Spring, Year Twelve of Truth.

The 1,500-meter-long Ten Thousand Miles of Sunshine slowly ascended. Its main bow cannon reflected a blinding glare in the sunlight. As the massive silhouette of the ship swept over the Cybertron Fortress, it cast large swaths of the factory districts below into deep shadow. Allen stood on the bridge, gazing down at the Cybertron Fortress through the porthole. No. 18 stood silently at his right side, its body—constructed of Spiritual Remains Steel—not leaking a single trace of Magic Power fluctuation. If one were to close their eyes and rely solely on Spiritual Power to sense it, it would feel as though nothing was there at all.

In the Cybertron Fortress, pale blue columns of Magic Power pierced the sky, surrounded by countless Factory Servants bustling about their work. Forty combat legions had completed their final preparations. Twelve thousand PX-3 models equipped with the “Dragon Cavalry” system were neatly arrayed within Cybertron. Their black armor stretched all the way to the edge of the horizon, resembling a silent forest of steel. Four hundred Storm Falcons rolled out of the hangars and lined up on the tarmac. Their streamlined fuselages were slightly angled upward, like birds of prey ready to strike. Meanwhile, one hundred and twenty Hive Mother Ships hovered directly above the fortress, the shadows cast by their hulls practically merging into one massive canopy.

They would not depart alongside the Ten Thousand Miles of Sunshine. Once Allen activated the ship’s Cybertron Space Anchor Point within the Sea of Magical Power, the Golem Deployment Skill would use the Ten Thousand Miles of Sunshine as a coordinate to tear open a series of Space Gates. When that time came, this steel forest would cross through space and smash directly into the enemy’s face.

“The Dimension Engine has finished warming up. We are about to pass through the Plane Crystal Wall,” Jarvis’s voice echoed across the bridge.

The warship shuddered slightly as it pierced through the G-771 Plane’s Crystal Wall, plunging headlong into the dark and profound Sea of Magical Power. This was the first time Allen had truly stepped outside the Plane Crystal Wall and returned to the Sea of Magical Power since his arrival in G-771.

Over the past twelve years, he had poured almost all of his energy into constructing the Plane. Population integration, resource exploration, railway paving, industrial system establishment, Golem iteration, communication network coverage… When he first took over, G-771 relied on horse-drawn carriages for transportation, and information took days to travel. Local Lords carved out their own territories, and the so-called mines were mostly stuck in the open-pit excavation stage.

Now, five main railway lines traversed the continent, thirty-eight branch lines connected major cities and mining areas, and communication base stations covered the entire region. There was a population of 675 million, 3,200 high-quality mineral veins, and an administrative system capable of efficiently integrating people, resources, and industrial capacity.

Even with Jarvis and the Grand Governor sharing the burden, this workload was enough to crush an ordinary Morning Star Wizard. But Allen had no choice; he owed quite a few favors for purchasing this Plane, so he had to work hard. If Allen hadn’t imported Earth’s engineering management, resource coordination, and industrial planning directly into this world, another Morning Star Wizard wouldn’t have been able to build such a foundation in fifty years.

It wasn’t until the first phase of the Divine Kingdom of Ten Thousand Machines was nearing completion, the Grand Governor had taken full control of government affairs, and all six Dawn Star Level Golems were in place that he could finally turn his sights beyond the Plane. Yet, his first trip out was to kill someone.

Allen withdrew his gaze and asked, “What is the latest position of the North Wind?”

“The North Wind is currently cruising in the rear section of the D-24 channel, maintaining a 5,400-kilometer Silence tracking distance from the Skeleton Duke Fleet. The enemy fleet’s speed is stable, and they have not altered their course,” Jarvis replied, instantly pulling up a stream of data. “Latest projection: the enemy fleet will arrive at the outer perimeter of the G-771 Plane Crystal Wall in twenty-three hours. If they maintain their current speed, they are expected to intersect with our ship in eight hours.”

If he sat in Cybertron and waited for the enemy to come knocking, the planetary defense system’s five hundred Celestial Thrones would be more than enough to make the Skeleton Duke hit a brick wall at their doorstep. But he didn’t want to fight in his own home. G-771 was an enterprise he had painstakingly built from scratch, spending countless Magic Stones. If even a single communication base station was destroyed, it would break his heart. Keeping the enemy outside the nation’s gates was the optimal solution.

Beyond the ship’s windows was a bizarre and dazzling landscape. The Sea of Magical Power lacked any definitive sense of up, down, left, or right. It was a vast space between Planes, brimming with violent and chaotic Primordial Magic Power. This Magic Power sometimes coalesced into pale purple nebula-like structures, while other times it grew so thin it was almost transparent, revealing an unsettling, absolute darkness deeper within.

“Retrieve the Star Domain map surrounding the G-771 Plane,” Allen ordered.

A massive projection unfolded in the center of the bridge. The chaotic void was simplified into a dark gray background. Across this canvas, numbered route lines meandered and stretched like blood vessels. The G-771 Plane was marked as a bright blue dot, blinking in the middle of the D-25 channel. Although this Star Domain was remote, it was far from barren.

