Chapter 626

Zzz…zzz…

Boom…boom…

The metropolitan area, completely shrouded by night, echoed with gunfire everywhere, and meteorshowers of various sizes occasionally flashed in the sky.

But these meteor showers do not represent orbital drops; if they were orbital drops, they should be orderly, whereas now they are extremely chaotic.

Soon, one of the 'meteors' that had passed through the atmosphere still blazed undiminished.

Moreover, even standing on the ground, one could clearly see that the burning fireball was not a 'meteor' but a Paris‑class escort ship torn in half.

Boom…boom…BOOM!!!

Before the founding of the Human Empire, this 'valiant general' could have turned the tide for headquarters and navy, but now, while crashing, he smashed through several mega‑structures, then could no longer hold on and exploded violently, adding fuel to the fierce battle in the metropolitan area.

Artemis should have ensured the plague doctor's safety and followed Kelakesi in action, and her appearance on the Morning Star indicates that the main force of the Dark Crow Guard has also arrived in the Morning Star sector.

Even so, the battle for control of low Earth orbit remains fierce.

However, those are not concerns of Artemis; as a land deity, she would be useless in naval combat, and besides, they have only just arrived on the battlefield, and she has absolute confidence in her legion's strength.

At this moment, she is swiftly moving through the streets, heading toward Metropolitan District 15 as the captain said.

And she is not alone.

The accompanying personnel number over a hundred, likewise wearing specially made powered armor with a silver coating, yet their height is about half a meter taller than that of an Astartes in Terminator armor, amounting to an average height of nearly four meters.

These hulking figures, which appear even larger than Astartes, were actually divine servants tasked with guarding Mount Olympus.

According to Artemis's description, at its peak Olympus likewise possessed over a hundred million divine servants, but more than eighty percent of them perished in alien realms while following Zeus, and the remaining twenty percent were likewise wiped out by various wars.

However, with the return of the Heavenly Empress Hera, and the Emperor having opened a "garden (holiday island)" in the alien realm, increasing numbers of divine servants who would rather fight to the death than succumb to Chaos corruption, or who had lost their way, have been rediscovered and subsequently accepted by the Human Empire.

The current total is about twenty thousand plus.

The vast majority, thanks to the Heavenly Empress Hera, have gradually become auxiliary combat units of the Sparta Corps, while a smaller portion have been transferred to Titan, where they obey Artemis's command and also assist this moon goddess in training the Grey Knights.

On paper, they only surpass Astartes in height and weight, but their strength, reaction, and agility are more than ten times weaker than those of an Astartes, not much different from auxiliary troops.

But when it comes to experience and will, these divine servants have been fighting in the alien realm for ten thousand years.

Moreover, among the over a hundred divine servants accompanying Artemis, four have resisted the corruption of the fallen beauty goddess Aphrodite, so even the battalion's veterans, champions, and even the battalion commander need to address them as "senior".

Soon.

The party soon arrived at Metropolitan District 15.

This place is far from the bustling metropolitan center, lacking many mega-structure skyscrapers, but it has numerous bars operating day and night, as well as many open-air barbecue stalls, presumably a district for people to relax and socialize after a day's work.

However, Metropolitan District 15 now lies in ruins, its green belt burned to ash, its walls riddled with holes, indicating that fierce fighting once erupted here.

Yet oddly, there is not a single corpse on the streets, nor any human remains left after being disintegrated by Gauss fire.

?

Seeing this, the frown line between Artemis's brows became even more pronounced.

Due to the suppression of Spiritual Energy, she cannot employ Spiritual Perception to try to reconstruct what happened here.

"Ah… ah…"

However, Artemis, through her hearing far beyond that of ordinary people, heard faint wailing coming from over ten kilometers away.

!

Upon hearing this commotion, she narrowed her eyes and looked toward the source of the sound.

At the same time, her Moonlight armor generated a small holographic screen over her left eye, displaying an overhead view of Metropolitan District 15.

Dense green dots indicate her and the accompanying divine servants, while the source of the wailing lies due south at a straight-line distance of 15.3 kilometers.

From the overhead view, Artemis saw that the mega-structure apartments there were either tilted or collapsed, and the cause of all this was a Death Spirit pyramid that had erupted from underground, though only its top portion was visible above ground.

Further analysis by zooming in showed its height to be roughly 5,000 to 6,000 meters, while the portion protruding above the surface was only a few hundred meters.

