This military conflict that rapidly escalated without any prior signs brought me many suspicions. From why did the Fallen Apostle suddenly appear in this region that was far from their territory, all the way to my inexplicable state of 'Void Wandering' before the start of the war, everything was strange. On the surface, these matters didn't seem to be related at all, but after being tempered a thousand times by that f * cking fate, I'm already used to thinking about a series of conspiracies from anything that seems out of the ordinary. Let me put it this way, ever since I became the emperor, whenever I see the price of pancakes going up, I can associate it with the end of the world …
Hopefully, this time, it was just a superfluous thought from my brain.
Syves proposed to launch an attack before the Fallen Apostle's follow-up troops arrived. If this was a normal battlefield, this would definitely be a suggestion that would be worth breaking down first before asking questions. In a situation where the defending side was uncertain of the attacking side's military strength, or when the enemy's follow-up troops would arrive on the battlefield, they would give up the defensive advantage brought by the world barrier and their own position, and forcefully attack the attacking army. This meant that they would be caught unprepared by the enemy's follow-up troops at any time, and it would be extremely easy for them to lose their position. This was one of the thousand ways to die for a foolish commander in the textbooks of the Space Warfare Command Department of the Military Academy.
However, this wasn't a normal battlefield to begin with. With a prophet as an adjutant, the number of the enemy's follow-up troops, their organization, and even the time and location of their arrival on the battlefield would be clearly exposed to our army. Many actions that seemed risky and didn't conform to military conventions could be carried out safely.
After pondering for a moment, I agreed to Syves' suggestion. However, I ordered for the assault to be delayed. The Fallen Apostle should know that we had prophets here, and their commanders were never fools. The enemy should have guessed that the Imperial Army had grasped the situation of their follow-up troops, so they might suddenly rush out from the world barrier and carry out a 'mad dog assault' at any time. That was why the Fallen Apostle's defensive awareness was extremely strong. Their main cannons were likely to be charged and on standby, and the ejection ports were filled with single-soldier battleships and assault ships that were already at the first level of preparation. If they launched an assault at this time, the chances of them being repelled would be too high.
Setting the assault time to be an hour to half an hour before the enemy's follow-up troops arrived on the battlefield should be the crucial time for the Fallen Apostle's defensive awareness to decrease … That was only in theory.
"This is … a subtle stalemate," I said as I looked at the time on the command support interface. In the final few hours before the great battle, there wasn't the slightest bit of a stifling atmosphere in the command hall. The people here were all seasoned officers and soldiers, able to remain as calm as still water when faced with any scale of battle. The lower level adjutants were currently reporting the status of the various troops to their superiors, and the intelligence officer was monitoring the fragmented encrypted signals from the Fallen Apostle's side again and again. I believe that the other side was doing the same thing. The senior commanders of the combat forces had received the order to prepare for attack. They were ordering their respective fleets to slowly adjust the output of the Order Generator to ensure that they could jump to the critical point of the World Barrier the moment they launched the attack. That was the only 'layer' where they could attack Void targets without having to enter the Void. In such a world offensive and defensive battle, it was the ultimate strategic point of the meat grinder. This was the calm before the storm. The soldiers loaded their guns, but it was still calm.
"We are the defensive side, but we are accumulating power and waiting for action. The Fallen Apostle has made a long-distance assault, so we are now in a defensive formation." My elder sister seemed to be very relaxed. She even had the leisure to prepare black tea and snacks for everyone on the military officer's platform. This calmness calmed my slightly agitated mood. "It is all thanks to Xiaoxue."
Xiaoxue was still standing at the forefront of the military officer's platform with a solemn expression. She wore a commander's cloak as she overlooked the fleet on the holographic projection like a female general. However, after her elder sister finished speaking, she couldn't help but sway in place.
