Chapter 737: The Formation Energy Source

Alice understood what he meant.

Karr had been with her while she was alone. He had helped her survive long enough to find this place and helped her find the other fairies and Felidaeans.

Now that she had found Lily and gathered the others, he thought she no longer needed him.

That angered her more than she expected.

"You think I forgot who fought beside me?"

"Then come with me."

"I want you to come with us."

Karr looked at her for several breaths, then turned away with a low curse.

He didn’t leave.

Alice let him be.

She couldn’t promise him the revenge he wanted, and saying anything else would only make him angrier.

A shout came from Silen’s side of the chamber.

"Take us!"

Several prisoners had crowded around him.

One grabbed his arm while another pushed between them, insisting that his clan had more people who could fight.

Silen tried to pull away.

The light along his body flickered, and the space he had been shaping fell still.

"Let go," he said.

The prisoner holding him tightened his grip.

"We’re going the same way. You might as well take us."

Karr moved before Alice could reach them.

He caught the man’s wrist and twisted it away from Silen.

The prisoner cried out and reached for his weapon, only to stop when Karr’s blade pressed against his chest.

"He told you to let go."

The man looked at the sword, then stepped back.

Alice pushed through the others.

"Give him room."

"They want to force me again," Silen said.

His breathing was fast despite his strength returning.

"As long as they get where they want, they don’t care what happens to me."

Alice remembered what he had told her about his race.

A Veyr was valuable here because he could teleport. That alone made him extremely useful.

Now that the suppression was weakening, he had become even more valuable.

She looked at the prisoners around them.

"He has limits to his power. If you keep trying to force him, then we’ll leave all of you behind."

They moved back reluctantly.

Silen kept watching them.

"How far can you go now?" Alice asked.

"I don’t know yet."

"Then test it somewhere close."

He glanced toward the empty space near the far wall.

Karr stepped aside and kept the others back.

Silen raised his hands, and the lines along his body brightened again.

The air around him bent.

A moment later, he stood beside the wall.

Alice watched him lower his arms.

No blood came from his mouth, and he remained on his feet without swaying.

Silen looked back at them.

Relief spread across his face.

It was a small distance, far less than the one he had crossed to escape the first attack.

What mattered was how little it had cost him.

This time, he could still move afterward.

"We need to test the distance," he said as he returned. "And how many people I can take."

"I’ll go with you," Karr replied.

Silen hesitated.

"If you faint, someone still has to carry you," Karr said.

Alice sighed.

She knew Karr still intended to kill the Marauder leader first, but her hands were tied.

If she had learned anything from all her years fighting with the resistance, it was to prioritize.

Lily approached with the Felidaean who had spoken at the table.

"Two of his people know the area. They’re willing to show us."

"How many guards?" Alice asked.

"We don’t know how many are there now," the Felidaean replied. "But we know where they’re usually stationed."

"We check it first," Alice said. "No attack until we know for sure it will succeed."

Lily nodded.

"I’ll come."

Alice almost told her to stay.

She had spent so long worrying about what had happened to Lily that the thought of taking her toward the wardens made her grip tighten.

But her sister had survived here too.

Keeping her behind while someone else took every risk wasn’t going to make Mars safe for her.

"Stay close to me," Alice said.

Lily looked at her hand, then back at her face.

"You too."

The ancient Sovereign was still staring upward.

Alice wanted to ask what he was thinking, but she doubted she would get the answer she wanted.

Whoever had weakened the formation had given every prisoner on Mars a chance to act.

That included the clans hunting weaker people on the surface.

She couldn’t waste this opening waiting to learn why it had happened.

"Karr. Silen. Let’s go."

***

In Mars’s central control area, Prince Andrew held a crystal above its support.

Dark red light filled it.

A few remaining threads connected the crystal to the formation, drawing on the captured remains and the power stored inside them.

Andrew lifted his hand higher.

The threads stretched.

Light faded from the lines covering the floor and walls, and warnings began appearing across the control screens.

Reports came from different parts of Mars.

The prisoners’ strength was returning, and the people watching them wanted to know why.

Andrew smiled at the crystal.

"Once a proud Asura Progenitor," he said. "Now you’re being used as a battery to keep prisoners suppressed."

There was no one left inside to answer him.

The remains still held enough power for many things, but the Empire had only used them as fuel.

He had a better use for them.

Andrew pulled the crystal free.

The last connections broke, and the formation around him lost its light.

He placed the crystal inside his storage ring before turning toward the screens.

The warnings were spreading.

Mars was one of the Empire’s most dangerous prisons.

There were many powerful beings like the old Sovereign locked across the planet.

Keeping them inside the capital’s star system had allowed the humans to watch them closely, but now they would have to deal with those prisoners at full strength.

Proxima was already demanding ships and cultivators.

Andrew opened his All-Seeing Eyes.

The infinity marks spun as he checked the disturbances spreading across Mars and the forces responding to the earlier emergency.

His lips curled into a smile.

He didn’t need to tell the prisoners what to do.

Some would attack the guards.

Others would fight for a ship.

Every fight would force the Empire to spend more attention here.

A call appeared on the nearest screen.

Andrew glanced at it, then raised his hand.

"Emperor have fund seeing your territory burned."

Space tore open beside him.

He stepped through with the Asura crystal before the call connected.