The Ninth Prince was escorted by two Golden Behemoths as he stood staggering in front of Martin. His luxurious robe was covered in dust, and his face still showed the embarrassment of his previous struggle.

Hearing Martin's contemptuous laugh, he subconsciously straightened his back and let out a muffled roar from his throat: "Hun Ji! Number One! Number Two! Where did you all end up?!"

In the empty command room, only his own voice echoed, without any response.

Martin sat in the chair that originally belonged to the old emperor, tapping the armrest lightly with his fingertips, his eyes falling on him as if examining an object.

"Stop shouting."

His tone was calm, but with unquestionable certainty.

"Do you think the Five Soul Princesses are loyal to the royal family? They are nothing more than weapons bound by your core program."

"Now that the First and Seventh Princes have been killed, their core programs have been rewritten by me. They will only obey the orders of their new controller."

The Ninth Prince's face turned pale instantly, his lips trembled, but he couldn't utter a word.

He finally realized that his last support was gone.

"Now I give you two choices."

Martin leaned forward, a sharp glint in his eyes.

"First, cooperate honestly and mark all the defense nodes and hidden resource points in the Matrix Galaxy that you know of, and assist me in completing the takeover."

"After the matter is accomplished, I will allocate you a remote small plane. Everything there will be yours to decide. It will be enough for you to be your 'king'."

He paused, and the tapping of his fingertips suddenly intensified. "Second, continue to resist."

Before he could finish his words, the alloy table next to him suddenly shattered silently, and powder-like debris fell to the ground.

"Then you, your imprisoned father, and the last bloodline of the entire royal family will completely disappear from this galaxy."

The Ninth Prince looked at the pile of metal debris and trembled uncontrollably.

He knew that Martin was not joking. This man could overthrow the old emperor's rule, so he would never care about crushing one more surviving prince.

"I...I choose the first one."

He finally lowered his head, his voice full of humiliation, but he dared not resist anymore.

Martin nodded with satisfaction and raised his hand to signal the guards to let him go.

“A wise choice.”

He pushed a holographic map in front of the Ninth Prince.

"Let's get started now. No more tricks. The Golden Behemoth can sense the changes in your body."

The Ninth Prince took a deep breath, stretched out his hand tremblingly, placed his fingertips on the map, and began to mark the secret nodes that only the core members of the royal family knew.

Outside the command room, the takeover of the Matrix Galaxy is proceeding in an orderly manner, and the last piece of the puzzle of this power change is finally slowly put into place amid threats and compromises.

Three days later, in a huge laboratory, a pale golden energy flow lingered at Martin's fingertips, slowly infusing it into the fusion of the Dragon Knight and the "Sand of Time".

The light and shadows of the dragon knight and the fragments of time intertwined kept flickering, and every alternation between light and dark was accompanied by the crisp sound of bones healing and the hum of surging energy.

"Stabilize the core frequency..."

He muttered to himself, sweat beading on his forehead. Inside the fusion body, fragments of the dragon knight's armor were recombining with particles of the Sands of Time.

It forms a brand new substance with flowing patterns, which has the hardness of armor and the agility of quicksand.

Outside the Matrix Galaxy, in the meeting halls of several higher-level planes, holographic projections were looping the footage of Martin breaking through the core defense.

"One week... the Matrix Galaxy is finished?"

The lord of the wizard plane clenched his scepter, his crystal-encrusted nails digging deep into his palm.

"That guy was able to integrate all the resistance forces within three days and reconstruct the energy core within five days. Such efficiency..."

"Stop talking nonsense."

The messenger from the ancient plane pulled his hood and spoke in a hoarse voice.

"If we keep arguing about who should be the leader, we will be the next to be defeated."

"Pass on my order. Immediately enter Level One alert. At the same time, open the plane channel to accept the combined forces of the Wizard Plane, Xuanhuang Realm, and M79 to station there."

Martin knew nothing about this at the moment. He was concentrating on guiding energy to repair the cracks on the surface of the fusion body.

When the last line lit up, the dragon knight's helmet slowly rose, and golden flames condensed from the sands of time danced in his eye sockets. Martin breathed a sigh of relief and leaned against the console to rest.

Eric bowed and said, "With His Majesty personally in charge, the experiment is progressing 30% faster than expected."

"But... if all the Cluster-level Dragon Knights fuse the power of time, will it cause an energy overload? After all, the stability of the Sands of Time is still on the edge of critical value."

Martin's fingertips ran across the suspended data stream, and his eyes fell on the golden light dancing in the cabin.

"The critical value is the breakthrough point. Have you forgotten the lesson from the dark matter belt last time? Only in the torrent of energy can a true controller be forged."

He paused and called up another set of parameters.

"Add three layers of recoil barriers to the cabin, and have Del Luna try to reverse time—starting from an old wound on the dragon's left wing."

Inside the cabin, Del Luna's voice came through the energy field with a hint of tremor.

"Your Majesty, the Sands of Time are devouring the bloodline factors in the dragon's blood... It feels like being torn apart by time and space."

Martin raised his hand and pressed the red button, and a dark purple barrier instantly enveloped the cabin.

"Don't be afraid. It's a game of two forces. If you can get through it, you can make the dragon's breath carry the mark of time. Just think about it, a breath that can go back three seconds, who can avoid it?"

Eric looked at the soaring synchronization rate on the data panel and murmured, "If successful, the Star Cluster Knights will become a sharp blade that spans the past and present...but this is the price..."

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