In a neutral shuttle, the hatches on both sides slowly opened.
Seen from outside, this shuttle lay right in the area between the two legion fleets.
Both legion fleets kept a safe zone between themselves and the shuttle in the middle.
And on either side of this shuttle in the middle was a very small mini-shuttle.
Shuttles of this kind could carry only one or two people.
And now two figures slowly stepped out.
Zhao Chen looked at the figure in black armor opposite; even from a good way off, Zhao Chen could feel the menace about the other.
This, naturally, was the most terrifying of the three Sovereigns, the Black-God Sovereign.
And this shuttle was where he would seal the oath-covenant with the Black-God Sovereign opposite.
To keep both leaders safe, no third person at all would be present through the whole proceeding, but every move here was being watched by tens of millions.
And the course of this meeting had been worked out after the two sides' senior think tanks simulated it several times.
"What, aren't you coming to sit down?"
The Black-God Sovereign was already sitting on one of the only two chairs in the middle of this shuttle; luckily the chair was made of rather special material,
or it would never have stood up to the Black-God Sovereign's huge frame.
"I'm only a bit surprised that the legendary Black-God Sovereign isn't so frightening when you meet him in the flesh," Zhao Chen said with a smile, walked over and sat down across from the Black-God Sovereign, and looked the Black-God Sovereign over like an old friend.
The Black-God Sovereign was looking over the man before him just then too.
In that moment, each side was taking the measure of the opponent before him.
"What, am I so very different from the rumors?" the Black-God Sovereign said.
Zhao Chen thought a moment and said, "Maybe it's because the ones who showed themselves for the three Sovereigns before were always the Drought-Fiend Sovereign and the Troll Monarch. You must know what those two look like. So it's come to the point where a lot of people think the always rather mysterious Black-God Sovereign must be… how to put it… a terrifying thing, armored, yes, but covered all over in coarse hair, snorting like a bull, with eyes like a ghost's."
When he had said this, Zhao Chen made a show of looking the Black-God Sovereign before him over; he truly was nothing like the rumors.
There was not even that menace about him.
He shook his head and said, "But now that I've really seen Your Excellency the Black-God Sovereign, I find the rumors outside are wrong. To my eyes, if I hadn't known who you were in advance, I'd have thought at most that you were an ordinary knight… no, something like a knight-commander. Imposing as anything, with a presence to match. And I have to say, that armor of yours is rather handsome."
Hearing Zhao Chen's verdict, Zhao Chen actually heard laughter come from inside the armor.
In the Black-God Sovereign's flat, muffled voice there was a note of wanting to laugh as he said, "It's the first time I've heard anyone say this armor of mine is handsome. But I think once you know how this armor of mine was made, you won't feel that way."
Zhao Chen looked at the Black-God Sovereign with interest.
There was blue fire inside the Black-God Sovereign's helmet, which gave an eerie impression.
Then the Black-God Sovereign said, "This armor of mine was tempered, bit by bit, from the bones of billions of an enemy race of mine."
Zhao Chen looked at the black armor in some surprise; this was actually bone?
"What, don't you think this armor is handsome now?" The Black-God Sovereign's voice seemed to have gone back to its earlier coldness.
"The bones of billions of people, and all that's tempered out of them in the end is one suit of black armor? Are you sure the people doing the tempering didn't skim some off along the way?" Zhao Chen looked as if he were truly curious.
The Black-God Sovereign looked at the Owl Dragon Emperor opposite in surprise; he was truly taken aback by the Owl Dragon Emperor opposite now.
What kind of being was this?
Why did he fix on such different things?
"Ahem… we used a technique of melting it down over and over, so in the end it condensed to the size of this armor now." The Black-God Sovereign did not know himself why he was giving this explanation.
Mind you, he never had this much patience with his own subordinates.
Zhao Chen, for his part, asked like someone after gossip, "Then how big a grudge did you have against this race, to grind them to dust and make them into your armor and wear them?"
At this moment, hearing the Owl Dragon Emperor opposite bring up this old history,
the faces of the Black-God Sovereign's subordinates all changed sharply, for they all knew that history was a memory the Black-God Sovereign did not want to speak of.
