Building Interstellar Empire With Universal Synthesis
Chapter 79: Shadows over the Red Camp
The battle was over within minutes. Half of the Red Tribe mermen had been killed, while the other half surrendered.
Neo didn’t let the dead bodies go to waste, either. Quickly, he turned them into the undead, using his newly acquired Nether Force as fuel. It took half an hour to manually awaken them from death, but by the end of it, he had 150 undead soldiers who were willing to obey his every word.
Not many witnessed this macabre scene, as he had already commanded the others to clear out from the battlefield and take some rest.
But one person did notice. From behind a thick bush, Zestia watched everything, completely terrified by the dark display of power.
"Come out, Zestia!"
Neo was already fully aware of her presence, and yet he hadn’t made any effort to stop her from watching.
Hearing him, Zestia’s heart skipped a beat and stepped out from behind the dense foliage, though her legs were trembling a little.
The scene of 150 dead warriors standing completely still, their eyes glowing with a faint, hollow light, was a harrowing spectacle.
Yet, as she looked from the silent undead horde to Neo, becoming deeply curious. He was an absolute enigma, constantly shattering her understanding of reality.
"What... what are you, Neo?" she whispered as she stepped onto the blood-stained sand. "First that strange phenomenon in the water, then this terryfying army, and now this absolute defiance of death. Who are you really?"
Neo stood among his undead vanguard, looking domineeringly handsome under the bright sun.
He didn’t look like a monster, he looked like a sovereign in the making.
Seeing the raw, unblinking honesty and deep worry in her eyes, something changed within him. In a world full of deception, he found a rare, genuine thread of trust in this fiery young maiden.
"I told you before, Zestia. If you learn the truth, there is no turning back," Neo said smoothly, walking toward her until the masculine domineering aura pressed on her every senses.
"You asked if I was secretly planning a petty rebellion against the United Federation. The answer is no. My vision is far grander than a simple, localized uprising on a single, insignificant planet."
He turned his gaze upward, looking past the storm clouds toward the infinite void of space.
"I am going to build an Empire. A vast Interstellar dominion ruled by a completely new order. There will be a system where strength dictates destiny, weak will be protected and chaotic elements are forged into absolute perfection. This is not about fighting for a piece of land or defying a local government. This is for a conquest that spans across the stars, into the deep vacuum of the Universe."
Zestia listened as her heart thudded in her chest. The overwhelming scale of his ambition was dizzying, almost as if he had gone mad, but the absolute certainty in his deep eyes made it sound like an inevitable truth.
To her, she wasn’t a crazed human anymore. She saw a man who had already outgrown the boundaries of their current world.
Neo watched her reactions carefully, noting the complete lack of betrayal or disgust in her expression.
Slowly, he deactivated the cold oppressive aura, face softening like regular human
He extended his right hand toward her, palm upward.
"The path ahead will be paved with the ashes of old civilizations, Zestia. It will be dangerous, brutal, and entirely merciless. But I have no intention of walking the cosmos alone. Join me. Stand by my side as I reshape the stars."
Zestia looked down at his open hand, her heart beating so hard that she could hear it.
She should have refused it. She should have known this path would be dangerous.
And yet, when she recalled her past trauma, a resolute expression crossed her face.
’Maybe this is why you came into my life, Neo. Maybe you can wipe away all my pain and nightmares,’ she thought inwardly.
Outwardly, her soft hand accepted his firm grasp.
Her face flushed with a deep crimson shade of red.
"I’m willing, Neo. Even though I don’t know what the future will be, I want to stay by your side."
Neo smiled at her. "You will."
Next, Neo and Zestia devised a plan to take over the island. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶
If he could not even take over an island in a lesser world, he wouldn’t be qualified to challenge the stars.
Without hesitation, he executed the plan.
---
Deep within the main encampment of the Red Tribe, the air was foul.
A young Blue Tribe merman was bound tightly to a coral pillar, his vibrant scales torn and bleeding from repeated lashings.
Around him, a group of burly Red Tribe warriors stood in a mocking circle, their faces twisted into malicious grins as they toyed with their crude, rusted daggers.
"Look at him weep," one of the torturers sneered, "Your chieftess is a coward, and your entire tribe is stupid to think some random human outsider could protect you from our wrath."
"Haha.." Another warrior laughed boisterously, tossing a cup of burning saltwater straight onto the captive’s lacerations.
"By tomorrow, your village will be nothing but a graveyard, and your precious maidens will be fetching our water!"
"Ahh, pain! Pain! Spare me!" The young merman cried out in agony, heavy tears of pain and absolute despair mixing with the blood running down his chest.
He choked on his sobs, his body trembling violently against the bindings as he prayed for a swift death. He truly believed his people were doomed, and that no help was coming.
But the Red Tribe’s arrogant laughter did not last long.
Splsh!
From the dark, shadowed perimeter of the camp, the water suddenly came alive. The tranquil waves nearby erupted as a silent terrifying force moved out from the shoreline in perfect unison.
Before the camp guards could even raise an alarm or sound a horn, a pale, lifeless hand clamped onto a guard’s throat.
Crack!
With a sickening crack of unnatural strength, the guard was silenced permanently.
It was the vanguard of the undead.
150 reanimated corpses, their eyes burning with the hollow light of Neo’s Nether Force, swarmed into the encampment like a sudden plague.
They felt no exhaustion, feared no weapons, and possessed an unyielding hunger to execute their master’s will.
"Enemy attack! What are these things?!
They won’t die!" a Red Tribe warrior screamed in absolute horror as his own fallen kin lunged at him, tearing into his flesh with sharpened claws.
The camp instantly descended into a localized slaughterhouse.