Chapter Summaries

Wang Hai destroyed the Stellar Defense Array, leaving the Third Church without its Battle Priest corps or its main defensive weapon as Federation forces began a full-scale counterattack. With retreat impossible and defeat looming, Velos ordered the Crusader Army to charge the channel exit and seal it with their ships.

• Wang Hai broke through the escort fleet and destroyed the nearly completed Stellar Defense Array.
• Velos learned that the array was gone and foresaw the Third Church’s forces being overwhelmed as Federation fleets arrived.
• Lin Fan ordered the Federation to hold its defensive position until more fleets arrived, then begin a full-scale counterattack three hours later.
• Federation reinforcements joined the fighting, and the Black Church lost formations and a legion while inflicting few casualties.
• Velos rejected retreat and conventional combat, then ordered the Crusader Army to ram the Federation ships at the channel exit and block it with an ultra-dense formation.

Velos ordered the Black Church fleet to charge and break the Federation’s defensive line, but Lin Fan exploited the tightly packed formation with attacks from two thousand Black Hole Lifeforms. The Third Church retreated after losing most of its forces, and its army collapsed under continued pursuit.

• Velos ordered ten legions and nearly sixty reserve legions to charge, believing the close-range assault would turn the battle around.
• Lin Fan recognized Velos’s plan and ordered the Federation to wait until the Black Church fleet was densely packed before unleashing its Civilization Guardians.
• As contact neared, Velos noticed the Black Church’s casualties were unexpectedly decreasing and ordered the reserve legions to withdraw.
• Two thousand powerful attacks tore through the crowded Black Church fleet, inflicting losses of more than ten billion warships per strike.
• The Black Church lost more than half its forces, fled back to its defensive line, and collapsed as the Federation pursued.

The Federation’s Third Tier fighters destroyed Velos and the Third Mobile Church, ending the campaign with the Black Church’s defeat. Pope Ternova learned that the Federation’s forces in the Dore Realm included thousands of Black Hole Lifeforms, all at least Second Tier, and even Fourth Tier powerhouses.

• Velos ordered the purple-robed bishops aboard the Third Mobile Church to assemble for a final attack against the Federation’s advancing forces.
• Three Third Tier captains locked onto Velos and killed him and more than two hundred nearby purple-robed bishops with simultaneous long-range attacks.
• The Federation squads charged the remaining bishops and wiped out the Black Church fleet five hours later, ending the twenty-eight-day campaign.
• The Alliance’s losses totaled twenty-seven legions, while the Black Church lost seventy, and the Federation’s intervention had caused none of the Alliance’s real losses.
• Pope Ternova learned that more than two thousand Federation Black Hole Lifeforms had reached the Dore Realm, with the weakest at Second Tier and some at Fourth Tier.

After learning that the Federation had a Fourth Tier expert, Pope Ternova ordered the Black Church to mass-produce and deploy Stellar Defense Arrays to exploit their range. The Black Church used the Federation’s slow advance and lack of current intelligence on the Dore Realm to prepare defenses throughout its universes.

• Ternova received the Third Church’s report that a Fourth Tier expert had overwhelmed its defenses and destroyed an incompletely deployed Stellar Defense Array.
• Ternova concluded that the enemy’s expert could not attack across one Standard Black Hole Unit and ordered every controlled universe to deploy its stored arrays and manufacture more without limit.
• The Black Church distributed the Stellar Defense Array blueprints and began towing stars into position to assemble arrays throughout its universes.
• The Federation advanced through the Cross-border Channel at a pace of no more than one legion per day and began extracting intelligence from prisoners it had captured.
• The Black Church gained time because the Federation lacked current information about its headquarters, forces, and deployments, and universes across the realm continued deploying Stellar Defense Arrays.

Lin Fan’s fleet came under fire from Stellar Defense Arrays as it approached the Ebola Universe, forcing him to pull back and warn the other forces to keep their distance. Luo Li proposed modifying the warships’ cannons to strike the arrays’ vulnerable cores from beyond their range.

• Lin Fan ordered the Federal Fleet to advance toward the Ebola Universe, where its Guard Fleet was weak.
• Lin Fan detected an incoming attack, raised a Defense Barrier, and blocked successive waves of beams from Stellar Defense Arrays.
• Lin Fan ordered the other three forces to stay at least three Standard Black Hole Units from their target universes and remain on standby.
• Lin Fan asked Luo Li how they could counter the Stellar Defense Arrays, and she sent him data for modifications that would extend the ship-mounted cannons’ range to three Standard Black Hole Units.

Lin Fan’s fleet used adjusted main-gun parameters to destroy the Ebola Universe’s Stellar Defense Array cores, clearing the way for an invasion. The five legions entered the universe and routed its two Guard Legions as the wider sweep began.

