Just then, an officer suddenly shouted in terror, "Oh no! That mech is heading toward us!! What should we do now, Vice Admiral?! What should we do??"

"What?" One of the main officers hearing this was utterly stunned before quickly asking, "What did you say? Say it again, officer!!"

"Sir! That mech is heading directly toward us!!" the officer repeated hurriedly.

"It’s over! It’s over!! We are done for! It’s coming for us!!" someone else shouted before collapsing heavily onto the floor with a loud bang.

The vice admiral gritted his teeth and immediately ordered, "Push the thrusters to their limits!! Overload them if you have to!!"

At the same time, he simultaneously commanded, "Battleships Night and Day, move to the starboard side of the fleet immediately and provide support!!"

And while giving out those orders, his hand silently reached toward his pocket, where a dark-blue rectangular piece of paper rested within, covered in strange carvings and an unknown language.

And if someone had been perceptive enough... they would definitely have noticed that the space around that page was disturbingly unstable.

No one knew better than the vice admiral that, at this point, the situation had already developed far beyond anyone’s control, and there was no way left to salvage it!! Escaping itself had also become immensely difficult.

The only saving grace he still possessed was that his family was powerful and had ways to ensure he did not die so easily.

But even so, he was not ready to immediately abandon everyone around him. He still wanted to stay and try, to see if there remained even the slightest possibility of escaping together with the few people still beside him.

And if not... then that would simply be their fate, something beyond even his own control.

At the same time, the vice admiral also understood clearly that if he managed to escape, then the Emperor would have little reason to blame him for the disaster. After all, this catastrophe largely rested upon Pact and the fleet command itself, not upon him, the vice commander who held authority mostly in name only... something everyone already knew.

But Vice Admiral Scot was also an extremely smart and sly man.

He knew that if he escaped alone as one of the few surviving high-ranking members, then blame would inevitably fall upon him regardless, and he could very well be severely punished... perhaps even turned into a scapegoat himself!!

Which was precisely why he planned to take Pact with him, the same Pact who now lay upon the floor staring blankly ahead with hollow eyes.

It was not out of kindness or the graciousness of his heart.

No... it was because Pact himself would become the perfect scapegoat to protect Scot’s own skin!!

RUMBLE!!CRRRAACKK!!

Just then, the ship violently trembled as the hull cried out under terrifying stress!!

At the same moment, the battleship Night was directly cut in half by the human Genesis Law Realm being and his mech!!

And the aftereffects of the explosion heavily impacted the ship upon which Scot and the other high-ranking individuals were stationed!!

The shields barely managed to withstand the aftershock, only for the flaming remains of the battleship Night to crash directly onto the destroyer’s shields, destroying them before colliding straight into the hull of the ship itself!!

[Warning! Hull integrity down by 9 percent!!]

"Damn it..." Scot muttered.

He quickly grabbed Pact by the shoulder, though the man remained completely unmoving despite everything happening around him. Scot himself paid little attention to Pact’s state and instead looked ahead toward the dark mech holding its blade while rushing directly toward them and launching another attack!!

"Fuck... no time to wait!!"

Thinking this, Scot immediately tore open the teleportation talisman without the slightest hesitation!!

A strange array instantly formed, surrounding half of the command bridge alongside those standing closest beneath it, and they disappeared from the command room in an instant, leaving everyone else behind stunned!!

But before the remaining people could even regain their senses, darkness suddenly filled their vision immediately afterward.

None of them realised that the Dark Blade’s attack had already landed upon the destroyer’s now unprotected hull!!

Like butter, the blade sliced straight through the upper hull, leaving behind a massive scar while tearing directly through the ship’s core in the process!!

The destabilised core instantly exploded outward with overwhelming heat and energy, consuming everything within the radius of the blast!!

"Huh?"

Kael, who was sitting within the Dark Blade, suddenly felt a vast spatial disturbance ahead of him!!

But by the time he directed his divine senses toward it, he was already too late and could only detect faint traces of spatial teleportation remaining behind.

"Ohh... looks like I let a fish... a very big fish escape, huh?"

He tilted his head sideways bitterly, feeling rather annoyed inside. But there was nothing he could do about it now, was there?

Sighing, he moved toward another ship while shamelessly coming up with excuses for himself.

"Well anyway, I had already planned to let some escape so they could carry a message back to those powers."

"It’s actually good they escaped. With their authority, their voices will be much louder, and far more people will listen and realise exactly what they are challenging."

"Yes... yes, that’s right!!"

"I’m a genius," Kael praised himself confidently.

Meanwhile, the Dark Blade’s spirit could only feel speechless at the sheer thickness of its master’s skin. But after thinking about it further, it realised that despite how shameless he was, Kael truly did have a good brain when it came to instantly creating excuses to hide his own mistakes!!

"Well... perhaps that effect can also be attributed to me, no? Contracting with me probably made him a bit more intelligent," the Dark Blade thought amusingly.

Just like that, another ten to fifteen minutes passed quickly.

And finally, the last remaining ship of the Hegemony fleet was taken down.

At long last... the battlefield fell silent.

"Huff... huff... finally done!!" Kael said while taking deep breaths again and again.

This battle had truly taken a toll on him. Well, not exactly the battle itself, but rather his mech, the Dark Blade. Operating it required far more than just hands and legs alone!!

As he watched the last remaining vessel of the Hegemony fleet exploding in the distance, he sighed softly and said, "What a sight..."

"Another grand victory under my... no, our 4th Battle Group’s belt!!" he declared proudly, feeling that this occasion deserved proper celebration.

But things rarely ever went according to plan, right?

And as if to immediately ruin his celebratory mood, a fluctuation suddenly appeared within the cockpit and the small holographic figure of Crown manifested before him.

"Indeed, a grand victory," she said calmly. "Though it also took a heavy toll on us. Fortunately, no casualties or severe injuries occurred despite the odds of that happening being quite high."

Hearing this, the smirk on Kael’s face was quickly replaced with a bitter expression as his thoughts of celebration vanished just as quickly as they had appeared.

Because those losses in assets truly stung him a little.

After all, this was his fleet, and these were the very first meaningful military losses they had suffered. Naturally, that displeased him greatly. Yet at the same time, he also felt helpless about it. Without paying such a price, the battle would never have ended this quickly.

Still, Kael chose not to dwell too deeply on it for now. He knew the time in his hands was limited... and the amount of work waiting for him was far greater.

"Mobilise the salvage bots quickly!! Begin full-scale salvage operations immediately! Recover whatever can still be recovered!!"

"And plant detonation devices on anything that cannot be salvaged!" Kael ordered Crown while manipulating the Dark Blade and rushing toward the drifting abandoned fortress to assess its condition and determine what could still be done with it.

Hearing this, Crown replied immediately, "I’ll deploy all salvage bots at once and carry out your orders."

Then she disappeared.

Meanwhile, Kael simply nodded and entered the Hegemony fortress, which after losing power had been abandoned and therefore was no longer targeted further by his fleet.

Passing through an enormous breach in the fortress hull, he quickly reached its deeper sections and discovered that the main power core had been slightly damaged while its energy sources had been completely drained and wiped out!!

After assessing the situation and the extent of the damage, Kael made his judgement.

"Looks like during their final attack they overexerted the power source and completely exhausted it... what a headache..."

While sighing, he activated the Dark Blade’s built-in scanning systems and scanned the entire structure of the power core alongside the fortress’s main keel before sending all the data over to Crown so she could inspect it herself and determine whether repairing it was even possible... and more importantly, whether such repairs could be completed within the limited time they had available.