The Foreigner on the Periphery

"Understood."

On the bridge, Asiph-1 issued commands through telepathy and physical voice.

="All fleets, decelerate!"=

The fleet of over a hundred and fifty ships crossing space began to reduce its speed. The weapon systems mounted on the Mothership were calibrated to its previous maximum speed.

Once they finally dropped to fifty-five percent of the speed of light, the pope checked in with the priests serving as the artillery and radar officers. Asiph-1 was already reading the thoughts forming in their minds before they could even report verbally.

"The target has entered missile range."

A Photon Cannon strike was still out of the question, but they were well within striking distance for missiles.

Asiph-1 gave a concise order.

="Fire!"=

Naturally, the Space Motherships' missiles were designed to exceed the battleships' maximum speed. Fired with the motherships' previous cruising momentum still behind them, the projectiles gained even greater acceleration.

Their trajectories were calculated to strike their targets the moment the missile fuselages reached their structural limits.

To hit that precise timing, the rear thrusters spewed fire with meticulously calibrated output.

Naturally, the enemy detected this as well.

   *

Among the Committee's forces, the twenty-five Space Motherships stationed at the center of the star system were the first to notice the anomaly.

It was the bare minimum force deployed to guard the headquarters while over two hundred allied battleships fought on the front lines.

The captain of their command ship was deeply bewildered.

"...My god!"

The Kavite could not tear his eyes away from the large screen.

He and his entire crew had witnessed the horrifying spectacle of the mining base crashing into the planet.

The satellites and battleships orbiting the Endelion homeworld had tried to alter its falling trajectory, but their efforts were completely useless.

The artificial planet had seemed to veer off course, only to snap back onto its path like a ghost, eventually ending in a head-on collision.

The result was the hellscape below. The catastrophe was still unfolding. Firestorms had already blanketed more than half the planet. At this rate, the entire surface would begin boiling within a day.

Despite the Endelion king's hopes, the Space Motherships could not do much for them right now.

"Is it possible to enter the atmosphere yet?"

The questioned officer checked the various metrics picked up by the sensors, then shook his head.

He gave the exact same answer as when the captain had asked a moment ago.

"It's still impossible. Gases are still escaping the planet at terrifying speeds. If a battleship gets caught in that torrent, it could end in disaster."

Even more terrifying than that was the explosive surge of Magic boiling up from the planet.

"The electromagnetic waves are certainly a threat, but... the collapse of the planet-wide barrier is tearing the surrounding Magic field apart. If this ship approaches, it will absolutely be affected."

A battleship powered by Mana Crystals could not remain unaffected by a Magic storm.

Naturally, those tentacles were not nearly as precious to other races as the Endelions thought themselves to be. The captain had no intention of launching a rescue operation at the risk of killing his entire crew.

The Kavite muttered in frustration.

"This ship wasn't even designed for rescue missions in the first place... How are we supposed to run an operation in those conditions?"

Despite the Committee Headquarters' orders, they could only watch helplessly as the fire completely consumed the planet.

In a way, the Endelions had brought this upon themselves. Even if the Committee Headquarters had suffered the same terror attack, the spirit realm wouldn't have been completely flipped upside down like this.

Those self-preserving tentacles had layered far too many defensive barriers over a single planet. When all those strata collapsed simultaneously, it created this chaotic pandemonium of spiritual disorder and magical turbulence.

Moreover, there was not a single trace of Asif-666, the suspect believed to have caused this entire situation.

The door to the Zero Point was still in place. The terrorist might still be lingering nearby. Even if Asif-666 wasn't showing up on their radars, raining fire around the door might just clip him with a stray Photon Cannon blast.

The problem was that they couldn't just recklessly attempt such a thing.

'It's obvious that door isn't made of physical matter, but would it really remain intact under a Photon Cannon bombardment?'

Since they had never tested it, he couldn't be sure.

The captain was merely a soldier, not an expert engineer from the Mint Bureau. He feared that blindly opening fire on that spot might unleash some unimaginable disaster.

In the worst-case scenario, what if the primordial race slumbering inside woke up?

'I need confirmation from Headquarters.'

Ultra-long-range communication via the spirit realm was blocked, but classic radio communication... meaning short-range transmission... was still barely functioning.

The captain was currently asking Headquarters for their input and waiting for orders. They were stuck between a rock and a hard place, unable to take any action.

It was while he was seething in this frustration that he received an absolutely unbelievable report.

The radar officer shouted.

