Currently, the universe Halland was hiding in was located at the edge of the White Void. It was desolate and remote, and we had never set foot in it before.
We would usually divide the Void into several regions according to the extent of the Empire's influence. Including the capital of the Empire, the regions that were completely ruled by the Empire and had various military fortresses were known as the Empire's Inner Borders, or simply referred to as the Empire's Sector. It included the universe where the servant army lived and the hundreds of universes that had been built over the past five years. Worlds like the Macro World that were governed by the Empire, but we had not declared our rule over the entire universe were known as the Empire's Vassal Sector, or the Empire's border. Yes, we had a rather vast border, which was rather insane. Beyond the Macro World, the regions that were not under the Empire's rule, but were monitored by the Empire's reconnaissance forces or scanning systems were known as the Outer Borders. This region was nicknamed the "Low Security Zone." Basically, once you reached the Outer Borders, you would not receive any military protection from the Empire, and it would be difficult to even ask for help from the Macro World. Apart from the Imperial Army, civilians would never easily go to the Outer Borders.
Beyond the Outer Borders, there was an endless expanse of the Void. Excluding the territories of the Galacticus, the Huron Protoss, and the Fallen Apostles, this unexplored Void was collectively known as the "White Zone."
Knowing nothing and having no protection, the information about this place was as clean as a piece of white paper. This was the White Zone.
The world that Halland was hiding in was located at the border between the White Zone and the Outer Borders. We had never set foot in this world, but if its information deviated by another ten percent toward the Empire's territory, it would fall within the range of the Garden of Departed Worlds' daily rational scanning.
This world was still quite a distance away from the universe where we had discovered our homeworld. This was something that comforted both Sandora and I. It seemed that Halland had not found anything in the few days she wandered here, and there was a huge gap between the information they had on our homeworld and the actual situation. Sandora was worried that if the two sides went to war and the scale of the battle reached a certain extent, it would endanger the clues to our homeworld. Now, it seemed that there was no need to worry about that for the time being.
In the few hours that we had rushed from home to the frontlines, Sylvester had sent a large number of probes and three waves of scouts into the universe that was as airtight as a jar by the Imperial Army. She had wanted to use this opportunity to investigate Halland's plan against the Imperial Army, but the situation within the World Barrier seemed a little strange.
"We saw the Fallen Apostle's spaceship moving around the Prime Material Plane for a short while," Sylvester reported to Sandora. "They must have discovered the probes and the Imperial Army outside the World Barrier, but they quickly hid in deep space or some kind of dimensional fold and disappeared. This universe is very strange. It should have been formed naturally, but the space within it is not stable. I have detected large-scale dimensional folds opening and closing as if there are many small sealed worlds inside. These things don't seem to be formed naturally. Perhaps a civilized civilization stayed in this universe for a short while and modified its structure. "
"And now Halland is hiding in one of those dimensional folds?" Sandora looked at Sylvester.
"Yes, all of them. They're not preparing to break out of the encirclement, nor are they preparing to attack. Hiding in the dimensional folds is only a temporary measure of safety, and it's not smart to rely on such a method to fight against the Imperial Army. Moreover, Halland clearly has enough troops to face them. What he's doing doesn't seem like a normal …"
"Doesn't seem like a normal soldier of the Imperial Army." Sandora nodded. "He doesn't even care about basic military knowledge … Alright, let's not care what Halland thinks for now. Either way, the Imperial Army is going to fight their way in. Let's talk about the situation in this world. It doesn't seem to be just a little abnormal in its dimensional structure. I saw traces of intelligent life. "
Sandora pointed at the holographic projection on the officer's platform. It showed a dark and slightly red space, and there were clearly man-made objects in space. It could be some sort of space station, and it was definitely not produced by the Empire.
"Yes, Your Majesty. There are natives here, and they've spread throughout the universe." Sylvester's expression was still full of confusion. "That's the most puzzling part. Halland doesn't seem to have disturbed the natives at all. He's been lurking in this world for a few days, but … I haven't seen any signs of this world being damaged."
The Fallen Apostle is staying in some world harmlessly? I understood what was going on with Sylvester's expression.
"Has he made contact with the natives?" My sister suddenly interrupted.
"Not yet," Sylvester replied. "Most of our attention is focused on searching for the Fallen Apostle. The natives' technological level is average, and they haven't grasped the technology to jump out of this universe. They're a species with limited potential, and before we deal with the enemy before us, the Imperial Army doesn't have the extra energy to pay attention to them."
