The Rakshasa-Hades-class Interstellar Dreadnought · the bridge.
Zhao Chen sat at this moment upon his own throne, looking at those two black stars far off, and at the undead host.
"At present we have eleven star systems in a state of battle with the undead. And the worst of them is this Judgment Angel star system. For here there are two stars, and both are in their prime; their energy is exceedingly great. So the undead's efficiency in dividing themselves by that stellar energy is very great as well," the secretary-officer Lilith said beside him.
"Has it been reckoned. Can the Rakshasa-Hades's attack destroy a star?" Zhao Chen asked again.
Charlotte nodded and said: "The staff has reckoned it several times over. With the Dreadnought Cannon in Demon King mode, the Rakshasa-Hades can destroy a star outright."
Hearing that answer, Zhao Chen was somewhat easier at last.
"How stands the system's evacuation?"
"All the people are safely away; there remain only the Angel Race's lord's fleet, and the staff controlling the Star Gate. Broadly, there is time enough for all our warships and people to make the last withdrawal," Xue Xiaoxiao said in earnest from the far side of the video window.
Zhao Chen nodded in satisfaction: "Since all is ready, then let us begin."
These words Zhao Chen spoke to Charlotte.
Charlotte looked toward the department charged with the Rakshasa-Hades-class's main weapon.
"Start up the Dreadnought Cannon," Charlotte ordered.
The head of the department set about it at once.
Within that terrible great gun at the Rakshasa-Hades's bow, ring upon ring of red light appeared, as though some slumbering beast were being woken.
At the same time a bright red began to show at the gun's after end.
"The Dreadnought Cannon is charging; charging is looked to complete in thirty seconds," the department head called.
Thirty seconds went by in the turn of an eye.
The whole of the Rakshasa-Hades's bow gun gave off a dazzling light, as though it would set this whole reach of sky alight at any moment.
Zhao Chen said nothing, and watched it in silence.
"Dreadnought Cannon, Demon King mode, fire!" Charlotte gave the order.
Thereafter.
A terrible beam of black and red set that reach of sky alight outright.
Its range was exceedingly long!
It is the longest effective range of any starship weapon now known.
Wherever it passed, any undead soldier or undead starship it touched was all but undone in the turn of an eye.
And at the last that terrible dark-red beam drove headlong into its target: a fixed star.
Upon the star, black until now, a red spot appeared.
And thereafter everything seemed to run backward.
The red region began little by little to devour the black, and the whole star began to turn red again.
But… the matter was far from so simple.
"Report: the target star's core is detected to have collapsed. It is looked to release terrible energy within three hours. And within ten hours it will reach the whole compass of the Judgment Angel star system; every life upon every planet within that compass will be lost in this stellar explosion. The neighboring systems will feel some effect, but face no mortal threat." The secretary-officer Lilith called up the latest observations.
That star's life had entered its final counting-down.
"Thirty minutes are needed before the Rakshasa-Hades can fire a second time," Charlotte reported, looking at Zhao Chen.
Zhao Chen nodded.
There were two stars here.
To be safe, it was of course best to destroy both at once.
Yet why he could not say, but looking at that star turning slowly red.
A thread of unease rose within Zhao Chen.
It seemed they had all got something wrong.
And suddenly at that moment the secretary-officer Lilith's handheld terminal lit.
She glanced at it: a request for communication from the Owl Dragon's highest research institute.
She opened it, and a video window appeared.
Opposite was a professor of the institute.
Who said at this moment, in the greatest haste: "My lady Secretary! We were wrong! We thought it wrongly before. The star must not be destroyed! On no account destroy the star!"
This professor's voice was loud, and Zhao Chen and Charlotte naturally heard it too.
The two of them knit their brows slightly.
The hive-race nest.
Set against the last summoning, when a great many warships had gathered here, this time only a scant few had come back.
Among them the Judgment Angel Queen's own ship.
She came down from it, and set her foot once more upon that glutinous ground.
Holding down the loathing within her, she looked at the few other warships.
And sure enough, as she had reckoned, of those who had finished the task and come back alive there were very few.
Happily she knew her own Judgment Angel star system exceedingly well.
She walked into that great hall and looked at the hideous face upon the wall of flesh.
"Another has come back. And the one who did the task best, at that. Let us all applaud her."
But it caught itself at once: "Ah, I had nearly forgotten, I have no hands. Hahaha…"
This creature's mind was certainly not sound.
So not a few present thought within themselves.
"My lord. There is one thing I have never understood. I hope my lord may resolve it for us." At this a survivor who had returned earlier spoke, the Black Angel demon.
"Speak." It could be seen that the creature was in a good humor now.
"That undead bomb you gave us is effective indeed. And we have seen the undead's power in battle; it is most particular, and most threatening. But the undead's power of self-division rests upon stellar energy. The Owl Dragon Empire may simply destroy the stars. I believe they have the means," said the Black Angel demon.
The others turned puzzled eyes upon it as well; it seemed they had thought of this too.
"Hahahaha… hahaha… destroy the stars?" The hideous face laughed aloud.
It was as though it had heard something very funny.
"If you truly believe that, and if that Emperor of the Owl Dragon has done it. Then he will pay for what he has done."
The others looked puzzled.
The voice went on.
