From cannon fodder to sweeping across thousands of stars.

Chapter 838 This shot is called 'Hello'

At the front lines in Eldalam, everyone stared at the stable, pure dark singularity at the center of the holographic star map.

It no longer pulsates, no longer vibrates, like a curtain being drawn back on a cosmic stage, leading to an endless abyss.

Amber leaned back in the conductor's seat, her fingers unconsciously tapping lightly on the armrest, making the only rhythmic sound.

His heartbeat was in sync with the knocking sound, calm yet full of power.

He could sense the vast emotional network woven together by the billions of crew members among the tens of thousands of warships scattered throughout this airspace—tension, fear, anticipation, and the resolute determination that ignited when pushed to the brink.

Finally, the black dot moved.

It neither exploded nor contracted, but rather spread outwards like a drop of ink falling into clear water, defying physical intuition.

The silent scream of space being torn apart transforms into visible ripples, spreading across the backdrop of the universe.

The bow of a colossal ship emerged slowly and irresistibly from the pure darkness.

That was not a warship as known to either humans or elves.

Its shape is not the traditional long and narrow shape of humans and elves, and its size is unimaginably huge, more like mountains that have been uprooted and are suspended in space.

Its overall structure is an irregular polyhedron, and its surface is covered with a dark gold metal that seems to be alive and slowly flowing. No muzzle, engine nozzle, or any functional external components can be seen.

It is like a geometric creation born purely for 'existence', filled with the cold and arrogant majesty of its predecessors.

Then came the second, and the third.
Hundreds and thousands of these mountain-like behemoths emerged from the warp field like worker ants swarming from an anthill.

Their numbers quickly exceeded 10,000, and then 20,000.

They did not form any conventional fleet formation, but simply and densely arranged together, forming a steel wall that stretched across the sky and almost blocked out all the starlight behind them.

Before this wall, the combined fleet of humans and elves, no matter how large, looked like a school of sardines swirling around a giant whale.

An indescribable sense of oppression, stemming from a primal instinct, weighed on the hearts of everyone in the Combined Fleet.

At the core of one of the largest, throne-like warships, the Jeram.

A Jeram, clad in magnificent silver-white armor, was suspended within a pillar of energy. He was none other than Colfax, the 'Judge', one of the members of the Thirteen Council.

His consciousness easily swept over the 'local indigenous fleet' millions of kilometers away.

Those tin cans, with their various shapes and fragile appearance to him, did not stir any emotion in him.

Everything is expected.

These descendants of abandoned vassal armies, united with other lesser civilizations in some corners of the universe, believed that they could defeat the return of the Jerams simply by sheer numbers.

ridiculous.

"Prepare to activate the 'Hymn' to purify this polluted land."

His conscious commands have not yet been issued.

An unprecedented and terrifying energy reaction, enough to make his very soul tremble, erupted without warning from another corner of the universe.

For the first time, Colfax's pure gold eyes contracted sharply.

what is that?
The next instant, he saw a pure beam of light that defied description, as if it had cleaved the entire universe in two, traversing a vast distance at a speed that surpassed everyone's reaction time.

Wherever it passes, space itself is distorted and evaporated; at the tip of the beam of light, there is extreme heat and destruction.

This is the first and most magnificent gift that all of human civilization has offered to these uninvited guests.

"The entire fleet has the largest energy shield."

Colfax's warning, which had just resounded in his psionic network, was completely swallowed up by the beam of light.

There was no earth-shattering explosion, nor any dazzling flames.

The gamma-ray torrent of 'New Requiem' is like an eraser in the hands of the Creator, ruthlessly and irrationally wiping away the impenetrable "wall" of the pioneers.

Everything touched by the beam of light—the colossal ships like mountains, the war fortresses constructed of extraordinary materials, and the Jerams inside them—was instantly reduced to the most basic particles and then completely annihilated.

A terrifying scar, thousands of kilometers wide, appeared starkly in the center of the Pioneer fleet's formation.

More than seven thousand giant ships, along with the space they occupied, simply vanished.

So clean, as if they had never existed.

The entire battlefield fell into an eerie, absolute silence that lasted for several seconds, even the 'Arbiter' Colfax was stunned.

"Wait a minute. Is this correct?"

A huge and ugly gap has appeared in the "walls" of the Pioneer Fleet.

