CH 113

A bright light shone through the opened door. Standing in the bright room was a frail silhouette. Old Du and I quickly stepped forth. A young and immature face appeared before our eyes. The youngster before us resembled Prince Toruse, but he was much thinner. His hair was blue while his eyes were light blue instead of the dark blue like Prince Toruse's eyes.

"You're Prince Arude?" Old Du asked.

"Come in. I know why you're here," said the youngster.

Old Du and I stepped through the door and were immediately stunned. Beyond the door was a spacious and cozy room. We could clearly see that there were several luxurious suits there as well. These rooms were all hidden behind the walls of the third floor. At the corner of the room was a fero canine lying on its belly. It was observing us cautiously.

"Please take a seat. I am Prince Arude. I have been waiting quite a while for you. I considered giving you some hints, but I ultimately decided to see if you could find this place without help," said Arude.

"Respected prince, why are you hiding here?" asked Old Du.

"You should tell me why you're here instead, especially you, big guy. Why did you steal the royal edict? You're probably with Prince Toruse," said Prince Arude.

"Prince, do not misunderstand. There is no question that we will uphold justice and not be biased toward anyone," said Old Du.

"The royal edict has been kept in my royal mother's precious chest. None of us have the right to open it. Have you seen the contents of the edict? So who did Royal Father name his successor?" asked Prince Arude.

"Respected prince, you're the first in line to the throne," said Old Du.

Prince Arude seemed rather emotional when he learned that he was the first in line.

"I did not expect Royal Father to still support me. I never expected that," muttered the prince.

"Were you the one who released the fero canines?" I asked.

"Yes. I must protect the royal edict," said Prince Arude as my question brought him back from his thoughts.

"Why are you hiding here? What happened?" asked Old Du.

Prince Arude was about to answer when loud explosions suddenly rang out.

"Canyue, the imperial foot soldiers have broken into the palace. Their drones have also gone through the defenses of the broken electromagnetic wall," Old Du's urgent voice rang out.

"Old Du, since the imperial army is here, we'll talk later. Let's leave with the prince first," I said.

Old Du then helped the prince out. While leaving, the prince did not forget to grab a backpack on the table. The fero canine also stood up and jumped into the prince's arms. We ran outside, and before long, we were on the roof. The two fighters were already waiting for us. I signaled Old Du with my eyes, and he immediately headed toward Zhang Bao'er's fighter. Meanwhile, I brought the prince into my fighter.

"Brother, watch your dog. Don't let it bite me," said Domo nervously when he saw the fero canine.

Then, our fighters rose to the sky. The imperial soldiers and drones immediately noticed us. About a dozen of the drones instantly flew toward us.

"Bao'er, prepare for combat," I said.

Oddly, the drones retreated quickly after scanning us.

"Looks like Captain Wesex has entered our description into the imperial combat system. The system sees us as allies," said Old Du.

"Great. I'm stressed out just looking at these drones. Every single time we fought them, they were unrelenting," said Zhang Bao'er gleefully.

We then looked down at the ground and saw that the entire palace complex had been occupied by imperial forces. Flames could be seen burning the distant airport and the town. The imperial army was slowly sweeping through the surface strongholds all over the planet. The powerful offensive had smashed through the Akko army.

As for the location where a nuclear warhead was set off earlier, we could see the gathered battleships and fighter drones slowly dispersing. They were moving away to provide support to the ground forces that had landed on the planet.

"I did not expect the king's army to be so weak. The Interstellar League abandoned us so easily," said Prince Arude sorrowfully.

Zhang Bao'er and I slowly flew our fighters through the sky. Intense sounds of explosions could be heard from the distant town. Flames were raging all over the town while thick black smoke covered the sky above the town.

"I told Captain Wesex to not harm innocents, but I did not expect that there would still be so many casualties," I sighed.

"Casualties can't be avoided in war. It is impossible to protect everyone. The best option has always been to avoid war," said Old Du.

"Canyue, we need to go underground to help the team leader and the others," said Zhang Bao'er.

We headed toward a corner of the palace complex. A few seconds later, we arrived above the entrance to the underground palace. The place was filled with over a thousand imperial soldiers and dozens of tanks. There were also about a hundred drones hovering in the air, completely surrounding the area. Even more worrying was the Milky Way–class battleship that could be seen slowly approaching from afar.

