First Intergalactic Emperor: Starting With The Ancient Goddess-Chapter 482: Rest in Piece

Xavier walked forwardas the doors along the perimeter slid open in sequence and guards poured in, armored from head to toe, weapons already raised and synced. Fighter bots followed, their frames built for enclosed combat, sensor clusters rotating as they locked onto Xavier’s position.

None of them rushed him. They spread out, filling space and cutting angles, treating the room like a kill box they had rehearsed a hundred times.

Xavier didn’t move yet. He let them finish positioning, let the machines settle into hover and ground modes, let the guards convince themselves this was finally contained.

Then the inner doors opened.

Velkhar stepped through and stopped just short of the threshold to his private room. He wasn’t seated this time. He stood straight, shoulders squared, expensive armor layered over his bloated frame, jewelry gone and replaced by weapons. The naked women were gone. In their place stood more guards, heavier units, and two larger bots braced near the walls like living artillery.

Velkhar looked at Xavier and curled his lip.

"Just because your face is ugly and ruined doesn’t mean you get to do the same to everyone else’s," he said. "Walking in here like this, tearing through my people, thinking it makes you something?"

Xavier listened without reacting.

Velkhar continued, voice steady enough to pass for confidence. "You’re running impressive tech. Localized gravity control, force manipulation. That kind of hardware isn’t common, even here."

Xavier thought, briefly, ’At least he didn’t call me Nova or some other half-educated nickname. He is still wrong, but not embarrassingly so.’

Xavier let out a short scoff and stepped forward one pace, boots crunching over broken plating. "Don’t worry," he said. "I’ll keep your head intact. Your face too. I need people to recognize it."

Velkhar’s jaw tightened. He didn’t step back.

"There’s no question you’re strong," Velkhar said. "You killed one of my elites. You walked through layers of security meant to stop things worse than you. You could kill everyone in this room, including me."

He spread his hands slightly, palms open, armor plates shifting. "The question is whether you will?"

Xavier didn’t answer right away.

He stood where he was, blood drying on the mask, one glove missing, his bare hand hanging relaxed at his side while the room stayed locked in place.

"That’s why you came," Velkhar said, voice steady but forced. "To see if you’d actually do it."

Xavier tilted his head slightly. "No," he said. "I came to finish it."

Velkhar’s mouth twitched. "You think this ends here?"

He gestured subtly, not with his hands but with his eyes, to the guards and the machines braced around the room. "AIL is backing me. You know that. You kill me and they don’t just post your face on a board somewhere. They erase you. They hunt you until there’s nothing left to hunt. They will chase you to the ends of the universe."

Xavier took a step closer.

Velkhar kept talking, words coming faster now. "Your life turns into movement and hiding. No base. No allies. No sleep that isn’t broken. I’ve seen pirates with fleets vanish after AIL marked them. Mercenaries who ruled sectors stopped existing like they’d never been born."

Xavier let out a chuckle. It almost sounded amused.

"You’re doing a lot of talking for someone who’s already dead," he said.

Velkhar scoffed. "You think you’re next in line to play god now. You think whatever trick you’re using makes you untouchable."

Xavier’s eyes stayed on him. "After you," he said, "AIL’s next."

The room reacted before Velkhar could.

Laughter burst out of him, sharp and dismissive. "You don’t even know who runs AIL. No one does. That’s the point. They don’t sit on thrones. They don’t wear crowns. They’re the reason this planet still functions. No one knows who is truly behind AIL. Why do you think they are still around even after committing so many atrocities?"

He leaned forward slightly. "You can’t destroy something you don’t understand."

Xavier stopped listening.

Velkhar’s body jerked forward as if something invisible had hooked into his chest and spine at the same time. His feet slid, then left the floor completely as the force dragged him across the room and slammed him down onto his knees. The sound carried through armor and bone together.

Velkhar gasped, hands clawing at the floor as pressure crushed him down, forcing his back straight, forcing his head up. Guards shouted as they raised their weapons, but no one fired. Nor did they move.

Xavier walked up behind him.

Velkhar’s voice came out broken now. "You think this makes you free? That this is the end?"

Xavier reached down and grabbed a fistful of hair.

"I think it makes you quiet," he said. "And no, this is not the end. This is the beginning. By killing you, I will start my journey as a space pirate."

Velkhar struggled, choking as his head was yanked back, neck stretched until skin split and blood ran down his face and onto the floor. His hands scraped uselessly at the ground, nails leaving marks that went nowhere.

"AIL will—" Velkhar tried to say.

Xavier pulled mercilessly. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

The sound tore through the room, flesh and spine parting under force. Blood sprayed, painting armor and floor as Velkhar’s body collapsed forward in a heap, twitching once before going still.

Xavier stood there holding the head by the hair.

The guards froze.

The machines stayed locked.

[Quest Completed!]

Velkhar’s face was still recognizable, eyes wide, mouth half open, blood pouring from the ruined base of his neck and dripping onto the floor in thick drops. Xavier turned slightly, making sure everyone in the room saw it.

"This," he said, voice calm, "is what happens when you borrow power and mistake it for ownership."

He let go.

The head hit the floor and rolled, leaving a dark smear as it stopped near the boots of the nearest guard. No one moved to pick it up.

Xavier stepped over the body and looked around the room once more.

"Anyone else want to talk," he asked, "or are we done here?"