The Troll Monarch, nothing left of him but a head, drifted in the space outside, his eyes staring round as could be,
as if at some huge injustice.
The Drought-Fiend Sovereign shouted almost without a moment's hesitation, "No need! I'm willing! I'm willing to give up this seat. Lord Black-God Sovereign, from now on you're the Devourer Civilization's only Sovereign. In truth I've thought so for a long time. It's just that fellow Troll who never agreed before! I'm willing to swear my loyalty to you!"
The Black-God Sovereign's hands slowly came down from the Drought-Fiend Sovereign's shoulders, and he walked around in front of the Drought-Fiend Sovereign.
"Really? You're not unwilling in any way, I trust? The thing I hate most is forcing others to do what they don't want to," the Black-God Sovereign said, mockery in his words.
The Drought-Fiend Sovereign said at once, "All of this is of my own free will! I'm not unwilling in any way, I'm not…"
"Good. Then that's settled." The Black-God Sovereign patted the Drought-Fiend Sovereign on the shoulder with a smile, then walked past him toward the bridge doors.
The Drought-Fiend Sovereign let out his breath.
This way he had lost his standing as a Sovereign,
but had he not done this, what he lost this time might not have been his standing as a Sovereign, but his very life.
As the saying goes: so long as the green hills remain, there'll be no lack of firewood.
He did not want to end up like that Troll Monarch outside.
Just as the Drought-Fiend Sovereign was congratulating himself,
suddenly a cold gleam flashed before his eyes, and the Drought-Fiend Sovereign felt his neck go cold, as if something were flowing out of it.
He felt his neck and felt blood.
Clutching his neck, blood spurting out of it, he looked at the Black-God Sovereign opposite in disbelief.
The Black-God Sovereign stood facing him, holding the sharp sword he always wore, and on the sword's blade traces of blood could be seen.
It was his blood.
"Wh… wh… why…" The Drought-Fiend Sovereign sank weakly to his knees and looked blankly at the Black-God Sovereign standing opposite.
The Black-God Sovereign flicked the blood off the blade and sheathed the sword.
Then he looked down at the Drought-Fiend Sovereign on the floor, losing the signs of life bit by bit.
He said slowly, "I've thought it over, and I think Troll must be very lonely down there by himself. So you'd better go down and keep him company."
When he had said this, the Black-God Sovereign turned, and this time truly walked out of the starship's bridge.
And half of his Black-God guards stayed behind,
clearing away the Drought-Fiend Sovereign's body on one hand, and taking over this Drought-Fiend Ghost-King-class Heavy Strategic Interstellar Multirole Destroyer on the other.
The body of the Drought-Fiend Sovereign, once so high and mighty, was disposed of now like garbage, and the blood on the floor was soon cleaned up too,
as if nothing had ever happened here.
And the crew and officers on the bridge, whatever stirred in their hearts, went on doing their work all the same.
The Black-God Sovereign walked to the hangar of the Drought-Fiend Ghost-King-class Heavy Strategic Interstellar Multirole Destroyer and boarded his own shuttle.
His adjutant followed close behind.
"Deal with all this. I give you one week to deal with everything under those two, Troll and Drought-Fiend. Clear out every family and power on the list. As for the rest, if they're willing to swear loyalty to me, so much the better. If any are stubborn, clear them all out. I don't care how; I only care about results. In a week there will be no more three Sovereigns in the Devourer Civilization, only one Black-God Emperor."
The Black-God Sovereign… no, he should be called the Black-God Emperor now.
"Emperor… the word rolls off the tongue rather nicely." The Black-God Emperor looked out the shuttle's viewport at the stars, as if thinking of a certain someone.
Just then,
the handheld terminal in the adjutant's hand flashed red again and again; it was the alert that came only with urgent news.
The adjutant checked it at once; his face changed sharply, and he looked at the Black-God Emperor with some hesitation.
"Speak. What's happened?" the Black-God Emperor asked calmly.
