Barton was finished!
The news spread through every Level-4 civilization within the Alvin Civilization as if it had grown legs.
Two explosive pieces of news supported this conclusion.
First, one of Alvin's fleets that had been wiped out in Barton's ambush, as well as another fleet destroyed by Barton during Alvin's punitive campaign, had both turned out to be obsolete old-style starships that Alvin had phased out long ago.
It turned out that Alvin had been feigning weakness all along. At its apparent weakest, aside from Barton and Mandehai, the Level-4 civilization Gask had also joined the siege against Alvin. In truth, this was exactly the outcome Alvin wanted. To stabilize itself internally, Alvin had to root out the civilizations that harbored ulterior motives, and the best way to test the loyalty of its subordinate civilizations was naturally through its own apparent decline.
As for the other civilizations, although some had also been restless, they had all openly answered Alvin's call to war and even dispatched troops to help resist Barton, Mandehai, and Gask.
Having received its proof, Alvin suddenly erupted. Five well-equipped fleets with advanced technology appeared out of nowhere and, in an instant, crushed the allied forces of Barton, Mandehai, and Gask.
The second piece of news was that the Level-3 civilizations forming the foundations of Barton, Mandehai, and Gask had suddenly been dragged into war. On Barton's side, the five major forces allied with Blade Blood had entered the conflict. On Mandehai's side, two Level-3 civilizations had directly pledged allegiance to Alvin. If the wars that had suddenly erupted within those two civilizations had been planned by Alvin after it foresaw the ambitions of Barton and Mandehai, then Gask—the one that had abruptly torn off its mask—had also found Alvin's recruited forces driving straight into Gask's home