Chapter 437: Chapter 437: Pollution Outbreak

“The Conqueror-class had already demonstrated two of its famously formidable maneuvers: ‘Revelation’ and ‘Gospel Book,’ the strongest macro-control device and the most robust defense barrier. Now, only ‘Genesis’ had yet to be displayed before us. It was said that ‘Genesis’ could annihilate thousands of constant stars like a machine gun–though such an attack seemed less potent compared to the universe-collapsing power of ‘Gospel Book,’ one point must be noted: the attacks from ‘Genesis’ were purely based on law: deleting material, and in terms of power levels, ‘Genesis’ was even half an order of magnitude higher than ‘Gospel Book’!

If we were to face an attack from ‘Genesis’ head-on, even the Empire’s fleet, capable of anti-phasing, would likely suffer more than half in losses.

However, it now seemed that the attack from ‘Genesis’ wouldn’t come; those massive rings had already redirected all their energy into strengthening ‘Gospel Book’ and ‘Revelation.’ Ocam’s tactics were simple yet deadly: reverse time, reverse time as quickly as possible, allowing the Black Sun to replay the scene of the gods’ self-destruction within twelve hours. Compared to ‘Genesis,’ the power of that self-destruction would probably be more lethal to us, and more critically, due to the unique nature of the Black Sun, the power of that self-destruction would be confined near the Sun Core, making the attacks we endure increase manifold!

When ‘Genesis’ attacked, the intense interference it created would temporarily disable the ‘Gospel Book,’ giving us a chance to counterattack. But if those rings stubbornly continued to reverse time, we really would have no options left.

The multiple volleys from the Empire’s fleet had failed to break through the defense of the ‘Gospel Book.’ As a weapon rarely used even by the Xyrin people, the Conqueror-class, once fully operational, was not so easily destroyed–explaining why we didn’t see Ocam deploying defensive troops near the Conqueror. Presumably, after the ‘Gospel Book’ was activated, those defensive troops had already been withdrawn.

Against the law-level ‘Gospel Book,’ even the strongest defense troops were but an embellishment, meant to be exterminated in the subsequent battle–completely a waste.

And as the fleet’s attacks were intercepted time after time, our hearts were increasingly shrouded by a shadow.

‘How much time is left?’

This time, I asked Qianqian, who, unlike Bubbles, who could no longer determine the collapse time of the Black Sun after ‘Revelation’ reset some constants of this space, was still watching the flow of the timeline, which backflow rate was accelerating.

‘Three hours,’ Qianqian’s complexion looked grim, yet she remained calm, gripping my hand, which seemed to bring her some peace of mind. ‘I just tried to disrupt the flow of time here, but it was pointless. It’s a self-contained system, nothing like any time I recognize!’

‘Don’t waste your strength,’ sighed Sandora. ‘Unless we destroy ‘Revelation,’ this reverse-time will never cease, and it has no relation to our real space… The Fallen Apostles may have more of the Imperial Heritage than we imagined!’

I said nothing, instead frowning and straining to think of what could be done now.

Ocam, indeed, was a formidable foe, his strength not manifest in his personal power but in the layers of sinister schemes that were chilling. From that initial insect appearing in the Sniper Star Cannon, every step thereafter had been part of this plot, as for the current situation–a dead end.

The chaos laws caused by ‘Revelation’ and the inherent attributes of the Black Sun had already made it impossible for us to leave (the Xyrin Apostles’ Talent Ability can only remain unharmed in chaotic law scenarios, but that doesn’t mean we can completely disregard the troubles it creates), and with the ‘Gospel Book’ operating at full strength, the defense it provided was so strong that even a united barrage by the Empire’s fleet couldn’t breach it, not within the three-hour final timeframe we had. We couldn’t break through, couldn’t retreat, couldn’t stop the opposing attack; every possible path was blocked.

If the Sun Core were to truly replicate the energy storm of the ancient gods’ self-destruction, how much of the Imperial fleet would survive?

Complete annihilation–that was without a doubt, as not even an army of the Divine Race could survive that explosion; the Xyrin Army certainly couldn’t escape unharmed. Perhaps a few of us, the Leader-level Apostles, might narrowly resist that moment of explosion, but our forces would surely be obliterated, and Ocam, still hidden in the shadows, would definitely not mind coming forward to reap the benefits at our most exhausted moment.

A circle within a circle, all depending on clever arrangements and external forces, being in conflict with such a dangerous individual was truly not an easy thing.

‘Gospel Book… Gospel Book…’

Able to resist any attack below the level of law, did it truly have no weaknesses?”

In the world, there is no shield that can’t be broken, even the eggshell of a Holy Knight can be cracked by a priest… Damn, I messed up… But I seem to have a vague idea.

“Sandora, if we attack using pure Void Energy, could the Gospel Book withstand it?”

