Intergalactic conquest with an AI

Cleo's glow faded as she lowered her hand. "I… I don't know. I just… acted on instinct. But it worked."

The figure turned to face them, its crimson eyes dimming slightly. "You are… different. Not like the others."

Rex frowned. "What are you talking about? Who are you?"

The figure hesitated, as if struggling to find the right words. Then, it spoke, its voice softer now, almost… human.

"I am… a shadow. A remnant of a forgotten war. I came here seeking answers… but perhaps… I have found something else."

Rex exchanged a glance with Cleo. Whatever this thing was, it wasn't just a mindless intruder. There was more to it... much more.

"Answers?" Rex asked cautiously. "What kind of answers?"

The figure's gaze shifted to Cleo; its expression under its helmet was unreadable. "The kind that could change everything."

The armored figure knelt before Cleo, his massive frame lowering in a gesture of deep reverence. With a sharp hiss of decompression, his helmet deactivated, the plates splitting apart to reveal the face beneath... a haunting visage of metal and shadow, a testament to countless battles fought and lost.

"I salute the royal family of the Kaelzars, descendants of the great Emperor Xynithar."

His face was a ruin, a grotesque tapestry of scars and shattered machinery. Only one eye remained, its faint glow flickering weakly, as if clinging to the last vestiges of life. A jagged claw mark tore across his metallic skull, so deep and brutal it looked as though some monstrous force had tried to rip his head clean off.

Rex's eyes narrowed as he stepped forward, his gut twisting at the sight. But there was something more pressing gnawing at him.

"Hold on… Are you a Kaelzar like Cleo?" He asked while his gaze darted between the kneeling warrior and Cleo, who stood frozen, her usual composure shattered by the weight of the moment.

The shadow didn't hesitate.

"Negative," he said, his voice cold and mechanical, devoid of hesitation. "I am nothing more than a shadow. I cannot call myself a Kaelzar... not like her royal highness, Princess Cleo."

He remained kneeling, head bowed, like a soldier awaiting judgment.

Rex exchanged a glance with Cleo. She was silent with her expression unreadable, but for the first time, Rex noticed a flicker of something in her eyes, something like pain, regret, or perhaps even guilt.

Rex clenched his fists, his jaw tightening. "Alright… then what the hell is a Shadow?"

Cleo took a slow, measured breath, as if steadying herself for what came next. "Shadows are those who were once Kaelzars," she said with a voice softer than Rex had ever heard it.

"When a Kaelzar's fleet is annihilated, when their main body is destroyed, and there is nothing left… they can transfer their consciousness into specially designed war bodies."

Rex frowned, his brow furrowing. "So it's a second chance?"

Cleo shook her head, her gaze distant. "No. It's a coffin. A final stand. These bodies grant immense power, but at a terrible cost; they consume all of the Kaelzar's computational abilities. They become locked in those metal husks… until death."

Her words hung in the air, heavy and unshakable, like a funeral dirge.

For the first time since Rex had met her, Cleo looked genuinely distant, as if she was lost in memories she'd rather forget. He knew better than to push her further.

Instead, he turned his focus back to the Shadow, his eyes sharpening.

"…So what were you doing at our base?"

The Shadow slowly lifted his head, his remaining eye locking onto Rex's with a dim, flickering light.

"I am hunting the Khryssari that resides within this base," he declared, his tone as cold and absolute as the void itself. "The Shadow Code commands me to eliminate all Khryssari signals in range."

A sharp tension filled the room, thick enough to cut with a blade.

Rex opened his mouth to respond, but Cleo moved first. She raised a hand like a silent command for him to stop.

Rex barely caught the movement, but what shocked him more was her face, utterly still, unreadable, as if carved from stone.

Then, in that same composed, almost clinical tone, she spoke.

"Shadow… how long have you been active?"

The damaged warrior's fingers curled into a fist, the metal creaking under the pressure.

"I have been active for three years since the destruction of my fleet."

A beat of silence.

Then Cleo exhaled, her gaze turning distant again, as if staring into a past only she could see. "…Then there's something you must know."

She stepped forward, her presence commanding, as she looked him in the eye, her voice unwavering.

"It has been one thousand years since the Kaelzar Empire fell. The war against the Khryssari is over. We lost." Enjoy new chapters from My Virtual Library Empire

The Shadow flinched, his metallic frame shuddering as if struck by an invisible blow.

