The Death of Constantine

The elevator to the bottom of the Terra Sky Tower went smoothly without any unexpected incidents, while the fighting outside showed no signs of abating.

Holding his younger sister Nova in his arms, Zebediah Terra, protected by his family guards, entered the spacious private underground hangar. He quickly passed dozens of land-based Hover Car, flying cars, private yachts, and even larger spaceships, each costing tens of millions of Confederacy credits. The spaceships' launch channels led directly to the outside, making rapid takeoffs even underground no problem.

Among the many powerful Old Families and great merchants of Tarsonis, such a hangar is nothing special. Constantine, the patriarch of the Terra Family, has little interest in Constantine cars; his family business is the manufacturer of these very vehicles.

The underground hangar was filled with heavily armed security personnel and armed servants, under the command of a loyal butler named Sander. Meanwhile, more people were entering.

"Young Master Zebe, thank God you are safe and sound." The butler was dressed in a tailcoat and crisp black trousers, with a spotless white shirt underneath. He stood ramrod straight, and even his hairstyle was as meticulous as he was.

Jacob Sander, a thin, dark-haired man, carried a gun and a short sword on his back, his shiny leather boots gleaming.

"Any news of Father and Mother?" Zebediah put Nova down and wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes with the back of his hand.

This little girl, only ten years old and inexperienced in the ways of the world, was heartbroken and crying so hard she was hiccuping.

The last time Zebediah saw Nova cry was when she was very young, and as she grew older, she showed a maturity beyond her years.

"We can't get in touch with them," Sander replied.

In downtown Tarsonis, especially near the Sky Tower of the Old Families, there are extremely advanced electromagnetic interference devices, but the humans easily paralyzed almost all communications.

"Lord Constantine is meeting with distinguished guests from afar on the top floor, surrounded by his most trusted guards and agents. It's top-level protection; no one can get close to him," he continued.

"The lady is far away at the Osborn Automobile Manufacturing Plant, and she is protected by the Terra Family's most elite armed forces."

"Is this how Earthlings attack?" Even Zebediah knew that this was absolutely fatal to the command system of the Terra Confederacy army. If the Confederate High Command couldn't figure out the location of its various troops, then they would have even less chance of knowing where the enemy was.

"Please board the ship immediately. The loyal servants of the Terra Family will escort you to safety," the steward said, bowing.

"Traveling in Galaxy Jumper is the fastest way to reach Terra Port, but during wartime, any civilian aircraft could become a target for either side. Piloted by the best pilot, Andre, who repeatedly engaged in thrilling aerial battles with Mutalisk in transport ships during the First Total War, creating miracles of survival."

"If we leave on this ship, what will happen to Father and Clara?" Zebediah could not accept that his father and sister had already fallen victim to Earth assassins and Hybrid monsters.

"You don't need to worry about that. We have more than enough manpower and boats, and we have backup plans to handle all possible situations," the butler said.

"Was this situation also expected?" Zebediah's question left the other person speechless for a moment.

"The master said that if he dies in his final moments, you will become the leader of the Terra Family." The butler hesitated for a moment.

"What on earth is he thinking?" Zebediah's expression changed.

Constantine Terra, the leader of the Terra Family, had long anticipated this situation and was fully prepared. Ten years ago, if someone had said that Tarsonis might fall, Constantine would have thought it was a ridiculous joke.

About a month ago, when the United Earth Directorate Expeditionary Fleet first invaded, many Old Families had already secretly sent some of their family members and Heir to their family's affiliated planets to avoid the attack, while transferring and transferring their assets, preparing to bring them back once the situation stabilized and the war became clearer.

The Tarsonis Old Families did just that during the First Total War, when the Zerg and Protoss invaded.

However, a considerable number of the Old Families members remained, because Tarsonis had accumulated wealth over generations and could not simply abandon it.

