The route to the Imperial Capital, 'Aurea', was silent.
Leaving the desperate battlefield behind, the Lumina Lip glided through the sea of clouds seeped in the light of dawn.
On the surface, it was a peaceful voyage, but the air in the bridge was filled with tension like a taut bowstring.
The Empire's worst criminals and enemies of the Valerius family. Now, they had crossed a river of no return.
"Engine output stable. Cooling system has also returned to normal range."
Lilia tapped the dashboard and let out a sigh of relief.
However, behind the helm, Leon's expression, buried in the main console, was hardening more seriously.
His eyes moved restlessly, chasing thousands of lines of encryption code flowing on the hologram screen.
"Strange..."
At Leon's murmur, Jayn, who was staring out the window, turned her head.
"What is it? Is the data corrupted?"
"No, the data is fine. The problem is... the final coordinates this file points to."
Leon pulled up the screen to show everyone.
Along with the message [Target Location: Tracking...], a single red dot was moving erratically across the map.
"I tried to find the location of the original data of 'Project Arkelos' hidden by Valerius... no, precisely the point where the debris of Arkelos crashed. But the coordinates are not fixed. It keeps moving as if it's alive."
"Moving? Are you saying the building debris grew legs or something?"
Vent, who was crossing his arms nearby, asked bluntly.
"This is a 'Ghost Signal'. It's top-level technology used by the Empire when concealing Class 1 confidential facilities. It reflects satellite signals diffusely to show a phantom location. If we chase it blindly like this, we'll just wander in empty air forever until we starve to death or dive right into the middle of an Imperial fleet."
Leon continued, wiping his face dryly.
"To pierce through this illusion and find the real location... we need a reference point."
"A reference point?"
"A holy relic used by the ancients before the Cataclysm to not lose their way even inside the storms of the Abyss. The 'Star Compass'."
Leon displayed an image from an ancient text. It was a compass of strange shape, made of old bronze and crystal.
"As a result of cross-referencing texts, I found a clue that the compass is currently sleeping in an ancient ruin deep within the 'Silent Nebula'. Only with that can we decode this ghost signal and go to the true grave of Arkelos."
"Wait, hold on."
Vent raised his hand to cut off Leon.
"So now, you're saying we postpone the operation to enter the Capital and go find that antique? That bastard Adrian is chasing us with fire in his eyes. And you're suggesting we change the operation route."
"Without the compass, we can't prove anything even if we go to Aurea! We'll just die a dog's death empty-handed!"
Leon also didn't back down and retorted. Palpable tension hovered in the narrow bridge.
A direct line to the Capital, or a detour risking danger.
Everyone's gaze focused on Jayn. She closed her eyes for a moment, lost in thought.
As Vent said, time was not on their side. But as Leon said, sailing without a map was a suicide act.
Jayn slowly opened her eyes.
"Lilia."
"Yes, Jayn!"
"Correct the course. The target is the 'Silent Nebula'."
"Captain! Are you serious?"
Vent asked in surprise. Jayn stared at the front glass with determined eyes.
"The enemy we have to fight is the entire Empire. We can't win without a certain weapon. If that compass is the key to the truth we are looking for... we must get it."
At her decision, Lilia turned the control stick without hesitation.
"Understood! Course resetting. Entering the Silent Nebula!"
The prow of the Lumina Lip turned not toward the golden Capital planet, but toward the unknown airspace where a deep, dark purple nebula swirled.
Dreaming not that it was the entrance to another hell.
*
* * *
*
The operations room of the Imperial 3rd Fleet flagship, Fenrir, was as chilly as a morgue.
Only the sound of dozens of intelligence officers typing on keyboards filled the silence, but no one dared to breathe loudly.
It was because of the chill emanating from the back of Colonel Adrian Valentine, standing with his hands behind his back in front of the massive hologram tactical map in the center of the room.
"Reporting."
One intelligence officer swallowed hard and opened his mouth.
"As a result of analyzing the Lumina Lip's current projected path, they are moving to the southwest airspace. The massive waste disposal site, Rust Haven, is located there. It is judged that they will hide in the underground maze there and go into hiding..."
"Wrong."
Adrian's voice cut the officer off coldly. Without looking back, he glared at the red dot on the map.
"C-Colonel? But according to the data..."
"That is the pattern of common criminals. The instinct of rats that commit a crime and crawl into a dark corner in fear. But..."
Memories of the last battle grazed Adrian's mind. The collapsing Archives, the boldness of summoning a jellyfish swarm to cover the battlefield in chaos.
And Jayn's blue eyes that stared straight at him, declaring war.
Those were not the eyes of a fugitive.
"Jayn Rumor doesn't hide anymore. They stabbed the heart of the Empire. Then the next goal is only one. Opening the wound and bursting the rotten pus inside."
Adrian gestured, and the hologram map zoomed in.
