I Only Wanted A Class In The Apocalypse-Chapter 1962: Saving the Grand Elder
Hye’s grand fleet was unstoppable. They utilised the surrounding debris and the friendly fire of the enemy as cover, advancing in a straight line toward the Grand Elder’s location.
Hye remained at the centre of the formation, pushing his technique to its absolute limit. He didn’t just want to reach the old man; he wanted to claim the enemy elites surrounding him. He knew those warriors weren’t just strong; they were the pinnacle of the enemy’s military power. He wanted them all.
By the time the enemy leaders realised a third party had entered the inner pocket, it was far too late to coordinate an interception. Any ship that tried to intervene was met with a brutal binary: destruction or sudden, forced subversion.
The hulls of the enemy interceptors either shattered under Hye’s focused volleys or simply turned dark as their crews were claimed by his shadow arms.
The situation on the ground was even more dire for the Toranks. As the Soulers and Reapers descended, the ground forces fell line after line, group after group. With the inner pocket dissolved into a meat grinder, the battle was no longer a siege; it was a massacre.
Recognising that his window of opportunity had finally arrived, the old man didn’t hesitate. He shifted instantly from a stagnant defence to a brutal offence. He led his remaining elite guard in a lightning strike, punching outward to meet Hye’s vanguard halfway.
Hye signalled his flagship to lower its auxiliary bay shields, allowing the Grand Elder and his battle-worn warriors to board. Once they were secure, Hye left the bridge to meet them in person.
"It’s you!!!"
When the Grand Elder saw Hye’s face, he froze in sheer shock. He had expected a battalion of loyal Hescos, perhaps a secret reserve fleet led by his own trusted subordinates, or even a desperate gamble by the left behind Council elders, led by Moth.
He had never, in his wildest imagination, considered that the outsider, the human who had been the focal point of their recent political and military clashes, would be the one leading a force to his rescue.
"Did you expect someone else?" Hye asked, his voice dripping with mockery. He leaned against a bulkhead, a playful glint in his eyes. "If so, I can always drop you back down there and wait for the right people to show up!"
The Grand Elder stood speechless for several seconds, his mind reeling from the absurdity of the situation. Then, the tension broke, and he let out a deep, booming laugh that echoed through the bay.
"It is indeed a rare chance to see a prodigy from outside the Great Races act with such... Flair," the Grand Elder chuckled, wiping sweat and soot from his brow. "Seeing you here, acting with such confidence, means things are going better than I dared to imagine."
"Oh, about that," Hye said, his expression turning serious.
He didn’t sugarcoat the reality. As they walked toward the command deck, Hye narrated the entire situation, the treason, the incoming threat, and the desperate gamble he had proposed to Moth. All the while, his shadow arms continued to pluck stragglers from the battlefield outside, though at a slower rate since he was no longer burning through his bone reserves.
"What the hell are you talking about?!! That damn weapon is actually coming here? And you want us to do what in response?!!!"
Like Moth before him, the Grand Elder was staggered. The sheer scale of the risk, voluntarily dropping the planetary shields in the face of the God Weapon, sounded like the raving of a madman.
It was a plan that invited extinction. But as the Grand Elder looked at Hye, a man who had just dismantled a multi-million-soldier siege using only his powers without any aid or help from the empire, his perspective shifted.
"Hahaha! I like you more the more I deal with you," the Grand Elder laughed, the sound more cheerful than mirthful now. "Fine. If we are to die, let us die making the Toranks look like idiots. Let’s do it your way!"
"I need to do other things first," Hye interrupted, his gaze already shifting back to the readout of the collapsing siege. "You go ahead. I’ll follow shortly."
With a fluid motion of his staff, he tore open a portal in the middle of the bay, the coordinates locked firmly onto the Elder Council building. The Grand Elder watched the space-time rift stabilise with raised eyebrows, a look of brief surprise flickering across his weathered features before he barked another laugh.
"Fine then. Just don’t go easy on them on my account, eh?" The old man stepped forward, patting Hye’s shoulder with the heavy, familiar warmth of a grandfather, or a seasoned general acknowledging a peer. "I’ll finalise the administrative side of the blackout while you stay busy here. As for the other elders..."
"I’ll move to extract them the moment I’m done with this battle," Hye said, cutting him off with a calm tone. "Just focus on the plan for now. Use every ounce of influence you have to ensure everyone behaves exactly how we discussed."
"Hey now, youngster, don’t look down on me," the Grand Elder replied, thoroughly amused by Hye’s blunt command of the situation. "I may be old, but I am still a force of nature when the fate of my world, my people, and my empire is on the line. Let’s move!"
Without another word, the Grand Elder turned and led his elite guard toward the portal. As the veteran warriors passed Hye, they paused, one by one, to offer a solemn, respectful nod. It was a silent salute from the old guard to the new, a recognition of the human who had snatched them from the jaws of certain death.
"Now, let’s have some real fun with you," Hye murmured, the portal snapping shut the moment the last Hescos heel cleared the threshold. He turned back to the command monitors, his eyes reflecting the fire of the burning fleet outside.
"Let me add a few more of your precious elite divisions to my side before I go play hero for the others."
