EsGod then turned to Fakisen, casually asking, “Any intelligence on the remaining Beyond Grade As from the Arcane Church?”
Fakisen nodded. “The dynasty is pursuing the remaining four with all their might and did not put much energy into chasing us. The Black Star Army, Bloodshed Land, and Klent Kingdom are also the heads of the Shattered Star Ring, so the dynasty will probably catch one of two of them.”
“It seems like the Arcane Church will suffer great losses this time.” EsGod blandly eyed Fakisen. “Are you happy?”
“Of course.” Fakisen laughed. “The moment they contacted me, I was already picturing this scene.”
“Ah, I’m afraid it is not just this reason…” EsGod laughed but did not pursue the exact reason. He then turned back to face the wormhole, leisurely commanding, “Let’s enter.”
The Fallen Ark fleet slowly traversed into the wormhole and vanished.
…
A stream of light shot through the universe. It was Sagman and Taylor’s spaceship.
“There are only seven more hours before we reach the next public stargate. We’re nearing the border of Shattered Star Ring. The dynasty has little control over the next star cluster. The spies are also already in place and are waiting to assemble the stargate. The moment we move to a different area, the dynasty will not be able to find us so easily anymore,” Sagman said.
Taylor nodded, his expression finally easing a little.
They had hidden high and low for almost three months, and this sort of life was stifling for them. Finally, they had hope of escaping unscathed.
Sagman sighed. “It’s a pity that Mercer and Dylan were captured. Out of six of us, only four of us can return… no, maybe only three. Psyker’s base is within the Shattered Star Ring, and sooner or later, he will have to come back and face the pressure from Black Star and Heber.”
At this point, neither was in the mood to talk further. Their mission that they were so confident in had actually put them in such a sorry situation.
At this point, the artificial intelligence of the spaceship suddenly sounded, and it was a familiar voice.
“If you have the time to be concerned about others, you’d be better off using that time to worry about yourselves.”
The duo jumped, their expressions changing.
This voice… Black Star‽
The next moment, the spaceship suddenly shuddered, and the artificial intelligence of the spaceship killed the hyperdrive function, causing the spaceship to come out from hyperdrive.
Even the ordinary engine was turned off, so the spaceship simply floated in the universe.
The magic interference traps that Milizaus and Ravenlaude had placed in the void in advance completely enveloped this area. All spacetime abilities were blocked.
Streams of light shot out from eight directions, wrapping around Sagman and Taylor’s spaceship.
Milizaus as well as the Beyond Grade As from the dynasty were all on the scene, and each occupied a position, staring at them like tigers toward prey.
“We’re surrounded!” Taylor’s face drained of color.
Sagman’s face twitched violently, his expression mixed with incredulity and fury. He suddenly noticed a mechanical army blocking their path ahead.
Standing at the front were the four Apostle Weapons lined up in a row—Psionic Prime with a crown and a spear, Giant King Kong with its hulking body, Silver Flash with its gleaming hand-cannons, and Mad Sky Hunter with its arrogant bearing.
Standing in front of them was a figure, but it was not Han Xiao. It was the mechanical host, codenamed ‘Mammoth’. At this moment, Han Xiao was utilizing [Lord’s Descent] to project his consciousness and will into this mechanical host. Its tough mechanical body looked dazzling with the blue-gold Mechanical Force arcing around it.
This mechanical host had seemingly transformed into Han Xiao’s avatar, sharing his attributes, skills, and expertise. It practically possessed a Beyond Grade A combat power at this moment.
“Surrender.” Two dark streams of energy flowed from Milizaus’ nostrils, who was in his dragon form.
While he was unwilling to chase and fight so hard, the dynasty had already locked onto the enemy, and he and the rest of the Beyond Grade As could not openly defy the dynasty’s orders.
Sagman’s eyeballs darted around before finally landing on Han Xiao’s machinery.
After being played by Han Xiao a few times, he had already gone beyond the point of anger.
Seeing this, Han Xiao leisurely replied, “In this situation, your odds of escape are close to none. We just want to capture you guys alive. How about surrendering?”
Sagman breathed out loudly before suddenly smiling. However, his smile was full of viciousness.
“When did you hear that a Beyond Grade A does not fight and just surrenders?”
“Maybe today?” Han Xiao’s brows rose.
While he said that, his posture slightly lowered, preparing for battle. Several other Beyond Grade As were also prepared to move, ready to follow Han Xiao’s lead at any time.
With his gaze fixed to the front, Sagman suddenly spoke to Taylor. “I’ll try to hold all of them back; you look for an opportunity to escape. They only want to capture one of us. If one more of us can escape, that will be a bonus.”
“Don’t be stupid. They came prepared. I can’t run.” Taylor let out a bitter laugh before taking out his staff. “I’m better off staying and fighting with you. Even if we can’t change the result, I can’t let myself be caught without dignity.”
Sagman nodded before murmuring, “After this battle, I don’t know when we’ll next be free.”
They then looked at each other.
Boom!
