Lord of the Truth

"…Hahaha!" The man at the front erupted into loud, booming laughter that echoed across the battlefield. "The police? The police?! Hahaha!" He grabbed his stomach, shaking with amusement as he struggled to breathe through his laughter, his three eyes squinting and producing a few tears from the sheer hilarity of it all.

"…" Billy clenched both fists so tightly that his knuckles turned white. "Identify yourself immediately!!" he roared, pointing firmly at the man with unwavering intensity. "Are you truly from the Shining Torrent Millennial Empire?"

"Haha… hehe…" The laughter faded as everyone around him paused, watching the confrontation unfold. The man at the front finally regarded Billy with something like careful curiosity. "It seems the police of this sector actually know a few things—they aren't completely useless, running around blindly after petty bandits all the time." Then he lifted his chin with a smug, confident air. "Yes. I am General Oxend of the Millennial Luminous Torrent Empire. Kneel, and I shall keep you as hostages until your reckless army shows up. But don't worry—so long as you answer our questions truthfully and identify who your supreme ruler is, no one here will be harmed!"

"Ha! You call them 'reckless'?" Billy snapped, his voice filled with controlled fury, pointing at him with deliberate sharpness. "Our empires' forces clashed on multiple occasions over several neutral planets, entirely by coincidence, and each time, one side would leave the planet peacefully—either us or you. And yet, you broke that tradition!"

He stepped closer, setting both hands firmly at his sides and clenching his fists tighter, as veins flexed along his forearms. "It was you who attacked three planets after declaring your withdrawal! Even though we left you deferent three planets as a gesture of goodwill, your greed—your arrogance—convinced you that you could take all six. That desire to possess everything was the very reason you launched an attack against us first!"

In truth, the Shadow Swords had detailed intelligence on every single millennial empire in Young Sector 99 and Young Sector 100.

In Young Sector 99, the Shadow Swords had strictly instructed the First and Third Armies to completely avoid any starfield containing millennial empires, and to retreat immediately if encountered. Not out of fear of their military power, but because of the catastrophic risk of exposing the Nihari Galaxy.

If a full-scale war broke out and those empires deployed even a single stellar scout, they could locate Nihari and nearly 300 planets surrounding it. If such knowledge leaked, it would trigger a disaster of unimaginable scale. What had already transpired in Verilion was a stark warning of just how destructive such exposure could be!

Consequently, the Shadow Swords dedicated enormous resources to cordoning off the area around Nihari. They purchased dozens of stellar scout ships and deployed them strategically throughout the galaxy to detect any movement—or any intruder—immediately, ensuring they could respond without delay. Every fleet movement now was meticulously calculated, with risks analyzed to the smallest detail.

Young Sector 100, on the other hand, was slightly simpler to manage. Shadow Sword regulations imposed strict limitations on engaging millennial empires, in order to reduce unnecessary bloodshed and minimize casualties. Why wage war against a millennial empire when their primary goal was merely acquiring unclaimed planets? The galaxy was filled with countless uninhabited, unclaimed worlds.

Even so, they had been forced to deal with the neighboring Luminous Torrent Empire multiple times. Each time, the Shadow Swords either negotiated or applied pressure to secure planets without fighting… until the Luminous Torrent Empire went mad and made that reckless, aggressive move.

A move that was now being punished in full.

The demon army had mobilized immediately, reinforced by units from the human First Army, and they were currently en route to invade fifty planets belonging to the Shining Torrent Millennial Empire as retribution.

Yet no one had expected them to launch a counterattack instead of merely defending themselves. This was not just shocking—it was irrational, almost insane. And it exposed a catastrophic intelligence failure on the part of the Shadow Swords.

"Haha! So what if you attacked us first? We are the Millennial Torrent Millennial Empire. Our roots stretch back 470,000 years. We are the rightful rulers of Young Sector 100!" The general barked orders to his men, signaling the combat vehicles to move and encircle the city, clearly dismissing Billy and his forces entirely.

The city walls were bristling with Light Swords, yet he ignored them completely.

"Police? This is laughable!"

"So you think that just because you are older—because you believe you are stronger—you have the right to take whatever you please?" Billy's voice thundered across the battlefield, raw anger sharpening every word. "Fine, very well! Let it be then. And now, I am no longer even remotely concerned about what our army is about to do to you in the next moments!"