"This is bad. Looks like the empire is going to attack the underground palace," I said.

"Canyue, look! There are two familiar figures down there," said Old Du.

I looked down and saw the black and white Gandos.

'What a shitty day. Why are these two bastards here?' I thought.

"Canyue, what now? If we go down, the black and white Gandos will definitely kill us. If we attack them, the imperial system will label us as hostile," said Zhang Bao'er anxiously.

"We can't let them attack the underground palace and put the team leader and the others in danger. Prepare to attack. We will scatter the soldiers and get them out," I said.

"You don't need to throw your lives away. The enemies won't be able to breach the underground palace," Prince Arude suddenly said.

"Why do you say that?" I asked in astonishment.

"The underground palace is defended by the core itself. Nothing standing on Planet Akko itself will be able to pierce through the core's gravitational zone. This is a situation unique to Akko," said Prince Arude.

"What principle is that? Are you telling me that a part of the planet's core works like a black hole, capable of absorbing everything?" asked Old Du.

"Exactly. Records of that phenomenon are clearly preserved in the royal library. The unique core is the reason this planet has been able to survive against the intense ultraviolet rays from the two Epsilon Canis Majoris stars. After the ultraviolet rays penetrate the ground, they are absorbed by the powerful core," said Arude.

"In that case, how had your people gone through the defensive layer to the underground palace?" asked Old Du.

"We did not go through the defensive layer. We had accidentally found an open space inside the core itself. We then made use of the open space to construct an underground palace," said Arude.

"If that is true, wouldn’t the team leader and the others be fine? In that case, we should let these imperial soldiers continue working for nothing," I said.

"Where should we go now?" asked Zhang Bao'er.

"Why don't we go to my uncle's, Prince Gede's, place? He has a private army at the State of Henda," said Arude.

"Might as well. How do we reach Henda?" I asked.

"The fighter's database should have the coordinates. You can perform a search," said Arude.

"Dondon, perform the search," I said. I had gotten a habit of having Dondon handle tedious tasks like this.

A few minutes later, Dondon found Henda's coordinates. He shared the coordinates with me, and we started flying toward Henda. Looking down from high above, we could see that a majority of the ground had been occupied by the imperial army. Wreckage of many destroyed weapons could be seen all over the ground. We also saw that a large number of Akko soldiers had been taken captive.

"The defensive system of an entire kingdom has actually been destroyed in such a short period of time. The dynasty is on the verge of collapse," the prince sighed.

Henda seemed to be rather far away from the capital. The imperial army's ground forces and shuttles had moved rapidly. They had taken a short time to occupy a large part of the planet. Our fighters continued flying inland. The farther we went, the fewer signs of battle we saw. A few hours later, we arrived at the area the imperial army had yet to reach.

The citizens of Akko were in chaos as numerous vehicles were moving deeper inland. All roads were flooded with refugees, and the occasional bird-shaped fighters could be seen patrolling the sky. We had obviously come to an area still under the control of the Kingdom of Akko.

"This is probably the last stand of the kingdom," said the prince with yet another sigh.

"Henda is quite remote. Will this place be able to even put up a fight?" asked Zhang Bao'er.

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"Sigh. Prince Gede is the younger brother of Royal Mother. Royal Father had intentionally conferred him land near the equator to prevent the members of external clans from gaining too much power. This place is generally extremely hot during the day, to the point standing on the ground is extremely difficult. Most of the people here reside in caves and live underground," said Prince Arude.

"Looks like the struggle for authority is something consistent across all planets, regardless of size," I said with a sigh.

"However, my uncle has a powerful and loyal private army. I hope he can lead them and arrange an effective counterattack against the invaders," said Prince Arude hopefully.

We continued flying inland. Shortly after, we reached the planet's equator. The surface temperature was as high as 60 degrees Celsius. Thanks to the powerful ultraviolet rays, the ash-gray flora was the only sign of life on the ground.

"The environment here is too harsh. This is truly a place you would exile someone to," said Domo.

"Prince, do you know where your uncle's army is?" I asked.

As soon as I asked, four bird-shaped fighters emerged from the clouds and surrounded us. On these fighters, I could clearly see the same blue cloud marks that our fighters also had.