Unsurprisingly, the reconnaissance of the nebula could not be carried out.
Regardless of whether we sent out automatic probes, sent out scouts, or even activated Avalon's world-view targeting system, our vision could not penetrate the layers of energy barriers within the gigantic cosmic structure. All the probes that penetrated deep into the nebula had lost contact without exception, and Avalon's world-view targeting system could only return a bunch of bizarre, garbled codes. This could only mean two things: first, the defense of the nebula was extremely strong. Every inch of space within the three-light-year radius of the nebula was under the cover of the rebel army's firepower. If a small-scale reconnaissance team entered, they would not even be able to last long enough to take a picture before being killed. Second, the nebula was protected by a powerful barrier. This barrier was not unfamiliar to us — information shielding. Just like the world we were in, which could not be observed through conventional means, the nebula itself also had an independent information shielding. Any information about its interior could not be scanned through long-range means. Some kind of unidirectional information flow rule made a world like Avalon blind, unless we could also place a Crystal Virgin Mary as powerful as Sakura in the nebula.
The mysterious summoning that Sylvia received was temporarily determined by us to be a message from the core of the nebula. Preparing for the worst was the wisest decision under such circumstances. But the good news was that we had more or less ruled out the possibility of normal apostles being affected by it. Miss Lin's contribution in this process could not go unnoticed. Although she was far away in the City of Shadows, she still successfully used a highly targeted prophecy to deny the theory that the signal from the nebula would brainwash normal apostles into becoming rebels.
However, there were still other shadows in the scene that Lin Half-deity saw. There was indeed something extremely dangerous in the core of the nebula, and that thing could indeed release some kind of continuous message that targeted the Shiring Apostles. Sylvia might have been affected by this message because of her extremely weak soul. This made us a little worried that something might happen to a certain silver-haired person who was half a beat too slow. Fortunately, Shallow Shallow's simple mind easily found a solution: she prepared two bottles of special "sleeping pills" that were effective on the Shiring Apostles for Sylvia.
Just like how half a kilogram of watermelon lozenges solved Visca's problem of speaking after releasing helium flash, a few sleeping pills solved the former Queen of the Empire's mental problems. Without a doubt, this was a victory for prescription drugs.
The few failures in scouting the great nebula might have alerted the enemy. More and more frequently, we detected energy explosions on the side of the great nebula near the Eastern Sky. This meant that the rebel army's unmanned battleships were setting up defenses there. Although the latter didn't have the ability to think logically, their "war reflex system" had a certain learning and memory function. When the great nebula was continuously spied on, even the brainless unmanned battleships began to prepare traps specifically designed to deal with the empire's scouts. What was worse was that as the number of battles with us increased and the experience of being defeated increased, the "intelligence" of the rebel army seemed to have been gradually enlightened. They began to set up planned traps, feint attacks, periodically change the size of the patrols in various areas, and even took the initiative to ambush our hunting teams in various parts of the universe. Every time they made a tactical mistake, similar mistakes would be avoided in the next battle. This caused the success rate and single battle results of the empire's surprise attacks against the rebel army to plummet. The effectiveness of guerrilla warfare had been pushed to its limits, and now the focus of the war was gradually shifting to the main battlefield.
It was also because the Empire's reconnaissance squads would learn a lot from every failed operation, so we had no choice but to temporarily stop spying on the nebula. If we wanted to attack the enemy's main camp, we would have to wait until we greatly reduced their numbers.
While all of this was going on, the frontal assault against the angel army was also underway.
Speaking of which, it was laughable that the incomparably powerful Empire's army had to use the term 'frontal assault' to deal with the 'simple and primitive' ordinary race like the Angel Pirates. This caused Weska and Pandora to express their displeasure more than once, but we had no choice but to use such an attitude to deal with an ordinary race that didn't have much combat prowess. Fighting, how frustrating.
This was all because of the ancient equipment that the Angel Pirates possessed.
First, they could summon an overwhelming number of rebel warships. When they went all out, those desperadoes could even instantly summon hundreds of rebel motherships and tens of thousands of rebel fleets to fight to the death with us. Although the pirates were sometimes afraid of death, they also had the spirit to risk their lives in desperate situations. Every time we fought against the Angel Pirates, it would basically turn into a large-scale battle between the Imperial Army and the rebel army. Although fighting the rebel army head-on was our original goal in coming to the East Sky, this kind of battle where a small monster would attract a bunch of BOSSes was really annoying if the battle dragged on for too long.
Secondly, it was a little hesitant to take action.
The Angel Pirates had obviously dismembered the gigantic wreckage that they found in the nebula. A large amount of the wreckage was kept in the hands of their countless armies, while the main body of the wreckage was kept in their mother planet, the Far East Paradise. These ancient equipment were of great significance to us, so of course, they couldn't be easily damaged. This kind of hesitant to take action naturally prevented many large-scale operations from being carried out. Pandora and Visca were sullen because of this.
However, compared to us who were slightly depressed, the Angel Pirates were probably in even more despair.
