Chapter 2625: Chapter 1762: It’s Not Over Yet
Fire rained down.
The Tribunal began choosing to gradually withdraw from the battlefield, as their warships secured the orbit, repelling wave after wave of attacks from the Chaos Fleet. Yet the latter similarly did not cease their attempts. They found ways to bypass the Tribunal’s defenses, aiming to attack the planet directly.
And indeed, some of them succeeded.
A black silhouette emerged from the storm, as if it were part of the dim world itself. It roared as it charged forward, the power claw in its hand tearing through the howling blizzard.
Then it was stopped by the Thundering War Hammer.
"You still haven’t all died."
Duanmu Huai raised the Thunder Warhammer, gazing at the enemy clad in heavy black power armor before him—on their helmets were twisted skulls and blood-red wings. Not familiar, yet not unknown.
"Tell me, Koz’s bastards, even your own father spat on you, cursed you, abandoned you, so what is the meaning of your existence?"
"Lapdogs of the False Emperor!"
Perhaps seeing the golden double-headed eagle and skull emblem on Duanmu Huai’s chest, the black giant’s eyes grew even more blood-red.
"You shall not utter that name! This world will ultimately be destroyed, just like countless worlds, falling into Chaos!"
"I insist on saying it, cursed and abandoned, even your own father doesn’t want you."
Duanmu Huai let out a series of manic laughter.
"Your existence is worthless, from beginning to end it’s always been that way. You yearn for your father to give you a glance, but that fool only falls into his own self-pity. You think that by following in his footsteps, that arrogant depressive would notice you. And the result? You walked a path of no return, Koz is dead, you still live, but what’s the meaning of your existence? Traitors!"
Duanmu Huai’s voice grew increasingly high-pitched, he roared and suddenly raised the warhammer, smashing aside the other’s power claw.
"You betrayed the Imperial, betrayed humanity, betrayed everything. At the end of the day, you are nothing but filthy scum, vile sinners, you and your foolish idiot of a father should be executed together! Let me tell you, whether now or a thousand years, ten thousand years into the future, the Tribunal will never forget your crimes and disgrace!"
The wild, insane pressure surged forth, intense fear almost turned into tangible molten rock, flowing within the Chaos Warrior’s body. The Midnight Lords are masters of fear and pain, considering them indispensable art forms. Yet none of the fear and pain could compare to the present.
They once flayed human skin alive, using special machines to alter perceptions of pain, gouging out their victim’s eyes and tongues. Any prey falling into the hands of the Midnight Lords would desperately crave death.
But now, even death had become a luxury.
The gleam of destruction penetrated into the Midnight Lord’s body, it let out a piercing scream, demonized wings trembling incessantly, as if every capillary, every inch of muscle, every piece of skin was subjected to unprecedented interrogation and torture at that moment. It had no escape, for the shivering and fear did not come from the body, but from its soul.
That evil, degenerate, filthy soul, now like rotting bones, being mercilessly blown by the ferocious storm.
What it needs is not repentance, nor forgiveness.
But judgment and destruction.
The Thunder Warhammer whistled out, shattering the Midnight Lord’s power claw into a tattered mess. Duanmu Huai gripped the warhammer tight, swinging it in an arc, then bringing it down again.
"Boom!"
The tall, ugly, twisted body was slammed heavily to the ground, marking the beginning of another battle.
A battle that had lasted for tens of millennia.
Once the warband that raised the banner of rebellion, the guards that defended the Imperial.
Now, the imperial was long destroyed. Perhaps they were the last traces of the existence of the Human Empire, whether good or bad, it’s all the same.
But that’s not important, both sides have a mission, the same mission.
And that is—to destroy each other!
"———————!"
The macro cannon roared.
The dazzling firelight intertwined with the starlight in the starry sky, indistinguishable from one another.
The two fleets tangled like two wounded beasts, tightly interwoven, tearing at each other, every bite ripping a chunk of flesh from one another. Yet despite this, neither side intended to give up the struggle. As if only when the opponent is completely dead will the battle end.
However, compared to the truly beastlike Chaos Fleet, Aikute was, of course, more comfortable, which allowed her to notice the massive shadow silently appearing over the planet.
Massive, terrifying, colossal bodies emerged from the void, Aikute commanded the Tribunal Fleet to unleash a volley and quickly scatter. Yet the Chaos Fleet behind them evidently had no such luck, their filthy, corrupt, ugly warships hadn’t even had time to detach from subspace before being fascinated by the Leviathan before them, only to be smashed into fragments.
