Chapter 146: My Big Brother... Dark Star!

The restless and tyrannical Xenomorphs fixed their gazes on the only active lifeform in the molten cave. Their eyes brimmed with enough killing intent to tear Li Yu apart ten thousand times over.

However, the suppression from the Alien Queen left them with no choice but to glare helplessly. Repressing their instincts, the Xenomorphs cleared a path.

From the depths of the cave, the Alien Queen, who had remained hidden until now, slowly emerged, surrounded by her Xenomorphs. As the queen, it was only natural that she would not charge into the front lines; staying back to command was the correct choice.

Only about ten days had passed, yet the Alien Queen's physique seemed to have grown even larger, and her aura was far more ferocious. Despite this, she crouched before Li Yu without the slightest sign of resistance.

The Titan Symbiotic Armor on his body peeled back layer by layer. Li Yu reached out, patting the Alien Queen's bone armor, and praised, "Well done!"

The Alien Queen let out a low growl, faintly laced with excitement, like a child who had just received a reward.

Aside from the massive horde of suppressed Xenomorphs, the only one in the entire cave to witness this scene was the dying Shadow Kill.

She had been nearly sliced in half by Yu Jin's attack. However, thanks to her nature as a Mechanical Cyborg, her vital signs did not fade immediately, leaving her eking out a miserable existence.

"Who... exactly are you..." Shadow Kill knew she had no hope of survival. Amidst her sorrow, she simply wanted to die knowing the truth.

Li Yu walked to her side, gazing down at the dying Shadow Kill. He did not answer her question, but instead said in a solemn voice, "Answer my questions honestly..."

A strange series of syllables entered Shadow Kill's ears once more, and her eyes quickly lost their focus. Li Yu had many doubts he needed to clear up.

A moment later, Shadow Kill slowly regained her senses, a terrifying feeling once again surging in her heart. "What did you do to me!?"

Even though she was already prepared to face death, Li Yu's unpredictable and ghostly methods still left a massive psychological shadow on her.

"Curious?" Li Yu shook his head. "I'm not telling you..."

Shadow Kill's eyes widened as if she wanted to say something else, but Li Yu did not give her the chance.

In the next moment, a golden Light Blade plunged into her chest, destroying the mechanical structures within and cutting off the artificial blood supply to her brain.

Before long, Shadow Kill completely lost all vital signs and became nothing more than a corpse.

"This seems a bit troublesome..." Li Yu stood in place, rubbing his chin. Through his interrogation of Shadow Kill, he had learned a great deal of information.

The reason Yu Jin had come here with Kansa was essentially to use the prince as a pawn. The true mastermind was someone else entirely.

Kansa's plan was simply to swallow Morcasa by force. There was nothing inherently wrong with that; after all, Morcasa was merely a small civilization that had just stepped out of its star system.

However, the consequences of such an action would leave behind a hidden danger. No matter how one looked at it, Morcasa was still a subordinate of the Amethyst Civilization.

For a royal descendant of the Amethyst Civilization to directly annihilate them was unacceptable. If word leaked out, it would be extremely detrimental to Kansa.

But Kansa had no other choice. His abilities were limited, leaving him with the belief that wealth is found in risk.

The mastermind behind the scenes, however, was far more brilliant. Since Kansa wanted to destroy Morcasa, they would use his plan to achieve their own goals and then force Kansa to take the blame. It was a flawless scheme.

Compared to Kansa's intentions, the mastermind's plan was far more malicious. As for who this mastermind was, Shadow Kill had no idea, only knowing that it was a prominent figure within the Amethyst Civilization.

Furthermore, to ensure Kansa would obediently jump into this trap, Yu Jin had feigned being captured by the Amethyst Civilization.

He let Kansa rescue him, delivering a B-Tier Mechanical Cyborg to boost the prince's confidence. Thus, Yu Jin's obedience to Kansa was entirely superficial.

Meanwhile, Kansa himself remained completely unaware that he had fallen into someone else's snare.

The reason Yu Jin had claimed he would drag the entire planet down with him in death was because, no matter the final outcome, the destruction of Morcasa was practically guaranteed.

Li Yu quickly skimmed through these thoughts, finally shaking his head. He looked at Yu Jin's corpse, a peculiar gleam appearing in his eyes.