Normal civilizations wouldn't even dare to imagine being attacked by an overwhelming number of imperial fleets. Normally, a Shepherdian squadron made up of a few motherships would be enough to scare the crap out of any organization. But now, the Angel Pirates had at least eight hundred motherships and tens of thousands of imperial warships charging at their borders. It was easy to imagine how scared the Angel Pirates' leaders would be. They were currently in a situation where they would die if they didn't resist, and if they resisted, they would slowly die. We fully fulfilled the mission of "luring monsters" that we had given them. This was truly what it meant by 'karma will always be rewarded'. Even though I didn't know what the above meant, I felt like it would be amazing if I said it out loud. In any case, the Angel Pirates, who usually used the power of the "Shepherdians" to intimidate others, finally tasted the feeling of being slowly crushed by this power. In less than three days, we had already swept through a quarter of their territory.
"Currently, the full-scale attack on the Angel Pirates is still progressing smoothly. High Commander Kaios is in charge of the northern battlefront and has already advanced to the inner border of the Angel Corps' military control zone. 80% of the enemy's minerals come from that area. High Commander Kaios has basically cut off the Angel Pirates' source of life. The enemy's eastern border has already collapsed under High Commander Verona's attack. Now, the Empire's army has already broken into the inner border of the Angel Pirates' eastern border and begun the battle for colonial planets. At present, High Commander Verona has confirmed at least a dozen planets with Ancient Artifacts buried on them. Those devices will soon return to our hands. As for this side, the Angel Pirates' southern border has completely fallen under our repeated attacks. In accordance with your instructions, we have temporarily delayed our advance and are now searching for the enemy's land-based launcher drives on the military fortress planets. Planets CX-J16 to CX-J29 have been completely occupied by our landing forces and the remaining enemies have been completely annihilated. We have discovered two sets of medium-sized launchers there. It is estimated that they can be transported back to the flagship by 8 o 'clock tonight.
On the bridge of the Empire Admiral, Sives was meticulously reporting the latest battle situation. It was a rather risky decision to split the Imperial Army's main forces into three different battlefronts. Even though it was impossible for any one of the Angel Pirates' armies to defend against a third of our forces, the number of rebels that they had summoned was a huge threat. However, from the looks of it, everything was within our calculations.
I turned to look at the scene on the holographic projection. The smoke on the battlefield had yet to dissipate, and the wreckage of warships filled the high orbit. Most of them were from the Angel Pirates' sampans, while the rest were from the Empire's warships. The wreckage of the rebels and the Imperial Army were mixed together, and there would be explosions from time to time. As the cleanup and recovery troops moved silently, the entire battlefield was shrouded in a desolate atmosphere.
This was the last fortress planet on the southern border of the Angel Pirates. We had used a blitzkrieg to take down this place, and the enemy's military forces had basically collapsed. In front of the Empire Admiral was a greyish-black planet covered in dust. Its northern hemisphere was burning with raging flames, and dark red magma covered the area around its north pole like capillaries. That was the result of the Eternal-class mothership's final attack. The planet's ecosystem and a third of its crust had been completely destroyed.
What a tragic ending.
The noobs — er, the academy's military should have already finished landing and suppressing the enemy. Those little demon-like Cerberus had already successfully conquered thirty-two fortress planets under the leadership of a titan giant that weighed several hundred tons. They had done an excellent job at this incredibly brutal holiday training. Also, I was extremely dissatisfied with a certain someone's blatant decision to designate the areas after YJ-5 as the academy's garrison area. Would it even be possible for those Cerberus to just stay in one place?
"How's the situation over at Roland Gale? Have they broken through the defensive line? "
"Yes, Your Majesty. The Roland Gale frontline army started a large-scale battle four hours ago, and it is progressing smoothly. The Angel Pirates, who are equipped with ancient artifacts, have been deployed to the other three borders because of us. The enemy's defense at the western border is extremely weak, and the Roland Gale's army didn't meet any decent resistance when they entered. Compared to the Roland Gale's army, which has been tempered by iron and fire, the Angel Pirates are indeed very weak."
Of course, with a cheat-like ancient artifact, it was more than enough to dominate the world. Those lazy pirates obviously wouldn't think of bleeding and sweating to train their troops to strengthen the country. If you don't believe me, you can ask those Soul Douluos with 30 lives. They don't even need to dodge bullets when fighting a Boss …
That's why I said that a cheat like an ancient artifact was not enough.
Furthermore, the smooth progress in the various battlefields also meant one thing: Our plan to weaken the rebel army's military strength in the Eastern Sky was successful. In order to stabilize their worldwide defense, a large number of the rebel army's reserve forces were used to strengthen the various surveillance teams and hunt down the Imperial Army's hunting teams. This caused them to be severely lacking in strength in the Eastern Sky. The rebel army fleets that the Angel Pirates had summoned were all wiped out by us with minimal losses. If everything continued to develop like this, the disadvantage in numbers between the Imperial Army and the rebel army would soon be reversed.
However, there was also something worrisome hidden under all of this.
