Chapter 292: Against The Concordat (6)

Valdis’s physical form disintegrated into motes of fading starlight, consumed by the chaotic hunger of the Space Tunnel.Adrian stood still in the aftermath. He didn’t receive anything from the Arbiter’s death, and it still surprised him to why he hadn’t received a Quest earlier.

But Von didn’t have time to dwell on the System’s silence. He knew exactly what he had done. Killing Valdis wasn’t a victory; it was just an escalation.

He hadn’t just swatted a fly; he had poked the hornet’s nest. And now he was truly against the Concordat.

Adrian was in a race against time, and he was currently losing.

He was still trapped. The Reality Anchor, though weakened by his resonance attacks, still held the dimension in a vice grip. His connection to the Factory remained blocked.

’Two objectives,’ Adrian strategized, his mind splitting into parallel processing streams as he continued to disrupt the Anchor completely to regain mobility. While also trying to reach the Galactic Core.

He didn’t know why the pull of the Core was so strong, or why the Tech Core had designated it a Major Quest. But instinct told him that the White Light pulsing deeper in the tunnel was the key. It was a trump card. If he could reach it, he might change the rules of the game.

He pushed off the tunnel wall, diving deeper into the chaotic currents. He wove complex disruption patterns into the fabric of the tunnel as he flew, unraveling the lock thread by thread.

***

Far from the shattered reality of Sector 4, in the very center of the galaxy, lay a structure that defied comprehension.

The Celestial Palace was not built on a planet; it was built around a neutron star. Massive rings of gold and white metal encircled the dying star, harnessing its gravity and radiation to power the seat of the Galactic Concordat.

In the Throne Room, gravity was set to a crushing standard that only the elite could withstand. The floor was polished obsidian, reflecting the endless cosmos above.

Kneeling on the floor, his head bowed low, was Arbiter Barius. He was larger than Valdis, his armor forged from red dwarf matter, his presence burning with intense heat. But right now, he was trembling.

"Repeat that," a voice boomed from the throne.

The voice didn’t come from a mouth. It came from everywhere. The figure on the throne was immense, a being of pure, solidified light sitting on a chair made of events frozen in time.

The Galactic Emperor: Sol-Prime.

"Arbiter Valdis is dead, Your Majesty," Barius reported tightly. "His signal has been extinguished. Total erasure."

The Emperor didn’t move, but the light in the room flickered violently. "Dead?" The word carried the weight of a star flare. "Valdis was a Star-Eater. He has quelled rebellions that spanned systems. Who struck him? Was it the Shadow Collective? Did they return?"

"No, Your Majesty," Barius said, dread pooling in his stomach. "It was... a rogue cultivator. A human from the Slums. He’s known to us as Project_Prometheus."

"IMPOSSIBLE!"

The Emperor bellowed. The obsidian floor cracked. A shockwave of psionic force slammed into Barius, forcing him flat against the ground.

The Emperor’s voice was a mixture of disbelief and fury. "You tell me a slum-rat killed one of my Seven Arbiters? Explain this madness!"

Barius struggled to breathe under the pressure. "The report indicates... he wields the Void, Majesty. He possesses technology that bypasses our laws. He creates matter from nothing. He stabilized Void Crystals."

The Throne Room went silent. The fury in the air vanished, replaced by a cold, terrifying calculation.

"Stabilized Void Crystals," the Emperor whispered. "Manipulating subspace."

The memories of an ancient war surfaced in Sol-Prime’s mind. A war fought eons ago against the Architects of Entropy.

"He is not just a rogue," the Emperor stated with seriousness.

Sol-Prime stood up. The movement caused the neutron star outside to flare.

"This is an existential threat to the Concordat. Arbiter Barius. Arbiter Nyx. Arbiter Thraxx. Arbiter Voss. Arbiter Juro. Arbiter Zek."

Barius’s eyes went wide. The Emperor was naming all of them. The entire circle.

"All of you," the Emperor commanded. "Deploy immediately. Do not underestimate him. Neutralize his capabilities but don’t kill him. I want him alive."

Barius was in shock. Valdis was the weakest of the Seven, true, but mobilizing the remaining Six for a single target? It was unheard of. It was overkill on a galactic scale. It meant the Emperor was genuinely wary of what this human represented.

Barius bowed until his forehead touched the cracked obsidian. "Consider it done, Your Majesty. We will have him here in no time."

***

Adrian was a comet of blue will.

He was traveling against the currents now, fighting the subspace tides that tried to push him out. Every meter was a struggle. Despite the resonance technique, his body had undergone regeneration multiple times because of how far he pushed it.

But he was close.

He could feel the Reality Anchor’s grip loosening. He had unraveled 80% of the nodes. Just a few more minutes, and he could enter to the Factory, escape this cage, and plan.

And ahead of him, the White Light of the Galactic Core was blinding within his head. It pulsed with a rhythm that matched his own heartbeat.

’Just a little more,’ Adrian gritted his teeth, pushing his speed to the limit. ’Break the lock. Grab the Core. Win.’

But time wasn’t considerate...

Von heard the tunnel shudder. And it wasn’t reacting to him. It was an external force. A force so massive that it made Valdis’s presence feel like a candle flame next to a forest fire.

The Space Tunnel vibrated. Ripples of distortion cascaded through the dimensions, shattering the solidified light Adrian had been navigating.

Six tears opened in the fabric of the tunnel.

They didn’t appear one by one. They appeared simultaneously, surrounding him in a perfect hexagonal formation.

Six beings stepped through.

One was made of red dwarf fire, towering and armored.

One was a shadow that drank the light, featureless and cold.

One was a construct of living metal, humming with impossible computations.

One was a being of pure sound, vibrating the air.

One was a biological horror of eyes and tentacles, draped in elegant robes.

And the last was a woman made of crystal, refracting the tunnel’s light into weapons.

The Six Arbiters of the Concordat.

The pressure hit Adrian instantly. It wasn’t just gravity; it was Authority. The combined aura of six Star-Eaters slammed into him, pinning him in place, crushing his bones, extinguishing his momentum.

The leader, the red giant Barius, stepped forward.

"Project_Prometheus, You have been declared guilty of High Treason and Cosmic Heresy by the Galactic Emperor himself."

The six beings raised their hands. The tunnel around Adrian solidified into a cage of absolute, unbreakable light.

"Yield now. Or know true despair."