The last galaxy of the elves burned like an ember fading into darkness.From her throne, Empress Elfina Slyvana sat beneath the ancient world tree whose roots pierced the void. The great trunk behind her shimmered with fading green light, each pulse slower than the last. In its bark, the memories of her people rippled millennia of song and grace, now drowned in fire.
She saw through the tree's vision: her galaxies aflame, stars devoured, branches of her empire cut down one by one. The births of new Absolutes were no longer blessings but desperate flickers in the dark too slow, too fragile.
When the beam of the Flagship Mothership pierced the heart of her planet, Elfina didn't scream. She closed her eyes, exhaled once, and whispered, "May the next bloom rise stronger."
The beam consumed her world. The tree fractured like crystal under starlight.And the Elven Empire was no more.
------
Across the cosmic sea, the Woltein front had already become a graveyard.Dozens of galaxies lay silent, their stars dimmed by debris clouds and drifting corpses of warships. The void shimmered with static energy residue, magnetic trails, and fragments of battle cries swallowed by distance.
In that chaos hovered the Golden Lion Armada, vast enough to cast a shadow across systems.Every few moments, a cluster of Motherships or Dreadnaughts shifted formation, releasing streaks of energy that turned entire flotillas into glowing dust.
At the command deck of the Imperial Flagship Mothership, Grand Warmaster Sol Invictus Starfall stood unmoving, hands clasped behind his back.Beside him, Curio Ethereal, his adjutant, monitored the shifting formation maps projected across the void.
"They're collapsing faster than expected," Curio murmured, his tone detached but his eyes sharp. "The Woltein defense line is folding inward. They're abandoning their vassal galaxies."
"Expected," Sol Invictus replied, voice steady, deep as steel. "Wolves retreat to their den when the hunt turns against them. Let them gather. It saves us the effort of chasing."
Curio's gaze flicked toward the largest red marker the Main Galaxy of the Woltein Empire, now surrounded by a tightening noose of Golden Lion fleets. "And when the den collapses?"
Sol Invictus's expression didn't shift. "Then we move to the next front."
A transmission cut through the bridge noise audio crackling under interference.
"Verdant Griffin Legion in position," reported Kaelen Tempestbane , calm but laced with relaxed face. "Fenrir's leading the forward push. His adjutant is already in combat."
Sol Invictus gave a single nod. "Then the wolves are about to bleed."
The Silver Wolf Legion advanced like a tidal wave of storm. Their Mechanical Spider moved through debris fields as easily as wolves through fog.Among them was Cheslie Hart, standing atop her Eternal Cosmic Mech Armor, her katana unsheathed, its blade reflecting the light of dying stars.
Her sensors mapped the battlefield in a dozen layers drifting husks, Wolf warships, beams of converging energy. Somewhere ahead, Fenrir Valen's presence pulsed like a burning star furious, alive, unstoppable.
He's enjoying this again, she thought, half amused, half weary. Always chasing glory, even in hell.
But Cheslie had her own task.
The Eternal Guardian Fenrir Wolfie, the strongest of the Woltein Empire, descended before her his silver armor glowing with runes, his great blade humming with violent energy. His aura alone rippled through the void like a gravitational storm.
"So, the Golden Lion Empire sends a woman to fight me?" he sneered, voice reverberating through the comms. "Do you mock me, Little one?"
Cheslie tilted her head slightly, her tone calm, almost tired. "If I were mocking you, you wouldn't still be talking."
Wolfie snarled and vanished into shadow, his speed blinding.Energy flares erupted around her the void shimmered from impact shockwaves.
She caught the first strike barely.The clash shook her mech's frame. Her arms buzzed from the impact, but her stance didn't falter. Her eyes narrowed behind her visor.
"Fast," she murmured. "But predictable."
He appeared again front, left, then right his blade arcs blurring like light trails. Cheslie parried, twisted, countered. Each contact left rings of shockwaves rippling through the void, carving molten patterns into nearby debris.
Her hand snapped forward, katana arcing toward his right shoulder. The blade struck with a crack that split armor and bone alike, driving him back a step. Wolfie grimaced, breath sharp, the weight of pain flashing in his eyes.
When their blades locked again, she saw the strain in his stance the tremor running through his wrist.
"Heh… finally taking me seriously, are you?" Fenrir Wolfie sneered, lowering his stance as dark energy rippled around him.
Cheslie's expression didn't change. She twisted her katana slightly, the edge catching the light. "You talk too much for a soldier," she said, voice calm and cutting. "It only means you're weak"
He broke away with a roar, dark energy flooding his blade until it glowed molten red. He swung downward, a strike meant to cleave worlds. Cheslie pivoted aside, her counter cutting through the attack in a single fluid motion clean, decisive, final.
Then she decapitated him into pieces with all his organs chopped into pieces.
Silence followed. Only the fading hum of energy and her slow exhale.
Cheslie lowered her blade, voice flat. "I warned you."
The Eternal Guardian's remains drifted in fragments across the battlefield, his power extinguished like a candle in the void.
She looked toward the horizon, where explosions painted streaks of red and gold across the darkness. Henry would've hated this, she thought faintly. He always said war makes even gods look small.