s giant, dark metallic hands. The size of the rifle was double that of Dark Blade itself (which, if remembered correctly, stood almost 100 meters in height alone). The design was exaggerated and colossal; its sheer scale was...

The rifle was so massive that Kael had to quickly move Dark Blade’s other arm to hold onto it, looking a bit awkward in the process. Internally, Kael was more than a little embarrassed by the moment.

Ugh, why is it so big and heavy?! Damn it! he complained to himself. Those mad Imperial researchers and developers... they only told me about the capabilities of this weapon. They never mentioned the weight! Those people... don’t they know it could be dangerous in a sudden situation? It completely caught me off guard. Damn them!

Inside the cockpit, Dark Blade’s spirit floated silently. If it had a face, it would have looked like a person rendered completely speechless. It seemed to be saying: ”Dude... can you be more realistic with your excuses? I mean, who even pulls out a rifle like that in the middle of a close-quarters battle, huh? Only an idiot would do that. So, are you telling me you’re that idiot? Right? Right?”

Kael had no idea these thoughts were swirling inside his ”ever-so-loyal” Dark Blade. If he had known, he probably would have coughed up a few drops of blood in pure frustration or even tripped over his own feet.

Oh well. Quickly shaking off the awkwardness with a cough, Kael became serious again—or at least, he pretended to be.

Staring at the incoming beam of light, he began to channel his own mana in tandem with Dark Blade’s energy. Simultaneously, he had Dark Blade pull mana from the surroundings, channeling it all toward the massive rifle he was holding.

An intense power surge began to glow across the rifle’s barrel and its entire frame. A cyclone of energy formed at the tip—predominantly blue, but with a distinct hint of red swirling within the vortex.

When Kael felt the weapon was sufficiently charged and ready to be unleashed for the first time since its creation, he braced himself. ”Well, here we go. Cheers to the inauguration of this new weapon,” he muttered, mimicking the exaggerated, boastful words of those mad researchers and developers back in the Soul Region. Despite his lingering doubts about their claims of its ”remarkable destructive power,” he controlled Dark Blade and pressed the trigger.

As he fired, Kael withdrew his time field. A massive beam of light erupted, its path spiraling with blue energy and tipped with a piercing crimson heat.

Both attacks met head-on in the midst of space. There was a massive BOOM—and though no sound truly exists in the void, the impact produced a vibration that seemed to shake the universe itself.

Kael kept powering his mana, drawing more and more energy from his surroundings with ease. He continued to flood the rifle with power, making his beam grow more ferocious with every boost. After a couple of seconds, his attack easily countered and began to push back against the strike from the Minotaurs’ Star Fortress Cannon.

It was a sight visible to many: the Minotaurs who remained, and even those who had already fled, watched with bated breath. They saw their most powerful attack—one launched from a massive fortress—being slowly shoved back by a single, relatively tiny mech.

In no time, Kael’s beam pushed the Star Cannon’s energy all the way back to the fortress. It struck the shields, crushing them effortlessly, and hammered into the hull of the Star Fortress without a problem.

In no time, with the massive effort of Kael—who was continuously pouring his energy into making the highly destructive condensed plasma even stronger—he was able to push the Minotaur Star Fortress star destroyer cannon plasma beam attack back to its origin.

Back on the Star Fortress, Captain Chap—who for so long had held a superior attitude inherited from being a mech pilot (a special kind of cultivation method that, though it has great power, comes with even greater disadvantages)—turned and gawked. He watched as the most powerful attack the fortress he commanded could produce was being pushed back by an attack from a mech.

A mech of a hundred-meter size, fighting an attack produced by a behemoth like a Star Fortress of over 30 km in overall diameter.