“Commander, centered around G-771, a total of six developed Planes have been explored in the D-25 section of the Gray Channel,” Jarvis reported. “Five of them are privately owned by five different Dawn Star Level Wizards, primarily serving as resource extraction points or private experimental grounds. Since Year Four of Truth, Wesren Heavy Industry has established preliminary commercial ties with three of these Planes, mainly selling low-to-mid-end industrial goods and purchasing their surplus primary raw materials.

“The remaining Plane, named ‘Terra,’ is autonomously governed by the native ‘Terrans.’ This Plane boasts a relatively high level of civilization, possessing independently developed Floating Ship technology capable of traversing the Plane Crystal Wall. According to preliminary intelligence, there are at least three Dawn Star Level entities of unknown strength within it. Currently, this Plane has also established entry-level commercial exchanges with us.”

In the D-25 section alone, there were six developed Planes. Five were private properties of Wizards, and one was an autonomous indigenous civilization. Including G-771, these seven Planes collectively formed a loose regional economic circle. And over the past eight years, Wesren Heavy Industry had quietly transformed itself into the central hub of this economic circle.

“What about our commercial penetration in the D-24 and D-26 sections?” Allen asked.

“The D-24 section has the highest Plane density in this Star Domain,” Jarvis replied. “Eight of those Planes are operated by Wizards, and two are autonomous indigenous ones. We have established stable routes with six of these Planes.

“In the D-26 section, we have made contact with two Planes. However, due to the long distance, poor security, and high shipping costs, trade is currently limited to the transit of high-value luxury goods and finished technological products.

“Due to the current state of war, all of the aforementioned routes have now been suspended.”

Allen nodded slightly, a trace of coldness flashing in his deep blue eyes.

G-771 was like a newly activated chess piece dropped onto this vast board. Scattered all around it were players of various sizes. Wesren Heavy Industry’s Golem Factories operated day and night, shipping standard Golems, low-to-mid-end industrial goods, and complete sets of equipment to neighboring Planes, before hauling back ores, Magical Beast materials, and cheap raw materials. Low-end dumping and high-end monopoly. During his thirty years on Earth, Allen had seen this playbook in action; a few major powers had walked this path for over a century. He was merely utilizing his identity as an Alchemy Wizard to apply it on a different battlefield.

“The Third Merchant Fleet was ambushed in the D-23 section,” Allen said softly.

“Yes, Commander. The D-20 to D-26 sections serve as the primary hunting grounds for the Skeleton Duke. Merchant ships in this area must pay a ‘toll’ when encountering his fleet, or face being pillaged.”

Allen fell silent for a few seconds. He had no personal grudge against the Skeleton Duke. The loss of the Third Merchant Fleet angered him, but that was not the fundamental reason for waging war. The root cause was that the Gray Channel was now one of Wesren Heavy Industry’s economic lifelines. It was foreseeable that as the scale of trade with neighboring Planes expanded, the Plane Trade Division would eventually become Wesren Heavy Industry’s most profitable department. As long as a Star Thief capable of severing their trade routes at any moment remained entrenched along this channel, his grand economic strategy of “industrial dumping and raw material siphoning” would be nothing more than castles in the air. The threat had to be eliminated.

Just like clearing out bandit camps before building a road, this should have inherently been the job of the Mystic Code Council. However, the White Wizards’ control was ultimately limited. Across the four main channels of the Gray Channel—A, B, C, and D—only the first 15 sections were the territories of major factions, managed like an impenetrable fortress. In sections 15 through 20, law enforcement fleets still conducted regular sweeps. But beyond section 20, order rapidly collapsed. A law enforcement fleet might not appear even once in a decade, and even if they did, it would be extremely difficult to catch those Black Wizards and Star Thieves in the vast expanse of the Sea of Magical Power.

When it came to the production and business acumen of an Alchemy Wizard, Wizards of other schools couldn’t catch up even if they flew their Floating Ships at top speed. Allen’s momentum was simply too fierce. With more and more commercial fleets from Wesren Heavy Industry appearing in the Gray Channel recently, the Skeleton Duke had clearly sensed the threat and wanted to pull the thorn that was G-771 from his side before it was too late. As it happened, Allen also wanted to borrow the Skeleton Duke’s soul for his own use, laying down the law for all the Black Wizards along the entire channel in the process.

Both sides were hurtling toward one another, neither knowing the other’s true trump cards. The Skeleton Duke assumed G-771 was defended only by a White Wizard with a shaky foundation. He had no idea that Allen already possessed six Dawn Star Level Golems, nor did he know about the forty Golem Legions that had completed their space modifications. Likewise, Allen was unaware that the Skeleton Duke’s flagship also hid Kesuga and Blood-handed Sara—making it a Three Morning Stars lineup.

It was destined to be an encounter defined by extreme information asymmetry. But none of that mattered. In the face of absolute firepower, all tactics and conspiracies were entirely meaningless.

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