The Spider Queen

(Alpha Star System- Planet Gaia)

(Peterlor Estate- Study Room)

Two people sat side by side in the study room as the dim light overhead casted dark shadows on the floor.

"No one saw it coming," Duke Peterlor growled softly as a hot wave of anger bubbled up inside his body.

"That piece of shit spent all his days whoring or drinking so who could have thought that the damn fool wanted to kill himself."

"Which is all well and good but why involve my daughter in your mess?"

Cleo stayed silent and listened carefully as the duke ranted angrily about what a garbage human being the emperor was.

There were no fluctuations in her heart as the duke cursed out her father because truthfully, he was nothing more than a stranger.

Emperor Sisrelis had never even bothered to interact with his children, so Cleo had only seen him at a distance during royal gatherings.

The stories about her father's exploits and the way he treated women was more than enough to fully tarnish his image in Cleo's mind.

And she would never forgive that man for putting her girlfriend in danger.

"Anyways…" the duke coughed lightly as he realised that he had gone a bit off track.

"What happened at the banquet was essentially both a suicide and a message. The emperor no longer wanted to live and decided to blow up his dantian core."

"But for some unknown reason he decided to involve all the heirs of high noble blood. It could have been for revenge, a desire for fame or something else…"

"There are multiple warp circles hidden beneath the royal palace in case of emergencies. These warp circles can teleport the emperor and his aides to safe locations that only the royal family knows."

"Emperor Sisrelis activated the warp circle in the grand hall normally but then poured almost his entire qi into the spatial runes in order to overload the circle."

"Was he insane?!" Cleo could not help but gasp in shock.

Warp circles were built with the help of spatial mages and could teleport anyone who stepped onto the runes to a pre-set location.

To activate these warp circles required qi from a void stage cultivator but just enough to activate the runes.

"The bastard poured almost all of his qi into the warp circle and then used what was left to blow himself up," Duke Peterlor replied.

"The influx of qi was too much for the warp circle and the spatial coordinate runes in particular were completely destroyed."

"Everyone standing in the circle was teleported to random locations."

Duke Peterlor could not hide the worry in his voice as he finished telling the story.

It was so incredibly dangerous to mess with the spatial coordinates on a warp circle.

"Have… have… they found any of the nobles yet?" Cleo hesitantly asked in a nervous tone.

The duke paused for a moment before handing Cleo a small tablet on the nearby desk that showed a list of names.

Cleo scanned through the document and her facial expression only got worse and worse.

There were nine thousand five hundred noble heirs who participated in the banquet.

Very few of them were teleported to the same location but that was not the main issue.

The messed up spatial coordinates had sent them to places all across the universe but not all of these locations were able to sustain life.

Some nobles were teleported inside a star and were burned alive under the intense heat. Others found themselves stranded on ice planets and froze to death.

The most common cause of death was from suffocation as most of the nobles found dead were floating around through space.

So far, over sixty percent of the noble heirs were confirmed dead. Ten percent of the noble heirs had been rescued successfully while the remaining thirty percent had yet to be found.

What was truly concerning was the hypothesis made by one of the Archmages responsible for investigating the case.

He said that there was a high chance that a portion of the group were sent outside of Earth Federation controlled territories.

Cleo quickly scanned the names to see what happened to Sophie's group.

The only missing individuals from the group were Sophie and a little girl named Lily.

Chase Morechild, Alexander Nightland, Clara Obsou were all confirmed dead.

Luna Valenburn had been fortunate enough to be teleported to a frontier base in the outer regions, so she was entirely unharmed.

Leona Braveheart was not quiet as lucky as she had been teleported to an unexplored planet in the Hydra Star System.

This planet was filled with savage beasts and the strongest creatures on the planet had the strength to match a cultivator in the qi tide stage.

Leona had barely survived the ordeal and it was nothing short of a miracle that she had not died before help arrived.

According to the report, rescuers found her broken and bloodied body with missing arms, legs, and a deep cut that spliced her entire face open.

She was barely conscious and slipped into a brief coma when the doctors on the starship tried to heal her body.

Leona was currently floating inside a regeneration chamber but wounds like these were easy to repair so there should not be any long- term damage.

"That girl Luna testified that Sophie was holding Lily in her arms so there is a good chance that both were teleported to the same location," Duke Peterlor spoke after Cleo finished reading.

"I've tried my best to track them down using the tracking device I hid in Sophie's communicator, but no signals have been found."

Duke Peterlor had utilised all of his available forces to search for his daughter but so far there was no trace of the hybrid girl.

He didn't even know if she was alive.

Wait…. there was a way he could know… but that method would only work if his precious daughter had lost her innocence.

"Hey Cleo…." Duke Peterlor asked hesitantly.

"By any chance is there a pink mark that is branded on your body?"

"Yeah, I do have a mark but…." Cleo replied with a confused expression but was soon interrupted by a thunderous roar.

"Have you stolen my daughter's innocence?!"