This interstellar campaign, reaching to the three parties of the Angel Race, the Demon Race and the Machine Race, was like the lighting of a fuse to a great war across the universe.
As time went forward without cease, the fighting in every place grew fiercer and fiercer, and came even to a pitch past all governing.
The local fields where fighting broke out upon the border of the Angel Race and the Demon Race grew more and more, from a few places at the outset to a dozen and more thereafter.
The Angel Race had not meant to send more troops; but as the Demon Race sent more without cease, and the fleets under the Judgment Angel King, that traitor of the Angel Race, even appeared upon the field.
That act was like the tearing open once more of an old scar of the Angel Race's.
And the Angel Race began to send more troops besides.
Which led directly to a case upon the field yet more locked together; every day warships were destroyed and fell, and yet — strange to say — the sum of warships upon the field did not lessen but grew.
And it was the same case upon the Demon Race's side: more and more Demon Race warships were thrown to the front-line field against the Angel Race.
At the height of it, the warships the two sides put into the forward field came to above three million in all, pressing hard upon four million.
And the intensity of the fighting came very nearly to matching the record set in the two races' thousand-year war.
But set against the fighting of the Angel Race and the Demon Race, it is in truth the field of the Demon Race and the Machine Race that may be called cruel indeed.
Within every stretch of the star-vault inside the Machine Race's royal court there drift wrecked warships everywhere, and the warships of the two sides fighting without cease.
Over just such a district the two sides sent troops without cease to contend, and warships by the tens of thousands were buried within this one small stretch of the star-vault.
This place may be called a meat-grinder of interstellar warships.
And is called by later ages the Battle of the Mechanical Royal Court Meat-Grinder.
By the middle of June, the Demon Race had, through the star gates seized at the war's beginning, already thrown five million Demon Race warships toward the mechanical royal court!
A figure terrible indeed!
For the interstellar position of the mechanical royal court is rather particular: within the star systems upon either side there lies a permanent black hole.
And the paths by which one may enter the mechanical royal court are two only, before and behind.
The one side toward the quarter of the star gates the Demon Race seized, and the other toward that stretch of the universe where the Owl Dragon lies.
And should the Demon Race wish to go round and strike from both sides at once, that would spend a great deal of time and labor, and carry besides the risk of being assailed upon the road by Machine Race fleets.
And so the demon legion fleets took the course of pushing hard up a single lane outright, attacking the mechanical royal court head-on.
Which has made of the mechanical royal court a field like a meat-grinder.
At the other end of the Machine Race's royal court there is a star gate, and the mechanical royal court draws Machine Race legion fleets without cease from every part of Machine Race space, sending them through that gate in support of the royal court.
Which has made a prospect rather singular.
The warships of both sides pouring without cease into the mechanical royal court.
The engines of war at no few of the Machine Race's industrial bases have been set going, and begun to produce warships at full power; and it is by leaning upon this mighty industrial depth.
That the Machine Race, within these two months.
Brought off by main force the legendary figure of a million warships produced in a single month, and by that alone kept the battle of the mechanical royal court from passing out of governance.
And to the present, being unable to take the two star gates the Demon Race governs, the Machine Race's royal court has given up that notion besides, and stands wholly upon the defense of the royal court.
Here they have put in, first and last, near four million Machine Race warships, of which a third were produced and built within these two months.
"Reporting — another defensive position is lost.
"The enemy's quasi-T6 Destroyer-class Heavy Interstellar Battleship has destroyed our interstellar fortress." Within a video window, the report was made to Ah-Jin.
"I understand. Let the warships remaining at that position withdraw to the defensive position behind, and fight on."
"Yes."
Ah-Jin looked at the star chart before her, at another defensive position marked with a black cross; and that means besides that the demon legion fleets draw nearer and nearer to breaking the mechanical royal court.
"Hold out a while longer! Only a while longer!" Ah-Jin muttered it without cease to herself.
"This is bad.
"The Demon Race's Serpent King Legion has opened a mighty assault upon the field's center line.
"And attacking along with them are ten quasi-T6 Destroyer-class Heavy Interstellar Battleships besides!" The worst of news came.
Ten quasi-T6 Destroyers?
Hearing this word, Ah-Jin for a long while said nothing; she kept her eyes upon the coordinate points marked out upon the interstellar sand-table.
Those are the positions of the known Demon Race quasi-T6 Destroyers, and they come to a full fifteen.
And with these ten that have appeared of a sudden, it means the Demon Race has upon the field of the mechanical royal court already five and twenty quasi-T6 Destroyer-class Heavy Interstellar Battleships.
And against this main strength of the Demon Race's the Machine Race has simply no means of counter whatever.
Every time they would take the risk of destroying one, the other side draws back.
And above all since, upon that other field, the Angel Race is rumored to have destroyed a quasi-T6 Destroyer, these quasi-T6 Destroyers have grown warier still, and give not the least chance.
At present, these ten quasi-T6 Destroyers welling up of a sudden are in high likelihood the assault the Demon Race has made ready for this stage.
They would, by leaning upon these ten quasi-T6 Destroyers, break through outright what remains of the Machine Race's line.
"Pass my order: draw off every legion fleet that is resting, and let them go to garrison the center line; the enemy's attack must not be let to succeed!"
"Yes!"
Though Ah-Jin's order was passed down.
That does not mean it can be brought about.
Upon this narrow field, warships many in number are sometimes no match for warships high in quality.
Which is the difference between a T5 warship and a quasi-T6.
Time went by, little by little.
Every few hours some ill word would come from the front-line field; one defensive position after another fell, and the speed of that falling was several times what it had been!
By rights a mechanical life should have no ill feeling of any kind; but Ah-Jin at this moment felt her own breast oppressed, as though she could not draw breath.
She set both hands upon the desk and held her body up by main force.
Beep, beep, beep, beep.
All at once a video window sprang up before her.
"The first batch of warships built upon our side is upon the road!
"Ah-Jin, what is the case with you?" Ah-Yin's likeness appeared at that end of the video window.
Ah-Jin's frame gave a shock; she said at once, "The case is not good.
"The Demon Race has moved up ten more quasi-T6 Destroyers, and has pressed their assault upon our line the harder; the speed at which our defensive positions fall grows faster and faster.
"And if it be not brought under governing, there may very well arise a case of avalanche upon the field."
"Set your mind at rest; once this batch of warships of ours arrives, the case may assuredly be steadied!"