Anyone seeing this would think the place is seriously "icky," and it might even be the forward base of the nearby Death Spirit army.

Like the former Artemis, even without having restored her divine power, she still believed that she and a hundred divine servants alone could handle anything—no great Chaos demon, no orc chieftain would faze her; she would just charge in and fight.

Now?

"Kelakesi." Artemis opened the comm directly, saying, "Metropolitan District 15 has detected an important target; requesting support."

"Understood, please stand by; support is expected to arrive in fifteen minutes." A cold-toned reply came from the other end of the comm.

"Good."

The Artemis of today would not merely want to rely on herself to do the fighting; she has an OriginalBody and an entire legion's main force as backup, so why bring only a handful of troops to go looking for a beating?

Ended the comm.

Artemis then continued forward with over a hundred divine servants toward the Death Spirit pyramid fifteen kilometers away, but this time they deliberately slowed their pace, awaiting reinforcements before launching a full-scale assault to breach it in one go.

—

…

Meanwhile.

In the sector roughly twenty thousand kilometers above the surface……

Boom!! Boom!!

Bang!!

Whoosh—!! Whoosh!!

Staging a dazzling silent fireworks display.

Tens of thousands of warships fired at each other again, with various carrier-based craft maneuvering between ships or hiding within missile salvoes, then launching another surprise assault.

Blazing blue electromagnetic cannon trails, or comet-like plasma gun batteries, and instantaneous beam matrices— the Human Empire side was unleashing full firepower.

The Death Spirit side was no different.

Those flying pyramids, kilometers to tens of kilometers in length, width, and height, fired emerald-green and fluorescent-yellow Gauss shots capable of directly destroying Human Empire destroyers and their energy shields of equal or lower class, then piercing and disintegrating the hulls.

As for the Space Death Spirit's carrier craft, they resemble a disk missing a corner, or a scorpion lacking legs, but their common trait is that the cockpit gives the pilot no protective measures whatsoever.

However, whether or not there are protective measures makes no difference at all to the deathly aviators with metallic skeletal bodies.

They cannot sense vacuum, radiation, extreme heat or cold; as long as they stay within the limits their metallic frames can endure, their functions remain perfectly normal.

Otherwise, there would be the notion of 'fleshly suffering, mechanical ascension.'

Not long ago.

The Imperial Navy and battalion fleet of Morning Star could only rely on near‑orbit electromagnetic emplacements and a beam matrix to oppose the more than 6000 flying pyramids.

Within two hours, Morning Star's orbital forces were almost completely wiped out, leaving only one Fearless‑class carrier, one Phoenix‑class supply ship, and more than a dozen escorts putting up a stubborn resistance.

As the 3rd Company of the 16th Battalion prepared to use a new Paris‑class escort ship to forcibly board a pyramid over thirty kilometers in diameter, the main force of the Dark Crow Guard suddenly appeared.

The Dark Crow Guard's main fleet had originally set out, according to intelligence from the Red Empress, to a deserted planet about two hundred light‑years from Morning Star, to scout and try to determine whether any high‑value target existed there.

But while en route, Kelakesi received a message from Rog saying that the star system where Morning Star lies and the surrounding region had fallen silent, and it was highly likely they had encountered a massive resurgence of the undead tomb.

After changing course and heading out of the Rift Space, they saw that friendly forces were about to be annihilated, so the Dark Crow Guard's main force, numbering about 1200 ships, immediately entered the battle.

Although the Dark Crow Guard side appeared to be at a disadvantage, with a ship ratio of 1:6, the Dark Crow Guard nevertheless possessed a homeworld over two hundred kilometers in diameter.

Another round of naval combat was about to break out.

Both sides exchanged fire, but the Dark Crow Guard's carriers and transports, escorted by destroyers and escort ships, broke through layers of defenses, first reaching near‑orbit and dropping large numbers of ground troops into the metropolitan area.

The 3rd Company of the 16th Battalion, which had been preparing to launch a mutual‑destruction boarding action as the Dark Angel, saw the support arrive and then saw their requisitioned Paris‑class escort ship come under fierce attack, whereupon they ordered all ship members to abandon ship and escape.

Then, after completing 'her' mission, that Paris‑class escort ship was utterly sunk by the undead pyramid and crashed toward the metropolitan area on the surface.

At this moment.

