The three days agreed came quickly.
And the T6 Purple-Gold Silver Dragon-class Heavy Interstellar Battleship received its first guest from another universe.
The bridge's light-door opened, and the elf Gladys walked in.
There was wonder in her eyes as she looked at the brand-new bridge before her, and the departments spread across every part of it.
The whole bridge was styled like a dragon's head; standing in it gave one a feeling of looking down proudly on the world.
And before, she had seen the outside of this interstellar battleship, and its inner structure.
Though this interstellar battleship's style was not quite to the taste of their elves,
still, even the elf Gladys, whose taste had always been exacting, had to admit this warship was beautiful.
Or rather, the Owl Dragon-line warships she had seen all had a special beauty of their own.
She believed that even elves of her own universe, seeing these Owl Dragon-line warships,
might not like the style, but would certainly never say these warships were ugly.
And when their elves designed warships, taste played a part of great weight.
For a famous high-elf starship engineer had once said:
a beautiful warship is not necessarily strong,
but a strong warship is certainly beautiful!
"Welcome; please sit." Zhao Chen, seated on the throne, pointed to a chair beside him.
"Greetings, Your Majesty the Emperor." Gladys still saluted this Majesty the Emperor most respectfully.
"Is everything ready?" Zhao Chen looked at Gladys as she sat down.
"Everything is ready. We can set out in half an hour," Gladys said.
Zhao Chen looked out of the porthole at the thirty thousand ships of the Blizzard ace fleet group, all made ready.
In truth the Blizzard ace fleet group now numbered over seventy thousand warships.
This time Marshal Chitong had taken only a little under half of them,
a scale of ten corps fleets.
"Bringing so many warships: your side won't mind, I trust," Zhao Chen said with a faint smile.
"As the supreme Emperor of this universe's civilization, you may bring an escort fleet of this kind without any problem," Gladys said directly.
It was the truth.
In the days when other universes still existed, when the Sacred Elf Empire's Elf Sovereigns visited other universes, they would bring at least thirty thousand warships as escort,
with a show no less than fighting an interstellar war.
For their elves took great care in matters of ceremony too.
And the civilizations of other universes knew this very well, and would often treat an Elf Sovereign's visit as a gathering at which to enjoy a lavish performance for free.
"The first ships to return to the Sacred Elf Empire have already passed on word to our Elf Sovereigns and the High Council of your visit to the Sacred Elf Empire. The five Elf Sovereigns and the High Council all express a warm welcome. And they add that two Elf Sovereigns will receive you at the far end of the universe crossing point. The only pity is that the time to prepare was too short. Otherwise we would have prepared a warm welcoming ceremony at the place where you reach the Sacred Elf Empire. Now we can only put the ceremony off until you reach our High Council's planet, and hold it for you then."
Zhao Chen waved his hand and said casually, "I'm visiting this time to talk things over. There's no need for all that; it's enough if we can finish talking everything over quickly and briefly. I don't like taking part in banquets and such occasions either; if there's such an occasion, I'd much rather visit something like the Sacred Elf Empire's technology museum."
"The proper ceremonies must still be observed. The places you wish to go, I'll arrange for you as well. This journey of Your Majesty's will certainly not be wasted," Gladys answered.
"From here on, you're staying aboard my ship?" Zhao Chen looked at Gladys, who showed no intention of leaving.
She had spoken of such an arrangement before, only it had not been settled.
"Yes; I've handed all other matters to my deputy. He'll be fully in charge. I'll accompany you on your ship for the whole of this journey. And I'll serve as your escort on this visit to our Sacred Elf Empire as well. That too is the wish our Elf Sovereigns passed on. Of course, if you're not satisfied with me, I can still……"
"It's fine; we know each other well enough by now. This is fine." Zhao Chen waved his hand casually and accepted the arrangement of this guide.
Gladys said nothing, but looked at this Owl Dragon Emperor before her.
To tell the truth, this Majesty the Emperor truly was a little strange.
At times she felt his presence was very strong.
But at times he seemed very warm and approachable, not at all like a man standing at the summit of power.
Then came the waiting.
When the time came,
in the elf fleet Gladys had brought, the hatch of an interstellar transport could be seen to open, and then the 'Water Dragon Gate' device seen before came into view.
But this 'Water Dragon Gate' was somewhat larger.
"The one before was small; this belongs to the medium class. One alone can carry thirty thousand warships through the universe crossing. In ordinary times it belongs to military strategic-grade equipment. It was allowed by the High Council, specially to welcome His Majesty the Owl Dragon Emperor's visit to the Sacred Elf Empire. That way there's no need to use a great many small Water Dragon Gates," Gladys explained.
Zhao Chen nodded in understanding.
Then they watched the medium Water Dragon Gate slowly unfold.
A white mist could be seen appearing around the device, and little by little the whole device sank into the white mist.
This white mist was something like the ink that had appeared when the Pitch-Black Legion fleets invaded the Owl Dragon Empire's universe.
Perhaps the technological theories of the two had something in common.
Very soon the spreading white mist stopped,
and held within a certain range.
"There. Next, may Your Majesty's escort fleet please sail into the white mist, corps fleet by corps fleet. The coordinates for the universe crossing have been set; once in the white mist, you can reach our Sacred Elf Empire's universe within about three hours. Because this is a medium Water Dragon Gate, the time is somewhat shorter too. My fleet will divide in three and accompany your fleet at the front, middle and rear," Gladys said, setting out her arrangements most attentively.
Zhao Chen nodded and looked to Commander Xiong Lulu. "Do as Commander Gladys says. And let Chitong's side know too."
"Yes!" Xiong Lulu at once began to see to it.
