Chapter 2291: Wonder
Chapter 2291: Wonder
On one of the planets near the galaxy—
Thud.
Alfred collapsed onto his knees, his hands bound tightly behind his back by heavy restraints that cut into his wrists. Blood dripped steadily from the wound on his head before splashing onto the ground beneath him, while a deep puncture tore through the area around his liver, soaking the front of his clothes crimson. Numerous bruises, cuts, and burns covered his face, leaving him looking less like a defeated prisoner and more like a man hanging onto life by the thinnest possible thread after forcing his body far beyond its limits.
Even so—
Smack!
A man stepped forward from the side and drove his fist violently into Alfred’s cheek with enough force to twist his head sideways.
"You worthless bastard!!"
"Pffft!!" Alfred spat out a mouthful of blood as the blow sent him crashing onto the ground. Even so, after coughing several times, he slowly forced himself back onto his knees through nothing but stubborn determination. His breathing had become ragged, yet he still lifted his head with visible effort and looked upward wearing the same defiant smile that refused to disappear from his bloodstained face.
"...."
The man who had struck him bore a deep burn scar across one side of his face.
A fresh burn.
One inflicted during the battle only moments ago, its edges still blackened from the terrifying heat that had carved through flesh and armor alike.
In truth, nearly three hundred members of the Marley Family were gathered behind Alfred. Every one of them had been restrained, either forced onto their knees or thrown face-down across the ground after losing consciousness. Many had already lost one limb...
Some had lost two.
Even so, they remained considerably more fortunate than their relatives who had perished beneath the relentless bombardment of the cannons before they could even be captured alive.
Indeed.
When the battle had begun, the invaders had completely underestimated them, believing a single elite detachment would be more than sufficient to capture them without difficulty.
Instead, Alfred and his relatives burned every member of that force to ashes.
Afterward, they charged directly toward the space vessels that had begun emptying their troops, stormed aboard them without the slightest hesitation, and spread devastation among the bewildered soldiers who had yet to understand what was happening. Dense torrents of White Flame erupted throughout the interiors of the vessels, swallowing corridors, troop compartments, and supply sections alike until panic spread from one deck to another before anyone managed to organize an effective response.
The army had no choice but to intervene as a whole.
The generals personally descended to force them out of the vessels before surrounding them from every direction, yet even that proved insufficient to suppress their resistance. Eventually, the spacecraft were ordered to fire directly around them.
The final result was approximately fourteen thousand soldiers killed alongside the complete destruction of three combat spacecraft...
In exchange for the deaths of two hundred members of the Marley Family, while every remaining survivor was either severely wounded or captured alive after exhausting every last ounce of strength they possessed.
"You still have the strength to smile?!" The man who had struck Alfred raised his fist once again, veins bulging beneath his skin as he prepared to deliver another vicious blow.
Everything that had happened during that battle had been a humiliation by every conceivable standard.
"Enough!"
A commanding voice echoed from behind him, bringing his movement to an immediate halt before the punch could land.
"I won’t allow you to kill any more of them. These aren’t ordinary soldiers—they’ve already proven that through their actions. They may very well be Lord Human’s children... or perhaps his grandchildren. That would explain why they were training here in complete isolation from everyone else, hidden away from the outside world until today." His eyes slowly swept across the restrained prisoners before a broad smile appeared upon his face. "This time we’ve captured something truly valuable... and we intend to preserve that value."
"Marshal, what are you saying?! Just because they’re descendants of that man, we’re supposed to let them slaughter our soldiers and burn my face?!" He glared at the Marshal with undisguised hatred before roaring, "Damn it!!" Then he turned around and stormed away, unable to suppress the rage boiling inside him.
"...We... are... not... Pfft—!!"
One of the injured prisoners struggled to force out a few words despite the blood filling his mouth.
Before he could finish, however, the brother beside him drove a sharp kick into his stomach, cutting him off instantly before he revealed anything further.