The Swarms came, responding to the call of the Genetic Thieves, greedily devouring the biomass of the planet, attempting to merge it with themselves.
"We must retreat immediately! Uncle!"
Aikute shouted loudly to Duanmu Huai.
"The Tyran Swarms have arrived and are trying to approach the planet. I can’t stop them with the current fleet numbers."
"We’re almost there!"
Duanmu Huai charged forth in the snowy forest. Although logically, using the Net Path for teleportation here was a very secure method.
But based on Duanmu Huai’s experience, the closer one is to Subspace, the more unstable teleportation becomes.
He certainly wouldn’t want to open his eyes and find himself surrounded by petty merchants.
This possibility not only exists, but is quite large.
The other Night Guards took responsibility for the rear, wielding Bomb Guns and Chainsaw Swords, mercilessly annihilating all enemies daring to charge forward. Whether they were Chaos Warriors, Titan Clan, Space Undead, or Genetic Thieves, it was all the same. Of course, they too would be killed, but for the Night Guards, they do not truly die — once irreversible damage occurs, their souls automatically return to the Divine Realm of Duanmu Huai, the God of Destruction, and then they would merge with another Power Armor through Spirit Descent.
Hmm, this was far more efficient than any Curse Binding Army.
A Night Raven Black Star descended from the sky, and Duanmu Huai carrying Ogis and Lumiaire charged forth, not even waiting for the latter to land before sprinting forward.
"Return to the warship immediately!"
With Duanmu Huai’s command, the Night Raven Black Star accelerated instantly, leaving the planet at the fastest speed and disappearing into the vast Star Ocean.
And the battle continued.
At least it was still ongoing when Duanmu Huai returned to the Tribunal.
"The situation is really bad."
Back in the Combat Command Room, Duanmu Huai’s mood was visibly terrible. The current Eye of Fear had turned into a complete mess. Orcs, Space Undead, Swarms, and Chaos Connection appeared, it was a complete disaster. Duanmu Huai disliked changes beyond his control, but he also had to admit, the appearance of such situations could only be attributed to... extremely bad luck.
Hmm, similar events have indeed occurred in games, but for Duanmu Huai, encountering such chaos in a situation as urgent as this was a first.
"The seventh and eighth fleets have been annihilated."
Aikute also gave up control, reluctantly reporting. To buy Duanmu Huai time, she had no choice but to directly steer the fleet for physical interception, then detonated its Retreat Furnace to release a small black hole, devouring a large number of swarms.
But this was the limit, eventually, the swarms broke through the blockade. However, luckily by then, Duanmu Huai, Lumiaire, and others had already left that unlucky star. But clearly, others weren’t so fortunate. It’s obvious that the swarms descending will become new active forces in the chaotic battle. But this has nothing to do with the Tribunal; they have already withdrawn, now just watching from the sidelines.
"Mr. Knight, who do you think will win this battle?"
Ann gazed at the star map before her, curiously asking, and Duanmu Huai gathered his anger and frustration, pondering slightly.
"I think the Space Undead might be in trouble, not sure about the Green Skin’s situation, but purely in terms of numbers, nothing compares to Green Skin and the swarms. Those Chaos Legions won’t have much advantage, I guess they’ll choose to retreat back to the Eye of Fear afterward."
After all, Chaos Legions probably just came out to see what’s happening, not expecting to encounter swarms. There isn’t really any conflict between swarms and Chaotic Demons.
The reason is simple, swarms cannot absorb demons. Even if swarms kill demons, they can’t convert them into biomass. Likewise, for Chaotic Demons, even if they kill swarms, they can’t gain souls or such spoils.
It’s a complete lose-lose situation for these two sides fighting, therefore Duanmu Huai concluded Chaos Legions won’t stay long.
"Now... what do we do?"
Mary furrowed her brow slightly, asking uneasily, while Duanmu Huai helplessly spread his hands.
"We’ll just have to wait, to be honest, not being able to eliminate these pests in one go makes me quite anxious. But being able to withdraw from this chaos is already quite good. The swarms only go to places rich in biomass, this planet doesn’t have much for them to squander. I suppose not long after, they’ll shift their focus to other star territories."
He paused, glancing at Aikute.
"Aikute, when that time comes, send a Reconnaissance Fleet to keep an eye on them, if this swarm heads to another galaxy, just issue an Extinction order to that galaxy."
"Understood."
"As for now..."
Duanmu Huai silently sat back in his chair, sighed.
"All we can do is wait — have Maria accelerate the component manufacturing."
"Yes."
