Chaos' Heir - Chapter 1176

Chapter 1176: Paint it black

It had taken a two-thousand-strong Scalqa army and nine months to wipe out any trace of life from Senerth. The conquest’s logistics and Khan’s desire to keep the casualties to a minimum had slowed down the progress, but a planet remained a planet, and clearing it required time.

Still, the unnamed planet was smaller than Senerth, and Khan wasn’t the same as he had been back then. Moreover, his target didn’t need to be drawn out and couldn’t run away. It was simply everywhere, so Khan could employ the straightforward plan of destroying everything.

Close to two months later, Khan hovered high in the sky, a scene of fuming destruction unfolding in his view and stretching far past the corner of his eyes.

Charred craters of various sizes filled every inch of the area’s surface, with many still releasing black pillars of smoke. In the distance, Khan could see more of those cracked holes, albeit in their cooled-down version. The ground had lost any trace of blue, and its previous vegetation was nowhere to be seen.

Khan drew his phone from his pocket, contacting his ship to activate the scanners. The ride analyzed the area on its own, sending its findings to Khan’s device. Holograms soon came out of it, depicting the planet in a completely red color.

Khan zoomed in on a flagged spot before waving his hand to make the holograms spin. The ship had already confirmed it, but Khan wanted to check it with his own eyes. It seemed he had finally crossed off the last quadrant from his list, but he wasn’t done with that assessment.

As powerful and reliable as Khan’s senses were, he couldn’t just chase after any trace of life he perceived. An entire planet was too big for him, and he had learned that the hard way.

Initially, Khan had unleashed destruction everywhere but missed many spots through that approach, forcing him to revisit previous areas, wasting precious time.

So, Khan eventually involved his ship in the project, splitting the unnamed planet into quadrants and tackling them individually, only moving to the next once his job was complete.

Of course, technology alone wouldn’t suffice, so Khan always rechecked his results with his senses once he was done. He closed his eyes, searching for any lingering trace of life in the symphony tainted by his element.

Nothing popped out, but Khan kept his attention on his perception for a while, waiting for his mana’s interference to weaken. He had already missed random and unlucky tiny patches of grass in the past, but that didn’t seem to be the case now.

With both the scanners and heightened senses confirming that point, Khan felt confident he had obliterated the last trace of life from the unnamed planet. Luckily, the underground world had none of that, so Khan’s job was finally over. He had repaid his debt with the three-eyed tree.

As strange as it sounded, the mission had been rather effortless, albeit quite long. Khan’s barrages of lightning bolts could unleash widespread destruction, and summoning them barely tired him, so he proceeded at a decent pace after involving his ship.

Also, the planet didn’t oppose the assault. Khan just had to go from area to area and launch his spells. He didn’t even need to be precise. As long as nothing lived anymore, Khan’s mission would be a success.

The azure, twisted, smooth, and mutated world had turned into a black, burned, and cracked landscape. Pure desolation spread everywhere, and the symphony echoed that vibe. The air carried intense traces of Khan’s wild elements, but they were bound to disappear soon, replaced by dead nothingness.

The three blue moons would be the only remaining proof of what the unnamed planet had once been. Admittedly, Khan could take care of them, too, but their lack of lifeforms made the idea pointless. The job was done. He could finally leave to pursue the answer he had waited twenty-one years to obtain.

Khan took one last glance at the blackened, cracked surface. The smoke had dispersed by then, displaying the full extent of the area’s desolation. Compared to the previous twisted but flourishing vegetation, the planet’s current state couldn’t help but appear sad, but Khan only saw salvation in its emptiness.

‘I won’t forget you,’ Khan said in his mind, performing a deep bow toward the desolate landscape before disappearing from his position.

The ship was hovering nearby, and Khan quickly reached it, entering it to head for the bridge. He should probably eat, shower, and rest, but all that could be done later, especially since something more important had to come first.

Holding back on flying directly after the Nak hadn’t been easy, especially with the path toward them being as clear as they came. Yet, Khan didn’t neglect the matter while systematically eradicating the unnamed planet’s vegetation. He had added as much as he could add to the ship’s menus, starting to draw flight routes toward his target.

Nevertheless, problems had immediately appeared. Khan couldn’t translate his new feeling into exact coordinates. He also didn’t have maps of that part of the universe, and the latter didn’t stay still. Khan knew where he had to go, but conveying it to the ship had turned out to be an issue.

That wouldn’t usually be the end of the world. After all, the universe was mostly empty, so Khan could make the autopilot steer the ship in a straight line, occasionally adjusting its course if something got in its way.

However, Khan’s journey had already hit its seventh month. His supplies weren’t a problem, but the fuel was starting to run short. He had tried to save as much as possible during the trip and that planetary mission, but his ship’s tank wasn’t bottomless. The menus had actually begun to send warnings, and the variables to account for weren’t over.

Theoretically, Khan would have more than enough fuel left if he didn’t plan a journey back to Coravis, but his instincts told him the asteroids enveloped in the blue storm wouldn’t be easy to cross. They were the last hurdle the Nak had placed to defend their home, and Khan would need to prepare better to deal with them. If they still existed, that was.

Still, the distance from that danger zone was strangely clear in Khan’s mind, so he could make some calculations, accounting for eventual manual maneuvers and other fuel-consuming actions. He should have enough left in his tank to reach the asteroids and fly back to Coravis, so he proceeded with that plan.

Then, the ship set off, leaving the unnamed planet’s atmosphere to fly on a path only Khan could see. Initially, that celestial body had looked blue on the scanners. Yet, Khan had painted it black.