"The undead do indeed need stellar energy to divide themselves without cease. But they have another power besides. And that is self-evolution. Only that self-evolution needs another and mightier stellar energy, and that energy appears only when a star is destroyed. So. If that Emperor of the Owl Dragon truly means to destroy the stars. Then he will face a far worse case.[1] First, a star's explosion produces exceedingly strong stellar energy, and that energy will, in a short time, hasten the self-division of every undead within its reach. The undead will then divide at hundreds, even thousands of times the rate they manage from a star alone.[2] And among them, certain mighty undead individuals will undergo self-evolution. Self-evolution, as the name declares, is to make one's own strength greater. A T5 undead starship, say, converted from some infected ship, may after self-evolution become a T6 undead starship. Tell me! Is that Emperor not digging his own grave? Hahaha!"
Hearing this creature's words,
every soul present felt their scalp crawl.
The Judgment Angel Queen could not keep from asking: "Then has this creature called the undead no weakness at all? Leaning upon the stars they may breed and divide without cease, and they hold besides the power to infect and convert. And a star's energy is very great; though undead hasten its spending, it cannot be exhausted in any short time. And to destroy a star only worsens the undead crisis further."
"Hahahaha… of course it has none. A fighting race the Great Existence has bred is of course a perfect thing. It is a perfect work, made by the Great Existence! Truly too perfect!" This creature went on crying it out as though drunk upon itself, like some mad pilgrim.
"Then what are we to do next? A great mass of hive-race fleets has gathered at the two hive-race nests. To attack now would set the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire fighting upon several fronts!" the Black Angel demon proposed.
Suddenly the air of the place went quiet.
And the Black Angel demon's feet left the ground, and a look of agony came over its face.
It felt its body gripped as though by a vast unseen hand, and pain came from every part of it,
as though it might be crushed at any moment.
"Mind what you are. Do not think that because you have done a little, you have any standing to instruct me. Here, I may crush you at any moment!" The hideous face gave off a mighty pressure.
No one spoke then, to court ill luck.
That Black Angel demon was flung down upon the ground beside them, gasping, and dared say nothing more.
"In one week the hive-race fleets will open their attack. From north to south, sweeping the whole Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire. And then this universe shall be made one with the Great Existence. And every life within it shall be given a precious chance to be exalted!"
This meeting too ended very soon.
Before they left, their next task was laid upon them.
Which was to make disorder within the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire during the coming time of war.
For by then, with the two threats of undead and hive-race, the newly founded Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire would certainly show troubles of every kind.
And then they might work their way in, and seek chances to stir certain interstellar powers to rise against it,
and pour oil upon that bad situation.
Back aboard her own warship,
the Judgment Angel Queen sat in that cold captain's chair.
She thought back over her whole life.
Thought back to when she had cast the undead seeds into the two stars of the Judgment Angel star system with her own hand.
Suddenly red lights sounded through the whole bridge.
Gunfire broke out all round.
Several beams even flew toward where the Judgment Angel Queen sat.
But an energy shield appeared about her chair and held her safe within it, so that no threat reached her.
The bridge doors were opened by someone.
And dozens of angel soldiers swarmed in.
"Nobody move! Put down your weapons and stand where you are!"
These angel soldiers held their weapons and warned again and again those upon the bridge who did not yet know what was happening; and at the least rash movement they fired without ceremony and killed.
Blood stained the bridge as well.
But very soon the confusion stopped.
There was almost no resistance.
Two kinds of people stood upon the bridge.
The one kind, hands high, standing meekly together, still not knowing what had happened: the bridge petty officers and crew.
The other kind, angel soldiers with weapons in hand, a golden sash bound about their arms, seemingly as the mark of their part in this action.
The whole business took only three minutes.
And the bridge was in their hands.
Though much of the reason was that several upon the bridge were of their party already, and it was they who opened the doors.
For aboard a starship, none but bridge personnel have the clearance to enter the bridge.
Through all of this the Judgment Angel Queen made no move whatever, but watched it in silence, as one outside it,
until one person came before her.
"Renee!"
The other's eyes were red and swollen, and glared at Renee.
"Teacher. So it is you." The Judgment Angel Queen looked at the middle-aged woman before her.
She was one of this warship's vice-captains, and held another standing besides: she was her teacher.
The teacher who had once led her into the Angel Race's fleets.
"Renee, you have gone wrong in too much! I agreed with your thinking at first; I held that the road you chose was right. But… of all things you should never have destroyed our homeland. Cast that cursed thing into our home's own star!" The angel woman glared at Renee.
Renee looked at her, and at the risen ones behind her: "So you mean now to betray me. Teacher."
"Betray? No! It is you who have betrayed us. We agreed once that the Angel Race's rotten system would destroy the Angel Race. And so we sought a greater strength. That Great Existence has indeed the strength we sought. But that does not mean we may cast away all that is ours. Now! We go back to the Angel Race. The other two Angel Sovereigns, for the sake of how we once fought for the Angel Race, are still willing to forgive us!" the old angel woman said gravely.
"Forgive? Hahaha." The Judgment Angel Queen laughed aloud; she rose and pointed at her own teacher: "From the day we betrayed the Angel Race and joined the Demon King's camp. To the day we betrayed our own homeland. There is no one left who will forgive us. Only to join Order, to be made one with Order, to become an everlasting thing. That is our one road out. It is you who are wrong, Teacher! You are not resolute enough! You have betrayed your own first purpose. Teacher, I am grieved. I gave you your chance." The Judgment Angel Queen looked coldly upon these risen ones, and watched them in silence.
The next second, their heads burst, one after another,
until only that old angel woman was left.
The old angel woman looked upon it in terror; screaming, she fired at the shield before the Judgment Angel Queen, and fired, and fired.
And at the last, with a burst of bloody mist, the gunfire ended too.