Xyrin Empire

"…I, Sandora Kaelvi Yurasis, ruler of the 76th Day Zone of the Empire, Xyrin Emperor, hereby announce that all defenses have collapsed, the original 76th Day Zone is hereby disbanded, the Old Imperial Calendar is terminated, today is the 275th day of the third year of the New Empire's Recovery Era. All members of the Revenge Army, disband…"

Sandora's voice echoed across all frequencies, disseminated through the Shadow Space control core, thus passing unhindered through the firewall of the out-of-control Revenge Army, and at this moment, in both worlds, this simple yet world-overturning message had reached the ends of the world in all channels.

Revenge Army, disband.

Though no longer controllable, the most basic orders within those chaotic shells still existed, the last command left by their original controllers upon soul separation: hold the line. And now this command was deleted, Her Majesty the Queen had personally declared the collapse of the defense line, thus everything crumbled. The unbreakable Mind Barrier on the control core began to dissipate, and within a few minutes, it became an ordinary metal planet; the dodecahedron lost its eerie reflective mirrors, reverting to roughness, and a full-force strike from the "Legion Cannon" pierced through its shell, leaving a hundred-kilometer wide breach on this mechanical entity larger than Earth.

In outer space, the artillery fire gradually thinned out, the Revenge Army's surprise attack forces that had charged to the fleet's front lines started halting actions, suspending in space like a bee swarm suddenly turned stiff, the lights on countless massive ships gradually dimmed until they became silent space sculptures, one after another Revenge Army Space Fortresses dimmed, fell silent, and then began disintegrating from the inside out.

Next was like a slow-to-fast infection, after the first Revenge Army warship self-destructed, all their spaceships began bursting with dazzling blue sparks one after another, the flames of self-destruction spread like embers on paper, swiftly and efficiently devastating the enemy's line, the starry sky began to burn, the enemy's formation started to disintegrate, battle results began to be transmitted through the Imperial Army's information links, while Sandora and I returned to the exterior of the control core. The guards still loyally guarded here, outer space filled with big and small explosions of fire.

It felt like I'd stayed inside for a long time, but as you might not have guessed — actually I really stayed quite a long time, when we came out Alaya was almost asleep.

It's really tough for her to be able to sleep anywhere, Little Qijing was used as a pillow, struggled for a long time unable to escape from the arms of Angel Mom, could only look at me with teary eyes.

I woke up the dazed Alaya, who groggily held onto my arm, yawned and then returned to the Spirit Sea, while Little Qijing curiously looked around, the Leader Bees had already landed on the surface of this disintegrating control core and were now collecting souls in groups of three, the spiritual power permeating around made Little Qijing's eyes widen, I didn't know what this strangely formed little girl was thinking, perhaps she was interested in the surrounding souls: she's a spiritual parasite with perception of souls not inferior to the finest Leader Bees, in any case, she's the progeny of me and Alaya (correct).

A flash of white light appeared by my side, Ola came to us; she personally carried the souls of the three Military Governors, who were now temporarily confined in her Crystal Wings, PL-15 communicated with the outside world through Ola's Crystal Wings, his voice sounded quite sentimental, "Finally seeing the starry sky again."

"Must these ships self-destruct?"

I quickly asked, watching the Revenge Army warships incessantly becoming massive fireballs in space, finding it extremely painful to my old miser's spirit.

"It's their mission; before soul separation, we set up the final procedure; once the defense line collapses, all Guardians must self-destruct. Xyrin Apostles won't become prisoners, only corpses can fall into enemy hands!"

I sighed deeply, "But we're not enemies."

PL-15 awkwardly remained silent.

The self-destruct process of the Revenge Army ships had already started, unable to be stopped, making me feel painfully agitated; humans are such insatiable creatures, just a couple of days ago, I thought as long as I could destroy the enemy forces and go home to rest, I would want nothing else, and now I'm calculating how much salvage those warships would be worth, like when you can't afford food, your life goal is just to eat your fill of buns, when filled on buns, the goal upgrades to drink alcohol and eat meat, then when you drink and eat so much you have to visit the hospital every few days — you again need to not eat in order to lose weight, life indeed is a circle full of philosophical insights… Mainly, watching those enormous warships self-destruct in front of me felt greatly depressing, urgently needing mood adjustment, otherwise, I don't normally go off-track like this.

"The control core is starting to collapse!"

The call from Qianqian through the spiritual connection brought me back, by now the work of the Leader Bees was nearing completion, all Revenge Army souls had been properly preserved by them, these Mechanical Girls with their wondrous Crystal Wings floated in the high sky, their diamond-shaped wings emanating a bluer glow than usual, resembling flying orderly swarms of fireflies, while beneath us, the control core armor losing its luster transmitted slight tremors, and in the distance ground constantly burst with dazzling sparks, estimated to collapse under its own gravity within a few minutes.