The adjutant hesitated a moment, but still said honestly, "By the latest word we've received, there have been explosions at the star gates of several of our star systems. Thirty-eight of our star gates have been wrecked. The explosives that wrecked the star gates are very like the super bomb the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's legion fleets used to destroy our star systems in our first campaign, but somewhat weaker, and better hidden. So they only wrecked the star gates and the areas around them. They must be some kind of simplified explosive."
When the adjutant had told this urgent matter, he said at once in anger, "That emperor of the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire is too cunning. He's actually broken the agreement and attacked our star gates to wreck them."
When he had said this, the adjutant watched the Black-God Emperor's mood very carefully.
But he found not the least sign of anger about the Black-God Emperor.
The Black-God Emperor looked out through the viewport, then said in a light tone, "That fellow didn't break our covenant. If he had broken the covenant, he'd have met divine punishment."
"Then how could they wreck our star gates?" the adjutant said in surprise.
The Black-God Emperor said, "These explosives must all have been on timers, and they must have been planted before we sealed the oath-duel. If so, by the rules of the Oath Fruit, it doesn't count as an attack on us made after the oath-duel was sealed. They seized this little loophole to make this attack on us. And their attack was very clever. They didn't hit the star systems and star gates we guard most closely. For in those places the guard is very strong, with legion fleets garrisoned there even. These timed explosives might well have been found by our people before they ever went off. So they chose star gates that look rather out of the way. And now look closely: string these out-of-the-way star gates together, and they'll do great harm to our Devourer Civilization's star-gate network. This opponent of ours is quite something."
The Black-God Emperor looked at the sea of stars outside the viewport and said with a light laugh in his voice, "Owl Dragon Emperor… so this is the little surprise you left me. I'm looking forward more and more to our oath-duel two and a half years from now. I'm sure that when the time comes you'll bring me many more surprises."
The adjutant beside him was greatly surprised.
Something this serious had happened, and his Lord Black-God was not angry in the least.
It was truly strange.
Above all since meeting that Owl Dragon Emperor once, his Lord Black-God's attitude toward that Owl Dragon Emperor seemed to have changed a great deal.
Enemies, they were called, but they seemed more like friends of a sort.
……
The Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire
The Owl Dragon legion fleets' interstellar warships came back to their own stations one after another, and some badly damaged interstellar warships were assigned starports or drydocks for post-battle maintenance.
The front-line fighting had stopped, but the second-line workers at the rear were only now truly getting busy.
Nearly every drydock ran twenty-four hours a day in this time.
Every worker put in overtime upon overtime, and interstellar warship parts and repair materials of every kind could be seen flowing without end into these drydocks.
And some interstellar warships that had been badly damaged came out as good as new after a stretch of repairs.
Some had "patches" and traces of repair on their hulls,
but after a fresh coat of paint, unless one looked closely, one could hardly tell these interstellar warships from what they had been before.
And the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's leaders were very busy these days too; the war's pause gave them no chance to catch their breath.
Chang'an City, the Owl Dragon Star System
Conference Room One
Zhao Chen sat here, looking at the people attending this meeting.
He had been back in the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire about a week now.
In this week he had had almost no rest at all.
The real work did not need him to do it, but every day he had to sit in on more meetings, large and small, than he could count.
The short ones might take only fifteen minutes or so; the long ones might take about a day.
Sometimes, in the gap while Zhao Chen rode a shuttle, he might even be booked into an online meeting.
That was Zhao Chen's daily life now.
And this meeting was very important too, for Secretary Lilith and Grand Marshal Charlotte were both present.
"This meeting of ours is to report and sum up the after-action report on the strike against the Devourer Civilization. Some of the content and figures were reported in several meetings before. Some of it will come up again this time; it counts as a summing-up," Secretary Lilith said, looking at everyone present, then looked at the Owl Dragon Emperor, Zhao Chen.
The Owl Dragon Emperor Zhao Chen nodded to show that Lilith could go on.
"Then first, let the Army Staff report on the enemies destroyed and our own losses in this war," Secretary Lilith said.
Just then a secretary-officer sitting beside Grand Marshal Charlotte stood up.
