A thoughtful silence settled between them, broken only by the distant, fading echoes of battle. Rex's gaze was fixed on the pulsating gems now secured within the golden circle of his power.

"Let me see if I understand," he murmured so only he and Cleo could hear. "The very thing we need to secure our future is hidden inside those... those things?" The implication was a heavy weight in the air.

"If that's truly the case, then farming them with our current strength isn't just difficult; it's a straight path to annihilation."

Cleo offered only a single, solemn nod, her silence more confirming than any words could be. It was a grim truth they now had to bear.

Rex straightened his shoulders, and when he spoke again, his voice cut through the weary atmosphere like a sharpened blade, yet to the exhausted soldiers, it sounded sweeter than honey.

"Listen up! Gear up and prepare to move! We are returning to base!" The order was met with a wave of palpable relief. Not a single soul among them wished to spend another minute in this hellish landscape, where demons born from the abyss itself clawed their way toward them in an endless, nightmarish tide.

And after the staggering display of might Rex had just unleashed, no one dared to question his command. The soldiers looked upon him with a mixture of raw fear and reverent awe, their eyes wide with the memory of the power he had wielded.

But for Rex, their stares were nothing but background noise. The only sight that held any meaning for him was that of Cleo standing steadfast beside him.

The journey back was a brutal, five-hour gauntlet of relentless attacks. The convoy was a moving target for the ceaseless waves of void creatures, a desperate caravan forcing its way through a living storm of shadows and claws.

They paid a bloody toll for every mile gained, leaving behind the wrecks of several vehicles and the bodies of good men. When the high, fortified walls of the base finally became visible on the horizon, their hope was crushed by a new despair.

What greeted them was not a sanctuary, but a battlefield. Countless void creatures of every imaginable size and horror were swarming the defenses, attacking without end.

"General!" one of the convoy officers shouted, his voice ragged with exhaustion. "What are your orders? Do we keep pushing toward the base?"

As if in answer, the air above them crackled with immense energy. The Light Destroyers, silent sentinels floating in the smoky sky, opened fire. Lances of pure energy rained down upon the swarm, carving temporary firebreaks into the seething mass of enemies.

A moment later, the base's own Noble Champion emerged, a brilliant figure wielding a weapon forged from planetary energy, and he hurled himself into the fray against the largest of the monstrous beings.

Rex's eyes calculated the chaos. "We make our move once the ships cease their bombardment," he commanded, his voice calm yet firm.

"Charge now, and we'll be blown to pieces right alongside the enemy." Even as he spoke, he gestured, and a colossal wave of shimmering planetary energy shot forth from him, a scything blade of light that cleared a temporary path through the creatures directly ahead of them.

The bombardment ceased as abruptly as it had begun. Seizing the fleeting opportunity, Rex's convoy surged forward, forcing their way through the thinning but still furious sea of void creatures.

It was a brutal, grinding push, and they suffered more losses, but finally, with a collective gasp of effort and relief, their vehicles crossed the defensive perimeter. The massive gates groaned shut behind them, and for the first time in hours, the soldiers allowed themselves to take a full, shuddering breath.

Without a moment's pause, Rex strode toward the command tent with Cleo at his side. He pushed the flap aside. "Where is the Champion?" he demanded of the noble officer inside.

The man was having the damaged section of his power armor replaced by a guard, his own arm missing from the shoulder down. He looked up; his face was pale but resolute. "As you can see, he has not returned from the expedition."

"You are the first to make it back." His eyes darted around Rex and Cleo, searching for something desperately important. "Where are the gems? I don't see them."

"They remain secured within the convoy's main vault. They are safer there," Rex stated, his tone leaving no room for debate. He met the noble's anxious gaze squarely.

"We secured two. Obtaining more was impossible. The gems are housed inside the Tier 5 void creatures." He let the significance of that hang in the air for a moment. "They are far too dangerous and difficult to kill."

"Tsk, since the majority of us are already here, how about we leave this place already?" the noble champion asked as he looked at Rex's once-white armor that was covered in purple blood from the void creatures.

"You're suggesting we leave the champion here? do you want to betray him?" Rex looked at the noble while raising an eyebrow, but not like the noble could see his face thanks to the helmet.

"This is not about betrayal! , cant you see I already lost a whole arm while fighting those creatures!? he would be dead already! you only could make it back safely since you two are Tier 5s but he's alone there!" The noble shouted out while standing to his feet.

"What you say is right; each passing minute we lose more soldiers and were winning nothing, if it wasn't because my husband brought with him two void gems, this whole expedition would be a total failure."

The one to answer the noble was none other than Cleo, who usually kept quiet, but seeing that the conversation could turn sour, she decided to mediate between the two of them. "How about this? my husband and I will help you defend the base for another five hours, if the champion doesn't come back, we leave."

"What do you all think about this?" Cleo looked at the two of them while awaiting their answers.

"Very well, I will follow my wife's suggestion." Rex took a seat after giving his answer.

"Fine, I agree to your plan, only five hours! not more and not less!" After saying that, the noble got out of the command tent to join the fight once more with his elite guards.

The third hour was just beginning to wane when a solitary, limping figure emerged from the swirling, corrosive mists of the void.

It was the Champion... and he was alone. The entire scout force he had led out with such determination was gone, vanished, their fates written in the grim solitude of his return.

His powerful armor was a shattered wreck, scorched and torn, and the man within was bleeding from a dozen wounds. The only light in his tragic return was the single, pulsating void gem he clutched in his hand.

That gem told the whole story without a single word needed; Rex could see the cost of its acquisition etched into the Champion's broken form and the profound emptiness behind him.

His return was the signal. There were no more debates, no more compromises. The evacuation, already prepared, began in earnest. Soldiers streamed onto the waiting transports with a disciplined haste born of pure survival instinct.

Rex and Cleo, the only two Tier 5 combatants still standing with their strength intact, became the rearguard. They were the unbreachable wall, holding the line against the relentless tide of void creatures as the last of the personnel and equipment were secured.

For a single, fleeting moment, there was the relief of escape, the deep, collective exhale of having cheated death.

But... no sooner had they entered the clear void of space than the proximity alarms blared, a shrill, panicked chorus.

The main viewport shimmered and then resolved into a terrifying vista... they were completely surrounded by a formidable war fleet, its countless ships blocking every possible escape vector.

"My lord!" a communications officer called out, his voice tight with fresh panic. "There's an incoming hail from the lead vessel. Should I answer?"

In the command center, the Champion, now being tended to by frantic medics, gritted his teeth. His body was broken, but his will was not. "Do it," he growled, his voice a ragged whisper. "Let us hear what jackals have come to scavenge our spoils."

The screen flickered to life, revealing the smug, polished face of a man who had never known a day of true hardship. "This is an envoy of the Free Colonies," the man declared, his tone dripping with condescension. "If you value your continued existence, you will immediately surrender the void gems in your possession."

Rex watched silently, his mind working. The 'Free Colonies' was a grand, misleading name for a hydra-headed entity, a loose and fractious conglomerate of warlords and corporations.

Their internal politics were a bloody, daily shuffle of power, but they were united under a single, shadowy overlord who commanded their collective military might. Thanks to their brutal, militarized economy, they were the second most powerful force in the galaxy, and they were now blocking the path home.

"Hmph!" the Champion spat, shoving a medic's hand aside to point a trembling, bloodied finger at the screen. "Why should we bow to you? Are you not afraid of the revenge Nexum Dynamics will unleash upon you?"

A beat of silence was followed by a chorus of derisive laughter from the other side of the transmission. The envoy and his officers looked at one another as if the Champion had told a hilarious joke.