Sandora and I led the other guards to leave the gradually disintegrating Shadow Space control core, transporting to the bridge of the Imperial Admiral. Other escort ships had already rejoined the Celestial System Fleet, Sivis was methodically issuing commands, readying the fleet to exit this collapsing space.

I noticed Sandora's emotions still low, gently pinched her hand, cold.

From the freezing earlier in space.

"I'm fine," Sandora leaned her head on my shoulder; her voice sounded calm, as though she'd already moved past the disappointment, "I accepted this when I understood the Old Empire's collapse long ago; the 76th Day Zone had already been mentally delisted at that time. It's just that announcing this personally now… made my emotions feel a bit odd. There's a feeling of relief, yet a bit of loss."

I didn't know what to say at this moment, so I could only stroke her hair and blurt out, "Think positively, the old won't go, the new won't come…"

Big Sister punched me on the back of my head, "If you can't think of something good to say, then don't say anything!"

I: "…"

"Shadow Space is beginning to contract!" Sivis loudly reported, saving me from the awkwardness, everyone immediately looked to the Star Map, finding the displayed area quickly shrinking, and a large number of celestial bodies and Revenge Army warship debris also inexplicably vanishing; this is the sign of Shadow Space's dispersion—losing information control, spaces built entirely on information entanglement will "format" in a short time due to information cancellation, metaphorically, it "digests itself", now this space akin to the entire Universe already began to show early signs post-control core's collapse: rapid volume reduction, data evaporation.

"Ghost Energy Death Star power at full capacity, requested 'float' code… connection successful, Milia, pull us out!"

As the starry sky in direct vision dimmed to reveal large abnormal shadows, the Ghost Energy Death Star finally completed its engine preheat, I immediately connected to Mist God Star Base, issuing the navigation request to Milia waiting for the command.

At the moment transmission started, my sight swept over a set of numbers on the holographic display.

Forty-three hours and twenty-five minutes.

I: "…"

"Ah Jun, what's wrong?" Sandora noticed my expression was off and asked with concern.

Should I honestly confess that my overwhelming side character attributes took such a toll, so upon finally completing the task I could only get such an utterly featureless task completion time that I felt dejected?

Just who disassembles sentences like the one before directly without pauses?

"Phew, it's over." I shook my head and gently squeezed Sandora's soft little hand. In the next second, the starry sky before my eyes transformed and the cosmic scenery of reality space reappeared before me.

"Celestial System Fleet transmission complete, load status is good. Gravity isolation system is continuously operating."

To prevent this unprecedentedly large fleet, whose mere gravitational force could tear apart a star system, from impacting the Mobra Star System at the moment of transmission completion, we chose the "floating point" at the former outpost position far from Mobra. This place once had a cluster of primordial dust, but now it's cleaner than anywhere else.

On one of the monitoring screens on the officer platform, a series of data still refreshes intermittently, and our gaze involuntarily focuses on it, watching as these data gradually stop scrolling from more to fewer, eventually turning into a plain, bright blue line.

"Shadow Space activity terminated, information output at zero," the ship's mainframe reports in an emotionless voice, "Revenge Army's reaction disappeared."

"Let's go," Big Sister came over unknown when, gently pressing the shoulder of the somewhat depressed Sandora, "At least you brought your people out. We need to properly handle them at Shadow City and first return to Mobra to meet that little hero; there's quite a few things to arrange."

Sandora nodded silently and ordered the fleet to separate. The Celestial System Fleet prepared to retreat to the Universe of the Pan-Galactic Civilization Community while the Imperial Royal Fleet advanced toward the defense circle of the Mobra Star System. After a ten-minute silent journey, this small star system, fresh from an epic event, reappeared on our star map.

Floating above the defense circle of the star system were countless wrecks of warships, signifying the ferocious battles that occurred here in the past few hours. Many warship wrecks were radially torn from the inside out, destroyed by the self-destructing Revenge Army ships. Behind these twisted metal sculptures with their aura of desolation was the Mistra, burning fiercely like the sun.

Big Sister and I simultaneously took a deep breath, and seeing us react, Qianqian followed suit, unsure of what was happening—then I lost my voice and exclaimed, "What is going on here?!"

The Mistra, it's been ignited!

"Scanning," Sivis's voice was urgent, "Conditions of the Mist God Star Base are good, no damage at various starbases within the celestial body. This incident wasn't reported, so it seems not to be the Revenge Army's doing… Wait, found a piece of information, very low priority so it was delayed. The one who ignited Mistra is… the Holy Pope?! Your Majesty, the one who ignited Mistra are the Mobrans!"

"Uh-huh? Did he overeat?" I breathed a sigh of relief, only for the next breath to get stuck in my ribs. While perplexed, I stared at the burning giant planet on the holographic projection, feeling a surge of myriad emotions.

Mistra, once a grayish planet with a thick atmosphere, now looked nothing like its former self. It's now a giant orange-red fireball, its atmosphere likely evaporated completely or used as the initial fuel in a burst of flames. Kilometer-high flames and ionized storms roared across its blinding surface like the cloud bursts on the sun: in fact, it's not just my perception, but the reality.

