"Keep a close watch on this T6 Gluttony Demon King starship for me," the elf fleet group commander said to his adjutant.
The adjutant at once called up several video windows.
They showed that Owl Dragon T6 Gluttony Demon King starship, filmed from every direction.
At this moment it was still some distance from the battlefield it was to support.
At the average speed of a T6-grade ship, it was expected to take at least five minutes to get there.
What he was curious about now was just what abilities this T6 Gluttony Demon King starship had, that the Owl Dragon Legion's generals and marshals trusted it so,
and believed that one interstellar warship alone could ease the pressure on a local battlefield.
Judging by its outward form alone, this T6 Gluttony Demon King starship was very unlike the style of most Owl Dragon-line interstellar warships.
It was an interstellar warship leaning toward the dark style.
It was in fact somewhat like the Devourer Civilization's interstellar warships.
But the difference could be seen too.
For the outward design of those Devourer Civilization interstellar warships had no beauty at all; they simply gave a feeling of a jumbled mess, and the sight of them was enough to put high elves like him off their food.
But this T6 Gluttony Demon King starship was different. Its hull's main color was black, yet it gave a feeling of solemn dignity, as though it were a king on high.
It had a beauty of a different kind.
Among high elves like them, it was quite acceptable.
Just as this elf fleet group commander was quietly passing judgment on this interstellar warship in his heart,
suddenly!
This T6 Gluttony Demon King starship actually vanished straight out of the video picture; that stretch of space was in an instant one interstellar warship short, and looked empty.
The elf fleet group commander sprang to his feet and swept his eyes over the several video windows. "What's going on?" he said in astonishment. "How has this T6 Gluttony Demon King suddenly disappeared?"
The adjutant at once began to look into it; he too looked very surprised.
Very soon they found that T6 Gluttony Demon King starship, but not within their own defensive positions.
It was within the enemy's interstellar warship positions!
One huge interstellar warship, looking very out of place.
"Report: the T6 Gluttony Demon King starship has suddenly appeared in an enemy formation area outside the line that called for help. It's raised its star shield and is holding off attacks from the other enemy ships around it," the adjutant reported.
The elf fleet group commander frowned, and at once realized, "This is single-ship spatial fold-jump technology."
Single-ship spatial fold-jump technology was not unknown in the Sacred Elf Empire.
But the cost-effectiveness of this kind of technology was extremely low, so most mainstream interstellar warships in the Sacred Elf Empire were not fitted with it, nor did it appear on the battlefield.
This was the first time he had seen an interstellar warship use this kind of spatial fold-jump on a battlefield, and jump straight into the enemy's formation at that.
From these details alone it could be seen
that the Owl Dragon Empire was far ahead of the Sacred Elf Empire in this single-ship spatial fold-jump technology.
First, its preparation time was very short, under a minute.
Next, the point of its spatial fold-jump was very precise.
For in so complex a battlefield environment, if the point of a spatial fold-jump was not very precise, an accident could very easily happen.
And at the same time its demands on spatial stability were not very high.
On a battlefield, the naval guns interstellar warships used had some effect on space too, to a certain degree.
Some long-range equipment detected that a fleet battle was going on in a given stretch of space precisely by detecting the ripples in space.
"But what do they mean to do? One interstellar warship alone, fold-jumping straight into the enemy's positions? There are at least three to five hundred enemy ships facing it all around. Most are T5 and T4-grade interstellar warships, true. But even a T6-grade star shield can hardly hold out long against attack from so many enemy ships. And once it's entangled, it will be very hard to break free. Isn't this asking for death?" The elf fleet group commander could not make out what that Marshal Chitong meant to do.
Judging by the surface of its hull,
this T6 Gluttony Demon King starship was fitted with twelve super-heavy guns and over three hundred main guns; its firepower far exceeded that of most T6-grade interstellar battleships.
But even with firepower of this grade, it would be very hard to get out of trouble in a situation like this.
At this point a still more startling scene appeared.
The ship-borne weapons fitted on this T6 Gluttony Demon King starship were all actually withdrawn into the hull.
