The Troll Monarch looked in surprise at these five warning alerts.
On the star map these five warning alerts sat at five positions, and, as luck would have it, within the areas held by the interstellar fleets of the Owl Dragon Empire's Shadow Hunter ace fleet group.
And the level of the ripples these warning alerts had detected was rising exponentially.
Those terrifying figures were enough that even the Troll Monarch dared not take them lightly.
"Find out for me, fast, just what these Owl Dragon interstellar warships are up to!" the Troll Monarch said in a rage.
His Troll Monarch coming off worse again and again in the duel with the enemy's Hive Mothership had already put him in a foul mood.
And now they had pulled this on him too.
He, the august Troll Monarch, had never been through anything like it.
Luckily, thanks to clues filmed from every angle by large numbers of Devourer Civilization interstellar warships, some images at last reached the Troll Monarch.
The subordinate officer pointed at several video pictures and said, "Reporting, Lord Sovereign: these abnormal energy ripples should be coming from these giant red-gold eggs. These giant red-gold eggs were set out by some Owl Dragon-line stealth interstellar reconnaissance ships. By our guess, this should be some kind of high-yield explosive weapon that can produce a terrifying explosion within a certain range. As for exactly how powerful the explosion will be, we have no way to infer it. But going by the high-intensity energy reaction detected so far, every local battlefield will likely be covered. Right now, either we destroy these giant red-gold eggs in a short time, or we pull out quickly beyond the safe range."
The Troll Monarch frowned.
Retreat?
It was an order he was very unwilling to give; he knew very well what it would stand for once it was given.
It would be a disgrace, one that might follow him all his life.
Within the Devourer Civilization, everyone would know that he, the august Troll Monarch, had actually chosen to retreat while engaging the enemy.
Wasn't that a coward?
The actual situation might look understandable, but outsiders cared nothing for that.
They knew only that you, the Troll Monarch, had "shown weakness" while engaging the enemy.
At the thought of how things might go, the Troll Monarch felt his head ache.
As for the other choice,
destroying these giant red-gold eggs in a short time,
that was an all but impossible task.
For the situation now made the Troll Monarch understand completely what these interstellar fleets of the Owl Dragon Empire were after.
From the very start they had never meant to escape by way of those universe-space fold-jump points.
They meant to stop them from escaping by way of the universe-space fold-jump points!
That was why they had blockaded almost all the main lanes outside the universe-space fold-jump points.
And those interstellar hive-race swarms had appeared on every battlefield not to defeat the Devourer Civilization interstellar warships on those battlefields,
but to make sure this plan went smoothly.
And this plan was these giant red-gold eggs.
Whatever the final force of these giant red-gold eggs' explosions, at the level they stood at now,
if they exploded at all these positions,
they would not only deal enormous losses to the Devourer Civilization interstellar fleets around them; they might very well destroy every universe-space fold-jump point too.
And if so,
it would be as good as bankrupting the Devourer Civilization's whole battle plan for invading the Owl Dragon Empire's universe this time.
To launch a new round of attack on the Owl Dragon Empire's universe would take a great deal of preparation all over again.
That would be a matter of months from now.
And the blame for the failure of this attack would fall on him, the Sovereign.
Whichever way it went, he, the Sovereign, would take the blame.
"Damn them! These Owl Dragon scum. They all deserve to die. And that Owl Dragon Emperor deserves to have his tendons pulled and his skin flayed by me even more!" the Troll Monarch roared in fury, his fists pounding the seat beneath him.
It set the whole bridge shaking violently, as if in an earthquake.
"Lord Sovereign, the most important thing now is for you to make a decision!" the subordinate officer reminded him carefully, head bowed.
The Troll Monarch asked coldly, "How long until those giant red-gold eggs are expected to explode?"
The subordinate officer answered, "By our researchers' observation and analysis, it will be no more than fifteen minutes."
No more than fifteen minutes.
To break through the protection of those interstellar hive-race swarms and the Shadow Hunter ace fleet group within fifteen minutes, and destroy those giant red-gold eggs:
that could basically be called a wholly impossible task.
Then there was only one choice left.
That choice would bring him disgrace, but as things stood, cutting the losses of his own legion fleets was a way of saving something, too.
If the nearly 10 million interstellar warships here were all laid to rest here, even the Devourer Civilization could not bear so enormous a loss.
"Pass my order: every legion fleet, don't stay to fight; pull out of the area as fast as you can, and the farther the better!" the Troll Monarch gave this very hard order.
And the moment the order was passed down, a good many fleet commanders were astonished; they even suspected it was an order passed by the Owl Dragon legion fleets in disguise.
Only after checking several times whether the message was genuine were they sure that the order really had been given by the Lord Troll Monarch.
