The Destruction Divine Kingdom Faction's withdrawal was not a mad stampede toward the Bronze Gate.
That would only expose their backs to the Destruction Supreme.
Saine's withdrawal sequence was exceedingly complex.
The first to pull out were the mid- and low-tier legions that had suffered the heaviest losses and no longer possessed the ability to keep advancing.
These legions included the Evil Swamp Time-Space Expeditionary Legion, portions of the frontline battle formations from Limitless Time-Space, the damaged light-element legions of Yongji's Day, and the engineering units from the first wave of Mechanical Civilization forces to enter Destruction Time-Space.
When they retreated, they did not pass directly through the Bronze Gate.
Instead, they first entered three transit star-continents outside the Bridgehead, where Skynet coordinated them before sending them into the Cross-dimensional Plane passage in batches.
The second group to withdraw consisted of vast numbers of rule-gathering units, War Fortress artillery formations, Destruction Noise Canceller maintenance crews, and high-tier Mechanical Legions responsible for transporting Spoils of War.
This group was the most heterogeneous.
It was also the group most likely to encounter problems.
Many Rule Materials from Destruction Time-Space could not be removed directly.
But Destruction crystals, bone fragments left behind by Black Flame Skeletonized Beings, Rule Debris stripped from Crystal Tide Wrath Beasts and Hundred-Eyed Chaos Beasts, Dark Obelisk fragments deposited outside the sealed region of the Empty-Faced Burning Monarch, and sonic runes left behind by the Ash Sea Singer before its sealing all had to be packed up and taken away whenever possible.
Saine had no intention of letting any of these things go.
Even as the withdrawal began, he still demanded that Mechanical Civilization classify the samples in meticulous detail.
"Anything that cannot be removed is to be sealed on-site within the Star Sector occupied by Locke."
"Anything carrying