A B-Tier Mechanical Cyborg was covered head to toe in precious materials, and Li Yu had been coveting that Ship-breaking Blade quite a bit.

He casually tossed Yu Jin's entire body into his Compressed Space, planning to dismantle it slowly once things settled down.

"It's time for you to leave this place with me..." Li Yu said to the Alien Queen, who responded with a low rumble.

"But I still need to deal with these things..." Li Yu glanced around at the massive number of Xenomorphs that still lingered.

"Roar!" The Alien Queen tilted her head back and let out a bellowing roar. The Xenomorphs grew restless, and as if receiving an absolute command, they surged outward like a tidal wave.

The entire cave shook violently. Dust billowed into the air as massive stone pillars were smashed through.

Afterward, Li Yu stored the Alien Queen inside his System Space and followed the horde of Xenomorphs, rushing toward the surface.

On the surface, the battle was far from over. The combat prowess of the ragtag mercenary fleets exceeded Kansa's expectations. Although they fought independently, they were incredibly stubborn, using all sorts of underhanded tactics that caused massive headaches for the Cruiser Fleet.

But it was merely a headache. The Amethyst defensive shields of the Cruiser Fleet were nearly impossible for the ragtag forces to break through. This was the signature technology of the Amethyst Civilization, renowned throughout the interstellar space.

"Boss... when we came here, nobody mentioned we'd be fighting the Amethyst fleet." A small warship billowed black smoke. Its defensive shields were shattered, and a massive hole had been blown into its hull.

Nearby were two similar warships, their hulls bearing the emblems of their Mercenary Corps.

Butch shouted loudly through the temporarily established communication channel. The warship blared with rapid alarms, violently jerking up and down, which ironically allowed it to dodge a few incoming strikes.

"Boss, we can't hold them off! What do we do!?" Butch asked frantically. The warship shuddered with another deafening boom as it took another hit, this time taking a direct strike to its Energy Engine.

The entire warship instantly plummeted toward the earth. Butch scrambled to the corner of the Command Center. With a flurry of inputs, an emergency Escape Pod opened, and he threw himself inside.

The warship ejected the egg-shaped Escape Pod, which wobbled unsteadily before crashing a short distance away. Butch stumbled out, his face covered in ash and dirt.

The sky was painted in a chaotic array of colors from the barrage of attacks. Every so often, a warship trailing thick black smoke would crash into the ground, detonating in a violent explosion.

"Fuck..." Butch couldn't help but curse. They were told they were just here to help suppress a planetary rebellion. How did it turn into a war against the main fleet of the Amethyst Civilization?

"We surrender... We surrender!!" Some warships had completely lost the will to fight and actively broadcasted surrender requests. Even if they were imprisoned by the Amethyst Civilization, it was better than dying senselessly here.

However, the surrender requests were met with absolute silence. The Amethyst fleet clearly intended to slaughter them all, refusing to accept any form of surrender.

"Why aren't they accepting our surrender!?" Someone suffered a complete mental breakdown. In the vast interstellar space, it was incredibly rare to see a battle where surrender wasn't an option.

"What in the world is happening here?"

This doubt sprouted in the minds of many. Outside of deep-seated blood feuds, there was only one other reason a force would refuse a surrender.

They needed to silence all witnesses.

Kansa basked in the roaring thunder of artillery fire, quietly waiting for the arrival of his victory.

Rumble!

The ground trembled violently, causing him to frown in confusion. He cast his gaze into the distance. The visor of his armor zoomed in, finally allowing him to see the horrifying Xenomorphs.

"What are those things?" Kansa jumped in fright. It wasn't because the Xenomorphs were terrifying, but rather because yet another unforeseen variable had appeared.

A swarm of bat-like Xenomorphs shot into the sky, attacking friend and foe indiscriminately. However, their destructive power against warships was limited, especially against the heavily shielded Amethyst fleet.

At most, they could only make the outer energy shields flicker a couple of times.

A massive horde of Black Lizard Xenomorphs chased after the Small Aircraft. To effectively engage ground targets, many of these craft had not ascended very high.

This new enemy appeared so abruptly that the Amethyst Cruiser Fleet failed to react immediately. It took them a few moments before they began unleashing a torrential bombardment on the Xenomorphs.

Mushroom clouds surged into the sky. The searing shockwaves kicked up storms of dust and sand, blasting out craters the size of meteor impacts, each surrounded by a web of deep fissures.

