The command room of Glory Base was oppressively quiet. Shadows clung to the corners, thicker than usual, and the faint hum of the control panels did little to ease the tension. Kael Ardyn stood near the center, perfectly still, eyes scanning the room with sharp precision. The Butcher Girl hovered nearby, uncertain. Should she step in? Or stay silent? Every instinct in her body screamed caution, yet Kael’s calm confidence made hesitation almost impossible.“Captain, bring a basin of cold water,” Kael said softly, but there was no mistaking the command behind his words. “I want a proper conversation with the commander once she’s awake. She needs to understand… really understand her mistakes.”The Butcher Girl paused, studying him. Calm. Too calm. Almost unnervingly so. Only hours ago, chaos had reigned in this very room. And now, here he was, steady as a stone. She could feel the weight of his intent. With a reluctant sigh, she obeyed, returning quickly with a basin full to the brim.In

Kael Ardyn gripped the bottle of Spiritwine, knuckles white, his mind tangled in the Ripper Woman’s words.“Going outside Glory Base to fight the Voidspawn Swarm for months, avoiding the commander’s wrath… not a terrible idea,” he muttered to himself. Still, that unfinished ten-win streak in the Aether Combat Division nagged at him. Over twenty days left, and he had won just once. If he left now, the massive game pod wouldn’t follow. No deployment meant no streak.And failure carried the sharpest edge—the Warlord System’s punishment was unforgiving.Even running to another Celestial Dominion base on the Dark Moon Planet offered no true safety. The commander’s anger would follow him, and whether he could even use the game pod then was anyone’s guess.A voice echoed in his mind—cold, sharp, impossible to ignore.“Reminder to the host: defeating a minor commander and fleeing undermines your prestige. A true Warlord does not run.”“Damn you!” Kael Ardyn growled, cutting the thought off. H

The Moonspire Academy tutors’ dorm was buzzing. Noise, excitement, laughter—it all collided. A girl in playing-card pajamas flailed her arms at the floating virtual screen, shouting so loud it cut through the chatter.“Look! The Death God Mark V is out! He didn’t wait for reinforcements. He just… came out on his own! And the Venom Serpent mech? Exactly like I predicted!”Her eyes gleamed. “Death God, go! Tear that Serpent apart. Now!”From the corner, a girl in dog-head pajamas leaned lazily on her fan, a sly grin on her face. “You got the start right, sure, but not the ending,” she said teasingly. “This fight isn’t done in ten minutes. The Venom Serpent’s pilot—the one in high heels—he’s tricky. Big sis, you’d better be ready to pay up… and eat the fan! So tell me, do you like it dry or soaked a little? Makes it taste better.”Meanwhile, the battlefield of the Aether Combat Division came alive. Kael Ardyn guided the Death God Mark V through the dense primeval forest. Branches scraped

Kael Ardyn had imagined prisons in all sorts of ways. Dark stone halls, damp and reeking. Flickering torches that barely illuminated the faces of the condemned. Rats are bold enough to snatch food from your hand without hesitation. But reality, as always, was far less dramatic.The so-called legendary prison of Guangyao Base was a joke. A tiny steel room, barely big enough to pace in circles. Two soldiers shoved him inside like he was a crate of supplies. The door slammed shut behind him with a metallic clang that echoed in the tight space. A faint red light flickered from a broken panel above, throwing his cramped surroundings in a sickly, pulsing haze.He stretched out his arms. Almost touched the walls on either side. He crouched a little, adjusted, and brushed his thumb along the cold metal on the left, his knuckles scraping the other wall. He groaned.“I’ve slept in broom closets bigger than this,” he muttered. “Legendary prison, my ass. This is a glorified storage room.”He slid

Commander Elara Myrin’s eyes swept across the training ground, sharp and steady, until they landed on Kael Ardyn standing atop the rough, hastily built execution platform.“I made the right call,” she said, her voice slicing through the tense night air. “I cannot risk the lives of the entire base for the sake of thirty soldiers in the 13th Squadron. Kael Ardyn, if you want to go, go alone. You have my permission to use your mech for the rescue. Your execution will be postponed. And if you fall to the Voidspawn, I’ll make sure the Alliance honors you as a martyr.”The words hit the soldiers like a cold slap. Kael’s gaze swept over them. He knew the danger. No one would follow him tonight. Not a single one.Then, out of nowhere, something completely unexpected happened.The executioner—the one who had been hooded, brandishing that massive cleaver—pulled off the mask, dropped the weapon, and fell to his knees at Kael’s feet. Kael froze. The person sent to kill him was… the cafeteria lady