• Lin Fan ordered the fleets to locate and destroy every Stellar Defense Array core before advancing into the target universe.
• Three purple-robed bishops believed their Stellar Defense Arrays had forced the Heretics to retreat, while their forces continued deploying and producing more arrays.
• The bishops learned that the Heretics had targeted and destroyed all completed Stellar Defense Array cores, including spares and units still in production.
• The Heretic fleet advanced into the Ebola Universe, where the three bishops despaired and the five legions began a full-scale sweep.
• Lin Fan learned that the two Ebola Guard Legions had been suppressed, while the other three forces were still fighting larger Guard Fleets.

As the Black Church’s armies fell and the Stellar Defense Array failed, Ternova unsealed the Black and White Sacred Canon to find a means of protection. It revealed a hidden Sixth-order mothership with enough power to turn the tide, but only three years of combat energy.

• After reports arrived that Ebola, Meters, Cuisi, and Tevalo had fallen, the purple-robed bishops urged Ternova to activate the Black and White Sacred Canon.
• Ternova ordered the bishops to prepare the unsealing ritual, and they removed the Canon’s protective layers.
• The fully unsealed Canon sent Ternova data revealing the location and highest-level control authority of a mothership hidden near the Lanvis Universe.
• Ternova summoned the bishops outside the universe, where the mothership arrived and she explained that it came from the Peak Sixth-order Black and White Church.
• Ternova revealed that the mothership had only three years of high-intensity combat energy remaining, while its Ninth Generation Black Hole Engine let it travel across the Dore Realm in under a month.

Three months after the Azure Dragon Alliance invaded the Dore Realm, an enormous unidentified spacecraft approached the forces attacking the Celanto Universe. Luo Li identified it as a colony ship from the Xilbeila Empire, a Peak Fifth-order Black Hole Civilization that had once fought the Great Xia Federation, leaving Lin Fan and Liang Xue to confront the threat it posed.

• The Divine Radiance Civilization, the Gem Empire, and a Federal Star-Class Fleet prepared to attack the Celanto Universe after its Stellar Defense Arrays were destroyed.
• Tott reported an unidentified object approaching at Ninth Generation Black Hole Engine speeds, so the allied forces turned to face it in combat formation.
• The commanders observed the enormous spacecraft and suspected it was a colony ship, prompting Tott to send its data to Lin Fan.
• Lin Fan and Liang Xue found no evidence that the Black Church possessed such a vessel and asked Luo Li to identify it.
• Luo Li recognized the spacecraft as a Xilbeila Empire colony ship and explained that its weapons could be devastating against the civilizations of the Dore Realm.

Lin Fan ordered Tote’s fleet to avoid engaging a mysterious Colony Ship, but Aches and Lan Vitlin had already led six Main Legions toward it. The Colony Ship devastated their forces with long-range fire, and the commanders pressed on until their encircled fleet opened fire.

• Lin Fan told Tote to record the battlefield and wait for him, after learning Aches and Lan Vitlin had already deployed to meet the Colony Ship.
• Aches and Lan Vitlin dismissed concerns and ordered their fleets to attack once the enemy entered firing range.
• The Colony Ship fired from 0.8 Standard Black Hole Units away, destroying seventeen fleets and devastating more than thirty others in one volley.
• Aches and Lan Vitlin chose to advance rather than retreat and took three more volleys while closing the distance.
• Aches and Lan Vitlin ordered their fleets to surround the Colony Ship and open fire, temporarily disabling scanning equipment with the resulting energy field.

Archis and Lan Vitlin’s fleets became helpless when an unknown attack disrupted every Black Hole Energy core, leaving them unable to fight back against the enemy warship. Lin Fan refused to send Tott to intervene and was expected to arrive after two hours, by which time the fleets had already suffered enormous losses.

• Archis ordered the fleets to resume attacks in rotating waves, but their Black Hole Energy devices fell into disorder and disabled their weapons and engines.
• Archis and Lan Vitlin confirmed that both fleets were affected and could only endure the enemy’s attacks as target ships.
• Tott offered to take Guardians to help, but Lin Fan rejected the plan because they could not overcome the enemy ship’s defenses.
• Lin Fan told Tott to remain on standby while he traveled to the battlefield, estimating that the enemy could destroy at most one legion before he arrived.
• Two hours later, Archis reported losses of 420 trillion warships and Lan Vitlin reported more than 500 trillion, while their technicians still could not diagnose the interference.

Lin Fan arrived with the Federation reinforcements and attacked the Black Church’s Holy Warship, whose weapons and defenses could not stop his Fifth Tier Chaos Mech. He breached the ship’s hull and sent the Civilization Guardians inside to capture its bridge and secure information and resources.