On the bridge of the flagship 'Infinity', the holographic images of Franklin and Agnes both froze for a moment.

It wasn't that the signal was bad; they were just genuinely stunned.

They had anticipated the power of the attack, but they hadn't expected it to be so devastating.

Agnes and Franklin unconsciously rubbed their faces to make sure they weren't dreaming.

"No problem, right? That's why I said we have to make the first move."

Amber's voice broke the silence on the bridge. He stood up from the command seat and walked to the holographic star map.

Franklin and Agnes both turned their gazes to him, their expressions extremely complex.

They recalled the heated debate that took place when the battle plan was being developed.

“Mr. Amber, we cannot rule out the possibility that the advance party is here to negotiate in some way.” At that time, Franklin still clung to a sliver of hope, “If we attack first, there will be no turning back!”

"Negotiation?"

Amber's response then was just as calm as it is now, only with a hint of mockery.

"You two, if you believe they came with an olive branch, you might as well believe that I, Amber, am the creator of this world!"

"Everything they did—responding to the activated homing beacon, sending out reconnaissance units to wipe out our watch fleet, and establishing the warp field—was screaming 'destruction'! To have any illusions about such an enemy is the greatest irresponsibility towards our civilization."

"Our only advantage is their ignorance and arrogance. This shot is meant to shatter their arrogance and show them that this is not their backyard to come and go as they please!"

Now, facts have proven Amber's judgment correct.

This single shot not only destroyed one-third of the vanguard fleet, but more importantly, it created a valuable strategic buffer zone, shattering the enemy's plan to land and advance steadily.

"All fleets, advance the vanguard! Form a 'trident' formation to widen the gap! All destroyer and escort squadrons, spread out on both flanks and execute 'wolf pack' harassment tactics!"

Amber's orders, transmitted instantly to every warship through the temporary command link he established with Lilith.

"We've delivered our gift; now it's our turn to knock on doors!"

The massive combined fleet, its engines roaring, transformed into tens of thousands of blue streaks of light, charging headlong into the battlefield that had just been wiped out by death.

Behind the pioneer fleet.

The consciousness of 'Arbiter' Colfax recovered from the excruciating pain of the psionic network being torn apart.

His flagship was spared because it was at the rear of the formation, but he could clearly feel that the spiritual energy of tens of thousands of his compatriots was wiped out in an instant.

When everyone is connected to the psionic network, it feels like a part of your body has been ripped out.

Endless rage instantly filled every cell of his mind.

"Shame!" "This is a disgrace!"

His golden eyes, made of pure energy, had now turned into a burning blood red.

"Activate all 'Hymn' attack matrices!!!"

"Let the holy attack purify all of this!"
-
As Colfax's furious commands echoed throughout the fleet, the surviving 10,000-plus pioneer behemoths finally recovered from the brief chaos of being hit head-on.

Their originally smooth, mirror-like dark gold surfaces now glow with countless deep red lines that resemble energy veins.

Each giant ship was like an ancient beast awakened from its slumber, and the energy readings on its surface began to climb exponentially.

Immediately afterwards, everyone in the combined fleet heard a sacred 'song' coming from the vanguard fleet ahead.

Yes, hearing 'singing' in space fleet battles seems like a very abstract description.

But the fact is that even Amber heard the ethereal and sacred voices of the children's choir (see BGM: Peaceful Times).

Immediately following, the pioneers launched their counterattack.

Without devastating light cannons or energy storms covering the entire battlefield, the vanguard's attack is an almost artistic and extremely efficient use of energy.

Thin, pure white spears of light, each as fine as a hair yet imbued with terrifying energy, shot out from the Pioneer fleet at near-curvature speeds, accompanied by the hymn that echoed in everyone's minds.

They almost completely ignored the Combined Fleet's hybrid shields, piercing through the Combined Fleet warships' reactors, bridges, or ammunition depots with precision, like red-hot needles piercing butter.

Each strike, using just the right amount of energy, can cause the most lethal damage.

This was a superior, surgical massacre.

"Warning! Ultra-high frequency energy beam detected! Enemy attack pattern unidentifiable! Our shield has been penetrated!"

"First Combined Fleet reports! Thirteen heavy cruisers have been precisely hit in the core and have exploded!"

"The signals of twenty-two destroyers ahead of the Fifth Combined Fleet have been lost!"