"Don’t worry," the Marshal said with another satisfied smile as he looked toward a distant direction where the galaxy lay beyond the atmosphere. "We’ll make full use of having them in our custody." His expression remained completely composed as he continued, "Prepare the vessels. The space battle should have begun by now. As for us, we’ll begin the invasion of Nihari through the back entrance in one hour. By then, the attention of nearly everyone should already be focused elsewhere."
"Yes, commander!"
The soldiers immediately hurried back to their assigned positions, mentally and physically preparing themselves for everything that awaited them beyond this planet. Some silently inspected their weapons once again, while others steadied their breathing, fully aware that the coming operation would be unlike anything they had ever experienced before.
Naturally, none of them had ever invaded an entire galaxy before.
None of them truly knew what awaited them there.
But there was one thing every single one of them believed without the slightest doubt...
Countless treasures awaited within the heart of that galaxy, enough to change the fate of anyone fortunate enough to survive the campaign.
As for the Marshal...
He smiled.
A galaxy that was most likely empty.
According to the intelligence he had gathered during the final moments before the operation began, with the First and Third Armies absent, the Second Army had advanced to occupy every planet previously under their control while simultaneously taking over every war those two armies had once been responsible for fighting.
The Second Army—or the Crimson Plague, as he had heard it called—was now scattered throughout hundreds of different planets across countless battlefields.
There was simply no possibility whatsoever of them abandoning those wars and returning in time.
Even if they somehow managed to return, they would never reorganize themselves quickly enough to influence the outcome of this campaign before everything had already been decided.
The only forces remaining inside the galaxy now should be nothing more than a modest police force...
Perhaps accompanied by a handful of defensive units stationed throughout important locations.
Defensive units that the Seventh Son and his men would undoubtedly erase without encountering any meaningful resistance before this invasion force even arrived.
This war...
It was guaranteed.
Whoooooosh—
"Hmm?" The Marshal slowly raised his head after hearing an unfamiliar sound cutting through the atmosphere above them. "That...?"
Something was descending through the atmosphere at astonishing speed, leaving behind a faint trail as it tore through layers of air with frightening momentum.
It didn’t resemble an artillery shell.
Nor did it resemble a person.
Instead, it looked like a metallic object twisting violently through the skies like a falling meteor whose trajectory constantly shifted as though correcting itself while descending.
BAAAM!!
The object slammed into the ground not far away from their position, throwing dirt and shattered rock high into the air as the impact sent a powerful tremor rippling across the surrounding terrain.
"Stay alert!!" The Marshal immediately raised his hand, signaling everyone around him to draw their weapons and prepare for an unexpected confrontation.
Hummm—
Something strange immediately began happening in that direction.
The mysterious metallic object started emitting unfamiliar mechanical sounds accompanied by rhythmic pulses of equally unfamiliar light, each pulse growing brighter than the last as though some hidden mechanism deep within had finally awakened.
Click.
Then it opened.
Its entire structure immediately began transforming at astonishing speed as countless metallic components emerged from its core, floated freely into the surrounding air, and rapidly connected themselves to additional metallic pieces according to an incredibly intricate predetermined pattern. Layer after layer assembled with flawless precision until the countless fragments ceased resembling scattered machinery altogether.
Within the blink of an eye...
They had assembled themselves into a gigantic structure resembling an arch.
A colossal metallic arch.
"What in the...?"
Bzzzzzzzt—
The space within the metallic arch suddenly crackled with colorless lightning as streams of invisible energy raced wildly across its interior before the empty space itself began to ripple, soften, and liquefy as though the laws governing reality had momentarily dissolved inside the enormous structure.
"...!!" The Marshal’s eyes widened, his mouth hanging open in disbelief as he instinctively took a cautious step backward. "A Space Gate?!"
A portable Space Gate?
A gate that could be thrown down from outside the atmosphere...
Then activate itself automatically without requiring anyone to remain behind and operate it?
It was the first time in his entire life that he had witnessed anything remotely resembling such technology.