It was plain she herself looked forward to this very much, too.
For this was a voyage to another universe; few in the Owl Dragon Empire had had such an experience.
How could Xiong Lulu not be excited!
The ship Zhao Chen was aboard was among the middle-to-rear part going into the white mist.
So after some waiting, it came to Zhao Chen's part's turn.
Zhao Chen watched the white mist drawing nearer and nearer.
He sat on the throne without a sound, but his eyes were observing every detail that could be seen.
"Rest easy, Your Majesty. We've used the Water Dragon Gate many times; its safety is no problem at all. And the sailing is very smooth too, the same principle as a star gate's subspace sailing." Gladys, beside him, saw the Owl Dragon Emperor sitting there without a sound,
and, thinking he was nervous and worried at trying this cross-universe sailing for the first time, at once spoke up to explain.
Zhao Chen explained nothing.
He looked at the white mist that already filled the whole porthole; the warships around them had wholly vanished from sight.
Zhao Chen looked at the starship's radar.
The radar's range was limited to one ring around them, just enough to make out where the warships around them were.
And whatever speed they had had before entering, once inside this white mist every warship's position seemed to freeze.
Before this, Zhao Chen had quietly asked Xiong Lulu to run an experiment on this very point.
It showed that in this space, warships' sailing speed was restricted.
That was indeed very like a star gate's subspace sailing.
And the warships' sailing was very calm too, without any jolting, and it put no strain at all even on the human body.
"How much do you know about cosmic space sailing?" Finding nothing more to observe, Zhao Chen looked at Gladys beside him; since all they could do now was sit and wait, better not to waste the time, and see whether he could ask out anything useful.
Gladys said, "Um… I know a little of the surface of it. What would Your Majesty like to know? If Your Majesty is interested in this field, once we reach the Sacred Elf Empire I can apply to those above and arrange for experts and scholars in the field to discuss it with Your Majesty."
Gladys could see this Majesty the Emperor was the research type; within the Owl Dragon Empire it was rumored
that the development and building of Owl Dragon-line warships had a great deal to do with this Majesty the Emperor.
This Majesty the Emperor was himself a genius in this field.
"Then let's talk of some things you know. You know of Order too. How much do you know about the ink?" Zhao Chen went straight to the point, throwing out at once a shadow that had hung over the Owl Dragon Empire's head all this while.
"The ink……" Gladys naturally knew of this thing called the 'ink'; her time in the Owl Dragon Empire had not been spent for nothing.
She had heard too that the Owl Dragon Empire had held off a wave of Order's attack.
That too was why she was so humble in manner toward this Majesty the Emperor.
Though Order had posed no threat to the Sacred Elf Empire for many years,
the shadow Order had cast over the Sacred Elf Empire back then had never lifted, all this long while, for the high elves who had lived through those scenes.
It was a truly terrifying existence.
Their Sacred Elf Empire had survived only by paying a terrible price.
Even going back to that time now, these elf commanders of theirs would not dare say with full confidence that they could meet those disasters once lived through.
"The ink, as far as we know, is in truth a means by which Order can pass through the barrier of a universe and enter it," Gladys explained.
The barrier of a universe.
He had heard the phrase before, in his dealings with the Mechanical Race.
"You must know of the barriers of universes. If you liken universes to rooms, those are the walls between them. And if room and room are to know something of each other, a door is needed. That's our cross-universe sailing: making a door between two rooms, a door that can be permanent or temporary. In principle it does the rooms' walls no great harm. But Order can't do that," Gladys put forward a brand-new view.
"They can't? Why?" Zhao Chen was surprised.
"Because they are not creatures that exist in bodily form. Order is a consciousness-body lifeform; they are beyond every type of lifeform we know now. That's also why they could become a seventh-grade technological civilization. But in gaining seventh-grade technological civilization, they lost something too. That is, they cannot pass through a universe's barrier by the ordinary means. Which is to say, they cannot build doors." Gladys's face was grave as she said it.
Gladys paused, and went on, "If they can't build doors, yet want to lay hands on this room, what can they do? There are no more than two ways. One: destroy this room's walls by force. That takes a very long time; commonly it relies on their consciousness-body's power, grinding the wall away little by little. But that way takes a great deal of time, and is easily interrupted too. A universe's walls repair themselves, which means you have to keep at the process without letting up. We call it the process of Order devouring a universe. The second way: if you won't destroy a wall by force, and can't build a door, then what way is there to seep through it? To take another comparison, the barrier of a universe is like a wall with no waterproofing; that is, some special liquid can seep through it. In the end it forms spots and blotches on the wall! What you call the 'ink' is just that!"
Gladys's words seemed to make something clear to Zhao Chen.
"And this 'ink': how do they make it?" Zhao Chen asked.
"Soul power. If I'm not mistaken, before Order tried to come down into your universe, several great wars must have broken out within your universe in a short time. With a great many killed and wounded; isn't that so?" Gladys looked at Zhao Chen.
It seemed to dawn on Zhao Chen.
"Soul power is in truth a power Order has always had in its grasp. Not only can they use this power to make their own Pitch-Black Legion fleets; they can also work from within and without together. They can draw on the soul power produced within a universe in a short time, and form 'ink' blots one after another. Then let their Pitch-Black Legion fleets use these 'ink' blots to come down into the universe!"
"Then why did the process suddenly stop? There's been no sign of anything from it ever since," Zhao Chen raised a doubt.
"Because when this 'ink' delivers Pitch-Black Legion fleets, it consumes soul power too! Put simply, it's a cooldown. Once the cooldown is past, the Pitch-Black Legion fleets can use these ink blots again to come down into the target universe!"