Faced with my sudden question, Sandora was stunned for a moment, then showed a thoughtful expression, “Theoretically, Void Energy can’t be blocked by anything. As the primal source, it’s even purer than the power of laws, but…”

However, Void Energy cannot be applied directly as its assimilation and devouring ability is incredibly strong. Even with the technology of the Xyrin Empire, it can only be used after its decay. The decay module in the Ghost Energy Well needs a series of folded spaces to isolate the Void Energy, only then can energy attenuation be performed without any contact. Otherwise, even a Ghost Energy Reactor would corrode after prolonged exposure to the Void. Besides, only mother ship level warships are equipped with Junior Void Devices because they can’t control the released Void Energy through contact. These devices have very limited function, and as for using them to attack…

Absolutely impossible.

But maybe I could…

Big Sister immediately guessed my plan the moment I mentioned Void Energy. Having watched me grow up, she was extremely familiar with my thought process. When I brought up something seemingly unrelated, it usually meant I had an idea.

“Ah Jun, are you planning to… destroy that thing alone!?”

Seeing the incredulous look on Big Sister’s face, I could only smile wryly, “Sis, you’re overestimating me.”

“Then you mentioned Void Energy… It seems you’re the only one here who can directly utilize Void Energy, right?”

I chuckled, “Ocam isn’t the only one who can come up with dirty tricks!”

“Sandora, using an external acceleration field, how fast can we accelerate a heavy assault ship?”

Sandora blinked, still confused about my plans, “Not using the ship’s own engines? Just an external accelerator? Then we can only reach seventy-seven times the speed of sound, the standard velocity of a mother ship’s launching channel. We don’t have a dedicated force field accelerator.”

“Well then, what would happen if a mass of pure Void Energy bombs hit the core of a Sovereign-class at seventy-seven times the speed of sound?”

“Um, then we could go home and have dinner.”

Sandora nodded, then squinted her eyes, “Ah Jun, you don’t have some new function, do you?”

I smiled slightly and casually took out a metal rod from my personal space, which I had forgotten what it was used for. I tossed it up and down a few times, then clenched it in my hand.

Under the ruthless surveillance of the imperial leaders, this ordinary-looking metal rod began to be covered by a strange black pattern starting from where my hand touched it.

A few seconds later, the originally silvery-white metal turned into a kind of pure black. Visually, it looked like it had become a two-dimensional plane: This was a visual error caused by the purest darkness. This kind of darkness was different from ordinary colors; it gave a sense of emptiness. It wasn’t that it couldn’t reflect light, but rather that “light” disappeared the moment it made contact with it.

Void, a mass-containing, voluminous void, I don’t know how to define such a thing. It was still matter, yet it possessed most of the properties of the void, but to say it was the void–clearly, that was not according to the definition.

“Voidification, in fact, is continuously injecting void energy into conventional materials under controlled conditions, allowing that piece of material to be entirely assimilated by the void energy. I thought of this energy usage method just now. This skill must make contact to be used, and it looks probably highly unstable. It won’t be long before it decays into scattered Ghost Energy. But before that, it would be enough to hit the Conqueror’s core,” I carefully pinched the “void material” in my hand, knowing that it posed no harm to me. However, the eerie sensation it exuded made me feel as though I were holding onto Big Sister’s Curse Crystal–dangerous, “With it, I can now voidify something as large as a heavy assault ship, using that as a cannonball…”

“Ah Jun, you’re a genius!”

Sandora said sincerely.

The related preparations were quickly completed. There were always several fleets of heavy assault ships ready in the launching channels of the “Imperial Admiral,” and the only time-consuming part was voidifying them. The process needed extreme caution due to the devouring nature of the void energy. I had to temporarily confine these energies as if forming a protective membrane around the voidified heavy assault ship using spiritual power, otherwise, half of the “Imperial Admiral’s” lateral arm might be devoured by the void energy.

The whole process took nearly an hour, and unexpectedly, the increase in the mass of the voidification target caused my spiritual power consumption to grow geometrically. However, looking at the assault ship which had transformed into the world’s most dangerous bomb, I felt an immense sense of achievement!

“It really looks like a fire stick.”

Lilina stood with her arms crossed, critiquing like an expert.

I almost wanted to launch this girl along with the assault ship!

“Channel Twenty-Six will open shortly. This launch is non-conventional. All staff please evacuate the channel within thirty seconds. Countdown starts now…”

The voice of the warship’s main computer echoed through the launch channel on one side of the flagship. When the countdown ended, a dazzling blue light burst from there: not the glow of the Void Assault Ship itself, but the light emitted when the gravity traction device was activated.

Without any acceleration process, the Void Assault Ship serving as the cannonball reached seventy-seven times the speed of sound, rapidly heading towards the distant, rice-grain-sized Conqueror-class Sovereign Ship.

Since the void energy was released the instant the launch was completed, the assault ship could no longer be observed in any method. We could only gaze into the distance with hopeful eyes–Circle, oh circle, if you’re going to cooperate, then just finish it off cleanly!

Due to the semi-blind state of the scanning system earlier, the Imperial Fleet was quite close to the Conqueror. At the astonishing speed of seventy-seven times the speed of sound, this distance would be breached in just a moment. Bubbles activated all the image analysis scanning systems, and the huge ring-shaped body two thousand kilometers in radius fully appeared before us.

