NOVEL NEXT Chapter 446: Rising Misfortune
Empyrean Dust Galaxy.
Three arkships sped through the void faster than the speed of light. Stars came and went around them as space and time collapsed and expanded around the vessels.
The arkships moved in a straight line formation with the arkship in front moving like the driver knew where he was going.
"You know, I haven't thought much about it. What do we do once we find the Primordial Lion?" The commander of the first arkship in front said.
"We open a Heavenly Gate and contact Ibadon immediately, you already know this…"
"No, I mean, what do we do if the Primordial Lion tries to run?" The commander of the first arkship asked again.
From the way this particular dragon talked, one would assume that he was mellow and somewhat on the passive side.
"So what if he runs? If we don't catch him, Regent Ibadon will catch him. There's no escape."
"Bold of you to even assume the Primordial Lion will run away. He might try to kill us before we contact the Regent.
That's what I would do if I were him."
"Maybe we should be stealthy…"
"You all are assuming that it's even the Primordial Lion. It might just be something else."
"Hehehe, which creature do you know is capable of leaving so much fortune behind?"
"It might just be a very strong creature with Fortune powers. After all, once you get strong enough with the power of fortune, you passively live behind good or bad fortune wherever you go.
It's not necessarily a Primordial, it's just common sense."
"Hey hey hey, just because we are not Fortune Dragons doesn't mean you should insult our intelligence!"
"But I didn't…"
"Haven't you hurt our feelings enough? Please! Keep moving."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"Are you that insecure about your intelligence?" The first arkship commander asked, breaking the awkward silence.
"SHUT UP!"
The arkships suddenly sped up as it was no longer the first arkship leading the other two. The first arkship was now being pursued with one of the other two arkships behind shooting small fire beams at the former.
Despite the little light-hearted chase, the first arkship didn't forget to keep following the fortune trail.
This fortune trail was a concept best known to creatures with powers over fate, luck, and fortune.
No other creature archetype could sense it besides them, not even Ibadon.
As long as a being with strong fortune had passed a location, that creature would leave behind some trails of either good or bad fortune, or sometimes just fate tracks.
These fortune trails were optional as any creature strong enough to emit or leave it behind also had the power to erase it before leaving.
Unfortunately, most of them were either not aware of this or just didn't care.
It was this same fortune trail that the dragon commander was able to follow until he arrived at a peculiar star system.
"Hmm, guys stop for a moment, something is wrong," The first dragon commander said.
The three arkships slowed down as they closed in on a star system.
"My warp signals seem to be distorting up front…"
"Me too…"
"Really? Where?"
"..."
It was already too late. The warp engines went off and their warp signals completely stopped firing.
It was like they had been thrown into a dark swamp of nothingness.
Their travel speed was reduced drastically as they could not even move at the speed of light anymore.
"What's happening?" The third dragon commander asked, commanding his arkship to keep on moving.
"We seem to have entered a space distortion field," The second dragon commander said.
"Oh,"
They only seem surprised, but not too much. Perhaps, they had experienced something like this in the past.
They were mostly calm and were already thinking of ways to get out of it.
"Should we go the other way?" The second dragon commander asked.
"No, there should be an arkship generating this distortion field somewhere. It shouldn't be too far away.
What could anyone be hiding here of all places, suspicious isn't it?"
"Get ready to open a Heavenly Gate and contact the Regent!"
The three arkships continued moving, not deterred by the presence of the strange spatial distortion field.
Since their warp engines were knocked off, they shut them up permanently. Clearly, they had experienced something like this before and would not leave their warp engines on.
Since they no longer had warp speed, they used the old ways. Spatial portals with magic runes at the edges formed in front of the massive vessels.
Using the magic-enhanced portals, the arkships were able to restore their mobility, repeatedly moving from one corner of the star system to the other
"I see something," The first dragon commander said.
"Me too," The second dragon commander said.
"What do you see?" Asked the third dragon commander.
"I see a planet, habitable and showing signs of life. Also reading moderate electromagnetic pulses coming from that direction.
