Interstellar: Return of the Villain
Chapter 265: Rescue Mission: Lyra

Chapter 265: Rescue Mission: Lyra

Cohen’s eyes locked onto the chaotic battlefield where Lyra fought for her life. His knuckles turned white as he gripped the controls of his mecha, his voice breaking through the comms.

"I’m going after her! She needs backup!"

"Stand down, Captain!" Chuck’s stern command cut through the static like a whip. "That’s an order. She either survives this on her own or we retreat. You rushing in won’t change anything—except maybe your survival rate."

Chuck’s logic was cold but sound. Lyra had been brought here to confront the Stellar Devourer, and the team couldn’t risk everything for one person—not even her.

Cohen’s breath hitched, guilt twisting his insides. "But..."

"No ’but,’ soldier!" Chuck snapped. "Focus on the fight in front of you, or you won’t live long enough to regret it!"

The words landed like a slap, but they were just enough to snap Cohen out of his desperation. His radar pinged—a hostile closing in fast from his six.

Gritting his teeth, Cohen slammed a button, spinning his mecha to fire a plasma cannon at the incoming enemy.

The explosion lit up the battlefield like a firework.

"Understood, sir," he bit out reluctantly, his voice heavy with frustration.

*****

Below the battlefield, Lyra stood alone in the heart of the chaos. The terrain around her was a graveyard of debris, with warped gravity fields threatening to drag everything—including her—into oblivion.

Each swing of the Stellar Devourer’s fists shook the space, and even the sturdiest mecha would crumble under its weight.

Lyra wasn’t piloting a mecha, though. She was on foot, relying on her agility and skill. Her body twisted as she narrowly evaded a crushing blow, the ground beneath her erupting into a jagged crater. She conjured a glowing light-shield in defense, but the sheer force of the impact sent her sprawling backward.

The shield flickered but held—for now.

From the shadows, the smooth, mocking voice of the Devourers’ leader drifted over the battlefield. "What a waste of talent. A healer, forced to play the hero? How ironic. Maybe once we’ve dissected you, we’ll learn how to use that gift properly."

Lyra barely registered the taunt. A second Devourer lunged from her blind spot, claws slashing toward her back. She spun, green energy bursting around her like armor, deflecting the strike just in time.

The leader stepped forward, her voice honeyed with malice. "You’re fighting a losing battle, darling." She raised a hand, summoning a miniature black hole that hummed ominously as it tore through Lyra’s shield like tissue paper.

This wasn’t just another enemy. This woman—Suxie—was in a league of her own. Her abilities rivaled the Empire’s greatest fighters, and every attack she launched aimed to disable Lyra’s life support.

Fear clawed at Lyra’s mind, but she forced it aside. Panic wouldn’t help her here. Summoning her focus, she extended strands of energy, trying to tether herself to the black hole’s edges.

It was a desperate gamble; her mecha wasn’t designed for such fine-tuned maneuvers.

Pinned between the advancing Devourers and the unstable singularity, she pressed her back to the light-shield guarding a nearby gravitational rift.

"You’re wasting your time," Suxie purred, her tone dripping with condescension. "You’re strong enough to join us. Surrender now, and we might even let you live."

Lyra ignored her, activating Schedar. A vivid green glow enveloped her, and a radiant question burned into the air before her:

"Why do you fight for the Empire?"

Suxie’s smirk faltered for a fraction of a second, but she quickly masked it with a cold sneer. Before she could respond, Lyra’s energy intensified, bursting into a blinding flare of light.

The Devourers recoiled, shielding their eyes. Lyra seized the moment, ejecting from her mecha and recalling it into her Space Button. Without hesitation, she leapt into the narrow opening of the singularity, with Schedar shielding her from the vacuum of space.

But her breathing system was critically damaged. With no oxygen supply, she had seconds—maybe forty if she stayed still, twenty if she kept moving.

Her vision swam, and the cold bite of suffocation clawed at her chest, but she pressed on.

Using her psychokinesis to guide her, she weaved through the warped space, Stellar Devourers hot on her heels.

Lyra pulled her mecha out of the Space Button and placed it ahead.

There it was, her mecha with fresh oxygen in it, the cockpit open and waiting. As she approached, however, Suxie played her trump card—a black hole materialized over the entrance, a deliberate trap.

Summoning every ounce of strength, Lyra stretched her light strands toward the black hole. With a guttural scream, she ripped it apart, the energy backlash threatening to tear her apart in the process.

Lyra collapsed into the cockpit, slamming the hatch shut as breathable air flooded in.

Gasping, her vision blurred and dark spots danced before her eyes. Her hands shook violently as she engaged the mecha’s engines, pushing it to full throttle.

The Stellar Devourers didn’t relent. Black holes erupted around Lyra, each one a potential death sentence.

"She thinks she can escape to Wyrmtrace?" one of them scoffed.

