The Empire begins with the Fourth Scourge.

2116: The Missing Duke of Dawn

An extremely strange vortex of the void appeared out of nowhere and almost instantly swallowed up the two Dark Templars, Aura-Khan and Sora-A. Then the vortex suddenly shrank, followed by an extremely terrifying force at the other end of the vortex!

The bright red color began to spread in the vortex. It was a bright red flame. The flame continued to burn, but no temperature could be felt at all. The bright red flame danced in the air as if it had life, and the energy became stronger and stronger, and the color became deeper and deeper!

Even later, this bright red flame had condensed into a plasma state! But there was still no sense of temperature, and even the ground was not damaged.

Then, a hand in pitch-black armor suddenly stretched out from the other side of the vortex! This hand actually grabbed the energy of nothingness and tore a larger channel out of the vortex. Then came the second hand, with pitch-black shoulder armor...

The figure tore at the vortex of the void, and at the same time, his body gradually squeezed out from the vortex. The bright red flame seemed to be integrated with the man, always enveloping him.

  As the energy grew stronger, this person finally walked out from the other side of the vortex!

"We are as one!" A voice that seemed to come from the void sounded. This voice sounded like both Aura-Khan and Sora-a, as if the two voices merged into one and floated away in the void.

Boom~~~~~The bright red plasma flames suddenly surged! The black figure in the flames opened his eyes, blood-red lightning flashed in his eyes. These eyes without pupils seemed to be able to penetrate the void and see the other side of the universe.

At this moment, in this ball of bright red flames, there stood the shadow of a star spirit. He was wearing black armor and a hood covering his head, but except for his head and hands, the rest of his body was completely made of energy, blending into the bright red flames.

It looked like he was a ferocious suit of armor floating in the air.

He just stood in the flames and groaned in pain, "Ah..." Powerful spiritual energy spread around along with the groan, and even the space was shaking.

Dark Archon! This is a taboo even among the Dark Templar Nerazim.

When two Dark Templar are willing to sacrifice their lives, they can merge their consciousness together, and then awaken the power of the void through a mysterious ritual, thereby accepting the baptism of the void and turning themselves into a powerful energy body between reality and the higher dimension.

This is the Dark Archon!

The fusion of the Dark Templar can give the Dark Archon overwhelming mental strength. They can almost instinctively use this extremely powerful force to do whatever they want - such as easily playing with the opponent's soul and will.

However, such power also has a price. The Dark Archon can only exist for a short time, after which it will completely perish. And even in the short time that the Dark Archon exists, it is an extremely painful torture for both himself and the psychic energy.

Because of this, among the Dark Templar Nerazim, the appearance of Dark Archons is absolutely forbidden, and will only be allowed for a short period of time when they are threatened with destruction.

Facing the current situation, Aura Khan and Sora A, two dark templars of the Sali-Gal tribe, believed that the situation had indeed endangered the safety of the galaxy. Because if Tang Xiao's current state continued without being stopped, if he could not persist in those several different consciousnesses, then what would be born here would be a monster that was so terrifying that it was unimaginable!

All living things will be destroyed.

The Dark Archon's powerful and deep gaze fell on Tang Xiao in front of him, "The will of chaos... This will be a scar that the Void cannot heal."

He floated towards Tang Xiao, and his huge figure over three meters tall standing in front of Tang Xiao was filled with a terrible sense of oppression.

At this moment, Tang Xiao was in chaos, the dark side force was chaotic and disordered, swallowing everything around him. At this time, if an ordinary person, or even an ordinary star spirit, approached, the result would be ashes.

However, the Dark Archon remained motionless under such a dark storm. He slowly approached Tang Xiao, and the bright red flames around his body blocked all damage from the dark side of the force.

His power does not come from himself, but after integrating the will and soul of two dark templars, he can touch the deep void and directly use the power of the void. Of course, the price of using such a powerful force is that he will completely perish in a short time, and even his residual soul will not exist.

"Darkness... will annihilate everything!" said the Dark Archon, placing a big hand directly on Tang Xiao's forehead.

Boom~~~~~~~~An extremely powerful force exploded instantly! Even the structure of the surrounding ruins began to show countless cracks. This was an extremely chaotic force, death, darkness, mind, void, instinct... It was as if countless powerful beings without any rules exploded with all their strength at the same time. It was even impossible to describe what this force was.

A vortex of black and red shot up into the sky, reaching a height of ten thousand meters! At the same time, the bright red flames around the Dark Archon's body were completely blown away by this force!

Clank, clank, clank… The empty black armor lost its support and fell to the ground. Then even these armors began to decompose and shatter, and finally turned into nothingness.

……

At the same time, in the distant dungeon of the planet Taris.

A woman with abnormally grayish-white skin and a gorgeous mask on her face was standing on top of the corpses of countless Rak ghouls. She suddenly turned her head and looked in the direction of the unknown star field. Then, her whole body went limp and she collapsed to the ground, and she was silent in an instant.

At the same time, a total of 15 Archon-class aircraft carriers serving in the Dawn Principality Navy, including Tang Xiao's own Red Comet III modified Rookery Hook-class battleship, all malfunctioned at the same time, and the battleship's control system stopped responding.

The engineers inside the battleship immediately began to check, and soon they discovered that those Force-sensitive people who were connected to the battleship as the drone control system and also took on some of the host tasks had all lost response. In other words... they were dead.

All these people were killed by Tang Xiao and then resurrected using the force of death.

……

On the battlefield outside the planet Abela, fierce fighting is still going on.