"Hmm?" The general finally glanced downward again, narrowing his three eyes. "What is your army about to do to us? What are you even talking about? We already took the six planets, and that's the end of it. Your army retreated like rats the moment we arrived."

"…?!" Billy's eyes widened in disbelief. "You don't know there's a full-scale assault on the Shining Torrent Millennial Empire happening right now?"

"What?!" the general screamed, his voice ripping through the air and shaking everything around him. His shout echoed across the battlefield, bouncing off the distant mountains, the city walls, and the metal hulls of the descending fleets.

"I see…" Billy let a faint, sly smile appear on his face, though it only made the fire in his eyes burn brighter. His expression radiated controlled fury, the kind that froze men in their tracks.

This general had acted recklessly, without coordinating with the rest of his forces. Blinded by the intoxicating thrill of imminent victory, he had charged forward to attack the nearest planet belonging to the True Beginning Empire, thinking he could crush it before anyone responded. This wasn't a failure of intelligence; no, it was simply the inevitable result of trying to predict and control fools who could not be predicted!

"True Beginning Empire…" General Oxend bared his teeth in a snarl and pointed toward the city below, his hand trembling slightly with excitement and fury. "The heavens themselves have sent us today to punish this insolent, defiant nation! Wipe them from the face of the earth! Kill every living thing on this wretched planet!!"

Krrrr Krrrr

Hundreds of light combat vessels surged forward toward the city like a living tide of steel and fire. The general, his face twisted in triumph, spun sharply and rushed back to the mothership, desperate to contact any nearby fleets, to understand what had gone wrong—or perhaps, what was about to go wrong.

"Stop right there!" Billy's voice thundered from below, booming over the chaos like a war drum. "This is your final warning! Withdraw your men immediately! Fall back, or I will have no choice but to cross the limits of my authority to protect the lives of my citizens!"

"….?!" The general stopped, his eyes widening as he looked downward one last time. He was genuinely shocked by the audacity, the sheer force radiating from a mere police officer. But then, with a dismissive wave of his hand, he turned and marched back toward the mothership, muttering, "Kill them all. I have no patience for interrogating fools who do not understand their place."

Shhhhk

The mothership and its supporting craft pivoted with precision, their cannon barrels glowing and transforming into a bright, electric blue as they prepared to unleash destruction.

The admiral on the mothership raised his hand to activate the comms, then lowered it, preparing to issue the order.

"Fi—"

"FIIIIRE!!"

A single, piercing scream erupted from below before the admiral could even finish.

Then—

Pewwww

Pewwww Pewwww Pewwww

Thousands of concentrated beams—pure, unrelenting, devastating laser fire—blasted upward in perfect unison, tearing through the sky like a storm of white-hot light.

Inside the mothership's bridge, the admiral was caught completely off guard. A random beam struck him squarely in the throat and exited violently from the top of his head. The world went silent for a heartbeat, then the chaos resumed.

Bam bam bam BOOOOOOM

The massive vessel began to tilt violently, its hull ripping apart as if it were made of paper. The mighty ship transformed into a sieve of steel, thousands of gaps opening up, allowing anyone standing below to see the sky in perfect clarity through the disintegrating metal.

"This… this… what…?!" General Oxend froze in disbelief, his hands gripping the railings of his command station as the ship he had hoped to reach burned, crumbled, and plummeted toward the ground.

He slowly turned his head to look back—

Every combat craft that had been racing toward the city now faced the same fate. Hyper-focused laser beams struck them one by one, slicing through armor and energy shields alike, sending the ships tumbling from the sky like tattered kites caught in a storm.

Then he heard it—a calm, unwavering voice rising over the battlefield.

"Our armies in the Middle Belt suffer for one reason alone: our fleets are powerful, but the individual strength of our soldiers is far below that of their opponents due to the imposed restrictions…"

Shwaaaaaa

"…but that problem does not exist for us here. Even I am entirely confident that I could snap the neck of your planetary emperor with ease, let alone deal with someone like you!"

"….?!" The general's jaw dropped as he slowly looked downward. There, balanced on the tip of Billy's index finger, hovered a sphere of fiery energy, its heat radiating even from a distance. Billy tilted his finger, and the sphere began to move slowly toward him.

No…

That wasn't merely a sphere of fire.

That was…

A sun.

"No… nooooooooOOOOOOOO—" The general screamed as the immense heat and blinding light bore down, and the world itself seemed to shatter beneath the terrifying reality of Billy's power.