"…?!"

The generals and officers of the Allied Army's armada stood frozen in absolute silence, staring wide-eyed at something that, by every known rule of warfare, should have been utterly impossible.

Despite having a numerical advantage nearing 7:1, despite engaging at extremely close range and directly face-to-face, they had managed—after all that firepower—to bring down only three battleships.

"What is happening here?!"

"Prepare to fire again, immediately!"

On the other side, Alexander clenched his fist so tightly that his knuckles whitened, his heartbeat hammering with a mixture of exhilaration and a faint tremor of fear. This was the very first time he had ever commanded an aerial battle of such overwhelming magnitude, a clash that could reshape entire regions of space.

What had just occurred before his eyes was nothing short of a miracle—an unprecedented feat in the entire field of aerial combat sciences.

But miracles, he knew all too well, never came without a cost…

The Crab Maneuver relied on a fourth-degree Space Law to instantaneously teleport massive warships in unpredictable bursts, shifting them left and right within an incredibly narrow zone. Each single teleportation consumed hundreds of Pearls per ship—an astronomical amount of resources.

That amount of Pearls alone was enough to trigger a war between empires by itself!!

Yet the wars of the True Beginning Empire were never waged for Pearls. Their purpose was dominance, expansion, and absolute control over resources. One could accurately say that the military doctrine of the True Beginning Empire revolved around burning its enemies by deliberately burning its own wealth and reserves to overwhelm them!

"…" Alexander released a long, controlled exhale, steadying his thoughts.

The first phase of the mission had finally been completed: the complete immobilization of the right-wing armada and preventing them from advancing with freedom or confidence. Now came the moment he had been waiting for—the moment of the counteroffensive!

"Fleets One, Two, Nine, and Ten—execute the Rampaging Serpent Offensive Array and the Reflective Dome Defensive Array!" Alexander declared in a firm voice, issuing what sounded like two contradictory orders at once.

"Understood!" The officers responded instantly and began coordinating with practiced precision.

The four fleets positioned at the border of the larger formation detached themselves from the defensive stance. A heartbeat later, something strange—almost surreal—began to unfold…

The Note of Flood battleships started aligning one behind another, sliding smoothly into formation. In the blink of an eye, what had been dozens of scattered crafts reshaped themselves into four long, twisting ribbons that resembled colossal serpents.

Vroooom

The leading craft in each line ignited with radiant energy, its surface glowing as it unleashed a massive surge of power while burning Pearls at a ferociously rapid pace. Then—whoosh—it accelerated sharply.

Behind each leader followed 499 perfectly synchronized crafts, forming a tightly packed, impeccably disciplined column—cosmic serpents born not just to travel through space, but to tear through armies. Anyone watching from the distance might easily mistake them for ancient space monsters awakening from myth!!

Grrrrrrr

The first craft—the serpent's head—was engineered specifically to strike and "break" space itself, carving a streamlined path for the fighters behind it. This allowed the rest to travel at astonishing speeds. It also projected a focused defensive dome, protecting itself while dedicating all its systems to its single purpose.

The crafts behind it, however, devoted their efforts to something entirely different.

Whooosh

Within mere moments, the four serpents pierced clean through the Allied armada. Their terrifying velocity left every observer speechless, mouths hanging open in disbelief.

Bam Bam Bam

At that moment, the four cannons mounted on every ship swung violently left and right before unleashing torrents of chaotic, indiscriminate fire!

Djjjjzzzz

Meanwhile, the massive capital ships belonging to those fleets initiated another maneuver altogether. The ten support ships encircled the mothership at the center and began rotating around it in a perfectly synchronized rhythm. Slowly, a luminous hexagonal energy field materialized around them…

This was the Reflective Dome Array—one of the strongest defensive constructs known. It reflected nearly 70% of incoming attacks back at their source while absorbing the remainder. Though it prevented them from launching attacks, it granted them near-absolute survival during the temporary absence of their deployed fighters.

The four enormous defensive bastions advanced forward and boxed in the Allied armada from both sides, presenting themselves as seemingly easy targets—targets the enemy could strike freely and without restraint.