"Stop praising her, or else she wouldn't even know what her surname is." I muttered to myself while thinking about how to make the Fallen Apostle's commander lower his guard. Or rather, how to make them believe that the Imperial Army wouldn't launch a surprise attack. Very quickly, I discovered that this was an extremely contradictory problem. Our advantage was that we had the prophet overseeing things, while our disadvantage was that … the enemy already knew that there was such a special unit in the Imperial Army. As long as they chose the most cautious … I mean, the most wretched battle method and didn't reveal any flaws, then even if Xiaoxue were to display her full strength, the Imperial Army would only be able to face the Fallen Apostle in the most conventional way. Both sides wouldn't use any fancy warships to bombard each other and would use brute force to decide the outcome. This couldn't completely eliminate the imbalance brought about by the prophet, but it had already offset the prophet's effects to the greatest extent. Just like now, we had grasped the movements of the Fallen Apostle's follow-up troops. In theory, it was possible to launch a surprise attack in advance. However, as long as the enemy continued to maintain their turtle-shell-like defensive line …
At this moment, it seemed that I could only use my brain a little.
"Sives, push the fleet of the Heavy Defense Force up and activate the Combined Shield. Mothership phalanxes on the flanks, raise the anti-air cannons to the deck." I came to Xiaoxue's side and gave an order to the command center below. "Royal Fleet, switch to defense mode."
"Your Majesty …" Sives was stunned. "You want the fleet to switch to full defense? Give up on the surprise attack? "
"No, it's for the Fallen Apostle to see." I lowered my head to look at the Information Terminal in my hand, which displayed the specific abilities of the various troops in the Mystery Army. "The enemy doesn't know that we have a group of Archmages, right? How long can the wide-area concealment barrier last before the Fallen Apostle? I want one that can hide a fleet. "
"One ship …" Sives didn't know what I was planning, but he quickly replied. "It can probably only last for a few minutes. The enemy's radar system isn't just for show. The camouflage we set up right before their eyes can only last for five to six minutes at most. This amount of time isn't much in a battle … "
"That's enough." I clapped my hands. "Have Aura and her bees prepare to create a massive scene. Where are the leaders of the Magic Vanguard and Arcane Law Enforcers?"
"Your Majesty, Odemsius is on standby."
"Rena is on standby."
Two people stood up from the officers' seats in the circular command hall. One of them had a dazzling arcane radiance in his eyes. It was Odemsius, whom I had met many times before. He was originally stationed in the Celestial Realm, but this veteran commander of the Magic Vanguard had brought along his newly produced troops to join the Sixth Army. Beside Odemsius was a tall female officer with wheat-colored skin and bright silver short hair. She wore the uniform of a Mystical officer. This was a rather unfamiliar face, but she should be one of the 301 Mystical officers who had woken up in the Celestial Realm back then. Currently, there was a shortage of high-level Mystical Apostles, and those who held important positions in the various armies were basically part of the "New 300" back then, just like the officers that Pandora had brought with her when she first rebuilt the army. This female officer named Rena seemed to be the highest ranking officer of the Arcane Law Enforcers.
"I have a special mission for you …"
The calm before the storm had already lasted for several hours. The two opposing sides maintained a stalemate in the most unique battlefield environment. The Fallen Apostle's fleet had opened up an orderly field outside the world barrier, while the fleet was holed up in defense. They were surrounded by the boundary between the void and the world. The Imperial Army, on the other hand, had formed a defensive formation in the material world. They had no intention of taking the initiative to attack. The world barrier lay between the two warring sides. One side was located in the void (the Fallen Apostle), while the other side was located in a dark nebula (the Imperial Army) somewhere in the universe. Such a strange battlefield was probably completely unimaginable for ordinary civilizations. The battle between the void and the material world had already exceeded the scope of any kind of worldview.
Right now, there were only forty-five minutes left until the time predicted by the prophet, when the enemy's follow-up troops would arrive on the battlefield.
The Fallen Apostle's defensive formation had not changed. Perhaps their commander had relaxed a little, but they still did not dare to confirm whether the Imperial Army would really maintain their defensive posture until the moment the two sides officially exchanged fire.
