After the attack, Gilanna led the team back to the federal headquarters.
After several consecutive space jumps, they finally reached their destination.
The headquarters of Interstellar Federation is not located on a planet, but on a huge artificial land.
If the area of this land is expanded, it is about three times the size of the earth. And a magnificent castle almost covers the entire continent.
After the spacecraft landed in the designated area, the three went their separate ways.
Augustus and Oren return to their respective residences, while Gilanna needs to make a formal report.
Walking on the road to her destination, she silently looked at the castle.
The main color of the building is white, embellished with a little gold, and the whole building exudes a sacred and noble atmosphere.
In the center of the castle stands a huge golden scale sculpture, which is the symbol of the Federation.
When countless creatures of different races pass by the sculpture, they will stop for a few seconds to show respect.
Here, flying is strictly prohibited and everyone must walk, and Gilanna is no exception.
But she didn't mind. Over the past hundreds of years, she had walked this road countless times, and every time she would be amazed by its grandeur, solemnity and the significance it represented.
After walking for a few minutes, she finally entered the castle. The guard at the door did not stop her.
Gilanna did not blame them for not following the procedures, because she knew that the castle itself came with a powerful identification barrier.
If someone tried to impersonate her, they would be immediately out of reach.
Along the way, people who recognized her stood up and saluted, and she nodded in greeting.
Soon, she came to an office door.
After waiting for a few seconds, the door opened automatically and she walked in.
There were piles of documents in front of the desk, and a man was concentrating on writing something with a quill pen.
The strange thing is that there is no ink bottle on the table, but the pen in his hand seems to never finish writing, and it has not stopped since Gilanna entered the room.
"President."
"Well, how was the mission?"
"Something unexpected happened."
"Oh? What is it?"
"Arcane Empire is not the Sixth Tier civilization we expected, but a Eighth Tier civilization."
The man finally stopped what he was doing and raised his head.
He wears glasses, has fair skin, a handsome face, and is dressed like a Renaissance aristocrat.
Although he looks like a human, his ears are slightly pointed, but not as obvious as Gilanna.
This means he is a half-elf.
"Are you sure?" the president asked.
"Confirmed. When I first arrived, I felt the pressure of their Eighth Tier weapons. I will never be mistaken."
Later, she reported in detail everything that happened during the visit, including their speculations about the Empire.
The president, Calvin Thessalor, showed a thoughtful expression. He waved his hand, and a piece of paper floated in front of him.
"Actually, I have noticed this Arcane Empire in the past few years. Some of their spellcasters have briefly appeared in many places in Milky Way Galaxy."
"They have something in common: the magic system is very unique. Spell casting is instant and not limited to a single element, it is very comprehensive. The strangest thing is that most of them have mastered space movement spells, which makes them extremely threatening in battle."
"In addition, these people who call themselves 'Arcanist' can single-handedly fight against 3 to 5 spellcasters of the same level and win."
"And based on our intelligence, this assessment may be conservative."
"Arcane Empire's consul and the consul's wife both gave me an extremely terrifying feeling. My intuition told me that even if I was First Tier higher than them, I might lose in a real fight," Gilanna added, "If I think about it carefully, even the ambassador in charge of the reception gave me the same feeling."
"A genius who can fight across levels? I didn't expect to meet such a person in this backward galaxy," Calvin sighed.
He knew that Gilanna, as "God's Mercenaries", had the ability to sense danger given by the gods, so he believed in her words.
"If there is only one person, it can be explained by talent. But if there are three people, or even more, then there is obviously a problem," the president continued his analysis.
"Do you have any clues?" Gilanna asked.
"The only explanation is that their magic system is unique and powerful. You just said that their social structure is a combination of magic and technology?"
"From what we've seen of the tip of the iceberg, that's certainly true."
"That's concerning."
On the road of civilization development, magic and technology are two extremes, but in a certain sense they are complementary.
Magical civilization relies heavily on individual talent. A magical civilization may stagnate for hundreds of years, until one day an amazing genius appears and advances the progress of civilization for hundreds or even thousands of years in just a few decades.
However, once this genius dies or disappears, the civilization often stagnates again, or even regresses.
Scientific and technological civilization is different. Its development is usually linear.
Although it also requires genius to promote it, future generations can inherit the achievements of their predecessors and continue to improve on this basis.
Through the accumulation of countless generations, technological civilizations can progress slowly but steadily - provided they are not destroyed by war or dangerous inventions Self.
Another significant difference between the two paths is the attitude towards knowledge.
Magical civilization believes that only those with extraordinary talents or noble birth are worthy of possessing knowledge. This is partly because magic resources themselves are scarce.
On the contrary, scientific and technological civilization advocates the popularization of education and the sharing of knowledge.
In a universe where "knowledge equals power", allowing a large population to receive education and master extraordinary powers is not a good thing for the current ruling class (gods) of the universe.
Therefore, "Magitech Civilization" (combination of technology and magic) is recognized as one of the most potential civilization models in the universe.
Especially when they develop to the stage where they can mass-produce magic resources.
In traditional magic civilization, the concept of "mass production" almost does not exist because they pay too much attention to personal heroism and regard high-potential individuals as above all else.
Because of this, any high-level Magitech Civilization will usually be included in the monitoring list of the gods, and will be targeted for elimination once it shows a threat.
"President, how should we treat them?"
Calvin pondered for a moment, "I remember it was mentioned in the intelligence collected that some Arcanist defected because they could not stand the strong control of the Archon. We can try to contact these people and see if we can win them over and dig something out of them."
"In addition, we must also investigate the source of their Eighth Tier weapon."
Gilanna nodded, but she felt that things were not that simple.
The consul gave her the impression that he was extremely meticulous in his work. She even suspected that he had planned the previous pirate attacks for unknown purposes.
"How is the situation of the exiled Bleach?" She changed the topic.
"The situation has worsened," the president sighed heavily. "According to the latest information, the entire Milky Way Galaxy has been blocked by a powerful magic weapon, and no one is allowed to enter or exit."
"Right now, we have no way to contact other chapters, let alone the General Assembly."
"Is it that strong?"
"We are not sure. But one department speculates that this Bleach may be holding a Divine Artifact of 'Magus Race'."
"What? Real or fake?"
"While there is strong evidence to support this theory, there is no firm conclusion yet," Calvin replied, rubbing his temples.
Gilanna took a deep breath and tried to calm down.
"Magus Race, the ruler of Old Era. If this matter has anything to do with them, it will be really troublesome."
Calvin did not answer the call because he knew the seriousness behind this better than Gilanna.
"We need a plan to survive this disaster," Gilanna said.
"You are right. The best option at the moment is to gather the power of the three Eighth Tier civilizations and form an alliance," Calvin paused, "Perhaps, the emergence of the Arcane Empire is not a bad thing at this juncture."
Meanwhile, on Earth.
Ian is preparing for a very important day. This day will be forever engraved in the history of the Empire.