News From a Thousand Lightyears

VROOM!!!

VROOM!!!

Energy cycles of different models roared through a volcanic wasteland leaving in their wake magma beasts of different sizes and aura dead on the floor. From time to time, these magma beasts would try to ambush one of the riders but would be met with weapons of a different kind and left on the ground with the rest of their kind.

BOOM!!!

BOOM!!!

At the horizon, silhouettes of tanks could be seen blasting at what seemed to be a giant bear, the body of the bear seemed as if it was made of rocks with magma lubricating it. While the tanks sound impressive, they do not harm the giant beast likewise the beast was incapable of harming them because in front of it was a woman or womanoid?

She, unlike a human, has horns on her head, a tail and dark scales which were tinted with white flame-like patterns at the edge of her scales. She was sending punches at the star beast, and it seems to be resisting her attacks well enough.

"Retreat!!!" She announced. The cyclers turned their vehicle with haste and the tanks also reversed not daring to take their her orders in scorn.

Assured that her group had retreated, the patterns on her body blazed as the air in her surrounding thinned out and white flames covered her body in armour.

"The cap'n was forced to use her law skill?" One of the riders exclaimed sounding surprised, "That beast is tough, fasho!"

"What were you expectin'?" another voice sounded beside him, "That thing destroyed a fuckin' grade 2 tower."

"Sure... But tis dead." the first guy concluded, "Making the cap use her law skill was it accepting its sentence."

"Aye, when those flames come out, the battle is already over then." the second rider concluded too.

Back at the main action, The captain looked menacing as she was covered in white flame armour, her eyes were glowing as if covered by flames and her horns had flames on the tip same as her tail. She threw another punch now, this one set the air on fire forming a flaming fist as it sped towards the bear who seem to have felt the danger behind the attack.

ROAR!!!

The bear tried to send an energy blast from its mouth to cancel out the flaming fist but it underestimated the deadliness of the flame. The energy blast acted as fuel to the flame as instead of cancelling out the huge fist, it increased the deadliness of the attack, causing it to crash back on the head of the bear.

The bear let out a pitiful whine as magma-like blood splurts out of its head in volumes, setting the battlefield ablaze. This would not be stopping the captain as she moved towards the wound on the bear's head as punched until she saw a golden pearl in the centre of its skull.

Without hesitation, she dug her tail in and yanked out the pearl, killing the bear. With a thud, the bear fell creating a dust cloud and the remaining magma beasts let out a mournful whine altogether before burrowing into the ground for safety.

The riders moved towards the corpse of the beast, and see their captain sitting on its skull with the pearl already melting in her palms. With a swing of her arms, she poured the golden liquid into her mouth, then dispersed her law skill.

"Hah~ That was refreshing." She moaned in satisfaction, "What's next boys?"

"We got a request for reinforcement from Vathar." One of the riders replied.

"When was that? and what mission was that? I don't remember assigning one to him." She said, her voice chilling her subordinates, "Spit it out Budderon!!"

"I-it was Captain Thanen that issued the mission. It was a low-risk mission so I didn't think too much of it." Budderon said hastily, "The request was sent over an hour ago in the thick of your battle with the star beast."

"I dare not disrupt your attention. Please punish me!"

"Thanen? You dare accept a mission she announced?" The captain seemed pissed now. Budderon and the boys had always known of the rivalry between the two groups but never thought the captain would have such an adverse reaction to the mission. The Thanen squad was investigative while they were in charge of extermination, there is usually no conflict between the two save for the rivalry between the two rising star captains.

PING!

PING!!

PING!!!....

A series of pings rang out on the card Budderon was holding and a strange feeling enshrouded the whole squad. They all had a bad feeling.

"Read it." The captain's voice was chilling.

Budderon dare not tarry, injecting his senses into the card. In a few seconds, his face went pale as the card dropped from his hands.

"Bark!!" She shouted coldly.

"Thanen had been killed, her tower destroyed, the higher-ups command everyone to refrain from acting." He heard himself say.

The surroundings were quiet.

"Is that all?" she asked, her shoulder stiff.

"A proxy family was exterminated."

"Who did it?" She asked again, taking a deep breath.

"Ja Skye of the Skye Roc branch. According to him, it was an order from the main Roc family." He took a deep breath as soon as he mentioned that.

"What was Vathar's mission?" She asked, her voice being murderous.

"He was tasked to retrieve the blood of a particular ten-year-old Roc."

...

...

Fidele was in her room, watching the battle ongoing at Void Heaven City. this is the battle which would lead to her father's death no matter how it turns out. According to what her father said, this siege force should be enough to take down a newly ascended immortal and still not be decimated. Well, the immortal in question had to be average because there's no way they could handle that Roc. Of course, what does she know? she had only heard about how immortals are divided into categories based on their sainthood a few days ago.

This news made her question their Rank system as Rank 10 should correspond to immortality and Rank 9 would be a third tribulation saint.

Knock! Knock!!

"Come in." She said softly in response to the knock on her door.

Enters a woman who seems to be heading towards her twilight years, her supposedly white hair looked like it had always been a dirty grey shade. She has crow feet at the side of her eyes and lips, eyes are becoming murky. Despite all that, one could still see the beauty that had once been present. The woman was her mother, Ronica the truth-keeper. Her last name is unknown.

The women of Umbron were in charge of housing that monster that used to be downstairs and her mother was the one carrying the burden recently. This made Fidele wonder if they were the offspring of the first emperor or that monster. Maybe that monster WAS the first emperor.

That would explain the extreme likeness that all members of the family possess. Her father and elders all look like quadruplets, maybe they all had the same father. Maybe they were aware of the fact themselves, leaving them to find minute differences between themselves.

Father is clean-shaven.

Eldest sports a moustache.

Second sports only sideburns.

Third sports only chin beard.

They probably are scared of being clones but that was likely untrue as the same phenomenon would not happen to their uncle's branch. But that was most likely their fear.

While Fidele was lost in her thought, Ronica sat beside her quietly watching the battle. Today was the freest she'd been in a long time and her husband would most likely die today. Looking at her daughter who has the likelihood to overthink trivial matters, she smiled to herself. That monster had been taking too much of her vitality, probably trying to suck her dry in preparation for her daughter. He'd been lusting after the vitality of Fidele since she was born and she had been trying her best to prevent that or prolong it as long as she could.

But her struggle would most likely end with the battle, as he'd probably kill all their bloodline if her husband were to fail.

"When are you leaving the castle?" Ronica asked.

Fidele looked at her mother and replied, "I have questions." meaning she would seek an answer even at the cost of her life. To someone who could calculate most things, a variable like that monster or the Roc was an unbearable itch in her throat.

"LOOK HERE--" Ronica was about to scream at her daughter when a scene caught her eye, the Roc had been launched into the mountains. The first of which the Roc was overpowered. This small move gave her hope but looking at her overly calm daughter she knew this was not the hope or variable she was looking for.

Fidele also felt her mother's gaze but she had already accounted for the weaponry that killed the Thanen princess, there's no way the Roc didn't know it was coming.

"The mission will succeed once out of a hundred thousand times." She told her mother. The shoddy alliance would have to work hard if they want to draw blood from that Roc. Then a thought occurred to her,

"The monster would not come back alive from the battle."