590 A Victim's Dream of Safety (Part 2)

The once bustling flotilla had now come to a complete halt. In its core, a hole had formed. Bright and hot as the ships’ oxygen reserves burned out, then quiet and dark a moment later, leaving behind only a graveyard of bloated and burnt corpses and ship scraps.

Of the millions of people affected, only a handful had been lucky enough to survive the impact, and among them, only a fraction had the knowledge to survive the two or three seconds it would take for the cultivators to locate and rescue them. When the sphere of breathable atmosphere and healing essence was formed, for most of them, it was too late.

As the thousands of rescuers tried to help, ten times the number of cultivators had appeared, forming a protective net around the affected area. To lead them, the commander who, just a minute earlier, was engaged in a conversation with the Armada’s scientific team.

Next to the commander were several more individuals. All dressed in a similar military attire, yet clearly of a higher status. They observed their surroundings just like the commander, but they did so quietly, for their eyes leered into further depths of space.

“How did this happen..” the Commander muttered in an accusatory tone.

A middle-aged cultivator suddenly appeared in front of him. His burnt and ripped clothes revealed that he was part of the one of the crews that had been hit. As such, it was his and his peer’s job to protect the humans that inhabited those ships. His apologetic expression, however, was marked by a deep confusion. Whatever type of answer the commander was expecting, he wouldn’t have gotten it from him.

Before the commander could reprimand the cultivator for his failure, however, one of the other officers, a lean and tall old man with a military cut and unshaven white beard stopped him. “It was not his fault. My vessel was among the ships that were hit, yet I felt nothing. This was no simple attack.”

The Commander’s brows furrowed. “An attack? Admiral, we would have felt a cultivator’s essence fluctuation years before they even came close to the flotilla.. I-“pᴀɴᴅᴀ-ɴ0ᴠᴇʟ.ᴄᴏᴍ

“But there were none, I know, Okka.” The Admiral interjected. For the following minute, the old man and the other admirals remained quiet, trying to gather as much information as possible before the rescuers intervention erased any possible trace of the attacker. After several minutes, they regrouped. The first one to speak was the old man himself, who pointed his finger at an empty point in space and said, “The blast of the ships’ reaction cores has sent debris flying everywhere, but most of it is heading in that direction, so the attack came from that direction.”

A woman, tall and muscular, yet prouder than any of her peers, gathered her floating hair into a single horsetail as she added, “The meteors that hit us were devoid of any form of essence, which is consistent with a normal meteor shower, but something is very odd about all this.”

“What do you mean, Admiral?” Okka asked briefly after joining the group.

“First of all, we did not see it coming..” The woman explained with a matter-of-fact tone. “But more importantly, the size and shape of the meteors.. Nothing of it is consistent with naturally formed streams of cosmic debris. The few bodies that didn’t hit and broke from impact had jagged surfaces, which is odd for massive rocks that supposedly traveled the universe for who knows how many years.”

The other admirals nodded in agreement.

“These ‘meteors’ were detached from a planet, and thrown in our direction.. Possibly hidden behind a layer of dark and spatial essence, which covered their appearance and tail whilst curving light around it to make them completely invisible.” The first admiral added with a solemn tone.

“What does it mean, admiral?” Okka asked, unsure whether he wanted to hear the answer to that question. pᴀɴᴅᴀ ɴ0ᴠᴇʟ

The old admiral did not leave commander Okka waiting. “It means that we were not the first ones to find this universe.. And that we aren’t welcome.” As he finished speaking, the admiral turned to look towards the direction he had guessed the attack had come from.

In the distance, countless stars radiated with colorful and warm lights. In both his eyes and the eyes of his companions, one could see the fire of defiance. This universe was one in several thousands.. Possibly the last one they would ever encounter which would fulfill all requirements to create a habitat protected by warmongering deities and the sycophants that follow them. If his guess was correct, and they weren’t alone in this universe, then they would fight for it.

“Intercepting the flotilla with such precision means that we were being observed.. and since we haven’t been here long, our opponent shouldn’t be too far away.” The admiral explained before turning to commander Okka. He then ordered, “Send two recon units. Scout the systems for signs of advanced life, but do not engage. Find whoever it was that sent that warning shot and report back to me directly.”

“Sir, should I inform the Warlord?” Commander Okka inquired.

“Not yet. We will, as soon as we get a clear idea of who we are facing. Let him cultivate in peace until then.” The Admiral responded before turning to look at the ship graveyard one last time. “Don’t forget to assess the damage. Whoever did this to us will be held responsible.”

“Yessir.” Okka exclaimed just before the admirals disappeared, leaving him to handle the outcome of what had just happened.

Despite the initial shock, Okka was able to maintain his calm. Be it because of the authority of the admirals, or because of the events of the past century, he couldn’t tell.. But such a massacre had been a common sight in the other universes the Immortal Armada had mapped. Had it not been for the past two years of peace, Okka would have barely batted an eye at the sight of such an attack, and wouldn’t have lost his composure. ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕꪫꪣꫀ ꪶ

“What is the count?” He asked a young cultivator who appeared to be in his late twenties, but whose cultivation at the high immortal stage revealed a far longer lifespan.

pᴀɴᴅᴀ-ɴ0ᴠᴇʟ The young cultivator summoned a report, and immediately began to read through it, “Eight thousand and thirty six civilian vessels and about half the number military ships. Among the former, a thousand eighty farm ships, six thousand colony ships, five hundred carr-“

Okka stopped him. “The body count..”

