Although the Shi'ar Empire tried to keep the swordsman's departure under wraps, it was obvious—the moment the swordsman joined the battlefield on the Kryptonian Empire's side, everyone knew he had left the Shi'ar Empire and joined the mysterious Kryptonian Empire.
Did that even need to be said?
The Shi'ar Empire had always preached about maintaining peace, forcibly intervening in the wars of countless factions. It was only the swordsman's existence that forced all those victims to swallow their grievances and keep quiet.
But that didn't mean they had no grievances.
Now that the swordsman had betrayed the Shi'ar Empire, wasn't it time to settle old scores?
And so, the Shi'ar Empire was caught completely off guard by a coordinated joint assault from every direction. Their outer planets suffered catastrophic losses—especially at the hands of Thanos's Black Order, the Chitauri, and a swarm of their underlings.
They had been eyeing a major empire like the Shi'ar for a long time. If not for the fact that Thanos had once been beaten into the ground by the swordsman, Thanos's population-control crusade would have reached the Shi'ar Empire long ago.
Now things were different. Without the swordsman, the Shi'ar Empire had no one left who could stop him.
Did that even need to be said?
Of course it was time to bring population control to the Shi'ar Empire!
Empress Lilandra had never witnessed a scenario where the entire universe turned against her. As one of the three great empires of the cosmos, the Shi'ar Empire had always looked down on everyone from on high, and that had made the Shi'ar people profoundly arrogant. But this time, that arrogance was shattered.
Even though the Shi'ar Empire's own military strength was far from weak—its reputation and power were never built entirely on the swordsman alone—when a wall is falling, everyone gives it a push. Two fists can't fight off four hands.
With enemies on all sides, the Shi'ar military might be strong, but there was no way it could handle that many foes at once.
And that's not even mentioning the Ravagers lurking on the sidelines. The moment a Shi'ar planet's defenses were breached, those scavengers would swarm in and strip it clean.
Left with no other choice, the Shi'ar Empire had to send an envoy to the Kryptonian Empire to seek the swordsman's help. They hoped that, for the sake of all those years of shared history, he would lend a hand and help the Shi'ar Empire through this crisis.
If the Skrull Empire and the Kree Empire weren't locked in a death struggle, they would be piling on right now too—which would make things even more miserable for the Shi'ar.
The swordsman was deeply torn by the Shi'ar Empire's plea for aid, because his status now was nothing like it had been before.
Royal Knight and Grand General of the Imperial Guard Corps—on equal footing with Esdeath in rank.
If he joined the Shi'ar Empire's war, the outside world would likely assume the Kryptonian Empire had formed an alliance with the Shi'ar.
The problem was, His Majesty the Emperor had zero interest in any of this, and the swordsman didn't dare act on his own authority. He could only consult Zod.
Zod was, of course, against it. At worst, the Shi'ar Empire would suffer heavy damage, but it wouldn't be destroyed—and even if it really were annihilated, that would be nothing but good news for the Kryptonian Empire.
The swordsman could only refuse the Shi'ar Empire's request for help. And truth be told, he didn't owe the Shi'ar Empire anything. What the Shi'ar Empire had given him couldn't even compare to the renown he had won for them or the territory he had conquered on their behalf.
Then came the emergence of the Kryptonian Empire's new army, and the universe was stunned.
Sure, those Kryptonians transforming into enormous hulking brutes was one thing—but why were these brutes so terrifyingly powerful?
Energy weapons couldn't even scratch them, yet they could smash those same weapons apart with a casual swing of an axe or a hammer. These brutes possessed boundless strength and astonishing durability, yet they weren't clumsy at all—on the contrary, their movements were incredibly agile.
On top of that, they could project extreme heat and fire thermal rays from their mouths.
They called themselves the Kryptonian Empire's Super Soldier Corps—the Burning Legion.
A completely different technological path from the Gray Knights and Black Knights of the Cosmos Knight Corps.
And within the Burning Legion itself, there were those who didn't transform yet were even more powerful than the transformed super soldiers.
They called themselves Super Kryptonians. Unlike ordinary Kryptonians who needed biochemical modification, they were born immensely powerful.
They also possessed a variety of superhuman abilities.
Since the Skrull Empire also had the distinction between ordinary Skrulls and Super Skrulls, the rest of the universe didn't find this particularly strange.
But the appearance of the Burning Legion made the outside world realize that the Kryptonian Empire possessed mature super-soldier technology—and the super soldiers they produced were absurdly powerful, utterly unstoppable.
Slaughtering a thousand enemies single-handedly was effortless for them!
"Over thirty thousand Hulk soldiers dead?"
Zod was momentarily stunned when he received the report. What kind of situation could kill more than thirty thousand Hulks? Even if they were ordinary Red Hulks, this was beyond ridiculous.
Could it be that woman, Captain Marvel, showing up again?
"A certain civilization put up fierce resistance, and then they activated a planet-cracker cannon, wiping out several planets where the Burning Legion had landed. The Hulk soldiers who couldn't escape in time were killed,"
the Black Queen answered.
A planet-cracker cannon!
The ultimate deterrent weapon that advanced civilizations wield against lower ones. In the universe, there were very few biological entities capable of withstanding a planet-cracker's attack.
Those who could were basically at the Skyfather level. Even Thanos had to run when faced with a planet-cracker.
If it weren't for the weapon's massive size and agonizingly slow charge-up time, Thanos probably would have been killed by one long ago.
That was precisely why Thanos's Black Order had no homeworld—they stayed aboard the Sanctuary ships to avoid being caught off guard by a planet-cracker.
"A loss this heavy..."
Zod shook his head, but he wasn't overly concerned.
Hulk soldiers were expendable. The Kryptonian Empire had cloning technology—acquired from the Kree.
Every captured individual had their genes extracted and could be cloned directly.
The technology to create Hulks had also been mastered by Kryptonian researchers, and replacements could be produced at any time.
The Kryptonians who accompanied them had suffered no harm. The Kryptonian battle armor they wore wasn't just for show—even a planet-cracker couldn't hope to make a dent in that armor.
Zod had considered equipping them with neutron-star armor once they awakened their bio-fields.
At that point, they would be truly indestructible.
The civilization that had made the Kryptonian Empire pay such a heavy price was ultimately defeated by the Burning Legion and the Cosmos Knight Corps' planetary landings.
The Cosmos Knight Corps was the truly fearless one—even a planet-cracker could hardly inflict casualties on them, mainly because their surface layer of adamantium alloy was hard enough that not even Captain Marvel could break through.
After their defeat, Zod declared that he would spare them the death penalty for causing such massive losses. Instead, they would all become slaves—and could also serve as experimental materials for the Imperial Research Academy.
Then he departed via the Bifrost for the realm of the Dwarves—Nidavellir.
At this time, Nidavellir had yet to be invaded by Thanos. The Dwarves living there had yet to suffer Thanos's massacre. Everything there was still thriving, a picture of prosperity.
/-\
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