Flames.

On one end, there was a burning outer-homeplanet.

On the other end, there was an entryway into the spatial channel near it.

In the middle, the two were connected by a chain of broken and flaming debris.

Unknowingly, the appearance of Erin’s starship in the spatial channel increased the speed of this destruction. All the Ursidae starships that were too slow to escape became casualties. The defending guard-ships, which were barely hanging by a thread, were the first to be dealt with.

Other than the ones that made it into the spatial channel and warped, there were no other survivors.

“Officer Zorvek. The space around the spatial channel’s entryway has been secured. There are no surviving Ursidae starships in its vicinity.” A subordinate officer was reporting to Zorvek in their starship’s command center.

Zorvek was silent. He gripped his chair until the handles broke. Every subordinate in the center was quiet. If these people weren’t made of rock, they would all be sweating buckets right now.

‘Too damn slow..’ He mentally complained.

The spy starship that sent out the original signal was sent back into the channel to check on their target’s status. With how crowded it was, the large starships should have been held back by the waves of fleeing starships. It wasn’t safe to warp unless the large starship was at the forefront of the crowds.

What Zorvek didn’t know was that all of these fleeing starships actually made way for Erin’s starship when they saw his insignias! Thus, they were able to get to the front and warp out very quickly.

The spy starship couldn’t find any other traces of their target. Since the target didn’t leave the channel, it could have only warped further down it.

Originally, Zorvek didn’t look into the surrounding spatial channels. When he saw the strange starship, he noticed there were no insignias on it. As such, it would be very strange for it to be traveling down a spatial channel.

Now that it has reappeared, it actually bore the insignias of a Ursidae Tribe High Elder! It was even traveling down a Ursidae-controlled spatial channel!

Zorvek panicked because, if they didn’t capture this starship here, it could easily escape deep into Ursidae territory. Now that they’ve captured the spatial entryway and there was no sight of the target, his nightmare became a reality.

“Summon all of the nearby hell guards! Send them down the spatial channel immediately!”

Zorvek played the only remaining card he could. The hellguard division was an ace of the Planetoid Armada. The fleet that the Admiral was leading was actually assigned three squadrons of hellguards by the Highness himself. Each squadron followed a mothership.

Even in deep Ursidae territory, where the number of powerful Ursidae figures and starships were countless, these hell guards could still survive on their own! Their stealth and tracking abilities were incredibly powerful. That’s how strong this ace was!

Extremely few people know about the hell guards true power. Zorvek, as someone now directly under the Admiral, was one of these select few.

“This.. wouldn’t the Admiral be upset at such a rash decision?” The subordinate knew that only the Admiral could use the hell guards at will. He did not believe that they would survive. Even though the Admiral gave Zorvek his current power, wasn’t this overstepping his bounds?

Sending them down a spatial channel was a one-way journey! By the time they reached the first spatial entryway, they would be so deep in Ursidae space that they couldn’t even send information back. They also couldn’t re-supply!

This is why the Planetoids were hesitant on using spatial channels to attack. The entryways made it easier for the Ursidae starships to defend because they would know where the enemy was coming from. If attacked while coming out of an entryway, Planetoid starships would literally be feeding themselves to the enemy.

Furthermore, they had no information on when the spatial channels changed flows. It was very dangerous for starships to be inside a channel when the energy waves were reversing. Through centuries of control, only the chieftains in the Ursidae Tribe had access to this information.

These were problems for a vast majority of Planetoid starships. In spite of this, Zorvek knew that to the hell guards, this was a minor inconvenience at best!

“Haha.” Zorvek stood up and grabbed the subordinate’s head. “Listen closely.”

“If I don’t crush your head right now, the Admiral might grant you the honor instead!”

Zorvek spat these words out with a vicious tone. He wasn’t going to put his life on the line because his subordinate was hesitant.

Hesitation would only anger the Admiral.

As a leader of an intelligence squadron, Zorvek knew how well the Admiral treated his younger brother. Without any clues, the Admiral would kill him for sending out his hell guards aimlessly. Now that there was a solid trace, the Admiral would have his head if the hell guards weren’t sent out immediately instead!