“Why isn’t there any movement yet?” Just as Qianqian’s tense voice fell, the image on the holographic projection suddenly shook.

One of the three giant ring-shaped bodies rotating around the same axis imperceptibly oscillated, and the projection system immediately magnified a corner of it: there was a very tiny hole there, which in comparison to the entire mechanical ring looked as inconspicuous as a pinhole.

But it was this pinhole that began to expand wildly in the next few seconds!

The void energy had begun to erupt!

Just as I had anticipated, the astonishing ghost energy filling the Conqueror became the best nourishment for the Void energy to devour, and the tiny, dust-like energy points expanded hundreds of thousands of times in an instant under the endless supply of energy–astonishingly, they severed one of the huge metal rings within seconds!

And this was just the beginning. The real force of destruction was not the energy dissipating from the surface of the Void Assault Ship, but its hull. Compared to the Conqueror’s dark core, the two-hundred-meter-long maneuver warship seemed as inconspicuous as Dingdang lying on Ultraman’s head. However, when it collided with that black sphere, the macroscopic effect it triggered was nothing less than the simultaneous explosion of a thousand nuclear bombs–no, describing it as a nuclear explosion would be an understatement; it was more like a Genesis-like flash!

The metal ring, spanning a radius of two thousand kilometers, lost its energy support in an instant. The core, already out of control, generated violent gravitational fluctuations. The Conqueror twisted like a bundle of wires being randomly deformed by an invisible hand, undergoing severe transformations several times within a minute. Throughout this process, its three supporting rings gradually broke into hundreds of sections and then fell onto the surface of that violently contracting and expanding dark sphere.

Total silent melting–that was my impression of the scene.

Even for a Voidified Heavy Assault Ship, the energy it released after detonation was limited. Compared to the total ghost energy amassed by the Conqueror, which was enough to distort cosmic laws, this amount of energy might not have reached even one percent. However, it acted as the crucial catalyst that triggered the entire chemical reaction. Once the entire structure of the Conqueror broke apart in the turbulent gravitational field and fell into the black sphere, the critical point was crossed.

Then, there was a massive explosion, perhaps the most intense internal flash since the creation of the Black Sun. I couldn’t imagine that such a tiny, rice-sized point would erupt in such a fierce blaze of light, illuminating the entire Imperial Fleet in a ghastly pale light, almost blinding me with my titanium alloy dog eyes. We even had to initiate the entire fleet’s anti-phasing to avoid the shockwaves damaging the fleet: just the residual effects of the explosion were already as powerful as a full round of fleet saturation bombing!

“Phew… Thanks, Dingdang, I almost died just now…” After the overwhelming torrent of light gradually dimmed, Lilina patted her flat chest like a washboard, saying with relief. However, it was clear to any observant person that this girl was merely trying to cover her earlier panic: less than half a minute ago, a certain Fake Lolita Priestess had squealed and ducked behind me, screaming for two full minutes.

“Time has resumed its chaos,” Qianqian commented, feeling the fragmented time around us before sighing in relief.

“Ha ha! I knew Big Brother was the best!” Visca also jumped up joyfully, and then sneakily burrowed into my arms while Pandora wasn’t paying attention, “Big Brother is the most incredible!!”

Regardless of the joyful atmosphere among the crowd and a certain loli general, who was about to have a squabble with her sister, I noticed that both Sandora and Big Sister maintained grave expressions–even graver than when the Conqueror had just appeared.

“What’s the matter? Sister, Sandora, that thing is gone. Shouldn’t we be celebrating?”

Sandora maintained a thoughtful face, while Big Sister frowned and said, “Ah Jun, I have a bad feeling… Do you think a cunning and meticulous guy would set up a trap that could be destroyed so easily?”

“Well… It should be fine, right?” My tone was not very certain, “Without my special ability, our fleet would definitely have been doomed today. From that perspective, Ocam’s design should have been meticulous enough, and his failure is quite normal!”

By the end of my sentence, I almost started to believe it myself…

But just as I finished speaking, an alarm resounded throughout the entire fleet.

It was a type of alarm I had never heard before on a Xyrin warship, like a series of rapid metallic tearing sounds, and it lacked the usual robotic female voice that accompanied regular alarms. This unusual alarm must have had a very special meaning, because when this tense and urgent sound echoed around us, I saw a look of shock spread across Sandora’s face instantly.

What could make the composed and wise Battle Song Princess show such an expression?

“The Abyss… it’s a massive Abyss outbreak!!” Sandora exclaimed loudly, then suddenly turned around, her gaze moving to the holographic projection device, which was still monitoring the site of the Conqueror’s explosion. “Damn it… It’s a trap!! We’ve been fooled again!!”

“Oh, indeed, well deserving of the renowned Battle Song Princess, Your Majesty Sandora, your reaction speed is astonishing,” Ocam’s hoarse and featureless voice rang out again, but this time we didn’t see his mass projection anywhere–perhaps he wasn’t even in this universe. The wary always stay sharper than rabbits, “So, I hope you enjoy this little gift I’ve prepared… a completely Abyssalized universe!!” (To be continued. For more, visit www.wuxiaworld.site, with more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!)