Over the vast starry sky, Léo's Morvain spaceship from his empire advanced violently through the vacuum of space. Along with this enormous ship, thousands of smaller spacecraft followed from a short distance.
In the control center of the Morvain ship, there was Léo, sitting on a throne that perfectly matched his size. The colors of the throne highlighted his tight black suit, similar to Viltrumite clothing.
Thraxans went back and forth, doing the tasks they were ordered to do: some commanded pilots and others, the less important ones, cleaned the floor; all of them very tired after some time traveling.
Some who were not part of the Phoenix Project aged slowly due to traveling at high speed, but because they had a low life expectancy, their aging became noticeable after a while.
But not even the most tired or the oldest showed a face of discontent, because in the future they would be remembered in the history books of their planet as the first Thraxans to conquer a new planet for the empire.
Usually, Thraxans would not have such confidence. If one day they had been told that they would leave their planet to dominate another, they would laugh at such a beautiful joke. But in this case, they were placing all their expectations on the shoulders of their great emperor, Léo — the one capable of performing divine miracles such as flying, having strength beyond normal, possessing a great life expectancy, among other things.
Léo, who was just sitting on the throne, was like a peak they could support themselves on. Under the gaze of all, there was expectation and hope for a prosperous future for the empire they were born in. Everyone there was extremely happy to be part of all of that.
Two months had already passed since they all left the former Thraxan empire. Léo was very bored, as there was nothing to do besides usually provoking Angela and training.
When Léo thought he would have some kind of fun with some spacecraft of other races that passed near his fleet, he was disappointed, because all the ships, upon seeing the enormous space fleet, simply turned around so they would not become targets of the huge spacecraft floating in space.
Léo thought too much. He had not yet realized that even though there could be hundreds of races with the same technological power as his, the universe was extremely large; the chance of him finding a race with this same type of technology and traveling through space with such a large fleet was extremely rare. It would be even rarer for them to want to start a conflict.
"Diego, how long until we reach the Xangdia star?" Léo impatiently asked the ship's officer.
"My lord, in at most twenty days we will arrive at the location close to the Xangdia star's sensor range. If we pass this area, our ships will be detected by the interplanetary defense sensors." Diego answered honestly.
"Underst—"
Before Léo could finish his sentence, one of the ship's pilots, who took care of the sensory sector, warned from where he was stationed: "Sir, the ship's A.I. has detected the approach of a small fleet from the Xangdia star!"
"Do they seem to have already noticed us?"
"By the route they're taking, it appears we've already been discovered!" The Thraxan answered honestly.
"Since we've been discovered, we no longer need to hide." Léo said, standing up, and immediately continued: "Order the fighter ship pilots to shoot them down!"
After the command, Léo's orders were quickly passed on, and the ships that had detected Léo's fleet were shot down one by one.
Planet Xangdia, Royal Capital...
"Your Majesty, Your Majesty!!"
An old Xang, with a yellowish face and purple tentacles moving on his head like hair, ran through the royal palace hall of Xangdia shouting for his king.
"What is it, minister? Why are you so desperate?" The king, who was on his throne surrounded by women, asked calmly.
"A fleet, Your Majesty! An alien fleet is coming toward our planet!" The old man shouted...
A deadly silence filled the air. Everyone in the royal hall stopped what they were doing and looked wide-eyed at the minister.
Breaking the silence, the King of Xangdia shouted: "Who the hell is bold enough to send a fleet to our planet!?"
"My lord, I have reason to believe that the ones behind this are the Thraxans... All the ships in the fleet are Thraxan, except for one: the mothership. We've never seen anything like it."
Looking back, the old minister signaled for some men to bring a screen.
"Pay attention, my lord, these are recordings from before the escort ships in our planet's space were shot down."
The men quickly brought a small screen, where footage of the Morvain spaceship appeared along with the ships that had taken down the escorts.
"This... what the hell is this!? Since when has that second-rate planet built a destruction ship like this!?" The king asked, standing up to look closely.
"My lord... what should we do? Shall we send fleets to confront them or fight on the planet?" The minister, now with a face of pure fear, questioned his majesty.
"Send ships to delay them and begin preparing the planet's defensive shields!" The king shouted furiously at his minister, who wasted no time preparing everything.
15 days later...
"Hmph… Those damned Xangs, they sent so many ships and delayed our trip by five days! Are they trying to buy time for something?"
