Him and their stars.

Chapter 2173 The Road Ahead Is About to Be Opened
Of course, although everyone was no longer clear on who the Grand Commander was, Duke Geribian still did a lot. At least in terms of maneuvering and flanking maneuvers, she did more than Giafil.

Between the knights' assault formation and the behemoth's mental pollution zone and intercepting fire net, the duke, sitting atop the rainbow dragon "Merias," suddenly opened his eyes wide, catalyzing his spirit and spirituality to the extreme.

Her innate talent inherited from the Dawn Royal Family, combined with her long-term arduous cultivation, merged and sublimated at this moment.

As for the hard-earned practical experience, my experience over the past year has not been pleasant, but it does exist and can serve as a torch for tempering the spirit.

At this moment, the Duke briefly merged his soul into this battlefield, and the spacetime structure of this star clearly "saw" the trajectory of the energy surge in the next few seconds.

Before her stood that indescribable, enormous monster, this ethereal beast encased in the armor of a warship—wasn't it also an opponent wielding psionic energy?

Anticipating each other's actions and taking more effective measures is a fundamental skill in duels among psionicists.

Thinking about this, the Duke suddenly realized that the swaggering behemoth opposite him wasn't as terrifying as he had imagined.

"If I can't beat Yu Lian, surely I can beat you?" Duke Gai made such a decision and suddenly felt his whole body stand up straight.

"Flag Bearer, immediately activate Focus Aura, then switch to Calm Aura in 15 seconds!"

"Left flank, descend 3 degrees, watch out for artillery fire at the eight o'clock position!"

"Spread out on the right flank, prepare your dragon breath, and scorch the spore cluster!"

"Core vanguard, keep following me closely!"

A concise yet precise psionic signal, like the most sophisticated navigational beacon, instantly projected into the soul of every knight. Under her guidance, the entire dragon knight charge group, like an organism with a shared will, began a dazzling display of coordinated maneuvering.

When a well-trained psionicist enters a state of perfect unity, how can their coordination be inferior to that of a swarm of insects?

Dense, dark red energy beams grazed the edge of the dragon horde, turning the airspace behind them into a death zone. The decaying spores were blasted off course by the dragon's breath, and when they exploded in vain, the corrosive energy only affected the afterimages left behind by the knights.

Melias's wings unleashed a dazzling rainbow of light. That radiant glow transformed into a medium that guided the flow of psionic energy and deflected deadly attacks.

At this moment, Duke Géribane, using himself as the hub, constructed an invisible psionic early warning network. Every timely prediction, every precise evasion, felt like dancing on the edge of the enemy's blade.

But isn't that what fighting is all about?
Once the line between heaven and earth is broken, what difference is there between the cannon fire and poisonous mist released by the Void Realm Beast and the light blades of the psionicists?

To be fair, when it comes to using all sorts of tricks, this Void Realm Lord's mechanical zombies are no match for a powerful psionicist.

Is it really because they've become zombies?

As they advanced past the outermost defensive perimeter and could now visually measure the behemoth's size, twelve knights had lost contact. However, the Star Knights still charging knew that without the Duke's guidance, their losses would far exceed what they were seeing now.

The charging arrows, with far greater efficiency than expected, are piercing through layers of death barriers and resolutely heading towards the core of the behemoth!

"Banner Bearer, activate the Life Aura and Harmony Aura!" Duke Gerebean's voice rang in the minds of every knight once more. However, this time it carried a slight, almost imperceptible tremor.

She had already sensed a more sinister sense of crisis.

Behind her, the veteran knights, who had mastered excellent aura techniques, unfurled their banner-shaped Noble Phantasms, spreading their spiritual energy to their comrades and their mounts.

The aura will grant warriors and dragons greater vitality and self-healing abilities, and will also allow them to share physical and mental strength to a certain extent.

For the Star Knights, "I am for everyone, and everyone is for me" is not just a slogan, but a tactic.

Thus, Giafil simply lowered her body, letting the Lion King's banner float behind her, releasing the activated aura's power to the surrounding area in the form of a psionic medium.

For the battle-hardened female knight, activating this treasure passed down through generations of the Lamute family at full power was simply a matter of instinct.

As for her own will, it had long been completely synchronized with the Yang Yan beneath her.

This Flamewing Dragon, which has already entered the Ancient Species stage, was once Emperor Elithel's mount and the oldest dragon in the entire Ruixing Dragon Garden. However, it has not stepped onto the battlefield for over a hundred years.

He perhaps already understood that his natural lifespan was coming to an end, and this was his final dance of battle. Then, golden flames roared around the dragon, enveloping the unfamiliar yet powerful rider on its back.

The person and the dragon merged into one. The flower followed the comet that went against the current, leaving a long tail of light, becoming the most dazzling and sharpest spearhead in the entire team.

