The asteroid belt of the X-311 system was a jagged halo of frozen rock and precious ores, stretching for millions of kilometers. It was a graveyard for dead moons and, if Kaelen Voss had his way, it was about to become the final resting place for the Aeon Emperor's 7th Vanguard Fleet.
Inside the bridge of the Blood-Hawk, Kaelen sat in a state of cold, calculated focus. Beside him, a holographic projection of the star system showed twelve massive "Galaxy-Class" Destroyers emerging from Dark Space. They were golden, shaped like elongated spearheads, and pulsed with the arrogant light of the Multiversal Origin Realm.
"Aria, status of the Shadow-Wings," Kaelen commanded.
[TEN THOUSAND LIFE-SIGNATURES DETECTED WITHIN THE ASTEROID SHADOWS, MASTER. THEY ARE IN 'DEEP-HIBERNATION' MODE. THEIR GENETIC ENERGY IS MASKED BY THE COLD TEMPERATURES OF THE ROCKS.]
"And the Chimera?"
[THE VOID-THUNDER EMPEROR IS POSITIONED ON ASTEROID 'GOLIATH-4.' HE IS READY TO TRIGGER THE RESONANCE.]
Kaelen looked at the lead Destroyer, the Aeon's Pride. On its bridge would be a Void Space God—a rank higher than Universe Master, but lower than Kaelen's former True God status. To the current Kaelen, a Void Space God was a mountain he had to climb. But Kaelen didn't need to climb the mountain if he could make the mountain collapse under its own weight.
"Engage," Kaelen whispered.
The Ambush of the Void-Legion
The vacuum of space, usually silent, erupted in a psychic scream.
From the shadows of a thousand asteroids, the Shadow-Wings awakened. These weren't mere animals; they were biological stealth fighters. Their scales, evolved through Kaelen's Space-Law essence, allowed them to "glide" through the fabric of space itself. They didn't fly; they blinked in and out of existence.
On the Aeon's Pride, alarms blared.
"Commander! Multiple biological signatures detected! They're... they're inside our defensive perimeter!"
"Impossible!" the Commander roared, his Void Space aura flaring. "Scan for cloaking devices!"
"It's not tech, sir! It's... it's beasts!"
The Shadow-Wings slammed into the golden hulls of the Destroyers. They didn't use claws; they used Localized Gravity Bursts. By landing on the hull and rapidly increasing their mass to ten thousand tons, the Shadow-Wings acted like living armor-piercing shells.
The sound of metal groaning in a vacuum—transmitted through the vibration of the ship's internal atmosphere—filled the Destroyer's corridors. The Shadow-Wings tore through the external hangars, venting the Emperor's elite soldiers into the void before they could even reach their mechs.
"Fools," Kaelen muttered, watching the screen. "You brought ships to a soul-fight."
The Chimera's Wrath
As the Destroyers turned their heavy plasma batteries to incinerate the Shadow-Wings, the largest asteroid in the belt—Goliath-4—suddenly cracked open.
The Void-Thunder Chimera leaped from the rock, propelled by a burst of black lightning. In the Swallowed Star ranking, a Universe Level 5 beast was powerful, but against a Galaxy-Class fleet, it should have been overwhelmed.
However, Kaelen had taught the Chimera a secret: The Chain Resonance.
The Chimera's three heads roared in unison, sending a ripple of black energy through the asteroid belt. Every "Titan-Beetle" Kaelen had planted on the surrounding rocks began to vibrate. They acted as conductors, turning the entire asteroid belt into a massive, three-dimensional electrical circuit.
"Void-Thunder: Galactic Cage!"
A web of black lightning, thick as a starship's hull, snapped between the asteroids. The twelve Destroyers were caught in a planetary-scale spiderweb. Their shields, designed to stop physical projectiles and heat-based energy, were bypassed by the raw, chaotic "Void Energy" Kaelen had infused into his pets.
The Aeon's Pride shuddered as its main engines were short-circuited.