The Xenomorphs had zero ability to resist, their corrosive blood splashing and pooling everywhere.

"What the hell is hiding underground here? These creatures don't seem like Purple Crystal Beast Derivatives..." Kansa muttered in confusion.

Mole's eyes flickered. Of course these creatures weren't Purple Crystal Beast Derivatives; they were the bizarre monstrosities Li Yu had concocted.

Thinking of Li Yu, Mole felt a surge of worry and sorrow. The man had only come here seeking refuge, yet was inexplicably dragged into this mess. He feared Li Yu's chances of survival were grim.

Yu Jin was a B-Tier Lifeform. Mole couldn't fathom how Li Yu could possibly survive. Relying on these strange creatures?

Just as this thought crossed his mind, Mole's eyes bulged. Amidst the horde of Xenomorphs, a striking figure stood out—a warrior clad in white armor, wreathed in purplish-red electric arcs, rushing straight toward them.

In an instant, the expressions on Mole and Kansa's faces became incredibly vibrant. After an initial wave of shared disbelief, their reactions polarized completely.

Kansa's face darkened into deep gloom, while Mole lit up with wild excitement...

"You..." Before Kansa could finish, Li Yu arrived in front of him and cut him off: "You're screwed!"

"If you kill me, Yu Jin will never let you off..." Kansa's heart skipped a beat, but he forced himself to remain calm.

The very concept of Yu Jin dying hadn't even earned the right to appear in his mind.

"Stop thinking about him. He's already dead..." Li Yu shook his head.

"Impossible!" Kansa declared decisively, finding the whole thing laughable. To try and scare him with such a pathetic lie...

However, without another word, Li Yu simply dumped Yu Jin's mangled corpse right at his feet. Kansa froze completely.

His eyes widened to the point of tearing as he stared at the corpse on the ground, filled with utter disbelief. That head... that arm... that leg... everything screamed the undeniable truth: Yu Jin was truly dead.

"Like I said... you're screwed. You're actually just a..." Li Yu put Yu Jin's corpse away and spoke to Kansa, hoping to extract more details about the mastermind.

But Kansa merely kept his head down, endlessly muttering the word "Impossible."

"Smack!" Li Yu slapped Kansa directly across the face.

Kansa was stunned. He looked up, his eyes hazy and confused. "You hit me?"

"I didn't..." Li Yu maintained a straight face and pulled out an audio recorder. It contained the information he had extracted from Shadow Kill.

Kansa's expression shifted drastically again, teetering on the edge of losing control. Li Yu's hand twitched, itching to deliver another slap.

Fortunately, Kansa reined himself in this time, though he looked utterly devastated. He murmured softly, "So that's how it is... So that's how it is..."

"Do you know who the person behind this is, and roughly how strong they are?" Li Yu frowned as he asked.

"It's Prince Saster..." Kansa replied without needing much time to think. He wasn't an idiot; once the missing pieces of information were laid out before him, connecting the dots was child's play.

"Prince Saster?" Li Yu furrowed his brows. The local network was down, so he couldn't run a real-time search. But Kansa didn't intend to keep him in suspense. He looked up at the aerial battle, all traces of a smile vanished from his face:

"My father's younger brother, my uncle—Prince Saster. He commands one of the two most powerful fleets in the Amethyst Civilization... the Pathos Fleet."

"Sigh..." Kansa let out a dejected laugh, stripped of all will to fight. He glanced up at the two of them with a look of pity. "If it's him, abandon any pointless struggle. Just embrace death."

Mole's face also turned remarkably grim. The Pathos Fleet. He was no stranger to that name.

"So pessimistic? Won't you die too?" Li Yu looked at Kansa in surprise.

Kansa suddenly adopted an attitude as light as wind and cloud. "The information you received is correct, but your conclusion is slightly off. Saster doesn't need someone to take the blame. He just needs an excuse. A dead prince is an excuse perfectly sufficient to justify destroying Morcasa."

"Someone this arrogant, and your father doesn't do anything about it?" Li Yu was perplexed.

This guy was obviously a warlord operating with near-equal authority to the ruler, hoarding military power. What exactly was the Amethyst Emperor doing all day?

"He was specifically propped up by the Star Glory Empire to keep my father in check..." Kansa shook his head. "The other strongest fleet of the Amethyst Civilization remains in my father's hands."

