Stellaron Hunter Kafka? Sorry, the Divine Court Isn't Receiving Visitors!

The heavy airtight doors slid apart.

A hydraulic valve gave a short hiss.

A booted foot stepped into the VIP Lounge.

Kafka hooked a finger through the trigger guard of her compact submachine gun.

The black gun spun around her finger in a blur.

Snap.

The grip landed firmly in her palm.

A short girl chewing bubble gum followed her in.

Silver Wolf kept her head down.

Her thumbs tapped furiously at her game console.

Another gust of cold air swept in from outside.

Himeko drew her portable cutting gun without hesitation.

Its muzzle glowed red at once.

Welt gripped his cane with both hands and drove it hard into the floor.

The carpet sank sharply around him.

The dense gravity field crushed the air with a series of tiny cracks.

Stellaron Hunters.

The most wanted criminals in the universe.

Kafka ignored the gun pointed at her.

She did not even glance at Welt.

Her dark violet eyes looked past the gravity field and fixed on the woman sitting at the edge of the sofa.

"Everyone from the Express, don't be so tense."

Kafka took two steps forward across the carpet.

"Elio's script doesn't call for a fight with you today."

She stopped three paces from the coffee table.

Her gaze traveled over Su Chen.

The dark-gold robe. The waist-length amber hair.

And the crushing weight of her presence.

Su Chen sat there.

The Geo shell around his right calf was a little too tight, cutting off his circulation.

His whole leg had gone numb.

He was a beautiful wooden statue perched on the sofa. Even if he wanted to run, he could not take a step.

Worse, he knew these two women.

They were lunatics who dared to blow up the Interastral Peace Corporation.

Why did everyone have to crowd into this VIP Lounge?

Su Chen's heart hammered.

Not even his eyelashes twitched.

The Female Lord's golden eyes rested on a speck of dust in the air, as if the newcomers were nothing but empty air.

More cold sweat beaded on Welt's forehead.

He was not afraid of Kafka.

He was afraid Kafka would recklessly provoke the Divine Court's Fourth Seat.

If the Fourth Seat decided it was too noisy and dropped a meteor on the space station, they would all end up as space debris.

"I haven't seen you before."

Kafka planted a hand on her hip.

She used the barrel of her submachine gun to brush the purplish-red hair away from her ear.

"That meteor outside made quite a scene when it pinned down the Doomsday Beast."

She pressed one step closer.

"Elio said an uncontrollable variable had appeared on the space station."

"Looks like that's you."

Su Chen did not answer her.

He did not dare open his mouth.

He was afraid she would hear his voice shake from his numb leg.

The Female Lord merely raised her right hand and picked up the chipped white porcelain teacup again.

Being ignored made Kafka arch an eyebrow.

As a Stellaron Hunter, she was used to being met with full alert wherever she went.

The aura around the woman before her was frightening, no doubt.

But the hunter in her could not resist prodding this unknown variable.

Kafka returned her submachine gun to the holster at her thigh.

She straightened up.

The air around them suddenly turned thick as syrup.

Welt's heart sank.

"Kafka! Stop!"

Welt tried to activate the Star of Eden, but found his movements slowing.

Kafka's voice changed.

An irresistible mental compulsion threaded through its lazy tone.

Like an invisible net, it swept straight toward Su Chen on the sofa.

"Listen to me..."

The moment those three words left her mouth, the flames in the VIP Lounge's virtual fireplace leapt higher.

Spirit Whisper.

The Stellaron Hunters' most terrifying form of mind control.

A buzz filled Su Chen's head.

The voice slipped through his ears, as though something slick were trying to pry open his nerves.

He even felt an urge to stand and answer her.

But the urge lasted only half a second.

Su Chen did not need to lift a finger.

The passive defenses of his god-tier Female Lord Avatar reacted on their own.

The teacup still hovered at the Female Lord's lips.

She did not even turn her head.

The Jade Shield erupted without warning.

It was nothing like the thin, translucent barrier from before.

A blinding, almost solid burst of golden light exploded outward from the sofa.

It carried the majesty of the ancient earth.

It was a divinity that permitted no evil to peer into it.

Crack.

Something seemed to shatter in the air.

The mental net Kafka had woven struck the golden light as if it had slammed into a granite mountain weighing millions of tons.

It shattered instantly.

"A contract has been made. Those who break their word shall suffer the wrath of the rock!"

A cold woman's voice, devoid of all human feeling, rang through the room.

Su Chen had not spoken.

It was a divine pronouncement carried by that immense power.

The words struck directly at the Mental Sea of everyone present.

Himeko dropped her cutting gun.

Welt clutched his chest and stumbled back a step.

Kafka took the full force of it.

It was as if an invisible Siege Hammer had struck her square in the head.

"Ngh!"

A muffled groan escaped Kafka.

Her face went deathly pale.

Her body snapped backward, her heels carving two long tracks through the carpet.

She staggered all the way to the doorway, where her back slammed against the metal door.

A thread of dark red blood slipped from the corner of Kafka's mouth.

It dripped onto her white silk blouse.

The red stood out sharply.

[Ding!]

[Kafka's extreme shock detected. Shock Points +4,500!]

[Welt Yang's fear detected. Shock Points +1,500!]

[Himeko's awe detected. Shock Points +1,000!]

Su Chen watched the numbers soar across the system panel and felt a rush of delight.

He slowly swallowed the cold tea in his mouth.

Then he set the cup back down.

His leg did not seem quite so numb anymore.

Only then did the Female Lord turn her head.

She glanced from the corner of her eye at the woman gasping against the door.

Welt felt cold sweat soak his entire back.

One blow.

A crushing defeat on a conceptual level.

Kafka's Spirit Whisper was infamous throughout the universe.

Even an Emanator might be briefly dazed if she used it at close range.

Yet the Fourth Seat had not moved.

The backlash from her shield alone had shattered Kafka's mental strength.

The look Welt gave Su Chen shifted from wary respect to outright reverence.

The Imaginary Divine Court.

Even one of its low-ranking errand runners was untouchable. The organization had to be the greatest taboo in the universe.

Kafka gasped for air.

She raised the back of her hand and wiped the blood from her mouth.

Every trace of playfulness had vanished from her violet eyes.

Only disbelief remained.

"You..."

She tried to speak, but all that came from her throat was a breathy rasp.

That instant counterattack had left her mental strength in tatters.

Silver Wolf, who had followed behind her all along, finally stopped pressing the buttons on her console.

She looked up.

At the sight of Kafka bleeding against the doorframe, she froze for two seconds.

Pop.

Silver Wolf bit through the half-chewed bubble gum in her mouth.

The genius hacker's temper flared instantly.

"Kafka!"

Silver Wolf shoved her game console into her pocket.

She took a long stride forward and stood in front of Kafka.

Her gray eyes locked on Su Chen on the sofa.

She blew a fresh pink bubble until it burst.

Pop.

The sound rang through the silent VIP Lounge.

"So your mental defenses are strong?"

Silver Wolf gritted her teeth and slashed a finger through the air.

"Let me dig through your lousy Divine Court database and see what color underwear it's hiding!"

Blue streams of data swarmed around her.

A massive Holographic Keyboard sprang into view in midair.