In other words, Sylvester knew nothing about the natives of this universe. I could understand her standard Schilling way of thinking, and the biggest problem now was to deal with Halland, the natives of this universe. As long as they calmly watched and didn't get involved, the Imperial Army really didn't have the extra energy to look after them. But I still felt that it was better to make contact with the natives. They had already spread throughout the universe, and even though they hadn't jumped out of this world, they were considered civilized by the Empire's standards. If the Imperial Army and the Fallen Apostle were to fight, they would definitely be discovered by the natives. If I made contact with them in advance, I might be able to avoid a lot of trouble.
"The besieging troops continue to interfere with the World Barrier. I request that the relay station be operational for twenty-four hours." Sandora thought for a moment, then ordered, "The main force has begun to descend into the Prime Material Plane. I'd like to see if Halland can continue to hide safely at this time."
As it turned out, that fellow really could!
When the Imperial Army's main force swaggered into this universe, and even after they had quickly set up their positions, the Fallen Apostle didn't even show his shadow!
"We've confirmed that we haven't detected any response from the enemy — it's within the entire universe," Sylvester reported from the commander's seat.
I gaped. "Not even the slightest movement? Even if it's a scout or a probe, it'd be fine! "
"There's no movement at all. The Fallen Apostle didn't even release a probe, and we didn't even detect any radar reaction from the enemy." Sylvester confirmed the data in front of him once again, then nodded at me solemnly. "They're like ostriches with their heads buried in the sand, pretending that they don't exist …"
This time, even Sandora was a little helpless. "What the hell is that Halland doing … Prepare a broadcast to the entire universe."
The communications department immediately prepared a high-energy broadcast tower. This giant tower installed on the arm of the Empire Admiral could allow psionic energy to reverberate throughout the universe in the form of signal waves, easily broadcasting to the entire world without any delay. Sandora wanted Halland to come out and fight immediately. She ordered for the broadcast to be set to the Halland Army's own frequency. This frequency was intercepted by us during the previous battle at the border. Using this frequency to broadcast was in itself a serious provocation. However, after the Imperial Army announced that this universe was under their control and requested the Fallen Apostle to immediately fight, Halland still pretended that she didn't exist and hid in a certain dimensional fold …
I suddenly suspected if Sylvester's information was wrong. Were the remnants of Halland's troops really in this world?
Sylvester immediately vouched for the accuracy of the information with his life. Not only was she sure that Halland's army was somewhere in this universe, she definitely hadn't escaped. Thus, we carried out a second broadcast. This time, the content of the broadcast was a friendly suggestion from Icetis. The wording was especially simple. "Halland, come out and fight if you have the guts!"
Of course, the enemy still didn't make any move.
This wasn't the reaction that a Schilling soldier should have, but no one knew what happened to Halland. In the end, Sandora ordered the construction of a space fortress and began scanning the entire universe. No matter where Halland was hiding, he would have to come out and fight sooner or later after all the spatial anomalies in the entire world were analyzed. I really didn't know what was the point of him hiding like this. Was he planning to create a new battleship that could go against the Empire's army in a few days?
Or … was he using this time to recharge the King's Landing fleet?
The last possibility was the only possibility, but I soon felt that it wasn't very reliable. If Halland had any brains, he would know that he was currently on the run. It was common sense for the King's Landing to constantly recharge. After all, it was better to reduce the lifespan of the spaceship than to be destroyed. So, he probably wasn't hiding to recharge the King's Landing.
No matter what, the interception that should have been quick and intense fell into a temporary stalemate due to Halland's abnormal actions. After the two sides entered a stalemate, I shifted my attention to other parts of the universe.
The next day, I began to look at the various scenes that the probes had captured from deep space, as well as the space scenes that were captured using the spaceship's observation equipment. What I saw was very surprising.
I saw an unusually old world that was on the verge of decay.
When the fleet first arrived, I noticed that the starlight in the surrounding space was dim, and I could barely see the stars and distant nebulae. At that time, I thought that the fleet had just teleported to an area with few celestial bodies, or that the universe itself had few celestial bodies. However, when the images taken by the probes were sent to me, I realized that it wasn't that there were few celestial bodies in this universe, but that all the stars had entered their twilight years. This world had entered its later stages, and the star creation in the entire universe was on the verge of stopping. We didn't see bright nebulae because those nebulae had exhausted their fuel and resources. Ninety percent of the stars they created had extinguished, leaving only dim embers. According to the probes, the universe was still expanding slowly, but the rate of expansion was almost stagnant. According to the calculations of the spaceship's mainframe, the total amount of matter in this world was at a critical point. Its final destiny was to stop at a certain point in time, neither expanding nor shrinking, becoming a solidified space. All the celestial bodies in it would extinguish one by one after a long time. In the end, this universe would become a dark bubble with infinite entropy, and no phenomenon would occur. When the flow of information completely stopped, it would quietly be swallowed by the void.
In my room, I flipped through the images from deep space one by one. The little doll hung on my body didn't understand the images at all, but she pretended to be very professional.
