Chapter Summaries

Lin Kexin tested Willvis’s response with another Zero-Point Missile attack, then prepared a trap by shifting two fleet clusters and sending Wang Hai the enemy flagship’s location. Willvis’s fleet spotted an apparent gap in the Federation’s defenses, and he weighed whether to charge through despite his unease.

• Lin Kexin concluded that Willvis was capable but inexperienced in large-scale interstellar warfare, then launched ten more Zero-Point Missiles to test him.
• The enemy interfered with the missiles’ Hyperspace Engines, confirming that Willvis had corrected his earlier oversight and restored his fleet’s defensive formation.
• Lin Kexin ordered the First and Second Fleet Clusters to withdraw and reinforce other sectors, and sent Wang Hai the enemy flagship’s location.
• Willvis’s adjutant urged him to charge through the gap in the defensive line, but Willvis hesitated because he felt uneasy.

Willvis led the Cyrus Fleet in a desperate charge through the human encirclement, nearly reaching an opening before the Nether Fleet arrived and blocked its path. As Willvis ordered his ships to break through, Wang Hai’s Nether Fleet began preparing a coordinated attack.

• Willvis ordered the Cyrus Fleet to form a hollow cylinder and charge through the human defensive line.
• The Cyrus Fleet endured heavy fire as the human opening widened, bringing Willvis close to breaking out.
• Hundreds of millions of Hyperspace Windows opened ahead of the Cyrus Fleet, revealing a 300-million-ship fleet that blocked its escape route.
• Willvis ordered his remaining ships to charge through the newly arrived fleet without engaging.
• Wang Hai ordered the Nether Fleet to attack and seize the enemy infrastructure, and its warships formed Dark Energy Matrices.

Wang Hai unleashed a Dark Energy Particle Compression Stream against Willvis’s formation, revealing that humanity had capabilities approaching those of a Tenth Order Civilization. Willvis’s Phase Shield delayed his flagship’s destruction, but the attack pierced every phase and left him with nowhere to hide.

• Wang Hai and three hundred million Nether Class Warships fired a Dark Energy Particle Compression Stream at Willvis’s formation.
• Willvis recognized the Dark Energy Matrices and realized humanity was far more advanced than intelligence reports had suggested.
• Willvis ordered his fleet to shut down its Dark Energy Shields and activate Phase Shields, but there was no time to redeploy the ships he had moved to the flanks.
• Wang Hai’s attack swept across the formation, destroying the warships in its path and affecting every phase.
• Willvis survived for a few seconds behind his flagship’s Phase Shield, but the compressed Dark Energy reached every phase.

Lin Kexin and Wang Hai destroyed the Silas breakout fleet and restored the defense around the Current Mouth as reinforcements approached Heres. Meanwhile, the Federation’s battle against the insect race began in the Neumann System, where Aliya ordered high-tier bugs into action.

• Willvis’s flagship was destroyed when the silver-white beam pierced its phase barrier, and the attack wiped out the Silas breakout fleet.
• Lin Kexin ordered the surrounding fleets to reunite with the Nether Fleet and rebuild the encirclement around the Current Mouth.
• Lin Kexin and Wang Hai held off the Silas Empire as Angel and Elf reinforcements prepared to arrive at Heres.
• Fifty Federal fleet groups entered the Neumann System and attacked across ten battlefields, killing swarms of ordinary combat bugs.
• Aliya ordered Akat to lead the high-tier Stealth Blade Bugs into battle and Stant to cover them with ten Royal Guard Bug swarms.

Aliya deployed newly developed High-Tier Stealth Blade Bugs alongside Royal Guard Bug swarms against Elio Reed’s Fifth Attack Group. After detecting two previously unknown Queen Bugs and ten Super Swarms, Lin Fan and Liang Xingchen suspected Aliya had another purpose, since the forces alone should not threaten the fleet.

• Aliya sent High-Tier Stealth Blade Bugs and ten Royal Guard Bug Super Swarms into battle.
• Elio Reed’s Fifth Attack Group detected two Queen Bugs absent from the Federal database and ten Super Swarms near the fleet.
• Elio recorded the new Queen Bug data and urgently reported the discoveries to headquarters.
• Lin Fan learned that none of the other nine attack groups had detected similar forces.
• Liang Xingchen concluded that Aliya’s deployment likely had a purpose beyond breaking the deadlock.

