A tall man sat on top of the tallest skyscraper in a city with buildings that were primarily skyscrapers, while enjoying the city's night view in front of him. This city was similar to a modern city on Earth, with beautiful parks scattered in many parts of the city and flying vehicles passing among the buildings.

Slung across his lower back was a longsword with the width of a half-span adult man's hand and longer than his height, sheathed in a black scabbard. The longsword's hilt was black, long enough to be held in two hands freely, decorated with red ornaments, a golden lantern-like carving on the end of it, and a crossguard decorated with a sturdy golden carving. He wore a sleeveless black knee-length overcoat, gloves, trousers, and boots. From the front, his overcoat was open in the middle, and behind it, he wore a sleeveless black T-shirt.

Seen from behind, he received a call and took out his touch-screen cellphone from the pocket behind his overcoat; it had a light-blue, transparent glass shape with a black frame only at the bottom. From his smartphone, another man's voice was heard.

"All preparations for our battlecarrier starships fleet have been completed, sir."

The man in the overcoat didn't react much.

"Good; await my next orders."

The man on the phone replied in a respectful tone.

"I understand, sir."

The man in the overcoat then ended the call.

The man in the overcoat stood up from his seat and looked toward the sky. Above the majestic city before him was a vast metal ceiling with a sturdy metal framework all over it. It filled the sky with a view of the faraway surface, indicating that this city was inside something massive. He was the leader of a battlecarrier starship fleet, and the city in front of him was inside one of the massive battlecarrier starships, along with an unknown number of other battlecarrier starships.

The man in the overcoat walked toward the elevator behind him and entered; the doors then closed automatically. The elevator hovered upward steadily toward a huge metal double door in the city ceiling directly above it, which opened and closed automatically as the elevator passed through.

Sometime later, the man in the overcoat walked into an expansive commander's room. He stood alone in this room, observing the huge monitors on the right, left, front, back, ceiling, and on the floor where the monitors were split in the middle by a metal bridge with a higher surface, as well as curved screens in the upper right, upper left, lower right, and lower left corners of the room so that most parts of the room were monitor screens. These screens displayed the scenery outside this battllecarrier starship according to its actual directions.

These monitors displayed a view of a star-studded expanse of outer space, with red cloud patterns and enormous numbers of massive battlecarrier starships of various shapes moving together in an alert formation. These monitors displayed that the battlecarrier starship on which the man in the overcoat was aboard moved among these massive battlecarrier starship fleets until, finally, it was at the forefront.

Girom galaxy, Helix star, the Lantern Space Pirate Alliance territory.

From behind, the man in the overcoat had long hair tied back as long as his back with his bangs parted to the right and left of his forehead as long as his head. Slung across his lower back was a longsword sheathed in a black scabbard. From the front, this 30-year-old man was from the human race; he was Nolan Arthemar, the captain of the Swordman space pirate and the supreme leader of the Lantern space pirate alliance.

Nolan used a hand gesture to raise a translucent screen, supported by a metal frame, from the floor near where he stood. The screen displayed a male humanoid with maroon skin, reddish-black hair, and three horns that lined up from the front, back, and on the top of his head. The person on the screen was one of the fighter starplane’s pilots and the leader of the Scout Number Five team from the Lantern Space Pirate Alliance. Nolan’s expression turned curious.

"What is the current situation in our territory?"

The Scout Five pilot replied with a respectful tone.

"Safe, captain. There are no signs of trespassing. We'll continue to conduct patrols around the vulnerable parameters."

Nolan crossed his arms, and he appeared to realize something.

"Good, how about the news of our guest of honor?"

The Scout Five pilot nodded.

"The overseer team reported that if they're still where they are, we should go to them."

Nolan nodded.

"Good; please continue your scout mission."

The Scout Five pilot replied in a respectful tone.

"Understood, captain."

They ended the call. Nolan operated the monitor before him and contacted one of his pilot crews via voice connection.

"Direct the alliance to the Wervas planet."

The male voice on the communication line replied in a respectful tone.

"Understood, captain."

They then ended the call.

On the outside of the battlecarrier starship where Nolan was, this starship was massive in size, with the body's overall shape spanning backward in the middle; its right and left parts of the body resembled right-angled triangular wings on the right and left of the thicker main body of the starship. The part of the starship's body that formed the wings was longer than the starship's middle body, whose excess part was at the rear of the starship with several massive jet engines. The front of the starship was blunt, covered with sturdy carved armor pieces, and was the main battlecarrier starship of the Swordman space pirate.

Something depicted on one side of the battlecarrier starship was a black, sharp-toothed skull with long hair, as if drawn with a writing brush, and curling down the skull and red eyes. It was the Swordman space pirate’s emblem, with dozens of other battlecarrier starships that fell under the symbol of the Swordman space pirate.

The massive battlecarrier starships of the Swordman space pirate group fleet were also joined by several other massive battlecarrier starship fleets. These other groups of battlecarrier starships had various shapes: some were shaped like right angle, some were like bow guns, some were like flying wings planes, some were spanned backward with massive bodies of wings on the right and left sides, and all of them were covered in additional armor pieces that followed the battlecarrier starships’ body shape all around the starships equipped with heavy surface weapons with the size equal to three building stories, such as laser cannons, laser rotary cannons, energy missiles, etc., some of which were visible on the battlecarrier starships’ surfaces, while others were hidden under their additional armor pieces that could open, shifted, with their gaps widen or narrowed.

Other groups of battlecarrier starships also had symbols that were the same on several starships, indicating that these starships were members of the same space pirate group. There were dozens of various symbols in these combined groups of battlecarrier starships, indicating that there were several groups of space pirates in this combined fleet, with hundreds of battlecarrier starships. These battlecarrier starships were accompanied by fighter starplanes that resembled fighter jets and flew in countless numbers around these starships.

Inside half of these massive battlecarrier starships were beautiful cities, like inside the battlecarrier starship Nolan commands, and all of these starships were members of the Lantern Space Pirate Alliance. These battlecarrier starships and fighter starplanes flew very fast, but not at the speed of light. These starships and starplanes pass through a very long cylindrical tunnel made of expanses of miniature versions of galaxies and stars, with white lights at both ends of the tunnel. Nolan’s expression turned curious as he thought.

"The Ancient Artifact technology made intergalactic travel the norm, but the exact path to a certain region is still in the discovery phase. Because of this technology, countless areas of outer space in the universe can be connected, giving many advantages. However, it also brings chaos and wars. Thanks to this technology, little secrets of the universe are starting to be revealed."

These battlecarrier starships and fighter starplanes were getting closer to the white light in the distance in front of them. Nolan looked at the surrounding monitors, which displayed the massive tunnel outside the starship as he thought.

"If I look at it again, what place is this tunnel exactly? How do these tunnels connect locations in the universe that are extremely far away? As far as I know, this artifact is only known for its uses, but how they work, how they are manufactured, and who made them are still unsolved mysteries, even though decades have passed. Many genius researchers from several corners of the universe still have not been able to solve its mystery…."

Nolan's expression turned serious. He crossed his arms while propping his chin with his left hand as he thought.

"The situation in the universe became even more uncertain after the news regarding the path from the ancient Artifact map leading to the Starless Region was discovered. Many warring parties expanded their territory, and on top of that was the war between Dzyranth and Titan, whose effects continued to expand. It is only a matter of time before their war threatens the universe…."