The next instant, the spaceship shattered, and the duo rushed out toward the Supers of the dynasty.
…
_____________________
Galaxy Chronicles (Official Revised Edition)
In the Year 705, on the 27th Day of the 9th Month on the Galaxy Calendar, the Arcane Church and Fallen Ark teamed up to launch a surprise attack on Planet Lighthouse within the Flickering World. Their goal was to snatch the Evolution Cube and kill the Beyond Grade A allies of the Crimson Dynasty—Beyoni, Black Star, and Milizaus.
‘Magus’ Austin intervened in this battle, and the Arcane Church used the Ten Thousand Deity Scepter to hit Milizaus, but it was later countered with some special sealing means by Black Star.
Black Star later captured the Beyond Grade A Super of the Arcane Church, Dylan, netting great achievements. The Arcane Church was forced to retreat and entered an escape phase, where the dynasty began hunting them down.
In the same year, on the 3rd Day of the 10th Month, just as the Arcane Church’s fleet left the Flickering World, fleet commander Rogue and Mercer were captured.
In the Year 706, on the 21st Day of the 1st Month, with the assistance of the Federation of Light, the Bloodshed Land, Black Star Army, Klent Kingdom, Purple Crystal, and more, the Crimson Dynasty finally successfully intercepted the Beyond Grade As Sagman and Taylor in the Shattered Star Ring. After a bloody battle, they were both captured by the Crimson Dynasty.
At this point, the pursuit from the dynasty came to an end, and the fleet of Arcane Church was completely annihilated. Four Beyond Grade As were captured, and only two escaped. This became known in history as ‘The Battle of Planet Lighthouse’ and ‘The Attack of the Arcane Church’.
_____________________
Chapter 866 - The Curtains Close
The Arcane Church had a foreign embassy on the mother planet of the Crimson Dynasty, and its ambassador paid a visit to the political core of the dynasty, Tarunamir Palace, to discuss the remuneration regarding Mercer and Dylan.
The negotiations had already been going for several months. Before this, the officials of the dynasty were initially adamant on not releasing them, but now they were becoming more open to certain conditions.
“With regard to Article 53 of the remuneration, my side s
till has something to add…”
As the ambassador continued to talk, the officials of the dynasty nodded, occasionally interrupting. Regarding this matter, they did not have any veto power, and they were actually just the spokespersons for the upper echelons. Their attitudes were the attitudes of the upper echelons themselves.
After a while, the communicator of one of the dynasty officials rang, indicating that there was a message. The ambassador paused and waved to the official to read the message before he continued.
The official in question opened the communicator, but after glancing at the news, they immediately put the communicator down.
Seeing this, the ambassador was about to continue but was suddenly halted by a hand from that official.
“Let’s stop here for today. As for the previous terms and conditions, please return and make a new set.”
The ambassador jumped up. “Didn’t we already discuss the terms? Why the sudden…”
He was cut by the official’s wave. The official stood up, looking down at the ambassador with a smile that revealed some complacency and superiority to the ambassador.
“Go back and wait for the news from your upper echelons, or you can take a look at today’s news. You’ll naturally understand.”
…
After three months, the Crimson Dynasty and the Arcane Church had some new developments.
On this day, the dynasty issued a new piece of news to the entire universe, announcing that they had succeeded in capturing the two Beyond Grade As of the Arcane Church, which meant that they now had four captives.
The counterattack of the dynasty was as fast as lightning, causing many of the organizations in the universe to feel awed. Seeing the heavy bleeding of the Arcane Church this time, some people felt schadenfreude, some rejoiced, and some felt the bitter hatred against common enemies.
This news caused a sensation in over a dozen star fields. In the eyes of countless interstellar citizens, the Beyond Grade A Supers were akin to deities that were only spoken of in legends. However, there were actually four of them who were knocked down to the earth and turned into prisoners.
This sort of capturing of Beyond Grade A had not happened for a long time. Countless citizens felt that they were observing a piece of history that would be passed down in time.
But on the forums, the players were focused on another matter.
Now that the search and capture mission had ended, the players received their reward. Within the army communications system, Phillip issued a general message, praising their contribution, which proved that their contribution was not small in allowing the dynasty to capture the Beyond Grade As.
The few players that first discovered Sagman and Taylor publicized their reward on the forums, and this allowed the other players to understand that the trend of this big event plot was inadvertently changed by them participating.
From Version 1.0 to Version 3.0, the players gradually found that they were having more and more influence on events, and they were becoming more involved in Galaxy. Generally, the players only felt their existence when challenging the storyline during the time when they were on the beginner planets.
However, this time, what they had re-written was a galactic war between two Universal Civilizations, of which the scale was much larger and grander.
The feeling of involvement was more memorable and rewarding compared to just purely receiving the mission reward.
This event was also recorded by the players into the Shattered Star Ring chronicles.
Every player was given the right to edit the chronicle, which caused no small headache for the officials. Thus, the officials would filter the events and organize them, and the trivial matters would be placed within the appendix. Only events that were worth mentioning would be placed within the main post. The players who wrote entries could sign their names on it and receive rewards in return, which was a glorious accomplishment.
