Chapter 1 Free Competition Zone, Emerald Star Cluster, Black Star Army Forward Exploration Outpost

In the spacious, silver-white training room, Hela sat cross-legged in mid-air, her eyes slightly closed, her breathing long and even. Red rays of light swirled around her, and the energy fluctuations emanating from her caused the high-collared cloak of the "Crimson Serpent · Prototype" battle suit to resemble a dancing black and red cloud.

In front of her, a highly concentrated mass of scarlet death energy floated, and in the center of the red color, there was a faint glimmer of brilliant golden light, extending blood vessel-like golden threads, struggling to spread and extend.

Suddenly, Hela frowned slightly, and the energy mass in front of her suddenly boiled, as if a violent chemical reaction had occurred, and it exploded with a bang. Pale red energy shock waves spread, echoing in the room.

"Failed again, sister."

Aurora's frustrated voice suddenly sounded in Hela's mind.

"It's okay, it's not your fault." Hela shook her head.

With the qualitative change in the intensity and controllability of her abilities, an Esper can develop more uses and effects for their abilities.

There was already a unique life force link between the two, and after Aurora entered the Calamity Grade, the link was further strengthened, giving birth to bidirectional telepathy. They could directly converse in their minds.

Originally, the transmission of life energy had distance limitations, but the project they were currently developing was an energy transmission channel that ignored distance. It had not yet succeeded, and they were still looking for a way.

After Aurora reached the Calamity Grade, Hela finally felt that she had the ability to protect herself, so she no longer restricted Aurora from using her abilities and consuming life energy.

"Sister, the life link that ignores distance already has a prototype. The life energy on my side can be sent out, but it cannot be transmitted to your side."

"It's not a complete failure." Hela nodded and pondered, "Actually, I received a tiny amount of life energy, but the energy loss in the middle was too serious. I can only receive about one-hundred-thousandth of the original amount. In my perception, most of your energy seems to have been absorbed by an unknown sub-dimension in the middle, and that sub-dimension actually has a weak connection with me. I can sense its existence."

"Really? I didn't feel it." Aurora was surprised.

"I only sensed it after I advanced to Super-A Grade. I think if we want to complete the link, we may need to solve this obstacle first. I previously tried to reverse input death energy into this sub-dimension, but as soon as the energy entered, it lost contact with me. I'm afraid I'll have to go there myself sometime. I have a feeling that there will be something related to us inside... Let's just treat it as Super-A Grade intuition."

As she spoke, Hela shook her head, raised her finger, and a brilliant golden light spot hovered at her fingertip, about the size of a peanut, which was a tiny amount of Aurora's life energy.

Her eyes moved, and she manipulated sesame-sized particles of death energy to merge into this mass of life energy. The next moment, the light shone brightly, and the two energies dissolved into each other, merging the red and golden light spots into one, turning them into a golden-orange light spot.

"Sister, did you successfully fuse them?" Aurora was overjoyed.

"No, I'm still exploring the fusion ratio. Currently, I can only blend a small amount of energy."

Hela gently exhaled. She and Aurora had tried to fuse their energies a long time ago, but they had not succeeded due to insufficient ability control. Explosions constantly occurred, and at the time, they thought it was because the properties of their energies conflicted.

Now that Hela had entered the Super-A Grade, and Aurora's ability strength and stability had also entered the Calamity Grade, Hela tried to fuse again, only to discover that their energies could actually dissolve into each other, but they were unstable and needed to be maintained in balance with powerful control.

After the fusion, it would turn into a kind of golden-orange energy, and the energy properties seemed to have completely changed. Although the healing and killing effects were still there, these two properties were not strengthened but were greatly weakened. At this time, Hela had not yet studied what special effects this fusion energy had.

At this moment, the notification sound of a communication request suddenly sounded.

"Di Di."

A virtual screen appeared in front of her, and the adjutant appeared in the picture. The shock on her face had not yet faded, and she said, "Your Excellency Hela, the head of the Arcane Church wants to speak with you. Do you want to transfer the call?"

Hela's pupils shrank slightly.

She was quite surprised that this top-level big shot would suddenly come looking for her.

She thought for a while and said in a deep voice, "Connect it."

Soon, the picture changed, and the figure of the Pope appeared on the screen.

The leaders of the three great civilizations often appeared in the news, so Hela naturally recognized him. At this time, she returned to her indifferent expression and slowly said:

"I don't know what Your Excellency Pope wants from me?"

Because of the tense relationship between the Arcane Church and the Black Star Army, Hela did not show much respect at this time.

The Pope did not beat around the bush and said lightly, "I would like to invite you to join the Arcane Church."

"I am truly flattered that the leader of a universe-level civilization would personally open his mouth to recruit me... If Black Star were here, he should say that." Hela said expressionlessly, "But I am not him."

The Pope slowly said, "We have investigated you. You are a person who pursues power, and the Arcane Church can give you powerful power. I..."

"No need to say more, I refuse." Hela didn't want to listen at all and answered decisively.