They could only live if the Admiral himself was satisfied by their actions.

This was the type of person that Admiral Zolahm was!

Zorvek was aware of this but many of his subordinates weren’t.

“Useless imbeciles!” Zorvek held his subordinate’s head tight and then threw him to the side. His body ruthlessly slammed into a physical control panel. Zorvek couldn’t waste anymore time, so he was going to summon the hell guards himself. Every second mattered when their target was fleeing via warp.

As this situation was taking place, another scene was happening deep inside Ursidae territory.

On a special planet, there was a meeting taking place in a sound-proof conference room.

Many of the Ursidae Tribe’s high elders were standing outside this conference room respectfully. Even though the hall outside this room was very wide, these elders made it feel congested. Uncomfortable as it might be, none of these high elders dared to complain.

The meeting inside boasted all seven members of the Ursidae Guardian Council. This council was the core leadership that governed the entire Ursidae Tribe!

Every member of this council was a chieftain of the tribe. The high elders were governors under their respective chieftains. Since there were a total of seven chieftains, the high elders were split into seven factions. Even though they were merely waiting outside the hall, all of these factions were grouped together. Some were eyeing at their rivals while the rest were cautiously looking at each other.

Inside the conference hall, there were nameplates in front of each Chieftain. There were tiny stars engraved on these nameplates. These stars marked the meritorious contributions that each chieftain has made to the whole Ursidae Tribe. The names of the Chieftains were next to these stars.

The one with the fewest stars, ‘Morack’, was currently speaking before the other six chieftains.

“My great-grand nephew’s homeplanet was brutally destroyed by those Planetoid scum! A great travesty!” Chieftain Morack yelled in anger. Despite the clean setting, his actions felt barbaric.

“I understand your anger, Morack. However, the bigger issue is that the spatial channel near it has been compromised.” A beastman with the most stars, ‘Argold’, spoke calmly.

“In our territory, we have already lost so many planets in the outer realm. This was tolerable because none of them affected the bigger picture. However, this single loss is greater than all of them combined! An entryway to one of our few spatial channels has been compromised! Furthermore, your great-grand nephew’s homeplanet also bordered the inner realm. This means that the Planetoids, if they haven’t already, are on the edge of breaking deeper into our territory.”

Chieftain Argold’s tone was loud yet his words were concise.

All the other Chieftains nodded in agreement. There were seven spatial channels that connected the many planets of the Ursidae Tribe. The seven chieftains were selected from the family’s that controlled these spatial channels. Losing one would compromise the standing of its respective chieftain!

Chieftain Morack was well-aware of this. Hence he was downplaying the situation and focusing on more trivial accounts.

“Whether it is the core, inner, or outer realm, every other spatial entryway connected to my family’s spatial channel has been locked down by my men. Once the energy wave flow reverses in five months, I’ll send my forces to recapture the compromised entryway.” Chieftain Morack got straight to the point. He was no longer yelling.

Chieftain Argold stared at Chieftain Morack seriously before smiling. “We can leave the entryways of the outer-realm to your people. However, the ones in the inner and core realms are too important!”

“I motion for a call-to-action. Let us each send some forces to reinforce the Morack’s spatial channel! We’ll only support the entryways in the inner and core realms. This would let Morack re-allocate his forces to the outer-realm.”

“I agree to this motion.”

“So do I.”

“It has my approval too.”

Every other chieftain was swift to answer. Their response to this call-to-action was overly positive.

Chieftain Morack had yet to speak his vote. He knew that the outer-realm was taking the brunt of the attack by the Planetoids. This call-to-motion was just an excuse. Sending his men out there would only weaken his family’s forces. This was something that all the other Chieftains were well-aware of.

Because this matter directly affects his family, Morack could use his power as Chieftain to veto this call-to-action. However, if he did that, all of the risk will fall on him. The Planetoids could take the chance to invade or send espionage using his family’s spatial channel. Though it was extremely unlikely, the possibility still existed. The key was whether or not he could bear the burden.

