Chapter 322 |
After the negotiations, Josh’s subordinates and Hordak’s troops quickly jointly drafted a battle plan against the Anti-Horde Alliance.
Both sides divided their forces into two routes, simultaneously attacking the heartland of the Anti-Horde Alliance.
Since the area where the Ouroboros is located lies within the Horde Empire and does not border the Alliance, and also as a gesture of goodwill, Hordak specifically gifted a part of the Horde Empire territory along the border with the Anti-Horde Alliance to the Ouroboros as a forward base, facilitating the Ouroboros organization’s military operations against the Anti-Horde Alliance.
However, the territory between the Ouroboros headquarters and this forward base is a rather narrow defensive strip.
If the Horde Empire concentrated its forces, it would be easy to cut off the connection between the two locations.
Obviously, Hordak was not as kind-hearted as he appeared.
Josh was well aware of this.
They were all thousand-year-old foxes; what sort of fairy tale nonsense are we playing?
But he didn’t mind.
Soon, the two camps jointly deployed troops to start attacking the Anti-Horde Alliance.
Under the pincer attack of the two major forces, the already disadvantaged Anti-Horde Alliance almost collapsed at once, and the two sides quickly took over eighty percent of the Alliance’s territory.
Josh even personally took action, capturing many strong figures from the Anti-Horde Alliance, including the Alliance’s long-standing guardian deity, the extraordinary She-Ra.
Upon hearing this, Hordak personally came to celebrate; seeing She-Ra locked in the arcane prison, he was overjoyed, unable to stop smiling. After returning, he intensified orders for the entire army to strengthen the attack, aiming to seize the Anti-Horde Alliance’s last fortress, Brightmoon City, before the Ouroboros legion, and to capture the Alliance leaders Adora and Queen Angella of Brightmoon City.
He completely ignored that the Alliance forces his army had defeated seemed somewhat weak.
However, not everyone failed to notice this.
“Lord Hordak, I feel the current war is going suspiciously smoothly!” The figure cloaked in a red robe, known as Shadow Weaver, the top expert who once clashed with Josh using dark magic and also one of Hordak’s top subordinates, sensed something was off and approached Hordak.
“Hahaha, Shadow Weaver, you worry too much. Isn’t the situation perfectly normal now? You’ve seen the strength of the Ouroboros organization before, and you even had a remote duel with their leader. Although no winner was decided, it was enough to prove their strength. With such a powerful ally, that little brat Adora stands no chance, nothing unusual!” Hordak laughed off Shadow Weaver’s warning. “You’d better focus your main efforts on how to occupy the Ouroboros headquarters afterward!”
Just as Josh was scheming against Hordak, Hordak was equally scheming against Josh.
Once Brightmoon City fell, it would be Shadow Weaver leading the Horde Empire’s reserve army to cut off the Ouroboros legion’s retreat route, occupy the Ouroboros headquarters, and uncover its secrets.
At that time, after gaining the Ouroboros secrets and completely eliminating all the resistance forces in Etania, his strength would surge, perhaps finally giving him the chance to challenge his brother, the emperor of the Great Horde Empire, Horde Prime!
Seeing Hordak so arrogant, Shadow Weaver felt a little disappointed, wondering if she had chosen the wrong master.
“Report…King Hordak!” At that moment, Hordak’s adjutant, an alien resembling a big-eyed fishman, rushed in shouting.
“What happened, Mantena! If you don’t give me a reasonable explanation, I’ll twist your head off!” Hordak was irritated, his pleasant fantasy interrupted by his subordinate’s shouting.
“King Hordak, just now Brightmoon City announced their unconditional surrender to us and the Ouroboros!” Mantena hurriedly explained, hearing Hordak’s angry shout.
Hordak stood up excitedly upon hearing the news.
Meanwhile, Shadow Weaver squinted her eyes.
Soon, the senior leaders of the Horde Empire led by Hordak and the Ouroboros leaders led by Josh met again at the gates of Brightmoon City.
