Chapter 130: All of you… Die. One by One

In a vast expanse of space underground, where thousands of identical pods were laid out in rows and columns, beeping softly to prove there was life in the majority of them, the area was now crowded and heated with several people and factions clashing in the narrow pathways.

It was chaos, and every now and then, a body fell lifelessly and disappeared from the spot like they were never there. Some others were gravely injured or completely exhausted or out of mana, but they didn’t dare pause for a step, as hesitation could only mean certain death in the hall where one was surrounded by different enemies who were all against each other, and your nearest comrade was out of reach.

Bang—!

The sharp crack of a gunshot rang out, and before that could be registered, another had already rang out from another location, until Cici couldn’t cope anymore and had to slide down the nearest pod to catch her breath, while Aria was forced to abandon her long-ranged weapon and settle for a pair of recurve blades.

Yelena had just performed a chain strike, taking down thirteen men in an instant, when a clean blade strike suddenly cut at her from the side, and she sidestepped just in time to see a familiar katana phase through her lashes. She immediately leaped back towards Lindsey, whose hands were already full behind her, as she glared at the new opponent that had arrived.

It was a cyan-haired woman who turned out to be her anonymous employer.

Apparently, the Empress had set her up to kill two birds with one stone. Unlike their previous encounter, she wasn’t alone this time and had come with the stronghold’s elite strike squad.

Meanwhile, Black Rose, on the other hand, had gotten wind of Stronghold 3’s unauthorized movements, so she used Stronghold 8 to throw a bait at the infamous Crimson Purple. But it was the moment she saw the explosion from afar that she knew the mission had to be serious for even Kaelen Cross to be there. That was her cue to move in even before she was alerted, and on seeing what was hidden inside the underground facility—a whole hibernating race of a legendary civilization—she was beyond shocked.

Her reason for becoming the Empress was to get all this knowledge, but no matter how hard she dug, she couldn’t find anything worth the effort, and only came to realize now the base of operations for the shady activities going on across the strongholds wasn’t the capital. It was Stronghold 3 all along.

Even before her presence, Governor Felix had refused to pull back and even hinted at having to go the extra mile if she didn’t pull back herself. So she ordered their arrest, which turned into a bloody battlefield.

Her question now was, if everyone was here for the founder of the constellation, Lady Jessica Cross... then where was Kaelen?

If he was—

"I found her!"

Someone suddenly screamed from somewhere in the battlefield, and everyone instantly stopped what they were doing to snap their heads in the direction where a Stronghold 3 warrior was standing before an open pod which could only hold none other than the founder.

Simultaneously, both Aria, Yelena, and Black Rose’s eyes widened in shock. The latter snapped her head towards Governor Felix, who’d been casually sitting on a pod as he watched the battlefield with a lack of interest, and the man happened to steal a glance at her, before his lips curled up in a faint smile as he stood up.

But before anyone could take a step forward—

Bam—!

The head of the man standing before the open pod suddenly flew into the air, swirling wildly in the air, till it dropped to the floor and rolled across the floor.

Everyone who’d frozen at that moment slowly shifted their gaze towards the man’s body, which was still standing, before it slowly dropped to its knees and slumped on the ground, disintegrating into the air.

Now standing behind the dead man was a handsome man with shoulder-length hair, who slowly dropped his foot back on the floor.

The eyes of everyone in the room instantly widened in shock.

"I-Is that...?"

"D-Did he just use his foot to take off someone’s head?!"

’Kaelen... you’re finally here,’ Black Rose and Yelena thought simultaneously.

’That man, what is he doing?’ Aria mused to herself with a frown. ’Why did he just attack his own people, and why... does everyone look scared of him?’

Kaelen ran his cold eyes across the vast hall, taking in the sights of the hibernating pods, before he lowered his gaze at his mother’s unconscious body.

He slowly exhaled as he closed the pod back, before he looked up at the factions surrounding him.

"It seems my silence has been mistaken for weakness. To think any of you would dare to lay a hand on my mother... unforgivable. None of you shall leave this place alive. I’ll kill all of you, and if that isn’t enough... then I don’t mind doing the Akkadians a favor by wiping out a good number of your population."

Everyone’s eyes widened in surprise and disbelief.

’W-What is he talking about? Why did he just call my mother his own mother? Why isn’t anyone surprised by this?’ Aria felt her mind go blank as she glared at Kaelen with an ugly expression.

Clap... clap... clap...

Someone suddenly began clapping, and everyone’s head snapped to see it was Governor Felix clapping with an amused smile.

"Wow... you’re not just good at breaking things. You also have a way with words that makes your enemies feel the chills down their spines," Felix said with exhilaration, before he snapped his head towards his men, a dangerous glint flashing across his eyes.

"What, aren’t y’all clapping as well? Are you looking down on my idol?" he asked coldly.

Almost immediately, his men scattered across the room began clapping their hands at Kaelen like he’d just delivered a groundbreaking speech on industrial evolution.

"Stop," Felix called out, and it stopped at once.

"Kaelen Cross, last time we saw, I’m sure you tried to peer into my evolution realm to access my strength, and probably couldn’t because you realized I was at least ten evolution realms above you."

His revelation dropped like a gas bomb in the room. Everyone was fully aware of the Governor’s strength even though they’d never witnessed him fight before. But if even the infamous Kaelen Cross was nowhere near his level, the true monster in the room was Governor Felix.

"You don’t seem to have changed much," Felix continued like it was nothing. "So I’m curious, how do you intend to kill all of us exactly?" He asked with a wide grin. "You and what army? And oh, I killed your pet dragon already and all your minions. What are you going to do now?"

’The supreme elder dragon is dead?’ Kaelen mused to himself in surprise. He was too caught up with his mother that he had disregarded every notification that came in and probably missed it.

Not like it changed anything, because from the start, Kaelen had always been playing hardcore. Because if he wasn’t, he could always win his battles ninety percent of the time with a single word.

"All of you... Die. One by one."

Spark—

This time around, it wasn’t a single snap that broke through the void. They came in a chain of series of recurring snaps that didn’t just create a spark in the void.

The light sparks ignited in a tongue of fire in the void, and almost immediately, all the entities in the void snapped their heads towards a lone light in the distance.