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Due to the special nature of the void, there was no precise concept of "territory" or "borders" here. Those terms were only used for convenience when describing the region between the New Empire and the Abyss Empire. In truth, this area belonged to neither side. It was a "watershed" made up of a series of sovereignless worlds. These worlds were only one step away from both the Empire and the Fallen Apostles. Even the massive starships that were hardest to move through the void only needed to run their engines for one cycle to jump from these neutral worlds into the Empire Zone or the Abyss Zone. Thus, these universes caught between the two warring sides had become their border line.
I did not know whether I should sympathize with these worlds. They were like peaceful little villages on the border between two superpowers at war—no, worse than that. They were not only villages trapped in the middle, but villages with no sovereignty, ones that anyone could squeeze at will. They were not protected by the Empire, nor could they possibly be protected by the Fallen Apostles. Once the two colossal entities on either side suddenly decided to fight, worlds like these would almost instantly be extinguished. Just like the universe we had blown up at the Empire's border back then, they would face the end of the world in the blink of an eye.
According to the plan, we first headed to the Empire's outermost fortress world. It was a purely military universe with no name, only a designation. Nearly every celestial body in this small universe had been converted into weapons platforms and legion teleportation gates, ensuring that it could withstand the Fallen Apostles' full assault if an all-out conflict