The whole surface of the interstellar warship became streamlined, with no other weapons to be seen jutting out.
"What in the world are they doing!" The elf fleet group commander held back with difficulty the urge to call those Owl Dragon generals over the command channel.
Very soon he saw a scene that shocked him more than anything in his whole life.
With that T6 Gluttony Demon King starship at its center, a pitch-black mist first wrapped this T6 Gluttony Demon King starship, and then spread steadily outward.
Very fast!
"What is that?" The elf fleet group commander did not recognize the thing at first.
The adjutant very soon reported, "It's a black hole! Our department has detected black-hole ripples!"
A black hole!
The elf fleet group commander's eyes went wide.
The Owl Dragon Empire had actually mastered black-hole technology!
And could even put it onto the battlefield.
"What grade of black hole is it?" the elf fleet group commander asked in a deep voice.
In their Sacred Elf Empire, in truth, black holes were being studied too, but so far there were only a few black-hole test bases, which had made some miniature black holes, and could not yet put them into normal use.
The most successful test had been in a derelict star system, where a black-hole weapon was used once against an asteroid, making a small black hole that swallowed the asteroid entirely.
In the end that small black hole's energy too was used up, and it dissipated.
And the ripples of the black hole this T6 Gluttony Demon King starship had made already far exceeded those of the Sacred Elf Empire's test.
"By the strength of the ripples observed so far, this black hole has already reached the level of an ordinary small black hole, and it's still growing stronger," the adjutant said.
The elf fleet group commander held back the excitement in his heart with difficulty, and stared at the footage.
By now the T6 Gluttony Demon King starship could not be seen at all; there was only a black hole like an abyss.
The Devourer Civilization interstellar warships around the black hole were now all trying to escape the black hole's zone of influence.
But the black hole's extremely strong pull kept these interstellar warships from sailing away at all; they even began to be dragged, bit by bit, toward the black hole.
Some lower-grade interstellar warships simply broke apart before everyone's eyes under the black hole's pull, and were swiftly sucked into the black hole at last.
Scenes like this kept playing out.
One interstellar warship after another was swallowed into it.
"Report: the extent of this black hole is still growing. It isn't very large, but its pull has already reached the level of a normal black hole!" The adjutant reported another startling piece of news.
It was an artificial black hole with the powers of a normal black hole.
The elf fleet group commander swallowed and said in a deep voice, "Record the scene before us, and then find a way to pass this information to my lady the Flame Elf Queen, and send it back to the Sacred Elf Empire's High Council! This matter is very important. The level of technology the Owl Dragon Empire has mastered is far beyond what we expected!"
Being able to master black-hole technology, and to turn it into a weapon, that alone was enough to show how terrifying the Owl Dragon Empire was.
"Yes." The adjutant went at once to see to it!
Time passed bit by bit.
Ten-odd minutes passed, and the black hole that had been made had already destroyed every one of the several thousand Devourer Civilization interstellar warships in a ring around it.
What mattered most was that it had made a vacuum zone outright.
The Devourer Civilization's interstellar warships dared not come the least bit near this zone.
The results were not very spectacular.
But the elf fleet group commander did not lower his estimate of this interstellar warship in the slightest.
Compared with the battlefield before them, this interstellar warship was in truth better suited to fighting in other settings,
such as destroying a heavily defended interstellar fortress, or an interstellar civilization's home planet and the like.
Let it open this black hole, and those interstellar fortresses or civilizations' home planets would all be destroyed, winning an important victory in the campaign!
But in a seesaw battle like the one before them, because of the black hole's limited extent, the results would not be very startling.
Very soon the opened black hole suddenly dissipated,
as though it had never appeared.
And in the empty stretch of starfield it had left, one interstellar warship waited quietly.
It was the T6 Gluttony Demon King starship that had made all this.
Its star shield shone as brightly as ever, like a sovereign in this hushed stretch of space.
The Devourer Civilization interstellar warships around it still dared not come near this T6 Gluttony Demon King starship for now.
