The two auxiliary planets of the Shattered Starfields were real planets. There was a fair amount of distance between them. Without enough distance, the magnetic fields and gravitational forces would interfere with each other.
Hua.
The Moonfiend Pirates were nearing their end.
Second Brigade had begun collecting the spoils of war.
Xiaosu turned her head to look at Lan Jue. "Boss, when this is over, are we going back?"
Lan Jue nodded. "Almost.
The destruction of the Moonfiend Pirates caused too much of a stir.
I don't want to kill too much. News can't be kept under wraps.
No one knows where we came from, but I'm afraid the Northern Alliance and Western Alliance will react.
But I'm afraid the North and West will react. Once the battle is over, we'll return to Skyfire.
Everyone needs to rest and reorganize. "
"Alright."
The sound of gunfire grew weaker. The railgun atop the Moonfiend Palace fired for the third time. This time it wasn't aimed at the sky, but at the ground. A third of the city was engulfed in a sea of fire. The earth caved in.
The pirates' morale crumbled.
The mechas scattered in every direction.
They were beginning to crumble.
The pirates in Luna didn't know the airship hangar was under attack. Their first goal was to get to the hangar, board a ship, and escape.
"First and Second Brigades, leave five squads to guard the palace. Everyone else, go out and clean up the pirates." Lan Jue ordered.
The time to strike back had come.
The next step was to clean up the planet. They had to eliminate as many pirates as they could.
Even after they left, Moonfiend would fall into chaos.
It would take a long time for the foreign pirates to regain control of the three most important planets in the Shattered Starfields.
The cleanup wouldn't be as easy or as short as the previous assault.
It would take a long time to complete.
They would also need the help of airships.
Lan Jue gave Zeus -1 an order.
Mika and the others were to come to Luna and collect the resources they'd taken from the palace.
From the time the Moonfiend Empress had left, the only place the Moonfiend Pirates had gone was the treasure vault.
The vault was three times as big as it was before, but it was still full.
The energy crystals did not even have the right to come here.
Ever since the Pontiff's Citadel took control of the Citadel, they'd done it even more thoroughly than Star Division.
Why did so many pirate groups choose to rely on them?
This was because in the past half year, the Moonfiend Pirates had relied on their tyrannical strength.
Robbing everyone in the Shattered Starfields.
In a large area nearby, all the pirates who disobeyed had disappeared from the face of the earth.
A large amount of resources were gathered here.
The Pontiff's Citadel wasn't in a hurry to move these resources away. They wanted to use the Shattered Starfields as a base to build a new kingdom.
For this, they had spent a lot of effort to build interstellar rail cannons on the three planets.
Lan Jue wasn't greedy. It was impossible to take away all the large interstellar rail cannons. The two auxiliary stars were already on standby.
All kinds of defenses were activated to the maximum.
Therefore, they could take it away.
In other words, it was something from the Moonfiend Star.
Lan Jue wasn't interested in a cumbersome thing like the Planet Rail Cannon, but this thing could be sold for quite a bit of money.
Especially since the Eastern Alliance needed them for their Bastion ships.
The ten squads left behind were mostly used as porters.
Almost all of the power gems produced in the Shattered Starfields had to be transported by the boxes into the interdimensional storage device.
This was where the benefits of having a top-level interstellar Adept became apparent.
Roxanne had lent Lan Jue an interstellar storage device called the Sumeru Bracelet.
Its storage capacity alone was equivalent to the Wine Master's entire Reaper Arena.
If it weren't for the interstellar storage device, it would've taken a large number of ships to transport everything.
Even so, Lan Jue didn't think it was going to be enough.
Fortunately, they'd taken two battleships, so they could handle some.
When Zeus -1 arrived, the first thing it did was pick up the Pontiff's genetic experiments crew.
Back in the Pontiff's underground palace, they'd seen with their own eyes how Su Xiaosu had been treated. They'd also seen how she'd been rescued.
This time, Su Xiaosu and her crew had saved them, and in their hearts they recognized her as the Angel of the Dawn.
The rescue had been a smooth one.
The people used for the experiments had all been geniuses. Those who'd survived were the ones who'd been infected with the Genetica Decoction.
Most of them had long since died.
The Pontiff's Citadel had injected them with a special drug to keep them under control. Without brainwashing, they wouldn't be able to recover.
Now that they'd been rescued, all they had to do was give Skyfire Avenue's doctors enough time to neutralize the poison.
