From cannon fodder to sweeping across thousands of stars.

Chapter 823 The Future of the Elves?
The pillar of light piercing the heavens and earth in the core area of ​​the mausoleum continues to tirelessly send signals into the dark depths of the universe.

But for Amber and the others, there was no point in staying here any longer.

After providing emergency treatment to the Phoenix King and several surviving Elf Masters, Amber led the remaining squad back to the surface along the passage forcibly opened by reinforcements.

The higher you go, the fainter the cloying, rotten, and bloody smell becomes, replaced by a chilling stillness.

There was no sound of wind, no chirping of insects, and even the movement of air seemed to have frozen.

When Amber was the first to step out of the blasted tomb entrance and return to the skies of Eldaram, he was utterly stunned by the sight before him.

The sky remained that familiar emerald green, and the warm sunlight shone down, illuminating this once glorious sacred land.

However, there are no more living beings on the sacred site.

Centered on the royal tomb, the land within a radius of several kilometers has been leveled by the impact of the orbital track, and wisps of smoke still rise from the scorched earth.

On the edge of the scorched earth, the war came to an abrupt end.

Hundreds and thousands of corpses covered the ground.

There were elves dressed in rebel uniforms, frozen in a charging or firing stance, their fervor frozen in time.

Soldiers clad in the magnificent armor of the royal guards stood with their psionic halberds pointed at the enemy, their bodies already cold.

The human and Roma combat units stood silently, staring at the vast open graveyard, bewildered.

None of the bodies had any obvious injuries; they were simply dead.

Like a marionette whose soul has been instantly ripped away, it collapsed limply to the ground.

"vomit"

A young elven master who had survived underground and was following behind Amber could no longer suppress the churning in his stomach after witnessing this hellish scene. He leaned against the broken wall and began to vomit violently.

Another older elf's legs buckled, and he collapsed to his knees. He reached out as if to grasp something, but his hands fell limply to his sides, and murky tears streamed down his empty eyes.

Soon, more surviving elves could not withstand the enormous mental shock, their vision went black, and they fainted.

Medics quickly stepped forward and lifted the survivors, who were no longer able to bear the reality, onto stretchers.

Amber watched all this in silence, and then he found Natalia and Hus.

These non-psychic warriors also wore expressions of undisguised shock and bewilderment.

“Mr. Amber,” Natalia’s voice was hoarse, “these elves…they’re all dead.”

Amber nodded, then looked past them toward the Royal Court Avenue further away.

There, too, was utterly silent.

Beside the collapsed buildings and overturned vehicles lay the corpses of elven civilians who had not yet been able to evacuate.

An elf girl lay on a street corner, clutching a doll tightly in her hand, her face showing lingering terror.

At that moment, Amber truly understood what a 'death star' really meant.

This is no longer a war; it is a one-sided, efficient, and silent massacre.

If the 'Return Beacon' possessed by traitors of the Thousand Star Empire is so lethal, what about the Forerunner civilization?

Amber dared not think any further.

He took a deep breath, suppressing the surging emotions within him, his voice eerily calm.

"Take stock of our casualties, inventory our supplies, and prepare for evacuation."

"Evacuation?" Natalia was somewhat surprised.

“Yes, evacuate.” Amber’s tone left no room for argument. “This place will soon no longer be our home turf.”
-
Inside the temporary command post, Agnes and Ellenita lay quietly in two field life support pods, their faces pale, but their chests rising and falling steadily.

"When I arrived, Her Highness...she used her own strength to protect Lady Ellenita."

After seeing Amber arrive, a guard from the Imperial Guard walked up to him and whispered a report. For some reason, everyone present was now treating Amber as a leader.

Then they both passed out.

Amber's gaze fell on Agnes's still stubborn sleeping face, and a complex and incomprehensible emotion swept through his heart. He really did not expect that this usually high and mighty empress would make such a choice at this critical moment.

He said nothing, but simply reached out and gently stroked the cold, transparent dome of the life support pod, as if to confirm her presence.

