The Diamond Dome of the Auction Hall didn't just break; it disintegrated. Under the crushing grip of the NIHIL Mecha, the reinforced crystalline ceiling shattered into a billion razor-sharp shards that rained down like lethal glitter upon the screaming nobility.
The High Inquisitor's eyes bulged. His sonic disruptors were vibrating uselessly against a target that wasn't physically there. The "Lin Feng" sitting in the front row flickered like a dying candle before dissolving into a swarm of purple data-pixels.
"A projection?!" Kaelen shrieked, ducking under a table as a piece of the chandelier crushed his gold-plated chair. "He's been on his ship the whole time!"
High above, the obsidian giant—the NIHIL—loomed against the velvet black of the Capital's night sky. Its eight floating blades began to spin, creating a localized gravity well that sucked the oxygen right out of the room.
The Heist of the Century
"Kara! Now!" Lin Feng's voice boomed from the NIHIL's external speakers, vibrating the very bones of everyone in the hall.
From the hole in the roof, Kara descended like a meteor. She wasn't in a standard Ares unit anymore. She was piloting a "Chitin-Steel" Hybrid, a mecha fused with the armored plates of the World-Eater they had harvested in Chapter 9.
She slammed onto the auction stage, the shockwave knocking the robotic Auctioneer into the orchestra pit. With a grunt of effort, she grabbed the Void-Core containment unit.
"Got the spark-plug, Boss!" Kara roared over the comms. "But we've got company! The Capital's Defense Grid is waking up!"
"Vanya, status?" Lin Feng asked, his voice calm amidst the chaos.
Inside the Mirror Sovereign, orbiting miles above, Vanya's silver eyes were fixed on her tactical screen. "Forty 'Sun-Class' Star-Destroyers are de-cloaking. They've locked onto the NIHIL. Lord Captain, if they fire their main batteries, the atmospheric backlash will incinerate the city below."
"They won't fire," Lin Feng said, his hands moving across the holographic controls of the NIHIL. "Not if they're too busy chasing ghosts. Infinite Refraction: Sky-Mirror!"
The Mirroring of the Capital
Lin Feng slammed his palm onto the Mirror Locket, which was now slotted into the NIHIL's chest plate.
The Locket didn't just project a ship. It projected the entire night sky.
To the Imperial pilots above, the Mirror Sovereign suddenly multiplied. One ship became ten, then a hundred, then a thousand. But Lin Feng didn't stop there. He mirrored the Capital Planet itself.
On the Imperial radar screens, ten identical Sol-Primus planets appeared in the sector. The targeting computers of the Star-Destroyers began to scream, unable to distinguish between the real planet and the refracted illusions.
"Fire! Just fire at anything!" the High Inquisitor screamed into his comm-link from the ruined hall.
But the Admirals hesitated. If they fired at a "mirror" that turned out to be the real planet, they would be the ones who destroyed the Empire. In that moment of hesitation, the NIHIL Mecha ignited its Void-Engines.
The Escape
"All units, extract!" Lin Feng commanded.
Kara's hybrid mecha ignited its thrusters, clutching the Void-Core to its chest. The ten Ares units followed, forming a defensive diamond around her. They shot upward, passing through the "Sky-Mirror" illusions like ghosts passing through a curtain.
As they reached the Mirror Sovereign, the massive ship opened its hangar doors.
"We're clear!" Kara shouted as her mecha skidded onto the hangar floor.
"Vanya, jump us to the 'Shattered Nebula,'" Lin Feng ordered, his face drenched in sweat. The mental strain of mirroring a planet, even for a few minutes, was immense.
"Warp drive engaged," Vanya replied. "Three... two... one..."
The Mirror Sovereign vanished into a fold of space, leaving the Imperial Capital in a state of absolute, silent terror.
The Hidden Blade
Back in the safety of the Shattered Nebula, the crew gathered in the main hangar. The Void-Core sat in the center, pulsing with a dark, rhythmic thrum. It was the final piece they needed to mass-produce the NIHIL series.
"We did it," Kara laughed, slapping the side of her mecha. "We robbed the Emperor in his own backyard!"
But Lin Feng wasn't laughing. He was watching the "Maid Corps" as they celebrated. His eyes landed on a young girl, a hybrid-feline pilot they had rescued from the transport ships months ago. Her name was Mina.
She was smiling, but her hand was subtly tapping a sequence on her wrist-mounted comms—a sequence that didn't match any of the House Volaris codes.
Lin Feng leaned back into the shadows of the bridge balcony.
"Lilith," he whispered.
The Succubus appeared instantly at his side. "Yes, Master?"
"Mina. Don't arrest her yet. I want to see who she's talking to."
Lilith's eyes glowed red. "A rat in our garden? How delicious. Shall I 'encourage' her to speak?"
"No," Lin Feng said, looking at the glowing Void-Core. "Let her send her report. Let them think they know where we are. It's time we stopped running and started building the Second Empire."
Lin Feng looked at his locket. The sync rate had just hit 25%.
"The Princess thinks she broke my heart," he murmured. "I'm going to break her galaxy."