The battle had already entered its final stages. The Fallen Apostles were completely defeated, and they no longer had the capital to make a comeback. The Glow Circle's fleet had just destroyed the last batch of enemy gunships that had the power to resist, as well as eliminated all of the enemy's shield nodes. After losing the Joint Shield, the Fallen Apostles were divided into several hundred areas that could not be taken care of at the same time by the imperial assault fleet, and they were slowly killed. The most important reason why Sives didn't use heavy firepower to bombard the Fallen Apostles who had already lost the ability to retaliate was that I planned to capture the enemy's high-ranking commander alive. Let me put it this way. Ever since I captured the Carlo brothers alive, I've become addicted to this matter. To deal with this bunch of mysterious Fallen Apostles who were brewing shocking conspiracies, capturing one alive was much more valuable than capturing a hundred dead ones.
Not to mention that we had a chance to capture an emperor alive. This made my heart jump with joy.
Sandora and I sat in the assault ship and warped into the enemy's formation. As the enemy's gravity trap generator and shield nodes were almost completely wiped out by the Radiant Circle, the assault ship was able to warp unimpeded in this region. The Radiant Circle was truly a good item. It was practically a meat grinder when it was killing the enemy soldiers who were on the brink of death. As the assault ship traversed through the battlefield, I could see the enemy battleships passing by suddenly shrink into a small dot before exploding into a small flame. Sives was currently commanding the 7th Fleet to escort us. Before we landed on that dark planet, I and Sandora had to conserve our stamina as much as possible because Halland wouldn't just sit there and wait to be captured.
Outside the porthole, there were battleship wreckage floating in space, as well as incessant flashes of explosions. The assault ship had already entered the enemy's final gravity trap zone. Now, it was traversing through an area densely packed with wreckage using conventional methods. The ship's mainframe agilely avoided the metal fragments that were rampaging about in space. My line of sight passed through the lifeless wreckage zone, and I could see psionic light beams sweeping through space in the distance. It seemed that some battles were still ongoing on the battlefield. Busy battlefield reports could be heard through the communication link. It seemed that every combat team was progressing smoothly. Right now, the battlefield was all concentrated within the Fallen Apostles' base. It could be said that the battle was already over.
Looking at the floating wreckage outside and the occasional flash of light that broke through the darkness, I slowly calmed down. This was probably the result of my constant training: before a battle, my heart would be as calm as still water.
I suddenly thought of something worth being happy about, so I nudged Sandora's arm. "Actually, it's all thanks to Halland's reset that our losses in this battle were actually reduced. The second battle ended much faster. Both the Dark Forest tribe and the Imperial Army didn't suffer as much as the first battle."
This was something I had just thought of. In the first battle, even though we were on the brink of victory, we suffered great losses when dealing with the King's Landing fleet. The Dark Forest tribe even suffered a crushing counterattack. After Halland reset the battlefield, the Imperial Army and the Dark Forest tribe were all revived, while the Fallen Apostles only had their regular units revived. One-third of their King's Landing warships were still paralyzed. Furthermore, in the second battle, under Xiaoxue's guidance, we adopted an even more effective tactic: We didn't hesitate to forcefully attack Levalette's Ring of Return. This caused the Fallen Apostles to collapse even faster after losing their highest commander. In the end, Halland's Ring of Return ability instead helped the Imperial Army and the Dark Forest tribe recover some of their losses. Even though it wasn't much, the result itself was already quite ironic.
"Halland probably didn't expect the prophet's power to be so strong that he could see through his weaknesses in just a few minutes." Sandora revealed a calm smile. "Furthermore, his reset ability was ineffective against something of the King's Landing level, but it was effective against almost all the units of the Imperial Army and the Dark Forest tribe. He overreached himself … Wait a minute, I suddenly feel that although his army's battle awareness has returned to normal, Halland himself doesn't seem to be clear-headed. Logically speaking, he shouldn't have made such a mistake."
Sandora was really concerned about this problem. She began to rack her brains. In the end, she came to a conclusion. "Hmm, Halland is still sleepwalking. He essentially revived all the enemies just now, and then caused his army to die again …"
Personally, I thought that Sandora's conclusion was very accurate. So, the reason behind the intense battle just now was such a blunder?!
