The abyssal passage exploded.
The spatial structure of the entire Star Domain was torn apart at its foundations.
Every star within a hundred thousand light-years went dark at once, its light cut off at the source.
In the darkness, two figures emerged from the depths of the passage.
Two gaunt figures stepped out of the passage.
The instant they descended, the overloaded data streams burned out every detector along the Empire's defensive line.
These were the true bodies of two True Gods.
The white-robed True God on the left had an indistinct face, his features obscured by higher-dimensional laws.
The black-armored True God on the right had golden light spilling from his eyes, his gaze evaporating the surrounding void.
They took one step forward.
Just one step.
The three thousand cruisers at the forefront of the Empire's defensive line were all pressed into the folds of the void, their hulls twisting out of shape.
Under the crushing divine pressure, the knees of a million soldiers along the defensive line burst apart at once. Yet every one of them clung to their broken weapons and comrades, and not a single one knelt.
Inside the command center, the Deputy Commander braced against the pressure with both hands broken and deformed, forcing a roar through clenched teeth:
"All forces of the Empire, hear my command! We will never be slaves!"
"One hundred thousand Interstellar Railguns, fire!"
At the Empire Border, the hidden ultimate weapons platforms all broke their seals at once.
One hundred thousand Interstellar Railguns, each with a bore over a kilometer wide, rose from beneath planetary crusts, the ultimate energy of stellar nuclear fusion churning inside their barrels.
A single shot from any one of them could pierce a planet's core.
One hundred thousand white beams fired almost simultaneously, converging in