First Intergalactic Emperor: Starting With The Ancient Goddess-Chapter 492: Traitor

The training chamber sealed behind Kylus with a dull mechanical lock, the floor panels shifting and reforming into a wide combat grid. The simulated environment wasn’t flashy. No scenery, no theatrics. Just solid surfaces, elevation changes, cover points, and enemies generated from real combat data. The kind of setup that punished hesitation.

Kylus moved the moment they did.

The first attacker came in fast and went down faster, catching him mid-lunge and driving him into the ground with enough force to register impact feedback through the chamber. He pivoted immediately, intercepting a blade strike, redirecting it into the second opponent’s torso before tearing the weapon free and using it to finish the exchange. The system adjusted on the fly, adding speed, tightening spacing, forcing him to fight in close quarters where mistakes stacked fast.

He welcomed that.

By the third wave, his movements were fully engaged, no wasted motion, no showmanship. He broke formations, used bodies to block angles, took hits where the system allowed them and returned worse ones. The chamber filled with impact sounds and warning flashes as opponents dropped one after another, their forms dissolving the moment they were neutralized. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

The final opponent lasted longer than the rest.

Kylus absorbed a strike to the ribs, countered, forced the fight to the floor, and ended it with a clean finishing sequence that made the simulation stall for half a second before resolving.

The grid faded. The walls smoothed back into place.

The chamber returned to standby.

Kylus stood there breathing evenly, sweat running down his back, muscles still tight from the engagement. He reached for his wrist device to check the performance logs out of habit, eyes scanning reaction times and damage thresholds.

Then he froze.

Another alert sat beneath the combat data.

Priority intelligence.

His eyes moved back over it once, slower this time, then again to make sure he hadn’t misread.

"What...?" he said quietly.

He didn’t bother cooling down. He turned and left the chamber at speed, boots striking hard against the corridor as he moved through the ship. Crew members stepped aside without asking questions. The control center doors slid open as he approached, revealing a room already tense with activity.

His assistant looked up the moment she saw him.

"Tell me this is wrong," Kylus said. "Tell me someone didn’t just hand us her location."

His assistant turned immediately and brought the data up on the main screen. "Yes," she said. "It came in less than ten minutes ago. Multiple confirmations."

The display shifted to a ship profile.

"Belongs to one of Bull’s former crew," she continued. "Jareth."

Kylus’ jaw tightened.

"They’re moving toward Helior Prime," she said. "But they’re not entering the city. The projected drop point is Ashfall Verge."

The map expanded, highlighting the industrial sprawl beyond Helior’s outer ring.

"Estimated arrival window," one of the officers added, "within the next few hours."

Kylus stared at the screen, eyes narrowing as the implications lined up too cleanly to ignore. "This isn’t random," he said. "Someone on that ship is talking."

"There’s no external interception," the assistant replied. "No trace of a breach from outside. The data came from within their operational bubble."

"Meaning," Kylus said slowly, "either one of Jareth’s people sold them out."

"...Or... Jareth did," he added shortly.

Kylus straightened and smiled, the expression sharp and humorless. "Good," he said. "I was getting tired of chasing shadows."

Meanwhile, on Jareth’s ship.

The common deck sat somewhere between a rest area and a dumping ground for anyone who didn’t have a shift or an assignment. Cargo crates had been dragged into rough seating, panels along the wall carried half-finished repairs, and a wide glass section looked out into open space where stars slid past. People drifted in and out, talking, eating, and killing time.

Lyra was seated near one of the crate tables, laughing with a handful of Jareth’s crew she clearly knew well. Her posture was loose again, voice animated, hands moving as she talked. Whatever weight had been pressing down on her earlier had eased, at least enough for her to sound like herself.

A few steps away, Reva sat hunched over her device, tools spread around her in a careful mess. She pulled it apart again, adjusted a connection, frowned, and muttered something under her breath.

She already knew the truth of it. The ping she’d sent to Xavier had gone out wrong, stripped down by necessity and timing, half-formed in a way that no one unfamiliar would understand.

Even if he guessed the intent, even if someone smarter than her got their hands on it, it would take time she knew they didn’t have. By then, Ashfall Verge would already be under their feet.

Viola and Requiem shared a crate near the inner wall, heads close together.

They weren’t arguing. They were aligning. Routes, contingencies, what they could afford to risk and what they couldn’t. Requiem listened more than he spoke, nodding occasionally, eyes drifting back to Lyra before returning to the discussion.

Viola spoke in measured bursts, fingers tracing imaginary lines on her knee as she talked through possibilities.

Iria stood apart from them all, near the glass, arms folded loosely as she watched the stars slide past. She hadn’t said much since they boarded, but she hadn’t drifted away either. Her attention stayed outward, tracking motion, watching for changes she couldn’t quite name yet.

Jareth entered without announcement, presence alone enough to draw attention. Conversation softened as people noticed him, Lyra turning first, her smile widening when she saw him.

He waited until the nearby crew drifted a little farther off before speaking.

"We’ll reach Ashfall Verge in a few hours," Jareth said, voice carrying without effort. "Last chance to change your minds."

Lyra tilted her head. "About what?"

"You don’t have to get off there," he replied. "You could stay with us. It’d be safer."

Reva looked up from her device, ready to answer, but Lyra spoke before she could.

"We’re going to Helior Prime," Lyra said.

Jareth studied her for a moment, then nodded. "I figured you’d say that."

He glanced around at the rest of them. "Ashfall Verge is as far as I can take you without drawing attention I can’t control. After that, my reach thins out."

Viola met his gaze. "We understand."

"I won’t leave you dry, though," Jareth continued. "I’ve got favors I can call in. People who owe me. I can smooth things where I’m able to."

Jareth’s eyes returned to Lyra. "Once you step off, things get messy fast. You sure this is where you want to do it?"

Lyra didn’t look away. "It is."

For a moment, no one spoke as if the silence was yet another question that needed to be answered..

Jareth finally broke the silence. "Alright," he said. "Get ready. We’ll signal before descent."

As he turned to leave, Reva glanced back down at her device, fingers hovering over the exposed circuitry. She didn’t try to fix the message anymore. Whatever it had become, it was already out there.

Requiem stepped forward before the moment could settle.

"We’re changing the drop," he said.

The noise in the common deck dipped all at once.

Lyra turned first, eyebrows lifting. "What?"

Reva looked up from her device, confusion cutting through her focus. "Changing it to where?"

"Glassreach Basin," Requiem replied.