• Ternova detected five approaching legions and expected the Holy Warship to destroy them as easily as it had the earlier attackers.
• Aches learned the reinforcements were fifteen seconds away as Lin Fan prepared to attack from his customized Chaos Mech.
• Lin Fan’s fleet arrived behind the Divine Radiance Civilization and the Gem Empire, and Lin Fan rushed toward the Black Church’s warship.
• The warship’s Mainframe warned Ternova that it had almost no chance of killing Lin Fan or escaping, but Ternova ordered every weapon to fire.
• Lin Fan blocked the focused barrage with his Defense Barrier and told more than twenty Chaos Mechs to follow him inside and seize the bridge.
• Lin Fan shattered the ship’s Chaos Shield and blasted a breach in its hull, allowing the Civilization Guardians to charge in.

Lin Fan’s teams seized the Colony Ship’s bridge, but Ternova still tried to trigger the ship’s self-destruct through his brain link to the Mainframe. The sequence failed, and a voice revealed that Ternova’s connection had been cut off.

• Ternova rallied the purple-robed bishops and planned to destroy the Holy Warship if they could not defeat the enemy.
• Lin Fan ordered Team E to seize the bridge, Team A to find a way to shut down the core energy, and Teams B and F to avoid provoking Ternova into self-destructing the ship.
• Team E secured the bridge, where a bishop revealed that the Colony Ship’s self-destruct was linked to Ternova’s brain.
• Lin Fan entered the Colony Ship after its defensive weapons stopped firing and ordered Teams B and F not to attack Ternova.
• Ternova ordered the Mainframe to begin a ten-second self-destruct sequence, but it did not respond.
• A voice told Ternova that his connection to the ship’s Mainframe had been cut off.

Lin Fan captured Ternova by sealing away his Black Hole Energy, and the Federation went on to destroy seven of the Black Church’s eight Mobile Churches. With the last stronghold facing the advancing Federation, Archbishop Tevalin received a communication from the Black and White Church demanding an explanation for activating its Sacred Canon four years earlier.

• Lin Fan intercepted Ternova’s connection to the Holy Warship and sealed away his Black Hole Energy, leaving him powerless.
• Lin Fan ordered his forces to suppress the remaining enemies and kill anyone who refused to surrender.
• Over four years, the Federation and its allies destroyed seven of the Black Church’s Mobile Churches, leaving the Seventh Mobile Holy See as its final stronghold.
• Archbishop Tevalin learned that the Federation’s forces were approaching and that his remaining forces could neither defeat them nor escape.
• Tevalin received a communication from Miyer, a second-class cardinal of the Black and White Church, who demanded an explanation for the Sacred Canon’s activation four years earlier.

After learning that the Black Church had provoked the Kunsa Realm without preparing for war, Miyer advised Tevalin to retreat to the neighboring Sera Realm. Tevalin arranged refuge with the White Church, unaware that it had become part of the Heretic alliance, and Lin Fan left the Black Church's fate to Lin Yu.

• Miyer rebuked Tevalin for attacking the Kunsa Realm without understanding the Heretics' strength or preparing for a Divine War.
• After hearing Tevalin's account, Miyer said the Black and White Church could not send help for tens of thousands of years and advised the Black Church to flee to the Sera Realm.
• Tevalin contacted Ziegler, who agreed to shelter the Black Church without revealing that the White Church had abandoned the Lord of Darkness.
• Ziegler informed Lin Fan and senior alliance officials, and Lin Fan told him to give Lin Yu the Black Church's arrival time and coordinates.
• Lin Fan said Lin Yu would handle the Black Church, while Ziegler and the White Empire would avoid taking direct action against their former kin.

In Federation Year 942, Tevalin's fifty Crusader Army legions arrived in the Alesera Realm and were attacked by a Heretics fleet while the White Church refused to answer. When Ziegler finally offered the Black Church surrender as its only way out, Tevalin mistook him for an impostor and ordered a suicidal counterattack.

• Tevalin led fifty Crusader Army legions through the Black Hole Cavity Realm and reached the Alesera Realm, where his forces encountered a Heretics fleet opening fire.
• Tevalin's forces suffered heavy losses while the White Church rejected their communications, and they lost a legion in less than half an hour.
• Ziegler told Tevalin that the White Church had become the White Empire, rejected the Lord of Darkness, and offered to mediate if the Black Church surrendered.
• Tevalin accused Ziegler of being a Heretics impostor and ordered the Crusader Army to charge, ram enemy ships, and self-destruct if necessary.
• Ziegler watched Tevalin's orders and realized his offer had made the Black Church even more frenzied.

The Seventh Mobile Holy See and the remnants of the Black Church faced defeat after a day of battle, while Tevalin realized the enemy had been using the fight to train its fleet. He ordered a final charge, planning to detonate the Mobile Holy See before the defenders could intercept it.