"No," Suxie said, her gaze narrowing. "She’s not running. She’s finding a place to fight back."

"Heh, how stupid," one of the men sneered. "If she thinks the ground gives her an advantage, she’s in for a surprise. We fight just as well down there."

"Then let’s oblige her. Time to take this fight planetside."

The battlefield shifted to Wyrmtrace’s opposite hemisphere—an undeveloped, wild expanse untouched by civilization.

Lyra didn’t hesitate. Pushing her thrusters to their maximum, she burned through the high-grade energy stones fueling her mecha, descending toward the planet’s surface at breakneck speed.

The friction of reentry turned her cockpit into a furnace, the heat wrapping around her like a suffocating blanket.

Alarms blared as the mecha’s systems worked overtime to stabilize her descent. Just before impact, kinetic dampeners engaged, slowing her freefall.

The moment her mecha touched down, the air shifted.

From shimmering space portals, four Stellar Devourers emerged, wasting no time surrounding her with black holes.

Unlike the empty void of space, Wyrmtrace’s surface teemed with life. The gravitational vortices ruthlessly consumed the lush flora, soil, and even the air itself.

Trees twisted and splintered, and entire sections of the ground were swallowed into nothingness.

"This time, there’s nowhere for you to run!" one of them shouted, stepping forward with confidence.

The Devourers shed their cumbersome space suits, flexing their limbs as if warming up for a proper brawl. Their cocky grins spoke volumes—they thought this would be over quickly.

Lyra’s voice rang out, cold and unwavering. "You’re wrong. It’s you who should be running."

Before they could react, green orbs of light materialized in Lyra’s hands. With a sharp motion, she hurled them outward.

The first orb expanded into a radiant barrier, sealing off the black holes’ influence on Wyrmtrace’s surface, saving the fragile ecosystem.

The second orb shielded Lyra herself, neutralizing the gravitational pull threatening to crush her.

"Shrink the field!" one of the Devourers barked.

But Lyra gave them no chance. Clasping her hands together, she formed two Vitality Glow blades, their emerald hues shimmering like liquid fire. In an instant, she vanished from their view.

"Stay alert!" Suxie snapped.

Too late.

Lyra reappeared at a Devourer’s side, her blade plunging into his abdomen. The man snarled, swinging a fist in retaliation, but Lyra deftly sidestepped.

With a single fluid motion, she severed his arm, the green light flashing ominously.

Before he could retreat, her blade sliced again, nearly bisecting his torso. Dark, viscous liquid oozed from the wound as he struggled to regenerate, only to realize his efforts were futile.

"Moya, fall back!" Suxie shouted, panic edging into her voice.

A portal flickered open behind the injured Devourer, but before he could escape, Lyra raised a glowing green shield, slamming it down to block his exit.

For the first time, the remaining Devourers showed signs of fear.

"I told you," Lyra said, her voice a quiet storm, "you’re the ones who should be running."

The three Devourers launched a simultaneous attack, their combined power warping the air around them. Yet no matter how fast they moved or how hard they struck, they couldn’t touch Lyra—not even a strand of her hair.

Three minutes. That’s all it took. In that time, Lyra dispatched two more of the men, their bodies crumpling to the ground as her blades made quick, efficient work of them.

Suxie’s fury boiled over, her body trembling—not from rage, but from something far worse.

Fear.

As a Stellar Devourer, she had never felt such raw terror, least of all from a mere experiment object.

As Suxie locked eyes with Lyra’s expressionless face, she couldn’t suppress the chill running down her spine.

"This... this is humiliating!" she spat, her voice shrill.

Her body began to mutate, skin splitting as dark energy surged outward, swelling her frame to twice its original size.

"I’ll show you the power of a high-tier Stellar Devourer!"

But Lyra wasn’t about to let her finish.

Before the transformation could complete, a flurry of radiant green blades pierced Suxie’s body from all angles. The glowing energy wrapped around her like chains, constricting her monstrous form.

The oppressive black energy she had summoned began to dissipate, crushed under the relentless force of Lyra’s vitality-fueled assault.

Trapped and helpless, Suxie dangled in midair, bound by emerald light.

Suspended like an ornate pendant, her struggles grew weaker by the second.

"I’m not interested," Lyra said flatly. "Why would I wait for you to power up?"

Suxie’s eyes widened in horror as Lyra turned her attention to the three fallen Devourers. With mechanical precision, she lined up their bodies, her blade cutting cleanly through their necks.

Three heads rolled to the ground, their lifeless forms leaking inky black fluid.

Satisfied, Lyra stepped back, studying the corpses. Her brow furrowed as something caught her attention.

"Huh," she murmured, crouching for a closer look.

She poked one of the bodies with her blade, green light sizzling against the remnants of their dark energy. "And here I thought you were supposed to be high-tier."

Suxie’s face twisted with fear and rage. Her earlier bravado had dissolved entirely, leaving behind only raw panic.