Then, he looked at the unharmed humans and Rom soldiers around him, and remembered the terrifying suction he had felt in the core area.

A clear conclusion took shape in his mind.

“The return beacon is aimed at elves and psionicists,” Amber muttered to himself.

It's like a picky glutton, only consuming specific 'fuel'.

Although Isabel was modified by the 'Eternal Cells' in the blood of the Star Dragon, the modification did not turn her into a psionicist, so she was unharmed.

This is why only he, along with the elves, Agnes, and Elenita, were affected.

They were all fuel for this apocalyptic sacrifice.

“Mr. Amber,” Franklin approached, his expression grave, “what should we do now?”

This question drew everyone's attention to Amber.

The Thousand Star Empire, this once glorious interstellar civilization, now has only a handful of living elves left on its capital planet.
At this moment, the only ones left standing here issuing orders are these 'alien races'.

Amber looked around at the faces that were filled with grief, confusion, or shock. He took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.

He walked to the life support pod and looked at the Phoenix King, who was still unconscious inside. This elven monarch was probably the spiritual pillar for all the elven survivors on the entire planet.

Although, this number may be so small as to be despairing.

"The situation is very strange." Amber's voice wasn't loud, but it reached everyone's ears clearly.

"We have become the only organized armed force on this planet, but this place has become a huge trap."

He paused, his gaze sweeping over the still-present pillar of energy in the distance.

“If the ‘Forerunners’ really do return, then Aldaram will be their first stop.”

"We can't stay here."

Amber made a swift and decisive decision.

"Everyone, prepare to evacuate immediately and return to the orbital fleet."

“In addition,” he said, looking at an elven survivor, “we would appreciate your help in using Eldram’s psionic communication network to broadcast globally and try to find other survivors.”

The elf's eyes were lifeless; he simply nodded numbly.

Giving him a task might help him temporarily forget this unbearable pain.

However, everyone knew that this might all be in vain.

The broadcast signal, like a stone thrown into the Dead Sea, spread to every corner of the planet.

Cities, forests, and oceans.
The only response they received was an eternal, chilling silence.
-
Above the tracks, in the core command room of the Crowned Fortress, the atmosphere was so oppressive it seemed to freeze.

On the enormous holographic star map, Eldaram remained a beautiful planet where emerald green and azure blue intertwined, but everyone knew that beneath that beauty lay a graveyard of billions of lives. "Master, the twelfth round of public calls and scans of Eldaram has been completed," Lilith's voice echoed in the core command room, carrying a heaviness that even the machinery could not conceal.

"No one responded, and no signs of surviving elf life were detected."

The last hope was completely extinguished.

Amber stood quietly by the porthole, looking down at the dead planet.

The space transport aircraft has completed the final round of evacuation of personnel and supplies. The surviving elves, including the still unconscious Phoenix King, have been properly housed in the fortress's medical area.

They had all become people of a fallen nation, their faces now bearing only the same numbness and despair.

The latest hellish joke was thus born:
The once fiercely debated 'conservatives' and 'equal rights advocates' have now both become 'laissez-faire' advocates.
Phoenix King briefly regained consciousness before being taken into the medical pod.

He didn't speak, but looked deeply at Amber with his eyes, which were so dim they had lost all their luster, before gazing back at his homeland through the porthole.

Two lines of clear tears silently slid down his cheeks.

Amber understood the meaning in those eyes.

That was a plea, a request, and the last vestige of a monarch's dignity.

He wanted Amber to live on, carrying the last elf spirit.

"All troops have returned to their posts and are ready to execute the jump at any time," Lilith's voice came from behind.

Amber turned around and nodded.

"Keep the fleet in sync with us and prepare to leave this system."

He paused, then added, "Deploy three 'messenger' unmanned observation posts on the outer edge of the galaxy to monitor Eldaram long-term. I need to know when that beam of light will disappear, and what it will attract."

This place has become the most dangerous region in the universe, but at the same time, it may also be the first region where the 'enemy' can be observed.