And certainly the first time he had ever heard rumors of something like it existing.
He had traveled to the Mid Belt numerous times throughout his military career, yet he had never once encountered anything remotely comparable being sold within the Soul Society or anywhere else, regardless of how wealthy or influential the merchants happened to be.
Did even Intiras possess something like this?!
Wooooom—
At that moment, something slowly began emerging from within the shimmering gate as the distorted space expanded outward.
A pair of gigantic white claws.
Massive enough to dwarf the soldiers standing nearby before the creature attached to them had even revealed itself.
BOOOOM!!
The instant those enormous claws touched the ground...
Everything froze.
A wave of terrifying frost exploded outward from the point of contact, instantly sealing the surrounding earth beneath layers of thick crystalline ice that spread in every direction with frightening speed.
"Fire! Fire everything at that gate!!" the Marshal roared, his voice echoing across the battlefield as he pointed directly toward the newly formed portal.
Rumble—
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The combat vessels immediately rotated their heavy cannons despite still remaining positioned upon the ground, before unleashing an overwhelming barrage toward the gate without holding anything back, determined to destroy the mysterious construct before whatever lay behind it could fully emerge.
But...
Whoooooosh—
Towering walls of frost erupted violently from the earth, rising one after another directly into the path of the first wave of bombardment as though the frozen ground itself had answered an unseen command.
Most of the icy walls shattered apart or suffered devastating damage almost immediately beneath the concentrated firepower, exploding into countless fragments of glittering ice...
But they had already accomplished exactly what they had been created to do.
A massive white fox with three tails calmly stepped out from behind the frozen barricades.
Its pristine fur shimmered with a pale icy glow while every movement carried overwhelming majesty, making it resemble an ancient sovereign beast that had walked directly out of a forgotten frozen age.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH—"
The fox unleashed a devastating howl powerful enough to shake the heavens themselves.
The freezing shockwave swept across the land in every direction.
The temperature plummeted so violently that forests, mountains, rivers, and even the air itself seemed to freeze, as though the entire region had been violently dragged backward into the Ice Age.
Whoosh.
Something suddenly burst forward from between the fox’s feet before slithering across the ground at astonishing speed.
A gigantic serpent bearing five enormous horns.
Its massive body twisted gracefully across the battlefield while every rock beneath it simply melted away into glowing liquid before hardening once again after it had passed.
Then...
Whoosh.
Above the white fox, an enormous butterfly with seven brilliantly colored wings slowly appeared, its wings spreading majestically through the sky as dazzling radiance poured from every scale covering their surface, illuminating hundreds of miles around it until even the distant horizon became bathed in brilliant multicolored light.
"ROOOOOOOAAARRRRR—"
A thunderous roar shook the entire planet, sending violent tremors rippling across the battlefield as a gigantic pink lion leaped from the white fox’s side with astonishing explosive force.
It possessed a long scorpion-like tail that swayed ominously behind it...
And the massive horns of a raging bull, giving the already terrifying beast an even more savage appearance.
Thud.
The white fox calmly advanced with majestic dignity, its enormous paws leaving frozen footprints wherever they landed as it continued walking forward without the slightest hint of urgency.
With every single step it took...
Another beast emerged from behind it.
Each creature possessed a completely different appearance and overwhelming aura, rapidly gathering behind the white fox like an unstoppable army of ancient monsters.
And with every single step...
Terror burrowed even deeper into the hearts of the millions of soldiers witnessing the impossible spectacle unfolding before their eyes, their confidence gradually crumbling as the number of monstrous creatures continued increasing without end.
But the most astonishing sight of all came next.
An elderly man with gray hair slowly emerged from within the thick white fur, rising until he stood atop the giant fox’s head as naturally as though he had always belonged there, his calm expression standing in complete contrast to the terrifying army gathering beneath him.
He slowly raised one hand toward the Marshal.
Then spoke a single command.
"Devos... Catch."