Hundreds of thousands of interstellar warships stood facing one another here,
like a heap of explosives about to go off, needing only the smallest spark to blow the whole place apart.
Charlotte closed the video link.
At this, in a video window that had been open beside her all along, Lilith spoke gravely: "By what the Royal Embroidered-Uniform Guard reports, all across the Empire a great many are watching your battlefield with the angel rebels. The angel rebels facing you number above three hundred thousand warships, the largest of all the rebel forces so far. And this could very well set off every unstable element in the whole Owl Dragon Empire."
Charlotte nodded; she understood the reasoning, and asked in turn, "And if I win?"
Lilith was silent a moment, then said: "In truth, for every group and power in the Empire harboring disloyal thoughts, it does not matter who wins or loses on that battlefield with the angel rebels. It is more like a beacon fire being lit. It will set off a chain reaction. Once the fighting starts, a second wave of rebel uprisings will break out all across the Owl Dragon Empire! So I have already sent our fleets out as far as I could. But when that time comes, the whole Empire will be in chaos. And above all… I am afraid…"
"You're afraid there is still a force from outside the universe, aren't you?" Charlotte put what was in Lilith's mind into words.
Lilith nodded and said in a low voice: "Rebels springing up on this scale, in a bare half year, cannot have happened of their own accord. Most likely some power is pushing them from behind, one that wants to see the Owl Dragon Empire consumed by the fires of civil war. Most likely it is the power called Order. But by what the Emperor… said before, we destroyed the Order hive-race, and beyond the universe the Machine Race keeps watch. No more of Order's military force ought to be able to get in. But it is not the ten thousand you fear, but the one chance in ten thousand. We must be ready for the worst."
"Tell me what you intend," Charlotte said.
Lilith's face darkened, and there was killing intent in her eyes: "If war breaks out with the angel rebels, whatever happens, destroy all the angel rebels as fast as can be done; where necessary, bring annihilating fire down on the planets and space stations the rebels hold. Use our interstellar missile ships and interstellar artillery ships. I will make sure the strategic supplies keep coming behind you. What you must do, Charlotte, is destroy the angel rebels in the shortest possible time, by the most overwhelming means."
"A massacre, then." Charlotte gave it its name. "Kill one to cow a hundred."
Lilith nodded and looked at Charlotte. "And this must be done by you in person. Only you, the Owl Dragon Empire's five-star Grand Marshal, carry that kind of terror. But from now on, you may… bear… the name of butcher."
"And what if I'm a butcher? In this universe, in my heart, the only things of any worth are what he guarded. You, and the Owl Dragon. As for the rest, kill them all and be done with it," Charlotte said without a change of expression.
Lilith said nothing more.
Charlotte opened the fleet's command channel.
"All fleets, hear my orders. Interstellar missile ships and interstellar artillery ships are to bring fire to bear on every area the enemy holds and on every enemy warship! Saturation fire for thirty minutes. Then the rest of the main battle warships go in and destroy every rebel. Remember! This time we accept no surrender." Charlotte's icy voice reached every fleet commander.
"Yes!"
On ship after ship among the interstellar missile ships, every launch unit opened, missile after missile ready to fly.
Ship after ship among the interstellar artillery ships trained every cold, gleaming gun muzzle on its hull on the angel warships opposite.
At the same time, the interstellar supply ships charged with logistics made ready as well.
To make sure that in what followed, these interstellar missile ships and interstellar heavy-artillery ships could be restocked with ammunition in time, so that the half hour of saturation fire could go off without a hitch.
At the edges of the battlefield,
lay hidden, silent, who knew how many interstellar scout ships, unmanned scout drones, shuttles and the like.
Sending pictures of this battlefield back, the moment they happened, to the eyes of the employers behind them.
"It's about to start." In a certain star region of the Warhammer Interstellar Federal Kingdom, one of the beast-folk stared at the scene on his screen.
"My lord, are we… are we truly going to act?" The adjutant beside him was still undecided.