The assault spaceship passed through the sporadic crossfire, and finally arrived above the dark planet without any danger. The planet had already split into a pile of fragments floating in space, but the strange thing was that they were still connected to each other, instead of scattering in all directions like a normal planet would when it exploded. Just from this point alone, it could be seen that the Glory Starship wasn't a 'natural celestial body' of the mortal world. The shattered planet was covered in terrifying rifts that ran through the entire planet. Through these rifts, we could see the dark red flashes of the planet's core, as well as the lightning that leaped between the fragments of the planet. I carefully controlled the spaceship to descend into a large canyon that led straight to the planet's core. Sandora focused her mind to sense the surrounding environment. When we were already close to the planet's core, she suddenly said, "It's nearby."
I found a protruding metal platform nearby and parked the spaceship on it. Then, for the first time, Sandora and I stood on solid ground on a Glory Starship belonging to the Fallen Apostle.
The metal platform looked like a component of a broken bridge. One end of it extended into the air, and below it was the dark red planet's energy core. The other end was connected to a pitch-black warship corridor. I looked around, filling in the gaps in my mind's eye to see what this place looked like before it was torn apart. The internal structure of each Glory Starship was different. Visca's Glory was a hollow fortress with complete military facilities. Sandora's Glory only had light and energy. Halland's Glory was like a giant spaceship. We were now inside this broken planet, and from the fracture on both sides, we could see many structures that looked like warship corridors. However, in theory, there were no ordinary soldiers stationed inside the Glory Starship, so I didn't know what the purpose of these corridors was. Did Halland use them when he sleepwalked?
"Stay alert. I think he is nearby," Sandora said through the mental link. "And he has woken up."
I didn't know how weak Halland was, but in theory, an emperor who had just been defeated in his Glory form would definitely be stronger than an ordinary officer. According to Sandora's metaphor, the Glory Starship was just a dream to the Shiring Apostles to distort reality. (This metaphor was a bit problematic, but since Sandora had used it, let's not dwell on the details.) I boldly guessed that Halland's current weakness was similar to low blood pressure after waking up.
Then, I prepared to fight according to this standard.
"This place looks strange. Has Glory always been like this after it was destroyed?"
I observed the surrounding environment and noticed some strange phenomena. The edges of the broken pieces of the planet were trembling, and the further away they were from me, the more obvious the trembling was. The metal bridge under our feet was very 'real', but the alloy cliff hundreds of meters away was a blur. This phenomenon seemed to have just occurred. I didn't notice this strange phenomenon when I drove the spaceship down. Apart from that, I also noticed that the broken ground in the far distance was gradually becoming transparent. There was a broken floating island about one or two kilometers away from here. Through it, I could even see the flash of an explosion in the distance.
"The Glory Starship is a product of distorted laws, so when it is destroyed, it does not leave a wreckage, but slowly 'collapses' in the real world." Sandora easily broke off a piece of the nearby alloy cliff. With a wave of her hand, the seemingly sturdy black alloy turned into a puff of smoke and disappeared into the air. "As it gradually collapses, the Glory Starship will produce all kinds of strange phenomena. And because of the reversal of the microscopic and macroscopic scales, these strange phenomena will show different scenes depending on the observer, so it's not strange to see anything. In fact, what you see will be slightly different from what I see. Everything here is between reality and illusion, so you don't have to pay attention to what you see with your eyes. "
I nodded, not really understanding, and decided to put the details aside. Just as I relaxed a little, a flash of light suddenly swept past me!
"F * ck!" I instinctively grunted, and then narrowly dodged the flash of light. The flash of light swept past where I had been standing, leaving a gash on the alloy bridge that almost cut it in half. In the end, it struck the cliff in the distance, causing an intense explosion. The thin gas inside the broken planet echoed with a series of rapid, muffled explosions.
Then, there was a chain reaction of explosions in all directions. The broken plates of the planet seemed to be bombarded by something invisible, and it was obvious that Sandora and I were at the center of it all!