Lin Fan ordered Lin Yu to bring the First Legion of the Nether Fleet to reinforce Elio’s Fifth Attack Group, prompting Elio to abandon his assault plan and tighten his defenses. Meanwhile, Akat’s phased high-tier Stealth Blade Bugs advanced undetected toward the Federal fleet, leaving the attack group in growing danger.

• Lin Fan ordered Lin Yu to lead a Nether Fleet legion to the Fifth Attack Group and support it if the battle changed.
• Elio received the warning that Lin Yu would arrive in seventeen minutes and redirected the 28th Fleet Group to reinforce the defenses.
• Elio contracted the defensive perimeter and ordered the fleets to maintain rapid, wave-based fire rather than pursue the Royal Guard Bug.
• Federal fire passed harmlessly through the undetected Stealth Blade Bug swarms, while Akat confirmed their phased abilities protected them from conventional attacks.
• Akat’s high-tier Stealth Blade Bugs continued closing on the Fifth Attack Group, ready to infiltrate its formation and strike at close range.

Elio sensed a hidden threat and ordered Phase Bombs deployed across the Fifth Attack Group’s defensive formation while Stant’s Zerg assault drew the fleet’s fire. As the high-rank Stealth Blade Bugs approached, Lin Yu’s First Legion of the Nether Fleet secretly arrived inside the formation.

• Elio connected his unease to the possibility of Zerg war bugs that could phase shift and ordered Phase Bombs placed to cover the entire fleet formation.
• Elio’s Fifth Attack Group poured fire into ten Royal Guard Bug Super Swarms, destroying many before they reached the defensive perimeter.
• Stant used the Royal Guard Bugs to draw attention while three high-rank Stealth Blade Bug Super Swarms advanced toward the fleet.
• Akat told the other Brood Queen that the Stealth Blade Bugs would bare their fangs within three minutes.
• Lin Yu secretly brought the First Legion of the Nether Fleet into the center of the Fifth Attack Group’s formation.

Lin Yu realized that Aliya’s Royal Guard Bug attacks were bait for an unseen threat and suspected she had developed Stealth Blade Bugs capable of shifting phases. He and Elio prepared Phase Bombs for empty areas where the hidden bugs might be lurking, and the bombs began detonating.

• Lin Yu told Elio that the Zerg’s costly Royal Guard Bugs seemed to be serving as bait for a hidden attack.
• After Elio reported that scans had found nothing, Lin Yu considered whether Stealth Blade Bugs could evade detection.
• Lin Yu recalled Lin Fan’s warning that the Zerg might field upgraded war bugs and suspected phase-shifting Stealth Blade Bugs.
• Lin Yu shared his theory with Elio, and the Fifth Attack Group deployed Phase Bombs in empty areas where the hidden bugs might be.
• The crew released the Phase Bombs’ safety locks and began their detonation sequence.

Elio’s fleet used Phase Bombs to detect the hidden Stealth Blade Bug swarm, destroying its vanguard and revealing that the Zerg were dangerously close. Elio ordered more bombs prepared and authorized immediate detonations if any bugs appeared within the formation.

• Akat watched through a Stealth Blade Bug’s shared vision as the Federal Fleet suddenly disappeared, then realized the swarm was farther away than he had thought.
• The Federal Fifth Attack Group detonated more than a dozen Phase Bombs, which affected the Phased State without visible effects in the main phase.
• The scan of Phase Bomb Number Twelve’s detonation zone detected Stealth Blade Bugs 950,000 kilometers from the fleet, and the blast wiped out the bugs within its kill radius.
• Elio recognized that the swarm remained a serious threat and ordered Phase Bombs launched at the detected area and surrounding space.
• Elio ordered the Phase Bombs already positioned throughout the fleet to detonate without authorization if bugs appeared inside the formation.

Elio’s fleet used Phase Bombs to locate and destroy the Stealth Blade Bug Super Swarm, while Akat and Stant ordered a retreat. As the surviving bugs regrouped, Lin Yu’s Nether Fleet struck Akat with a Dark Energy beam.

• Akat realized Phase Bombs had devastated the Stealth Blade Bug swarm and told Stant that humans had found them.
• Elio’s staff modeled the swarm and prepared a plan to destroy it with 181,275 Phase Bombs.
• Elio’s fleet deployed the bombs, annihilating ninety-nine percent of the Stealth Blade Bugs.
• Akat and Stant ordered the surviving Stealth Blade Bugs and Royal Guard Bugs to withdraw.
• A warship appeared behind Akat and swallowed him in a silver-white Dark Energy beam.