…
Within another star cluster in the Shattered Star Ring, spaceships that snaked like a serpent were lined up in front of a stargate. Among them was an ordinary, unassuming spaceship.
Within that spaceship, the virtual screen was showing the news—the dynasty announcing the results of the pursuit operation, in which two Beyond Grade As were captured alive.
Beep!
The virtual screen was switched off.
Ninjia put down the remote, holding his forehead with one hand. His expression was complicated.
“Sagman and the rest have all been captured by the dynasty…”
Among the four that escaped from the Flickering World, two of them had already been caught. Psyker’s situation was also terrible, so he was technically the only one who could safely make it out of the Shattered Star Ring. A sense of sorrow permeated Ninjia.
When he thought back to their departure, the six of them had been full of confidence. To think that in the blink of an eye, their entire force had collapsed, and the majority had even been captured. What a tragic end.
He had heard that the upper echelons of the Arcane Church were originally discussing the ransom payment with the Crimson Dynasty, but now that the latter had two more chips in hand, the price offered by the church would have to be increased. Furthermore, the Crimson Dynasty would definitely not allow the Arcane Church to redeem all of them, so there would be someone who experienced a long period of time within the prison.
“At least… I managed to bring the Ten Thousand Deity Scepter back…”
Ninjia slightly shook his head. Now that things had come to such a point, he could only use this to comfort himself and the church.
…
“Thank goodness it was Ninjia who held onto the Ten Thousand Deity Scepter. He did not let the dynasty take that away as well…”
In the Arcane Church’s meeting of Bishops, many of them sat there with bitter expressions. One of them tried to comfort the rest, but he only received looks of helplessness.
One of the bishops spoke up. “We activated our espionage network in the Shattered Star Ring, yet they failed to bring all of them back. The price we paid this time far outweighs the benefits obtained. Even Sagman and Taylor have fallen into the dynasty’s hands, adding to their chips. We need to offer a large ransom payment now because the dynasty will definitely not be polite to us.”
The ransom payments demanded between universal civilizations would not just simply be money but included political, military, and economic conditions.
The bishops were enveloped in sorrows during this meeting. None of them had any time to feel anger.
Dylan, Mercer, Sagman, and Taylor did not just represent themselves, for they had their own Beyond Grade A organizations with immense influence. The strong were plenty there, and with their leaders being captured, these Beyond Grade A organizations would definitely go into turmoil and panic. In order to stabilize their allies, the church had to withstand no small pressure.
In addition, because of the attention paid by the other Beyond Grade As, the Arcane Church not only had to redeem them but had to redeem them quickly, before their Beyond Grade A allies lost faith in them. If their allies lost faith, it would cause their recruitment of Beyond Grade As in the future to be much more difficult.
After all, the older Beyond Grade As would die, and new Beyond Grade As would always be born. Because of the long period of time that a civilization could exist, the Beyond Grade As under them would constantly undergo a shuffle. From a long-term perspective, the reputation and credibility of a civilization was important.
As for the newer generation of Beyond Grade As, the Crimson Dynasty had an overwhelming advantage…
As the record holder for the fastest time taken to reach the Beyond Grade A stage, Black Star undoubtedly had potential to go further. Furthermore, in the last battle, he had shown off his edge, much sooner than the observing forces had expected.
One could see that the strength shown by Black Star would definitely become one of the strengths relied on by the dyn
asty in the near future. The most frightening part was his age. Among all the Beyond Grade As, he was the youngest, which was enough for him to serve the dynasty for hundreds or even thousands of years.
In other words, for a few hundred years, they probably would have to constantly see this wretched guy’s face.
The moment they thought of how the Crimson Dynasty had gotten their hands on such valuable stocks, the envy of the Arcane Church rose so high they seemed to have reached the heavens.
They also wanted to kill Black Star, but their attempt this time had left them with tragic losses, and thus, the Arcane Church had decided to temporarily give up on the Evolution Cube.
Before eliminating the impact that this storm caused, the Arcane Church did not intend to make trouble for Black Star. In fact, they did not even wish to see him.
The Arcane Church admitted that they had flopped this time.
This debt would be written down and remembered by them to be collected later.
There was still time!
…
“Sagman and the rest were caught.”
In a dimly lit room, the Beyond Grade As of the Arcane Church were gathered through remote projection. Around the table were six empty spots.
Because of the matter this time, the Beyond Grade As of the Arcane Church had gathered to discuss the resultant waves caused by the news.
“Initially, when the Arcane Church came to me to take on this task, they only saw the disparity of combat power and thought that it was impossible to fail. However, I felt that there was some danger, so I rejected it, and they had Mercer take my place. Now that I look at it, it was good I did not accept the mission.” One of them could not help but attempt to be wise after the incident.
“It’s a pity that I’m being watched by too many organizations and am unable to even move in secret. If I had taken part in this mission, the results would not have been the same,” another said blandly.
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