"That's right! But today those bastards will suffer, no matter what they're preparing. With our emperor here, who can defeat us!" The Morvain ship pilots spoke among themselves, complaining and bragging about Léo.
"Reporting to Your Majesty, the ship's system has completed a full analysis of the region… There are at least a thousand ships stationed in front of the planet Xangdia, and we've detected a protective shield covering the entire planetary surface." Diego reported as he read the analyses appearing on his digital panel.
"Is that all of their space-battle power? That's a little disappointing, there's no reason for me to get involved. Let the ship pilots command the attack and gain experience." Léo said, making a hand gesture for Diego to carry out his orders.
"Yes, my lord."
Diego then left and passed on Léo's orders. The battle that followed was extremely fierce; the Thraxans had greater numbers, but in terms of experience, they were far inferior to the Xangdia pilots.
The battle lasted three whole hours… From thousands of Thraxan ships, the number dropped to approximately fifteen hundred. On the Xangdia side, the situation was much worse; only one hundred and fifty ships remained intact.
On planet Xangdia, the king who watched the fight through a screen grumbled angrily: "Damn it… Enough! Tell the pilots to retreat, they have only fifteen hundred left on their side. Inside the planet we'll have the advantage."
"Yes, Your Majesty, I have also already ordered the tanks, aircraft, and laser cannons to be prepared. We will definitely come out victorious." The Emperor's minister said with bright eyes.
'If everything continued like this, it wouldn't be impossible to win. But what worries me is that ship; from the beginning it hasn't made a single move.' He thought to himself.
After that, the Xangdia ships returned inside the planet after small openings in the defense shield were created.
Léo didn't order the ships to follow them, because it would be stupidity to enter the lion's den before destroying their defense shield. But that didn't mean they would just watch while the Xangdia ships re-entered the planet.
After the ships turned their backs, the Thraxans attacked brutally, shooting down at least twenty ships before the rest returned behind the planet's shield.
"And now, sir? Do we use the Morvain ship's energy or do we wait to launch assaults on the planet?" Diego asked Léo, who was sitting on the throne.
"I will destroy the shield myself, leave the remaining ship energy for the ground attack."
Saying that, Léo stood up while Diego prepared all of the ship's openings.
During the time Léo spent as emperor, he began training constantly in rooms with the same environment as space. In his latest space training, Léo was able to stay three weeks without breathing in space.
Of course, that was far from the long months Nolan spent easily in space, but to destroy a protective shield, even half a day would be enough.
"Sir, we're detecting someone approaching the shield, and he seems to be without any protection or equipment to do that!" The Emperor's minister of planet Xang received information faster than the speed of sound and relayed it just as quickly to his Emperor.
"What!? Put those images on the screen now!" The Emperor ordered hysterically.
Without wasting time, the minister quickly ordered the transmission to the royal palace; a massive ninety-inch screen descended from above, displaying images from space.
A young man with a human and imposing appearance was now shown floating in front of the great protective shield.
Without wasting much time, the imposing young man began throwing rapid consecutive punches at the shield.
"97%… 94%… 90%…" The minister counted the shield's percentage, dropping at an alarming rate—10% per minute.
"If this continues, he'll break through the shield! What do we do, Your Majesty!?" The minister asked as he turned.
After turning slightly, he noticed the Emperor's expression, completely pale to the extreme.
The Emperor knew: the monster capable of destroying the protective shield at that speed, and who had the ability to survive in space, had the power to wipe out their entire race in months—if not days.
"It's over… We're finished!!" The Emperor, previously pale, regained a bit of consciousness only to release a scream of defeat.
The atmosphere, already terrible in the royal palace, became even worse.
But then, a feeling of burning fury surged from the Emperor as he shouted: "If we can't defeat them, then we'll kill as many of those bastards as possible!!"
"Minister, give me the communicator." The Emperor gave a firm order.
"Here, Your Majesty." Extending his hand, he offered it willingly.
The Emperor took the communicator from the minister's hand with his three fingers and fastened it to his ear.
He then gave the order to the operator commanding the communication center to connect him to all the other Xangs participating in the battle.
To raise the morale of his people, he began his speech: "Listen, all soldiers fighting this battle, know that we are facing a planetary-level enemy…"
He paused for a moment; the hearts of the soldiers listening to his voice sank, and their morale dropped disastrously.
But then, without giving them time to think of retreating, he continued: "This will probably be our people's final battle, but if we're going to fall, then at least let us wipe out half of their troops!"