"The data they stole is about 'Arkelos'. But its location is encrypted, so it can't be found just like that. Then what they need is a 'map'."
His finger passed Rust Haven and pointed to a dark purple nebula in the corner of the map.
"The place where relics from before the Cataclysm sleep. The only ancient ruin reachable if they turn slightly from their current course."
"Surely... do you mean the 'Silent Nebula'?"
The adjutant asked in surprise.
"That is a restricted zone because of severe Aether turbulence! Besides, it's not certain what is in that ruin!"
"No, it is there. The guide recorded in ancient texts, the 'Star Compass'."
Adrian's blue eyes flashed with conviction.
"They are going to get that compass. Pretending to go to Rust Haven, they intend to sneak behind the shadow of the nebula. Obvious trick."
His deduction was chillingly accurate. The intelligence officers clicked their tongues. Adrian was not a simple soldier.
He was a natural-born hunter who read the next move just by the breathing of the prey.
"All fleet, input coordinates. Target is the ancient ruin site in Sector 4 of the 'Silent Nebula'."
Adrian raised his command baton.
"The moment they arrive at the ruin will be their end. I will teach them clearly what a rat in a trap is."
"B-But Colonel! The distance to the nebula is far! We cannot arrive before them with standard navigation!"
"Who said we are riding the wind?"
Adrian's lips twisted.
"Prepare for 'Phase Shift'."
The adjutant's face turned pale white.
"P-Phase Shift?! If used within the atmosphere, it puts strain on the hull due to spatial distortion! If something goes wrong, the surrounding atmosphere could be torn apart..."
"Doesn't matter."
Adrian was firm.
"My Fenrir fleet won't break from that much impact. If I can catch them, I'll make a path even if I have to tear the sky."
[Phase Shift Engine, Output 120% Open. Spatial Coordinates Fixed.]
Around the hulls of the flagship Fenrir and the destroyers under its command, blue Aether sparks began to fly crazily. The atmosphere screamed and twisted.
"Sortie."
Ka-boom—!
With a sound of thunder, the Fenrir fleet tore through real space and disappeared. The shockwave they left behind tore the clouds into shreds.
The wolves were now running faster than the wind toward the prey's nape.
*
* * *
*
At the same time. The lawless zone of the sky, the darkest airspace on the outskirts of Rust Haven.
There, a floating fortress looking like a massive tumor of steel, Chrome Hounds' base 'Poison Fang', was floating.
This hideous fortress, made by weaving hundreds of plunder ships and lumps of scrap metal with chains, was vomiting acrid smoke and loud mechanical noise 24 hours a day.
"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!"
In the center of the fortress, inside the office of 'Red Jaw' Caligo, the sound of something smashing continuously rang out.
Crash!
Caligo threw the bottle of strong liquor he was drinking at the wall. Red liquid flowed down the wall like blood.
The red mechanical device transplanted on his jaw was trembling in anger.
"Dare to ignore me? The Empire bastards, and that cheeky bitch... did they think they would be safe treating me like this!"
He couldn't forget the humiliation at the Archives battle a few days ago.
The 'Shadow Scribe' who hired him cut off communications without paying the promised balance as soon as the battle ended, effectively discarding him, and Jayn mocked his fleet.
An indelible wound was inflicted on the pride of the Chrome Hounds, who called themselves the predators of the sky.
The subordinates were cowering in the corner, gauging Caligo's mood. Talking wrong right now meant being thrown out of the fortress instantly.
Just then, a communications officer kicked open the office door and rushed in.
"C-Captain! Big trouble... no, it's a jackpot!"
"What? I told you I'd pull out your tongue if you made noise!"
Caligo pulled out his personal weapon, the massive 'Hydraulic Axe', stuck in the sofa.
The officer turned pale and shook the data pad in his hand.
"It, it's real! While hacking the Imperial military communication network, we intercepted the Fenrir fleet's encryption code! The wolves are moving!"
"Wolves? You mean that distasteful bastard Adrian?"
Caligo's eyes glistened. He roughly snatched the pad.
It was encrypted communication, but the Chrome Hounds' illegal decoder was marking a few key keywords in red.
[Target: Silent Nebula]
[Ancient Ruin Coordinates Secured]
[Initiating Phase Jump]
"Silent Nebula...?"
Caligo stroked his red mechanical jaw.
"That's a land of death no one goes to because of Aether storms. Why are the wolves trying to go all the way there?"
"That is... there was the word 'Ancient Treasure' in the communication content! And those rats, Jayn Rumor's gang, are also going there!"
In an instant, the puzzle pieces fitted together in Caligo's head.
The data Jayn's gang stole risking their lives. And the Empire's elite fleet ignoring military operations and rushing to a forbidden zone chasing it.
This was not simply catching fugitives.
"Treasure... Right, it was treasure!"
Caligo burst into laughter filled with madness.