Mainly because the scene just now had been truly too eerie.
Only when, perhaps, they received orders from above did those Devourer Civilization interstellar fleets begin slowly to close in.
And by this time this T6 Gluttony Demon King starship had already opened out all the ship-borne weapons it had withdrawn into its hull.
Falling back toward the line, it attacked those Devourer Civilization interstellar warships with all its fire as it went.
In this moment this elf fleet group commander understood at last, and fully grasped,
why those Owl Dragon generals and marshals trusted this one interstellar warship so.
Perhaps it could not change the larger course of a battle.
But its very existence was a strategic weapon; used right, it could change the picture on a local battlefield.
It could even work wonders!
What had been used so far was only its most ordinary way of being used.
Even now, he, a mere onlooker, could think of a great many startling tactical effects that could be had by using this interstellar warship.
"The crisis on Line No. 081 is over for now. Once the follow-up support fleet arrives and the line is strengthened again, there should be no problem for a while. Until then, I'll take charge of this line with the T6 Gluttony Demon King starship." Marshal Chitong's icy words sounded on the command channel,
as though what had just been done had nothing to do with her.
"Received."
"Received."
The two Owl Dragon generals answered at once.
The elf fleet group commander hesitated a long while, then answered "received" too.
The Owl Dragon Legion…… the Owl Dragon flagships…… the T6 Gluttony Demon King starship.
The Owl Dragon Legion's interstellar warships were so strong, the Owl Dragon Legion's fighting caliber so startling.
And then there was this Owl Dragon flagship.
That's right!
He had heard before that the Owl Dragon Empire had four Owl Dragon flagships in all.
Apart from this T6 Gluttony Demon King starship,
there were the Owl Dragon Emperor's own ship, the T6 Dragon Emperor Interstellar Command Ship; Imperial Grand Marshal Charlotte's ship, the T6 Rakshasa-Hades-class Interstellar Dreadnought; and the flagship of the Queen of the Starry Sky ace fleet group, the T6 Demon Emperor Carrier Starship.
If this T6 Gluttony Demon King starship was so formidable,
and the other Owl Dragon flagships were of this level too……
At the thought, he could not help swallowing nervously, yet at the same time he hoped very much to see it with his own eyes.
As one who had once been a starship captain, and was now a fleet group commander,
his love for fine and powerful interstellar warships had never faded.
……
The Owl Dragon Empire's defensive war · hour 350
In a mere few dozen hours the Luoyang System No. 11 battlefield had at a stroke become the most important main battlefield of the five.
For the Devourer Civilization kept pouring reinforcements into this battlefield without end,
which for a time kept the Devourer Civilization's invading fleets on this battlefield at 5 million interstellar warships.
At the same time, its storming at any cost made the fighting on this battlefield the most intense of any battlefield so far.
One figure obtained was this:
on this battlefield, in a single hour, the Owl Dragon legion fleets and the Sacred Elf legion fleet groups destroyed over 100,000 enemy interstellar warships!
At the same time their own losses in a single hour once exceeded 10,000 interstellar warships, though the bulk of these were the Sacred Elf legion fleet groups'.
But these figures were enough to show how much weight the Devourer Civilization put on this battlefield.
The Owl Dragon legion fleets and the Sacred Elf legion fleet groups had barely held off the enemy's powerful attacks, but the lines' falling back could not be avoided.
By now over two-thirds of Luoyang System No. 11 had fallen.
Very soon the whole star system might fall.
Because of this fighting, more than twelve celestial bodies in this star system had even been destroyed already; everywhere could be seen the wreckage of interstellar warships, and the "ruined walls" of planets.
Just as everyone was holding their breath and gritting their teeth to hold on,
in the middle zone of the Devourer Civilization invading fleets' positions,
a huge black opening appeared, much like the rotten openings before, but this one larger.
Then black pillars floated out one after another; these black pillars arranged themselves irregularly, forming the shape of an altar.
There was no need to think to know what it was.
The Devourer Civilization's trump card!
The black technology Order had granted them.
The Soul Altar!