842 Enemy Whereabouts
Within a certain desolate universe belt in the Flickering World, a secret stargate station was hidden behind a desolate planet. It was the stronghold of the stowaways from the Arcane Church. This stargate station was equipped with all sorts of stealth devices to conceal its own energy reaction and prevent it from being detected by any kind of radar.
The Arcane Church’s technology was on par with the dynasty’s, only they had different focuses. The dynasty had been searching for the whereabouts of some Super Star Cluster civilizations lately but never found the secret stargate of the Arcane Church and the Federation of Light.
In order to remain stealthy, the Arcane Church would not frequently use the secret stargate, so this stargate station was silent most of the time.
That day, however, this stargate station was activated. The blue space energy inside the stargate suddenly accelerated its spinning, and battleships appeared from within.
These battleships were not the standard disc-shaped spaceships of the Arcane Church but quadrangular cone-shaped ships with red light swirling at the edges and black exterior armor.
This type of quadrangular cone battleship was one of the dozens of common high-level battleships in the galaxy. It circulated in the market on a large scale, so the owner’s identity could not be identified from its model. The surface of the ships did not have any symbols that represented any identity.
Battleships came out of the stargate continuously. It was an enormous fleet of up to more than a million battleships.
The Arcane Church officer at the stronghold watched this silently. He did not know who this fleet was. All he knew was that his superiors had given him a direct order not to do anything and to let this fleet leave.
This mysterious fleet had no intention of communicating either. The stronghold officer watched as this fleet turned into streams of light and disappeared.
“What are the people above planning? A million battleships... Are we going to war with the dynasty?” the stronghold officer murmured.
...
As the stargate station disappeared from the sights of this mysterious fleet, inside the command room of its main ship, a hooded man looked up—it was an EsGod doppelganger.
“Humph, Arcane Church.” The EsGod doppelganger snorted. EsGod’s consciousness was on this doppelganger.
This fleet was a division of the Fallen Ark.
EsGod’s forces were between the gaps of the Central Galaxy. In order to quickly come to the Flickering World through multiple Star Fields, they could only use stargates. The Arcane Church had secretly built stargates in the desolate universe belt of the Central Galaxy long ago to provide services to EsGod’s troops so that EsGod could travel this long distance. Of course, this was only temporary.
Using the stargate of the Arcane Church, this division secretly arrived at the Flickering World. However, despite them temporarily working together, EsGod did not trust the Arcane Church.
To prevent the Arcane Church from ambushing him, he only sent a doppelganger and a division fleet. The mission of this division was to build his own secret stargate in the Flickering World so that his means of retreating would be in his own hands if things went wrong.
Stargates were a Star Cluster civilization technology, but the black market allowed people to buy things that they would never be able to buy through ordinary means. EsGod’s stargate device had been bought from the black market at an extremely high price. In the entire universe, there were more than a few Star Cluster civilizations, so the stargate devices could not be kept completely exclusive.
EsGod’s main body would only go to the Flickering World personally once he had a certain way of retreating.
“Open the star map.”
His subordinate opened the 3D star map of the Flickering World that they had received from the Arcane Church.
Although this was the dynasty’s star map, the Arcane Church had a way to obtain it since the universal civilizations all had a certain degree of infiltration of each other. However, this star map did not display the dynasty’s lines of defense in the Flickering World. This was a top secret that even the Arcane Church could not easily obtain.
Nonetheless, the defensive force of Planet Lighthouse was highlighted. The planet’s garrison consisted of about three million battleships, with more than one million battleships patrolling nearby.
The dynasty had dispatched hundreds of millions of battleships to the Flickering World, but most of them were exploring. With four million battleships defending it at all times, Planet Lighthouse was already the most heavily guarded planet in the entire Flickering World.
“Four million... looks like I need to bring some more people here.” The EsGod doppelganger’s tone was calm. The Fallen Ark was said to have sixty million battleships, and the actual number might exceed that. There was a reason he was feared by the three civilizations. He could easily dispatch this amount of manpower.