Alarms and emergency reports instantly filled the Combined Fleet's communication channels.

The fleets at the forefront suffered devastating blows before they could retaliate effectively.

"Stay calm! Don't panic!"

Amber's voice was like a stabilizing force, forcefully suppressing the panic in the communication channel.

His psychic perception had already spread out, and on that deeper level, he 'saw' everything clearly.

The entire fleet of the Pioneers has been linked into a unified energy network.

Any warship can be a turret, and its energy is supplied by hundreds or thousands of unarmed allies behind it.

This makes their attacks not only unpredictable, but also far more powerful than a single ship can withstand.

"Lilith! Hand over command of the fleet to me! All ships, abandon conventional evasive tactics and prepare to execute the 'Ghost Walk' tactic!"

Amber returned to the command seat, which was deeply connected to the flagship.

The next second, the entire joint fleet's operational mode underwent a complete transformation.

The unified charge was no longer a coordinated assault, but rather transformed into thousands of independent combat units.

Under Amber's command, each warship began to perform tactical jumps over extremely short distances in a completely irregular and almost frenzied manner.

At this moment, the combined fleet seemed to transform into a school of frightened fish. Although still chaotic, it rendered the Vanguard's terrifyingly precise 'light spear' array unable to lock onto its target.

A stationary or uniformly moving target can be easily calculated and destroyed, but when that target appears thousands of kilometers away in milliseconds, even the most efficient weapon becomes meaningless.

"Got you!"

Amber's psionic will, like sonar in the deep sea, instantly locked onto one of the most active 'nodes' in the psionic network, responsible for distributing energy.

His will transformed into an invisible sword, overcoming material obstacles and piercing fiercely towards the core of that giant ship!

"Now! All fleets, attention! Focus fire coordinates have been shared! Begin the attack!"

Following Amber's command, at that instant, all warships with suitable ray axes, whether capital ships or secondary ships, simultaneously aimed all their main guns at the Forerunner behemoth that had been disrupted by Amber's mental shock and whose energy flow had momentarily stagnated.

The devastating firepower created a crisscrossing energy network that precisely covered the target.

boom--!
A huge, silent fireball exploded on the 'wall' formed by the pioneer fleet.

Another giant ship was torn to pieces by an attack that exceeded its defense threshold.

This scene invigorated all the human and elven soldiers who witnessed it.

The enemy is not invincible!

Even gods bleed.

"Good job!"

"For humanity!"

Roars erupted over the communication channel, reigniting morale.

The battle thus entered its bloodiest and most brutal stage of slaughter.

Under Amber's 'God's-eye view' command, the Combined Fleet transformed into a series of sharp scalpels, using the superior mobility brought by the 'Ghost Walk' tactic to precisely cut through the energy nodes in the Forerunner Fleet.

Meanwhile, the pioneers, under Colfax's command, continuously optimized the structure of the energy network, attempting to overwhelm the annoying swarm of 'flies' with a denser rain of 'light spears'.

Every second, warships of the combined fleet were pierced by white spears of light because they failed to jump in time, turning into a dazzling firework in the universe.

Every second, the pioneering behemoths were torn to shreds by concentrated firepower under Amber's precise targeting.

This is a crazy exchange of cards.

Both sides are reaping each other's lives in their own ways.

Behind both fleets, it seemed, was a giant made of psionic energy, constantly strategizing and making moves.
Amber's face grew paler and paler, and her nose started bleeding uncontrollably again.

Commanding tens of thousands of warships simultaneously in such complex operations, while continuously outputting psionic energy to disrupt them, consumes an astronomical amount of his energy.

Just then, the cold consciousness of 'The Arbiter' Colfax pierced through the chaotic battlefield and precisely locked onto 'The Endless'.

He finally found the source of the noise that had been disrupting his energy network.

"Humble worm"

Colfax's consciousness transformed into an invisible spike, stabbing fiercely into Amber's mind.

Amber groaned, feeling as if his brain had been struck by a heavy hammer.

But he did not back down. Instead, he gathered all his spiritual energy and transformed it into an unbreakable barrier of will, and crashed into that mental attack head-on!

"You call yourselves pioneers?"

"You who call yourselves creators and gods?"

For the first time, Amber's will clashed head-on with a member of the Jeram Council on a psionic level.

"Then today, I'll slay a god for you to see!"

(End of this chapter)