The heavy oak doors of the Palace reception hall swung open with a rhythmic thud that echoed against the high, vaulted ceilings.

The air inside was thick with tension, smelling of ozone and expensive incense.

Every head, some covered in scales, others glowing with ethereal light, and some purely mechanical, turned toward the entrance.

Noah stepped forward, his expression unreadable, his stride steady.

Beside him, Liara, the Phoenix Queen, walked with a grace that seemed to set the very air on fire.

The room was a microcosm of the galaxy's power structure.

Representatives from hundreds of systems were packed into the space, their hushed whispers dying out the moment Noah appeared.

The silence wasn't born of respect.

It was born of a fresh, paralyzing fear.

Only minutes ago, the entire orbital theater had witnessed the humiliation of the Dragon Race.

The broadcast of Prince Ignis begging for his life had been intercepted and played on every ship's monitor across the Aetherion sector.

"Where did he find those cannons?" a delegate from the Technarchy whispered, his voice shaking. "Our scans couldn't even quantify the energy density. It's not just tech... it's as if they've weaponized the fundamental laws of the universe."

"Did the Earth Empire create them?" another asked, clutching a glass of nectar so hard it shattered. "If a backwater human province has 'Apocalypse Level' satellites, then the 'Earth Empire' isn't just a title. It's a warning."

The visual of that violet beam had recalibrated the political compass of the universe in a single heartbeat.

The "human upstarts" were no longer a joke.

They were a nightmare.

The "Great Races" who had come to watch a slaughter now found themselves wondering if they were the ones on the chopping block.

As Noah and Liara reached the center of the hall, a wave of shock rippled through the crowd.

"The Phoenix Queen has aligned with them?" a minor lord from a merchant nebula gasped.

The sight of Liara, the sovereign of one of the Three Great Pillars, walking shoulder to shoulder with a human was unthinkable.

To the "Superior Races," humans were biological errors, short lived and spiritually dim.

Seeing Liara, a creature of holy fire and ancient lineage, acting as a companion to Noah was seen by many as a betrayal of their very status.

A group of elders from the Spirit Race stood near the front.

They were beings of pure, shimmering energy, encased in crystalline robes to maintain their forms.

One elder, his light a sickly, judgmental yellow, stepped forward.

"Queen Liara," the Spirit Elder hissed, his voice sounding like glass grinding on glass. "How can you stoop so low? You are a holy creature of the Great Fire. How can you become an ally with these filthy mud creatures? Have you no shame for your bloodline?"

Liara didn't flinch.

She looked at the elder with a cold, piercing disgust that mirrored his own, but she didn't even grant him the dignity of a verbal reply.

To her, his words were the desperate barks of a dying era.

The Spirit Elder's light flared brighter, his anger manifesting as a sharp, psychic pressure.

"You... you dare ignore a High Elder of the Spirit Realm? You have truly fallen—"

"Look at her with those eyes again, and I'll gouge them out from their sockets."

The voice was quiet.

But it cut through the Spirit Elder's psychic pressure like a hot knife through silk.

Noah had stepped slightly in front of Liara.

His eyes, usually calm and calculating, were now dark with a predatory intensity.

He hadn't planned to speak.

He hadn't planned to defend her honor in such a primal way.

But the moment the "light bulb" elder had directed that filth toward Liara, a protective instinct he didn't know he possessed surged in his chest.

Liara's eyes widened.

She turned her head, looking at Noah's profile.

For all her power and her thousands of years of life, no one had ever defended her out of genuine, unvarnished protective anger.

They defended her because of politics or duty.

Noah did it because he simply wouldn't allow her to be insulted.

A mischievous, warm smile touched her lips.

"Oh? King Noah is being protective of me?" she whispered, leaning closer so only he could hear. "How fortunate I am to have such a fierce guardian."

Noah felt the heat rise to his ears again.

He stared straight ahead, his jaw tight.

