Chapter 606: Seizing the Black Oddity Above the Royal City

A sudden upheaval set off battles across several fronts around the Fifth Black Serpent Royal City in an instant.

Battleship domains clashed.

Law-imbued hand seals flared.

Space-shifting moves erupted.

Invisible swaps unfolded.

Electromagnetic blasts boomed.

……

In a flash, the Torch Captains triggered all sorts of secret trump cards and hidden techniques. Some besieged ships broke free or snatched victory by unleashing their aces, and as if prearranged, they all converged on the sky above the Black Serpent Royal City.

Among them, the Heavenly Ruin’s mirror warship was no exception.

Song Chi used the Space-skipping Pearl, making the mirror warship blink straight to the shield breach above the royal city. Yet, he didn’t immediately try to seize the black supreme oddity flying through the air—for as soon as his ship arrived, several other battleships emerged from the void around him.

Clearly, he wasn’t the only one who used a flash-displacement module in that split second.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

Shrill metal scraped across the sky, followed quickly by the fierce shuddering of the mirror warship.

[Warning: External impact detected. Hull armor integrity reduced by 3%. Current hull integrity at 97%!!!]

Several warships that had flashed into place collided, an inevitable outcome.

Fortunately, the mirror warship inherited all the attributes of the Heavenly Ruin—not just its reinforced tier-eight armor but an outer layer of Black Hole Evolution Armor with identical defensive traits. That’s why it only lost 3% of its armor.

Two battleships in particular weren’t so lucky, their collided sides almost completely torn open, hull armor showing over 30% damage.

Even so, the scramble continued. The Torch Battleships threw themselves into the fray, undeterred by collisions—their hulls radiated all sorts of energies as the clashes grew more intense.

But after the dust settled, while ships either trembled or were thrown aside, the mirror warship alone hung unwavering in the air. Thanks to the permanent control immunity from the golden Blood War Stele, it didn’t budge an inch.

That small difference gave the mirror warship first crack at seizing the prize.

WHIRRRR!

A beam of light shot from its black hull, transforming into a tractor beam that struck toward the Black Oddity below.

As the beam locked onto its target, Song Chi quickly pivoted the warship, aiming to dash skyward and escape the soon-to-be-chaotic melee.

But reality rarely matches our ideal plans.

The instant the mirror warship clamped onto the Black Oddity, the surrounding ships all stopped their fighting and turned their full attention this way.

They didn’t attack right away because the commanders tacitly agreed to let the mirror warship pull the prize clear of the Fifth Black Serpent Royal City’s shield breach—ensuring the oddity wouldn’t drop back there amid the chaos.

Now that this was accomplished,

the real assault began.

Chains of divine blood shot from the void, wrapping tight around the mirror warship faster than the eye could follow.

WHIRRRR!

Ripples of energy warped the void, while law-infused hand seals of gray-yellow, red, and pale blue flared all around.

A shadow fell over the city as some ship sealed off the surrounding space.

So many attacks landed nearly at once—and every single one aimed right at Song Chi’s mirror warship.

Still, Song Chi didn’t panic. Before the war began, maybe he’d have felt helpless—but now things were different.

His mind raced. In the control room, his Voidform Avatar shifted its gaze to the Starlight Flash Spirit Stone Talisman nearby.

With the Starlight Flash Spirit Shift, he could ignore spatial barriers and escape with ease.

Just as he was about to act, he caught a flash in the corner of his eye that made him freeze.

“Is that… supermagnetic interference?”

The mirror warship’s tractor beam had been disrupted from the side by a pulse of supermagnetic interference, breaking its grip on the Black Oddity.

While the warship’s golden Blood War Stele kept it immune to all sorts of control and interference, that didn’t extend to any beams it projected. The tractor beam could still be disrupted.

Losing hold of the Black Oddity, Song Chi gave up on using the Starlight Flash Spirit Shift and spun the ship back into the thick of the ongoing brawl.

As time passed, collisions became fiercer. Those two battered battleships soon withdrew, but more and more Torch Battleships kept flooding in.

Only a handful of ships had arrived via flash-displacement at first. Later, others swooped in one after another as word spread. Even Dreadnoughts sometimes raced in from other fronts. It wasn’t surprising to see the numbers swell.

While the warships scrambled above, scores of fifth and sixth-tier Eight-Armed Serpent Demons burst from the Fifth Black Serpent Royal City below, sending the battlefield into further chaos.

Suddenly, a stern male voice boomed from an ominous dark red Dreadnought holding the oddity.

“Everyone, let’s take out these Eight-Armed Serpent Demons first, then fight over the oddity!”

“Alright!”

“Works for me!”

Most commanders agreed to the idea.

Tempting as the Black Oddity was, this was still wartime, and their true enemy remained the Eight-Armed Serpent Demon clan.

Besides, wiping them out first would only make later competition easier—no conflict between goals there.

The Dreadnoughts banded together. The Eight-Armed Serpent Demons, already outmatched, couldn’t hold for long. In less than half an hour, every serpent demon and mothership above the city were wiped out.

Only one—the sixth-tier peak Eight-Armed Serpent Demon who led the pursuit of that dark red Dreadnought—managed to inflict any real harm, unleashing two demonic spells in a berserk charge that ultimately destroyed a Dreadnought.

Naturally, it was then blasted apart by all the other Dreadnoughts.

