Chapter 441: A Friend of Adrastia! II

General Lydia.

He had seen her now in multiple possible futures…sometimes as an enemy, sometimes as an ally, always as someone whose role in the greater pattern would be significant.

She stood in what appeared to be a meditation chamber, her golden armor dimmed to prevent interference with the ship’s sensors.

Achilles motioned to the bartender, a human whose evolution had taken interesting turns with elongated ears that could hear across miles, golden skin that processed light as a form of nourishment, fingers that had too many joints to be strictly natural.

Another Stellar Nectar appeared before him without words being exchanged.

The drink disappeared in one smooth motion, the liquid fire joining its predecessor in Achilles’s system where it would be processed into energy his body didn’t strictly need but enjoyed nonetheless.

He stood, his movement causing not even a whisper of displaced air, and turned his attention fully to the massive vessel hovering in the distance.

His eyes, currently disguised with the triple-iris configuration of Nihilus natives, saw through the ship’s many layers with the ease of someone reading a children’s book. His gaze locked onto General Lydia, and he spoke.

Not with his voice, which would have been lost across the distance and through the ship’s hull. Instead, he encoded his words in gravitational waves, sending them directly into General Lydia’s consciousness.

“You came looking for me,” his message resonated in her ears, carrying with it a weight that had nothing to do with threat and everything to do with simple acknowledgment.

“You have found me. I’m down here in the Void’s Rest Tavern. Follow the energy signature of this message to find me. We should talk.”

…!

The gravitational pulse that carried his words left a trail through space-time itself, a breadcrumb path that someone of General Lydia’s capabilities could follow as easily as following footprints in snow.

It was an invitation and a challenge combined…he was revealing his location, making himself findable, but only to someone worthy of finding him!

Achilles turned from the bar, his movement causing several nearby patrons to unconsciously lean away due to a silent pressure he emanated.

He walked toward the back of the tavern, where private accommodations awaited those who needed discretion for their meetings.

The golden card in his hand…a Void Sovereign Express, unlimited credit backed by wealth, slid through the reader with a soft chime that sounded like stars dying in harmony.

The door that opened in response wasn’t wood or metal but contained absence, a portal that led to a small private location!

The private room beyond was a study in advancement of energy and technology.

Furniture carved from frozen starlight itself, maintaining comfort others could not imagine.

Walls that showed vistas of different paintings if outer space, each one a window of beauty.

A table that hovered without support, its surface showing preset foods and drinks one could tap to allow them to materialize.

The seats were luxurious as they shone stellar while, and Achilles settled into one with the ease of someone who had sat in thrones easily, his posture relaxed but ready, casual but alert!

He closed his eyes to continue sensing everything.

The Infinite Radiance Sovereignty had brought a full battle group… ships of various classifications, each one capable of reducing a normal planet to component atoms.

The Void Dominion Empire responded with their own display of force…shadow vessels that existed more as suggestions of ships than actual constructs, but no less deadly for their incorporeal nature.

All of them searching for him. All of them ready to engage in violence.

And their target sat in a private room in a tavern, drinking imported starlight and waiting for a general whose role in his future remained fascinatingly undefined.

The irony of it brought a genuine smile to his face.

Here he was, the Taboo of Adrastia, the nightmare that had haunted Sovereign Marshals into dissolution, sitting in comfortable furniture while thousands of soldiers prepared for a battle that wouldn’t come!

Not here. Not now. Not against innocents whose only crime was proximity to his vengeance.

Achilles leaned back in the chair that existed in eternal comfort, his transformed features maintaining their careful disguise even in privacy.

General Lydia would arrive soon, and with her would come opportunities for many things.

The Last Adrastia Emperor King waited in the comfortable darkness of a room that didn’t technically exist, surrounded by forces that hunted him, in a plane of existence that defined itself by absence, about to have a conversation that would ripple through the Star Seas!

The portal shimmered like heat waves rising from stellar surfaces, its edges crackling with dimensional energy that made the air taste of ozone and possibilities.

Through this tear in space stepped a figure that seemed to absorb light rather than reflect it!

The silver cloak that shrouded the figure moved with grace.

No golden armor blazed with captured stellar radiance. No weapons. No retinue of guards stood ready to intervene at the first sign of threat.

This was General Lydia stripped of all ceremonial pretense, presenting herself not as a representative of the Infinite Radiance Sovereignty but as simply herself…a choice that spoke volumes about either her confidence or her understanding of who she was meeting.

The portal sealed behind her with a sound like reality sighing in relief.

For a moment, she stood perfectly still, the silver cloak settling around her form like mist deciding to be fabric.

Then, with a motion as deliberate as it was graceful, she brought down her hood.

General Lydia’s features carried a beauty of elegance.

Her hair, a deep stellar dark brown that seemed to be changing colors as she wished was pulled back in a simple knot that suggested practicality over presentation.

Her eyes, amber and brilliant with starlight, found Achilles and simply observed.

No challenge in that gaze, no fear, no immediate aggression. Just calm assessment.

Achilles met her gaze and allowed his disguise to fall away like water evaporating under stellar heat!

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