Mole chuckled bitterly. "To think I'd live to see the glory of Pathos in person."

The way Kansa and Mole were just standing around waiting to die left Li Yu entirely speechless. Mole quickly explained:

"In the Amethyst language, Pathos translates to Star Destroyer. The reason the Amethyst Civilization only possesses two supreme fleets is because the primary weapons of these fleets were supplied by the Star Glory Empire."

"The Pathos Fleet is equipped with... a Star-Destroying Cannon."

The Star-Destroying Cannon... A renowned yet infamous weapon across the interstellar space. It could eradicate an entire planet in the most simple and direct manner.

To destroy a star didn't always require blowing a planet to pieces. For instance, an Atmosphere Regulator could completely alter the ecosystem into a dead zone, effectively ending all life on the globe.

It was rumored that the Star Glory Empire possessed even higher-grade anti-planet armaments, and even anti-system weapons.

But no matter how advanced or primitive other weapons were, none offered a deterrent as pure and visceral as this: obey, or get blown to smithereens!

Rumble!

Just as Mole finished speaking, the war raging across the battlefield ground to a sudden halt. A colossal shadow fell, nearly blotting out the entire sky.

From their vantage point, they could only see its underside. It was an impossibly massive Main Ship, its silver-grey exterior making it stand out starkly from every other vessel.

Before it, even the Main Ship of the Amethyst Cruiser Fleet looked like nothing more than an ordinary Frigate.

Surrounded by nearly a hundred kilometer-long frigates, it formed one of the most terrifying armadas in the Amethyst Civilization—the Pathos Fleet.

"Rebels, lay down your weapons... and await judgment."

A warning broadcast echoed across the sky, and the chaotic skirmishes slowly died down. Aboard the Cruiser Fleet's Main Ship, Captain Quill stared in utter shock at the sudden arrival of the Pathos Fleet.

A terrible premonition suddenly seized him. He ordered in a heavy voice,

"Connect me to the Pathos Fleet..."

The communications officer frantically worked to establish a link. Shortly after, a cold-faced young man appeared on the Holographic Screen.

"I am His Highness the Prince's assistant, Rui Jin. General Quill, you have conspired with the Morcasa Natives with the intent to murder Prince Kansa. Please disarm immediately and await your trial."

Rui Jin delivered the message mechanically, his face devoid of any emotional fluctuation.

Quill was utterly dumbfounded. What in the world was he talking about? When did he ever conspire with Morcasa? He was only here because Kansa had promised him immense wealth. How could he possibly be trying to assassinate the prince?

"General Quill refuses to disarm... prepare to engage." Rui Jin didn't give Quill a single moment to process the words before speaking again to his own crew.

The Holographic Screen went dark. A deathly silence settled over the Command Center as all eyes turned to Quill.

"General... we've been locked on!" Red alarms suddenly blared. Quill's pupils shrank to pinpricks. Saster truly intended to wipe him out!

"Activate emergency defenses! Push power output to 100%!" Quill forced himself to remain calm as he barked the order.

A dark, abyssal cannon barrel extended from the belly of the Pathos Mothership. A heaven-piercing Black Energy Column fired, tearing straight through the Cruiser Fleet Main Ship's energy shields. In the blink of an eye, a new firework bloomed between heaven and earth.

Shattered debris, trailing thick black smoke, rained down and scattered across the ground.

The surviving ragtag mercenaries didn't even dare to breathe. They had no idea what was happening or why the situation had deteriorated rapidly. At first, they thought this was backup for the Amethyst forces!

"Slaughtering his own people without a second thought... this uncle of yours is truly ruthless..." Li Yu remarked in admiration.

Kansa, having lost every shred of hope, couldn't help but sigh. "If it weren't for his heartless cruelty, why would the Star Glory Empire have ever backed his rise to power?"

"Gotta figure out a way to survive..." Li Yu muttered. The allure of the Amethyst Core was simply too massive. It was, after all, the foundation of the Amethyst Civilization's rise. It had even drawn out a major player like Saster.

"Figure out a way to survive?" Kansa couldn't help but laugh out loud. It wasn't a sneer, just a genuine, broken laugh.

"Forget it... I admit you're incredibly strong, and perhaps you'd have a limitless future. But right now, you can only be buried here alongside me."

