“Finally, something I agree on,” Burn pulled his sword, bang it in his hand. “But I refuse to let him stroll back to you on his own two feet. He might decide to test out that fancy on he brought and shoot the ground—not that I’d expeon sense from someone like him.”

  Mahkato raised her eyebrows, clearly eained.

  “Thaddeus Voss, prepare to collect them and hahe situation,” Mahkato ordered, her voice smooth yet authoritative.

  Thaddeus bowed deeply. Meanwhile, Mahkato turned her gaze back to Burn, her eyes gleaming with curiosity. Just how strong was this man? His determination to guard himself, his nd, and whatever else he could cim was as clear as day. But oh, those ambitions of his—were they bigger than the sword he brandished?

  His strength alpable; anyone could see that. But what of his knowledge? The energy burst three years prior had drawn them here like moths to a fme. Did he know anything about its source? It seemed not.

  Bur Mahkato’s gaze head-on, and holy, it was rather endearing. Three years ago, many of the world’s more powerful entities likely felt that energy pulse. But let’s be clear; they all assumed it was the same phenomenon that had caused that obnoxious cra the sky.

  The outsiders.

  So Burn didn’t think much of it at the time. Only now, with the revetion that it was Man—her soul energy pilfered by Merlin—did he finally grasp the depth of the situation.

  Acc tan, if the energy inteo se this world of corruption was used as pnned, her energy and magic wouldly scream “e one, e all” to the outsiders.

  It was Merlin’s brilliant idea to use that very energy to crack open a dimensional gate to who-knows-where that ended up making the energy spike detectable. Because, of course, subtlety was never on his agenda.

  That crack Burn had tried to pee with his power? A delightful exercise in futility. Not to mention the fact that going past it was about as likely as getting a cat to take a bath. So, with a sigh, he cluded that some fancy teology robably o traverse that gaping void.

  Dirk had expihat the crack wasn’t just a tear iy but also a kind of full-fledged dimensional gateerhaps it artly jured when Merlin decided to ighe ws of reality entirely, allowing the outsiders to waltz in through the bread ect with their quaint little world.

  Now, stationed oher side of the gateway, the outsiders used the gateway itself as their makeshift fortress.

  “Are you certain you have no iion of returning it to us?” Mahkato inquired.

  Burn merely shrugged, his expression nont. “I’ll sider returning it if you preseh a pelling offer,” he replied. “For example, get your ass off my world.”

  Mahkato scoffed, utterly unimpressed.

  “Or, at the very least, pay your visitor tax and adhere to basic guest etiquette, you invaders,” Burn tinued. “Holy, following rules is the least alien behavior you possibly exhibit.”

  Almost certainly, Burn yearned for a method of space travel. Although this was a magical realm, even the most fantastical sorcery had its limits. Ultimately, teology emerged as the true answer for effective space travel—sidering even the gods from the Seven Heavens relied on gadgets and gizmos.

  Even herself.

  Ah, teology—so ve, so sustainable. Naturally, one could see why Burn would want to stretch his little arms and expand his reach. However, beyond the grandiose Seven Heavens, no other world was allowed to possess the coveted teology of space travel.

  And those meraries? They were still bound to align themselves with the merary unions uhe ever-watchful eye of the Alliance. Every lower realm and its hapless inhabitants had to grovel for permission to veergactically, either.

  Sure, there was illegal space travel aplenty, fluttering about like a cockroa a kit. But much like other illicit escapades uhe thumb of the illustrious space Alliahey were stantly under pressure—struggling to survive aually repressed.

  It’s almost poetic, really. The universe is a vast pyground, a, here they were, diligently following the rules like good little subjects.

  And this lower realm’s tyrant just o know his pce.

  “Well, it’s not like having the White Dwarf bring you anywhere,” Mahkato remarked.

  As for taking back the White Dwarf, that was hardly an issue. It wasn’t as if Burn could ever hope to harness its power; it was just another mundane form to fill out for her. At most, ara bit of paperwork.

  Still, she wouldn’t tolerate it for too long.

  The moment they uncovered the source of that explosive burst of energy, she wouldn’t hesitate for a heartbeat to elimihis insufferable cockroach herself.

  It would be cathartic, really—like a rite of passage in a world filled with pretentious personalities and egos infted far beyond their worth.

  Even to him, the White Dwarf he g to might prove a source of peril. Mahkato found it hard to fathom that this man—ly a paragon of brilliance—had somehow survived the White Dwarf’s wrath unaided. Perhaps a chat with the fleet admirals was in order; they might hold the details.

  “If there’s nothing else to amuse me, kindly remove this trash from my presence. Ah, I’ve shared my name, but yours eludes me,” Burn said with an air of dismissiveness.

  Mahkato’s lips curved into a disdainful sneer. “Typically, barbarians like you don’t warrant my introdu.”

  “Mahkato, then?” Burn chuckled. “The Alliance’s esteemed higher-up, I presume?”

  Her frown deepe the sound of her umbling from this barbarian emperor’s lips. It was an affront to her very being. “The ninth of the Ten Overlords, Mahkato,” she corrected with pointed emphasis.

  Burn’s smirk widened. “Delightful to make your acquaintance.”

  “The pleasure is all yours,” Mahkato said coldly, and the transmission ended.

  Mahkato's expression remained unreadable as Burn’s taunts echoed in her ears. How many like him had she faced before—self-procimed rulers, swaggering in the face of the Alliance’s might?

  This truly wasn’t the first time Mahkato entered characters like him—arrogant souls who fahemselves capable of quering the universe. The Alliance was helmed by the fi minds the os had ever known, and not even they, deities in their ht, stooped to such levels of self-importance.

  Particurly not when she had crossed paths with the one who could actually seize the universe.

  It wouldn’t take long before Burn’s bravado faded into oblivion. Oh, she could almost hear the air esg his infted ego already; soon, even he would bow to the might of the Alliance.

  This ooo, would crumble when the weight of the universe bore down upon him. Still, there was something oddly satisfying about watg him grasp at the st shreds of trol in his pitiful little world.

  For now, her priority was to unravel how this disarray had devolved into a situation more befitting a sideshow than a fleet capable of anything resembling glory. A meticulous assessment was in order—what catastrophic blunder had occurred within this project?

  Surely, the reason couldn’t be as dire as beied by a single man from some unremarkable boondocks of the gaxy, could it?

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