First Intergalactic Emperor: Starting With The Ancient Goddess-Chapter 464: Velkhar Drome

The atmosphere on the private floor became heated.

The guards stayed where they were, close enough to matter, far enough not to interrupt. The girls had been waved off to the side, eyes lowered, pretending not to exist.

Xavier finally moved.

He didn’t take the chair that had been offered earlier. He pulled another one closer to the balcony railing, turned it slightly, and sat like the room had been arranged for him that way from the start. One leg crossed over the other, hands resting loose, face tilted toward the leader without a trace of hurry.

"Alright," Xavier said. "You dragged me up here. Tell me why."

The leader watched him for a moment, lips curling, then laughed under his breath like he’d just confirmed something he already believed.

"Straight to it," he said. "I respect that. Still, manners matter at this level."

He shifted in his chair, rings catching the light as he gestured to himself. "You already know who I am. Everyone on Jupiter does. But we’ll do it properly. Name’s Velkhar Drome. I lead Iron Mandate operations on this world. If something moves without my say, it stops breathing."

Then he leaned forward slightly. "Your turn."

Xavier didn’t answer right away.

He reached for the glass that had been refilled at some point, took a sip, and set it back down without breaking eye contact. When he spoke, his voice stayed even, unhurried, like he wasn’t standing in the middle of someone else’s kill box.

"Zyrex," he said. "Most people shorten it to Z."

Velkhar’s eyes narrowed a fraction.

"Zyrex what?"

"Just Zyrex," Xavier replied. "If you knew the rest, we wouldn’t be having lunch. We’d be negotiating funerals."

A smile spread across Velkhar’s face, slow and ugly, like he enjoyed that answer more than he should have.

"Confident," he said. "Or suicidal." 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

Xavier shrugged lightly. "Depends who’s counting."

Silence stretched between them. They stared at each other with intent. Just two predators deciding which one would blink first.

Velkhar leaned back into his chair, cloth still draped over his lower body, rings heavy on his fingers as he studied the figure across from him. "Then let’s talk, Zyrex. Because you’ve been very visible lately, and visibility always has a price."

Xavier leaned back too.

"Then quote me," he said. "I didn’t come here to play guessing games."

"You’re operating loudly," Velkhar said at last. "Walking routes you don’t need to walk. Brushing against interests you don’t need to touch. That kind of visibility forces conversations like this."

Velkhar Drome let the silence sit long enough to make it clear he believed he owned it.

"That’s too much for someone who claims he’s just passing through Jupiter.," Velkhar said. "Four facilities gone. Warehouses, bunkers, logistics nodes. Hundreds of my people dead. Supply lines either burned, looted or destroyed so clean they’ll take cycles to rebuild. Not to mention the coppers who seized the remains."

"You should’ve called earlier," Xavier said. "Would’ve saved you the reconstruction costs."

Velkhar smiled but clearly hiding anger beneath it. "That attitude is exactly why you’re here. Helior Prime protects you. Laws, treaties, visibility. Step outside that bubble and none of it applies. Are you going to stay in Helior prime forever? Do you think you can escape from the grim reaper called Velkhar Drome?"

He lifted one hand, fingers slightly apart, casual. "I could end this conversation right now. No one would hear it. No one would care. You’d disappear and the city would keep drinking."

Xavier glanced around the balcony, at the guards, the walls, the height. When he looked back at Velkhar, there was no change in his expression.

"You could try," he said. "But you didn’t invite me up here to prove you can pull a trigger."

Velkhar’s eyes stayed on him. "I invited you to set boundaries."

"Go on."

Velkhar leaned forward, elbows settling into the arms of the chair. "You operate on Jupiter under Iron Mandate tolerance. That means no more strikes on my infrastructure. No interference with AIL-adjacent routes. No digging where you don’t belong. You stay inside those lines, and you get left alone."

"And if I don’t?"

Velkhar shrugged. "You can try."

Xavier nodded once, like he was taking notes. "You’re generous."

"I’m practical," Velkhar said. "You’re capable. That makes you useful. But only if you remember whose world this is."

Xavier reached up and adjusted one cuff, the motion unhurried. "That’s funny," he said. "Because from where I’m sitting, it looks like you’re already dealing with problems you didn’t authorize."

Velkhar’s gaze narrowed slightly. "Careful."

"I am," Xavier replied. "That’s why I noticed the internal reroutes after the third facility went dark. The delays that weren’t logged. The response units that didn’t arrive on time."

Velkhar didn’t interrupt.

"AIL likes redundancy," Xavier continued. "But they hate exposure. Especially when their shell chains start overlapping in ways auditors notice. Especially when Iron Mandate signatures start appearing where they shouldn’t."

Velkhar’s smile thinned. "You’re making assumptions."

"I’m pointing at shapes," Xavier said. "I don’t need names. Just patterns. Like why a certain subsection of your logistics command suddenly stopped reporting upward and started reporting sideways. Or why cleanup crews arrived faster than Mandate protocol allows."

Velkhar shifted in his seat.

Xavier leaned back further, resting one ankle over his knee. "If I vanish in this building, those shapes get attention. People start comparing notes. AIL gets nervous. Nervous groups make mistakes."

Velkhar stared at him for a long moment. The guards stayed still, but the space felt tighter, more alert.

"You’re bluffing," Velkhar said.

"Absolutely," Xavier replied. "The question is how much?"

Velkhar’s fingers tapped once against the chair. "You think that gives you leverage?"

"I think it makes killing me inconvenient," Xavier said. "And inconvenience is expensive."

Another pause followed. Longer this time.

Velkhar finally exhaled and leaned back again, eyes never leaving Xavier. "You like walking edges."

"I like knowing where they are."

Velkhar nodded slowly. "Then hear this clearly. You stay out of my core operations. You don’t touch AIL routes tied to Iron Mandate protection. You don’t force my hand."

Xavier met his gaze. "And you don’t pretend I’m not already inside your lines."

The words hung there, neither a threat nor a promise.

Velkhar’s mouth curved into something that wasn’t a smile. "You’re dangerous, Zyrex."

Xavier stood, smoothing his coat as he did. "So are you. That’s why this conversation worked."

Velkhar watched him rise, watched him turn toward the elevator. "This isn’t over."

Xavier glanced back once. "It never is."

Then he walked away, leaving Velkhar Drome alone on his balcony, staring at a future that had just become harder to control. If... there was any future left for him.

Velkhar didn’t look away as Xavier left.

The balcony felt larger with the space he’d taken now empty. For a few seconds, Velkhar stayed where he was, fingers resting on the arm of the chair, breathing steady, mind already moving through consequences.

Then he lifted his hand.

A guard stepped forward immediately.

"Watch him," Velkhar said. "Every step. Every conversation. His people, his routes, when they sleep, where they breathe. I want reports without gaps."

The guard nodded and moved off without asking questions.

The elevator chimed softly as Xavier reached it.

DING!

[Kill The Iron Mandate Leader- Velkhar Drome.

Time Limit- 7 Days.

Reward- 1) Your name will be known across all of Jupiter.

2) Modification to the operational rules of the Unlimited Money System

Penalty- Kylus will make a deal with AIL.]

The elevator door opened as Xavier stared at the quest he had just received. He read it once, then again. Kylus wasn’t a coincidence. Neither was the timing. The system wasn’t nudging him forward this time. It was drawing a line.

He stepped inside the elevator, the doors sliding shut behind him, sealing off the private floor and everything that came with it.