She was now the first secretary of the army's secretary department under Grand Marshal Charlotte, and could be counted a secretary-officer under Secretary Lilith as well.
"I will now set out our figures for enemies destroyed and our own losses in this military operation. In this military operation we fought for over twenty days in all. We moved over six million interstellar warships all told. Nearly every regular Imperial legion fleet group and ace legion fleet group was moved, along with His Majesty the Emperor's guard fleet. Even the ten Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts only just delivered off the line were thrown into the fighting. Besides that, about 95% of the strategic resources we had stored were used up by the end; at the very end we were all but out of ammunition and food. Fortunately we ended this battle at the last moment, and it cost us no great loss."
This first secretary of the army paused, then went on, "In this military operation we destroyed over thirty million enemy interstellar warships, including crippling two of the enemy's quasi-T7 super-flagships; destroyed over a thousand enemy T6-grade interstellar warships and crippled a thousand more T6-grade interstellar warships; badly wrecked the star gates of thirty-eight enemy star systems, and lightly damaged twenty-three enemy strategic star systems; and as many as three hundred strategic military facilities of every kind."
Thirty million interstellar warships destroyed: it was as if another arm had been hacked off the Devourer Civilization's legion fleets, which had only just recovered.
And because the star-gate network had been wrecked this time, rebuilding these interstellar warships' numbers afterward would take more time and effort.
When she had told the enemy's losses, the first secretary of the army naturally went on next to the Owl Dragon legion fleets' own losses in this battle.
"And in this battle our Owl Dragon legion fleets lost nearly a million interstellar warships in all, a loss ratio of thirty to one. A great part of the reason is the fifteen quasi-T7 Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts we threw onto the battlefield. To add a point to the above: all fifteen quasi-T7 Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts came back safely this time; none were badly damaged, and two were moderately damaged, mainly No. 2 and No. 5, which carried out the operation to wreck the enemy's Drought-Fiend Ghost-King-class Heavy Strategic Interstellar Multirole Destroyer. Carrying out that operation ringed by tens of thousands of enemy interstellar warships, the ships naturally took a great many enemy attacks and were damaged rather more. But it's moderate damage; a little time in repair will do. And the remaining thirteen Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts basically all have light damage. All fifteen Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts were scarred, but this was the Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought's first use in real combat. These results are already quite outstanding, and prove the terrifying fighting power of this mass-production quasi-T7 Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought on the battlefield."
The first secretary of the army did not forget to give this quasi-T7 Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought another word of praise here.
It could be said that this battle had made the Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought's name, thoroughly.
Now, as the only mass-production quasi-T7-grade interstellar warship, it had all but been crowned the strongest interstellar warship there was.
Nearly every interstellar civilization was now studying the combat videos of this interstellar warship on the Devourer Civilization's battlefields,
trying to learn some technology from the videos; even a scrap of it would do these interstellar civilizations' universes' defense technology a world of good.
"Of the million interstellar warships, a thousand were T6-grade interstellar warships. To explain: it's not that our T6-grade interstellar warships aren't strong in battle, but that we now have a great many T6-grade interstellar warships in service. That naturally means we use more T6-grade interstellar warships on the battlefield, and the chance of losing them rises a great deal. So the figure is entirely normal. In this battle we killed about seven hundred billion Devourer Civilization soldiers. And about 1.7 billion Owl Dragon soldiers were killed; their life information is being gathered now. By the estimate of the departments concerned, about 0.002% of those killed this time are expected to be sent back to second-line duty for one reason or another, about thirty thousand people."
Hearing this figure,
Zhao Chen knit his brows slightly.
As the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire went through more and more battles, more and more soldiers in the Owl Dragon interstellar legion fleets were naturally reaching their limits.
Having given their lives for the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire once more, they had reached the point of being forced back to second-line duty.
And as the number of wars grew from here on, the figure would grow and grow.
This time it might be only 0.002%, thirty thousand people.
Next time it might be a hundred thousand, three hundred thousand.
The figure would climb exponentially.
It was something the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire had to face.