"The moment the angels and the Owl Dragon forces start fighting, we rise in revolt. The Owl Dragon Empire is getting better and better as it is. Only the more chaos there is, the more we stand to gain!"
The same thing was happening in other places too.
Pair after pair of greedy eyes watched this scene,
like hyenas without number, watching in the night a sleeping tiger,
waiting to catch it off guard and rush in for a bite.
Elsewhere.
Lilith stared at the interstellar holo-table map before her, at the areas circled on it.
"Are all the fleets ready?"
"Reporting, Lady Secretary Officer, all fleets are in their appointed positions. The moment unrest breaks out in any fleet's assigned area, they will act at once to overawe and put it down."
Lilith paused, then said: "Tell them. Wherever they find rebels, there is no need to report. Kill them outright!"
"Yes!"
Lilith felt a savage fury filling her chest; toward these interstellar powers that meant to stab the Owl Dragon Empire in the back while the Emperor was away.
She was very angry.
And in anger, naturally, was the breath of slaughter.
She knew very well.
Once this war began,
even if the Owl Dragon Empire put down this civil strife, the Empire would carry the smell of blood among its own common people.
Even if those common people knew this was not the Empire's doing, they would fear the Empire,
because… everyone fears the one holding a knife with blood on it.
Lilith closed her eyes.
If only you were here.
If only you were here, none of this would happen…
Beep beep beep beep.
Lilith's handheld terminal sounded.
It was a special ringtone.
Lilith frowned, puzzled, then tapped it.
She heard the excited words from the other end.
And Lilith shot to her feet.
Her breathing came quick, and there were tears in her eyes.
Her whole body would not stop trembling.
The staff officers and secretary officers around her were astonished to see Lilith, the supreme secretary officer, in such a state.
What news could make the Empire's supreme secretary officer lose her composure like this?
"Contact Marshal Charlotte at once. Unless the other side fires first, we do not start this war!" Lilith all but screamed it.
The War Angel King's legion fleet · the flagship
"What's going on? Why is there still no move from the Owl Dragon warships opposite?"
"Their interstellar missile ships and heavy-artillery ships all look ready, don't they?"
"Could they have some other battle plan?"
The officers on the bridge talked it over in low voices.
The War Angel King sat in the captain's chair and gave a cold snort. "Smoke and mirrors. If they won't strike, then we will. Pass my order: proceed with the high-speed maneuvering penetration as originally planned. In the shortest time, close the distance to the enemy's firepower ships…"
Suddenly a voice cut the War Angel King off.
His adjutant stood before him, his face tense.
"Your Majesty, something enormous has happened!"
"What could be more enormous now than the war in front of us?" The War Angel King gave a cold snort.
There was still a gleam of anticipation in his eyes.
As War Angel King, he had in truth long wanted to take on the Owl Dragon Legion's warships head-on.
It was only a pity that the chance had never come.
"Just now the whole Empire… the Owl Dragon Empire, that is, put out an official notice to the entire universe. The Emperor… will address the whole universe in three minutes!" The adjutant swallowed hard as he answered.
In an instant the whole bridge was in an uproar.
The angel officers all around wore looks of disbelief.
"The Emperor? Impossible, isn't he dead?"
"Yes, wasn't the word we got that the Owl Dragon Emperor fell in the last war against the Order hive-race?"
"This couldn't be some stalling trick the Owl Dragon Empire has put out, could it?"
The War Angel King frowned as he took in the news.
Hearing the whispering all around him,
he could not help barking out: "Shut up, all of you!"
At once the bridge fell silent.
But though it was quiet on the surface, the hearts of these angel officers could not settle for a moment.
For this was a thing that touched them enormously.
"Pass my order: halt all operations." After a long while the War Angel King gave the order after all.
Then he said in a low voice: "Bring up the channel for the Empire-wide address. I would like to see how those few women mean to conjure an Emperor out of nothing for me."
"Yes."
A huge video window appeared on the bridge.
But for now it was dark.
The time passed, bit by bit.
The news, too, spread at great speed to every star region of the Owl Dragon Empire.
