Chaos' Heir

Chapter 1476: Lives

A glaring transformation would have attracted distracted and drunken eyes far earlier, but the purple-red light had initially been relatively dim, only given away by the eventual thunder.

Still, the thunder had happened for a reason. It had marked a chain reaction that only the five Orlats on the stage could study with their bare eyes.

The interference around the planet was made of mana, leftovers of synthetic mana, to be precise. It wasn’t anything powerful or that could be harnessed, but certain spells could use it as a channel for something majestic.

The five Orlats on the stage saw how sparks and lightning bolts ran across the invisible halo of leftover energy around the planet, devouring it during their advance.

Both sparks and lightning bolts were minute but bright, and their joint expansion and leftovers tainted the sky with their purple-red color, creating the intensifying light everyone else saw.

Of course, details or not, the scene remained deeply shocking. Something increasingly brighter seemed set on enveloping the entire planet, and things worsened when more thundering noises leaked inside its atmosphere.

The first thunder had made everyone look at the sky. The second forced all the Orlats to drop what they were doing and stand up. By the third, every alien in the encampment had already decided to run away, only for something even greater to follow.

Brighter flashes suddenly fell in various locations, illuminating the horizon and releasing even louder thunder. Those distant lightning bolts had been massive enough to spread their roars through entire quadrants, seemingly hinting at an imminent storm.

Yet, the very opposite happened. No more lightning bolts followed, and the sky also started to clear. The purple-red radiance started to recede, returning Chigoilara’s night to its previous color.

Among all the Orlats at the party, only one of them read through the short attack’s purpose. The central Orlats had managed Chigoilara instead of sending his clan into the stars to look for riches, so he could guess what those lightning bolts had hit.

The leftover energy around Chigoilara that acted as a cloaking technique obviously came from the planet itself. It originated from giant machines that sent synthetic mana to disperse past the orbit, and the central Orlats felt the lightning bolts had fallen exactly in their direction.

Needless to say, the dispersing storm only snapped the Orlats out of their stupor, prompting them to resume their evacuation. Even the aliens on the stage were ready to run away, but something unfathomably heavy fell into the area, forcing everyone to freeze.

That weight wasn’t anything physical, but everyone felt it. Something pressed down on all the Orlats’ very existence, triggering their survival instincts, making them too terrified to move.

Then, loud sounds of what resembled slow and steady steps spread through the camp from a specific direction, making every available eye point there. The fires and general crowd prevented many Orlats from seeing the source of that noise, but its target was obvious.

The Orlats on the stage remained stunned as they watched a blue light advancing from the feasts’ edge, walking in a straight line toward them as aliens hurried out of its way.

The blue light’s source eventually became visible to the alien clan leaders. A man with hair that reached his shoulders, a silver crown, a thick red cape, and a striking azure scar on his chest calmly advanced through the gathering as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

As for the man’s identity, the entirety of the regulated universe knew it, especially a species so keen on gathering information. Prince Khan of the Nognes family had somehow crashed that party, and his motives were known to every Orlats on the scene.

After all, the Orlats knew what they had done while almost every other species had been busy suffering from the Scarlet Eyes’ sudden invasion.

Khan didn’t care much for that general attention. It mostly came from mortals anyway, so his glowing eyes remained fixed on the stage, where the only people worth addressing were.

It was actually surprising for Khan to see five evolved Orlats gathered in the same place. He had never met one, and part of him didn’t even think they existed. That species had never been battle-oriented anyway, so the evolution wasn’t strictly necessary.

Yet, it seemed that the universe could still surprise Khan, and there was a reasonable explanation for the matter, too. The evolution required a specific stability, which the Orlats didn’t have. But they were also weaker compared to every other species, lowering the requirements for that higher stage.

Actually, thinking back on it, Khan recalled that the Global Army had already confirmed that the Orlats were one of the few species weaker than humans before the evolution.

That implied that the Global Army had met and studied evolved Orlats to reach that conclusion.

Aside from those deeper topics, Khan found another surprising detail. To his displeasure, he knew the Orlats quite well, and that massive gathering went against their habits.

Still, the universe had already gone crazy. Khan’s main issue in life now involved a proper God, so little could truly shock him anymore.

The Orlats limited themselves to clearing a path for Khan, but he did seize a few things along the way. He walked next to an abandoned table featuring multiple metal cups, so he took one for himself.

Next, Khan crossed one of the fires, stealing a makeshift seat for himself while continuing to head for the stage. He eventually reached it, and his figure rose through the air to step on it.

The five evolved Orlats on the stage remained on their feet while Khan placed the stolen seat in an available spot and sat down. He even took a sip from the luckily full cup before leaving it on the table.

Words could kill, but the silence that followed seemed able to do far worse. Yet, Khan didn’t let it fester for too long.

“[I’ve come to offer you your lives],” Khan stated in the Orlats’ language, his accent as perfect as ever.