And at this moment, a situation completely out of the enemy commander's expectations appeared!
Outside this cosmos, another orderly field with an unknown identification signal suddenly appeared. It didn't belong to the imperial fleet, nor did it belong to the Fallen Apostle, a third party orderly field that abruptly appeared in the void. Within a range of ten information deviations, a large amount of mass reaction was currently rapidly increasing, the entire process only taking a short dozen or so seconds. The Fallen Apostle had clearly discovered this rapidly expanding orderly field at the first moment. If it was their usual style, at this moment, as long as the other side was not on their side, they would definitely have thrown a lump of heavy firepower over. However, they were now in a critical moment of confrontation with the Imperial Army. Any rash action would be seized by the Imperial Army. Thus, in these short ten seconds, the enemy commander made the decision to be fully alert but not to move. This was completely within his expectations.
This third orderly field that had suddenly appeared and rapidly expanded finally reached a stable critical point. Following that, the mass within it fell from a state of void travel to a state that could be observed. A large number of strange and indescribable 'spaceships' appeared in this orderly field.
These 'unfamiliar' spaceships did not seem to be the starships of the Imperial Army or the Fallen Apostle, nor were they magical spaceships of the mysterious side. They were not even any known things that could run around in the void. They had all kinds of strange shapes and were simply like abstract paintings. The messy and colorful aggregates were piled up randomly, forming 'lumps' that ranged from a few kilometers to over a hundred kilometers in size. If not for the obvious technological traces of the orderly field they were in, these messy aggregates could simply be seen as children's graffiti floating in the void!
The appearance of these 'third-party spaceships' on the battlefield left the Fallen Apostle confused. They probably would not have thought that another group of troops would suddenly appear out of nowhere. Moreover, they were bold enough to barge into the battlefield of the strongest civilizations in the void. Then, these 'third-party spaceships' did two things that left the Fallen Apostle commander even more dumbfounded.
These geometrical objects first opened fire on the Fallen Apostle.
Then, they opened fire on the Imperial Army.
It could be said that the inconceivable things that happened before their eyes had completely disrupted the almost deadlocked balance on the battlefield. The Imperial Army did not react for a moment, while the Fallen Apostle's fleet had fallen into chaos. This third fleet that had suddenly appeared, completely from an unknown faction and technology system, actually indiscriminately poured fire on all targets on the battlefield. This illogical thing finally made the Fallen Apostle unable to maintain its original stable formation and had no choice but to turn to counterattack.
They instinctively thought that this was a group of ignorant youths who had just broken out of their own universe and wanted to start a war everywhere. They thought that the Imperial Army would be as distracted in the face of such a rash attack, so their warships on the periphery began to adjust their weapons and launched a 'counterattack' against those strangely shaped geometrical objects.
At this time, half of this strange battlefield was in the void environment. The Fallen Apostle's fleet was attached to the world barrier. They did not enter the orderly universe, but instead relied on the orderly field to fight the enemy in the void. The unknown 'third-party fleet' also relied on the orderly field to fight the Fallen Apostle in the void environment. If it was in the depths of the void, this kind of battle would not have started at all, because any weapon would be disturbed by the void, causing its accuracy and power to be reduced to zero. The chaotic phenomenon of information in the void would cause one's lock-on system to be unable to aim at any target with a different frequency from one's own orderly field. It would also cause the principle of weapon destruction to fail outside the orderly field (unless one's weapon directly used the void as a combat resource, but obviously, conventional weapons could not reach this level). But now, due to the special battlefield environment, both warring parties were attached to the world barrier of an orderly universe. By relying on the orderly effect of the world barrier on a certain area around it, the weapons of the Fallen Apostle and the third-party fleet could still produce destructive power. So, they started fighting in such a muddled situation.
The appearance of the third-party fleet completely messed up everything.
