1342 Chase
Jataur clinked his glass and gulped down the sparkly wine. "Good day, old mate."
The Veyan, the star-like marks on his body sparkling, drank with him. "Good day, good day indeed. For you, for me, for the Kingdom, for the Empire!"
"Hahahaha! Let's drink more!"
It hadn't been long since the Orion squad left but from what they know already, it wouldn't take long for them to construct a 'bridge' to the other side and dispatch a military group.
From the priliminary information, the region they landed was not only safe but also isolated.
It's only a matter of time before they hunted down those Pala Princes and controlled that region. From there, building a military base in that region would be considered accomplished.
The Orion group would profit from such a great accomplishment. They'd have more resources tilted for their development.
The Veyan kingdom would win a huge deal of merit. They'd be prioritized by divine rankers.
The Veyan man, Jataur's friend, the reason Orions even responded to Zion's distress call would get a great reward for his right decision.
Jataur himself was expecting at least the waver of complete debt of the duchy and if he was being a bit more optimistic, he could see himself rewarded enough to sponsor a peak rank 7 slave.
The higher ups responded positively and all the goodies were just days, if not hours away.
As cautious and calm as he was, Jataur couldn't help but feel proud and elated.
Not only did he tackle a danger that would've killed any other duke, he even profited from it. Massively! This achievement was something not even his worst critics could deny.
"There are a lot of questions to be answered about why this started." Simons said with a smack of his lips, relishing the wine that'd cost a small moon. "Aren't you curious?"
"That I am, but with Veyan army here, I'm not bothered to investigate." Jataur shrugged.
Simons shook his head with a chuckle and then his expression turned serious. "The investigation shows traces of an ancient heirloom."
Jataur raised an eyebrow. "Abyssals?"
"Yes."
"Thought so. The bastard even wrote me a letter bragging about it. But I don't know anymore. I thought it was Black Rose, but Princes came. Intuition tells me it was all a…conspiracy."
"If it really is, then I want to meet the mastermind behind it all." Simons gave an arrogant smirk. "So that I can repay him for his invaluable contribution."
"Oh? How are you going to repay?"
As Jataur was about to reply, a playful voice rang throughout the palace.
Everyone outside the room froze, not understanding who the voice was referring to. The ones in the room, however, looked at each other in shock.
"Just a sec." Simons' body blurred and he appeared outside the palace on the moon.
A young man's silhouttee covered in a translucent purple light stood in distant space.
Just a second later, five powerful auras locked onto him.
"Team, chase!" Simons ordered and flashed forward.
Unexpectedly, the silhouttee also kept teleporting.
Its aura was faint and hard to detect. Even though they were crossing the gap with each jump, it was taking longer than expected.
When they did catch up, the silhouttee stood on top of an asteroid and stared at them with a cold smile.
"Who the fuck are you?" Simons' arm flashed gray and he grabbed onto the man with a vicious grip.
Contrary to his expectations, the silhouttee didn't fight back at all. Upon contact, it popped like soap bubble.
"Wh-What?!" Simons' eyes widened and he realized he fell for a very cheap but reliable trick. "Jataur!"
Right after Orion group chased away the intruder, Varian and Isadora sneaked into the palace without much problems.
The slivers drilled a hole into the security system, metaphorically speaking and Isadora's natal treasure kept them under a heavy stealth.
They quickly blasted through the bunch of rank 3 and rank 4 guards they couldn't skip.
Varian didn't kill them to prevent any triggers. He gave their souls a severe shock to the point they could do their patrol but without any proper thought.
The room where Jataur was supposed to be quickly came into view. With a blast of the sliver-powered punch, the door shattered, revealing the pale duke.
Isadora raised her hand and a flame of darkness lit up on her palm. As she's about to burn the man to death, Varian blocked her.
"It's a trap." He said without any doubt.
"Huh?" Isadora blinked in confusion before she froze.
"Hehehehe…"
Jataur, no, his carefully crafted clone gave them a creepy smile before a red light went off.
Without warning, the moon exploded and the power swept the neary planet, blasting it into pieces.
It was a very contained detonation, enough to kill a peak rank 7, but only destroyed a single planet instead of the entire star system.
A green light enveloped Varian and Isadora, who appeared not too far away, the timeflow and space around them distorted.
"There's a subspace of sorts linked to that room." Varian said and glanced back.
Six auras locked onto him with thick killing them.
"Stop!"
The Orion squad was back.
"We have to hurry!" He grabbed Isadora's hand and using the power of slivers, mixed with space, he broke into the subspace.
It was only as big as a small moon with over a dozen teleportation formations spread on it. Obviously, these were all the emergency rescues prepared by the duke.
Jataur who was standing in a formation, ready to escape, looked at them in shock. "You survived?"
Without a word, Varian and Isadora jumped at him.
And the duke, who tried talking to them to stall, managed to activate the formation in time.
A brilliant light swept the subspace and the three disappeared.
Few moments later, the Orion broke in. But when they did, the teleportation formations all self-destructed.
It was set that way so that no enemies could chase him once he teleported.
"Fuck! Where did they go?"
