At this moment everyone watched that huge beam fall on the defensive shield outside the third Soul Altar.
But it could be seen that, though this beam had struck the defensive shield, the point where it landed was somewhat farther out than the Soul Altar.
That is to say, even without the defensive shield,
very likely this beam could not have hit the Soul Altar either.
If so, the attack was wholly unnecessary.
But the Devourer Civilization personnel controlling the Soul Altar were likely unwilling to take the risk, and kept the defensive shield up as before.
And the strength of the cluster laser fired by the T6 Rakshasa-Hades-class Interstellar Dreadnought was visibly much weaker than before.
For the longer the range, the more energy it had to consume.
"Report: the Dreadnought Cannon's core energy consumption is past 70%; we're about to enter the high-alert zone," the head in charge of the Dreadnought Cannon · Demon King mode weapon module reported gravely to Marshal Charlotte.
The deputy captain beside her said at once, "Normally, in ordinary attacks with either of the Dreadnought Cannon's two attack modes, it uses less than 50% of the core energy. This time we've already gone past the ordinary mode, which means the main weapon module will suffer wear and overload to varying degrees. If it goes on, anything could happen."
Charlotte was now the captain of this T6 Rakshasa-Hades-class Interstellar Dreadnought, true, but her real standing was that of an Imperial Five-Star Marshal, the fleet group commander of the Reverse Scale ace fleet group, and so on.
So most of the time the work of running this starship was handed to the deputy captain.
She knew this starship far better than Charlotte did.
"Watch the state of every module node of the starship's weapons. You know the Rakshasa-Hades best; you hold this critical point. But remember: our main task this time is to destroy the enemy's three Soul Altars. For that, the Hell-Angel ace fleet group cleared the enemy's positions for us, and even the Emperor's Guard Fleet went into battle for us. His Majesty the Emperor is watching us from not far away right now."
Charlotte looked at her deputy captain, a very young slip of a girl.
The deputy captain was silent a moment, then said firmly, "Please rest assured, Marshal; I understand what to do."
Then she went in person to the main weapon control department,
and stood behind all the staff in the department, overseeing the readings of every instrument and device.
Among all the data windows, a good many readings and module nodes had already turned yellow.
That meant these module nodes had reached a limit of some kind.
Then red warnings began to appear one after another.
The head of the department at once looked at the deputy captain, about to speak.
The deputy captain said at once, "Never mind them. Without my order, the weapon's attack is not to stop!"
The head of the department at once went back to work.
Not far off, Charlotte glanced this way and paid it no further heed; she trusted her subordinates.
She was watching only the starship's core energy at this moment.
It had already fallen to a mere 20%.
This was a battlefield situation the Rakshasa-Hades-class Interstellar Dreadnought had never been in before; it had driven itself to the very edge of a cliff.
Now it was a race: would the Rakshasa-Hades-class Interstellar Dreadnought's core energy run out first, or would the Soul Altar's energy shield break first!
At the same time the Devourer Civilization's invading fleets all around were trying everything to come to its support.
As for the hundred thousand-odd Pitch-Black Legion ships that had been summoned, they were like moths flying into a flame, throwing themselves heedlessly in front of that terrifying cluster laser,
trying with their shields and their own starships to win more chances for the Soul Altar behind them.
"My heavens! That cluster laser seems…… seems to be drifting bit by bit from its original line of attack!" the elf adjutant suddenly cried out.
The elf commander Xavier's eyes went wide; he at once called up the relevant data and the battlefield model.
Sure enough, he found that the line of attack of the T6 Rakshasa-Hades-class Interstellar Dreadnought's terrifying cluster laser was now somewhat different from its line of attack before.
"This T6 Rakshasa-Hades-class Interstellar Dreadnought is adjusting its bow bit by bit even while it fires its bow gun!" the elf adjutant arrived at a startling answer.
The elf commander Xavier and the Flame Elf Queen both fell silent at this moment.
Attacking while sailing was nothing very difficult.