Saster's arrival had thoroughly crushed Kansa's spirit, throwing him into a despair so absolute that he didn't even have the energy for emotional outbursts or hysterics.

The moment Saster appeared, Kansa knew all was lost. Where there was no hope, there were no emotional ripples.

Mole offered a bitter smile, shaking his head. He let out a long sigh, his eyes filled with melancholy. Though he said nothing, his demeanor made his stance abundantly clear.

"Dark Star... my big brother, I'm counting on you this time..." Li Yu pulled an old-fashioned Pager from his pocket.

Neither Mole nor Kansa had ever even seen such a relic.

As if suddenly remembering something, Li Yu asked, "Kansa, do you have a way to extract the Amethyst Core quickly?"

Bereft of any earthly desires, Kansa merely nodded placidly. "I do. Unfortunately, it's completely useless now..."

High above, hundreds of drop pods detached from the Pathos Mothership, hurtling toward the surface. Inside were elite Pathos squads, their target clearly the Amethyst Core.

"That works then..." Li Yu pressed a button on the Pager. Two pixelated words—Dark Star—flashed incessantly on the screen, followed by a few smaller words: 'Mission Target'.

Clearly, this device had been magically altered by the System. If he had just genuinely summoned Dark Star, the man's first move would be to slaughter Li Yu.

He pondered for a moment before fiddling with the Pager. A short while later, the device let out a sharp beep and inexplicably slipped from Li Yu's grasp, tumbling to the dirt.

Li Yu looked thoroughly exasperated. Was it really necessary to recreate this exact visual trope? He reached down to pick it up, only to find it stubbornly glued to the ground, impossible to pry loose.

Kansa, who had just felt a tiny glimmer of expectation thanks to Li Yu's bold words, was instantly left speechless. What exactly had he been hoping for?

...

Taliskar—

The planet's surface still bore the scars of Dark Star's rampage. Massive metal prison cells were strewn haphazardly across the globe, some half-buried in the desert sands. Deep underground, the laboratory remained operational.

"Dark Star, the latest test results are in. It's best to replace your E-rank Gene Chain with an A-rank Leiden Star Beast variant..." Peyton Mozambique wore an impassive expression. Showing little reverence toward Dark Star, his tone was completely casual.

"For the second Gene Chain, use..."

Dark Star stood before him, carefully processing the data. It wasn't until Peyton had detailed the substitution for the final Gene Chain that he spoke up. "Is this the optimal solution?"

Peyton considered this for a second. "More or less. Unless you let me dissect and study you personally, it can't be optimized any further."

Dark Star nodded, his eyes gleaming. "The Mozambique family is truly blind to true worth. How could someone with your talent possibly be abandoned?"

"Who knows..." Peyton replied, entirely unbothered.

Standing to the side, Papaka was drenched in a cold sweat. His only value had been that Dark Star's research remained incomplete. Now that the research was finished, he dreaded what would be done to them.

Dark Star remained silent, his gaze sweeping over the two men. Just as he was about to speak, his body inexplicably defied his control. Without any warning whatsoever, he vanished from the room.

"Hm?" Peyton blinked in surprise. He glanced at the nearby monitors; there was no Spatial Fluctuation. This wasn't Dark Star's usual method of teleportation—there were zero signs, and absolutely zero disturbance in the fabric of space.

"Where's Dark Star?" Papaka's eyes bugged out.

"No idea..." Peyton shook his head, still trying to deduce exactly what kind of movement technique had just been utilized.

"We have to run..." Papaka couldn't care less about the science. This was the first golden opportunity they'd had in ages. If they didn't flee now, they'd never get another chance.

Back on Morcasa, Saster sat comfortably in his Command Center like a god on a throne. His foolish nephew had paved the way flawlessly; all he had to do now was reap the harvest.

'If only his father were this idiotic,' Saster couldn't help but muse.

"Once the Amethyst Core is secured, bomb this place into dust. Not a single word of this can leak..." Saster ordered coldly.

"Your Highness, what about the other Life Planets in the Morcasa system?" Rui Jin inquired.

"Blow them up as well..." Saster replied, his voice completely tranquil.

Suddenly, an officer yelled in panic, "Report! We've detected a high-energy reaction! Suspected A-Tier Lifeform!"

"What!?" Rui Jin's face shifted, and Saster's brows slammed together.