"...You can ask for any conditions as long as you are willing to join."

"Not interested."

The Pope paused, his face unreadable. "The reason why you are so devoted to following Black Star, does it involve personal feelings?"

"None of your business."

The Pope nodded. "My promise is valid for a long time. If you change your mind, the Arcane Church will welcome you to join at any time."

After saying that, he directly hung up the communication.

Hela looked at the darkened virtual screen, her brows furrowing involuntarily.

The Pope of the Arcane Church personally came forward, and his sincerity was even greater than that of the Crimson Empire. It was probably because of the adversarial relationship that they were so keen on digging up the Black Star Army's foundation.

If an ordinary newly promoted Super-A Grade received this kind of treatment, they might agree on the spot, but leaving the Black Star Army was not within her consideration. Even if the conditions of the Arcane Church were more favorable, she would still refuse without hesitation.

...

On the other side, somewhere in the Emerald Star Cluster, several spaceships were slowly advancing towards the Black Star stronghold.

The emblem of the spaceship represented a small mercenary group. It looked like a very ordinary interstellar mercenary, but in reality, it was carrying several Super-A Grade powerhouses from the Arcane Church.

"The Pope's meaning has been conveyed. Recruitment failed. We can take action." Photon Sagman glanced at the communicator and said in a deep voice.

The Arcane Church had already prepared two plans. During this period, they had assembled Super-A Grades. Once the Pope failed to recruit, they would directly launch a thunderous strike to eliminate Hela, lest things drag on and cause more trouble.

"The situation is in our favor. The Empire and the Black Star Army have not yet discovered that we have assembled. It's best to make a quick decision and not make the same mistake as last time." Jiemen Tailledi said.

In the past, because they were separated by star fields, it took a long time for Super-A Grades to assemble. If there were any actions, they would have been discovered long ago. Now, a large number of Super-A Grades are in the Flickering World, and the distance is very close. This provides convenience for the Arcane Church's actions. They can take action before the enemy discovers them, leaving the opponent unprepared.

"It would be best if Hela could be transferred away from the stronghold, otherwise the Empire's allies can quickly support us through the stronghold's Star Gate."

"Then leave this to Tollayne. Go challenge Hela again and try to lure her out, the farther away from the stronghold, the better." Sagman said.

Tollayne was stunned, full of unwillingness, but could only bite the bullet and agree. "I'll try."

"Well, if Hela doesn't accept the challenge, we'll destroy the stronghold's Star Gate passage first. It's a pity that His Excellency Sun Hunter is not participating in this operation... Tailledi, you are a mage, with flexible means. The task of destroying the Star Gate will be left to you and me." Saying that, Sagman hesitated for a moment and said in a deep voice, "As for the Black Star's Sovereign clone that is following Hela..."

"I'll hold him back."

At this moment, Kesuye's clone, who had been silent all along, spoke.

The Arcane Church offered enough benefits to get Kesuye to participate in this operation, but he didn't like besieging others, nor did he like bullying newcomers, so he sent a clone over, just as insurance for the operation.

"Good, we don't have the confidence to deal with Black Star's clone. Only Your Excellency Kesuye can suppress him." Sagman nodded.

"It's a pity, if His Excellency Urnos had come, killing Hela would have been a matter of minutes..." The wild beast Metes muttered softly.

"Don't even think about it. Urnos will not leave the Pantheon. He doesn't participate in such mundane matters at all." Tailledi shook his head.

The Arcane Church sent six Super-A Grades this time, namely Photon Sagman, Jiemen Tailledi, the wild beast Metes, the Red Devil Tollayne, a clone of Kesuye, and a Sovereign clone of a mechanic under his command.

The nature of Kesuye's clone is similar to that of the mechanical Sovereign clone, both of which carry a part of the main body's combat power, and cannot be compared to the quasi-Super-A Grade combat power batch clones of the Heterogeneous Gods.

Although the number is the same as in the Beacon Star battle, replacing Cisco and his good friend Dillon with Kesuye's clone and another mechanical Sovereign clone, the combat power has increased by a large margin. Such a lineup is more than enough to deal with a Hela.

Moreover, unlike Beacon Star, this time there are no imperial allies stationed on the opposite side, especially Milizaus, and Black Star's main body is not there, which means they will not encounter the Time Amber. With the ebb and flow, the Arcane Church feels that the situation is very favorable, not to mention that their target is Hela, not the Black Star, who is as sticky as nougat, making her much easier to deal with.

Without continuing to participate in the discussion, Kesuye's clone turned his head and looked at the starry sky outside the porthole, his eyes deep.

"Manson, you won't take action, right... If Hela dies, Black Star will definitely go crazy... Hehe, what a difficult multiple-choice question.

You are not suitable to take action, I understand what you mean, let me act for you.

...With me here, she won't die."

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(During the eleven period, you can't see the comments in this chapter for the time being, but it seems that you can send them, maybe they will be displayed after the eleventh. Go to bed early today and get up early tomorrow to watch the military parade (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)و)