Casimir Effect

[Tip: The Casimir Effect Enhancement Device Matrix has been activated. Stellar-level energy mobilization is complete. Forcefully intercepting the target vessel—]

Boom!

The spacetime effect produced by the Wormhole Jump opened a gigantic wormhole tunnel that enveloped the massive hull of Demon One.

Yet the instant the jump began, an accident occurred. A deep, thunderous boom, like the toll of a massive bell, reverberated through the spatial barrier.

A tremendous tremor shook Demon One.

Morgana staggered on her throne and nearly fell flat on her face. Looking rather disheveled, she demanded, "What's going on?"

"We only opened a Wormhole Jump. How did it cause such a huge commotion?"

The Demon Warriors below were clearly even more flustered. They answered noisily, talking over one another.

"Not sure, Queen..."

"Demon One reports that it encountered a powerful negative-energy rebound. The Wormhole Jump was forcibly aborted!"

"The wormhole entrance that just opened was forcibly closed. Demon One has deviated from its original position... It appears that someone intercepted Demon One's jump!"

"Deviated from its original position?"

Morgana froze. This was the first time she had encountered such a situation.

Even during her previous wars with the Angels, nothing like this had ever happened.

Intercepting Demon One's Wormhole Jump?

That was utterly unheard of.

No one had attacked Demon One, so how had they intercepted its Wormhole Jump?

"Then where did Demon One end up?" Morgana hurriedly asked.

"Re... reporting to you, Queen..." The Demon Warrior operating Demon One below wore a mournful expression as he reported, "Demon One is currently in the Chiwu Star System. We've left Planet Earth!"

"What?" Morgana's face was filled with disbelief.

Demon Atuo, standing beside her, also found it horrifyingly unbelievable and grew extremely tense.

At the same time, all the Demons felt their scalps go numb.

That was because it meant they had been exposed to the fleet of the Human Federation!

Aboard the command ship Da Ming Palace.

The moment Demon One had completely left the vicinity of Planet Earth and exposed itself to the fleet's line of sight,

without Chen Yu issuing another order, the combat mainframe systems of the entire fleet automatically executed the predetermined battle plan.

The reason Demon One had been intercepted was that a gigantic Quantum Foam had enveloped the entire Solar System.

The "Casimir Effect Enhancement Device Matrix" used to control the Quantum Foam operated according to the following theory:

By consuming a certain amount of stellar-level energy, it generated a sufficiently powerful negative-energy field that enveloped the entire Star System, thereby interfering with and affecting all spacetime effects within the region.

Within this region, whether one used a hyperspace engine to open a hyperspace route or attempted to escape through faster-than-light means such as a Wormhole Jump engine, one would be forcibly intercepted without exception.

Any faster-than-light method would produce a certain spacetime effect the moment it was used.

The Casimir Effect Enhancement Device achieved faster-than-light interception precisely by destroying these spacetime effects.

In short, this was a powerful device capable of destroying the universe's laws of causality.

Demon One had clearly encountered such a method for the first time.

A Wormhole Jump consumed an enormous amount of energy. Moreover, whether calculating the wormhole entrance or the wormhole's spatial destination, it required a tremendous amount of computation and time.

In the short term, Demon One had no way to initiate another emergency Wormhole Jump and escape.

Faced with the threat of the First Federal Fleet, they could only choose to endure it head-on.

Demon One appeared near Saturn within the Solar System, and chaos had already broken out inside.

"Quick, activate the Spacetime Distortion Shield!"

"Everyone, move to your designated battle stations!" Morgana commanded as if facing a mortal enemy.

Before she could finish making her arrangements, the First Federal Fleet had already launched its attack.

"Charge the main cannons! Prepare the secondary cannons! Let those extraterrestrial scum learn just how powerful the Federation is!"

Aboard the Titan Warships, the voices of the Federal captains were firm and cold.

The hulls of the Titan Warships began to flash with dazzling light.

At their bows, gigantic main cannons slowly rotated. Blinding blue-white light radiated from their muzzles, as if miniature suns were brewing destructive power.

The secondary turrets surrounding the main cannons also rose one after another. Their muzzles flashed red, green, and purple, like venomous snakes preparing to spit poison.

"Main cannon charge complete!"

The intelligent combat mainframe responded.

In an instant, the main cannon of a Titan Warship shuddered, and a thick Titan Beam erupted from its muzzle, tearing through the darkness of the void.

Beams of light, as if heralding the arrival of death, crossed billions of kilometers in an instant and struck Demon One's Spacetime Distortion Shield head-on.

The so-called Spacetime Distortion Shield, explained according to the technological system of the Human Federation, was actually a Dark Matter Deflection Shield.

When activated, this warship shield constructed using Dark Matter technology distorted the surrounding spacetime to a certain degree, greatly increasing the likelihood of avoiding external attacks on the hull.

In the Known Universe, because Dark Matter technology was rare and the mining of Dark Matter, a strategic resource, was subject to technological limitations, only God-level Civilizations equipped celestial warships with this kind of shield.

Yet within the Human Federation, even the lowest-specification Whisper escort ship had long been commonly equipped with a similar Dark Matter Deflection Shield.

They had many ways to break through such a shield.

At the same time, more than ten Titan Beams struck Demon One's shield at faster-than-light speeds.

According to Morgana's expectations, Demon One's Spacetime Distortion Shield should at least have been able to withstand several rounds of attacks from the enemy fleet, buying enough time to initiate another emergency Wormhole Jump and escape.

But to her great disappointment, the terrifying Titan Beams rapidly depleted the energy of the Spacetime Distortion Shield. Before long, Demon One's energy reserves began to run low.

Demon One's energy source was Stellar Energy. It could remotely draw Stellar Energy from nearby Star Systems to replenish itself.

However, the earlier interception by the "Casimir Effect Enhancement Device" seemed to have severed all of Demon One's external Stellar Energy supply lines as well.

Without an internal energy supply, the Spacetime Distortion Shield was on the verge of collapse.

"Can we absorb the energy from the enemy ships' attacks and use it to replenish Demon One?" Morgana asked anxiously.

"No, Queen. The energy level of the beam attacks they're using is too high. The Spacetime Distortion Shield is completely unable to absorb them in reverse..." one of her Demon subordinates said in despair.

"Damn it!"

Morgana's face turned deathly pale. She had never imagined that her Demon One would meet its end in such a manner.

"Send them a surrender request!"

Driven into a corner, Morgana gritted her teeth and made a difficult decision.

Demon Atuo shook his head and displayed a message. He said resentfully, "Queen, they rejected our surrender."

"What?"

Morgana's eyes widened. Her heavily made-up, ghostlike face immediately flushed red. The message contained one blunt sentence, filled with contempt and mockery:

"Extraterrestrial scum, go to hell!"