Shattered World, in a Desolate Universe Belt.
A secret stargate station is hidden on the northern side of a desolate planet, serving as a stronghold for the Virtual Cult's stowaways. This stargate is equipped with various cloaking devices to conceal its energy signature, maintain Stealth, and prevent remote detection by any type of radar.
The Arcane Church's technology is no less advanced than the Empire's; they simply have different focuses and their strengths are distinct. During this time, the Empire's exploration teams have been tracking the trails of stowaways from supercluster-level civilizations, but they have yet to find the Arcane Church's secret stargate to the Federation of Light.
To maintain secrecy, the Arcane Church does not frequently send military forces through the secret stargate; this stargate station remains dormant most of the time.
But today, this stargate station was activated, and the blue spatial energy that was rotating within the stargate ring suddenly accelerated, with warships passing through the stargate one after another.
These warships were not the standard vertical disc-shaped ships of the Arcane Church, but rather four-sided pyramidal shuttle-shaped warships with red light flowing along their edges, while their outer armor was pitch black.
This four-sided shuttle-shaped warship is one of the dozens of common advanced armed ship models in the Galaxy. It circulates on a large scale in the market, so its identity cannot be identified by its model number, and there are no insignia indicating its identity engraved on the surface of the hull.
The stargate continuously released warships, totaling over a million, forming a massive fleet.
The Arcane Church officer at the outpost watched this scene silently. He didn't know the origin of this force, only that it was an order directly issued by the higher-ups, instructing him to do nothing and simply let the fleet leave.
The mysterious fleet showed no intention of communicating. The officers at the outpost watched helplessly as the fleet turned around, quickly moved away, and disappeared from sight in a streak of light.
"I wonder what kind of secret operation they're planning this time. A million warships... Are they going to war with the Empire?" the outpost officer muttered to himself.
As the stargate station disappeared from the fleet's sight, in the command center of the mysterious fleet's main ship, a hooded figure raised his head, revealing himself to be an avatar of an Sorokin.
"Hmph, the Arcane Church." The Sorokin's avatar gave a nonchalant snort; the Sorokin's main consciousness was controlling this avatar.
This fleet is a detachment of the Fallen Ark.
The forces of the Sorokin are situated in the gaps of the Central Galaxy and rarely leave. To quickly traverse multiple star systems to reach the Shattered World, they can only use stargates. To allow the Sorokin to deceive everyone, the Arcane Church secretly built stargates in the Desolate Universe Belt of the Central Galaxy a long time ago, providing stargate services to the Sorokin ' forces... Of course, this is only temporary.
This squad used the Stargate of the Arcane Church to secretly arrive in the Shattered World. Although the two sides cooperated temporarily, the Sorokin did not easily trust the Arcane Church.
To prevent the Arcane Church from ambushing him, he only sent one clone and a branch fleet to scout ahead. The mission of this squad was to build the Fallen Ark's own secret stargate in the Shattered World, thus securing his own escape route.
Stargates are a technology of cluster-level civilizations, but the purpose of the black market (https://www. hetushu. com. com) is to allow people to buy things that are absolutely impossible to obtain through normal channels. The Sorokin purchased their stargate equipment from the black market at a high price because, looking at the entire universe, the number of cluster-level civilizations is not particularly small, and it is difficult to keep things like stargates completely secret.
Only by securing an escape route will the true form of the Sorokin personally come to the Shattered World.
"Open the star map."
His subordinate operated the device and opened the 3D star map, which prominently displayed the star map of the Flash and the Radiant World—information sent to them by the Arcane Church.
Although this is the Empire's star map, given the interconnectedness of cosmic civilizations, the Arcane Church has ways of obtaining star maps. However, this star map does not show the Empire's military defense deployment in the Shattered World; this is classified, and the Arcane Church cannot easily ascertain it all.
However, the defensive forces of the Imperial outpost Lighthouse Star were highlighted on the star map, with approximately three million warships stationed on the planet and more than one million guard warships patrolling the surrounding area.
The Empire has deployed hundreds of millions of warships to the Shattered World, but most of them are on exploration missions and cannot all be stationed on Lighthouse Star. With more than four million fleets stationed there, Lighthouse Star is already the strongest planet in the Empire's Shattered World defense force.
"Four million... it seems we'll need to send some more people over."