After a pause, the EsGod doppelganger took out the communicator and contacted the Arcane Church’s special agent liaison officer. The upper echelons of the Arcane Church would not contact a criminal like him personally, so the Arcane Church’s secret agent was the middleman between them. The Arcane Church could thus claim that there was no such person in their organization if things went south.
“Our troops are in position. When will you guys act?”
“In twenty days. I will notify you of the exact time in advance. We need you to work together with our troops.”
The EsGod doppelganger replied with a mocking tone, “Work together how exactly?”
“According to the upper echelons, we will not appear at the same time. Therefore, we will have to split up. You shall be responsible for the direct attack to attract the garrison of Planet Lighthouse, and we will surprise attack.”
The EsGod doppelganger nodded. He understood the Arcane Church’s intentions. He knew that the Arcane Church would not send their Beyond Grade As to act together with him, so their strategy was within his expectations.
However, Planet Lighthouse’s security forces filled up the entire sector. His troops would not be able to avoid the dynasty’s eyes, nor could the Arcane Church’s troops. There was no such thing as an actual surprise attack. EsGod felt that this was just so that he could attract more firepower so that the Arcane Church could enter the battlefield from another direction.
EsGod was not worried about the Arcane Church making him take on the brunt of the defense, as the dynasty would send reinforcements his way as soon as his troops triggered the alarm of Planet Lighthouse, and he felt that the Arcane Church would not miss this opportunity.
However, EsGod had no idea that the Arcane Church’s plan was very different to what he expected.
...
In a dark room, a round table was surrounded by more than ten seats. At this moment, six were occupied by someone.
The term ‘someone’ would not be too accurate. All of them were remote projections, and one of them was Psyker.
Every seat there belonged to a Beyond Grade A combatant in the Arcane Church.
For this operation, the Arcane Church had sent out a total of six Beyond Grade As!
These six people were more than half of what the Arcane Church could gather in such a short period. The other Beyond Grade As all had their own tasks and would not be able to secretly move without being noticed.
The Arcane Church had six Beyond Grade As as well as external reinforcements. The opponents were only Black Star, Milizaus, and Beyoni. The difference in strength was extremely one-sided—the Arcane Church was planning to launch a thunderous strike!
Currently, the six of them were casually chatting.
“It’s been a very long time since I’ve seen such a large operation like this.”
“Hmm, Milizaus... that dragon is not easy to deal with. I’ve fought him before. We could not kill each other, and it ended in a draw. However, this time, even the Ten Thousand Deity Scepter will be used, so his chances of surviving are very slim.”
“The Arcane Church is out of their minds. Are they planning to start a war? After killing three Beyond Grade As of the Crimson Dynasty at once, things might escalate into a full out war.”
“Isn’t that exactly what the Federation of Light wants? That’s why they agreed to help and even allowed us to borrow their Universal Treasure.”
The Beyond Grade As shook their heads—the Arcane Church was clearly going to make the headlines.
They had no worries for the result of this operation at all. With such a wide strength difference, there was basically zero possibility they would fail. What they were worried about was what impact this operation would have after they succeed.
They could see that after killing three Beyond Grade As of the dynasty, if the conflict between the Arcane Church and the Crimson Dynasty turned into an all-out war, as the participants of this event, they would be targeted by the dynasty.
Although they were not afraid of the Crimson Dynasty, some of their territories were in other Star Fields. If they were targeted by the dynasty, they would be caught in a whole lot of trouble. Therefore, some of them were not keen on taking part in this operation.
However, as allies who had received so many benefits over time, they could only answer to the Arcane Church’s summons with resignation even if they were reluctant.
“If not because Psyker lost the Evolution Cube, there would be no need for this operation.” Someone grunted and blamed Psyker.
Psyker glanced at him, confirmed that it was someone he could not beat, and chose not to say anything.
“Since the Arcane Church has made such a large-scale operation, even if we retrieve the Evolution Cube, there’s no way it will be returned to you,” someone else said with a deep voice.
“I know.” Psyker’s expression remained the same. “It’s acceptable to me as long as it’s not in someone else’s hands.”