The fortune trail is also stronger in that direction," The first dragon commander said.
"Oh, I thought we were looking at the same thing. I'm talking about that gas planet, there's something off about it."
"Oh, that, something indeed seems off about it,"
"Which should we check first?"
"We'll split up. Two of you should head toward the habitable planet, I'll check out the gas planet…"
"Okay,"
The three arkships then split up with two moving toward Planet Kareem in the next star system.
The last arkship changed course and started moving toward the gas planet.
Everywhere was as silent as it could ever be, but the tension in the void was extremely thick.
//////
Inside Kael's arkship, Nalii sat on the pillow throne with an extremely worried expression on her face.
The lions and lionesses inside the chamber of command were also panicking. The holographic images of three different arkships floated above their heads.
One was headed right toward them and the other two were moving toward Planet Kareem.
This wasn't like the time with Eridoria. This was a different thing. Kael was still on Kareem.
Even if they wanted to run away, they couldn't, not without Kael.
Nalii was worried about her safety but she was more worried about Kael and the others who were still on Kareem.
At least, she could rely on the safety of the arkship but Kael had two literal planet busters heading his way.
"Is there any way to contact Kael?" Nalii asked. In this moment of panic, her mind had already thought of some drastic measures to be taken.
"Yes, Your Highness, the Lion System," Someone said.
"Oh" Nalii frowned.
/////
Meanwhile, Nalii didn't need to do anything, Kael was already aware that something bad was about to happen.
"Kael! Kael!" Olivia shouted as she stormed the penthouse with a disturbed expression.
Kael, now wearing his black and white robe, was standing in the sitting area behind the floor-to-ceiling window, also wearing a disturbed look on his face.
His fortune senses were going through the roof right now. And it wasn't the good kind of fortune he was sensing, it was misfortune.
Suddenly.
...
Nalii: Kael! Are you there?"
...
Kael could imagine Nalii's panicked voice as he read the chat.
Kael's brows furrowed as he tried to guess what was happening.
He could feel the misfortune coming but he didn't know exactly what it was.
...
Kael: What's happening up there?"
Nalii: Three arkships, one headed to us, the other two are going after Planet Kareem!
...
Nalii sent hurriedly. Her eyes shifted from Kael's chat to the holographic images in the chamber of command.
The arkships were getting closer.
Kael was stunned. It was worse than he thought.
"Could it be other lions?" Olivia asked.
Kael shook his head, "If it were lions, or our supporters, we wouldn't be sensing so much misfortune," He said.
He was stronger than Olivia so he could sense it more clearly. The feeling of impending doom wasn't just tied to those three arkships, it was linked to a far greater power that would come after them.
Ibadon.
Nalii: What should we do?
We can use the arkship to engage all of them at once while we plan an escape strategy for you…
...
NO!" Kael shouted.
...
Kael: That would be the worst thing you can do. Three against one? All three of them probably have years of experience with arkship warfare, how would you win?
...
Nalii went silent, accepting Kael's scolding.
...
Kael: Focus on handling that one coming for our arkship. I'll handle the rest.
...
As Kael sent the last message, a vicious look appeared in his eyes and he appeared more ruthless than ever. So ruthless that Olivia, who stood next to him couldn't help but shiver in fright.
With time running out, Nalii ended the chat so that she could focus on her approaching guest as Kael ordered.
///
Meanwhile, inside the penthouse…
"Give me your hand," Kael said, stretching both hands out to Olivia. The late afternoon sun shone in his face through the window, showing his grim expression.
Olivia hesitated, but still obeyed. She reached out and placed her palms over Kael's palms.
Kael held Olivia's fleshy and smooth hands firmly, she wouldn't be able to move her hands away even if she wanted to.
"I'm sorry," Kael said with a determined look flashing through his fierce golden eyes.
"What? Kael?..." Olivia was confused at first, then she felt it.
The invasion. Conquering Essence flooded her body through the gap of the Lion System.
A look of fear appeared in Olivia's eyes which were slowly gaining a shade of gold.
Conqueror Mode Avatar, extreme activation…
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!"