The order was carried out swiftly, and the Combined Fleet began to slowly adjust its course, moving away from Eldaram's gravity well.

Just as the warp drive of the Crown Fortress began to precharge, Lilith's voice rang out again, this time with a clear warning.

"Master, an abnormally high-energy reaction has been detected!"

"The energy output of the homing beacon is undergoing a dramatic change!"

Amber turned around abruptly and looked at the main screen.

The beam of light that shot from the planet's surface into deep space began to change color.

The originally dazzling incandescent color is rapidly deepening and slowly turning into blue.

The beam of light became increasingly solid, as if an invisible hand was trying to sever something.

"What's going on?!" Amber asked nervously.

"Unable to resolve. The energy model does not match any known phenomena in our database; all we know is that the current energy intensity is rapidly increasing."

Before Lilith could finish speaking, the pillar of light that shot into the sky flashed suddenly and then went out completely in the next second.

This sudden flash of light caused some of the optical sensors on the Crown Fortress and many warships to be rendered unusable instantly, and even the protective devices for the optical lenses did not have time to activate.

"What was that just now?" Franklin, who was in the core command room with Amber, asked somewhat uneasily.

"I don't know, but it's definitely not a good thing." Amber frowned but her tone remained calm.

"The jump drive is fully charged!"

"Go!" Amber made a decisive decision and issued the final command.

With the roar of engines, the Crown Fortress and the massive human fleet vanished instantly into this deathly starfield amidst the dazzling light created by the spatial distortion.

Inside the jump tunnel, streams of colorful light streaked past the portholes.

The core command room of the Crown Fortress was deathly silent.

Everyone was still reeling from the immense shock of the final burst of energy before their departure; it was fair to say that everything that had happened in the past few days far exceeded their comprehension.

"Lilith, is there still a signal at the last deployed observation post?" Amber broke the silence.

"It is currently operating normally, and the damaged optical sensor component has been replaced by itself."

“That’s good. Let’s continue monitoring like this.” Amber nodded. “How are things going with Salih and the exploration fleet?”

"Master, they are currently resting in a safe system. According to the last communication before entering the jump, the exploration fleet will rendezvous with us after the ships have finished resting."

"Furthermore, the navies of the Star Dragon Empire and the New Federation have also begun initial mobilizations after receiving the warning from Ms. Sallyh."

After listening to the briefing prepared by Lilith, Amber left the core command room and headed to the fortress's medical area.

In the corridor, through the observation windows of the isolation wards, he could see the surviving elves.

Most of them remained in a coma or semi-coma, and the few who were awake simply stared blankly at the ceiling, like empty shells whose souls had been removed.

The psychological trauma inflicted on them by the destruction of Aldara may never heal.

Amber stopped in front of a special intensive care unit.

There were three people lying in the life support capsules inside.

Phoenix King, Agnes, Ellen Nita.

The Phoenix King's vital signs have stabilized, but the damage to his psionic core is permanent. He may never be able to use that world-destroying power again. This king of the elves may very well become a 'mortal' from now on.

Agnes and Ellenita are in much better condition; they are only suffering from psychic exhaustion and are physically unharmed. They are expected to wake up soon.

Amber stood quietly for a moment, then pushed open the door and went inside.

He walked to Agnes's life support pod, looked at her sleeping face, and the words of the Imperial Guards echoed in his mind.

"Thank you."

He spoke in a low voice, so softly that only he could hear it.

Whatever the Star Dragon Empress's motives, she did save Ellenita in that critical moment.

Just then, he heard a slight noise behind him.

Amber turned around and saw that the Phoenix King had opened his eyes at some point and was quietly looking at him.

"So...we still failed?" The Phoenix King's voice was hoarse and weak.

Amber hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

Is this the fate of all living beings in this universe?

The Phoenix King's lips curled into a smile more painful than a grimace. "We've endured so much suffering, surviving the Great Purge, yet we've still inevitably come to this."

"What are your plans next?" Amber asked.

"I don't know, I just want my people to survive."

"It's not difficult, you just need to let go of your arrogance."

(End of this chapter)