In the depths of the endless, chaotic void, over a thousand silver-gray warships advanced slowly.
Their icy hulls reflected dim, frigid gleams amid the turbulent currents of the void. The massive fleet was like a sharp shuttle, tearing through the elemental turbulence along its path and bearing down on the pale golden wall of light stretching across heaven and earth ahead.
After a period of travel, the fleet was less than a thousand kilometers from the Plane Barrier of the Purgatory Sulfur Plane.
Three Level Six capital ships stood at the triangular nodes of the formation, heavy as mountains, firmly shielding several hundred auxiliary vessels at their center.
Every ship's bow had locked onto the target. Their cannons remained silent, yet they were like a pack of steel behemoths poised to strike.
Inside the flagship, the "Deep Root."
Dark-blue streams of light flowed slowly through the command deck. Complex star maps floated in midair, while countless streams of data cascaded past like waterfalls.
As usual, the commander stood before the central controls.
His head, formed from a crown of silver-gray metal branches, swayed gently. Eight crystalline eyes reflected the entire battlefield.
On another display, the battle damage statistics updated in real time.
Their journey here had not exactly been smooth sailing either. The enemy's offensives came wave after wave, with scarcely any pause.
Over the past several advances, those black giant beasts had launched at least a dozen suicidal charges.
During the fiercest wave, several black giant beasts had smashed through a reinforced combined shield on one side, protected by escort ships.
That attack had inflicted considerable losses on the fleet, severely damaging several escort ships.
One particularly unlucky escort ship had nearly been torn in half after its shield was breached.
Although the warship's damage control system had activated