In the distance, Brightmoon City’s gates were wide open; the remaining troops and many generals had all disarmed, standing scattered on the ground outside the city, anxiously awaiting the reception by the Horde and Ouroboros forces.
“Hahaha, Josh, thanks to you we eliminated these sewer rats so quickly!” Hordak embraced Josh warmly like an old friend after years apart.
“Heh, I just helped a little. If it weren’t for your constant weakening and deterrence of them, the rebellion’s end wouldn’t have been so smooth!” Josh smiled and joked with him.
“So… together?” Hordak pointed to his vehicle behind him, an extremely exaggerated armored car.
“Couldn’t wish for more!” Josh nodded with a smile.
Then the two boarded the car together, with numerous senior officers and surrender ceremony guards following behind.
However, the main forces of both sides were stationed neatly around Brightmoon City, deployed on both flanks, eyeing each other vigilantly.
The fleet in space also surrounded the last fleet of the Anti-Horde Alliance outside Brightmoon City in a standoff.
“Hahaha, Queen Angella, long time no see. Never thought we’d meet again under such circumstances. And you, my dear daughter, Adora!” Upon entering the city and seeing the highest leaders of the Anti-Horde Alliance, Queen Angella and Adora, awaiting surrender at the palace gate, Hordak laughed arrogantly.
He called Adora “daughter” not because there was any secret about her identity, such as her being Hordak’s biological daughter.
The truth was that Adora was Hordak’s adopted daughter, stolen from the Eternia Kingdom’s palace when she was still an infant many years ago.
This was no longer a secret in Etheria.
“Never!” Before Queen Angela and Adora could say anything, a loud roar echoed in the sky.
Then, accompanied by boundless thunder, a towering figure appeared mid-air, swinging a sharp sword heavily downward toward Hordak and Josh’s direction.
“Brother?”
“He-man?”
Upon hearing the shout and seeing the sudden figure, all the Etherians present were overjoyed.
The visitor was none other than the long-lost guardian deity of Eternia, the cosmic giant He-Man!
Compared to the Etherians joy, Hordak, who had been boasting on the armored car, and Josh beside him, both turned pale.
The difference was that Hordak was angry at the appearance of his old adversary, while Josh was worried that He-Man’s arrival might cause too many unexpected changes to the plan.
Though He-Man’s appearance was sudden, he failed to successfully attack Hordak because Shadow Weaver had already stepped in front of Hordak, forming a mighty shield of overwhelming dark power to block He-Man’s strike.
“Attack!” Seeing that He-Man’s appearance might disrupt his plan, Josh resolutely shouted and immediately activated his weapon. The Divergent Sword, infused with Power Stone energy, instantly appeared in Josh’s hand and pierced Hordak’s body.
This scene shocked all the Horde and Etherians people present.
However, the Ouroboros legion did not freeze; they immediately launched a full-scale attack on the Horde troops.
Brightmoon City instantly descended into boundless flames of war.
Because their leader was attacked, the Horde forces temporarily lost command and began to retreat rapidly under the Ouroboros legion’s assault.
Seeing this, Adora immediately abandoned any reunion with her brother and ordered all hidden allied forces to attack the Horde legion.
Following her order, many allied troops hidden in areas just taken by the Horde suddenly launched attacks on the Horde’s rear.
Caught in a pincer attack, the Horde army immediately descended into chaos.
After issuing orders, Adora quickly handed over command of the army to Queen Angella, then found a corner to transform into She-Ra and joined the assault against the Horde high command.
Seeing She-Ra and some allied leaders who should have been captured appear on the battlefield, even the slowest Horde commanders realized they had fallen into a trap set by Ouroboros and the allied forces.
But at this moment, it was already too late.
Especially their leader Hordak, who was directly turned to ashes by the terrifying power of the Power Stone when Josh ambushed him.
And among them, the strongest, Shadow Weaver, was being pressed down by He-Man.