• The damaged Seventh Mobile Holy See was left with only 107 purple-robed bishops and twelve combat priests, while its weapons and defenses were offline.
• Tevalin realized that the enemy’s powerful Black Hole Lifeforms had mostly stayed back to protect and train their fleet, and he reconsidered whether Ziegler had told the truth.
• Tevalin learned that the Mobile Holy See’s Black Hole Engine could still run at seventy percent output and ordered the remaining forces to defend it.
• Tevalin explained that the Mobile Holy See’s self-destruction could reach farther than the enemy’s usual interception distance, giving the Black Church a chance to inflict losses.
• About eighty million warships and more than a hundred Black Hole Lifeforms gathered before the Mobile Holy See as Tevalin’s forces began their final charge.

After the Black Church was destroyed and the Dore Realm was cleared, Lin Zhen proposed how to divide the newly available universes among the Azure Dragon Alliance. He offered civilizations extra territory if they relocated from the Kunsa Realm to the Sera or Dore Realm, and Valeri asked whether the Tailo Empire could join the plan.

• Lin Yu ordered the Federal Fleet to destroy the Seventh Mobile Holy See, wiping out the Crusader Army and the Black Church’s remaining forces.
• By Federation Year 957, the Federation and its allies had cleared every universe in the Dore Realm of civilizations tainted by the Black Church.
• At the division conference, Lin Zhen said that military contributions would leave most of the 1,590 available universes to the Federation and only token shares for many other civilizations.
• Lin Zhen offered each civilization willing to relocate to the Sera or Dore Realm as many universes as it currently possessed in the Kunsa Realm.
• Valeri asked whether the Tailo Empire could participate in the relocation plan.

Lin Zhen arranged for civilizations to relocate from the Kunsa Realm, then auctioned off most of the Federation’s remaining universes in the Dore and Sera Realms. He announced that the Azure Dragon Alliance would begin another expansion in one hundred years, leaving the leaders worried about rebuilding their defeated forces and funding the campaign.

• Valeri agreed to relocate the Tailo Empire and received priority to select one hundred universes, prompting other civilizations to join the exchange plan.
• Twenty-nine civilizations chose to relocate, while the Divine Radiance Civilization, the Gem Empire, and other former Azure Dragon Universe civilizations remained in place under a separate arrangement.
• Lin Zhen reserved one hundred universes each in the Dore Realm and Sera Realm for military and trade hubs, then auctioned off the rest.
• Valeri secured three hundred universes by pledging half of the Tailo Empire’s resource output for the next thousand years, and other civilizations divided the remaining universes.
• Lin Zhen announced that the Azure Dragon Alliance would launch its second expansion in one hundred years, alarming leaders whose forces had been defeated and whose future income was already committed.

Lin Zhen finalized the expansion terms, leaving the Tailo Empire jubilant over its new territory while other civilizations faced a future obligation to provide legions. At the Chaos Research Institute, Luo Li reported that a captured colony ship could supply materials for major upgrades to the Federation’s teleportation and cross-border devices.

• Lin Zhen required every God-tier Civilization to provide at least three Alliance-standard legions during the second expansion or lose eligibility for its benefits.
• The Tailo Empire celebrated receiving four hundred universes, and its people welcomed the relocation and the prospect of more living space.
• The Federation retained one hundred universes in each conquered Black Hole Cavity Realm for troops, trade hubs, and control of the Alliance.
• Luo Li identified the captured colony ship as a Peak Sixth-order vessel of the Black Hole Civilization and insisted its insignia belonged to the Xilbeila Empire.
• Luo Li told Lin Fan that the ship’s materials could produce fourth-generation Black Hole Cavity Teleportation Devices and third-generation Cross-border Devices, including about thirty and seventy thousand sets respectively.

The Federation helped the Kunsa Realm civilizations migrate while expanding its forces across the Sera and Dore Realms. In Federation Year 1045, Emperor Carrot resisted the Black and White Church’s demand that the Xilbeila Empire join a new Holy War, but an old agreement prevented him from refusing outright.

• Valeri paid to rent the Federation’s Cross-border Device, but Lin Zhen later built more devices for other civilizations, allowing all twenty-nine to migrate.
• The Federation developed its realms rapidly, stationed fleets in the Sera and Dore Realms, and planned to expand its military to forty legions by Federation Year 1050.
• A minister told Carrot that the Black and White Church had again urged the Xilbeila Empire to prepare for a Holy War.
• Carrot recalled that the last Holy War destroyed sixteen of twenty-seven civilizations and left the survivors crippled.
• Carrot continued stalling because an old agreement required the imperial family to support any divine decree from the returning Lord of Darkness.