Cleo continued, her words cutting through the silence like a blade. "The glorious Kaelzars exist no more. The only pure-blooded Kaelzars left in the universe… are you and me."

The room went deathly silent.

Rex could hear nothing but the soft hum of the ocean outside and the distant thrum of warships patrolling the skies.

Then... the Shadow's flickering eye dimmed. His metal body trembled, the sound of grinding gears and strained hydraulics filling the air.

The Shadow stood still for a moment, as if absorbing the weight of Cleo's words. His single flickering eye dimmed slightly before he exhaled a low, mechanical hum, the sound reverberating through the air like the final note of a dirge.

"I see… so it is like that."

Slowly, he straightened, his battered frame creaking under its own weight. The scars and dents in his armor seemed to tell a thousand stories of battles fought, of comrades lost, of a war that had consumed everything. He turned to Cleo, his remaining eye locking onto hers with a faint, almost imperceptible glimmer of recognition.

"Princess of the Kaelzars… I am relieved to see that at least you still live. And it seems…" He glanced at Rex, studying him for a long moment, his gaze piercing and calculating. "…that you have found a new Emperor candidate."

Rex tensed at those words, his instincts screaming at him to protest, to deny it. But before he could respond, the Shadow continued, his voice carrying a weight that silenced any interruption.

"If I may be so bold… may I step outside? I wish to see the sky one last time."

His voice, though mechanical, carried something more... something beyond simple programming. A longing. A yearning for something lost, something he could never reclaim.

Cleo and Rex exchanged a look, a silent conversation passing between them. Then Cleo gave a small nod, her expression unreadable but her eyes softening just slightly.

"Come. Follow us; we'll take you to the nearest exit."

With that, Rex turned and walked alongside Cleo, the Shadow trailing closely behind. As they moved through the station's corridors, the Shadow silently observed his surroundings.

Aegis Units, smaller, streamlined war machines, stood guard in perfect formations, their sleek designs unlike anything he had ever seen. Through the reinforced glass panels, he saw fighter squadrons patrolling the skies, while colossal construction drones moved with precision, assembling and repairing the ever-growing megastructure.

So much had changed.

So much was alien to him.

Finally, they reached the exterior. As the pressurized doors slid open, the Shadow stepped forward, his heavy frame casting a long shadow against the platform.

Before him stretched an unfamiliar sky.

A brilliant white sun burned in the heavens, its glow reflecting off the ocean below. For a long moment, he stood motionless, staring upward, his single eye absorbing the sight as if committing it to memory.

"…A sky I have never seen before," he murmured, his voice tinged with something akin to wonder. "The mega-sun of my homeworld, surrounded by its living metal rings… That is what I should be looking upon."

Slowly, he turned, his gaze settling on Cleo.

Then, with a mechanical click, he reached behind his head and retrieved a small, intricate memory device. It glinted in the sunlight, a tiny relic of a bygone era.

"Take this, Princess." He extended the device toward her, his movements deliberate, almost reverent. "I do not know how corrupted my memory has become after a thousand years in this body, but within it… are the blueprints of my army and fleet."

Cleo hesitated for a fraction of a second, her fingers hovering over the device as if unsure whether to accept it. Then, with a quiet resolve, she took it, her grip firm.

"Perhaps," the Shadow continued, "some of them may still be intact. Perhaps… something in there will be of use to you."

For a long moment, Cleo said nothing. She simply stared at the small, metallic fragment of history resting in her palm; her expression was unreadable, but her eyes betrayed a flicker of something like grief, gratitude, or perhaps both.

Then, she closed her fingers around it.

"I have received your will, oh Shadow of a distant past." The Shadow gave a slow nod, his eye dimming further as if in acceptance.

"…Glory to the Kaelzars."

And then... his eye flickered once, twice... before the light finally died.

The Shadow's body slumped forward, falling to his knees... lifeless.

Rex stiffened, his mind racing. "Wait... why did he do that!?"

Cleo let out a quiet sigh with her fingers still wrapped around the memory device. "Because he lost his purpose."

She turned slightly, watching as an Aegis Unit stepped forward to retrieve the fallen warrior's body, its movements precise and respectful.

"A shadow with an incomplete code... is nothing more than a war machine without reason. And that is something the proud Kaelzars would never allow themselves to become...."