The behemoth may have realized that these "ants" had breached its first layer of defense and felt the threat they posed, or it may simply be executing its usual defense mechanisms.

It continued to engage the fleet in a fierce battle, but its massive body suddenly jolted and began to tilt and drift, as if trying to distance itself from the knights.

Translucent energy seeped out from the wounds and crevices of the enormous mechanical body, extending outwards like thousands of energy tentacles.

Like venomous snakes dancing wildly, they lashed at the fleeing dragons with a terrifying power that polluted the starry sky.

At the same moment, the armor plates on its body, flowing with dark psionic energy, opened one after another, revealing the translucent, ethereal flesh beneath that was constantly writhing. It was as if trillions of slimes had been superimposed together, pulsating violently, merging and splitting, spewing out countless spores containing corrupt and chaotic energy, which rained down on the knights like a dense meteor shower.

Compared to the sub-light-speed missiles fired from warships, these weapons, which lie somewhere between psionic energy and the concept of matter, appear to be more dangerous and more malevolent.

"Maintain the aura link! Freedom of movement!" Giafil's instructions were even more concise and clear than the Duke's, making him seem more like a Grand Master.

Of course, the knights didn't have time to ponder these subtle inconsistencies.

The soaring dragons instantly dispersed once more, breaking up their charging formation, yet maintaining a subtle coordination through their spiritual connection. The star dragons' counterattack collided with the incoming tentacles and spore clusters, exploding into dazzling yet deadly fireworks in the starry sky.

However, the closer they got to the monster's true form, the more intense and violent the attacks they would have to endure.

A knight had just used a powerful force field to dissolve and evaporate a massive mass of putrid spores when he was struck in the waist by another mechanical tentacle that appeared silently. The knight and the four-phase dragon were instantly torn apart by the terrifying force. Fragments of the emblem machine and dragon blood were scattered in the vacuum, like briefly blooming scarlet flowers, but after only a momentary flash, they were completely swallowed up by the omnipresent cosmic radiation and the increasingly violent energy storm.

Another robust Titan dragon, in order to protect the Knight Commander who had unleashed his aura beside it, used its body to block a thick, dark red energy ray. However, under the corrosive power of the intense mixed energy, the Star Dragon's hard scales and the Knight's heavy emblem mechanism only lasted for a few seconds. Like snowflakes thrown into a raging furnace, they didn't even have time to utter a mournful cry before turning into elementary particles.

Every burst of light, every flicker of dimness, signifies the fall of a noble Star Knight and his loyal companion in space.

The prelude to sacrifice played silently in the cold universe. The stream of light charging forward seemed to be thinning, but the speed of their advance did not slow down in the slightest. The eyes of the surviving knights burned with an even more intense flame. They were high-ranking nobles, but their lifelong education had taught them that what a Star Knight pursued in life was either the most glorious achievement or the most magnificent death in battle.

Now, their companions are stepping into the latter, and they will certainly not let the former down. Soon, very soon! That colossal thing that distorts starlight will soon fill their entire field of vision.

They sensed an even more violent surge of energy, and eerie whispers threatened to pierce through the protective shields of the emblem machine, directly eroding their souls—in reality, this wasn't some demonic curse, but simply a conflict between the quantum chaos of the virtual realm and the rules of real matter. It could even be understood as a theoretical form of natural evolution.

But precisely because of this, it may be more dangerous than intentional malice.

At the same moment, more and more writhing flesh emerged from the tattered armor fragments. They seemed to sense the knights' approach as if they were alive, changing into a dazzling array of colors that confuse the mind.

"Node?" Knight Commander Giafil asked his Grand Master telepathically.

“The twelfth.” Duke Gerebean replied, much like an adjutant answering a question from the Grand Master.

“The most important one!” Giafil said. She was asking on behalf of all her comrades.

"The closest point to us, at 12 o'clock, in Red Zone 12!" the Grand Master immediately replied. A window automatically popped up on the knights' emblem machines, displaying a clear and complete outline of the behemoth's body, complete with detailed annotations.

The knights only thought their Grand Commander was formidable, and their supporting comrades were equally impressive. They were, of course, unaware that this information came from their "Earth allies," but that didn't really matter.

Just as they were preparing to concentrate their forces and launch a full-scale attack on these psionic nodes or areas where flesh and blood gathered, the Grand Master said with concern, "But I have a very bad feeling. No, something must be coming!"

If it were Brin here, your hesitation would have already made her explode. While this was what Giafil thought, she fully respected the other's reaction.

After all, she, Duke Gai, had served as a star judge, an executioner, a cardinal judge, and so on, and had even managed to escape unscathed from that... well, that Earth general several times. Her ability to sense danger was undeniable.