«Emperor's Shadow», that is, within the subterranean world of the Dark Crow Guard's homeworld.

Here, just like the surface of a colonized planet, there is soil, glaciers, and oceans, as well as various factories and cities and bases for habitation and training, except that everything is inverted, turned around.

Moreover, the core of the subterranean world is an artificial star only thirty kilometers in diameter, confined within a special position, providing the Emperor's Shadow with a near‑permanent energy source.

And inside the control room of the Emperor's Shadow…

«Order the fleet to continue with Exercise Plan 322, first eliminating the marked enemy fleet in the sector. »

«Sir, our right flank and rear are being harassed by enemy carrier aircraft. »

«Use the close‑in defense guns of each vessel to destroy them, while also redeploying four aircraft battalions to intercept and annihilate, watching to see if the enemy is carrying large‑scale energy weapons. »

«Yes, sir. »

Only Kelakesi's low, cold orders echoed in the control room, while more than thirty crew members (Astate) began carrying out the directives issued from their OriginalBody.

Besides the Dark Crow Guard personnel skilled in calculation and operation inside the control room, there were over a hundred auxiliary troops responsible for providing intelligence support to officers of all ranks, or directing fighter squadrons and battalions to carry out bombing, strike, and similar missions.

And Kelakesi, wearing a deep‑black OriginalBody powered armor, with a flowing head of hair and fair skin, stood with arms crossed, watching the real‑time battle situation displayed on the console.

(Figure)

According to the so‑called Exercise Plan 332, the Dark Crow Guard, upon exiting the Rift Space, immediately dispersed left and right to avoid being concentrated‑fire‑encircled by the undead fleet.

At the same time, the Emperor's Shadow and the OriginalBody's directly subordinate fleet acted as bait, holding off an undead fleet dozens of times their own size head‑on.

Next, the 1st, 15th, and 44th Battalions took the left wing, the 10th, 24th, and 67th Battalions the right wing, while the 2nd and 3rd Battalions directly activated their fold‑drive engines and blinked to the rear of the undead fleet.

Thus, although the Dark Crow Guard were originally outnumbered, they ended up encircling part of the sector and the undead fleet within it in reverse.

Then, the flagships of the 2nd and 3rd Battalions immediately released matrix terminals that look like metal cylinders, which encircled the entire battalion fleet while also linking the engines of all battalion ships to boost power.

Not only the 2nd and 3rd Battalions, but the flagships of another six battalions, and even the Emperor's Shadow, released thousands of matrix terminals.

And then…

…

Ri~——…

The matrix and matrix terminals were quickly linked, and slender cyan‑blue light beams appeared between them.

Whoosh~——!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In a brief instant, the encircled sector was instantly 'cut', a physical cutting.

A diamond‑shaped body marked ◇ that burst outward with cyan‑blue radiance directly covered the sector within the matrix range, and everything within suffered high‑temperature, high‑energy scorching and cutting.

From afar, it looked like a huge luminous body appearing out of nowhere in that sector.

It seems that, without knowing how many drills they had done, the Dark Crow Guard went from the start of battle to completing the deployment and the matrix cut in less than five minutes.

On the Astate's reaction speed, five minutes is practically a snail's pace, but in naval combat it is no different from an Astate throwing a mighty punch at an alien.

?!!

In an instant it lost a quarter of its scale, causing this newly awakened dynasty to realize that humanity's 'play' with matrix attacks might still have many more tricks.

Immediately, the undead fleet ceased massed action, keeping at least three thousand kilometers between each pyramid, and they also used Morning Star behind them as a 'hostage' to prevent the Dark Crow Guard from flanking again and launching another large‑scale matrix attack.

Seeing this.

Kelakesi continued to give the order: «Notify the 2nd and 3rd Battalions to keep looking for chances to flank, and to coordinate with our main force frontally; at the same time, tell all ships to raise shield power to 120% and lower main gun charge to 60%, no need to worry about friendly fire, then conduct interleaved volleys against enemy ships. »

Also, I will personally go to the surface of Morning Star with the Dark Shadow (Honor Guard), leaving the rest of the battle to you.

«Yes, sir. »

»…«

After hearing the reply, Kelakesi nodded slightly, but just as he was about to turn and leave…

«Oh, what a splendid work of art, tsk tsk, I really want to put it in a display case. »

Then he heard an old man speaking beside his ear.

(End of chapter)