At this moment, blocking the Japan Nation-Class starship in front were not only the five Province-Class starships, but also countless City-Class and County-Class starships, along with an even greater number of smaller ships beyond count. This massed formation relied on sheer numbers to counter the Japan’s sheer quality.
For Xiao Yu, morale was an irrelevant factor, but for the Molian Civilization, it was different. Their flagship-class vessel could not retreat. For the flagship, the soul of the fleet, to fall back even one step under the enemy’s furious assault would have extremely serious consequences.
Everyone understood this truth. Therefore, the Molian Civilization would rather make unnecessary sacrifices than allow their flagship to retreat in the face of such a frenzied offensive.
For now, it seemed they had succeeded. Thousands of ships working in unison had successfully halted the Japan’s advance. The relentless bombardment lit constant flashes across the Japan’s shield. The overwhelming number of attackers prevented the Japan from focusing its firepower on any single target. Dispersed fire meant insufficient suppression; with only one Nation-Class starship, it was impossible to overpower at least five Province-Class starships and dozens of City-Class ships all at once.
But Xiao Yu had a spatial weapon, one originating from the Level 6 Trolor Civilization. At this most critical moment, just when everyone thought the Japan’s crazed assault had been temporarily contained, just when they believed they could take a breath, the spatial weapon was unleashed.
This was not the low spatial stability of the small universe. This was the main universe, with a diameter exceeding 93 billion light-years. The spatial stability here was far beyond comparison, and higher spatial stability meant reduced spatial weapon power. Achieving the kind of strike possible in the small universe, where one attack nearly destroyed a dwarf planet or crippled a Nation-Class starship in a single blow, was impossible here.
However, this did not diminish the status of spatial weapons as devastating superweapons. At the current stage, within Level 5 Civilizations, spatial weapons were still a terrifying presence, their destructive power surpassing even the supermassive negative matter cannons that Level 5 Civilizations prided themselves on.
A pitch-black, narrow line shot forward at faster-than-light speed. Since the movement of space itself is not bound by the laws of relativity, exceeding light speed was no challenge for it.
It was so small that the rift was actually quite inconspicuous. Who in three-dimensional space would notice a single thin black line? Yet it was also glaringly conspicuous, because the Molian Civilization quickly realized that with its appearance, abnormal phenomena began to occur.
Even back in the Earth era, if you told someone you could cut light itself, you would be met with merciless ridicule, how could light possibly be severed?That was common sense, a truth. But even truths could be broken. Light propagates by following the fabric of space, and when space bends, light bends with it, a simple principle demonstrated by the gravitational lensing phenomenon.
Thus, if space is torn apart, light will also be torn apart. Under the attack of the spatial weapon, space itself was ripped, and light was inevitably severed as well.
All death ray weapons and material disintegration beams whose trajectories overlapped with the rift lost their power before reaching it. Their devastating projectiles seemed to plunge directly into an abyss, producing no reaction whatsoever. Only when the spatial weapon advanced further and cleared their path did they resume normal operation.
The next to be affected were physical weapons, such as antimatter bombs, gravitational bombs, and so on. The spatial rift tore through them as though ripping paper. This was a force that acted on the spatial layer itself, leaving fracture surfaces so smooth they were even smoother than the surface of a neutron star or white dwarf. In fact, at the very instant they encountered the spatial rift, they were already separated at the atomic level.
The appearance of the spatial weapon lasted only an instant. Before it was dissolved by space’s natural restorative ability, it had already reached the ships blocking the Japan’s advance.
Xiao Yu saw it clearly, one City-Class starship at the very front, when sliced through by the spatial weapon, split apart in an instant like a watermelon. For a moment, the two halves remained still, but the sudden venting of internal gases generated a recoil that sent them drifting rapidly apart along irregular trajectories like deflating balloons. At that moment, the ship’s internal structure was fully exposed. Xiao Yu saw countless debris swept into space by the violent airflow, among the debris were many Molian Civilization intelligent beings. He almost seemed to hear their cries of despair.
It didn’t last long. In less than ten seconds, a violent explosion erupted, and the two halves of the ship vanished in flames, returning to nothingness.
That one City-Class starship was merely the prelude to the disaster brought by the spatial weapon. Xiao Yu saw at least five County-Class starships cleaved in two, each erupting in violent explosions. Over a hundred small ships directly in the spatial rift’s path were also split cleanly in half like apples under a sharp blade.
The firing trajectory of this spatial rift had been calculated with precision. Of the five Province-Class starships blocking Xiao Yu, three were struck.
Xiao Yu saw the three hit Province-Class ships suddenly flare with light, then dim rapidly as their hulls began to shake. Through the shields, he could even make out what seemed to be gas venting from within.
The Province-Class shields had stopped the rift from cutting them apart, but there was no doubt the attack had caused severe internal damage. Xiao Yu could almost picture what was happening inside, their engines overloaded, the massive instantaneous power demand burning out many energy conduits. Right now, they were surely struggling with short-circuits, fires, and internal explosions.
The attack had achieved an unmistakable effect. Xiao Yu smirked coldly and switched to conventional firepower. Until the Japan could fully resupply and undergo repairs, the spatial weapon could only be fired three times. Two uses remained, and he wasn’t going to waste one here.
Under the full assault of a Nation-Class starship, the two Province-Class vessels already heavily damaged lasted less than a minute before erupting into massive explosions.
From the moment the spatial weapon was fired to the destruction of these two ships, less than a minute had passed. But Xiao Yu was certain that for the Molian ships blocking him, that one minute had been a plunge from heaven straight into hell.
From an observer’s perspective, Xiao Yu could have described it like this, ‘Both sides were locked in a fierce exchange of fire, evenly matched. Then, with a sudden flash of a black line, many Molian ships inexplicably split in two and were instantly destroyed. Province-Class ships were heavily damaged, and in under a minute under the Japan’s attack, two of them were annihilated.’
It was an attack without warning, beyond anything the Molian intelligent beings could have anticipated.
And the unknown is always terrifying, whether one is human or Molian.
The Japan continued forward. Perhaps from shock and awe, Xiao Yu noticed that the intensity of fire striking his ship had dropped by several degrees.
This meant they could no longer stop the Japan’s advance. The road to the Molian Nation-Class starship had finally been cleared.
At this point, the distance between the two Nation-Class starships was less than 100,000 kilometers. In the era of interstellar warfare, that was a trivial span, a single step, easily crossed.
The Japan’s firepower finally struck the Molian Nation-Class starship, and its return fire reached the Japan. At this moment, the strongest warships of two Level 5 Civilizations were finally in direct combat. But the situation was far from equal. The Japan came in riding the momentum of destroying two Province-Class ships, while the Molian Nation-Class starship fought back hesitantly, weighed down by fear and uncertainty.
Xiao Yu keenly sensed the Molian ship’s inclination to retreat. He could even picture the crushing psychological pressure on the enemy fleet commander.
Perhaps it was the death-defying spirit in Molian blood that suddenly ignited, their ships began to regroup and swarm the Japan once more, trying to drive it back and buy their flagship some strategic breathing room.
“Will it work? No… it won’t.” Xiao Yu murmured softly, giving the next order.
“Spatial weapon, continue the attack.”
Another pitch-black rift, radiating an aura of eerie dread, formed and shot from the weapon’s barrel, rushing forward with unstoppable speed.
Ahead was the Molian flagship.
The spatial weapon, originating from the Level 6 Trolor Civilization, was about to prove its might upon this Nation-Class warship.