"As repayment, I'll go over and take a look. If someone you know runs into trouble, I'll help." Acheron said calmly.
No one rejected Acheron's proposal. Those who walk the Trailblaze don't require repayment from the people they've helped, but they were indeed curious, who exactly would appear in the Hisei Star System.
Thanks to how remote this route was, merchant groups that traveled through here always carried large numbers of guards.
Interstellar pirates weren't fools, there were countless small merchant fleets across the cosmos for them to plunder, so there was no need to come here and clash head-on with well-defended targets.
And yet, the presence of the Hunt in such a remote star region at this moment was hard to make sense of.
Following the direction, Acheron moved through space at extreme speed.
With the overwhelming strength of an Emanator, she could traverse the galaxy freely, with no need to worry about anything else.
Emanators were rare, and every single one of them added a legendary chapter to their Path. Crossing the universe with one's physical body was merely the most basic of feats.
As Acheron drew closer, a red line suddenly appeared in her field of vision.
"Boom!!" The vast galaxy was engulfed in a sea of flames.
The Hunt and Destruction collided, neither yielding an inch.
Faint shouts of battle passed through starships and spread into the void.
"That's… the Cloud Knights!?" Dan Heng, who was checking Acheron's route through the Express database, only needed a single glance at the image on the screen for his pupils to shrink violently.
There, plainly visible, was a battlefield where the Cloud Knights were colliding head-on with the Antimatter Legion.
"Why would the Cloud Knights be there, oh no!" March 7th cried out, instinctively clenching her small hands.
On the battlefield, the Cloud Knights were clearly at a disadvantage.
Though they managed to organize effective counterattacks against the suddenly appearing Antimatter Legion, their inferior numbers forced them to retreat step by step.
"How could the Hisei System have Cloud Knights?" Dan Heng looked stunned.
Under normal circumstances, let alone Cloud Knights, even Xianzhou civilians leaving their ships required strict inspections. Escorting personnel would at most be sent to some distant system for surveys.
After several wars, the Xianzhou's military strength looked vast, and truly was formidable, but for a remote system like Hisei, the Xianzhou would at most dispatch one or two people to record star charts, escorted by guards.
How could they just happen to run into the Antimatter Legion!?
"Miss Acheron, can you help them?" March 7th wished she could rush over herself, but the distance was far too great.
"Click."
The moment her words fell, the hum of blades echoed through the starry sky.
A flash of white light erupted, and the frenzied Voidranger legion froze in place, before being effortlessly split in two and rapidly scattered beneath the Cloud Knights' raised shields.
"So fast…" March 7th widened her eyes unconsciously, her mind replaying the slash Acheron had unleashed in Penacony.
That single strike had shattered her understanding of combat power in this world.
She had only ever heard people talk about superpowerhouses capable of destroying star systems, but actually seeing one with her own eyes… there was only this one.
Due to the distance, they could see some of the nearby Cloud Knights aboard the starships standing frozen in place, utterly at a loss.
Clearly, they had no idea what had just happened.
"There's more over there. It's big." As if she had merely done something trivial, Acheron glanced in another direction and spoke succinctly.
"Could it be a Doomsday Beast?" Stelle tilted her head, the only large combat unit she could think of.
"No. It's somewhat similar to that person from the IPC. Stronger than him."
That person from the IPC… After a brief mental freeze, March 7th suddenly had a flash of insight at the critical moment.
"You mean Aventurine!?" Everyone froze at the name, all feeling that this was the most likely answer.
Thinking it over, among the IPC members, only Aventurine had left a deeper impression on Acheron during the previous Penacony trip…
Wait!! Himeko, Welt, and Dan Heng suddenly looked up, realization striking them all at once.
Similar to Aventurine, but stronger, then that would be…!!!
…
"A Lord Ravager!!"
The fleet commander's nerves snapped tight. His entire body convulsed, facial muscles twitching as he barely forced out the title.
Nearly half his body had been pulverized, this was only thanks to emergency reinforcement measures activating at the last moment.
Just the aftershock alone had completely incapacitated an officer capable of commanding an entire army. Two-thirds of the command ship had been shattered.
They couldn't even organize any effective counterattack.
Fortunately, Celenova's strike had truly been nothing more than a casual blow.
But the entire fleet had only endured a single exchange before nearly collapsing.
If not for the remaining soldiers fighting desperately, the whole fleet would likely have been annihilated by now.
Even so, he understood why he was still alive, and why he still had the ability to retaliate.
That Lord Ravager had never regarded any of them as worthy of notice. To her, they were nothing more than a small stone by the roadside, something she could kick away at any time.
Only the thing they had drawn out was worthy of her attention.
"The planet Rahu…" Gritting his teeth, while his body had yet to recover, he braced himself with one hand against the emergency communication device.
During the time the Cloud Knights paid with their lives, Celenova stood in the path of the planet Rahu.
"An activated planet, well-deserved of its name."
Sitting sideways atop the Doomsday Beast's head, Celenova gazed at the planet before her, filled with wails, and let out a soft laugh, nodding in satisfaction.
Ignoring the presence of Xianzhou lifeforms on the planet Rahu, the power contained within the planet Rahu itself ranked among the top.
That power originated from the Abundance. It was, in the truest sense, power of the same origin as the Ambrosial Arbor.
But this power was not something external forces couldn't influence.
When the Abundance bestowed power, it never imposed limits. If one had the capability, it wasn't impossible to twist it into something completely unrecognizable.
For example, Aha once poured divine power into a single insect, blatantly demonstrating how different Paths could influence and suppress one another through sheer strength.
And when a planet driven only by devouring instinct faced a Lord Ravager of Destruction, the outcome was self-evident.
Boundless destruction condensed into a gigantic hand that wrapped around Rahu.
