In the end the two Angel Kings agreed unconditionally to these requirements Zhao Chen had put forward.
Thereafter Charlotte, in the Owl Dragon's lord's name, gave down new orders of battle to the Angel Race's several legion fleets.
And these orders of battle were laid before the two Angel Kings besides.
The War Angel King above all, at the very first instant of seeing these plans of battle, felt the madness of the Owl Dragon Legion.
But he chose to carry them out for all that; and perhaps within himself he had some such notion too.
And the fighting that followed, of the Owl Dragon Legion working together with the Angel Race fleets, made the Judgment Angel King opposite understand clearly how long these forty-eight hours of waiting upon the relief could be.
And above all when half the time was gone.
And the word came that the Ghoul Legion had lost near eight parts in ten, and that the flagship of the Ghoul Legion's highest marshal had been destroyed by the Owl Dragon Guard Fleet.
Which made the Judgment Angel King understand the terror of the Owl Dragon Legion.
And she even came to understand the danger to herself: no few Owl Dragon fleets were, as it were by chance and not by chance, drawing near the position of her own Grace-of-Judgment Legion.
Marking the danger, the Judgment Angel King ordered her Grace-of-Judgment Legion to withdraw to a position safe enough.
Thereafter every fleet of the Dark Angel Legion took, one after another, attacks from Owl Dragon legion fleets aimed squarely at them; above nine parts in ten of its warships fell, and the Dark Angel Legion exists in name only!
At the thirtieth hour.
Those Angel Race warships upon the front-line field that had been beset were very nearly all out of their trouble, and were besides opening attacks upon the Demon Race warships in good order.
At the fortieth hour, a piece of news more startling still came.
The Demon-Crocodile Legion's fleet was beset and barred in by several bodies of Owl Dragon and Angel Race legion fleets, and had fallen into an exceedingly dangerous case.
Marshal Demon-Crocodile sent out a message asking relief.
The Judgment Angel King saw this message asking relief besides, but she sent out no relief; for at present the mad counter-stroke of the Owl Dragon Legion and the Angel Race legion fleets left her simply no power to give support.
And even could she send support, she feared it might be another of the Owl Dragon Legion's traps — besetting a point to strike the relief.
In the end she answered him with nothing but words of comfort, saying she would find means to help, and bidding him hold out, for His Majesty the Demon King's support would soon arrive.
But support of the lips is of no use whatever.
Upon the eve of the Demon King's relief arriving, the Demon-Crocodile Legion's mightiest fleet — that is, the flagship fleet in which the marshal stood — was beheaded by the Owl Dragon Guard Fleet!
The whole fleet's three thousand warships were destroyed, without one exception.
And that flagship of the Demon-Crocodile Legion above all had the honor of having the greater part of her hull destroyed outright by that legendary T5 starship the Hades, using her bow cannon.
And in the end the Demon-Crocodile Legion too, grievously hurt, exists in name only.
Within a bare forty-eight hours.
For the meddling of the Owl Dragon Legion's hundred thousand warships, everything had undergone a change to turn heaven over and earth about.
"Reporting — the Owl Dragon legion fleets and the Angel Race legion fleets are withdrawing along the whole line.
"And in withdrawing they have even given up of themselves certain grievously damaged warships; the crews being withdrawn, they set off these abandoned ships where they stood." Her subordinate reported this word to the Judgment Angel King in haste.
The Judgment Angel King clenched her fist and kept her eyes upon the interstellar sand-table. "How stand our losses of these past forty-eight hours?"
Her subordinate was silent a while.
"Answer me!"
Her subordinate lowered his head and answered, "These past forty-eight hours, we and the Demon Race both have taken losses such as we never knew before.
"We have lost at least a hundred and fifty thousand warships outright.
"The Blade-of-Judgment Legion is out of contact; the Dark Angel Legion is out of contact.
"The Vengeance Angel Legion has lost half its warships likewise, the Holy Judgment Legion above four parts in ten, our Grace-of-Judgment Legion three parts in ten, and the Cherub Angel Legion fifty thousand warships besides."
Two legion fleets destroyed.
Near a hundred and fifty thousand warships lost.
Even the Judgment Angel King, who held her own strength of mind to be very high, felt the sky wheel and the earth turn a little before her.
With much labor she brought her feeling steady again.
"And the Demon Race?" she asked once more.
"The Demon Race's losses are more grievous than ours.
"The Ghoul Legion has lost above three hundred thousand warships, the Demon-Crocodile Legion above three hundred thousand, and other scattered demon legions two hundred thousand.
"Near eight hundred thousand warships lost in these past forty-eight hours.
"And reckoning our own losses with them, the loss of the past forty-eight hours is above a million warships.
"That… that comes near to matching the sum of half a year's losses in the campaigns between our two races before.
"And within that, though the Owl Dragon legion fleets number a hundred thousand only, they took seven parts in ten of the record!
"Where the Angel Race warships, more numerous by far, served for the most part in an assisting part only," her subordinate said.
"The Owl Dragon… the Owl Dragon… the Owl Dragon…" As she said that name without cease upon her lips, a mist of blood appeared of a sudden upon the Judgment Angel King's black veil.
"My lady…" Her subordinate looked at his own Angel King in alarm.
"It is nothing!" The Judgment Angel King dropped into her captain's chair.
And it was long before she stilled her feeling.
"Where has the Demon King's relief come to?"
"It has passed the nearest star gate, and the leading force will reach the front-line field within half an hour!
"My lady, are we to intercept the other side?" her subordinate asked.
Intercept?
The Judgment Angel King looked at those cursors upon the star chart standing for the Owl Dragon and Angel Race legion fleets, drawing slowly back.
To intercept at such a time is indeed a course that might answer.
But there is a very great risk in it besides.
For no one knows whether the Owl Dragon Legion and the Angel Race legion fleets have left anything held in reserve.
And if they have, that would add further to their losses.
"Upon this front-line field, how many legion fleets has the Demon Race left that may be moved?"
Her subordinate answered, "There are the Balam Legion, the Amon Legion and the Serpent King Legion yet, and at least six hundred thousand warships still.
"But for this stretch of high-intensity fighting, how much fighting strength these demon warships may have there is no telling."
The Judgment Angel King drew her brows together and sighed. "Our network of intelligence within the Angel Race — can it yet be repaired?"
"It cannot. Within these forty-eight hours the enemy has set out a great quantity of T4 Banshee-class Light Interstellar Stealth Scout Ships within Angel Race territory, and has very nearly dragged out and destroyed the whole of our intelligence network.
"And what has not been destroyed has gone quiet, and can give us no useful intelligence either," said her subordinate.
It must be said, the Owl Dragon Legion has done a great deal within these forty-eight hours.
Not only its dispositions upon the front-line field, but the clearing away besides of the trouble within the Angel Race.
That lord of the Owl Dragon is a fearful man indeed.
"Throw this question to the Demon King.
"Had his demon legions not so little fighting strength, and had he not failed to tangle up the Owl Dragon Legion's main fleets himself, it would never have come to this," the Judgment Angel King said with some complaint.