Gabriel watched as Lan Jue gave orders, and watched as the Pontiff's Citadel's blood, sweat, and tears went to waste.
By now Gabriel was numb to it all.
He didn't know what was going on outside, but he knew without a doubt that Lan Jue had brought an army with her. A very strong one at that.
Otherwise, how could they have occupied all the important locations of the Moonfiend Star in such a short time?
Was this the power of Skyfire Avenue?
Gabriel's mind raced.
He didn't have the slightest hope.
More accurately, the moment he saw Redbeard fall to Lan Jue's sword, all hope was gone.
There was no chance.
There was no chance at all. Under such circumstances, if he wanted to resist stubbornly, he would only die.
He could only hope that Lan Jue would keep her word and allow him to return to the Pontiff's Citadel after all this was over.
He could already imagine how furious His Holiness the Pope would be when he found out about all of this.
But there was no point. Anger wouldn't solve the problem.
For the Pontiff's Citadel, this was a massive blow.
They couldn't even ask the Western Alliance for help. The Citadel's control of the Shattered Starfields had been their own doing.
They'd done it behind the Western Alliance's back. How else could they have gotten the most out of it?
What should've been a surefire plan turned out to be a wicker basket. Gabriel's heart sank. After this, the Pontiff's Citadel would be relegated to Skyfire Avenue for a long time to come.
In fact, it wasn't just the Pontiff's Citadel. It was the same for the Dark Citadel and the Major League.
The Clockmaker's return to Skyfire Avenue couldn't be kept a secret.
Even if she didn't want to go against the Major League, her departure was a huge loss to the Major League.
What could the Terminator do by himself?
Looking at Skyfire Avenue, there were powerful Adepts everywhere.
Forget the other Paragons, this one alone was on the same level as the Archangel Metatron and Lucifer.
She might even be stronger than they were.
After all, Metatron and Lucifer had worked hard for years to become Paragons. And when Lan Jue's sword had struck out, he'd felt a sense of helplessness. It was something he'd only ever felt from a Paragon.
He wasn't a Paragon yet, but it wouldn't be long before he became one.
The Great Adept Tournament had proven that fact.
The Eastern Alliance was the weakest of the Major League, but with Skyfire Avenue's rise to power, who was to say the Eastern Alliance wouldn't be able to rise again after the war with the aliens?
Gabriel's mind was a jumble of thoughts.
He was more worried about his own safety than anything else. After all, they'd ambushed Lan Jue on Moonfiend.
In the short span of a year, God King Zeus had already become so powerful.
No wonder he'd been able to defeat Michael.
Lan Jue didn't know what Gabriel was thinking. All he needed to do was wait.
It didn't take long before another familiar face appeared in the Moonfiend Palace.
The Infernal Vanguard, the Gourmet!
It was Skyfire Avenue that was behind this attack!
Even Paragons had been mobilized.
Envy and jealousy flared in Gabriel's heart. Skyfire Avenue was home to so many Paragons that it was easy for them to leave their homes.
But the Pontiff's Citadel?
The Pontiff's Citadel only had the Pontiff. Back when the Pontiff was still alive, Lan Jue had been able to wreak havoc.
The same couldn't happen on Skyfire Avenue.
How many Paragons did they have?
The Gourmet didn't want to kill, so he'd come to meet up with Lan Jue. His arrival signaled the end of the battle.
With a Paragon at the helm of the palace, even a pirate ship wouldn't be able to do much.
Gabriel completely gave up this time. He closed his eyes and pretended to be dead.
Dawn broke, and the weather was perfect. The distant star of the Shattered Starfields shone down on Moonfiend.
Unfortunately, the sun's rays shone on nothing but broken walls and rubble.
After two hours of continuous battle, most of Moon City had been turned into ruins.
In particular, the area that was bombarded by the planet's railgun left behind a huge crater. The deep crater spread into the distance in a radioactive manner, and it looked extremely terrifying.
Star Division's four brigades were engaged in the battle. With the help of two battleships, they were clearing the planet of pirates.
Majesty didn't participate. It was stationed in space to watch over the two auxiliary planets. If they made a move, Majesty would be the destroyer.
The Gourmet pulled out a stack of pancakes from his interdimensional storage device. He'd made them himself.
Each one was the size of a palm, golden in color.
Even though they were cold, a faint aroma wafted from them.
(To be continued …)