(The skies of Juxta, Moments after the battle, Raymond's POV)

Raymond waited anxiously for Soron to show up after Charles died, his every heartbeat beating louder and louder, as he awaited the inevitable.

However, much to his surprise the minutes passed without Soron ever showing up, as despite him killing the Cult's Vice Sect Master, the expected revenge never came.

'What's going on here? Why is Soron not showing up to save his own people?'

Raymond wondered grimly, as he could not figure out the reason behind the delay?

"Hmm…. It seems like the ground offensive has also reached its conclusion."

He mused, as he swept his gaze across the battlefield below where the Cult's armies were in full retreat now, the surviving forces scurrying toward civilian cities in the wake of their military strongholds collapsing one after another.

The war was already decided— not by brilliance, nor by valor, but by sheer, grinding numbers.

But victory had not come without a price.

More than one hundred and twenty thousand Righteous Faction ships had been torn from the skies during the assault, their flaming wreckage raining down upon Juxta's soil like the falling pieces of a dying star.

Destroyers and frigates slammed into mountainsides, gouging valleys into the earth, while others crashed into the oceans, boiling waves into tsunamis of fire and steam.

However, as though the loss of materials and equipment was not bad enough, two Monarch Tier commanders and seven billion soldiers also laid dead, as they paid the ultimate price to capture this resource poor planet.

For even in ruin, the Cult had extracted their toll….. The Righteous Victory at Juxta not coming easy at all, as it was only through overwhelming numbers that they somehow managed to achieve the impossible and capture the Cult Stronghold that had stood undefeated for over 6 centuries.

"Motherfuckers are sneaky and strong. I'll have to give them that.

They're not as numerous as us, but they have heart and they fight like ruthless beasts."

Raymond mused as he glanced at the plains below that were nothing more than open graves now where corpses laid strewn in twisted heaps, their blood soaking into the dirt until the earth itself seemed to weep scarlet.

Beside them, ruined cannons and shattered turrets smoldered in silence, their crews charred inside, while toppled artillery pieces pointed uselessly toward a sky they had failed to protect.

Military bases that once gleamed with banners of the Cult now burnt like carcasses, rooftops collapsing in on themselves as firestorms consumed everything from the mess halls to the sparring arena.

"What a mess…."

Raymond mused, as he descended slowly through the haze, the acrid air filling his lungs, until his boots struck the rubble of a military base that no longer resembled anything but ash and ruin.

"My Lord, the survivors are retreating into civilian areas. What are we supposed to do next?" A righteous faction Lieutenant asked, his voice steady, as he kept his head bowed.

*Click*

Raymond clicked his tongue in irritation.

He knew the universal codes of war, knew the doctrine that civilians were not to be targeted in planetary captures. But standing here, amidst ruin and smoke, he felt his patience for such rules falter, as he decided to not give two shits about them today.

"Eh… who cares about this shitty planet?" Raymond muttered, his voice low, his eyes dark. "Bomb the heretics. Reduce the planet to rubble, don't spare any of them."

He commanded, as the Lieutenant froze, the poor man's eyes widening at the order, as he too realized that it was a violation of the Code Of War, but decided to suppress the look as quickly as it came.

"As you command, my Lord."

He said, as he gave the Demi God a deep bow before leaving.

—----------

Soon, Raymond's orders were relayed to all Righteous Faction soldiers, as high above, the remaining destroyers shifted formation, their cannons pointing downwards, as they opened fire on civilian cities.

*BOOOOOM*

*BOOOOOM*

*BOOOOOM*

Explosions rolled across the horizon, one after another, as entire districts were obliterated in blossoms of fire.

Streets filled with fleeing civilians were erased in an instant, as work offices were toppled, markets shattered, and houses of the common man turned into molten ash, with innocent mothers clutching onto their children inside these fiery graves.

The bombardment stretched on for hours, the night sky above Juxta painted in streaks of fire, until there was nothing left but a bleeding husk of stone.

For hours the common civilians prayed for Soron to come save them.

Prayed for the Dragons to show up.

Yet despite their desperate pleas for help, nobody came to save them today, as in the end, they were all wiped out by the ruthless victors.

The planet that had once been a proud jewel of the Cult of Ascension was soon reduced to nothing but ruin filled with broken cities, charred corpses, and craters, as only then did the firing finally stop.

Yet even then, when Soron failed to show up, Raymond simply scoffed and ordered for the planet to be disintegrated as a whole, as he finally caught on to the fact that perhaps Soron was not within Cult lands.

"Perhaps I'm lucky today…. Perhaps I shall live to see another day."

He mused, as he left the planet aboard a destroyer, while his men stayed back to finish the job.

Twenty or so odd hours later, the Righteous Faction's engineers reached Juxta's molten core and destabilized it, the planet convulsing under its own death throes as the crust cracked and split apart.

Entire continents sheared away in silence, swallowed by fire from beneath, while mountains collapsed into oceans that boiled into vapor before they too were torn into the void.

Moments later, Juxta gave its last breath, exploding outward in a storm of stone and flame, until nothing remained but drifting rubble scattered across the dark, as the once-proud world was reduced to nothing more than space rock and memory alone.

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