"Kuhahaha! No wonder they were desperate! It's clear there is something amazing in that ruin that the Empire guys would go crazy for! I smell money... it reeks of it!"
Before his eyes, the 'double bounty' Adrian put up and the 'unknown treasure' sleeping in the ruin overlapped.
It was a sweet prey that would restore his wounded pride at once.
"Hey! Prepare for sortie right now! Launch every bastard in the fortress!"
"What? B-But Captain. The ships damaged in the last battle aren't fully repaired yet. The engine coolers are also shot, if we do a long-distance flight like this..."
"Who said we are flying?"
Caligo grabbed the subordinate by the collar and lifted him up. His eyes were filled only with the greed of a starving beast, devoid of reason.
"We use 'Forced Jump' too."
"F-Forced Jump?! That is too dangerous! The engines might not hold and could explode!"
"If they explode, just leave them behind! We have to eat first before the wolves arrive and lick it!"
Caligo threw the subordinate down and grabbed the broadcast microphone. His tearing shout rang throughout the fortress.
[Did you hear that, you mutts! It's a jackpot! The rat's neck is mine, and the treasure in the ruin is mine too!]
Whirrr—! Whirrr—!
Emergency sirens rang everywhere in the fortress, and Chrome Hound ships spewing black smoke soared into the sky like a swarm of zombies.
Rusted armor plates rattled, and black smoke from incomplete combustion spewed from the engines, but it didn't matter.
[Engine Overload! Preparing for Forced Spatial Jump!]
"Let's go! To hit the wolves in the back of the head!"
Caligo's flagship, 'Iron Jaw', decorated with massive gears and iron horns, stood at the lead. Hundreds of pirate ships followed behind.
Rumble—!
With a terrible noise of the sky being forcibly torn apart, the grand fleet of Chrome Hounds threw themselves into the unstable dimensional rift.
There was no order or safety. Only the sprint of mad dogs blinded by greed remained like a scar on the firmament.
*
* * *
*
The 'Silent Nebula' harbored a deathly silence like its name.
It was different from ordinary clouds.
This place, where thick dark purple Aether particles lay like fog, was a forbidden zone that swallowed all communication signals and paralyzed the senses of living beings.
"Forward vision secured. Aether concentration, approaching danger levels."
Along with Lilia's tense voice, the Lumina Lip broke through the thick curtain of clouds. At that moment, everyone in the bridge gasped.
"Is that... the place we were looking for?"
Vent murmured quietly.
In the center of the nebula, in a space calm like the eye of a typhoon, a massive black pyramid was floating.
The ruin, made of a material like smooth obsidian from before the Cataclysm, maintained a flawless shape without a speck of dust, mocking the passage of hundreds of years.
On the surface, blue rune characters were pulsating like veins, exuding a magnificent sense of intimidation.
"It's exactly as described in the texts of Arkelos. The sanctuary of the ancients storing the 'Star Compass'."
Just as Leon was admiring and trying to record the data.
Beep—! Beep—!
The silent radar began to scream.
"J-Jayn! High energy reaction from the front! This is... a Phase Shift signature!"
"Phase Shift? That's technology only Imperial Destroyer class or higher uses!"
Leon's face turned pale.
"T-The figures are abnormal! It's not just one! Multiple ships are forcibly piercing through spatial coordinates and entering!"
Boom—!
The empty air in front of the ruin cracked open like a glass window.
From the gaps in the torn atmosphere, blue lightning poured down, and a massive silver-white steel wolf revealed itself.
It was Adrian's flagship, Fenrir.
Following it, dozens of Imperial destroyers crossed the phase rift and blocked the front of the ruin.
A perfect encirclement formation. Overwhelming military force that didn't even give room to breathe.
"Damn it, those wolves smell incredibly well."
Just as Vent adjusted his helmet and tried to run to the fighter Nightwolf, Lilia screamed again.
"R-Reaction detected from the rear too! This side... the signal is unstable! It's a forced jump!"
Ka-bang! Crackle!
This time, the sky behind the Lumina Lip was torn apart hideously.
It was different from the refined jump of the Imperial Army. It was an ignorant and violent entry, forcibly squeezing into space.
Along with black smoke, scrap metal ships patched with rusted armor poured out.
It was the grand fleet of Chrome Hounds, led by the flagship Iron Jaw armed with massive iron horns and gears.
"Kuhahaha! Found you, rats!"
Caligo's laughter filled with madness rang loudly over the public frequency.
In front, the Empire's elite Fenrir.
Behind, the mad dogs' Chrome Hounds.
And the small boat caught in between, Lumina Lip.
It was a perfect sandwich. There was nowhere to run.
Heavy silence flowed in the bridge. But Jayn did not panic.
She slowly adjusted her grip on the Sky Hammer and glared at the enemies filling the window.
"The guests... arrived too loudly."
Her blue eyes shone coldly.
"Everyone, prepare for battle. We are breaking through this welcoming ceremony of hell."