Thinking of that, Yu Lian still couldn't help expressing a degree of regret.
"If the Empire's homeland were directly across the Far Shore Nebula, that would be perfect. Then a single task force under Brigadier General Bazan might be able to draw away a large number of enemy forces. What a shame it's only the territory of the Imperial Auxiliary Army. The Empire wouldn't care if half the Ketai catfolk's homeland went up in flames, or if the Terrabians founded a country. So naturally, it wouldn't care about the birdmen and goatheads either."
"If we wanted to strike straight into the Empire's heartland, we'd have to go through the Abyss Nebula, right? That's much harder to cross than the Far Shore, and there are plenty of terrifying stories about it. They can't all be baseless, can they?" Rozes said. "Like that ancient city of terror that devours anyone who looks at it..."
"That thing's real. It's a space city left over from the Enlightener era. My master and senior brother have both been there," Yu Lian said.
And so had I, in my previous life.
The ancient city wasn't all that mysterious. A little over a hundred years ago, a group of adventurers had discovered it and explored it, trembling with fear. They hadn't found anything dangerous, but they had discovered a life-support system and climate-control system inside that seemed almost perpetual. The temperature and humidity had apparently been carefully adjusted, making it suitable for almost any carbon-based intelligent life to survive in—a sort of Gaia-like planet in the form of a space city.
It was basically a Union Fortress with little in the way of defenses. And because it was deep inside the Abyss Nebula, beyond the military reach of the great powers, it gave active social groups plenty