His forces were the weakest of the seven. He wasn’t confident enough to take this risk. Failure would give the other chieftains an excuse to remove him from the Guardian Council.

That’s how important this matter was!

“I.. acknowledge.. the call-to-action.” Chieftain Morack said these words very slowly. His nostrils flared in anger and veins could be seen popping from the side of his neck. Reluctant as he was, he wasn’t going to risk his entire family’s status to retain his pride.

The source of all these changes was casually resting in his starship’s command center. Countless rays of light illuminated this scene from the giant front window. The starship had been in warp for over three weeks now.

The tiny dragon hatchling was sleeping on his lap.

‘What should I name you?’

Erin wasn’t very good at names. He spent a lot of time on this question simply because it would stick with the dragon for the rest of its life.

Erin stared at its scales. There was a purple, metallic sheen glinting off from them. He glanced below the hatchling’s underbelly with a single thought in his mind, ‘Is it a male or female?’

Erin looked very closely and didn’t see anything; so he assumed it was a female. He had no intention of personally feeling it out to figure out the truth.

‘..Female ..Spiritual Energy ..Dragon’s Grace’ The terms kept circling around Erin’s mind.

After a lot of contemplation, he finally picked a name!

“Alright, your name will be Aura!” He lightly muttered. He knew that Dragon’s Grace was going to be very useful to him in the long-term. Since everyone affected by it would glow, the name seemed fitting to Erin.

Once that was settled, time passed on quickly. Another two weeks passed in the blink of an eye.

During this time, Erin finally learned the basics of spiritual energy. It was very easy for Aura to teach him since it could mentally transmit all the information and techniques.

Erin used his newfound knowledge to activate the stone trinket by himself. The star map inside of it activated successfully! While playing around with this misty star map, Erin tried inputting the coordinates that Aura gave him before on a whim. These are the same coordinates that led them to the endless netherstorm.

Instead of getting a non-existent response like he expected, the star map actually identified the coordinates! It just didn’t display the relevant information because it was marked as classified. Meaning that even though the information existed, the star map he had wasn’t qualified to hold such important details.

This news shocked Erin. When he tried inputting the coordinates on his orb and devices, both of them had negative results. Even the transferred data from this stone trinket didn’t bring out any results.

The only successful response that Erin got was when he personally inputted the coordinates into the stone trinket using his own spiritual energy.

After discovering this, Erin started valuing spiritual energy more. He had Aura teach him during their free time. It reached a point where Erin could even cast Dragon’s Grace by himself; albeit only on a few targets. As a Tamer, innate abilities from his beasts were acquirable with the appropriate training.

After yet another successful training session with Aura, Erin brought Winslow to his starship’s command center to give him a progress-update.

“Based on the route, we are approaching the first spatial entryway in the inner realm.” Winslow said. The space route included the entryways inside this specific spatial channel and the distance between them. Due to this, even though they skipped the mega-planet that was being destroyed, they still knew where they were going.

“I don’t intend on stopping there.” Erin clarified. “I plan on going straight to the core realm. ”

Winslow wasn’t surprised by Erin’s intentions. Whether it was the inner or core realm, it was still the tribe’s territory. His people would be safe regardless.

What concerned Winslow more was Erin’s position. Outsiders were usually not welcome in the core territory of a tribe. It was even more strict when a war was taking place. Although Winslow knew that Erin’s title as a ‘Dragon Rider’ might give him leeway, it was still a risk.

Without giving a chance for Winslow to speak back, Erin continued, “To make things clear, I am not asking for your opinion. I just wanted to let you know. Being aware of what’s happening should reassure your people to an extent.”

What Erin didn’t tell Winslow is that he replayed the video-transmission that they had with Warrick previously. Since he wasn’t busy, he looked for every miniscule detail.

Erin saw the shock on subordinate’s behind Warrick around the time when the insignia’s were attached to his starship. He also re-watched the message that the Morack nobleman sent before as well. The details made it clear that he treated Erin’s starship with respect.

All of these communications were automatically saved by the AI.

Erin made an educated guess with all these hints. If he was right, then entering the tribe’s core realm shouldn’t pose a problem at all.