I'm Trying To Go Broke, So Why Do I Keep Getting Richer?!-Chapter 191: Hell, not even close

On Earth, the sky turned a deep shade of purple. Even through the reinforced blue barrier of the Hero Tower’s shields, the sheer heat of the gathering energy began to burn the clouds.

"Brace for impact!" Blaze roared, his voice broadcast to every hero station on the globe. "Maximum output to the planetary defences! If that beam hits a weak point, the shockwave alone will level the continents!"

In the silence of space, the beam fired.

It was a pillar of destruction that bridged the gap between the Lionel mothership and Earth in a fraction of a second.

It slammed into the Hero Tower’s overcharged shield with the force of a falling moon. The barrier trembled, the blue light flickering violently as it fought to disperse the destructive energy being poured into it.

"Seven minutes left on the shield!" Lancer shouted over the sound of commotion. "At this rate, the barrier might not even last that long before it’s shattered! We can’t hold this!"

Cracks developed across multiple continents, as the earth trembled, making everyone feel like it was a massive earthquake.

Most of the people were hiding inside their houses, holding each other, praying for their safety.

Watching the feed from his transport, Leo didn’t even blink. He leaned forward, tapping the armrest of his chair, calmly.

"Fiona, Fiona," he mumbled, his voice echoing in the room where the Patriarch was lying.

Leo didn’t look at the screen showing the attack on Earth. He looked at a secondary screen where another channel was covering the internal battle of the Lionel Family.

"Do you recognize these schematics, Patriarch?" Leo asked, gesturing to the glowing red lines on the holographic map that rose from his communicator.

"Your family bought this ship from the Hephaestus Shipyards three years ago. A beautiful ship. Top of its class... At least as per your standards..."

The Family Head’s eyes trembled. Just how deeply had this man investigated them? How could he have these schematics, which should’ve been a secret between them and the manufacturer.

No, even the fact that they had bought this ship was kept a secret. No one should’ve known about it until the army was first introduced. Did they have a spy in their midst? 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Just how long was Leo planning this? Just how deep was this unassuming man’s schemes, and how did he even manage to achieve this?

If it was just money, it shouldn’t have been enough. After all, what the Lionel Family didn’t lack was wealth.

So how did he manage to convince Hephaestus Shipyards into giving away the secret schematics?

The old man’s eyes bulged.

"What you didn’t know," Leo continued, "is that the Hephaestus Shipyards faced a hostile takeover last month. Interesting, isn’t it?"

"You know what’s funnier? Even I didn’t know about it, but somehow, thanks to a misunderstanding, Alpha Labs already owned quite a few shares of this company, and was able to know this before it was revealed to the public."

"I was quite surprised when I learned that you were their buyers. Although we didn’t manage to buy the company, we did manage to help the new buyer with a decent loan and our shares. He was quite pleased."

Leo’s finger hovered over a final command.

"That ship is a hungry beast. It requires 98% of the ship’s power to maintain that beam. Which means right now, your granddaughter has zero power allocated to her internal security."

On the bridge of the ship called Frontier, Fiona was screaming orders, her face illuminated by the violet glare of the main weapon.

"Increase output! I don’t care if the ship melts! I want that shield shattered!"

"My Lady, the energy levels are-"

Suddenly, the lights on the bridge didn’t just flicker; they turned a deep red. A mechanical voice, cold and devoid of emotion, filled the room.

"Priority Override: Asset Recovery Protocol Initiated. Source: Frontier Central Command."

"What?" Fiona spun around. "Cancel override! Authorization Fiona-Zeta-067!"

"Authorization Denied. The Authorization Code is incorrect."

Fiona’s eyes widened in disbelief. It was definitely the master code, and she was certain of it. So why wasn’t it working?

The beam was being maintained by a constant stream of high-pressure plasma, the sudden closure of the magnetic vent caused the energy to backflow into the ship’s own weapon systems.

A series of muffled explosions rocked the mothership. From Earth, it looked like a string of firecrackers was going off along the massive vessel.

Leo activated the direct communication with the Alpha Corp’s army. For the first time, he issues direct commands to the commanders.

"All Captains," Leo’s voice echoed through the comms of his black fleet of Alpha Corp. "The target is immobilized. You should be free to help your new allies without any losses now."

"Finally... I was getting bored, watching them right amongst themselves," a commander of black fleet exclaimed, bursting into laughter.

Until now, they hadn’t entered the battle. It was mostly to make the Lionel Army traitors cause as much damage as they could amongst themselves.

It was also to avoid becoming a target of the Mothership at the start. After all, even if the victory was certain, Leo didn’t want even a single unnecessary loss.

Now that most of the ships were either destroyed, or damaged their energy shields in their internal battle, most of them were sitting ducks.

Even the Mothership was no better, which created a perfect opportunity for them to move.

Just then, the Alpha Corp’s black fleet moved, and another range of powerful cannons fired across space.

With most of the shields already dispensed, or focusing at different points, the shield from the Black Fleet came as a surprise.

Within minutes, the silent space had turned into a spectacle with flames rising all over the place, many advanced ships being blown to smithereens.

Only the ships that had switched sides, and proved their conviction, were left intact, if they could even be called that at this point.

Meanwhile, another fleet had separated from the one attacking the ships, and moved to surround the Mothership, each preparing their cannons as if none of them were trying to catch Fiona alive.