And indeed, within seconds, an overwhelming storm of attacks rained down upon them.

Bzzzzt Bzzzzt

The four colossal shields flickered violently, trembling under the sheer pressure of the continuous bombardment. Their surfaces warped, cracked, and erupted in bursts of dispersed energy, devouring their reserves of Pearls with a greed that bordered on terrifying—yet, despite all that, they endured and held their ground! Their shimmering layers repeatedly collapsed and reformed, fighting to remain stable amid the chaos.

At the same moment, the four serpents twisted and darted between the enemy armada with breathtaking velocity, their movements a blur of controlled savagery. From time to time, one of the serpents coiled tightly around a massive mothership, its formation tightening like a constricting beast before unleashing a ruthless storm of firepower until the ship detonated in a colossal explosion.

Whenever a craft within the Rampaging Serpent Array was struck and destroyed, there was no pause, no hesitation—its companions surged instantly forward to occupy its place. The formation flowed like a living creature, adapting seamlessly, pressing on as if the fallen craft had never existed at all.

And as though all of this wasn't already overwhelming the Allied armada beyond reason, Alexander's voice thundered across the comms once more, carrying both urgency and absolute command:

"Fleets Three and Eight, advance thirty points! Fleets Four and Seven, advance fifty points! All units—commence simulation of the Pulse Shield Array immediately!"

Krssshhh Krssshhh

The commands flashed through the comms system and reached the four fleets instantly.

Without even a heartbeat of delay, the fleets advanced in perfectly synchronized motion, engines roaring as they shifted into their new positions. When they finally arrived at their designated coordinates, each of the 511 crafts within every fleet began drifting into precise formation. Their hulls started glowing faintly, then brightly, as intricate runic patterns—unique for each craft—etched themselves into visibility.

Within seconds, the sky was filled with the shimmering outlines of four bizarre, radiant fortresses—monuments of energy floating in war-torn space.

Alexander nodded firmly as those four airborne fortresses fully manifested on both wings. These arrays were designed to attract every incoming attack toward themselves, then dismantle and neutralize the strikes using a complex fusion of Resonance Waves path and Gravity path. Their structure was so robust, so carefully engineered, that they could comfortably withstand the enemy armada's concentrated fire for at least an entire hour without faltering.

And this was in addition to the Reflective Dome Arrays positioned on either side of the enemy's own armada—pulling attacks toward them and reflecting most of the assault back toward their origin. It was a battlefield of controlled chaos, but the chaos belonged entirely to Alexander.

At that decisive moment, Alexander issued his final and most consequential order:

"Fleet Five and Fleet Six—initiate the Orbital Flood Array!!"

VROOOOOOM

The only two fleets that had remained stationary until now—the two positioned at the heart of the formation—suddenly erupted into a storm of activity.

The 500 Not of Flood-3 battle crafts ignited their engines simultaneously, spinning around the flagship like a raging cosmic vortex. Their movement resembled a swirling hurricane of steel and fire, each ship tracing a perfect orbit as though choreographed by the heavens themselves. Meanwhile, the Destruction note-3 support vessels glided into exposed vantage points, ideal for launching long-range suppressive fire.

Then, as if answering a silent signal, they unleashed a coordinated barrage that lit up the battlefield.

At the center of this maelstrom, the mothership of both fleets focused entirely on maintaining an immense energy shield, a barrier meant to protect everything and everyone within its reach.

"..."

Only after positioning every formation, every ship, and every array with flawless precision did Alexander finally allow himself to sit. His movements were slow and heavy, fatigue weighing on his shoulders. Sweat streamed down his forehead, dripping steadily as he kept his breathing under control.

These arrays were not simple strategies—they were the distilled essence of centuries of experience.

They were the culmination of requests and refinements made by pilots who had spent nearly five hundred years forging the empire's expansion day after day. They were the pinnacle of everything the engineers and commanders of Sky Opining City had achieved. This was the apex, the absolute summit of the military might of the True Beginning Empire.

In a battle of such colossal magnitude, all Alexander could do was push the empire's technology, wealth, and accumulated power to their absolute limit—

and entrust everything that remained… to fate.

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