Divine Path System

The capital star of the duchy was actually six stars—arranged by the Zions not very long ago from the original double star system.

There were over thirty planets circling around the six stars, the smallest being ten times as large as earth.

Despite the recent crisis where a lot of population fled for other duchies, the capital system still had over three hundred billion zions. It's also the most populated region of the duchy, the most advanced and the most guarded.

Thanks to the crumbs that fell from the 4th Prince, Zions as a race got the disastrous blessing of getting better without earning it.

Even though many old timers still adhered to hard work, the younger population were soft and weak minded.

So, when the alarms rang off, people flooded the spaceports to escape and chaos enused.

Prince Merov stood on a star, overlooking the core of Zion civilization falling into chaos.

The flames of the stars, enchanted by formation were enough to instantly kill any rank 6s.

"Teacher, I like this star! It got the perfect heat for a winter bath!" Merov bathed in the flames with arms wide open and a relaxed grin.

"The space crack will collapse if you try it."

"Tsk, stupid star." Merov raised his foot and a green light gathered on his sole.

For a moment, the flames of that star froze and a green light enveloped the celestial body. The astronomy organization panicked as they noticed a star had stopped giving off light.

As his foot grew closer to its surface, the entire star began to shake violently, like an unstable bomb before an explosion.

"Don't!" The old voice rang, its tone urgent and scared. "Stars are the lifeblood of a civilization. There should be a dangerous formation that will trigger if you destroy it."

"Teacher, you're no fun," Prince Merov snorted and withdrew his foot.

The star slowly returned to normalcy.

"Do what you're supposed to do here. Destroy the planets."

"Fine, fine."

Waving his hand carelessly, the Prince appeared in front of the planet closest to the sun.

The slave creatures appeared beside him without sound and lay down like pets, purring and barking. They didn't resemble the monstrous rank 7 beasts that could end duchies and provinces in another afternoon.

Merov chuckled to himself and raised his arms, the bottom of his palms touching each other.

The aura of the entire star system rumbled before it rioted.

All the light coming from the stars was sucked in. The lights at home, street, and office shattered. The entire Capital Star system went dark as if someone had turned off the switch.

Prince Oleg and the army officers on the prime moon stormed out and gasped. Endless darkness enveloped the moon, planet, and everything.

"T-There!" Someone pointed to a spot in the endless dark sky. It looked the same as every other place.

But as awakeners in gravity, they could feel the fabric of space-time bending and twisting in that area, due to the sheer power manifested at that point.

'Rank 7! Rank 7 no doubt!' Prince Oleg's heart thrashed against his chest and cold sweat drenched his back.

But he turned on a public message and announced. "N-No worries, I've informed the kingdom, help is already underway."

The truth was, the old elite of the duchy were reluctant to ask for help. Their pride didn't let them. But even if they put their pride down, they'd have to pay an unimaginable price later.

There's a good chance they'd be called to the frontlines now and get thrown into the battlefield.

That's why, even though some of them knew that a star system was destroyed, they kept it under wraps. Moreover, they were confident in finishing off the enemies with the existing defense formations.

But Oleg's words of asking for help weren't false. Right when the defense formations sounded alarms of a rank 7 sneaking into the planets, they sent messages to everyone and their moms.

Fearing that the enemy might block their messages, they even used precious one-time use communication treasures.

The kingdom should respond soon. They'd just have to survive until then!

A green dot appeared in the distant sky before it expanded rapidly in a blink. It grew as big as a typical planet and ballooned to rival the capital stars! The thirty planets that just went dark were now bathed in ominous green light.

The invisible enemy that drove them into fear finally showed himself in full glory.

Oleg moved his hand through the green light rays.

'Life…power of life…Genesis Empire!'

His heart sank but he didn't run away. Holding onto his pride, he yelled. "Don't worry all the planets have defense formations!"

As if responding to him, the planets began to tremble as the life force began to seep in slowly.

A small tear appeared on Oleg's index finger and a blood drop dripped down.

"W-What?!"

"No!"

"What's happening?!"

He turned to look at the others.

The rank 6 military officers were clutching their noses to stop the bleeding and were failing. The rank 5 military officers began to cough out blood.

"Oh no!" Oleg's heart nearly leaped out of his throat. "No! No! No!"

Screens popped up and the situation of the thirty planets was displayed.

The people collapsed on the streets, still alive and breathing, but not for long. Blood was leaking out of their body and the purple blood filled the streets.

Like a stroke by a thick brush, every planet, every house, every building was dyed purple.

"Activate! Activate all formations!" Oleg yelled in fear and anger.

The formations that were supposed to be triggered upon attack on the planets activated and a translucent barrier enveloped the planets.

The green light could no longer reach them as easily but the barrier couldn't completely stop it.

Less than 1% of the previous green light entered the planets but that was enough to kill everyone on the planet.

Only one thing changed from before.

Instead of dying in a few minutes, they'd suffer for hours.