As the two groups of soldiers met each other, Grandmaster Stephen was the first one to break the silence.

"Did you finish your report?"

Victoria answered with a simple nod.

"Good." The Grandmaster sighed, turning his back. "We have a lot of things to do. I suggest we rest for a couple of hours before departing toward our next objective."

While his tone sounded natural, it came off somewhat forced to experienced observers.

"Hah!" Richard instantly saw past the facade. Being a person that preferred to rip a bandage right off, he asked boldly.

"Oh, we also received two additional objectives. What about you guys?"

Despite how casually he asked the question, Stephen froze on the spot.

"..."

Instantly a suffocating silence spread around the room. The members of both cities sharpened their senses to the limit.

Would a fight to the death happen right here and now?

Unsurprised that Richard hadn't bothered to be discreet, Victoria exclaimed.

"Our Lord has requested that by the end of the mission, not a single person from your squad remain alive. I imagine you have received similar news?"

Karson answered with a threatening tone. "We did."

"I can imagine the order came as a surprise to you as it did to us." Victoria didn't beat around the bush.

"We have decided to disobey our Lord's order. What about you?"

Her question caused Vespera's troops to exchange uneasy glances. The hesitation in their faces was palpable. Even a blind man was able to deduce that they too didn't want to fight their brethren.

"Considering that we are stuck in Neptune's dark spot, fighting amongst ourselves would only weaken us, dooming us in the process." Victoria added.

She was essentially saying that their rulers had disregarded them for reasons unknown. Otherwise it was impossible to explain the strange nature of their orders.

She hadn't arrived at that conclusion baselessly. The number of troops from both Azure and Vespera were about equal in number and power… as if done intentionally.

"AHH!" Grandmaster Stephen put his hands over his face dramatically. The other Grandmasters of Vespera reacted similarly.

It felt fundamentally wrong to disobey the higher-ups. But they didn't want to fight their brethren without a good reason.

"So be it! Fuck the Lords and their pretentious, overinflated egos! We won't be serving under them anymore!" Stephen decided, as apparently he was chosen to speak for the group.

"But what are we going to tell the Lords? If they start suspecting us of treason, things will turn ugly." Natalia reasoned.

"We will keep them in the dark for now." Claire suggested. "Unless we explicitly tell them that we don't find their rule satisfactory, they shouldn't suspect a thing…"

Victoria instantly added. "And even if they do, it won't concern us. They can't afford to depart to Neptune's dark side and hunt us on a whim, not to mention that the monetary reward we were promised was sent to us the moment the mission began."

For now, the plan was to act as if nothing had gone amiss. When it came time to report their progress to the Lords, they would claim that they had delayed killing the other soldiers until the primary mission was completed.

Even if both Azure's and Vespera's troops had received orders to kill each other and knew the other party had the same plan. Didn't mean they had to confront the issue at hand now, leaving it for later.

Naturally there was the possibility of a slip-up. But in case the Lords learned that their plans had gone amiss, they wouldn't be able to touch the soldiers.

With the stressful discussion over, both sides coming to agreement, the troops enjoyed the well-deserved rest.

Most climbed atop the roof of the military houses and began to cultivate.

Just like the Lords claimed, the spiritual power was potent. It wasn't comparable to when Michael and his crew cultivated next to the corpse of an Overlord. Nevertheless, it was more effective than usual.

At the current speed it should take a few weeks up to a month for the Peak Masters in Michael's crew to reach the Grandmaster realm.

If that were to happen, it would be a monumental achievement, as usually a person would need to chase power their entire lifetime to reach such a realm. Yet Victoria, Claire, and Richard had the chance to grasp such power while being so young.

Eventually they rested enough and departed towards the next target.

It was a base similar to the last one. Slightly larger, occupied by another Elite tier queen and her loyal herd.

As before, they relied on Natalia's concealment technique to travel the distance undetected, and Cyberfang warned them if there were dangers on the far horizon.

Pushing forward, it was one successful mission after another.

Michael paid special attention to the settlements they were being sent to liberate. It didn't take him long to figure out what the Lords were trying to achieve.

'Essentially they want us to create a funnel in Neptune's dark side. Wide at the start, progressively getting narrower to the end. If my instincts are correct, at the end we should find the Ro'trah's queen that governs the entire swarm on the planet.'

A menacing smile tugged his face. The queen was certainly beyond the General tier, given how much land her swarm was able to rule.

What he was most curious about was if the alien's ruler was an Overlord… Or if it was something even beyond.

'Considering that the 'Liberate Neptune' quest is categorized as impossible… I suspect that it's the latter...'

Every day that passed, they conquered two or three settlements, depending on the distance they had to travel.

A week passed in a flash. With their usual rest done, they headed towards their next target.

However, just from a simple glance, it was made apparent this military base was several times larger than the ones before. Unfortunately, with the increase of land, so did the number of the flying Ro'trahs.

Previously they had numbered a few million at most. But now they were in the hundreds of millions.

Worse, the little creatures looked agitated and bigger than normal, suggesting that their ruler was more extraordinary than most.

For the first time ever, the soldiers were about to face a General tier queen and her swarm…

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