"Don't talk nonsense," he muttered under his breath. "I can't let them insult my ally. It's bad for morale. That's all."

Behind them, Fiona, the Angel general, let out a sharp, cold snort.

She adjusted her glasses, her eyes narrowing as she watched the interaction.

"His Majesty is still far too young for this vixen's charm," she whispered to William. "She's playing him like a lute."

"Shh," William whispered back, his hand on the hilt of his sword. "Don't say such words. Let him have this moment. He has found someone else beside being our protector."

The Spirit Elder, however, was not finished.

The insult from a "human" was more than his pride could bear.

He ignored the warning, his energy body expanding until he towered over Noah.

"What did you say, human?" the elder roared. "Did this fire bitch lose her virginity to you scum? Is that why she follows you like a dog?"

The air in the room didn't just turn cold.

It vanished.

Before Noah could even draw a breath to respond, a shadow flickered.

Rudi, the Supreme General and Noah's closest friend, appeared in the space between Noah and the Spirit Elder.

He didn't draw a weapon.

He didn't chant a spell.

He simply looked the Elder in the eye with a bored, tired expression.

Snap.

Rudi flicked his fingers.

The sound was no louder than a dry twig breaking.

But the effect was catastrophic.

The Spirit Elder, a High Level Immortal King who had lived for tens of thousands of years, had blasted away.

His energy form was instantly unraveled at the subatomic level, turning into a cloud of harmless, shimmering cosmic particles that drifted to the floor like glitter.

"Don't talk so loud in front of our Emperor," Rudi said with a flat voice.

He brushed a speck of dust off his shoulder and stepped back into the shadows behind Noah.

A collective gasp went up from the crowd.

Fiona felt a genuine chill run down her spine.

Even she, who knew the extent of their training, was stunned.

"The Supreme General is as scary as ever," she thought.

He shows no mercy at all.

He didn't just kill him.

He erased him from existence.

Noah looked at the pile of glowing dust on the floor and then at Rudi.

A small, genuine smile played on his lips.

His best friend and his supreme general hadn't changed.

In a room full of gods and monsters, Rudi still treated them like annoying flies.

The reception hall descended into absolute chaos.

"An Immortal King... killed with a snap?"

"Run! Send word to the High Council!"

"The Earth Empire has supreme warriors among their generals!"

Delegates scrambled for the exits, tripping over their robes and each other.

Within seconds, emergency transmissions were being beamed out to the furthest reaches of the galaxy.

The news hit the Dragon primordial empires and the Spirit Core Worlds like a supernova.

The Dragon Race, who had been laughing at Prince Ignis's cowardice, stopped laughing.

The Spirit Race, who viewed themselves as the supreme consciousness of the universe, felt a collective tremor of rage and fear.

They had intended to send explorers and minor lords to Aetherion.

Now, the orders were changed.

The "Human Upstart" had committed the ultimate sin.

He had proven he could kill them.

The top powers of the universe, the True Sovereigns and the Ancient Ancestors, began to stir from their meditation.

Fleets that hadn't been moved in a millennium were fueled.

The Dragon Kings and the Spirit Overlords decided then and there.

Earth would not just be conquered.

It would be demolished.

Noah watched the frantic exit of the diplomats with a detached interest.

He turned back to the remaining guests, mostly the lower races who were too terrified to move, and Liara, who was still looking at the spot where the Spirit Elder had vanished.

"How strong are these twelve generals of yours, Noah?" Liara asked, her voice filled with a new kind of wonder. "And more importantly... how powerful are you, actually?"

Noah didn't answer directly.

He looked at the long tables filled with exotic fruits, meats, and wines that the former Emperor of Aetherion had spent weeks preparing.

"While your top brass are coming to 'demolish' me," Noah said, gesturing toward the food with a graceful hand, "why don't you eat? It would be a waste to let the banquet go cold just because of a little bit of dust."

He picked up a glass of wine, his eyes reflecting the distant stars of the open sky above.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.