But there were bound to be losses in some direction.
For instance, sailing would reduce the strength of the attack, or the fiercer the attack, the slower the sailing speed.
It was a matter of trade-offs.
And the attack of the T6 Hell-Angel Interstellar Dreadnought[1] at this moment was beyond doubt the fiercest of all; to fire up the starship's engines and adjust the bow under such conditions raised the difficulty greatly.
The demands on the interstellar warship's own basic performance were high; the slightest slip could do enormous damage to the starship itself.
Once more it left them lost in admiration for the Owl Dragon Empire's military starship technology.
"Look! The third Soul Altar's defensive shield looks about to be pierced!" the elf adjutant cried excitedly.
Sure enough, the defensive shield that had been taking the attack all along was beginning to fail.
In the end,
as that curtain of light fell,
the terrifying cluster laser, held up for a while, shot on toward the last Soul Altar.
Everyone's heart leaped into their throat at this moment.
The terrifying cluster laser did not hit the Soul Altar's core area squarely as before, but it still struck the Soul Altar's flank,
like taking a bite out of an apple.
And it kept on moving toward the middle, destroying the Soul Altar bit by bit.
"It can do it! Come on, a little harder!" The elf adjutant had clenched his fists now, cheering on this interstellar warship of the Owl Dragon Empire.
The elf commander Xavier and the Flame Elf Queen stared at the scene too.
The Rakshasa-Hades-class Interstellar Dreadnought · the Dreadnought Cannon main weapon department
The deputy captain looked at the windows before her; a tenth of them already showed red warnings, and nearly all the rest were yellow; all of them were overloaded.
The deputy captain looked at the core energy, with less than 10% left.
At last she gave the order: "Cease fire!"
"Yes, cease fire!" the head of the department repeated, and at the same time shut down the "Dreadnought Cannon" weapon module.
The terrifying cluster laser went out like a light bulb in this pitch-black universe.
All it left was an empty belt along its line of attack, and that Soul Altar with one section blasted to pieces.
When the deputy captain had given the order, she hurried back to the command platform, looked at Marshal Charlotte, and reported, "Reporting. The Rakshasa-Hades-class Interstellar Dreadnought's energy core has only 10% left, and the Dreadnought Cannon weapon module has reached the limit of overload. Considering what might happen, ceasing fire now is the best choice."
Marshal Charlotte nodded. "Understood."
Then Marshal Charlotte took a look at the state of the battlefield, and gave the follow-up combat orders directly on the whole battlefield's command channel.
The original objective of the operation had been achieved.
……
"Is that…… it?" The elf adjutant looked at the place where the terrifying cluster laser had vanished; his heart still felt somewhat empty.
The elf commander Xavier came back to himself and ordered at once, "Calculate right away what chance that damaged Soul Altar has of working normally again."
"Yes!" The elf adjutant set about it at once.
What mattered most right now was to judge how badly that Soul Altar was damaged, and whether it was serious enough to stop it working normally.
After all, that was the objective of this surprise strike.
If only two Soul Altars had been destroyed, with one Soul Altar left, it would look like a gain, but the pressure on the battlefield would still be very great.
"Judging by the damage to that Soul Altar, it most likely won't work normally again. The Owl Dragon Legion's battle plan succeeded." The Flame Elf Queen looked at this battlefield with complicated eyes.
A very risky battle plan.
But it had succeeded!
Imagine if her own Sacred Elf legion fleet groups had carried out this combat task.
Likely it would have had no chance of success at all; or rather, no one would ever have agreed to so risky a battle plan in the first place.
The Flame Elf Queen thought no more about it.
She looked at the elf commander Xavier. "I'm signing off first. Go on taking charge of the battlefield here; remember just one thing: cooperate unconditionally with the Owl Dragon Legion's operations."
"Understood," the elf commander Xavier answered; he had no doubts at all about this order now.
The Owl Dragon Legion could accomplish even so hard a combat task; wasn't the strength it had shown enough?