Anyone who brought it up before him, if lucky, might only be frozen out, with no chance of promotion for some time.
But if unlucky, they might lose their lives.
It was no joke; there had been cases of it before.
But something unexpected happened.
The Black-God Sovereign actually began to tell it: "That race was my ally; once we fought side by side, in close accord. But once, when I went to war abroad, I took away the great majority of our interstellar legion fleets, leaving only a part behind. When I came back from that war, I found my home destroyed and my people slaughtered, and the one to blame for it all was that ally of mine. They chose the moment our legion fleets left our planets to strike our home star system by surprise. All to swallow up our interstellar territory; they thought we were no match for that enemy, and that even if we won and came back in the end, there'd be hardly anything left of the legion fleets we led. And with such a chance, they could become the mightiest interstellar power in that whole star region. But they never expected that our expedition would be a great victory; we paid a very small price and finished that expedition. We even came back early."
The Black-God Sovereign raised his head, as if lost in memory.
"Because we came back early, we even saw some of our people on our star system's planets still struggling for their last breath then. Those creatures, to cut out the roots, had even used large-scale viral weapons of mass killing on our planets, meaning to wipe out everyone on our planets and leave the planets only for themselves. And back then, I… we had no way to treat that viral weapon. So though we came back in time, when we saw our people tortured by the virus, there was nothing we could do. Do you know what we did then?"
Zhao Chen was silent a moment, then said, "Ended their suffering with your own hands."
When he heard Zhao Chen's answer, the Black-God Sovereign was plainly taken aback; he had probably never expected Zhao Chen to name such a thing.
There was no smile on Zhao Chen's face; it was as if he were standing in the Black-God Sovereign's place just then.
"If it were me, knowing they had no hope of living, and watching them bear needless pain at the end of their lives, I couldn't do it; I'd end their suffering lives myself. Some might condemn it, some protest it. But I'd be willing to bear all the blame for it." Zhao Chen closed his eyes, as if he were there himself.
The Black-God Sovereign looked at this man before him; in his words, it was as if he had truly gone back to that time.
"Yes. I put those people to death myself," came the Black-God Sovereign's distant voice.
In that moment both of them seemed to go back to that moment: taking up a weapon and putting their own people, their own subjects, to death one after another.
After a brief heaviness of feeling, Zhao Chen went on, "And those who betray me, I've always paid back, grudge for grudge. You can tell that much about me, Old Blackie."
Zhao Chen looked at the Black-God Sovereign opposite and smiled slightly.
Old Blackie?
Had the Black-God Sovereign's forehead been showing, black lines would probably have appeared on it just then.
And the Black-God Sovereign did not doubt Zhao Chen's words in the least.
This fellow held grudges like nobody else, to the point of madness.
How else, in less than half a year all told, could he have launched an attack on his Devourer Civilization's home universe?
With any other interstellar civilization, such a thing would never have happened.
"Though I don't have a taste for wearing ashes on myself." Zhao Chen shook his head with a look of distaste, making no effort at all to spare the other's feelings.
The Black-God Sovereign paid no heed to these words, nor to the teasing in them.
And just then the subordinates of both sides watching all this were greatly surprised.
Above all the Black-God Sovereign's subordinates: wasn't this a meeting of emperor and Sovereign?
Shouldn't the air be very heavy, with swords drawn and bows bent?
How was it entirely different from what they had imagined?
The Black-God Sovereign spoke up of his own accord just then: "Having talked of all these things, we ought to talk of the main business of this meeting now. The oath-duel. Let's settle those important terms."
Zhao Chen shrugged and said, unconcerned, "Then let's talk. Do you want to check this thing?"
As he spoke, Zhao Chen brought out a brocade box.
When he opened the brocade box, a special fruit could be seen inside.
The fruit looked rather like two fruits joined together, sharply divided down the middle, one side red and one side blue.
But only by looking at it, they could tell this fruit was out of the ordinary.
Can you imagine a fruit giving off a terrible pressure all its own?
The Black-God Sovereign gave it only a glance and said nothing more.
By the look of it, he accepted this Oath Fruit as genuine.