Chapter 2471: Peace?

"...You’re mine."

"....?" Marlik furrowed his brows slightly as he stared at Renara, seemingly needing a moment to properly process what she had just said to his face. "I’ve never felt an insult like this before."

"But that’s easily solved." He then raised his hand without taking his eyes off her, preparing to give the order to attack and bring the enormous force behind him crashing forward. "Hedrick will come out after I mutilate your corpse a little."

"As much as I’d like to start the battle too, wait a moment." Renara raised her hand and pointed toward the followers of the Council of Thrones standing farther to the side. "And ask them why more blood hasn’t been spilled between us over the past three years."

"...?" Keeping his hand raised in place, Marlik glanced to the side toward the group she had indicated, his expression immediately becoming even more unpleasant. "Is there a reason other than the fact that you’re useless eunuchs?"

"....!!" The leader of the Council of Thrones expedition audibly ground his teeth the instant those words reached him, the veins in his eyes beginning to turn red from sheer anger as he struggled to suppress the fury rising inside him.

He had genuinely hoped the battle would begin without him having to reveal that information at all; he wanted nothing more than to stand back and see Marlik humiliated at Renara’s hands after they themselves had experienced her terrifying strength more than once and knew exactly what kind of opponent he was rushing toward... but that damned woman was the one who brought the matter up herself!

"Hoo..." The man let out a long, deep breath in an attempt to calm himself and force down his anger, then finally spoke loudly enough for the surrounding Dominators to hear him clearly. "There is a ten-year agreement to cool things down between Lord Helmor the Destroyer and Lord Robin."

He continued without changing his expression, "The agreement doesn’t include withdrawing from any Sector or establishing a complete truce between the two sides, but both sides are required to restrain themselves, refrain from making any major moves, and reduce the number of deaths as much as possible... The agreement also includes giving Lord Robin time to think. I don’t know exactly what he’s thinking about or what decision he’s supposed to reach during that time, but those are the instructions we received."

"What?!" Marlik immediately raised his voice, the hand he had been holding in the air still frozen before giving the attack order. "When did this bullshit happen, and why should we abide by something Helmor agreed to?!"

"It happened a few days after you crossed the buffer zone." The Council representative continued with an expressionless face, as though Marlik’s reaction had nothing to do with him. "And you will abide by it because the Tyrant Galaxy and the Council of Thrones have both agreed. We’re also confident that His Excellency the Archon will agree as well, but we haven’t been able to contact him directly. You’re the only one among us who can reach him."

"Tsk..." Marlik clicked his tongue and slowly turned his gaze away from the Council representative, looking back toward Renara once again. "Your master wants time to think, huh? He wants ten whole years to think about whether he’s ready to lick His Excellency the Archon’s shoe or not... That’s a long time to think about something so simple, don’t you think?"

"My master, Lord Robin, is probably thinking about whether he should simply kill all of you or involve you in something greater than yourselves." The killing intent in Renara’s eyes visibly doubled as she spoke, her gaze remaining firmly fixed on Marlik. "I don’t know exactly what he’s planning or what conclusion he’ll eventually reach... but I’m bound by what was agreed upon."

"Hmm..." Marlik began lowering his raised hand extremely slowly, his movements becoming strangely calm compared to his previous impatience. "Compliance is obligatory as long as the great ones have agreed." Yet even as those words left his mouth, Marlik’s gaze gradually transformed until nothing remained in it but pure rage.

At that moment, he could almost see the sole of Robin’s foot, covered in mud and beast dung, descending directly onto his face and pressing down on him again.

In fact, he saw that same sight every day, every hour, every moment, refusing to disappear no matter how much time passed.

"...But my superior didn’t agree." Marlik suddenly slammed his hand downward with tremendous force, completing the motion he had stopped moments earlier. "Kill them!!"

Da— Daaam

The Syndicate’s Dominators immediately moved in response to the order, all of them charging forward at once in complete disorder, their enormous numbers surging toward the opposing side without any unified arrangement between them.

"Hmph!!" Kiryan, Zavaros, Gravor, and Arkail all raised their weapons almost simultaneously and advanced alongside their children, but unlike the chaotic charge coming toward them, every group moved forward in clearly defined formations that had already established their positions.

There were separate formations among the members of each individual group, while at the same time a much larger overarching formation linked all four groups together, allowing them to advance as separate forces without losing the greater structure connecting them.

Behind them, Kaylis spread her children out across the rear of the four formations to act as direct support for all of them; anyone who needed morale, healing, drive, or clarity during the battle would receive the appropriate Minor Purity Laws, while anyone who was forced to fall back and required more direct assistance would immediately be supported by the wild purification laws.

Behind them, Glatheon and the others advanced as well, with every ten of them gathering into a single team before beginning to move according to their assigned role. Their task was to circle around the enemy ranks, strike them from behind whenever the opportunity appeared, and open up chokepoints wherever necessary so that their far more numerous enemies wouldn’t be allowed to close around them and impose a complete encirclement.