The soldiers, previously submerged in sadness, quickly returned their attention to their Emperor's voice.
"Remember your families, friends, and even animals. And for you soldiers who have nothing left to care about, remember the land where you were born and the home where you grew up. This was your place for countless decades; do not let the land that gave you existence be taken by foreigners!" With the last bit of breath, the Emperor stopped transmitting through the device.
The soldiers now burned with an unending fire in their squid-shaped hearts.
The most experienced now waited silently near the protective shield so that, in the first clash, they could be the first to sacrifice themselves for their people.
No more than seven minutes later, the protective shield finally collapsed…
Before Léo could think, he was rapidly bombarded by powerful shots, but to him they felt like mere ant bites.
He then shot down at least three ships waiting for him at the planet's entrance, and right after that, something glowing red gathered around him.
"Fire the laser!" The soldier shouted.
At the same time, a mass of metallic structures resembling cannons, at least seventy meters tall and fifty meters long, fired in unison.
Léo, who had been completely caught off guard by this violent blast, now had his skin fully charred and was left naked in space.
"Shit, I was careless... Now I'll have to fight naked." Léo grumbled about his clothes, which had been completely destroyed.
"How... How the hell is this possible!?" The soldier watching everything through the telescope asked in shock.
"Look behind him, fifty of their ships were destroyed by the shots, but that guy only got burned!?"
"Shit, our last defense weapon is gone, and the recharge time for the shots takes ten minutes, and that's when we're not short on people..." Complained a soldier who was now incredibly hopeless.
A few more minutes of space battle went by, and after Léo's empire ships entered Xangdia's atmosphere, the first task of the Morvain ship was to fire at the metallic structures similar to cannons.
The ships protecting the place, along with the soldiers, were instantly disintegrated by the ship's powerful laser beam.
With each metallic structure destroyed, a huge explosion followed; apparently, the fuel used as an explosive for the shots detonated when in contact with the Morvain ship's laser, which made destroying such structures even easier.
Twenty more minutes passed; now the planet Xangdia had already lost most of its people and soldiers.
Léo, now like a powerful god, flew with his hands behind his back as he slowly descended toward what seemed to be the royal palace.
Some ships and combat drones tried to stop him, but simply by letting himself be hit, those objects were destroyed.
Léo landed on the ground without difficulty and then proceeded toward the royal hall—something not hard to find, as there were guards stationed all the way there.
Upon arriving, Léo only saw an empty place, as if no one had ever been there; only the transmission device, the planet's flags, and an empty throne remained.
'How stupid of me, obviously they wouldn't stay here. But as a human who loved reading kingdom novels, I know exactly where you are.' Léo thought.
He then lifted himself into the air and, with great force, launched himself feet-first toward the ground; his body quickly broke through several floors of the royal palace, reaching the underground. After crashing through twenty more floors, he finally stopped.
At the end, after the dust settled, Léo saw beneath the rubble small children, men, and women crushed under stones.
Only half a dozen people remained, including the king, who had been protected by some special object.
"You gave me the biggest headache. Why couldn't you just stay quiet on your planet!?" Léo grumbled at the Emperor of planet Xangdia.
Now trembling, the Emperor wet himself in his imperial pants; he could only think: 'I... I would be dead right now if not for my spiritual object...'
"Great immortal God, please spare the humble life of this miserable one!" The Emperor knelt on the stone-covered floor as he whimpered.
"It will be useful to have someone to teach the Thraxans, so you can live, but your army... will be exterminated." After Léo's words, at bullet-train speed, he beheaded the five remaining soldiers.
"I thank the immortal for sparing my life. May I know the name of the honored immortal!?"
"There's no need, you won't see me again. You'll be in the care of other people." Léo approached and grabbed the king by the collar of his imperial mantle.
He then took the king high above the planet and began a voice transmission that echoed throughout the entire world: "The Morvain Empire has taken over the royal palace. From today on, I, the Emperor of Morvain, am your new Emperor!"
"To the soldiers who still fight, you may continue fighting, because none of you will be spared today; you will be used as test subjects for my soldiers' training!" Léo released a horrifying laugh as he smiled wickedly.
The planet's citizens, along with the soldiers, trembled under an overwhelming pressure; their spines tingled and their tentacled hair quivered at that laugh.
The malicious intent of that man could be felt by everyone, even if they didn't know what it was.
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