"Halt!" the Knight Commander ordered.

At that very moment, the previously empty space in front of the giant beast suddenly began to ripple violently, like water on which a pebble had been thrown. Then, countless figures emerged from it.

They possessed humanoid silhouettes, generally standing between five and eight meters tall, and were covered in thick, ornate armor. What should have been pure, sacred silver armor was instead covered in eerie black and blood-red runes.

The spiritual runes twisted and writhed, as if infused with evil life, and were full of blasphemy.

Most of them have no heads, and even if they do, it is just a crown-like component covering a distorted ball of light.

Wing-like structures made of deformable ether energy extended from the back of the humanoid armor. Some resembled tattered flags fluttering in the wind, while others were simply mechanical wings of light flashing an ominous red glow.

It's obvious from their appearance that these evil beings are exactly the same as the original illusory beast.

These were the "Armored Angels" that had appeared before, the unknown Void Realm monsters that forced Giafil's first probing charge to fail.

But the "angels" that have appeared now are clearly more powerful and more complete than those before.

Thousands upon thousands of Void Realm monsters silently formed ranks, their pale figures almost obscuring the knights' vision and blocking the colossal beasts behind them, transforming into a wall of despair constructed of death and blasphemy. They stood there, the negative energy from the warp glowing with a chilling gray light, coalescing into a suffocating gray mist, as if the Void Realm's ethereal sea had truly been brought into the real world.

Even most Star Knights had never encountered the Void. They could only sense a chaotic and unsettling feeling, an overwhelming sense of malicious oppression of life.

Some of the young Star Dragons and Knights began to tremble, a sense of unease circulating within their mental networks.

Fortunately, they stopped in time. If they had continued their charge, they would have crashed into the monsters' ranks and been caught off guard.

Duke Gerabéan, riding on Melias's back, watched the horrific scene unfold before him, feeling both relief and utter despair. The courage he had finally mustered began to dissipate once more.

At that moment, she wasn't thinking about victory, but rather what she had said to His Majesty the Emperor.

“I should be His Majesty’s loyal dog. No, that’s not right. I should be fighting for the future of the Galactic Empire to the very end… No, I shouldn’t have come here. Right, wouldn’t it be better to raise horses in the countryside of the Kishan sector? Why did I have to compete for the throne, and why did I have to be this damn Grand Master? I have no right to get involved in this kind of thing.”

It was only at this point that she finally realized that she had never been a qualified soldier.

In critical moments, she was just like any other ordinary person; all she wanted was to live.

This realization brought a profound sense of powerlessness and fear, which, like cold vines, quietly entwined her heart, even surpassing the pressure from the enemy before her.

The Duke even instinctively wanted to urge Melias away from here. But at that moment, Giafil's voice suddenly rang in her mind: "Your Excellency! Please lead everyone forward! Find an opportunity to destroy its node! I will open a path!"

The Knight Commander's voice was very calm and steady, as stable as a towering mountain with unquestionable authority.

She didn't wait for the Duke's reaction any longer and began to speed up.

Giafil Lamut's psionic energy surged and compressed at an unprecedented rate. The Yangyan beneath her seemed to sense its master's will, emitting a soul-stirring cry, and the golden flames burning around her suddenly shone several times brighter.

He is a Flamewing Dragon, a sacred phantom beast that roams the stars hunting Leviathans; he shouldn't die of old age in a warm pen. So why not, together with this temporary partner, have a glorious end?
This ancient dragon, which has lived for over three hundred years, is preparing to perform its final dance in this grand and passionate manner.

The intense light beneath the scales grew ever hotter, even becoming unstable, as if it were about to explode at any moment. In that instant, the dragon transformed from a speeding comet into a star about to erupt.

This is also what Giafil wanted to do.

She never expected to defeat these illusory demons, but she was fully capable of using her own life and soul as fuel to break through the barrier of this illusory realm.

"Puren, please, you must obtain the universe! And that person..." Such thoughts flashed through the deepest part of Giafil Lamut's heart, carrying a trace of indescribable regret and a natural sense of relief.

Instantly, all distracting thoughts vanished, and her gaze became as pure and fervent as the core of a star. Golden flames began to converge inward, gathering at the tip of the spear in her hand. The profound force field trembled slightly, emanating terrifying energy fluctuations capable of distorting the surrounding space.

It resembles a miniature black hole.

No, it's a black hole.

When her body is completely burned to ashes, the black hole will erupt, devouring these pale demons and the rifts in the void.

The road ahead is about to open!

But at that moment, a streak of azure light, moving faster than anyone could react, suddenly cut into the space between the dragons and the giant beasts from the outer edge of the battlefield, from the edge of the giant beasts' barrage, as if piercing through space itself.