The Sorokin's avatar spoke calmly. The Fallen Ark was said to have a fleet of 60 million, and the actual number was probably even more. There was a reason why it was feared by the Three Universal Civilizations. In terms of power alone, it was a large armed organization that was among the top tier in the Galaxy. He could provide this number of people.
After a pause, the Sorokin clone took out a communicator and contacted the Arcane Church's special agent liaison. The Arcane Church's higher-ups would not personally contact a thug like him; the middleman was a secret agent of the Arcane Church. The advantage was that they could claim at any time that there was no such person in their organization.
"My advance team is in position. When will you move out?"
"You will be notified of the exact time in twenty days, and we will need your cooperation in our troop operations."
The Sorokin's avatar asked playfully, "How about we cooperate?"
"According to the higher-ups, we will not appear together, so we will split up. You will launch a frontal assault to draw the attention of the Lighthouse Star's garrison, while we will launch a surprise attack."
The Sorokin's avatar nodded, understanding the concerns of the Arcane Church. He also didn't believe that the Arcane Church's Beyond Grade A members would act with him. Acting separately was expected, and the Arcane Church's tactics were also as he had anticipated.
However, the warning lines of Lighthouse Star cover the entire sector, and his troops cannot avoid the Empire's monitoring. Neither can the Arcane Church. A true sneak attack is impossible. The Sorokin thinks this is just an exaggeration, just to create a time difference, let him attract more firepower, and then the Arcane Church can enter the battlefield from another direction.
The Sorokin was not worried that the Arcane Church would sit idly by and let him draw fire, because once his troops triggered the alert of Lighthouse Star, the Empire would dispatch fleets from the surrounding areas to come to the rescue. As an outpost of the Empire, Lighthouse Star was a node in the Stargate transportation network, and troops exploring outside could quickly return. He believed that the Arcane Church would not miss the opportunity for a small gain.
However, the Sorokin was unaware that the Arcane Church's plan of action this time was quite different from his guess.
A round table was set up in the dimly lit room, with more than a dozen seats, but only six seats were occupied at this moment.
Calling them "people" isn't quite accurate; these six figures are all remote projections, one of which is none other than Sisko.
Each of these seats represents a position for Beyond Grade A combatant of the Arcane Church.
In this operation, the Arcane Church deployed six Beyond Grade A!
These six individuals represent the majority of the Arcane Church's combat strength available in the short term. The other Beyond Grade A individuals each have their own responsibilities, holding down their respective positions and unable to act discreetly without attracting attention.
The Arcane Church will also have an additional external ally, the Sorokin, while their opponents only consist of Black Star, Milizaus, and Beoni. The difference in combat power is an overwhelming advantage for the Arcane Church, which is planning to launch a Thunder attack on their enemies!
At this moment, the six people present were chatting casually.
"I haven't seen an operation this big in a long time."
"Milizaus... that dragon is not easy to deal with. I've fought him before, and we were evenly matched. But this time he even used the Scepter of All Gods, so his chances of survival are very slim."
"The Arcane Church has gone mad! Are they planning to start a war? They wiped out three Beyond Grade A cultivators from the Crimson Dynasty in one fell swoop. How could the Crimson Dynasty possibly swallow this insult? It might escalate into a full-scale war."
"This is what the Federation of Light wanted, isn't it? That's why they fueled the flames, agreed to help, and even allowed us to borrow their Universal Treasure."
Several Beyond Grade A individuals shook their heads; the Arcane Church was clearly about to make headlines.
Their concern wasn't the outcome of the operation—the disparity in combat strength was so vast that failure was virtually impossible—but rather the consequences of its success.
It is foreseeable that after eliminating the Empire's three Beyond Grade A, Head-On Conflict will erupt between the Arcane Church and the Crimson Dynasty. Those involved will face retaliation from the Empire and be held accountable later.
Although they are allies of the Arcane Church and are not afraid of the Crimson Dynasty, some of them have territories in other star systems. If they are targeted by the Empire, they will be in trouble. Therefore, some of them are not very willing to participate in this operation.
However, as an ally, having received so many benefits all along, they had no choice but to reluctantly respond to the call of the Arcane Church, even if they were unwilling.
"If Sisko hadn't lost the Evolution Cube, this operation wouldn't have happened." Someone snorted, shifting the blame onto Sisko.
Sisko glanced at him, confirmed his suspicion with his eyes—he was someone he couldn't beat—and didn't argue.
"Since the Arcane Church has launched such a large-scale operation, even if we get the Evolution Cube back, we can't possibly return it to you," another person said in a deep voice.