A human fleet killed Akat and crippled Stant with concentrated Dark Energy attacks. As Stant was dragged into a crimson Spatial Rift, Bai Xuan destroyed the part of him still outside, then ordered the fleet to fire on the rift.

• A hidden human warship killed Akat with a Dark Energy beam, and Stant realized he needed to flee.
• Stant began opening a Bug Nest Channel, but a human fleet appeared nearby and fired more than a hundred million beams at him and his Guard Bugs.
• The barrage destroyed Stant’s Guard Bugs and left Stant gravely wounded, but a crimson Spatial Rift appeared and began pulling him inside.
• Bai Xuan completed her Dark Energy Matrix and struck Stant, destroying the half of his body still outside the rift.
• Bai Xuan ordered the fleet to concentrate fire on the crimson Spatial Rift, and one hundred million beams struck it simultaneously.

Bai Xuan concluded that the Nether Fleet had killed Stant by shattering the rift after its devastating attack. Aliya returned to the Zerg with Stant’s mutilated body, but after her blood drove Samiras toward madness, she attacked him with a powerful Dark Energy beam.

• Bai Xuan declared the Imperial Bug dead and ordered the final rift and its data sent to the New Melos.
• The Imperial Bugs recognized the scarlet rift as Aliya’s return, then watched Stant’s mutilated body emerge from it.
• Aliya emerged from the rift severely injured and spat out red blood that drew Samiras toward her.
• Aliya formed a Dark Energy Matrix and waited as Samiras approached her blood, hoping not to harm a fellow Imperial Bug.
• When Samiras was about to swallow her blood, Aliya fired a destructive silver-white beam at him, causing space to collapse along its path.

Aliya killed Samiras and recovered while Lin Yu investigated the crimson Dark Energy rift and reported his findings. The Federation continued its campaign in the Neumann System, but the defensive battle at the current in Heres remained dangerous as Silas Empire warships inflicted steady losses.

• Aliya killed Samiras, then used Dark Energy to heal her wounds and reflected that he would have become a mindless beast if he had consumed her blood.
• The Nether Fleet and Fifth Attack Group destroyed eight stranded Super Swarms, while Lin Yu detected that the crimson rift had been formed using Dark Energy and sent his suspicions and battle data to headquarters.
• Lin Fan kept the Federation’s ten attack groups on their planned offensive and retained Lin Yu’s Nether Fleet as a mobile reserve.
• Over the next three days, Aliya’s absence left the Royal Bugs unwilling to command the insect forces, allowing the Federation to dominate the battlefields across the Neumann System.
• At the current in Heres, Silas Empire warships continued scattered Dark Energy counterattacks, causing losses among the defending fleets, especially the Elf and Angel Fleets.

The Federation struggled to hold the Heres front as the angel and elven fleets suffered millions of losses, so Lin Fan arranged for Zi Ling to reinforce them. Meanwhile, Zi Ling prepared to leave the Minor Universe with the Tarak Civilization, which had produced a second S-Class Dark Energy Manipulator, Zi Lian.

• The angel and elven fleets lost more than four million warships each while helping suppress the Silas Empire's fleet at Heres.
• Liang Xue suggested rotating the battered fleets out, but Lin Fan judged that moving forces between Heres and Neumann would leave the front vulnerable to Aliya.
• Lin Fan learned that Zi Ling's transport fleet would arrive soon and ordered her to take the Lancer Ship to Heres after leaving the Minor Universe.
• Zi Ling protected the Tarak Civilization as it recovered over nearly a thousand years, though the limited territory and resources left it with only a few million warships.
• Zi Ling's guidance helped Zi Lian become the Tarak Civilization's second S-Class Dark Energy Manipulator, though she lacked the Federation equipment needed to match Zi Ling and Lin Yu's combat strength.

Zi Ling evacuated the Tarak Civilization from the Minor Universe and departed to reinforce Heres, where the Angel Fleet faced mounting losses against the Silas Empire. Her arrival aboard the Lancer promised to keep the enemy’s fleet at the Current Mouth below a million warships.

• Zi Ling learned that Heres was in danger and resolved to finish evacuating the Tarak Civilization before going to support it.
• After more than a year had passed in the Minor Universe, nearly eight million Tarak warships and spacecraft emerged through the rift, and Zi Ling left them in Commander Chu Tian’s care.
• At Heres, Commander Aierfei told the Angel Fleet’s anxious staff that reinforcements would arrive within half an hour.
• Aierfei revealed that the reinforcement was not an attack group but the Lancer, Vice Commander Zi Ling’s personal vessel.
• Aierfei explained that Zi Ling’s full-power strikes could devastate gathered Silas warships and keep their numbers below one million.

