What Lorna had realized, Earth Civilization—and every civilization in the Milky Way—had realized too.
But ordering their fleets to march to their deaths was a decision no one could make lightly.
For now, the border held Star Alliance territories and mining star systems. Abandoning them for strategic reasons was not unthinkable.
So most defense zones avoided battle, drawing their lines back and trading space for time.
In the twelfth week, the Mount Lu Fleet, to which Lorna belonged, suffered a defeat and retreated to Hai Su Star.
They, too, had encountered more than a dozen Star River-level monsters. After destroying several, they had suddenly seen a void vortex open and thousands more descend.
Fortunately, the fate of the Bai Hu Seven Constellations had taught them a lesson. The Mount Lu Fleet withdrew decisively, avoiding heavy losses.
But retreat like this meant letting the Void devour the Milky Way's territory.
Army groups across the Milky Way did the same. Avoid battle, avoid battle, and avoid battle again.
The enemy needed only to drop a few Void monsters into each star system. They would devour its star, its planets, and every speck of interstellar dust.
Within a day, an entire star system could vanish.
Once one place fell, void vortices appeared in the surrounding star systems. Vast swathes of stars sank into darkness.
The Mount Lu Fleet had barely reached Hai Su Star and begun to regroup when a void vortex appeared above the red giant.
A colossal thing of sickly colors descended under a terrifying pressure and swallowed the red giant whole!
The swallowing could not be seen with the naked eye, of course. On the surface, the star was still shining normally.
But the entire star abruptly twisted into irregular shapes, like a cloud of gas stirred by a giant