"I know," Sisko said without changing his expression. "As long as it's not in someone else's hands, I can accept it."
"Tsk tsk, if Black Star had returned the Evolution Cube to you back then, you wouldn't be in this mess today. It seems Black Star is the fastest superhuman in history to reach Beyond Grade A. Too greedy, what a pity." One person shook his head, his tone regretful.
"He deserved it for taking what he shouldn't have," Sisko said coldly.
He knew that after the Arcane Church succeeded, the Evolution Cube would not return to his hands. However, because the Evolution Cube was isolated by Han Xiao, his soul connection with the Evolution Cube was broken, thus losing the enhancement of his mental power. Therefore, his demands were now lowered.
Even if the Arcane Church reclaimed the Evolution Cube, Sisko could accept it as long as he maintained the strengthening of his soul connection. Han Xiao was the instigator of all this, causing him to lose the Evolution Cube. Sisko was filled with rage and would not let go of this opportunity to eliminate Han Xiao.
Personal grudges are one thing, but on the other hand, Black Star's power is also Shattered Star Ring. Due to the hostile relationship between the two, Black Star has become an obstacle on the path of the Star Pupil Protoss's development. The last Civilization Council was an example. Even for the sake of civilization's development, Sisko must eliminate Black Star, this obstacle.
A Beyond Grade A sitting next to Sisko seemed to understand Sisko's thoughts, patted Sisko on the shoulder, and said, "Don't worry, I'll help you take down Black Star."
"Thanks, Dilun." Although Sisko was in a bad mood, he still managed a smile. "We'll deal with him together."
Dilun nodded, his long, dark green hair, like seaweed, swaying in the breeze.
His skin was blue, covered in tiny scales, and his features resembled those of a fish. He had large, bright eyes that occasionally blinked, and a striking third eye on his forehead, visible through a slit. His hands and feet had webbed structures, and each palm had an eyeball, making him quite eerie. His spine was curved, giving him a hunchbacked appearance, and he had a dorsal fin, suggesting he was an aquatic creature. It's unknown what his ancestors did to the fish... or perhaps the fish did something to his ancestors.
Given his appearance and abilities, which are also related to water, Dilun is a superhuman nicknamed "Sea Spirit" and "Ocean Ruler." His superpower is water manipulation, which sounds ordinary and doesn't seem to have much combat power in the universe. However, there are no weak superhumans who have reached the Beyond Grade A.
Due to the unique strength of his Beyond Grade A abilities, Dilun can compress water to an extreme degree, creating an indestructible cutting force that can easily cleave through warships. Not only that, he can also convert water into high-energy laser beams with power comparable to shipborne weapons. At the same time, his body can store a huge amount of water, which, when ejected, could flood the surface of a planet, turning it into an ocean world.
This kind of ability isn't well-suited for one-on-one combat, but it excels in team battles, and its greatest strength lies in crowd control.
Having been a member of the Arcane Church for many years, Sisko has friends, one of whom is Dilun. Dylan is Sisko's best friend among the Beyond Grade A allies... perhaps because they both have many eyes and share common interests.
Meanwhile, on the home planet of the Federation of Light, President Bader was also monitoring the actions of the Arcane Church, and providing assistance to the Arcane Church was his decision.
"With our help, as long as the Arcane Church doesn't underestimate us, the success rate of this operation is over 95%, and the Crimson Dynasty will lose at least one Beyond Grade A." Bader said confidently.
"Yes, Beyond Grade A life form is enough to incite conflict between the Arcane Church and the Crimson Dynasty, which is very advantageous for us."
The chief council elder nodded approvingly.
The Federation of Light helped the Arcane Church precisely because they wanted to sit back and watch the two sides fight. If the Arcane Church and the Crimson Dynasty clashed, they would have a chance to profit.
The Arcane Church was aware of this, but still decided to continue, intending to mutually benefit from the situation. Furthermore, cooperating with the Sorokin was never a pleasant thing, so the Arcane Church did not inform the Federation of Light. The Federation of Light, by providing assistance, was also dragged into the mess, making it difficult to use this as leverage against them.
Although both sides had their own plans, they also shared a common goal: to put pressure on the Crimson Dynasty, further divert its attention, test its attitude, and see if there was an opportunity to gradually encroach upon it.
Whether the Imperial Beyond Grade A who was killed was Milizaus or Black Star made no difference to Bader; he didn't care at all.