It lost some veterans, but these veterans would at least give their share of effort to the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire in other posts, which was still acceptable.
Better, at least, than the soldiers truly killed in battle in those other interstellar civilizations' universes.
After that the first secretary of the army set out some more of the battlefield summary.
Zhao Chen had long known the gist of this information in his heart.
This time it only needed Zhao Chen, the Owl Dragon Emperor, to see it with his own eyes once, which counted as going through a necessary step.
And at the end of this part,
there was one more very important part:
commendations, celebrations and rewards.
In any interstellar civilization's universe, at the end of a war, above all after a great victory, this was a part that could not be left out.
"In this battle, by our army secretary department's count and thinking, the best showing of all, with the highest result in the end, was the Phantom Scout ace fleet group. This fleet group can't be counted a main battle force, but its outstanding showing on the battlefield this time is why, though we fought across universes, we still held a great advantage on the battlefield. A great part of the reason is the intelligence network the Phantom Scout ace fleet group laid for us in advance, which let us know at once every move of the Devourer Civilization's legion fleets opposite, along with detailed intelligence on every star-system battlefield. Without it, this battle wouldn't have gone so smoothly, and our losses would have been far greater too. So our army secretary department holds that the greatest merit this time belongs to this Phantom Scout ace fleet group!"
The first secretary of the army looked at the Owl Dragon Emperor and waited for the Owl Dragon Emperor's word.
In truth, Grand Marshal Charlotte and Secretary Lilith had both talked this over with Zhao Chen in private beforehand.
After all, in a part as important as rewards, how much to give and to whom mattered a great deal.
Zhao Chen spoke up just then: "I see. Then take down my order. Zhong Xiaoxia, supreme commander of the Phantom Scout ace fleet group, is made a four-star marshal. The whole Phantom Scout ace fleet group is credited with one First-Class Merit. All commanders of general rank, lieutenant general and below, are promoted one grade. The several lieutenant generals on the list are promoted to three-star general. Those below general rank and of field-officer rank and above, apart from special commendations for some with outstanding merit, are all promoted two grades. Those of petty-officer rank and below are all promoted three grades!"
Rewards on such a scale had been rare in the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's history.
But no one present had any objection.
For everyone knew very well that the Phantom Scout ace fleet group had truly played a vital part in this battle.
They had borne great risks.
And the Phantom Scout ace fleet group had not come through without losses; the moment they gave away their position, they were as good as dead ten times over.
Even so, they had carried out their combat tasks without looking back.
In just such conditions, they had made sure that the Owl Dragon interstellar legion fleets held an absolute edge in intelligence from first to last in this battle.
So now they were given such rich rewards.
Besides these ranks, there were some rewards Zhao Chen did not announce directly, which the secretary department would arrange later,
such as rewards in money and goods, and some fiefs.
Someone like Zhong Xiaoxia, for instance, would usually be given a planet or several planets as her fief.
But until Zhong Xiaoxia retired, these fiefs would be managed for her by the Owl Dragon army.
For the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire had a hard rule:
every officer given a fief for merit in war had all her fiefs entered in the register.
No officer was allowed to hold command of Owl Dragon legion fleets while also holding fiefs of her own,
to keep warlords from arising.
Only when these officers retired and gave up their military power entirely could they take charge of their own fiefs.
By then these officers would only be lords; some might be able to build some lord's fleets, but under limits.
That made them far easier to manage.
Otherwise, just imagine: an ace fleet group's commander with a star system for a fief; wouldn't she be the local emperor of that star system?
If anything really happened then, she could perfectly well set herself up as a king there with the legion fleets in her hands.
As things stood, under the Owl Dragon Emperor's rule, such a thing was not likely.
But the rule had to exist; who knew whether such a case might arise in future?
And the rule, come to think of it, had been laid down by Charlotte, the Grand Marshal.
As an officer, Charlotte knew better than anyone how great a poison it would plant for the future if this were not strictly managed.
Besides the Phantom Scout ace fleet group, other legion fleets were naturally given promotions and rewards too.
The ranks of officers at every level grew a good deal.