A feed was instantly brought up onto the screen. Down on the surface of Morcasa, Dark Star was looking around in profound bewilderment. 'Who am I? Where am I? What am I supposed to be doing?'

A steady "beep beep" sound echoed from the dirt. He looked down and saw an antique Pager half-buried in the ground, his name flashing across its screen.

Simultaneously, within the Pathos Command Center, a deluge of data files concerning Dark Star flooded the screens. Saster's face turned exceedingly ugly. "Dark Star? What is he doing here?"

Down below, Dark Star looked up at the Pathos Fleet filling the heavens, murmuring in confusion, "An Amethyst fleet?"

Inexplicably, as he stared at the Pathos Fleet, a fierce surge of disgust bubbled up from the depths of his heart, growing stronger by the second.

'What is going on?' Dark Star barely managed to suppress his sudden urge to attack. He had no ongoing conflicts with the Amethyst Civilization, let alone any deep-seated hatred. So where was this overwhelming animosity coming from?

'Was I hit with Mental Suggestion again?'

Unbidden, the image of Li Yu snickering maliciously surfaced in Dark Star's mind. To his eyes, every single vessel in the Amethyst fleet suddenly looked exactly like Li Yu's smug face.

Dark Star could no longer rein in his killing intent. His eyes turned blood-red, completely bloodshot. Even though he didn't know the exact mechanism, he was absolutely certain this was that brat's handiwork!

"You're courting death!" Dark Star let out a thundering roar, snapping entirely!

Up in the Command Center, Rui Jin was closely monitoring Dark Star's movements when a frantic shout pierced his earpiece...

"Look at the screen!" The subordinate didn't even bother with honorifics. Alarmed, Rui Jin snapped his eyes to the display. The sensors showed a massive physical object hurling toward them at breakneck speed, emitting terrifying energy readings.

It was one of their own Frigates, completely encased in a gigantic orb of pink substance, rapidly closing the distance.

Rumble!

Just as the Frigate was about to make contact with the Main Ship, the pink substance cloaking its hull melted away like early winter snow. Stripped of its chaotic shell, the completely disabled Frigate crashed heavily into the flagship.

Ear-piercing alarms wailed through the dreadnought as its shields flared wildly. The Frigate erupted into a magnificent blossom of fire.

Rui Jin fired off a rapid barrage of tactical commands, his words spilling out like machine-gun fire.

"Dark Star... why are you attacking us!?" The Pathos Mothership broadcasted its demand across the sky.

Dark Star didn't utter a single word in reply. His only desire was to annihilate every single one of these warships wearing Li Yu's face. He raised both arms, instantly taking control of several nearby Frigates. A pink, jelly-like substance wrapped securely around the massive ships, hurling them directly at the flagship.

Boom! Boom!

A chain of devastating explosions rocked the sky as the hijacked Frigates slammed into the Mothership. Without fail, every last one detonated upon impact, sending fragments scattering like meteor showers that blazed across the heavens and rained down upon the earth.

"Who is that!?" Kansa gaped at the awe-inspiring might of Dark Star, unable to believe that Li Yu had summoned such an apocalyptic powerhouse in the blink of an eye.

"My big brother... Dark Star!" Li Yu proclaimed firmly. The group had already moved a safe distance away from the Morcasa Camp, specifically because Li Yu feared Dark Star might spawn right next to the Pager.

"That's an A-Tier Lifeform. No wonder you're so insanely strong..." Kansa's tone was brimming with envy and the sweet relief of surviving the catastrophe.

An A-Tier Lifeform could, at the very least, stop the Pathos Fleet from vaporizing Planet Morcasa.

Mole's expression was odd. If his memory served him right, Dark Star and Li Yu's relationship wasn't exactly... friendly.

The Pathos Fleet naturally refused to just sit back and take a beating. Once negotiations with Dark Star failed, the Main Ship immediately ordered all escort Frigates to pull back from the combat zone.

Under these circumstances, the Frigates were absolutely useless as backup and instead just provided the enemy with free ammunition.

Dark Star's face was terrifyingly dark. Without the slightest hesitation, tendrils of pink matter began creeping across the Main Ship's hull, attempting to swallow the colossal dreadnought whole.

"Analyze the pink substance and initiate sonic resonance sweeps!" Rui Jin directed the defense flawlessly, completely unshakeable.

Hummm!

