Speed Is King

The old sayings, no matter how absurd they sound, always contained a sliver of truth within them.

And none were more apparently exhibited in the life of Elliot Musk than one saying in particular - It is a crime to own vast treasures without the power to keep them.

As it were, in the eyes of the entire known universe, Elliot had risen sharply in rank to become criminal number one. Of all the innumerable wondrous treasures of the universe, most were in the hands of powerhouses. Some were lost in inheritance dungeons others were as yet completely undiscovered.

Those who didn't have the power to hold on to theirs were being hunted, and Elliot just shot up in rank within that list of "criminals".

The power that Jessica Sands exhibited was by far more attractive compared to Elliot's, of course. The power to cast reverse time walk on the whole planet within the framework of a minor Diamond Sponsor's Boon was just incredible to the infinite degree!

The mysteries she must have solved and the breakthroughs that she must have achieved to do what she did could very well be worth trillions and trillions of resource planets!

But she had just shown the whole universe that she indeed had the power, AND the backing to hold on to it. And so, by that fact alone, she was no criminal.

Elliot had no such power and no such backing at his disposal. And so his "criminality" had long shot past the tolerance levels of many "Defenders of Justice" (read: bandits and robbers).

There were no lack of Hegemons within their ranks, and there were even a few Ancient level old fogeys who had decided to join in the fun!

All of them had come to investigate the "power that allowed a King to massacre Emperors and Hegemons."

Exaggerations, of course.

But then again, the old saying "the would be no smoke without fire" was also true.

There must be a sliver of truth to that ability, and the bandits who were stuck in their power levels for countless years wanted to get their hands on whatever little mystery was powering up Elliot in the hope that they could finally get that final push to breakthrough!

"If a King can kill Emperors, then if I get my hands on that secret, wouldn't I, with my greater intellect and experience, be able to utilize that secret even more and allow me to fight more than one level above me?"

"Hmph! Such a waste of such an incredible secret. If it was me, I would definitely be able to use that secret to breakthrough a couple of power levels! There must be countless applications of that secret that he had not thought about!"

The Hegemons and Ancients all believed that they were better suited to be the owners of Elliot's secret power.

Most notable among them was the person being represented by a battalion led by two serious and incredibly powerful looking man and woman from the Central Galaxy.

They were part of the Royal Family of the Linhasa Empire, who were proud direct descendants of the overbearingly powerful Fire Phoenix.

Hegemon Hani Lin and Ancient Gartod Lin.

Hegemon Hani Lin was the Commander of the Third Battalion of the Regiment assigned to be the personal guard of the Seventh Princess of the Linhasan Royal Family, Elleanor Linhasa.

Elleanor Linhasa was a rarely seen millenial genius.

At only one hundred years of age, she had broken through into Emperor level and then smashed all of the Linhasan Empire records by ascending to Hegemon level at two hundred years young!

She had lived a life of utter luxury and power, with every single whim of hers fully attended to and satisfied.

She lived her life as the apex genius of one of the most powerful Empires of the known universe, looked up to and adored by trillions, doted on by those who held the reins of the known universe.

And the moment she heard about Elliot's miraculous story and his unparalleled genius which surpassed even hers, she had immediately demanded that Elliot be brought to her!

"Hani, lead your battalion to Planet Earth and bring me that boy." Elleanor had ordered her the moment she finished reading her daily intelligence briefing. "Gartod, go with her to ensure that the other Hegemons and Ancients do not steal my toy."

Both had immediately bowed and left to execute her commands immediately.

At that moment, they were standing at the bridge of their Linhasan Battlecruiser, watching the rest of their fleet exit warp space a few thousand kilometers away from Planet Earth.

One after another, a hundred Linhasan Destroyers and Frigates appeared around the Battlecruiser.

"We're ready. What's that rabble in front of us?" Hani Lin asked.

"They are the First Fleet of the Southern Glory Star System. They have surrounded Planet Earth with what seems to be five Regiments with five thousand spacecraft.

They have five motherships and fifty battlecruisers. The rest are frigates and destroyers." An aide responded immediately.

"Get them to clear a path, or die." Hegemon Hani Lin said dismissively.

"Acknowledged, Commander." The aide immediately relayed the message.

Within seconds, the Southern Glory Regiments moved away and opened a massive gap in their formation for the Linhasan Battlecruiser and her little fleet to pass.

As if fully expecting such a reaction from the Southern Glory Star System military, Hegemon Hani Lin got her Battlecruiser fleet to immediately proceed to land on Planet Earth so that she could quickly finish her mission and get back home.

However, to her utter shock and disbelief, as soon as her entire battalion got in between the two regiments, the Southern Glory military opened fire at her!!

P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-PEW!!!!!

Thousands upon thousands of powerful laser beams and energy beams fired from all of the thousands of surrounding spacecraft and immediately shredded her little fleet to pieces!

Even her battlecruiser took heavy damage!!

"What?? Dive straight to the Planet! All power to acceleration, now!!" Hegemon Hani Lin screamed and unleashed her vast Hegemonic power to shield the battlecruiser temporarily from the incoming fire.

She was completely stunned. When did Southern Glory grow the balls to attack Linhasan Military Spacecraft??