While Aurelia's mind still reeled from the reports of Blackwood Ink, the ship's AI cut through her thoughts.
"Alert. Multiple signatures entering near planetary orbit. Unidentified fleet detected."
Her body went rigid.
Someone had followed her.
She lunged for the controls, fingers dancing across holographic displays. The ship's engines roared to life, lifting her back into the void.
Outside her viewport, a fleet materialized from hyperspace folds. Dozens of sleek vessels arranged in perfect formation, their hulls gleaming with imperial markings.
And floating before them, arms crossed in arrogant satisfaction, drifted a man.
He looked humanoid, but his skin was slightly red, while the shape of his fingers was sharp like a dragon's.
Aurelia's eyes narrowed to slits. "Valerius."
Heir of the Drakenholt clan. A pest she had shaken off countless times before, yet here he was again like a bad omen.
She hadn't expected him to track her here, to the galaxy's forgotten edge.
Her ship's airlock hissed open. Aurelia stepped into the vacuum.
The void carried no sound, yet Valerius's voice reached her through essence projection, dripping with mock courtesy.
"Lady Aurelia... imagine finding you skulking around this mudball."
His gaze swept toward Earth's blue marble, and his smirk widened. "Your little pet planet looks lively. Such a shame how fragile these primitive worlds can be."
Aurelia's jaw clenched until her teeth ached. "What the hell are you doing here, Valerius?"
He drifted closer, his movements casual despite the lethal tension crackling between them. "Oh, there are many reasons one visits the edges of the galaxy."
"Curiosity, Opportunity, The endless pursuit of novelty." His grin turned predatory. "But let us dispense with pleasantries."
The space around him shimmered as his essence flared, a display of power meant to intimidate. "You'll come with me, Aurelia. Be mine, and I'll spare this mudball."
"Refuse..." His eyes glittered with malice. "And accidents happen."
Aurelia's aura erupted. Power enough to tear his entire fleet apart burned at her fingertips, space warping under the pressure.
But Valerius only laughed, the sound carrying through the void's silence. "Haha, I know you're strong enough to kill us all."
"But here? In orbit of this delicate little world?" He gestured mockingly toward Earth. "Even a stray clash between us would burn your planet to cinders."
His voice dropped to a whisper. "Do you really want to gamble with eight billion lives?"
Her hands trembled. Not from fear, from pure, incandescent rage, because she knew the bastard was right.
Any battle at their level would shatter continents. Earth's defenders, no matter how improved, couldn't survive the collateral damage of a galactic-tier conflict.
From Earth's surface, a golden blaze suddenly erupted skyward. The light cut through space like a divine sword, ascending with purpose and terrible beauty.
Sentinel rose into orbit, his radiance making the stars themselves seem dim. After centuries apart, Aurelia's eyes met his in a silent reunion broken by this unwelcome intruder.
Valerius sneered at the approaching figure, thinking of him as some primitive planetary warrior. "Another one? This backwater world has its share of toys, doesn't it?"
The golden guardian's presence shifted the very fabric of space around them. Even Valerius's fleet seemed to recoil instinctively from that ancient power.
Yet the heir pressed on, his voice smug and poisonous. "Come with me, Aurelia. Submit to the inevitable, or watch this world burn."
Aurelia seethed, her power straining against the leash of necessity. Every instinct screamed to reduce this arrogant fool to cosmic dust.
Sentinel's cold fury simmered beside her, but he too understood the risk. One wrong move, and Earth would pay the price.
Valerius's smirk widened as he read their hesitation. "See? You're trapped by your own sentiment."
"I can destroy this world without lifting a finger, and you both know it." His laugh echoed through the void.
But then, something else stirred.
On Earth, Adrian felt it, the hostile signatures pressing down on the planet. The seed inside his chest thrummed violently, resonating.
And without hesitation, he moved.
He blinked, and in the next instant, stepped into the void. No ship, No armor, Just himself.
The emptiness hit him instantly. No air, no sound, no ground, only the raw vibration of essence around him.
His body reeled, limbs trembling as he drifted in the vast nothing. For the first time in years, he felt fragile.
Aurelia froze, her eyes widened. "A human… from Earth… in space?"
Sentinel's golden light rippled with surprise.
Valerius burst out laughing, mocking. "Ah, what's this? Another rat crawling out of that mudball?"
"Don't tell me this child is your hidden weapon, Aurelia."
Adrian twisted clumsily, steadying himself. His eyes darted between Aurelia, Sentinel, and the fleet.
He recognized Aurelia immediately, but not the ships, not the man who floated before them, nor the threat looming over Earth.
He saw how they were using essence to speak, and he tried it himself.
"…Who are you?" Adrian asked, his voice getting used to the void and using essence to speak. "Why are you here?"
Valerius snorted. "Who am I? I am Valerius of the Drakenholt clan."
"My name alone could bury a thousand worlds. And this," He gestured at Earth below, contempt dripping from every word. "This pebble doesn't even deserve a name."
"Yet somehow, you insects think yourselves strong."
Adrian's eyes narrowed, voice steady now. "This planet is my home."
Valerius sneered. "Home? A backwater crawling with primitives."
"I could scorch it with a word. You'd watch your families burn, and your so-called protectors wouldn't dare move."
"Because they know one strike between us would shatter your fragile little world."
Aurelia's power coiled. Sentinel's light pressed outward.
But neither struck. Both knew the truth.
Adrian's jaw tightened, his voice trembling with restrained fury. "You'd threaten an entire world… for your pride?"
Valerius's laughter was cold. "No, For her." He pointed at Aurelia.
"She's mine. Everything I want, I take. That's the way of the galaxy."
"If I have to grind this world to ash to teach her obedience, I will."
For a heartbeat, Adrian drifted helplessly in the void. Then fury ignited.
His Source Seed thundered inside him, his veins started burning white-grey.
His roar ripped through the silence.
"You dare threaten her? Threaten my planet?!"