In this aspect, she was quite similar to me.
A universe that was about to die of old age. The scene was bleak.
Space was filled with ancient black holes and cooling matter. The dark images taken by the probe in deep space were not completely empty. There were a large number of black holes. The high-density celestial bodies formed after the death of stars had completely occupied the starry sky of this world. From the number of black holes, we could deduce that this universe must have had a pastoral era where stars twinkled. At that time, the active celestial bodies in space must have been several times more than those black holes.
In space, we could also find some things that were emitting light and heat. They were some dark red celestial bodies: red dwarfs. These stars that had exhausted their fuel but were not enough to form a black hole were burning at an extremely slow speed, squeezing out the last bit of energy in their bodies. Some of them had completely dried up, and now they were only releasing the heat stored in their bodies. These low-temperature stars were like little lamps on black velvet, flickering with an ambiguous shimmer as the universe fell. The end of this universe belonged to the most classic doomsday scenario: cooling.
There were many ways to end a universe, and there were three main ways to end a natural and natural death: expanding to a great tear, collapsing to a singularity, or just right at the critical point, slowly cooling in the state of a black bubble. The cold of space would kill everything. The world before me was slowly facing the third type of doomsday. Of course, this "facing" was viewed from the perspective of the evolution of the universe. For this world to completely cool down to the point where all living space disappeared, it would still take about a hundred million years. Those dim red dwarfs still had some time before they were completely extinguished.
And the last natives of this universe were living around those dying stars.
According to the images collected by the probe, there were settlements around those dim star embers, including natural celestial bodies and man-made space fortresses. The remaining natives of this universe lived there, gathering around the cooling red dwarfs to collect the star's energy. It was like refugees huddling around a small pile of embers on a winter night for warmth. The only difference was that there would be no sunrise on a winter night, and the embers in front of them were the last bit of fuel in this universe.
"If it wasn't for Halland, we would have started to evaluate the natives of this universe."
I gently raised my arm and flipped up the little doll that was resting on my elbow. Bryndis was right. I should teach this child some things. Even if she couldn't become a commander, as a member of the royal family, she should at least understand some basic principles — — I can't have an ignorant and incompetent brat in my family. They are already bratty enough right now …
"Doomsday apple?" The little puppet was already confused by the blurriness of the space pictures and the messy labels on the pictures. At this time, it almost sleep-walked as it replied to me, "I don't like apples. They're too big, and I have to hold them to eat them …"
I was speechless.
After I repeated it to the little girl, she became interested. "What's that?"
"This universe is gradually dying." I pointed at the things on the MDT. "Look at these dark red light balls. They are red dwarfs. If you can see the dark lines on their surface, it means that the red dwarfs are dying. The total amount of matter in many universes is limited. There are only so many materials that can be used to create stars. Now that this world is dying, after these stars die, there will be no new stars in space. However, the natives of this world have yet to master the technology to jump out of this world. "
"They will die, right?" The little doll thought for a while. "I remember. If a civilization is dying, and the Empire is free, they will lend a hand."
I felt that there was something wrong with the little doll's understanding, but it was basically what she meant. "Something like that, but it's not as simple as lending a hand. Any rational civilization belongs to the Order Faction. In the face of the abyss, all creatures of the Order Faction belong to the same faction. The Empire is based on this logic, and will help other species. Err, let's not talk about the 'helping method' of the old Empire. In short, the Empire has a specialized evaluation group and logical system to determine the degree of guidance a civilization needs. If the evaluation results are that the natives of this world do not have the ability to research interdimensional technology, then they may be directly sent to a new world to live. If the evaluation results are that they can make technological breakthroughs with limited guidance, then the Empire will help them create interdimensional navigation equipment. But no matter what kind of assistance, unless the target civilization is willing to become a vassal of the Empire, we will not monopolize the civilization. The last rule is a new rule added by the New Empire. "
The little doll seemed to understand and nodded. Then, her eyes were suddenly attracted by an image on the MDT. She suddenly grabbed my arm in surprise. "Hey, look at this. It's so bright! Is this an artificial sun made by the natives? "
I quickly turned back the image that I had just skipped to. It was a deep space image that had just been uploaded by the probe. The probe should be passing by a dead star system. It glanced at the nearest red dwarf and uploaded a picture about ten seconds ago. In the middle of the picture was an almost completely extinguished sun, which was very far away. In the lower left corner of the picture was a close range planet. There was a particularly bright spot above the planet that caught the eye.
I looked at it for a long time and felt that the spot looked familiar. I immediately directed the probe to take a few more looks.
A minute later, the image that the probe had observed was transmitted to me in real time. I was stunned.
That spot was not an artificial sun made by the natives, but an … an EOP-03!!
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