Chapter 80: Phase Two The War Reignites

High Orbit – Thalor System

The shadow fleets emerged like blackened serpents from warp rifts, fanged and ravenous.

Vaelora stood atop the observation dais of her flagship Voidsphere, her blood-red eyes gleaming with uncontained fury as Phase Two of the Mahasimu conquest began. Before her sprawled the emerald world of Tharalyn a lesser Thalor colony but still defended by planetary shields and four orbital bastions manned by veteran fleets.

"Let none survive," she hissed.

The void lit with fire.

Shadow dreadnoughts decloaked, spewing void torpedoes and dark lances. Thalor warships scrambled in defense, their gleaming silver hulls moving with grace, but the Mahasimu had adapted. The Shadowscourge vessels wove between cannon fire, unleashing cruel psionic shockwaves that melted hulls and minds alike.

Vaelora led the charge.

Personal shadowcraft swarmed the defense line. Her Thal'karn were released into the planetary atmosphere, tearing through the surface like burning reapers. Tharalyn's cities erupted in black flame fortresses cracked, and civilians screamed into the winds as enslaved scarab swarms descended.

Then the warp bloomed again.

Out came The Void Seraph, Eleena's mothership a sleek black serpent with coiling obsidian armor. From its hangars spilled death incarnate: Eleena, freshly awakened from centuries of stasis, with her wrath barely contained behind sapphire eyes. Her elite enforcers followed, weapons humming with anticipation.

Eleena landed on the surface battlefield amid Thalor resistance.

She danced through their ranks, blades twirling, emotion pouring through every strike. Screams echoed behind her as she and her handpicked slaughtermaidens painted the soil crimson. Thalor resistance wavered beneath her brutal elegance.

Aboard the Darkstar Aldre

Grand Star Lord Malgus stood still in the center of a massive hololithic war table. The battle unfolded on the wall-sized display before him every life, every kill, every flame. His crimson helmet reflected the light of devastation.

She still remembers how to kill, he mused of Eleena.

Then, his mind returned to calculation.

He waved his hand and more campaigns were queued: twelve more systems, six Thalor-controlled, three Vhalar-occupied, and one unknown. Queen Suama had approved the sequence. The galaxy would burn, precisely.

Sanctum of the Seers – The Black Hole Megacity

Dakarie followed the towering Faceless King designated I:2-Urath across the monumental bridges of the Seers' sacred city: The Black Hole, a sprawling metropolis carved within a shattered planet orbiting a gravitational singularity.

The city defied reality twisting spires, dark energy rivers, and lightless floating monoliths. The air whispered knowledge that could erode sanity. Millions of Broken Seers moved in silent communion blind eyes glowing faintly, psychically communicating across dimensions.

"They dislike your presence," Urath muttered.

"I can tell," Dakarie replied grimly, absorbing the weight of psionic disapproval from the city's psychic currents.

"You brought the Ancient Shadows to our threshold," the Faceless King said, leading him deeper. "Now the blind one prepares for war."

The Seers' Inner Council Chamber

Atop a floating platform suspended over a gravity-sheared void, the four Elders and the Grand Blind One sat in their ancient seats. A name was summoned.

"Bring forth War Seer Kal'mor-Zai," the Grand Blind One commanded.

Moments later, the War Seer entered, cloaked in black and white neural silk, etched with living sigils. He bowed low.

"You are to lead 1,500 of our Faceless and a General-Class Faceless Knight. Observe the war between the Thalor and the Mahasimu. Do not intervene unless the Thalor face annihilation."

War Seer Kal'mor-Zai bowed again. "As the Grand One wills."

"Do not reveal your presence to the Mahasimu. Let them remember fear only when we choose to be remembered."

Elsewhere – Elder Xiran Prepares

Aboard the Last Light of Serak, Elder Xiran stood in full war regalia glowing golden crystal armor etched with thousands of ancestral names. His eyes closed in meditation as his flagship floated above the sacred moon El-Shur.

His fleet of Thalor warships reforged and sworn drifted in tense formation.

Across the galaxy, the shadows were moving. And Vaelora dark sister of destruction was near.

"Let her come," he whispered. "Let her remember who I am."