"The Emperor is to address the nation?" Queen Saint Cana rose to her feet, startled and overjoyed.
Qin Xiaolei stared fixedly at the dark screen, both fists clenched so hard that her nails broke the skin of her palms, and she never noticed.
The dragon-folk princesses Blanche and Leona, who had been directing the fighting, no longer had any mind for the operations clearing the rebels from the field.
They stared fixedly at that channel.
"Curse it, why can't I get through to Lilith or Charlotte!" Leona the dragon-girl, hot-tempered as ever, could not wait even these few minutes.
She tried to reach Charlotte and Lilith.
If this were true, those two would surely know.
The trouble was, neither of them could be reached at all.
"Don't be in such a hurry. All these years, and you still haven't got your temper in hand." Blanche the dragon-girl looked at this sister of hers and said it softly.
"Fine, fine, no hurry, no hurry." Leona the dragon-girl paced back and forth on the bridge, her tail behind her thumping the deck again and again in spite of herself.
Blanche smiled helplessly, holding her water glass.
But likely no one noticed that the water in that glass never once stopped rippling.
It was not only these great figures the news had shaken.
Even the hyenas hiding in the Owl Dragon Empire's shadows were watching this great tiger now, tense,
as though afraid the tiger might truly wake.
At the same moment, in a certain dark star system.
"What is going on? Didn't you say before that Zhao Chen was certainly dead!"
"By the word I had before, under the attack of our secret weapon, Zhao Chen had to have died. How this has come about, I don't know. But don't be anxious. This may be nothing but a stalling trick of the Owl Dragon Empire's, a smokescreen."
"I've failed so many times already. I don't want to fail again this time!"
The voice was hysterical, like a madman's.
"Are you truly so afraid of this human, Zhao Chen?"
"You… you've never met Zhao Chen. Every time… every time, that fellow turns the whole thing around in some way no one could have imagined. Every time I think I'm about to win, he always snatches the victory out of my hands. I… I… In short, Zhao Chen cannot be allowed to live!"
The other did not answer.
"If… if Zhao Chen is alive… what do you mean to do? Will the plan still go ahead?" the voice asked again, shakily.
"The plan has begun. The bow once drawn sends no arrow back. Whether this Zhao Chen is real or false makes no difference."
Perhaps hearing that answer calmed the speaker a little.
But in the darkness, a video window lit up.
In that bright window was a familiar scene.
Anyone who had studied the Owl Dragon Empire would have seen it.
Was this not the place where the Owl Dragon Empire had been founded, where the Emperor had taken the throne?
That palace of surpassing splendor, that throne of surpassing majesty.
On the throne sat a man.
A man the whole Empire knew, and the whole Empire held in awe.
The man's eyes were closed, one hand resting on the arm of the throne, propping up his chin.
Even without opening his eyes, even without speaking,
even through a video picture, across who knew how many star systems.
Everyone watching could feel the mighty presence about this man.
A moment ago they had still been wondering whether this was a stalling trick of the Owl Dragon Empire's, some counterfeit passed off as the Emperor.
But now, as for everyone watching this,
they knew perfectly well in their hearts.
This was the Emperor.
This was the Owl Dragon Empire's Supreme Emperor!
The man who had vanished for more than half a year, whom all had thought long dead.
Had appeared before them all once more.
Zhao Chen slowly opened his eyes; there was no expression on his face, and he said nothing.
But that commanding presence, which needed no anger to inspire awe, weighed on every heart like a great mountain.
"I cut myself off from the world and rested for half a year."
Zhao Chen spoke without haste, and there was no feeling of any kind in his voice.
"And I hear someone has been saying I am dead?"
In that moment, everyone seemed to feel the killing intent about the Emperor.
"Rebels springing up across the Empire?"
The corners of Zhao Chen's mouth rose in a mocking smile.
The next second, the smile was gone.
"I give you ten minutes to end your clowning. Every legion fleet of the Owl Dragon Empire, hear my orders. Ten minutes from now, any rebel ship that has still not surrendered: destroy it!"