Chapter 544: Explosion

The transport shuttle glided through the orbital debris field as the massive outer space station of Jupiter came into full view. Rin piloted the craft past a line of automated cargo haulers and aligned their trajectory with the primary docking ring.

Kylus's massive dreadnought sat anchored in the distance at one of the heavy refueling docks, dwarfing the surrounding commercial vessels with its heavy armor plating.

The comms console on the dashboard chimed loudly. Reva's face appeared on the holographic display, illuminated by the neon lights of a station promenade behind her.

"Everyone from Kylus's crew went on a break," Reva said over the channel. "His ship is getting a full inspection and a complete refueling from the station engineers. Requiem, Iria, Viola, Lyra, and I are sitting inside a restaurant right now. The little demon was complaining about being absolutely starving, so we stopped to get her some actual food."

Xavier leaned forward in his seat and rested his arms on his knees. "Did the Strider arrive from Angel's engineering team?"

"It just docked at the private bays on the upper ring," Reva confirmed while taking a sip from a glass. " Kylus said he wanted to check it out since you were praising it so much. We are waiting for you to get here so we can all board it together."

"I am almost there," Xavier said. "Finish your food and head toward the upper ring. I will meet you at the airlock."

Before Reva could disconnect the call, another transmission patched directly into the shuttle's feed. Kylus's face appeared on a secondary holographic screen.

He was looking down at a data-pad displaying the exact dimensions and schematics of the Helion Forge A-92 Strider that had just arrived at the station.

"That ship is entirely too small for someone of my status," Kylus complained with a frown. "I am absolutely not boarding some ancient relic to fly across the galaxy. You should ditch that rusted piece of junk right now and just use my ship. My dreadnought is the best vessel in this entire sector, and it is already upgraded and equipped with everything we could ever need for a conquest."

Xavier stared at the holographic projection of the arrogant former noble and let out an amused laugh.

"My ship is the perfect size for the exact number of people in my crew," Xavier replied. "A massive dreadnought is just a massive pain in the ass to deal with on a daily basis. You cannot even park your oversized ship at a standard port without paying off half the orbital authority, and you always have to anchor it miles away from the actual surface whenever we need to make a landing. We are taking the Strider."

"I am royalty," Kylus muttered while crossing his arms on the screen. "I require proper legroom."

"You will sit in the co-pilot chair and you will like it," Xavier told him before cutting the transmission entirely.

Kylus kept talking from the holographic display while leaning back in his luxurious chair. "My dreadnought possesses triple-layered void shielding and hyper-drives custom-built by the wealthiest engineers in the core systems. It has an armory capable of leveling a small moon, a fully staffed culinary deck, and the targeting systems are entirely unmatched by any piece of scrap flying around this sector."

He opened his mouth to boast about the artillery cannons, but a blinding flash of violet light suddenly erupted outside the transport shuttle's viewport. A massive barrage of concentrated plasma beams tore out of the deep space above the station and descended directly onto Kylus's anchored dreadnought from every conceivable angle.

The triple-layered void shielding Kylus had just bragged about shattered instantly under the overwhelming bombardment. The heavy armor plating of the colossal ship buckled and melted as secondary explosions ripped through the entire hull.

Within a matter of seconds, the pride of Kylus's fleet detonated into a spectacular sphere of expanding fire and shattered metal, looking like nothing more than a cluster of cheap fireworks burning against the dark backdrop of Jupiter.

Xavier, Rin, and Klatos stared through the reinforced viewport in absolute shock while the violent destruction illuminated the shuttle's cabin. On the secondary holographic screen, Kylus's face had gone completely pale as he watched his multi-billion-credit vessel turn into floating ash, his jaw hanging wide open in sheer disbelief.

The fiery wreckage drifted apart, and the vessel responsible for the orbital strike finally emerged from the absolute blackness of space. It was a ridiculously massive galactic dreadnought forged entirely in the shape of a colossal mechanical dragon.

The metallic beast dwarfed the entire orbital station, featuring massive articulated wings lined with glowing thrusters and a terrifying draconic head armed with heavy siege cannons inside its open maw.

Rin gripped the hilt of his sword tightly as he looked at the monstrous vessel. "Is that the Vanguard Fleet of the Demonic Society?"

Klatos shook his head while leaning heavily against the passenger console. "The Demonic Society constructs their heavy dreadnoughts to look like twisted horns or monstrous skulls, and they would never fly a ship modeled after a dragon."

The shuttle's long-range optics automatically zoomed in on the side of the Draconic dreadnought, displaying a massive golden crest emblazoned across the dark hull. It depicted a winged serpent coiled tightly around a burning star. Klatos, Rin, and Kylus all froze completely upon seeing the emblem, their eyes widening in a mixture of awe and absolute terror.

Xavier frowned at the projection because he had absolutely no idea what the crest meant. "Who does that giant metal lizard belong to?"

"That is a symbol straight out of the ancient myths and legends," Klatos whispered while staring at the screen with genuine fear. "They are one of the original founding pillars of the galactic empire, and they actively participated in the great galactic war centuries ago before disappearing into the deep cosmos. That ship belongs to the Void Dragon Sovereigns."

"Oh… so… they are like the big shots." Xavier glanced at the screen at Kylus. "Looks like they didn't like Kylus' ship, so they blasted it."