Reinforcements Arrive

The skies of Azure Dawn had been utterly defiled, draped in a shroud of smoke and ash.

The light of Xisu Star struggled to pierce that veil of death, casting only a sickly, yellow glow, as though the entire planet were slowly dying of some incurable disease.

The island of Serene Peak, where Chen Xi was stationed, had transformed from a luxurious resort into an isolated fortress forged in blood and fire.

The once elegant leisure facilities had either been leveled to build fortifications or reduced to wreckage in the unceasing attacks.

With inhuman efficiency, Auregana rebuilt the defensive system: the engines of anti-gravity hovercars were dismantled and converted into temporary regional Power Field Generators; reinforced construction materials from vacation homes were used to strengthen bunkers; even the service servitors were reprogrammed into small interception squads armed with light weapons.

They marched toward the beachhead with mechanical precision, their cold metal bodies slowing the advance of the xenos tide.

The loyalists were a mixed force, yet they had not fallen apart.

Aside from Chen Xi's inner circle and the Deathwatch squad led by Titus, the main force consisted of more than a hundred Imperial nobles vacationing here and their private guards.

Most of these nobles came from prominent families in the Mariupol Sector and even the Coreworlds. At first, their lavish clothes were stained with filth, and their faces bore the fear and confusion of those who had never endured such an ordeal, like trapped beasts lost in a nightmare.

But everything changed after they gathered behind the Inquisitor.

Perhaps they were bloated, greedy, cruel, extravagant, and debauched, embodying every corruption of the Empire's ruling class—but when facing humanity's enemies, not one showed cowardice.

Because the Inquisitor stood behind them, because the Emperor's angels fought at their side, an almost