The other generals immediately felt fear, and some had even begun to think about how to escape.
However, at the very moment Hordak was killed by Josh, in the imperial palace of the Horde homeworld thousands of light-years away, a figure shrouded in mist suddenly opened their eyes.
“All imperial legions assemble and depart for Etheria!” A tremendous roar echoed across the planet.
This figure was the ruler of the Great Horde Empire, and also Hordak’s own elder brother, Horde Prime.
Hordak’s death was sensed by Horde Prime.
Although Horde Prime did not like Hordak very much — his younger brother was ambitious but far inferior in strength and means.
But that did not mean he would allow just anyone to kill him.
………………………………
Josh, his followers in Etheria, and the anti-Horde allied forces there were unaware of Horde Prime movements. At this time, they were fully focused on mopping up the remaining Horde forces.
Under the combined assault, after some not very fierce resistance, the Horde forces began a full retreat.
It was at this time that Josh glanced at He-Man, who was still tightly suppressing Shadow Weaver’s frenzied output, then shifted his gaze to the excitedly charging She-Ra and Queen Angella surrounded by numerous guards in the distance.
“Bursta, Vereesa, I’m leaving Queen Angella to you. No problem, right?” Josh sent a magical message to his two capable subordinates.
“No problem!” The two exchanged a glance and nodded.
Then, while fighting, they led part of the Jedi Guard and split to flank Queen Angella’s position.
Meanwhile, Josh was slaying the still resisting Horde mechanical soldiers while approaching She-Ra — although the Horde high command had basically collapsed, the Horde basic forces, like Ouroboros, were robots and thus not prone to fear, so they fought desperately to buy time for their leaders to escape.
“Mr. Kane, thank you so much, we’ve won!” Sensing someone approaching, She-Ra turned and saw Josh, instantly lowering her guard and speaking very happily. “By the way, my brother — if he knew you helped us win, he would be very happy too!”
“Yes, this is definitely something to be happy about!” Josh smiled and walked up to She-Ra, then, while she was unsuspecting, delivered a heavy punch to her abdomen.
She-Ra was completely unprepared for Josh’s sudden attack and immediately dropped to her knees.
Before she could recover from the heavy blow, she felt her hand go empty — the divine sword had already been taken by Josh.
“It really is a good sword, but you should sleep for a while first!” Josh examined the divine sword, then poured a mighty divine power into it, instantly sealing it and throwing it into the system warehouse.
With the sword sealed and stored away, She-Ra instantly lost her power and could no longer maintain her transformation, reverting to Adora.
While Josh made his move, Bursta and Vereesa led their men to launch an assault on Queen Angella.
Faced with the sudden attack, the guards around Angella and some high-ranking personnel were immediately defeated.
Queen Angella lived up to her name — her ability was to sprout a pair of angel-like wings to try to break free from Bursta and Vereesa’s encirclement.
However, Vereesa used a special alloy arrow made of Saron evil iron and Vibranium to pierce both wings directly, causing Angela to fall to the ground and be captured.
“Everyone, stop fighting or your queen and princess won’t be safe. And you, He-Man, you don’t want your sister to get hurt, do you?” After capturing Adora and Queen Angella, Josh officially transformed into the Dark Overlord and issued an ultimatum to the Etherians present.
He-Man, who had been focusing all his attention on fighting Shadow Weaver and had been relieved that it was all just his sister’s plan, nearly got struck by Shadow Weaver’s dark magic as she regained her senses.
“Shadow Weaver, you are smart. Hordak is dead...surrender to me, how about it?” Before He-Man could respond, Josh attempted to recruit Shadow Weaver.
Josh had seen the fight between He-Man and Shadow Weaver earlier; her strength was indeed worthy of recruitment.
“I can surrender, but he must die!” Shadow Weaver’s answer was very direct, pointing at He-Man in hatred!
Hearing Shadow Weaver’s resentful tone, Josh suddenly sensed a melodramatic soap opera vibe!