“Tsk, if Black Star returned the Evolution Cube back to you back then, he would not have gotten himself into this mess. Apparently, Black Star took the shortest time to reach Beyond Grade A in all of history. Sadly, he’s too greedy,” someone else said with a pitiful tone.
“He took something he shouldn’t have. He deserves it,” Psyker said coldly.
He knew that the Evolution Cube would not go back to him after the Arcane Church succeeded. However, as the Evolution Cube was sealed by Han Xiao, his Soul Connection with the Evolution Cube was severed. Hence, he lost the enhancement of his psychic power. Therefore, his requirement lowered.
Even if the Arcane Church took the Evolution Cube, as long as his Soul Connection was maintained, Psyker could accept it. Han Xiao was the cause of all of this, and Psyker had immense hatred for him. He would not let this opportunity to eliminate Han Xiao slip through his fingers.
Personal hatred was one thing, but Black Star’s organization was in the Shattered Star Ring just like his. Due to the fact that they were enemies, Black Star had become an obstacle of the Star Pupil Holy Race’s growth, and the previous Civilization Conference was an example of that. For the growth and development of his civilization, Psyker also wanted to eliminate Black Star.
A Beyond Grade A beside Psyker seemed to know what Psyker was thinking. He patted Psyker’s shoulder and said, “Don’t worry, I’ll eliminate Black Star for you.”
“Thanks, Dylan.” Although Psyker was not in a good mood, he still forced a smile for this person. “Let’s fight him together then.”
Dylan nodded. His long, dark-green hair swayed like seaweed.
His skin was blue, and his face was covered in tiny scales and had similarities to fish. He had a pair of large, bright eyes that occasionally blinked and another conspicuous third eye on his forehead. There was webbing on his hands and feet and one eyeball in both of his palms. It was quite strange. His back was crouched as if he had a hunchback, and there were fins on it. He looked like a marine creature. Who knew what his ancestors did to fish... or what the fish did to his ancestors?
With such a look, his ability was clearly related to water. Dylan was an Esper, nicknamed ‘Sea Spirit’ and ‘Ruler of the Sea’. His Esper Ability was controlling water. It sounded ordinary and seemed weak in space, but no Beyond Grade A Super was weak.
Dylan could compress water to an extreme extent that could easily slash through battleships. Not only that, he could even turn water into a powerful energy beam that had the destructive power on par with battleship weapons. At the same time, his body could store a huge amount of water that was more than enough to flood the surface of an entire planet.
This type of Esper Ability was not suitable for duels, but it was quite good in group battles.
Having been part of the Arcane Church for many years, Psyker had friends, and Dylan was one of them. He was the closest friend Psyker had among the Beyond Grade A allies. It might be because both of them had many eyes, so they shared common interests.
...
On the Federation of Light’s mother planet, the Federation of Light president, Bader, was also paying attention to the Arcane Church’s movements. It was his decision to provide help to the Arcane Church.
“With our help, as long as the Arcane Church doesn’t underestimate them, the chance of this operation succeeding is higher than ninety-five percent. At least one Beyond Grade A will die on the Crimson Dynasty’s side.” Bader’s tone was confident.
The Chief Elder nodded with approval. “Hmm, the death of a Beyond Grade A is more than enough to trigger conflict between the Arcane Church and the Crimson Dynasty, which is very beneficial to us.
The Federation of Light aided the Arcane Church in order to watch them fight. If the Arcane Church and the Crimson Dynasty battled with each other, they would be the ones who benefitted from it.
The Arcane Church knew this but still decided to continue the plan as they had their own goals. Furthermore, working with EsGod was never something justifiable, so they did not tell the Federation of Light. Since the Federation of Light had provided help, they would be dragged down as well and would not be able to use this against the Arcane Church.
Although both sides had their own goals, they also shared a goal—to apply pressure to the Crimson Dynasty and test the dynasty’s attitude to see if they could eat them up.
As for whether Milizaus or Black Star would be killed, it made no difference to Bader, and he did not care at all.