The Shapley Supercluster.
Human warships intermingled with the Neutral Faction's diverse vessels, forming long columns of fleets that stretched across the cosmos, with Human Civilization's warships at their head.
With their Warp Drives engaged, the columns raced toward their designated star regions, attempting to intercept the reinforcements dispatched by the Cleaners.
Suddenly, a powerful tachyon signal came from the direction of the Boötes Void, sweeping rapidly across these vast fleets composed of different advanced civilizations.
The instant the tachyon disturbance swept past, every warship slipped out of its crew's control and spontaneously dropped out of its curvature state.
The next moment.
Under Zero's control, the Human Fleet began ascending into four dimensions. The once clearly visible warships rapidly transformed into masses of indescribable shadows.
At the same time, powerful fluctuations from the Dark Matter Stabilization Fields began spreading outward.
This sudden turn of events plunged the combined fleet straight into chaos.
Tachyon messages filled with suspicion poured toward the nearby Human Fleet.
Not only the fleets on the front lines-even the Neutral Faction's leadership sent countless messages to Human Civilization.
Their contents were all much the same: demands to know why Human Civilization had done this, and furious declarations that they had been betrayed.
There was no helping it. At present, only Human Civilization could forcibly seize control of warships in an instant.
Without any further investigation, the Neutral Faction could easily identify the "culprit."
The Neutral Faction's suspicion and anger did not last long.
While the human warships ascended dimensions and activated their Dark Matter Stabilization Fields, the fluctuations in the surrounding spacetime curvature had already become unmistakable-at the very least, every level eight civilization could easily detect that something was wrong.
The once noisy tachyon communication bands began falling silent.
Dozens of seconds later.
Disaster struck with