Scanning results showed that the current Mistra truly turned into a celestial body similar to a sun. Originally a gaseous giant planet composed of nitrogen-helium-hydrogen, its star structure was endless nuclear fuel. In Mistra's depths, near the star core, a low-intensity nuclear reaction had always existed but was now accelerated countless times. The giant nuclear fuel star had been ignited, burning itself like a star. Fortunately, our Star Core Mother Nest remains intact, and the outpost hiding many demons is also safe. We needn't worry about the Empire's facilities against such temperatures.

A batch of transport ships flew toward the blazing Mistra, penetrating the turbulent sea of nuclear reactions, bringing out Milia, the mainframes, and Fantasy Land demons awaiting. Meanwhile, I connected to the Canglan Church's link.

"Great Holy Sage, your triumph fills this universe with glory."

The moment the communication connected, the masked Holy Pope began with flattery. But I must say, despite his attempts, he's really out of touch with how to do it right; it sounded awkward and increasingly embarrassing. I reckoned if this were on Earth, even a deputy of a township enterprise could do better—though certainly, no deputy of a township enterprise could ignite a giant planet into a sun.

"Enough with the flattery, explain Mistra's situation." I interrupted the Pope's babble. Though technically a bit eccentric, he was actually quite loyal and obedient, albeit with a one-track mind detached from reality. However, his behavior this time was baffling: how much gutter oil did one need to eat to become so irrational? What was the point of lighting such a massive bulb at their doorstep for no reason?

"As you can see, we've ignited this giant planet containing substantial nuclear fuel," the Pope said, while Uncle Zaku appeared on screen beside him, pulling faces and baring teeth at us, asking, "Is that little Milia alright? How did she perform? Do you give such battle heroes bonuses or…"

I watched as Uncle Zaku was elbowed off the screen by the Holy Pope, who continued, "Of course, this ignition is temporary. Mistra isn't a real star; its structure is merely similar to a sun. Its mass and core pressure aren't enough to sustain thermonuclear reactions. It might eventually return to equilibrium in hundreds of years."

"What I asked was what's the point of lighting this thing." I impatiently responded.

"Mobra needs a group of heroes, heroes that emerge from among them, ones enough to galvanize the entire race's spirit." The Holy Pope seemed not to answer my question directly but instead brought up a different topic.

But after saying this, he didn't hold back anymore. Before I could speak, he proactively explained, "The ordinary Mobrans wouldn't know the true situation on the front lines, nor how the rebels were intercepted. After discussing with Zaku, we felt this might be a great opportunity to create an icon for our race, which severely lacked a stern image."

"Indeed, we ignited Mistra — it's the most astonishing feat possible for the Mobra Civilization using their ancient weapon. For this, the Church had nearly exhausted the ancient weaponry repository accumulated over the past three hundred years."

"Yet, this act has been worthwhile. When the burning Mistra image was transmitted to the Three Main Stars via the concurrent communication devices you left behind, our masses were indeed inspired, though how long this inspiration will last is unknown."

By now, I had a clear idea and couldn't help but laugh and touch my nose: "So you're saying you announced to the public that a group of heroic Mobran warriors organized themselves, braved the flames and smoke of war, with courage and love, bypassed the enemy's layers of obstruction, and finally, in an impending breach of defense lines, delivered a super bomb embodying the world's strongest force into the giant planet laden with infinite nuclear fuel, igniting it into a sun, thereby stopping the enemy's attack on the star system's defense line—right?"

Uncle Zaku suddenly squeezed in from outside the screen, elbowing the Pope away: "Wow, are Holy Sages really omniscient? How did you know?"

I sneered, practically raising my nose to the heavens: "Hollywood has worn out this plot; if you are interested, I could find some old disks in Sicaro for you to watch until June next year without repeats!"

Big Sister also laughed and added, "Honestly, although you caused quite a stir, the temperature of a star's surface wouldn't stop the Revenge Army. You should know yourselves: even internal Empire outposts aren't afraid of 'ignition'—so how could external enemy ships be?"

"We thought it might help a bit," Uncle Zaku awkwardly scratched his nose, "but that little girl named Bubbles indeed said we're wasting time. She didn't even bother evacuating any outposts. At that point, I felt things might go awry, but you know what, we had to do something, even if it's just to put on a show to boost morale for our civilization, letting the common folk know their kin can stand side by side with the Holy Sage as heroes…"

Zaku still had that carefree demeanor, even self-deprecatingly calling this effort a "farce," but I couldn't help but understand: for the frail Mobra Civilization, to ignite the planet on the war-torn front line, was it really as simple as a "farce?"

Regardless of the outcome, they likely truly ventured through a heroic endeavor.

Thus, for the first time, Sandora solemnly said to the Mobran man, "The mission was completed well, and the Mobran warriors involved will receive the Empire's commendation." (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, feel free to visit Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendation and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)