MY 10,000× DIMENSIONAL SYSTEM

Dire News

Constella fell on her backside and panted heavily. Despite the frigid cold, her body was slick with sweat causing her clothes to stick to her lithe body. But there wasn't anyone on top of the ship to appreciate the view.

That's because similar to her, everyone was facing varying degrees of exhaustion, and as long as she wasn't in danger, nobody felt inclined to check up on her.

She didn't have the energy to get checked up either and just wanted to lie down.

The past few hours had been harrowing, to say the least. The entourage had been assaulted by the nature of the hidden realm and no one came out unscathed.

The Apex-ranked beings did their best to hold off the fierce weather for hours, and even then, the ships still suffered from various degrees of damage.

Many had large sheets of ice on their surfaces, others had holes in their hulls, some had destroyed engines, and more than a few had all three of these problems and more.

As such, Constella ordered the ships to stop moving forward and they all landed. And a series of orders later, many people were resting while many were fixing the damage on the ships and tending to the wounded.

As much as Constella wanted to sleep on the spot, she needed to coordinate things effectively.

So she dragged her tired body off the ship and began to issue orders to her people as well as supervise various things.

When she was sure that everything was in order, she returned to the command room in the ship she used where she saw her handler as well as Herta and a few others waiting for her.

She took her seat and gestured to Herta who still seemed a bit shaken by the entire ordeal to speak. Constella might have made an effort to ease her worries had it been any other time, but right now, she was too tired to care and just wanted to get it over with.

"... The chaos has subsided. For now, at least, fate has returned to its previous state with no signs of acting up again. However...' She frowned a little before she continued.

"I can't help but feel that something....strange happened... obviously what just happened was unprecedented. But there's something different about how the fate of this place now, but I can't put a finger on it..." She sounded genuinely troubled by this as she explained, and Constella sighed.

She remembered just how much she hated dealing with matters tied to fate, as they were never straightforward and were always vague or unclear.

If the person whose job was related to Fate said she couldn't put a finger on what was wrong, then Constella might as well just ignore it.

She rubbed a hand over her face. The movement caused her muscles to ache, but she was long used to being pushed to the brink, though, that didn't mean she liked it.

"Is there anything else?" She asked and Herta shook her head after she moment's consideration.

She then turned to the Handler who had a grim expression on his face and she gestured for him to speak.

"Milady, this news is a bit troubling, so please refrain from reacting strongly." He said.

'Oh?' The warning surprised her. She wasn't exactly known for her temper, but she could be dangerous when she wanted to be. So the fact that the Handler was taking it upon himself to warn her ahead of time meant that this news was big, to say the least.

When she nodded and gave him the go-ahead, he took a deep breath.

"After the weather calmed down, our communication devices no longer faced strong interference, so we were able to speak with our vassals and they explained that similar to us, they faced a series of unexplained and chaotic disasters that caused quite some trouble for them. But that's not the problem or the worst of it." He sighed.

"One of them, the Tsar Clan submitted a report on how they discovered an unidentified force that had taken root within the hidden realm. Clearly not natives, and definitely not one of the clans." When she heard this, Constella's eyes narrowed sharply.

"What have the Tsar Clan members done after confirming their existence? Have they made contact?" She asked evenly and the Handler said grimly.

"They're dead." The two words made the room fall into a tense silence, and Constella had to take a deep breath to calm herself.

'No wonder he told me to stay calm ahead of time.' She thought darkly. If there was one notable thing about her character, it was that she had a strong urge to protect those she considered her subordinates, even those a part of the Vassal clans who weren't her direct subordinates.

That's why she was so keen on finding the lost members of her group before she ventured too deeply into the hidden realm, as she wanted to make sure they were alive before she proceeded further.

But this news was a dampener on her mood, to say the least.

However, she wasn't stupid.

"Did they attack first? The Tsar Clan that is." The question made the Handler cringe.

"They... did. After submitting their report, they added that they would, and I quote "Eliminate anyone who had the audacity to try and take what was rightfully ours." This made Constella rub her temples. She wasn't sure she was capable of a natural headache, but right now, such a theory was being put to the test.
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"In that case, they only have themselves to blame for provoking the wrong group of people. However... how well-equipped were the Tsar Clan's people before they were taken out?" She couldn't help but ask and the Handler pulled up a hologram and started to read it.

"5 mid-stage Apex ranks and one high-stage, making 6. Two dozen grey-ranked individuals, 90 individuals the rank below that, and so on." The Handler gulped and Constella frowned.

"And how many people did this unregistered force possess?" She asked again, and the Handler was silent for a moment.

"... It's hard to estimate their numbers, but... the entire group was taken out by a single entity at the god rank." This made Constella pause, genuine shock appearing in her eyes.

"... A god-ranked being, took out 6 Apex ranks, by themselves...?" Her tone was full of disbelief, and the Handler wanted to say it was a lie, but he just sighed and projected a large hologram at the top of the room.

There, the hologram showed clear footage of a black tide swarming and overwhelming an entourage of ships.

The entourage was swallowed by the tide, and everyone was silent. The footage was only a few seconds long, but it shook everyone to their Cores.

Then Constella said calmly.

"Rewind to the beginning, slow it down and zoom in. I want to make sure of something." Everyone was surprised by how calm she sounded, and when they looked at her, they noticed that she was completely impassive, her default expression which made it difficult to see what she was thinking.

The Handler quickly obeyed, rewound the footage, and slowed it down. Then he zoomed in and everyone was able to see what this "black tide" truly was.

In reality, the tide was an unbelievably massive army of undead with bones as black as ink. They ranged from humanoids to massive abominations made from a fusion of numerous creatures.

It was a video, so they were spared from the overbearing Aura the combined force of the army unleashed, but just looking at the millions, yes, millions of empty eye sockets that seemed to stare at them through the screen, everyone shuddered.

"... They were dead in seconds..." Herta said softly. No one knew how she knew that, and some could argue that the Apex ranks would last a few minutes at least. But for some reason, no one seemed to be in the mood to refute her.

"Contact a Vassal clan close by, and tell them to go and establish contact with this force." Constella's sudden words caught everyone by surprise and they looked at her with shock.

"Milady-"

"That's an order. The only reason the members of the Tsar Clan were killed was because they attacked first. We will try and establish contact with them, hopefully in a non-violent manner. We need to know what we are dealing with here." Her tone was firm and the Handler clamped his mouth shut before nodding and going to his control panel.

"Herta, you may return to your duties. The same applies to the rest of you. We still have matters at hand. So stop standing around and get busy." Hearing this, the people in the room stopped dallying and got to work.

Herta seemed to hesitate before going back to her duties as well.

Constella leaned back into her chair and closed her eyes. A plethora of thoughts ran through her mind, and she sighed. Then she went to sleep in that position.