They harbored some doubts in their hearts, but they still chose to carry out the Troll Monarch's order unconditionally.
Very soon the Devourer Civilization interstellar legion fleets on the edge of the battlefield turned about at once and pulled out, and after them the Devourer Civilization interstellar legion fleets inside the battlefield.
Even the Troll Monarch's own ship, the T6 Troll Monarch Interstellar Fortress Ship, began to pull out.
But at this point an eerie scene appeared on the battlefield.
Someone began stopping these Devourer Civilization interstellar legion fleets from pulling out: the Owl Dragon interstellar hive-race!
These Owl Dragon interstellar hive-race swarms tried everything to hinder these Devourer Civilization interstellar legion fleets from pulling out.
To stop them, they did not even seek to destroy the enemy's interstellar warships, but went for means like wrecking the starships' engines.
So long as the ships could not leave this area within this span of time, they had achieved their aim.
And this method worked very well too; these interstellar hive-race swarms were tough opponents in themselves, and at this moment the Devourer Civilization interstellar legion fleets were all busy pulling off the battlefield.
Without covering fire, these Owl Dragon interstellar hive-race swarms were all the more like wild horses broken loose, utterly beyond control.
And this left a good many Devourer Civilization interstellar legion fleets truly pinned down here.
And the T6 Troll Monarch Interstellar Fortress Ship, as the biggest target, was naturally the first target too.
Even the Hive Princess's own T6 Dragon-Bones Taotie Super-Heavy Hive Mothership showed no sign of withdrawing for now, trying everything to hinder the T6 Troll Monarch Interstellar Fortress Ship's withdrawal.
And the two sides had been evenly matched to begin with; now that one wanted to leave and the other wanted to block it, the fighting grew all the more tangled.
Just as everyone was imagining what it would be like if this T6 Troll Monarch Interstellar Fortress Ship really could be stopped,
a good many interstellar suicide squads burst out of the Troll Monarch Legion fleet.
These interstellar warships basically all came with death in their hearts, charging at the Owl Dragon swarms, trying everything to cover the T6 Troll Monarch Interstellar Fortress Ship's withdrawal.
These interstellar warships took no small casualties for it.
But luckily for them, the outcome was good.
The T6 Troll Monarch Interstellar Fortress Ship got free of the T6 Dragon-Bones Taotie Super-Heavy Hive Mothership's entanglement in the end, and then used its own single-ship spatial fold-jump technology to escape quickly,
leaving the great numbers of Devourer Civilization interstellar legion fleets here to fend for themselves.
"Report: three minutes left," someone reported to Zhao Waner.
"Pass my order: every fleet of the Shadow Hunter ace fleet group begins pulling out," Zhao Waner ordered.
Then, on the five battlefields, the T6 interstellar stealth reconnaissance ships that had been following along all this time could be seen bringing out something special.
One after another, things like mirrors of white jade were thrown out.
Then they swiftly grew larger, and space could be seen tearing open.
It was a cross-universe space-crossing device!
To the Devourer Civilization and the Sacred Elf Empire alike, such devices were nothing strange.
But this one they were seeing for the first time.
It came from the Owl Dragon Empire!
And this was its first appearance:
the T6 White-Jade-type Cross-Universe Single-Use Star Gate.
Once these star gates like mirrors of white jade opened, the interstellar warships of the Shadow Hunter ace fleet group at once began passing through these universe star gates, quickly pulling out of this star system about to be destroyed.
Three minutes were neither long nor short.
But for the well-prepared Shadow Hunter ace fleet group, they were more than enough to pull out.
"Little Bug, hurry and pull out too. You can't take all the Owl Dragon interstellar hive-race with you, but you can pick out some of the high-value ones to take!" Zhao Waner reminded the Hive Princess before she left.
The Hive Princess said with a giggle, "Rest easy, Sister. I've already worked out how to arrange these bugs. I'll be following you out very soon. Don't worry."
By the time she had finished, Zhao Waner had already left.
And the Hive Princess looked at the countdown before her, with less than a minute left,
and at the interstellar war before her.
The Shadow Hunter ace fleet group had pulled out, but the Owl Dragon interstellar hive-race had been left behind.
This arrangement Zhao Chen had told the Hive Princess about long before.
The Hive Princess had accepted it too.
For someone had to stay behind to protect the T6 Supernova Ultimate Bombs.
And the interstellar hive-race were beyond doubt the most fitting.
It would mean throwing away a great many Owl Dragon interstellar hive-race for nothing, but there was no other way.
But the Hive Princess had some arrangements of her own now.
She muttered something under her breath, and then her T6 Dragon-Bones Taotie Super-Heavy Hive Mothership too passed through the white-jade star gate and sailed away from the battlefield here.
The remaining Owl Dragon interstellar hive-race swarms began to stir!