Chapter 532: Forest Of Ships
(Planet Tithia, Hangar Bay, Leo’s POV)
Leo had never seen as much chaos at Tithia’s Hangar Bay Area as he did today.
There were ships everywhere.
Cargo freighters. Tactical carriers. Armored battlecruisers. Agile Frigates. Massive long-range destroyers. He couldn’t even count them if he tried.
The entire airfield looked like some mechanical forest, with steel beasts instead of trees, each growling, humming, or sparking to life in preparation for launch.
Thousands of soldiers swarmed the place like ants, moving crates, fuel cells, ammo boxes, and god-knows-what else between ships. Crew members jogged past with scanner boards and fuel logs, while nervous recruits carried out last-minute supply runs, flinching every time a Captain or Commander barked something in their ears.
Leo caught sight of one poor guy dropping a whole crate of rations as a woman in a red captain’s coat tore into him so hard, it looked like he might cry on the spot.
Overhead, Tithia’s sky was just as busy. Hundreds of warships hovered far above the skyline like metallic clouds, temporarily parked for the time.
They’d already launched from other home planets and were now waiting for the final flag to move.
Tithia was their last stop.
From here onwards, all of them would move together in battle formation until they reached their intended target planet.
Leo couldn’t help but stop and stare at all this activity, he was fascinated by it to say the least, however, Dumpy, who was lazily perched on his shoulders, was the complete opposite.
The little frog couldn’t care less about what went on behind the scenes.
"All these men here, Lord Father, and still none stronger than me....." Dumpy commented, as Leo chuckled softly at his words.
This was the most amount of men and ships Leo had seen gathered at once, as it was only now that the grand scale of this conflict registered in his mind.
This wasn’t some regional skirmish.
This was a war effort that spanned across solar systems.
’So this is what war at interstellar level looks like eh?’ he wondered, as just as he was about to be lost in thoughts, suddenly, a soldier interrupted him.
"Lord Shadow Dragon, please sir, this way.... we are ready to leave in a few minutes."
A woman in a common officer’s uniform ran up and saluted him, before leading them past the main landing decks toward the upper launch hangars.
Leo, Ben, Dupravel, and Dumpy followed, their expressions calm and natural, as they approached the warship that had been custom-built to carry only the two Dragons and their personal entourage.
It wasn’t just any warship.
It was a reinforced Destroyer-Class flagship, designed not for offense, but survival.
Most of its weapons had been stripped out and replaced with defensive plating, speed boosters, sensor jammers, and emergency barrier tech, since its only real job was to keep Leo and Veyr alive.
*Step*
*Step*
As they walked up the loading ramp, Leo glanced at the hull, which looked polished black with the symbol of the Dragon’s Army drawn onto it.
A silver dragon coiled around a black orb, wings flared wide, with crimson lines running down its spine. Its mouth released a spiral of stars, symbolizing conquest across space, and beneath it, etched in old glyphs, read the words: "We Do Not Yield. We Consume." Which was the mark of an unstoppable force.
It felt surreal to look at, as this was the first time Leo had seen a symbol within the Cult that did not belong to the Cult of Ascension itself.
This was the symbol of the Dragon Army.
And proof that the men flying under its banner were not the regular Cult military.
Inside, the ship was pristine.
The lights dimmed automatically as the door hissed shut behind them. And sitting casually at the end of the hallway, arms crossed and eyes half-shut, was Veyr.
He stood up the second he saw Leo and offered a fist. "Finally."
Leo bumped it without a word and sat across from him, while the rest of the group settled in around them.
No one spoke. There was no need. The hum of the ship’s internal systems and the dull throb of tension in the air said enough.
Minutes later, the engines kicked in. A low rumble passed through the walls, followed by a loud whoosh as the ship lifted off the hangar deck, taking off alongside hundreds of others.
From the viewing deck, Leo watched as dozens of ships shot up at once, like flies peeling off a cow’s back in perfect sync.
The entire swarm climbed upward, punching through the clouds together and spreading out just enough to form ranks.
Within moments, a neat three-dimensional formation began to take shape in space.
To Leo, it looked like a massive boomerang rotating slowly across the stars, with smaller pods protecting the edges and heavier destroyers clustered near the center like a floating shield wall.
It was the first time he had seen warships move together like this.... silent, swift, and synchronized, all aligned and perfectly sync paced.
The march towards Koral had officially begun, but at this point, 99.9% of the forces still believed they were headed for Nemo.
—--------------
(Cult Surveillance Outpost, Planet Nemo’s Outer Orbit)
The dimly lit control room buzzed with quiet tension as dozens of radar panels pulsed with blinking signals. An assistant rushed across the chamber, clutching a datapad, stopping only when he reached the edge of the high command platform.
"Commander Su Bal, sir," the assistant said, voice tight. "We’ve got confirmation. Multiple long-range surveillance nodes have picked up a massive fleet. They’re course-bound for Planet Nemo."
Su Bal didn’t respond immediately. He stood by the window, gazing out into the blackness of space, shoulders relaxed as if he’d been waiting for this exact moment.
Then, slowly, he rolled his neck, bones cracking loud and clear in the silence.
"So... those cult bastards really have lost their minds,"
"Very well.... Let them come!"
His tone was quiet. Absolute.
War was coming to Nemo.
And he intended to meet it head on.