"He agreed to it?"
Within an interstellar courtyard, overhead a vast transparent canopy of sky, and beneath the canopy a courtyard of man-made lawn.
The Judgment Angel King sat in a seat within the courtyard, and before her stood a drink giving off its steam.
And opposite her, one in a black robe.
"He had no ground to refuse.
"From the first time he took a gift of ours, he has had no choice." The mechanical voice came from beneath the black robe.
"But he does not cooperate with us in his heart."
"What of the heart, and what of no heart?
"So long as the great existence may be brought down into this universe, do these things matter?" said the one in the black robe.
"Just so; and were it not for that object.
"I would give up this filthy body now, and be made one with the great existence." The Judgment Angel King stroked her own cheek beneath the black gauze, and said it with something sick in her manner.
"Then what am I to do next?" the Judgment Angel King asked.
"Go on assisting the Demon King, and destroy the Machine Race.
"I did not think that fellow's will would prove so fixed, and that he would set up a partnership with that Owl Dragon or whatever it is.
"Wrecking our plans again and again and again.
"But this time no mischance whatever may be allowed.
"We have waited too long already.
"Our hundred years and more of preparation have all been for this moment.
"The great existence's descent admits of no mischance whatever!" The voice of the one in the black robe, which had been without feeling, could at this moment be heard to waver with a madness in it.
"I understand." The Judgment Angel King nodded. "That I may see the great existence again, I am willing to offer up everything in this universe!"
——————
【Annual mission
Mission content: kill six demon marshals of the Demon Race, and destroy the demon legions they command
Mission reward: annual great gift-pack (the shorter the time of completion, the higher the reward)
Mission completion:
1: Marshal Red Demon and the Red Demon Legion destroyed.
2: Marshal King-of-the-North and the King-of-the-North Legion destroyed.
3: Marshal Hell-Baron and the Hell-Baron Legion destroyed.
4: Marshal Agares and the Agares Legion destroyed.
5: Marshal Ghoul and the Ghoul Legion destroyed.
6: Marshal Demon-Crocodile and the Demon-Crocodile Legion destroyed.
Mission complete. Time used: eleven months, twenty-seven days, three hours, twenty-seven minutes
The annual mission reward may be drawn】
Zhao Chen lay back upon the massage bed in his own captain's chamber, enjoying the massage of the massage robot behind him while he looked over the annual mission he had completed.
In giving up the Mechanical Divine Church's star system this time and choosing to go the long way to the Angel Race and Demon Race's field, revenge was one part of it; but Zhao Chen had not forgotten to complete his annual mission either.
He picked out on purpose the Ghoul Legion and the Demon-Crocodile Legion, which had then been long in the fighting and were in a very bad way for losses and condition; and sure enough, upon the Angel Race fleets working with him.
He destroyed them both exceedingly easily.
And so completed this mission's reward within the last of the time allowed.
"I may be reckoned to have finished it upon the buzzer.
"I wonder what the reward is." A thought stirred in Zhao Chen's mind, and he touched to draw the reward.
【Drawing the annual mission reward】
At this time there appeared before Zhao Chen the black shapes of ten interstellar warships, blurred and unclear, but from whose outlines one might in the main guess at the ship-types of these warships.
Interstellar missile ship, for instance, interstellar gunship, interstellar battleship and the rest.
Though several of them had hull shapes of a rather particular kind, and Zhao Chen could not tell what ship-types these were.
At this time a prompt window floated up before Zhao Chen's eyes.
【You shall have one chance to draw the technical drawings of a flagship-pattern T6 interstellar warship. Begin the draw?】
Flagship-pattern?
Which put Zhao Chen in mind of the Hades and the Dragon Emperor; by the look of it this should be like those two, a warship of which one only may be built.
Only that it is T6 grade!
Which is something extraordinary indeed.
Which is as good as saying that Zhao Chen holds a grade of interstellar warship that no other interstellar civilization in this universe has ever held.
Think of it: one T5 Hades can kill an enemy interstellar fleet until not a plate of armor is left; then what of an interstellar warship of T6 grade?
Thinking upon that, Zhao Chen's blood ran somewhat hot.
And he began to reckon over which class of fighting warship would be the better.
As Zhao Chen began the draw, the ten black ship-shapes before him began to turn where they stood, and then to go out one after another.
The first to vanish was the interstellar gunship.
Ah… that was one Zhao Chen rather wanted.
The second was the interstellar missile ship.
That one he could do without; likely, even were it built, with this slight frame of Zhao Chen's at present, a single round alone would wring him dry.
Thereafter the interstellar battleship, the interstellar destroyer, the interstellar cruiser, the interstellar battlecruiser and the interstellar frigate all vanished in their turn.
Which set the smile upon Zhao Chen's face beginning to stiffen.
What is this business?
Of these three remaining warships, none seem to be fighting warships at all.
Surely it will not turn him out an auxiliary-type interstellar warship of T6 grade?
In the end, of the three shapes remaining, two more vanished; and the last ship-shape left began little by little to grow clear.
And in the end an interstellar warship of a shape exceedingly particular floated up before Zhao Chen's eyes.
To call it an interstellar warship is less apt than to say it is more like a flying building.
Or rather… more like a gate?
Strange.
Very soon this warship's data floated up within Zhao Chen's mind.
"Good grief — it really is a gate!"
Zhao Chen said it aloud before he thought.
【Congratulations. You have obtained the technical drawings of the 'T6 starship Southern Heaven Gate'[1], and the Southern Heaven Gate core module】
【The starship Southern Heaven Gate
Ship type: flagship-pattern
Technology grade: T6
Hull armor strength: 5 million units – 5.1 million units
Star-shield energy value: 300 million units
Cruising speed: 3,000 star-knots
Warp engine: grade-nine warp engine
Length: 36.8 kilometers
Mass: 68.88 million tons
Complement of posts: 50,000
Starship weapons: none
Special performance (special equipment)
Spatial fold-jump engine (may perform a spatial fold-jump); Southern Heaven Gate strategic mode】
This starship… no, rather say this gate, is truly not like an interstellar warship.
There is not one weapon module upon it, nor so much as a weapon of the defensive kind.
And yet its value is of the most decisive weight.
Its function, plainly set out, is this.
It can, within a certain compass, set up a two-way star gate outright, and that gate may go on existing — unless the starship Southern Heaven Gate be destroyed!
A very simple function.
But its value in real fighting may be called terrible indeed.
For it wants no beacon and no preparation of any kind; one need only enter a coordinate!
This is simply a super-remade version of the T4 Lucent-class Interstellar Jump Ship.
Which means that whenever the Owl Dragon Legion has need, Zhao Chen may join any two places he pleases.
To join the front-line field with the Owl Dragon base, for instance; and so the interstellar warships built there may be thrown to the front-line field at the first moment.
And by that the mobility and the fighting capacity of his own legion fleets would be greatly increased.