Silas Empire general Selter emerged from the Current Mouth with a Tenth Order war star and learned that the vanguard fleet had been devastated by Lin Kexin’s forces. Lin concentrated a massive attack on the war star, but it retaliated with a destructive beam that forced Wang Hai to raise his Dark Energy Shield.

• Selter emerged at the Current Mouth and found wreckage from the vanguard fleet surrounding its few remaining warships.
• Selter read the vanguard’s reports and learned that they had faced another Ninth Order Technological Civilization with powerful Dark Energy Users and an overwhelming defensive position.
• Selter ordered the remaining vanguard ships to raise their Dark Energy Shields and prepare their main cannon as his Tenth Order war star entered the battle.
• Lin Kexin concentrated hundreds of millions of attacks on Selter’s war star, engulfing it in silver-white light.
• The war star fired a silver-white beam toward the Nether Fleet, and Wang Hai raised a powerful Dark Energy Shield to meet it.

Wang Hai’s Nether Fleet blocked a devastating attack from Selus’s battle star, but the strike destroyed more than three hundred warships and ended the fleet’s record of zero losses. Wang Hai and Lin Kexin agreed to keep up continuous attacks until the Vice Commander arrived, while Selter suspected the humans’ strength came from their people rather than their ships.

• Wang Hai raised two Dark Energy Shields to block the battle star’s attack, but its spreading energy destroyed more than three hundred Nether Fleet warships.
• Wang Hai learned the attack had reached the third tier of A-Class and warned Lin Kexin that the battle star had to be restrained before it could target the other fleets.
• Wang Hai proposed seamless, continuous attacks on the battle star, and Lin Kexin agreed.
• Selter learned that only one human warship had withstood the attack and suspected the humans’ Dark Energy abilities came from their people.

Selter’s battle star endured a concentrated attack from more than ten billion Federation warships by diverting its Dark Energy supply to a powerful shield. After the barrage failed to break through, Selter ordered the main cannon charged to target the other fleets and secure a safer landing zone for the Silas Empire’s reinforcements.

• Selter learned that the Federation’s Dark Energy User was at least Ninth Order, though he did not believe the opponent was the one who had killed Hager.
• Selter ordered his warships to stop charging the main cannon and divert Dark Energy to the battle star’s shield as nearly all enemy warships prepared to fire.
• More than ten billion warships struck the battle star, but its shield remained at 97–98% integrity.
• Selter ordered the main cannon recharged and changed its target from the human fleet to the other fleets.
• The attack ended, and Selter’s crew began redirecting energy and charging the main cannon.

Selter kept his battle star protected while the Silas Empire fleet attacked the Dauntless Fleet, inflicting catastrophic losses. As Selter’s forces gathered at the Current Mouth, a Tenth Order Dark Energy Matrix appeared nearby, shocking him.

• Selter stopped charging his battle star’s main cannon and redirected its energy to strengthen the Dark Energy Shield while ordering his fleet to attack the human defenses.
• Lin Kexin and Wang Hai concentrated the Nether Legions’ attacks on Selter’s battle star and pulled the elf and angel fleets behind the Dauntless Fleet.
• The Silas Empire fleet attacked the Dauntless Fleet, destroying tens of thousands of warships in its first volley and more than one million within three minutes.
• Selter learned that his assembled fleet had grown to twenty-two million warships and ordered it to keep gathering toward one hundred million.
• Selter received a report of a Tenth Order Dark Energy Matrix reaction nearby and exclaimed that it was impossible.

Selter prepared the Silas Empire’s forces for a likely Tenth Order attack, while Zi Ling led the Lancer’s assault on his war star. Zi Ling’s focused Dark Energy Cannon shattered the war star’s shield and struck its outer shell.

• Selter learned that evasion was nearly impossible and ordered the war star to power its Dark Energy Shield while the crew prepared for impact.
• Zi Ling brought Zi Luo aboard the Lancer to experience a Federal battlefield and serve with the Federation.
• The Lancer exited hyperspace into a battlefield filled with attacks, and Zi Ling shielded the ship from a direct strike.
• Zi Ling constructed 101 Dark Energy Matrices and fired a Focused Dark Energy Cannon at Selter’s war star.
• Zi Ling’s cannon overwhelmed the war star’s Dark Energy Shield and struck its outer shell.