Of course, all of this was taking place on the enormous scale of battles between Dominators, where even the distances separating the different parts of a single formation were measured according to the needs of beings fighting at that level...

That tight formation among Zavaros’s children quickly began expanding as the battlefield opened around them, until the distance between the first and the last of them became equivalent to an entire solar system, while even the distance separating each individual member of the support teams from the next was comparable to that between a planet and its moons.

In an instant, the battlefield underwent an explosive expansion in every direction, spreading across such an enormous area that the Dominators almost completely disappeared from sight despite their terrifying presence only moments earlier. Nothing could be heard anymore except the sounds of colossal impacts carried across the distance through surging energy, or the tremendous waves produced by those clashes could be felt as they struck the surrounding space and continued spreading outward.

Then the Nexus States and World Cataclysms rushed forward in a similar scene, spreading and colliding across the enormous battlefield in countless directions; like ants and bees suddenly released into the same vast space, the previously quiet place transformed within moments into something that could only be described as organized chaos, where everything appeared disorderly at first glance despite the clear purpose behind every movement.

Bam Bam Bam

The cannons of hundreds of thousands of war vessels positioned behind Marlik also fired simultaneously, countless weapons unleashing their attacks at practically the same instant and transforming the previously dark sky into an enormous waterfall of light that seemed to pour forward toward the opposing side.

It was firepower capable of erasing hundreds of planets along with everything upon them, released together in a single overwhelming wave.

The World Cataclysms and Nexus States on both sides quickly began evacuating the area the moment that overwhelming firepower appeared, unwilling to fall prey to friendly fire while fighting their own opponents, and they spread out at terrifying speeds in every available direction, trying to avoid the cannon fire crossing the battlefield on one side while simultaneously evading the indirect strikes of the Guardians on the other.

Thus, after the powerful individuals rapidly cleared the main firing paths between the two sides, only the enormous numbers of vessels remained directly facing one another across the vast distance.

Zwooo Zwooo

The Nota-4 war vessels immediately began firing things resembling laser beams from extremely small cannons mounted along their sides, countless concentrated and rapid red shots racing forward with remarkable precision to target the centers of the incoming projectiles and destroy them from within. The destruction that struck one projectile would, in turn, engulf another projectile beside it and cause that one to explode as well, which would then affect another nearby projectile, continuing onward through the densely packed attack wave in an expanding chain of destruction~

Amid that rapidly spreading chain of destruction, and after the remaining enemy projectiles that had escaped the successive detonations had drawn extremely close, the main cannons of the Nota-4 vessels finally began firing.

BOOOOOOOOOOM

Shots composed of fire, lightning, frost, corrosive clouds, and even spheres of gravity and time erupted from the main cannons and rushed directly toward what remained of the incoming attack.

Three thousand Nota-4 fleets unleashed their full firepower at the exact same moment, releasing everything they had prepared into the approaching wave.

DOOOOM

What remained of the first attack wave was dispersed in a colossal explosion as the two masses of firepower collided, followed immediately by an overwhelming radiance as though an enormous sun had suddenly been born between the two armies, while the attack wave unleashed by the three thousand Nota fleets was also neutralized in that same tremendous collision.

On the other side, there were more than 45,000 fleets that couldn’t understand how or why the overwhelming attack they had just unleashed together had been neutralized by only 3,000 fleets standing against them, and as they stared at the enormous radiance left behind by the collision, fear gradually began flowing into their hearts... until they suddenly noticed something emerging from within that light.

Whoosh

From within the scorching radiance that still filled the space between the two sides, numerous projectiles suddenly emerged and raced toward them, having already crossed a considerable portion of the distance while concealed behind the aftermath of the previous collision.

The twenty thousand fleets positioned behind the Nota-4s hadn’t simply stood there watching the first exchange; they had unleashed everything they had in a second volley delayed by only a few seconds from the initial clash, and that seemingly insignificant delay had allowed their projectiles to avoid the enormous wave of destruction produced when the first attacks collided and continue on their way toward the enemy fleets!

"Scatter!!"

All the admirals shouted at practically the same time as they finally understood what was approaching them.

The 45,000 fleets immediately scattered in response, abandoning their previous positions and spreading apart as each took a different path out of fear of the incoming wave that none of them had anticipated when they launched their first attack.

Then the Nota fleets and the support fleets positioned behind them divided into numerous smaller swarms as well, each group immediately setting off after the scattered enemy forces, beginning an epic chase across an unimaginably enormous scale... so enormous that the pursuing fleets and those fleeing before them began disappearing from sight in the blink of an eye as the battlefield rapidly spread farther and farther away.

Silence~

Beside the buffer zone... after the enormous fleets and countless combatants had spread across the vast battlefield in every direction, calm gradually returned to the area.

The place hadn’t been emptied of enemies, and numerous powerful figures still remained there facing one another, but despite their presence, silence prevailed over everything... an extremely heavy silence that seemed even more pronounced after the overwhelming noise that had filled the area only moments earlier.