Reborn With A Technology System In A Fantasy World-Chapter 234: Brief Celebration

It took several seconds for Charles’s frantic, strained thoughts to respond, the mental voice laced with the sounds of explosions and shouting. ’Boss! Thank the Goddess! He’s dead, right? The big one? Please tell me he’s dead!’

’He’s handled,’ Adrian replied curtly. ’What’s the ground status?’

’We’re barely surviving!’ Charles sent back in panic. ’So far, zero casualties on our main forces, thanks to the new tactics. But the creatures are just too strong.

We have over two hundred fighters who are unable to fight already. But that’s not even the biggest fear, boss. Based on the pod count, we think this is only their vanguard.

We’ve deduced that the Garog ship must still have another, larger squad of warriors aboard. The ones sent to us might only be here to probe our strength. I... I’m not sure we can continue if more arrive.’

Adrian processed the grim report. He needed to end this now. ’How many are left below?’

It took another second for Charles to get the data from the other fronts. ’Our forces are engaged with only twenty-one remaining. Luckily for us, they’re all locked in combat. We should be able to win... in time.’

Adrian nodded in appreciation of the good news. ’Good. I’ll leave all of you to finish them off. I’m going to see if I can do anything about their fleet.’

’Understood, boss! Goddess speed!’ Charles sent, before Adrian disconnected the link.

Meanwhile, Adrian was left in a serious dilemma. His mana reserves were completely empty for the first time in a very long time.

The orbital duel had drained him. To add to his worries, he had the massive, crippled warship to worry about. If what Charles was saying was true, if there were more warriors on that ship, they were truly doomed.

Adrian sighed, floating alone in the silent void. He didn’t have many options. He had to go there himself, regardless of his condition.

He had to be quick, before they got their bearings and sent more capsules into Thanad. If he could reach the ship, he could figure out what needed to be done to avoid that from happening.

With his resolve hardened, he used the suit’s energy to propel himself toward the drifting, mountainous wreck of the Garog warship.

As he got closer, the sheer scale of it was breathtaking. It was gigantic, a structure of carved stonel the size of a mountain, dwarfing any creation on Thanad.

He had never imagined he would see something like this outside of the sci-fi Webnovels of his past life.

He looked for an opening, his sensors scanning the hull. He discovered that the main landing pod hatch that had unleashed the attack was still wide open.

’That’s strange,’ he thought. What was even more strange was how weak the energy signatures inside were.

He could sense the ship’s dying reactor, but the life signs he expected to find were... silent. The only active mana signatures he could sense felt like magic crystals. ’Do they have a way of masking their signatures?’

Adrian shrugged the thought away. He had to know. With a deep breath, he flew into the open hatch, his hand firmly on his Mana Gun.

He had already decided to jump into the Factory the second anything unexpected occurred. Once inside, he would emerge back and try to escape.

The place was cavernous and dark, built for beings far larger than himself. The corridors were carved from the same green-black stone.

As he walked down the silent hallway, something about the silence felt deeply wrong for Adrian. He held his Mana Gun at the ready, his senses on high alert, preparing to take out any Garog he encountered.

Eventually, he did. He turned a corner and found not one, but two Garog warriors. They were both kneeling on the floor, their four arms and their heads pressed to the metallic ground, facing the direction of the bridge.

Adrian wasn’t scared, but he warily pointed his gun at their figures. Their auras were... gone. His blue eyes glowed as [Omnisense] confirmed what he suspected.

’They’re dead!’

He cautiously went closer and used his armored boot to kick one over, giving him a better view. He confirmed it. They really were dead. Their eyes were open and blank, their stony skin cold.

Adrian felt a horrifying hypothesis form in his mind, but he didn’t want to jump to conclusions. He abandoned all caution and took off at speed, flying through the massive, silent ship.

It was only after several minutes of scouring nearly every nook and corner of the warship that he confirmed it. They were all dead. Hundreds of them.

In the barracks, in the engine rooms, in the hallways. All kneeling in the same, reverent, suicidal pose.

He even found dozens of them in the landing bay, kneeling before their pods, most likely ready to descend and join the battle. All dead.

Adrian spat in disgust, the realization hitting him. "So," he said to himself, his voice echoing in the dead ship. "He sacrificed them all. All of them. Just to power those soul attacks. How... evil."

That singular realization took away any form of empathy he had begun to feel for Kharn. The Garog’s love for their god was a twisted, fanatical thing that saw their own lives as nothing more than fuel.

Adrian could only give the dead a few seconds of silence, a moment of respect for the warriors who had been sacrificed by their own fanatical leader. He zoomed out of the ship, leaving the massive, floating tomb behind.

What happened in there was good news for him and the races of Thanad. While he should be feeling bad for the Garog, he was logical enough to know that this was war.

There was no mercy in it. He doubted their lives would have been spared if the Garog had been alive and victorious. Now, he could be sure to say that the war was officially, completely, and absolutely ended.

It took him quite a long time before he finally arrived back on Thanad’s surface. He descended into a capital that was already shifting from high alert to celebration..

He saw his people reorganizing, the wounded being tended to by Serena’s healers, and the victorious Knights and Mages gathering in the main plaza.

Charles wasn’t in the bunker but was out with the rest of his Vassals and the other members of the Alliance, their faces weary but triumphant. They had been prepared for a long, brutal ground war, and it had been averted.

They were all there, waiting for him, waiting for the final good news.

Adrian landed softly in the center of the plaza, retracting his suit. He looked at Eli, at Damien, at Karl, at Serena, at Nyra, at all the faces that had become his new world.

"The Garog. They’re all gone. We’re victorious!"

"VICTORY!"

A single roar erupted from Karl, which was immediately picked up by every soldier and citizen, a wave of pure joy and relief that shook the city. After the cheers finally subsided, Karl walked over, clapping Adrian on the back.

"See! I told you we were trying too much! At the end of it all, nothing that unexpected happened. We showed those hideous aliens who the true bosses are!"

Serena, who was next to him, laughed a little and playfully pushed his arm. "Karl, keep quiet! I’ll be really mad if you jinx it one more time. We just won a war!"

Her words made everyone laugh humorously, prompting Karl to defend himself. "But I’m serious! The fight was way too easy in the end! You can be rest assured that nothing else is gonna happen!"

He said it with a final, confident wink. Adrian came to his defense for once as a genuine laugh escaped him. "Yes, Rena. Karl is right this time." He smiled at his friends. "We’ve wo—"

He was still talking when the aura in the entire planet dropped some degrees. In the next instant, the entire plaza turned slowly dark, as if the midday sun was being eclipsed in an instant.

Right after, a heavy, unimaginable pressure fell upon everyone, including Adrian, rooting them to the spot. They were unable to move, their bodies frozen by a will that was not their own.

Looking up, they could all see it. A small, perfectly circular ship, looking almost like a silver disc, hovered silently in the sky, glowing with a brilliant, white light.

It felt like the true apocalypse, a power so far beyond that it defied comprehension.

Just as they struggled to comprehend what was happening, they heard a voice. It was not a shout, but a calm, dispassionate sound that echoed across the entire planet, a tongue that only Adrian, with could comprehend.

{People of the Quarantine Sector 7G, Planet Thanad. You have been found guilty of violating Article 394, Section 12 of the Galactic Concordat.}

{You have 24 hours to make your full amends, or face total annihilation.}

***

[Congratulations! You’ve Completed a Third Volume: Flames Of War!]