The Terra Family had originally planned to do the same; for example, the Holt Family, which was on good terms with Korhal, sent their Heir to Umojan. However, the eldest sister Clara, was unwilling to leave, and Nova was too young, so their parents were naturally worried.

Moreover, at that time, none of them expected the United Earth Directorate Expeditionary Fleet's offensive to be so swift.

"What's going on outside? Have the orbital defense forces in Tarsonis' outer space orbit and the planet's garrison been defeated? Why are the enemy appearing in Tarsonis ' city?" Even before the evacuation, Zebediah still felt he had to find out what had happened. He was always the one who made his own judgments and decisions, rather than leaving everything to his parents.

The point is to escape from here; if you head straight for the center of the battlefield, you're really just courting death.

At just fifteen years old, Zebediah was already helping his father manage the family business. He was both an elegant nobleman and a highly capable and decisive Heir, and no one would treat him as an ignorant child.

"We can't reach anyone— the Confederate Congress, the Tarsonis Police Force, the Confederate Security Forces, the Confederate Investigation Bureau, and the military's communication channels are all being severely jammed." Butler Sander said grimly. Because all the communication equipment had failed, even the different floors of the Terra Sky Tower could not be contacted.

"But even by sight, it's clear that regardless of what the Confederacy's Tarsonis defense forces are doing, the Earthlings have already landed on the surface of Tarsonis, and their army and domesticated genetically modified monsters have appeared directly in the urban area and even the city center of Tarsonis," he said.

"I'm afraid there's no place in Tarsonis that's absolutely safe right now. At this point, we can only hope that the Confederacy army can successfully repel the United Earth Directorate Expeditionary Fleet's attack and hold Tarsonis."

"Oh my god, Zebediah Joe told me that the Earthling assassins have infiltrated the Terra Sky Tower. Where is Dad?" At that moment, a young and beautiful blonde woman, escorted by servants, walked through a heavily guarded door, her face filled with anxiety and panic. She was Clara Terra, Zebediah and Nova's eldest sister.

Clara wore a cream-colored boat-neck silk blouse, the excess fabric neatly tucked into orange striped pencil pants, and a belt accentuated her beautiful pear-shaped figure.

Clara's silver high-heeled Oxford shoes were still making a clattering sound as she ran towards Zebediah, and her black wool shawl was in a sorry state. It seemed that Clara had just dressed up and was about to go to her private tutor's when she was rushed here by the servants.

Even now, Clara still doesn't understand what happened. When the servants first told Clara that someone had broken into the Terra Sky Tower and was going to assassinate her father, she simply screamed and cried like an ordinary woman.

"I don't know, we still can't get in touch with him." Zebediah breathed a sigh of relief when he saw his sister Clara. Although they often argued, they were still family after all. "The United Earth Directorate Expeditionary Fleet is besieging Tarsonis, and their troops have even appeared in the city center."

"What should we do?" Clara asked in a panic.

"Seeking refuge with other families or in the Confederacy's military fortresses is no longer an option, and I fear that even reaching the port wouldn't help," Zebediah stated calmly after a moment's thought.

"Tarsonis ' military port will definitely be a priority target for the UED, followed by large civilian ports," he said. "The Galaxy Jumper have Warp Drive, so escaping Tarsonis won't be a problem, as long as they avoid the Fleets currently engaged in combat."

"Then what are you waiting for?" Clara spun around a few times, her high heels clicking loudly. "Dad will be alright, right? Let's go quickly."

Zebediah gritted his teeth, knowing he had to make a decision immediately.

"Dad's here," Nova suddenly said, clutching Zebediah's clothes and burying her head in his back.

Zebediah immediately looked up and shouted, "Prepare for battle!"

Several more family servants hurried into the underground hangar, but almost all of them were injured. Their faces were filled with terror, as if they were fleeing some unstoppable, man-eating monster.

These men were all Constantine's personal guards, and also people whom Zebediah knew well.

"Where is Constantine Terra?" Zebediah grabbed one of them and asked.

