Aetherios System [Slow Build OP MC, Isekai LitRPG/Cultivation] Chapter 233: Book 3: Chapter 83: Token Choices

Read chapter 233 of Aetherios System [Slow Build OP MC, Isekai LitRPG/Cultivation] by TTReynolds on NovelPedia.

Book 3: Chapter 83: Token Choices Chapter 83: Token Choices The night’s fragile calm shattered when the sky thundered. Engines, not the growling of beasts or the roar of collapsing stone, gave off the metallic hum of arcane machinery. The sound rolled across the ruined camp. Alex lifted his head, his stomach knotting as shadows moved across the stars. One massive ship drifted into view, its armored hull glinting with runes and glyphs. It was six hundred meters of steel, wood and spellwork, its size dwarfing even the Andreia that had seemed so immense to him before. A Capital Cruiser. And it wasn’t alone, either. Two smaller vessels took formation to flank it, sleek corvette craft no longer than a hundred meters each. Like hunting dogs circling their quarry, the corvettes broke off and started flying in wide circles above the camp. The Worldstriders stared upward in silence. Even the crackle of burning pyres seemed to falter under the sheer magnitude of the presence in the sky. It looked as though the Empire had come expecting a war. And they found only corpses, ash, and the blood-soaked survivors of someone else’s fight. Arcane gates shimmered open beneath the Cruiser, and figures descended from it in trails of light. At their head was a woman who made Alex’s instincts scream immediately. She landed without effort, the ground itself seeming to bend beneath her feet. Lavish robes fell around her like flowing banners, layered with armored plates of silver and jade. A straight-bladed sword rode her hip, the scabbard polished so clean it caught firelight like a mirror. But Alex barely registered the weapon, or her clothes. Her aether pressure hit like a tidal wave in its potency, her energy was crushing, practically absolute. His skin prickled just looking at her, his lungs tightening even before his instincts warned him to run away, forcing him to focus or else he do just that. He didn’t need to activate his arcane sight to know this was no ordinary mage. Magus Tier. She has to be. Maybe early tier. Maybe middle tier. To Alex, the difference was meaningless. She could end every one of them before anyone managed to draw breath. “What happened here?” Her words came out cold, slicing through the camp as if her voice itself was blade. Alex’s squad tensed while the Urhara soldiers snapped to attention. Malric was already moving, bowing with a practiced ease. “My Lady Xhiu,” he said in deference. The others followed suit. Even Karsali did so, a woman who, where before she was prideful and arrogant, folded with a grace that bordered on desperate. Alex noticed the woman's gaze flick toward him, her attention alone was heavy as a blade against his neck. Karsali’s eyes burned into him from the side, her look screaming one word: Bow. His own pride flashed hot inside him for a moment. After all they’d bled, after all they’d lost, bowing to someone who had done nothing but arrive late felt like acid in his throat. But then he caught the power of the Magus’s aura pressing down harder on him, as if testing him. It was almost like she was daring him to refuse. He let out a long, slow breath, forcing the anger he felt back into its cage. He dipped his head low. The rest of his squad mirrored him, their movements just a fraction behind his own. “I will ask once more. What happened here?” She didn’t raise her voice, but it felt as though the words filled the entire valley with ease. Malric straightened from his bow crisply. “My Lady, the Empire’s routine retrieval mission brought us here as scheduled. But a dungeon breach occurred mere hours after arrival. The Andreia was drawn into the fighting and fell to ruin. The soldiers under Commander Karsali fought valiantly. The Worldstriders gave their strength as well.” He inclined his head toward Alex without looking at him. “In the end, it was Alexander Pierce, a Strider, who slew the Original Queen and ended the breach.” The report came out of his mouth sans any actual emotion, simply plain. Lady Xhiu