A few seconds after the Fallen Apostle exchanged fire with those strangely shaped geometrical 'spaceships', he immediately realized that he had made a fatal mistake. Those colorful and strange things were unbelievably fragile. Almost the weakest of the warships' main cannons, which had been reduced to only 20% of their power by the void, could destroy them in one shot. Those things that seemed extremely daring and dared to suddenly rush up and slap the faces of the Imperial Army and the Fallen Apostle were all mirror images!
However, at this time, the Fallen Apostle's defensive line had already revealed a flaw. In order to face those strange enemies of unknown origin and combat power, some of their warships on the periphery had diverted their attention. The commanders of these spaceships might have thought that the Imperial Army would not attack at this time because those guys that suddenly appeared had also attacked the Imperial Army at the same time. But in fact …
We completely ignored the so-called 'attack' of the third-party fleet. From the beginning, we knew that they were all mirror images. Moreover, they were 'absurd mirror images' that had no combat power at all.
Those strange geometrical objects, as well as the seemingly powerful orderly field, were created under the special power of the Leader Bee and the Mystery Apostle.
Mysterious Apostles had many unusual powers. Compared to the straightforward and powerful technological type apostles, they were more proficient in dazzling 'tricks' and techniques to seize victory through unexpected means. The Arcane Vanguard and the Arcane Law Enforcer were proficient in manipulating arcane techniques and mathematical laws. They had mastered these two skills to perfection and used them to create large-scale 'Mirages'. These 'Mirages' were phantoms in the void. They relied on meticulous information models to make themselves appear as if they really existed. The biggest difference between 'Void Phantoms' and ordinary phantoms was that they would show different appearances depending on the observer. No matter who saw those phantoms, they would be convinced that they saw something that posed a huge and indescribable threat.
These phantoms didn't even have anything to do with any senses, including sight. They directly manipulated 'existence' itself.
Even the cutting-edge radar created by Schilling technology couldn't distinguish these things in a short amount of time. Moreover, the Fallen Apostles didn't know that there was already a large group of spellcasters in the Imperial Army's fleet. They didn't even associate it with this long-lost technology.
The Sixth Fleet's Arcane Vanguard and Arcane Law Enforcers created a 'Mirage' that was as large as a mothership. The Leader Bees duplicated it into an army and threw it to the Fallen Apostles' side. Then, these illusory shadows simultaneously launched an 'attack' on the Imperial Army and the Fallen Apostles, using the greatest chaos to confuse the enemy's judgment.
When the enemy finally discovered that they were fighting against a group of mirror images, they immediately tried to correct their mistakes. However, due to the outpouring of firepower, the stability of the Fallen Apostles' Order Field had already fallen to the point that it could be disturbed. In the void environment, the decrease in the stability of the Order Field would cause the objects in the field to rapidly fall toward the nearest Order World. When the Fallen Apostle's commander saw the Imperial Army's main cannon begin to charge, he must have realized the source of those phantoms.
"Order Field Trapping Commencing! The enemy fleet is falling toward this world! Estimated time of contact with the world barrier in five minutes! "
"Weapon system charging complete. The enemy fleet will begin free attack after entering synchronized world view!"
"High energy response detected. The enemy fleet's weapon system is changing direction. The assault force has entered the battlefield!"
A group of heavy assault ships left the formation, but they didn't open fire in any direction. These spaceships flickered a few times near their respective motherships before suddenly turning into distorted light and shadows and disappearing into the universe. Almost in the few seconds after these assault ships disappeared, the order of the universe within a radius of several light years began to collapse.
The vanguard troops had already begun an intense battle with the enemy at the location of the world barrier. The storm of the higher dimension leaked to the lower dimension, setting off a storm that could destroy stars. The strength of the world barrier was rapidly declining, causing the void to uncontrollably clash with the order of the universe. This universe was like a pot of boiling water that was rapidly evaporating. With the Imperial Army's formation as the center, the space of several light years around it was this' pinhole 'that caused the evaporation.
The battle had begun.
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