Chapter 266: Continue Advancing

Second Defensive Line gateway fortress.

Akesimande stood at the very top of the fortress world, gazing at the dense defensive installations beneath his feet and the towering anti‑orbit artillery pointing straight into space.

Even with his most critical eye, he could find no flaw in Fulikes' work at all.

Admiring such a perfect defense system, Akesimande pointed at the boundless fortress beneath him while looking toward his nearby attendant:

"It seems Fulikes hasn't been too shameless; this defense system is practically invincible."

Akesimande's face was beaming with profit at that moment.

He kept smiling at the person beside him without pause.

Only after surveying the entire fortress world and seeing that Fulikes still hadn't arrived for the handover did he feel a hint of doubt and ask:

"Where is Fulikes? Haven't they come for the handover?"

His subordinates hurried to verify with the garrison troops left behind, and soon a company commander, a son of Helusu, furrowed his puzzled brows and briskly approached.

Seeing his subordinate commander act that way, Akesimande's face immediately showed a trace of worry; without waiting for the subordinate to come closer, he spoke first:

"What's going on? Did Fulikes back out?!"

Akesimande, still fearing the duck he had in hand might fly away, anxiously questioned his subordinate.

His subordinate's brows furrowed even more upon hearing that, and after hesitating for a while to formulate a response to his superior's anxiety, finally spoke:

"No, Fulikes… is very cooperative."

Seeing that the duck in his grasp hadn't flown away, Akesimande suddenly exhaled in relief.

He paid no heed to his subordinate's odd tone, merely repeating:

"Cooperation is fine, cooperation is fine!"

When the subordinate below finally realized Akesimande hadn't grasped the nuance of his earlier words after a long pause, he couldn't help but speak again:

"But the problem is, he's a bit too cooperative!"

When the subordinate emphasized "too cooperative" by raising his voice, Akesimande finally caught on, halted his praise of Fulikes, tilted his head in puzzlement, and stared seriously at his subordinate.

The company commander then produced a letter from his hand and handed it to Akesimande.

While Akesimande examined it, he spoke directly:

"Fulikes had completed the entire handover procedure before we arrived."

"One could say that after we sent our initial acceptance message, he finished the whole process within just half an hour."

"In other words, without waiting for our consent, Fulikes was already prepared to leave…"

The commander's complexion grew stranger as he spoke; at this point they had not yet fully fallen into Chaos, and their minds still retained human rationality.

Thus, even though they still knew nothing, they found Fulikes' behavior overly strange.

Akesimande stared blankly after finishing the reading; after confirming that the second defensive line now fell under his responsibility, his fervor waned slightly, and he finally sensed something amiss.

Putting down the letter Fulikes had left him, he thought carefully, and then Akesimande finally identified the most unbelievable aspect of the whole affair.

Akesimande first looked at his subordinate, paused, then turned to the local garrison Mortal Legion, and asked a serious question:

"Did Fulikes ever tell you anything about the enemy forces?"

Akesimande's demeanor was extremely serious, even slowing his speech deliberately for fear the people below might not hear clearly.

His subordinate commander was naturally taken aback, then shook his head decisively.

Regarding his subordinate, Akesimande was not overly surprised; his gaze fixed on the local garrison officers who had previously served under Fulikes.

The officers, hearing the question, were visibly stunned, then stammered for a while before speaking haltingly:

"Didn't you say… it's already… finished?"

The officers hesitantly relayed the information they had received, and hearing this version, which clearly differed from his own, even a fool like Akesimande knew he had been duped by Fulikes!

The only remaining question was just how badly he had been screwed over!

Akesimande had no time to interrogate these Mortal officers; he looked around, then finally gazed at the warship above him and pointed directly:

"Quickly, dispatch a reconnaissance unit to the First Defensive Line; I need to know immediately what happened there!"

The subordinate commander, realizing something was wrong, turned without hesitation and carried out Akesimande's order.

Yet Akesimande still felt it wasn't enough; watching the reconnaissance unit launch at maximum speed, he paced back and forth twice in anxiety, then, ignoring the scanner that showed no enemy activity, stared at the equally stunned Mortal officer before him.

"Relay my command: all forces enter alert…"

"No!"

"Enter war mode immediately! Activate all anti‑air firepower, load every cannonball into the barrels!"

Akesimande straightened his posture and, almost shouting, issued the order to the nearby Mortal officer.

Just a second earlier he had wondered why to defend when Imperial reinforcements were all dead.

The next second, Akesimande's angry roar to initiate war mode left the Mortal officers stunned.

When Akesimande raised his hand and blasted a officer into pulp with an explosive round, the surrounding troops finally reacted, hurriedly saluted and turned to obey.

But by then, it was all too late...

As a massive cloud slowly eclipsed the sunlight overhead, a terrified, shrill scream came through the Communicator from his subordinate; Akesimande, bathed in the encroaching shadow, turned his neck stiffly and looked up at the sky.

Twelve hours later.

Akesimande stood on the Bridge of an armed merchant ship.

He stared dumbfounded at the nearby fortress planet, which, no matter how he looked at it, seemed perfect, now slowly cracking into massive 'stone blocks' amid a rain of molten core lava before him.

On the other side of those stone blocks floated a gigantic stellar vessel, its flesh literally cutting through the lava, its body forged of steel.

The second line of defense was still better than the first; at least this time, Longlin Star and the battle moon might allow them a synchronized barrage.

Recalling the scene of that world‑shattering strike, Akesimande, aboard the merchant ship he had barely escaped with, fell into a prolonged silence.

Behind him, his subordinate's face turned a bruised blue, cursing Fulikes nonstop and vowing to jump back to the Loyalist faction just to see Fulikes dead!

Only Akesimande stood dazed for a while; when the merchant ship could no longer linger and began to flee further backward, he suddenly lifted his head.

He didn't blame Fulikes, after all there was an even more realistic problem.

Namely, how did the Empire's reinforcements, which were slaughtered on the first front by Fulikes, manage to pass unhindered through the second front you, Akximan De, presided over?

As for this question, Akximan De, on the contrary, had none of Fulikes's hesitation at the time, after all…

There was a ready‑made answer right in front of him.

"Those perverts, the Emperor's son's bunch, haven't they always wanted a few proper worlds for wild revelry?"

"Hand over the third front to them, and also, the report on the second front…"

Akximan De paused, but then forced his hesitation aside, making his expression absolutely solemn:

"Tell the War General, say that our forces are engaging the enemy's main force in a decisive battle on the second front."

"We have already annihilated a hundred billion enemies, and are now triumphantly advancing into other defense zones!"