He could guess, too, more or less, what the Elf Queen was rushing off to do.
She would use this battlefield event to demand more legion fleet support from the High Council.
Before, he would likely not have agreed wholly with the Flame Elf Queen's ideas.
But he was different now.
He believed that perhaps this was their Sacred Elf Empire's chance for a decisive battle with the Devourer Civilization.
With the Owl Dragon Empire, their two swords joined as one, they could surely wipe out the threat of the Devourer Civilization!
At the thought, the elf commander Xavier's eyes shone.
It was a thought every elf in the Sacred Elf Empire had; the Devourer Civilization had always hung over their heads like a sharp sword.
They might say aloud that with the Empire's protection and the World Tree's shelter they would come to no harm.
But in their hearts the great majority were still uneasy.
So many chose to enjoy the present all the more, to enjoy everything that could satisfy the spirit.
And now, at last, there was such a chance to destroy the Devourer Civilization's Soul Altars together with a powerful ally.
"My lord, this…… seems to be the first time on record that a Soul Altar the Devourer Civilization put onto a battlefield has been destroyed," the elf adjutant could not help saying beside him.
The elf commander Xavier thought a moment; he too had followed the Devourer Civilization's earlier battles in other interstellar civilizations' universes.
He nodded and said, "Yes. This is the first time an interstellar civilization's legion fleets have destroyed the Devourer Civilization's Soul Altars, and three of them at once. Before this, the best result was an interstellar civilization that, at any cost, in a great decisive battle, badly damaged one Soul Altar, but in the end still failed to destroy it. And that attack used up that interstellar civilization's finest military strength."
"Then…… does that mean we really have a hope of defeating the Devourer Civilization!" the elf adjutant said excitedly.
The elf commander Xavier thought a moment and said seriously, "So long as that lot on the High Council aren't idiots, they should see clearly that this is our one and only chance, now and for all time to come. Just as the Flame Elf Queen said before. The chance is right before us now; if we don't seize it now, then when the fires of the Devourer Civilization's war reach our Sacred Elf Empire's homeland, we truly won't have any way out at all."
……
"Report: the three Soul Altars have been destroyed. One of them was only damaged, but by our observation, that Soul Altar at least can't work normally for some time!" Secretary-Officer Lilith reported to Zhao Chen excitedly.
"I saw." Zhao Chen's face too was lit by a smile he could not hold back.
Then Zhao Chen looked at the remaining Devourer Civilization invading fleets on the interstellar war holo-table.
Plainly the Devourer Civilization's invading fleets were somewhat at a loss in the face of this; some invading fleets that had been about to support the three Soul Altars even stood frozen where they were, not knowing what to do.
The whole situation had been turned upside down at this moment by this one shot of the T6 Rakshasa-Hades-class Interstellar Dreadnought.
"Your Majesty."
A voice came from beside him; Zhao Chen looked over.
It was Charlotte's communication video window.
"That plan has begun to be carried out. The first step is complete, and has confirmed that our plan can be carried out," Charlotte said in a deep voice.
Zhao Chen nodded. "Since it can be carried out, do as you said before."
Charlotte paused; she looked at Zhao Chen with some reluctance.
Zhao Chen said without a change of expression, "I know what you're thinking. Since she chose to stand in that position, she has to act according to her own choice. It's a choice she made herself. Whatever she runs into then, whatever danger, it's all her own choice. In our Owl Dragon Legion, no one is a special case."
"Yes, I understand." Charlotte nodded, then cut off the communication window.
Lilith, beside him, opened her mouth, looking undecided.
"What, are you worried about her too?" Zhao Chen looked at Lilith with a smile.
Lilith sighed. "She is, after all, your…… This task is too dangerous…… Even Charlotte, when she first reported on it, said there wasn't even a fifty percent chance of success."
"The task is very dangerous. But this dangerous task can solve a great trouble hanging over our heads. Then however great the danger, it's worth the risk! I…… believe in her," Zhao Chen said, unshakable.