"Master," Aria reported, [THE ENEMY COMMANDER HAS EXITED HIS SHIP. HE IS ATTEMPTING TO TEAR THROUGH THE RESONANCE FIELD MANUALLY.]
The Confrontation
Kaelen stood up. "Stay here, Aria. Keep the beasts focused on the fleet. I have a message to deliver."
Kaelen stepped out of the Blood-Hawk and into the vacuum. With his Level 4 Star-Rank power augmented by the Space-Law fragment, he folded space and appeared ten kilometers away, directly in the path of the Enemy Commander.
The Commander was a towering figure in silver plate-armor, surrounded by a halo of white "Origin Energy." This was General Vane, a man who had helped burn Kaelen's capital eons ago.
Vane stopped, his eyes widening behind his visor. "That aura... No. It's impossible. You died in the Golden Sector. I saw your soul shatter!"
"The problem with souls, Vane," Kaelen said, his voice resonating through the vacuum via gravitational waves, "is that they are very hard to sweep up completely."
Vane laughed, though it sounded forced. "A Star-Rank? You think a Star-Rank, even one with your memories, can stand against a Void Space God? I will crush you and take your head to the Emperor for a second time!"
Vane raised his hand, and a blade of pure white light—three kilometers long—materialized in space.
"Origin Art: Heavens-Fall!"
The blade descended, moving so fast it bypassed the concept of speed. It was a strike that could cleave a small planet in half.
Kaelen didn't move. He didn't raise a shield. Instead, he reached into the Void-Shattering Pagoda in his soul and pulled out a single, rusted chain-link.
"Law of Gravity: Event Horizon."
Kaelen's Star-Core didn't just spin; it collapsed. For a microsecond, Kaelen turned himself into a Singularity.
The three-kilometer blade of light didn't hit Kaelen. As it entered his "Domain," it began to bend. The massive energy of a Void Space God was sucked into Kaelen's palm, swirling into a tiny, white marble.
Vane's jaw dropped. "You... you absorbed a God's strike?"
"Absorption is for beginners," Kaelen said, his eyes glowing with the terrifying blackness of the void. "I am swallowing your reality."
Kaelen flicked the marble back at Vane.
It wasn't just Vane's own energy; it was the energy of the 7th Fleet's reactors, which Kaelen had been "draining" through the Chimera's resonance web.
BOOM.
The explosion was silent, but it wiped out the light of the distant sun for a few seconds. When the light cleared, General Vane was gone. His armor, his body, and his Void-Space soul had been erased, converted into raw Genetic Energy that Kaelen now inhaled like a cool breeze.
[RANK UP: STAR RANK - LEVEL 8... 9... 10!]
[PEAK STAR RANK REACHED. EVOLUTION TO 'UNIVERSE RANK' IS NOW POSSIBLE.]
Kaelen looked at the remnants of the 7th Fleet. Without their leader, the Destroyers were being torn apart by the Shadow-Wings and the Titan-Beetles. It wasn't a battle; it was a feeding frenzy.
"Master," Aria's voice came through. [WE HAVE CAPTURED THE ENEMY'S DATA-CORE. THE AEON EMPEROR HAS NOT JUST SENT THIS FLEET. HE HAS PLACED A MULTIVERSAL BOUNTY ON YOUR SOUL. EVERY MERCENARY IN THE GANWU KINGDOM IS NOW LOOKING FOR 'THE VOID-EATER.']
Kaelen watched a Shadow-Wing tear the bridge off a Destroyer.
"Good," Kaelen said. "The more hunters they send, the more food my army will have. And the more energy I will have to reach the Godly King rank."
He looked toward Planet X-311, which was now glowing with a strange, violet light.
"The appetizers are finished," Kaelen murmured. "It's time for the main course. Aria, prepare the ritual. I'm going into the planet's core. I'm not just becoming a Universe-Rank warrior today... I'm becoming the planet itself."