High-frequency sonic waves rippled across the outer hull. The pink matter began to vibrate violently. Although it didn't instantly dissipate, its terrifying spread was effectively halted.

"The substance possesses immense tensile strength, extreme viscosity, and incredibly high damage resistance..."

In mere seconds, the tactical analysis room had parsed a massive stream of combat data.

"Vent cryogenic gas, push thermal heating to the hull surface, and activate high-frequency cutting lasers..."

Flocks of Small Aircraft deployed from various launch bays, spraying freezing white mist over the pink matter while the dreadnought's armor simultaneously superheated.

A grid of high-frequency lasers crisscrossed over the ship's exterior. Subjected to extreme thermal shock, sonic bombardment, and laser slicing, the pink substance finally lost its grip and peeled off the Main Ship.

Every single Laser Cannon mounted on the colossal dreadnought swiveled to lock onto Dark Star. A torrential downpour of blinding light erupted—a barrage vastly more horrific than the earlier fleet skirmish. And it was all zeroed in on a single man: Dark Star!

Dark Star threw his arms wide. A sprawling wall of pink matter unfurled out of thin air to shield him, flawlessly absorbing the apocalyptic laser barrage. Standing safely behind the barrier, Dark Star raised a single hand and aimed it directly at the Pathos Mothership.

Thick veins bulged violently across his forehead, indicating the sheer strain of his next move. Directly behind the Pathos Mothership, the phantom silhouette of a titanic star beast's head slowly materialized. Forged entirely of the pink substance, it let out a ferocious, silent roar.

It unhinged its massive maw, attempting to devour the dreadnought whole. A bizarre, absolute force seized the Mothership, locking it in place.

"We're trapped by a Subspace snare! The enemy is attempting a spatial dislocation tear!"

Rui Jin maintained his icy composure. "Fire the Matter Annihilation Cannon!"

The flank of the Mothership shifted. Layers of thick mechanical armor peeled back, and an abyss of black energy began to charge. The surrounding space warped violently, crackling with jagged electrical arcs.

A beam of pitch-black energy cleaved through the heavens, blasting directly into the jaws of the pink beast's head.

BOOM!!!

The massive maw of pink matter grew monstrously distorted and warped, as if it had swallowed a catastrophically unstable explosive.

Faint fissures in the void splintered outward, and the beast's head detonated entirely. A black, spherical shockwave rapidly expanded for dozens of kilometers. The ensuing blast wave kicked up a tempest of dirt and sand that eclipsed the sky.

When the black shockwave collided with the earth, the ground convulsed like an apocalyptic earthquake. Though Li Yu's group was positioned extremely far from the blast zone, the violent tremors nearly threw them off balance, their entire field of vision shaking and blurring.

"That warship is genuinely pretty impressive..." Li Yu praised as he watched the catastrophic explosion unfold on the horizon.

Kansa stared blankly, unable to calm his racing heart. "Your big brother is incredibly terrifying as well. To actually fight the Pathos Fleet head-on."

"He hasn't face-tanked a Star-Destroying Cannon yet..." Li Yu said modestly.

Kansa shook his head and explained, "They can't fire the Star-Destroying Cannon from low orbit. They have to do it from outer space, or the backlash would swallow the Mothership as well..."

"Saster probably intends to secure the Amethyst Core before firing the Star-Destroying Cannon..."

The three of them suddenly froze. They had been so caught up enjoying the spectacle that they completely forgot about the Amethyst Core. Saster had already deployed his squads underground!

"Let's move..." Li Yu turned and sprinted back toward the Morcasa Camp. Earlier, terrified that Dark Star might spawn right next to the Pager, he had deliberately dragged them far away.

Back in the sky, Dark Star's eyes burned crimson. The raging inferno in his heart had all but incinerated his sanity. To him, the colossal Pathos Mothership had transformed entirely into Li Yu's massive, jeering face, driving him to maddening heights of fury.

"Li Yu, I'll tear you to pieces!"

Dark Star's wrathful bellow boomed from behind them. The trio couldn't help but stumble. Mole's expression was incredibly bizarre as he looked around, fighting an immense urge to burst out laughing.

Kansa wore a thoughtful look. "Li Yu... that name sounds familiar... I feel like I've heard it somewhere."

Li Yu maintained a perfectly straight face. "My big brother's mortal enemy..."

Pausing for a brief second, he added, "An incredibly formidable man."