Already aware that that was the number the commander had originally asked for, the young cultivator’s lips pressed together for a moment. His head shook as he read the astronomical number. “Four million, sir. Most of them being.. mortals.”

This number reached Okka’s ears as simply as it was uttered, yet, it did not leave as quickly. Instead, it was branded in the commander’s mind. His hands clenched into fists. Had it not been for his cultivation, his slightly long fingernails would have drawn blood. Like the admirals, he wanted to find the beings responsible for it, and make them feel the weight of the lives they had taken.

Oddly invigorated by hearing the grim report, Okka turned towards the thousands of cultivators who, at some point, had approached him. Among them, he could recognize the young cultivator in scientist attire with whom, just a few seconds ago, he was having a peaceful meeting.

“Mobilitate recon team four and six. I want them to map the systems within a three degree cone in that direction.” He ordered a middle aged man before turning towards a second individual. “Inform the captains of every dreadnought class, I want the reserves and anyone with some degree of understanding of spatial essence to report to the scavenging division. You will support them in looking for spatial treasures. The rest of the military ships are to form a honeycomb barrier on the side the attack came from. Keep position and distance, and pay attention to objects shrouded in dark essence.”

“The support team, make a census of the victims and spread it to the other sh-“

—–

Not too far from the Immortal Armada, a pair of devilish red eyes appeared. Their color, bright and vivid, stood in stark contrast with the darkness of space, but nothing seemed to be attached to them. Only a shadow that, with every blink, turned the two red lights on and off.

The pair of red eyes were aimed at the patch of space from which it had just escaped from. An area that, for the last two years, had been inhabited by the Immortal Armada. There, from the safety of their ships, the cultivators patrolled, scavenged, explored, and made plans for a universe that did not belong to them.

Despite lacking a face one could read, the deep hatred the shadow felt towards this invading force was easy to spot. Receiving a mission that could bring them pain was nothing but an opportunity to him, and he had completed it with pride.

“You can divert your eyes. We have succeeded this time, but they won’t fall for the same trick twice. They may be greedy, but they are not stupid.” Said a second silhouette which, without making a single noise, had appeared next to the shadow.

This silhouette was very different from the first one. It was humanoid and clear, but possessed no human feature. As transparent as glass, the silhouette reflected, curved and trapped light only to release it immediately after, giving itself a multicolored glow some mortals would only expect to see figures in the most holy of their religious figures.

Irritated by the words of the iridescent man, the pair of dark red eyes narrowed. “We could have gotten all of them! Their kin doesn’t heed warnings!!” The shadow barked angrily.

“We have our orders. We already did as much damage as our personal interpretation of them allowed us to, so don’t push it.” The iridescent man before suddenly turning towards the direction the two had just escaped from. His companion followed suit. “Already??.. We need to go, now!” He blurted out in a hurry.

As he finished speaking, the red-eyed shadow closed his eyes, and merged into the darkness of space. The iridescent man, on the other hand, stood still. The surface of his body stopped reflecting and caging light, focusing on curving it around his body before sending it in its original path in front of him. The shiny luster rapidly disappeared as he became an intangible part of his surroundings.

Not a moment later, in the space the two entities occupied appeared six bright lights, which darted past like comets of incandescent metal. As most of them disappeared in the distance, however, one came to a halt, revealing itself as a cultivator shrouded in light armor and dark essence. “Stop!” He shouted to his companions, who traced back their steps and joined him soon after.

“What did you sense?” asked a young-looking woman dressed in a similar attire.

The first person to stop, a black-haried man in his early thirties, scanned his surroundings with a pair of tired, yet lively blue eyes. “Voices, movement.. Two people were standing here, talking, then disappeared.” He muttered in a low tone, almost as if speaking to himself, or thinking out loud.

“Are you sure? I can’t feel any fluctuation.. We would be able to sense it if someone had left in a hurry, or opened a rift.” The puzzled young woman inquired.

While not extremely powerful, the young woman and her companions belonged to the recon unit of the Immortal Armada. Powerful cultivators in their own rights who descended from ancient explorers of their universe of origin.. Had someone been there not too long ago, she had the confidence and skills to believe she would not have failed to feel their presence.

The black-haired scout did not doubt the young woman’s ability. However, his skills were special. What he had felt was an extremely rare anomaly that only him within the team would be able to perceive. “It wasn’t a cultivator’s essence that I felt, but the essence of darkness.”

The young woman appeared confused. To be used, dark essence needed to be produced by a cultivator’s spiritual or immortal essence. For his companion to have felt a fluctuation of natural dark essence, was impossible.. Unless.. Suddenly, something clicked.

A connection formed in the minds of the black-haired man, the young woman, and the rest of their companions. Not a dark construct, but pure darkness that moved with intent and disappeared without leaving traces.. “A dark elemental.” muttered the black-haired man under his breath.

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