(The extra chapter was over. Back to the main story.)
"Wait, don't relay my orders yet. Keep watching-something's not right."
Xi Yan immediately halted his orders. He had spotted something new.
Just before the Gateway closed again, another clear message crossed the black hole's event horizon and echoed throughout the system. The signal carried so much energy that its fluctuations reverberated through all of subspace.
[This... this is impossible! The Gateway has activated again! Has our age of isolation finally ended? We are the Dessanu Concordat. We built the ancient Gateways and L-Gates scattered throughout the galaxy. Our ideal was to create a Gateway network spanning the entire galaxy, fostering the spread of interstellar civilization and ushering in a new era of peaceful interstellar commerce. Unfortunately, a programming error disabled the L-Gates, trapping us in our home cluster. Since we could not correct the error from our side, we could only wait endlessly, hoping someone would repair it from the other side. Thanks to you, that day has finally arrived!]
Xi Yan silently read through the communication once again. Pressed against his side, Veronica could practically see countless question marks popping up over the Marshal's head.
"That's so weird. Let's take another look."
After another pause, the Construction Ship cautiously moved forward and activated the L-Gate again, without waiting for the probe in the distant L-Cluster to send back its report.
Space in front of the miniature black hole warped once more. Light and matter erupted from the black hole, forming an enormous creature before the L-Gate.
The gray behemoth looked almost identical to the Celestial Dragon. It swept its hollow gaze over the surrounding fleets, then leisurely beat its wings and flew off in one direction.
"..."
The normally unflappable Marshal raised his head and stared at