On the side of the Principality of Dawn, all the cargo ships carrying the Toget swarms of insects had been shot down. The corpses of various insects floated out from the wreckage of the cargo ships, densely packed, almost covering the entire area.

The fleet of the Grisk Hegemony was chasing the remaining fleet of the Principality of Dawn. In the previous battle, five Cole-class battlecruisers had been destroyed, and the remaining two Hell Angel-class battlecruisers and three Cole-class battlecruisers were fleeing at full speed in another direction of the galaxy.

The reason why these remaining warships were not trapped in the siege was because those cargo ships became the best human shields. Although the cargo ships were filled with Torgat Zerg, it was the best sacrifice for the two Protoss high-level Templars commanding the fleet, but for the Grisk Hegemony, all the Kilik Zergs were absolutely not allowed to appear in their territory.

So after spending some time destroying these cargo ships, the remaining few warships of the High-level Templar finally had a chance to break through and escape.

Of course, the solid defense of the Hell Angel-class battlecruiser also played a key role. The warships of the Grisk Hegemony simply did not have enough means to penetrate the main armor belt of the Hell Angel-class with thermal armor attached.

On the bridge of one of the Hell Angels-class battlecruisers, some B-1 battle robots were carrying out corpses one by one. Those were the corpses of "participants", people who were eroded and controlled by the Torgat swarm, but with the death of the Torgat mother nest, these "participants" also lost their lives.

"Sir, the navigation data for the hyperspace jump has been calculated. We expect to be able to start the jump in ten minutes." A B-1 combat robot came over and said to High-level Templar Lasdian.

"Start jumping as soon as you are ready, and don't report to me again. First we need to leave here." Lastian waved his hand and made a sound through the vibration of psychic energy in the air.

After all, telepathy cannot be conveyed to robots.

"Roger Roger!" The B-1 battle robot saluted comically, turned around and walked back.

Lasdian turned around and said to another high-ranking Templar, Rosales: "After leaving the battle, I went to find the planet that Tang Xiao was heading for. This will probably take some time. Although Tang Xiao left the coordinates, I just arranged for a navigator to calculate it, but the calculation failed."

Rosales nodded. "I will return to Chiss Territory and gather more fleets. Based on the size of the main fleet of the Grisk Hegemony, we will need at least 100 capital ships to ensure their defeat."

"I'll leave this matter to you. This fleet of the Grisk Hegemony must not be allowed to roam the starry sky. The number of Grisk people on board this fleet is unknown. In the worst case scenario, this fleet may have the ability to control 10 or even more planets." Lastian said.

"Same to you, Lasdian. At least you came back alive," Rosales said.

Lasdian raised his left hand. He had already worn the gauntlet of the Sith artifact Little Clash on his hand. "Even though Tang Xiao was in a crazy state, he still gave this thing to me. Maybe that's what he meant. At least, I can't let his efforts go to waste."

However, while they were talking, the main fleet of the Grisk Hegemony that was chasing them from behind suddenly changed!

The fleet suddenly slowed down and stopped the pursuit. Then, the remaining more than a thousand warships started their hyperspace engines and entered the hyperspace channel. After flashing with dazzling white light, they disappeared into the universe.

"They retreated?" Rosales looked at the space battlefield where only countless warships and insect wreckages were left, somewhat puzzled.

"This doesn't make sense. The best option is for them to wipe us all out here," said Lastian.

Rosales thought for a moment and said, "Perhaps the senior Grisk man who commanded this fleet was killed by Tang Xiao?"

Lasdian nodded. "Very likely."

He thought for a while and said, "We should proceed according to the original plan. But since the fleet of the Grisk Hegemony has retreated, I think we don't need to gather too many fleets. We can just mobilize the existing fleet of the Chiss Territory. Then we can come here as soon as possible and adapt to the situation."

"I'll do it." Rosales nodded in agreement.

Lasdian went to the hangar platform and drove his Protoss shuttle to another Hell's Angels-class battlecruiser. Soon, the two battleships parted ways and went in different directions.

……

At the same time, on the planet Dawn, the Supreme Military Command.

An urgent encrypted communication came in, and it came with the highest level of authority. In the entire Principality of Dawn, there were no more than ten people with this authority.

Although it was a break, the Supreme Military Command responded immediately. The communication was forwarded to Chief of Staff Qi Jian.

A woman wearing a brown robe, with a dark complexion and a gorgeous mask on her face appeared in the holographic projection—the principal and priestess of the Dusk Covenant.

"What happened, Your Highness Priestess?" Qi Jian straightened his clothes while taking a glass of refreshing drink from his assistant.

"Immediately put the entire army of the Principality of Dawn into the highest state of combat readiness!" The priestess' tone was extremely solemn. "At the same time, we need to be relaxed on the outside but tight on the inside. We cannot let the Galactic Empire find out that we are raising the level of combat readiness. Can you do it?"

"Yes, we have such a war preparedness plan. I can issue the order immediately." Qi Jian nodded and asked, "But... why? Did you get some intelligence?"

"Tang Xiao may be missing. Or he may be... dead." said the priestess.

"What did you say!!" Qi Jian jumped up almost immediately, "This is impossible! You'd better not make such a joke!!"

The priestess shook her head, her tone very serious, "I'm not kidding. Just now, I lost contact with Tang Xiao through the induction of the Force."

"Perhaps the Grand Duke is in a rather complicated environment now?" Qi Jian still retained the last hope.

The priestess shook her head again. "The Force is different from communication equipment. This induction is very vague, but at least it is there or not, and there is no mistake on this point. And for those who have established a connection with the Force, losing contact in the Force induction often means... death." (End of this chapter)