Interstellar: Return of the Villain
Chapter 337: Prelude to Destruction

Chapter 337: Prelude to Destruction

It had cost less than 20 days from the Stellar Devourers’ revolt to the Alliance and Empire forming an uneasy truce.

In that brief span, the Stellar Devourers had decimated the Empire’s territories. Now, a massive black hole loomed at the Alliance’s border, its relentless advance starting at Snowfall.

The Stellar Devourers abandoned all notions of strategy. Like a remorseless engine, they surged forward, consuming everything in their path.

The black hole in the sky resembled a swarm of cold, unblinking eyes or the yawning maw of a ravenous beast, swallowing everything it encountered. The faint, inescapable pull it exerted sent chills down the spine.

Lyra narrowed her eyes, green light forming in her hands. With a swift, practiced motion, she sealed the black hole, her precision rivaling that of a master surgeon closing a critical wound.

She turned to her companions. "Evacuate now. We’ll handle this."

Just then, Vern the Overarching emerged from Iskandor’s dimensional corridor. Hearing her command, he raised his voice with a mock grumble.

"You’ve got some nerve, young lady! No respect for your elders! Your team’s barely holding together, and you think you can face this alone?"

"Sure, you may be able to counter the Stellar Devourers, but that doesn’t mean we’ll just slink away quietly!"

Helion, piloting his mecha, let out a sharp laugh. "Hah! You don’t sound much like an Overarching, old man." His thick accent and carefree tone earned him a glare.

Vern stomped forward, his gestures as fiery as an erupting volcano. "What do you mean I don’t? Hot, isn’t it? Hot, isn’t it?"

Ever since ascending to the Overarching level, his body emitted an intense heat, causing the air around him to shimmer.

Helion quickly backed his mecha away, fanning himself theatrically. "Hot as hell, old man! Stay back, will ya?"

Vern huffed, sparks seemingly flying from his nostrils. "When our two teams combine, I’m sticking to your Overarching like glue. He’s practically a walking air conditioner—I’ll finally cool off!"

Despite their banter, both men kept their psychokinetic focus locked on the sky above. Their lighthearted exchange vanished when Stellar Devourers, piloting monstrous mechas, began descending from the heavens. A dense, impenetrable cloud of darkness enveloped the planet, swallowing the sun in a suffocating eternal night.

Amid the oppressive gloom, a brilliant streak of green light shot upward.

Lyra hovered in the air, surrounded by metallic orbs glowing with emerald light. With a mere thought, the orbs shifted into various shapes, tearing a massive rift in the darkness.

Suspended midair, her fingers came together as she channeled a radiant green energy, as dazzling as polished jade. In one sweeping motion, she flung her arms outward, scattering countless green shards into the air. These luminous fragments rained down on the invaders, shredding their defenses and severing the power of the black hole.

As the light pierced their forms, life drained from the Stellar Devourers in an instant. Their lifeless bodies fell from the sky like broken marionettes, crashing to the ground in grotesque heaps. Alone, Lyra stood as an unyielding bulwark.

Then Westros appeared. His form was encased in black armor, dense and unyielding, shimmering with an otherworldly glow that mirrored the swirling constellations of the cosmos.

When Lyra unleashed a blade of green energy, it shattered against him, leaving him unscathed. In a flash, he was upon her, wielding a massive, menacing sword.

"The Incarnation of the Black Hole has returned," he sneered. "Your efforts to suppress him are meaningless now."

His blade struck Lyra, but her emerald armor flared to life just in time to absorb the blow. The force, however, sent her hurtling through the air. She barely had time to recover before Westros reappeared, his sword descending again.

She crossed her arms to block, the impact slamming her into the ground and creating a crater over a hundred meters wide.

Lyra rolled aside just as his next strike came down, the sword cleaving deep into the fractured earth.

Lyra planted one hand on the ground and delivered a powerful kick to Westros, forcing him back. With a sweeping motion, she conjured twin blades of green energy.

"Whether I can beat you or not," she said icily, "we’ll find out soon enough."

Her foot pressed lightly against the ground, and she launched forward like a blade herself, attacking Westros with precision and fluidity.

The slashes from her dual swords came from every angle, one cutting left and the other right.

The clash of their powers echoed in piercing bursts, and where green met black, flashes of energy rippled through the air like thunder.

Below them, Vern was a walking calamity. Rivers of molten lava spread for miles around his feet, engulfing every enemy that fell from the sky.

He surveyed the battlefield with a raised eyebrow and muttered, "Huh. I’m cutting loose here, and this planet’s still holding together?"

It wasn’t a casual remark—his full power often triggered catastrophic natural disasters. Overarching Peculiars like him were rarely allowed to unleash their abilities anywhere near inhabited worlds.

An Imperial commander standing nearby offered an explanation. "Lyra’s superpower embodies the essence of life itself. It not only prevents environmental destruction but also spreads vitality wherever it’s used."

Vern nodded, though his expression soon turned thoughtful. "Still, my power outranks hers... How is her life force suppressing mine?"

His eyes narrowed as he focused on Lyra, who was still locked in battle with Westros. Her movements were graceful and unrelenting, each strike filled with purpose.

Her long braid whipped through the air, a vivid contrast to the chaos around her.

"Her power must be more than it seems," Vern muttered, casually flicking his fingers to incinerate another descending experimental subject.

---

Westros grimaced under Lyra’s relentless assault. Two swift strikes forced him into a defensive stance, his frustration evident in his sharp tone.

"Lyra, you might hold me back for now. But can you stop all the Stellar Devourers? Can you protect both Snowfall and Elden Prime at once?"

His sneer carried the confidence of someone certain she couldn’t be in two places at once.

Lyra scoffed, smirking. "Did you think I’d come unprepared?"

"What do you mean?" Westros demanded, his voice betraying a flicker of unease. His eyes darted to the side, catching movement that made him freeze.

On the shoulders of Helion and the other pilots’ mechas, twin-mounted cannons pivoted into position. From their barrels, beams of green energy erupted, carving through the Stellar Devourers with devastating accuracy.

The invaders shrieked as their bodies, struck by the beams, failed to regenerate.

Further away, another barrage of high-energy blasts rained down. These strikes severed the connection between the Stellar Devourers, their experimental subjects, and the black hole’s energy. The afflicted convulsed violently before collapsing lifelessly to the ground.

Westros’ confident sneer twisted into a scowl. "When did you develop these weapons?"

"Five years ago," Lyra replied coolly.

At the war’s outset, she had tasked Koros with developing new anti-Stellar Devourer technology.

With the foundation of Aesculapius’ Grace secure, Koros shifted focus to creating advanced weaponry. Once Lyra returned to the frontlines, she ensured their immediate deployment.

"I should have wiped out your research teams when I had the chance," Westros growled, deflecting her blade with a powerful swing.

Lyra prepared to counter, but an unnatural wind surged upward from the ground, carrying with it an eerie tremor that made her pause.

"Look over there!" someone shouted, their voice tinged with panic.

On the distant horizon, a mass of blackness began to rise. Where the darkness met the earth, mountains, clouds, trees, and even the air itself twisted and warped before vanishing into oblivion.

Anything the black void touched was consumed, erased entirely in moments.

The planet trembled, as if caught in the jaws of an enormous, invisible beast that was slowly devouring it.

Vern’s expression darkened, and he turned to Lyra, his voice urgent. "Get out of here, now!"