The Xianzhou people upon it seemed to sense the disturbance from the outside and began to stir restlessly. Celenova saw it clearly, some with resolute wills even attempted to drag Rahu forward, trying to charge toward Celenova of their own accord.
In response, Celenova neither mocked them nor felt displeasure.
She only let out a sigh of reflection. Destruction does not exist solely to destroy.
The Annihilation Gang's mindless destruction merely satisfies their own twisted desires. The will of destruction held by Duke Inferno is purer by comparison, yet even that exists only to draw forth Nanook's destruction.
Such destruction is no richer than a child smashing a vase.
"I will grant you new life."
Her lips parted softly. Even the aura of destruction could be solemn and sacred. At this moment, Celenova resembled a divine maiden from myth, bestowing mercy upon the wandering dead of a fallen clan.
Sensing danger, the activated planet instinctively struggled.
Yet under Celenova's step-by-step advance, it had no means of resistance.
If Celenova were to clash head-on with it, she might not necessarily be able to subdue such a living planet.
But she possessed wisdom. Who says destruction must collide head-on? That is the crude thinking of a reckless brute.
How much Imaginary energy can an Emanator mobilize? The answer is, nearly infinite.
As long as the Emanator's body can withstand it, the amount of Imaginary energy is merely the simplest of variables.
A living planet is vast in scale, and the rate of corrosion is exceedingly slow, but it is not nonexistent.
Moreover, Celenova was not engaging it directly. She maintained her distance, using her power to erode it bit by bit.
The transformation of the living planet into a weapon of destruction was only a matter of time.
If the activated planet had been commanded by an Emanator of Abundance, things would never have gone so smoothly. But it possessed only instinct.
Among beings of the same tier, when facing an intelligent opponent, it was undoubtedly the easiest to deal with.
Very few paths possess the power to erode a living planet, yet Destruction happens to be one of them.
Unlike the Hunt, which relies on Lan's overwhelming might.
Ten percent. Twenty percent. Fifty percent…
As time passed, the signs of corrosion grew more and more apparent.
The most obvious change was within the activated planet itself, the wails had fallen into silence.
They remained alive only because the living planet itself, along with the blessings of Abundance upon them, still persisted....
Even so, they no longer needed to endure that inhuman suffering. After what felt like countless days and nights to them, rest finally descended.
Although… traces of Void Soldiers had begun to surface upon their bodies. The smooth progression made Celenova softly hum a ballad from a star system that had once been destroyed.
"Crack!"
Just as her expression relaxed, three slashes cleaved through the void between the stars.
From afar, the colossal Doomsday Beast beat its massive wings, its terrifying presence striking fear into countless worlds across the cosmos.
As it flapped again and again, the Doomsday Beast's enormous wings gradually came to a halt. A barely perceptible fissure, yet brimming with chilling sharpness, ran from head to tail, unobstructed.
"Whoosh!" The Doomsday Beast, whose name alone struck terror into innumerable worlds, vanished abruptly into the sea of stars, leaving no trace behind.
The next instant, from the horizontal line across its body erupted a dazzling blade of light, cutting straight toward the still-transforming the activated planet!
Before it could truly reach its target, it was diminished by a suddenly appearing gray power, scattering into nothingness.
A purple-haired woman wielding a katana stood in the foreground, her expression impassive. Her gaze did not linger on the Doomsday Beast she had just slain, but instead fixed on a far more distant point behind it.
"Lord Ravager… Celenova." The voice did not come from Acheron, but from Himeko on the other end of the communication.
At this moment, the entire Astral Express crew wore solemn expressions.
Their impression of Celenova was not particularly deep, yet the events of that encounter were etched firmly into their memories.
Celenova and Irontomb, two Lord Ravagers.
Although that battle did not seem to reveal their true power, that did not mean they were weak.
The terror of the Zephyro remained vivid, let alone one ranked alongside it.
"She wants to turn Rahu into a legion weapon like the Doomsday Beast… another instrument of the Antimatter Legion."
Himeko murmured softly. Her thoughts immediately turned to the grudge between the Xianzhou Luofu and the Legion.
"An Emanator of Nihility."
Celenova's expression likewise turned grave as her gaze locked tightly onto Acheron, who had launched the sudden attack.
This was someone who had made a grand display of power in Penacony, Celenova remembered her well.
An Emanator of Nihility, something the universe had long believed to be impossible.
Given [IX]'s utterly indifferent attitude, nearly all factions agreed that Nihility had no Emanators.
Because it would be meaningless. To [IX], everything in the entire galaxy is meaningless. Emanators included.
Whether brilliance, wisdom, monstrosity, or evils beyond human imagination, all of it holds no meaning to Them.
And yet, an Emanator long deemed impossible had truly appeared. And one of terrifying strength. The rift in the Asdana Star System still exists to this day.
It has even become a popular tourist attraction.
"So Nihility intends to join in as well? If I remember correctly, [IX] should be the one least interested in such matters, no?"
Though wary, battles between Emanators are often decided only at the brink of life and death. That slash had indeed been stunning, but it was not reason enough for her to retreat.
As an Emanator herself, Celenova was inferior to no one.
Acheron did not respond. Her gaze shifted away from Celenova and fell upon the living planet still being corroded by destruction.
This was a stellar structure far larger than an ordinary star. Something within it faintly gave her a strange sense of familiar unfamiliarity.
Blood-Sin Spirit. The chilling term surfaced in her mind.
The Xianzhou people upon the activated planet had not become Blood-Sin Spirits, yet they bore suffering similar to theirs.
Acheron could hear their wails, their agony, and their release. Release… had destruction become a form of release?
Acheron did not know. Nor did she care. Even the slash she had delivered earlier carried no deeper meaning.
It was merely a simple swing of the blade.