The already fragile alloy cliff was hit hard, and it shook violently like a collapsing castle on the beach. Large pieces of metal fell from the upper edge of the crust like a storm, all the way to the boiling red core of the dark planet. Everything was shaking in all directions. Sandora and I had no choice but to leave the ground and fly in the air to stabilize ourselves. Very soon, I noticed more abnormalities around me. The gravity was distorted, and the broken alloy cliff was distorted. There seemed to be a problem with the surrounding space and optical phenomena. The falling metal pieces kept changing their size and shape as they fell. A few seconds later, I realized that the optical phenomenon of 'perspective' had gone out of control. Their surroundings started to turn upside down. If it was as Shadora said, the Glory Starship was a 'Xi Ling Dream' that was used to distort the real world, then this dream had now turned into a nightmare, and they were in a state of confusion where they were on the verge of waking up.
In the chaos, I heard Halland's calm and clear voice directly in Sandora and my mind. "You are looking for me, right?"
"You are finally willing to come out." Sandora completely ignored the chaotic scene around her. She looked at a tall figure that gradually appeared in the air not far away: Halland.
He was a tall and strong middle-aged man, wearing the full attire of Emperor Schilling on formal occasions: the emperor's military uniform, ribbon, command knife, and a gun. For the Shiring Apostles, the more formal the attire, the more they needed a full set of military equipment. I had seen the video of Halland's message in the Green Star database. His real appearance seemed to be colder and more solemn than in the video. Now, the fighting desire and cold gaze in the eyes of this Halland were not present in the video I saw that day. Of course, this may also have something to do with the Abyss Claws that Sandora had just revealed and my void form.
I found that after Halland appeared, the speed of the collapse around me slowed down. When his figure completely materialized, the distorted gravity and optical effects also returned to normal. The cliffs that were about to completely collapse stopped trembling, and even some of the metal fragments that had fallen halfway were returning to their original positions. It seemed that the appearance of Halland had restored some of the 'vitality' of the collapsing dark planet.
"I didn't expect this to happen to me." Halland didn't look nervous at all, even though he was in a terrible situation and it seemed that he couldn't defeat either me or Sandora. "Haha, I have been muddle-headed for a long time. The first thing I saw when I woke up was your army. This is terrible."
Sandora's gaze changed slightly. The other party seemed to have confirmed a fact. Then, she smiled faintly, "You can't run away. The space outside has been sealed layer by layer, but I don't think you are willing to surrender."
I nodded, "You have the right to resist. Anyway, we will beat you until you can't take care of yourself."
Halland didn't say a word, but took a few steps back. I thought that it was time for him to use his ultimate move, so I prepared to fight. However, the other party's attack method stunned me. Hundreds of space vortexes suddenly appeared in the sky from all directions. The first thing we had to face was an overwhelming number of floating cannons!
Hundreds of rectangular floating cannons the size of Alto lined up to form a wall and bombarded me and Sandora at the same time. Halland took the opportunity to retreat quickly. Wherever he passed, the space kept cracking, and a large number of fixed cannons and floating cannons appeared like ghosts in the dark. There seemed to be an endless number of them. I instinctively activated my shield to block. After a while, the speed at which the shield was being depleted was shocking. The floating cannons were far more powerful than they looked. Plus, when a large number of cannons were stacked together, the power was not as simple as one plus one!
A large part of the alloy cliff behind us was instantly shaved off by the fierce cannon fire. The violent explosion completely obscured our vision. Amidst the intense flashes and annoying metal fragments, I could no longer see Halan's figure. I could only use my spiritual power to scan him to determine his position and condition. I was a little annoyed. "Why does this fighting style look so familiar?"
"Pandora isn't the only apostle who uses floating cannons and cannons to fight." Half of Sandora's body had already turned into an abyss form. She casually released a gray shockwave, which tore apart the most powerful floating cannons. She even opened up a hundred-meter wide exit in the encirclement. However, in less than a second, the encirclement was sealed off by more floating cannons.
Not only did Halland release floating cannons, but she also released small-scale warp disruptors and gravity traps. These devices had limited effect on me and Sandora, but they were still very annoying. Of course, the most annoying thing was the large number of cannons. They were much more powerful than Pandora's cannons. Plus, their attacks were numerous and varied. Some of them weren't cannons, but they were actually miniaturized mathematical rate effect generators. In order to counteract the chaos caused by those things, I had no choice but to release my Void Domain. It was obviously very taxing on my stamina. I hadn't recovered from the battle with the King's Landing army. This was a really frustrating situation.
