They continued their travel.
The void stretched endless around them, stars scattered against black velvet. Adrian found himself returning to the viewport again and again, watching the galaxy drift past in streams of light.
A few days later, stars folded back into clarity as Aurelia's ship slowed. Ahead, a new star system swam into view.
At first glance, it seemed normal. A sun, a scattering of planets, the usual dance of celestial bodies. Until the ship's sensors lit up.
"Multiple vessels detected," the AI intoned. "Dozens, Orbiting."
The view sharpened. Dozens of vessels loomed in the void, scattered across the star system.
Some cloaked, their outlines shimmering faintly, others brazenly anchored in orbit, hulls glinting with clan markings. Warships. Merchant cruisers. Carriers shaped like blades, hulks like floating fortresses. All silent. All watching.
One planet below glimmered with signs of life, and it was there the fleet clustered, silent witnesses circling above.
Thomas frowned. "Why would so many ships just… sit there?"
Aurelia's face darkened. Her fingers tightened on the ship's controls. "Spectacles. Some clans turn their controlled worlds into stages. Auctions, public punishments, rituals."
Her voice carried disdain. "When such events happen, ships gather. To trade, to gossip… or to gawk."
"To them, suffering is entertainment."
She lifted her Node. Runes flared as it connected to the local satellite node permitted by the ruling clan. "They broadcast these things themselves. A declaration of dominance."
The projection shimmered to life in the command chamber.
A city appeared. Stone buildings, wooden huts, open plazas. Primitive, like Earth's ancient civilizations.
But the people?
Every figure in the projection bore the same shape, the same features, the same expressions Adrian had grown up seeing back on earth.
Not just humanoid, but humans. Women in roughspun clothes, carrying baskets. Children playing in dust. Faces weathered by sun and suffering, but unmistakable.
Adrian's breath caught. "They're… us."
Elara leaned closer, disbelief sharpening her voice. "Not just similar. Humans."
Selena's jaw clenched. "So the human race really isn't just on Earth."
Aurelia nodded slowly, her gaze hard. "Yes. Our kind."
She braced herself. Such worlds were often stripped for mana crystals, their people enslaved to mine until death. She had seen it before, too many times.
But what unfolded was stranger.
A girl knelt before a statue of a woman carved in crude stone. Sixteen, perhaps younger, her small hands clasped as she prayed.
Another figure approached. An older woman, worn by grief. Her mother.
"Luna!" the woman's voice trembled. "What are you doing?"
The Node translated the projection for them.
The girl's response was barely a whisper. "Praying to our goddess, Mama. For her to save us."
Tears glistened as the mother pulled at her daughter's shoulders. Luna only pressed harder against the stone. "Why do you still pray? How many times must I tell you? No god will set foot on this cursed land."
Then, with sudden resolve, Luna turned away from the statue. She knelt again, but this time facing the stars above.
Her mother blinked, confused. "Dear… whom are you praying to now?"
The girl's voice was quiet. "You said god won't come. Then I'll pray in the opposite direction."
"Maybe the demon will."
In the ship, silence fell.
Adrian shifted uneasily. The words struck something deep in his chest.
Kael muttered, "Feels like some twisted broadcast play." His jaw tightened. "But it isn't. This is real."
The projection shifted. The girl and her mother froze, staring toward the sky. Dust and screams filled the air as villagers scattered into their homes, vanishing like startled prey.
Adrian's stomach lurched, not a single man among them. Every face was female.
The source of their fear descended.
A spaceship landed at the plaza's center, its hull gleaming dark. The hatch opened, and dozens of towering figures marched out, their skin a sickly green, veins glowing faintly beneath. Across their foreheads ran ridges like scars etched into bone.
There were at least one hundred figures, each exuding the weight of SSS-rank.
And then, last of all, a young man.
He strode down the ramp, draped in grand black robes, two women trailing at his sides like trophies. His smile was indulgent, smug, as he looked over the cowering humans.
Adrian's eyes narrowed. The figures were similar to humanoids but not humans.
Aurelia's voice was a hiss. "The Viridian race. And him… Darius of the Emerald Serpent Clan."
"94th Clan on the Galactic Rankings. Infamous for cruelty dressed as rituals."
Selena muttered, "He looks like he's here for a feast."
A throne shimmered into existence at the plaza's heart. Darius reclined upon it, fingers tapping idly on the armrest, smile curved like a blade.
He raised his hand lazily. "Let's begin."
At once, several of the Viridian warriors stepped forward. They unfurled massive drums and began to beat them, each strike echoing like thunder across the square.
A ceremony had begun.
Adrian's face tightened. Thomas and Elara exchanged grim glances.
Selena leaned forward, her smirk gone.
Even Aurelia, who had seen much, "I thought they'd be mining slaves. That's the usual story. But this…" She trailed off, unease sharpening her tone.
None of them yet knew what this ritual was for. But all of them felt it would not end well.
The drums pounded on.
Then a viridian warrior took a rune parchment, lit it with his mana and randomly threw it.
The burning scroll spiraled through the air, trailing sparks like a falling star. Its glow cast dancing shadows across the stone buildings below.
The drums never stopped. The warriors who had been beating them lifted the instruments, continuing their rhythm as they began to chase the floating parchment.
Adrian watched in growing unease as dozens of SSS-rank beings sprinted through the streets. Their massive forms crashed through market stalls and scattered pottery, yet their drumbeats never faltered.
"What the hell are they doing?" Thomas muttered.
The parchment drifted over a row of huts, its light flickering against shuttered windows. Inside, Adrian could see the faint outlines of cowering families.
The warriors leaped from rooftop to rooftop, their weight cracking tiles and beams. The drums boomed with each landing.
Darius remained on his throne, that indulgent smile never wavering. His fingers tapped against the armrest in rhythm with the drums.