"If those pirates are driven to desperation … No, this is almost inevitable."
I frowned as I looked at the twinkling star map beside me.
The Angel Pirates were retreating step by step under the Imperial Army's frontal assault. Their biggest trump card was to summon the rebel army, and that was exactly what the Schilling army wanted. Up until now, we had already destroyed the enemy's border and 70% of their army. Next, the Empire's main force could directly attack the enemy's capital star, and the Roland Gale financial group could take over the pirate's territory as much as they wanted …
To the enemy, this was already a hopeless situation.
There was only one path in front of them now, and that was to lay down their arms and surrender. This seemed to be the best choice, but the enemy had always rejected the proposals sent by the Roland Gale to persuade them to surrender. Even when they knew that the financial group had the support of the enormous Imperial Army, they still vaguely threatened the Roland Gale diplomats with tough words. This meant that they still had a trump card.
A trump card that could allow them to confidently ignore the Imperial Army that was already pressing down on their borders.
This trump card was definitely the gigantic fragment that they had in their hands, the super device that came from the ancient times of the Xiling Empire.
I didn't believe that a bunch of ordinary civilization's technology would be able to break through the technology that even Tawil couldn't understand. However, just like how they could use a crude method to summon the rebel army using those signal transmitters, perhaps the pirate scientists had also found a simple way to activate the super device: for example, using it to summon the rebel army from the entire universe.
Roland Gale had given me intelligence on the current leader of the Angel Pirates. He was a complete lunatic, ambitious, and unscrupulous. More importantly, he had an astonishing number of loyal followers. That pirate leader never cared about the sacrifice of his cannon fodder, but he was especially afraid of dying himself. With so many despicable traits gathered together, he was born to be a villain. He was the kind of person that would make the audience feel bad if they didn't drop two or three pieces of purple equipment after killing him.
This kind of person definitely wouldn't treat his own life as a joke. Since he dared to resist the overwhelming attack of the Imperial Army and refused to surrender, it meant that he had a trump card in his hands.
Of course, the elder sister knew what I was worried about. Her expression was solemn. "The pirate leader has been calmly watching as his territory is being lost inch by inch. He is most likely preparing that trump card. Based on our current attack speed, we will only need two or three days to attack their capital planet. In other words, the enemy is very confident that they will be able to resolve the crisis in front of them in two or three days."
"Who has a way to occupy the pirate capital planet in the shortest amount of time possible and snatch the super device unscathed before the enemy dies? Damn it, that's impossible, right?"
I scratched my head and looked at a blinking dot on the star map in distress. It was the Far East Paradise, the capital of the Angel Pirates.
Putting aside the fact that the enemy had concentrated all their forces near the planet, the defense ability of which would be a headache even for the Imperium's army, the fact that they could "take back the super device unscathed" was enough to make any officer of the Imperium's head explode.
If the Imperial Army gathered all their forces to break through the planet, we might be able to tear through the Angel Pirates' defense line within half an hour. However, if the enemy really went crazy, it would only take a second to destroy the super device. Don't think that the device is indestructible just because it was created by the Empire. Right now, it is just a wreckage. It doesn't have a shield or armor. Its weakness is probably as fragile as glass.
"In other words, we have to think of a way to seize the Far East Paradise while preventing the pirates from destroying the ancient device. And this action has to be taken before the main force of the Imperial Army attacks the enemy's territory …"
Liliana sat on a high chair, her fair legs swinging quickly under her princess dress. It was obvious that she had thought of a terrible idea. "Boss, if you don't mind, I might have a way. As long as you have a way to send me to the surface of their capital planet and give me three hours to prepare a ceremony."
I looked suspiciously at the little girl who was black to the bone. I instinctively felt that her smile was filled with something that made people shiver.
"The power of life can save people and kill people," Liliana smiled and gestured in the air. "Give me enough time to prepare, and I can create a life conversion that affects the entire planet. I can transfer the life energy of ordinary creatures to a special seed. This process will only take a few seconds. The source of the seed is the product of a failed experiment by the Goddess. Originally, they were supposed to be destroyed along with a few other dangerous items when the Pillar of Life at the core of the World Tree opens again next month. But now, they can be used. These seeds are effective on everything that can be called life, regardless of the form of life …"
"Instantly destroy all life on the entire planet, from humans to single-celled organisms, from carbon-based organisms to silicon-based organisms. I can definitely do it flawlessly. In theory, after the ceremony ends, the enemy only has three to five seconds to react. The leader of the Angel Pirates is a human. Creatures like humans will be confused when they are on the verge of death. In five seconds, he won't be able to make any decisions. Even if the worst thing that could happen is that the super device is destroyed, the enemy will definitely not have the chance to activate it."
"That's it. I'm done talking."
After Liliana finished speaking, she nimbly jumped off the chair and bounced in front of me. Then, she hugged her head and squatted on the ground. She said in a muffled voice, "Didn't you say that you can't hit my face? Liliana just wants to help Boss!"
… This girl … Can you be any more malicious when you're acting cute?
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