Now, I kind of understood how frustrating it was for those who were crushed by Pandora's firepower. Once there were so many floating cannons, it would definitely be a nightmarish battlefield. They could attack from all angles and were extremely agile. Plus, their numbers could be replenished at any time. You had to face the situation where you couldn't dodge, and before you won, you would be bombarded indiscriminately. You would have to face the constant bombardment of cannons. Everything you did would be carried out under the constant bombardment! The power of a single floating cannon might be limited, but when they were grouped together, they could unleash the combat power of a fleet. Plus, the various cannons that the Shiring Apostles created weren't just simple "firepower weapons." The uniqueness of psionic energy caused these weapons to be hyperdimensional attacks. I didn't just have to deal with the cannons at the same time, I also had to deal with the constantly collapsing spatial structure!
On top of that, I also had to deal with Halland's strange power. Until now, I still didn't know how to accurately describe Halland's power. He was kind of like the combination of Pandora's firepower and the Storm Commander. He could control a shocking number of floating cannons to carry out powerful bombardment, and he also had the ability to control information like the Ring of Return. Now that he had left his Glory state, his Return power seemed to still be effective. More and more floating cannons were destroyed by Sandora and I, but I didn't notice that Halland didn't have any inventory left. After careful observation, I was sure that he had recovered his losses!
Of course, we couldn't just be bombarded like this. So, Sandora and I prepared to find an opportunity to break out of the encirclement. However, this seemed to be a little difficult. The floating cannons were abnormally agile, and the encirclement they formed was extremely flexible. Every single cannon had the ability to warp. The first time that Sandora and I tried to break out of the encirclement, we chose the wrong direction, and we weren't fast enough. As a result, tens of thousands of floating cannons formed a firepower net that plowed through more than 1300 kilometers of the earth's crust, and we were still in the center of the firepower net.
The storm-like cannons continued to bombard us. As far as the eye could see, there was no place for us to stand. I was responsible for providing defense, and I used energy to slightly reduce the number of floating cannons (the latter didn't have much effect). Sandora, on the other hand, used her powerful destructive power after turning into the Abyss to unleash shockwaves everywhere. We flew across the collapsing earth at dozens of times the speed of sound. Halland's cannons followed closely behind us like a tornado that carried a storm and thunder. I did a quick calculation and realized that we had almost circled the entire planet …
It seemed that Halland had the upper hand. He was chasing after us, but Sandora didn't look depressed at all. She even had a cold and calm smile on her face. In fact, Halland didn't have any chance of winning. My and Sandora's current goal was to exhaust each other's remaining spiritual power. I was very sure that Halland was almost at the end of his rope.
There was a reason for this. So far, these floating cannons could only be considered a "threat" to Sandora and me, but they weren't lethal. No matter how advanced these weapons were, they were just conventional cannons. Even Pandora had a lot more advanced equipment. Could it be that Halland only had floating cannons? As an emperor, if the other party only had these floating cannons and that auxiliary "reset" ability, it was obviously not enough. So, I was afraid that Halland was really strong on the outside. If he had any ultimate moves, he would have used them long ago.
There was another series of continuous explosions. I seized the opportunity and used my energy to detonate the cannons on a nearby floating island. I pulled Sandora and dashed out of the encirclement before more cannons could close in.
Almost at the same time when Sandora and I dashed out, countless space cracks appeared in all directions. More floating cannons and warp disruptors began to lock down the space. Sandora seemed to be tired of this messy battlefield. The golden light behind her instantly expanded to thousands of kilometers. "Even the inanimate should listen to my command!"
Everything in the surroundings suddenly stopped. The Soul Snatcher's will swept everything like a gale. Everything in the world, regardless of whether they had spirits or not, submitted to her.
This included dust and Halland's cannons.
I looked around. The place had changed beyond recognition. The shattered plates of the planet had been blown up into countless floating platforms. There wasn't a single piece of land that could even be called a floating island within my sight. Due to the previous bombardment and the constant blast from Sandora, we had unknowingly blown up a large piece of the planet.
What was more worth complaining about was that half of it had been blown up by Halland himself. He was really cruel to himself.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
