Northern Border of the Venzula Empire.

Latis Belt.

500 light-years away from the border of the Andromis Imperium Empire.

Somewhere in the Latis Belt.

Several celestial bodies were either clustered together or widely spread across the place. One star in particular was very large. Several structures spiraled upwards on this star. These structures were tall, metallic, and sleek.

A spaceship pulled over this star.

In the spaceship, a tall, pale-skinned fellow with void-like hair and eyes, in a long coat, jeans, and sneakers was staring into the void. This person was naturally Kailen. A month after he dealt with Xesla and the assassins, he had finally arrived at the mission destination. This was the outpost.

Kailen was currently trying to access the outpost before he decided whether or not he should move into the outpost. He had activated his principle of space. He could only scan a very small portion of the outpost. From the small area he was able to scan, Kailen found out that, at least, the part of the outpost he could scan was completely abandoned.

"No signs of life. Completely deserted. Also, no dead bodies, signs of blood, or corpses present. Communication signals and systems are on, but they’ve been abandoned. So no one is left here to transfer signals back to the empire. It’s either those stationed here were completely annihilated by someone, or they fled this place in fear of something extremely terrifying. Whichever of these two is the case, someone did not want them to be here."

A glint of realization flashed through Kailen’s eyes.

"It seems I need to go in and observe the outpost better," Kailen thought. He put his spaceship in his secret realm. After that, he melded with the void and disappeared.

Kailen appeared in the streets of the outpost on the star. Currently, he was standing in one of the streets of the location he had previously scanned with the principle of space. Since this place was completely empty with no signs of life, it was the safest place to begin his intelligence gathering from.

Kailen moved through the streets, entering one of the sleek metallic skyscrapers in this place.

"I need to see if I can find the security footage left behind. That could give me some clues." Kailen appeared in one of the large conference rooms of this skyscraper. Several holographic screens lined the place. The holographic screens revealed several sections of this building, giving a detailed view of various sections of the skyscraper.

"This place was most likely a security room or something," Kailen thought. He went through the footage of the building.

For a while, there was nothing until he found something dating back to a couple of months before now. In the footage, everything was going on well in this building. Personnel were normally carrying out their duties. Nothing special. Just usual drills, patrols, and meetings.

Suddenly, something unsettling happened. The footage seemed to blink before it appeared again. By the time the footage appeared again, no one was in the building, according to what Kailen watched. Every person in the building had disappeared.

"I see," Kailen thought. "Someone eliminated the personnel here for some reason. However, the attacker did not want anyone to find out who they were. So, they deleted the part where the footage captured their attack out of the footage. This was why the footage blinked, and when it reappeared, no one was in the building. The attacker had left by then after eliminating those here. It’s safe to assume that this most likely happened across the whole outpost, not just in this building. But, I need to try and explore the other parts of the outpost to be sure of this."

Kailen disappeared from the building. He melded with the void and reappeared at a completely different place of the outpost. He used the principle of space to scan the place and the surrounding vicinity of the place.

The conditions of the place were the same as what it was in the previous location. No signs of life. Completely deserted. No signs of blood, struggle, or battle. He checked the footage in several buildings at this region of the outpost. The results were just like that of the previous ones he had observed in the first place he had arrived at in the outpost.

"So it confirms my theory. No need to explore this outpost completely. Who knows what sort of trouble I could run into. Staying here too long could be dangerous. At least, this much of intel is enough to help me report in. Time to... wait..."

Kailen suddenly squinted his eyes. He melded with the void and disappeared from the outpost completely.

He reappeared on a floating asteroid a few light-years away from the outpost. From there, he could observe what he had seen carefully without being noticed.

"Who are these fellows?" Kailen mused to himself as he activated emotional resonance. He needed to get every bit of information he could from these people. It seemed that with the appearance of these people, it was clear that the intel he had gathered was not complete.

Kailen observed them. At the same time, he didn’t forget to covertly use a video recording nanotech device to record them as intel proof when he handed in the intel to the Venzula Empire Academy Intelligence Agency.

There were ten men and five women. They were a mixture of different races. They scanned the outpost with cautious expressions. It was as if they wanted to be sure that no one was watching them.

A slim, tall elf with an arrogant bearing walked forward. "The coast is clear," he said. "Also, none of them survived. Are you guys content now?"

The others nodded.

A female vampire with a seductive feel to her walked forward, winked at the tall elf, and said playfully, "We just wanted to be sure that they were all dead. Since we discovered that natural secret realm first in the Latis Belt, we could not have the Venzula Empire operatives stationed here come to discover it too. The best course of action was to eliminate them so that they don’t discover it and report about it to their superiors."

A human with an intimidating build nodded to the female vampire’s words and added, "Yeah, Junior Brother. You did well. Since we are certain of that now, we can safely report the discovery of this natural secret realm to the academy. The Andromis Imperium Empire Academy will reward us greatly for this discovery. After all, a secret realm of this caliber is not something one can normally discover. It’s a pity it’s too dangerous for us to explore it on our own. However, the rewards the academy will give us for discovering it will be worth it."

Everyone nodded. After that, they all turned into streaks of light and disappeared from the outpost, headed towards another direction.

Kailen listened to their conversation, confirming their words aligned with their thoughts by using emotional resonance.

"They are not lying. So, they are students of the Andromis Imperium Empire Academy. The elf is the one who eliminated those here. From what they are saying, it’s now clear why he was so covert about it. The reason he killed them is also very clear from their conversation," Kailen thought. "This natural secret realm must be something else. It seems that this intel I’m about to report will cause an uproar between the two empires in the future. But that’s the empire’s business to worry about, not mine. I should head back and report in with this intel. Mission is done here."

Kailen left the floating asteroid, took out his spaceship, entered it, and bolted off.