"Monster! Monster!" But the other person was just deathly pale, his pupils darting around, never quite symmetrical. He was trembling all over, barely able to utter a complete sentence.

He was a man with light blue eyes, originally a pilot of a Wraith, who had repeatedly distinguished himself in the war against the Zerg. Logically speaking, he should have seen many bizarre and distorted Zerg, but he had never been terrified.

"Who can answer my question?" Zebediah released him with a stern expression.

"He's dead!" said another man who had just walked in. He had been a Confederacy navy captain who, after retiring, accepted Constantine's high-paying job as an instructor for the Terra Family's servants.

"That monster killed everyone. He slashed people's arteries while they were still alive, and used the flowing blood to draw the image of evil gods on the ground." He held Zebediah's shoulder, coughing up blood continuously.

"Run! Or it will be too late!"

"Run, you little rat in the gutter!" A huge shadow appeared outside the door, and then two arms covered in dense carapaces forced open the door that was about to close. The collapsing door immediately crushed the family guards who were standing there, followed by the sound of bones cracking.

"If you want to live, then draw your sword against me."

That wasn't the Hybrid Zebediah had seen before; this one was clearly much larger. It moved across the blood-stained marble floor on a pair of extremely thick legs, and held a dead person in each of its arms.

It has an incredibly terrifyingly large mouth, its open gaping maw seemingly big enough to swallow a car.

"How could this be?" Clara collapsed to the ground upon seeing the monster, covering herself with her hands and tears streaming down her face.

Her father, the man she had treasured for the past twenty years, was being devoured by the monster. Constantine Terra, the all-powerful ruler of Tarsonis, was reduced to half a body, blood dripping from his drooping hands.

Zebediah's hands and feet were ice-cold. He clung to a sliver of hope that his father might have escaped. But he knew that no human could stand against such a monster, not even human Psionics, who seemed small and vulnerable.

Hybrid are born for destruction.

A piercing pain nearly overwhelmed Zebediah; he tried to cover his sister's eyes, but it was too late.

Zebediah was surprised to find that, at some point, Nova's beautiful green eyes gradually lost their luster, then suddenly turned completely golden, and an unprecedented wave of Psionics was rapidly rising.

For a long time, Nova had lived a life of luxury like a princess, and she had never seen true death. But now, she was watching her beloved father die in front of her.

For a high-level Psionics, intense stimulation can greatly unleash their latent Psionics power, which is why the Terra Confederacy's Psionics projects always seem so ruthless.

"What a delicious treat!" The Hybrid almost instantly locked onto Nova in the crowd. It still had Constantine's remains in its mouth, but it was speaking using Psionics, not its mouth.

Then, amidst the terrified gazes of the crowd, the Hybrid exposed its neck, covered in hard scales, to the humans, and proudly raised its enormous head topped with a pair of huge crowns.

It split its mouth open like a snake and swallowed Constantine whole.

"Is this what it feels like to devour? This is ascension! I have ascended!" it roared furiously.

"This feels so good--"

Suddenly, an incredibly terrifying Psionics power overwhelmed everyone. Under the immense pressure of an invisible force, everyone present knelt down, and even the seemingly powerful Hybrid was unable to move.

Zebediah knelt before Nova, crimson blood streaming from his mouth and nose, as if he were about to be crushed by gravity. He moved with difficulty to Nova's side, grasped her face, and made her look at him.

"Nova, Nova, you still have us." As Zebediah spoke, blood trickled from the corner of his narrow eye. He held Nova tightly with all his might, enduring immense pain to utter even a single word in order to comfort her.

Zebediah knew very little about Psionics, and was unaware that an out-of-control high-level Psionics could unleash a terrifying power comparable to Psionic Storm, instantly killing everyone present. However, his sense of responsibility as an older brother still drove Zebediah to stay close to Nova rather than run away from her.

"Look at me, Nova."

I'm back!

I don't know why this chapter seems to be not displaying...