"Damn the Keen Empire! I knew they were up to no good!"
The Starfish president angrily performed a one-click desktop cleanup, sweeping a flowerpot filled with coral and a heap of documents off the desk.
Only when the Chosen's fleet poured out of Isomer's Gate and launched a full-scale invasion of the Starfish Republic did the Starfish, who had thought they were getting a bargain, come to their senses and realize that this had all been a plot by the Keen Empire.
They had known all along that the wormhole led to the Isomer Cluster, and that a Fanatic Purifier civilization lived inside!
The unsuspecting Starfish fell straight into the trap. They voluntarily stabilized the wormhole, only to immediately receive a declaration of war from the Chosen.
War justification: [Existence eradication]
"There is no doubt that we Xarenoi are the chosen ones of the God of the End! You are all trials sent down by God, and we will destroy you!"
The deranged Chosen plunged into fanaticism from top to bottom. Their vast battleship fleets charged out of the Isomer Cluster and began splitting up at will. Within just six months, star systems across the western Starfish Republic had fallen in droves.
Meanwhile, the Starfish were still fighting the Habinte Unified Worlds to their northwest. As a long-established hegemonic empire in the Sea of Stars, once freed from the Keen Empire's harassment, the Starfish immediately routed the Habinte, who had only just reached space. The star systems the Habinte had just captured kept slipping from their grasp.
Even more infuriating was Xi Yan. The brat had deliberately reduced the combat effectiveness of the fleet he had supplied, leading to defeat after defeat at the front. Yet aside from Xi Yan, no other empire was willing to rent out