Afterward, more than ten Dreadnoughts duked it out for another twenty minutes, but no one managed to secure the black supreme oddity for good.

Soon, one immense Dreadnought almost 160,000 meters long suddenly shifted from ship mode into Mythical Mech Form.

As transformation finished, a blood-red energy surged from its body and rapidly condensed into a crimson domain. With the long sword in the mech’s hand radiating endless darkness, the pressure was palpable.

Meanwhile, the dark red Dreadnought carrying the oddity let out a booming shout.

“All of you, stand down!”

This quick one-two punch made the other Dreadnoughts hesitate—but only for a moment.

Never underestimate the lure of a supreme Black Oddity. Second only to Mythical Oddities, it’s a rarity for any Star-Annihilator-class Ship. For Dreadnought Captains, it’s a once-in-a-millennium opportunity.

Seeing the others restless, the dark red Dreadnought’s voice rang out again, now tinged with real anger.

“One more time—stop! Can’t any of you see what kind of domain this is?”

Only now did the Dreadnought Captains truly focus on the crimson domain swirling around the colossal mech.

Several of them showed flickers of shock and doubt in their eyes.

“Wait… is that the Domain of the Gods?”

……

Aboard the mirror warship, Song Chi’s Voidform Avatar’s eyes narrowed.

He hadn’t recognized this red domain, but the words “Domain of the Gods” triggered a rush of memory.

The Domain of the Gods comes from the Gods’ Dusk Inheritance Stele—a secret art unique to the Akleimon family.

Akleimon family?

They’re the royal clan of the Divine Federation, one of the Torch people’s Four Heavenly Pillar Royal Familys.

Finally all the Dreadnoughts backed down, turning their eyes to the colossal mech.

If that domain was real, it meant this captain was an Akleimon by blood—a status no one dared provoke lightly.

They didn’t have to wait long for an explanation. From the dark red Dreadnought came a clarifying message, very likely sent by its captain’s retainer or close follower working overtime.

“Everyone, our young lord is a royal from the Divine Federation, here for the Black Oddity at his family’s command. Please, let us through!”

Almost on cue, crimson energy surged and within the domain, several towering blood-red figures appeared.

They hovered high above, radiating such oppressive power that old, godlike whispers sometimes echoed around them. The domain itself felt ever more compressed.

“The Pantheon Tableau! No doubt about it—it’s the Akleimon family!”

After all that, the other Dreadnought Captains finally gave it up.

They might serve the Chiyu Divine Dynasty, but with a lineage like that, crossing the Akleimon was a ticket to cannon fodder duty in the next war.

But just as the dark red Dreadnought surged toward the oddity, ready to claim it, chaos struck again.

A fresh wave of spatial distortion rippled out, and even the Domain of the Gods couldn’t seal everything. The mirror warship, using the Starlight Flash Spirit Stone Talisman, blinked right next to the Black Oddity before anyone else.

This time, Song Chi switched tactics. He didn’t rely on the tractor beam; instead, he’d already flung open a hatch and unleashed a swarm of enslaved creatures, who swiftly dragged the oddity back aboard.

All of this went down in a heartbeat, and by the time the others reacted, the prize was safely inside the mirror warship.

At the very last instant before the hatch closed, the Akleimon noble fired a ray of light from within the mech, but it was already too late.

As the golden beam hit, the ship’s door slammed shut.

Song Chi’s maneuver seriously enraged both their rivals.

“Friend, our young lord needs that item urgently. Please, return it to us!”

Song Chi wasn’t planning to respond, but that line made him laugh for real.

“Return it? Since when is it yours? This is war—spoils go to the most capable. I got it first, it’s mine!”

Hearing the sarcasm in Song Chi’s voice, the dark red Dreadnought snapped back, now clearly out of patience.

“I pulled it out of the city! If not me, who does it belong to—you?”

“If not for us, would you have made it out of the shield alive?”

The argument was heating up, when suddenly the Akleimon prince, who’d been silent all along, finally spoke.

“That oddity means a great deal to me. Will you hand it over yourself, or shall I take it by force?”

Everyone went silent at once and waited tensely, all eyes shifting between the mirror warship and the mech, wondering what Song Chi would do.

Inside the mirror warship, the Voidform Avatar had vanished—replaced seamlessly by Song Chi himself, who used a Spatial Anchor to teleport in.

He’d already glanced over the Black Oddity and was sure of two things: it was a top-tier marvel, and it could be refitted as a warship component. No way was he giving it back.

“Come and try!”

No sooner had he spoken than a slicing howl shot toward him from up ahead.

Song Chi’s eyes narrowed. Focusing his spirit, he nudged the mirror warship just slightly—enough to weave past the first sickle-shaped sword light.

But that wasn’t the end.

A hail of sword lights followed. This time there was no dodging; the attacks came from every angle.

Dozens of sword slashes battered the warship’s energy shield, eating away at its outer Shield of Holy Light.

In such close quarters, not being able to assume the Mythical Mech Form was a serious disadvantage. Worse, he hadn’t outfitted the mirror warship with any real weapons—his Immortal Spear and Silver Dragon Spear were both back on the main Heavenly Ruin. There was no way to fetch them now.

His best bet was to pull back and open the distance.

But the mech wasn’t letting up. Boosted by the Domain of the Gods, its attacks were relentless, giving him no opening to retreat.

Angel King’s Authority Wings • Wing Blink—activate!

At last, Song Chi had no choice but to use the escape feature.