"Multiple enemy missiles detected near Galactic Longitude 141.30, Galactic Latitude minus 35.71! They are approaching allied forces!"

The Kavite's eyes widened.

"What?!"

What kind of nonsense was that?

While ultra-long-range communications had been severed due to the situation here, the frontline fleet had definitely engaged the enemy at a considerable distance.

Returning from there would take either side a full two hours at maximum speed.

But now the enemy was already closing in on their vicinity?

"What about our star system's Distortion Field?"

"It's still active! Ultra-long-range Teleport is impossible for both friend and foe alike!"

The captain's mind spun wildly.

'There are two possible scenarios. Did the enemy win the clash on the battlefield? Or did they shake our forces off and reach here first?'

The question still remained. Even if they had won or slipped past, how had they arrived so quickly?

But there was no time to ponder.

Soon, countless dense blips of light appeared on their classic radio-dependent radar. Every single one indicated an incoming enemy missile.

The captain immediately relayed this to Headquarters while shouting orders to his crew.

"Launch decoy rockets!"

The fleet's gun ports opened, launching a swarm of decoy rockets.

The Space Motherships moved simultaneously. Analyzing the incoming missile trajectories made their targets painfully obvious.

They were trying to strike the Committee Headquarters and the allied fleet at the same time.

The Kavite felt his chest tighten.

'How many enemy ships are there? Are our forces right behind them?'

He glared at the screen, desperately praying this wasn't an absurd scenario where his twenty-five ships had to hold off an enemy force over a hundred and fifty strong.

The enemy's laser-tipped missiles approached in a barrage stretching for thousands of kilometers.

They were weapons that induced nuclear fusion using a laser beam emitted from the warhead upon impact.

The Committee's decoy rockets blocked their path. By cutting into the enemy projectiles' trajectories, they jammed the missiles' sensors. Some went beyond being mere bait, actively seeking out and ramming into the incoming missiles.

As a result, buds of heat and light gloriously blossomed across the pitch-black void of space once more. Countless projectiles launched from both sides collided and detonated.

Meanwhile, the order's fleet following behind the missiles began to enter the Committee's radar range.

Seeing this, the captain's face violently contorted.

"You've got to be kidding me!"

He had guessed as much upon seeing the sheer number of incoming missiles. Still, he had clung to a shred of hope, thinking the enemy might have fired them in delayed intervals to create a broader barrage.

But luck was not on his side.

The radar spoke the unvarnished truth. The enemy fleet consisted of over a hundred and fifty ships.

"This is the worst!"

They had to hold off a fleet six times their size using nothing but twenty-five ships and the planet's defense systems.

Malice and despair took turns flashing through the Kavite's eyes.

"Our forces... Our fleet must be right behind them!"

He knew it defied common sense. He had no idea how the enemy had crossed a two-hour distance in just an hour.

What was certain, however, was that their allied forces did not possess that same capability.

While he agonized over this, the explosive flares born from both sides' missiles were drawing closer. The brilliant, violently flashing clouds steadily drifted toward the Committee's planet.

The captain formed up his fleet and waited in blood-boiling agony.

'Catch up to them, please...!'

But even after waiting until the final moment...

"Damn it!"

Their forces did not appear.

"Get word to Headquarters, right now! Tell them to lift the Distortion Field!"

The only way out of this was for their two hundred allied ships to use ultra-long-range Teleport to return to base.

While hurriedly giving that order, the captain...

"...Ah!"

...realized something too late, looking as if he had just been struck in the back of the head.

The artifacts generating the fleet-defense Distortion Field were scattered and installed all across the star system.

And controlling those artifacts remotely fell under the realm of "communication."

"For some of them, it takes over an hour just for radio waves to reach them."

The speed of radio waves was, ultimately, the speed of light.

He muttered in utter devastation.

"...Don't tell me they planned all this?"

Meanwhile, the Committee's Headquarters Planet was also unleashing a torrential hail of projectiles, firing its air defense systems at full capacity. But the enemy's momentum was completely overwhelming.

From the start, there was a nearly insurmountable numerical disadvantage, and as that gap widened, it eventually reached a point where strategy lost all meaning.

The Committee was facing exactly that kind of situation.

A moment later.

"Enemy fleet has entered Photon Cannon range!"

They could use their stronger weapons now, but...

...that also meant the enemy could turn the very same weapons against them.

Stewing in burning despair, the captain roared.

"All fleets, commence Photon Cannon barrage!"

Beams of light poured out like torrential rain from the twenty-five Space Motherships. Instantly, brilliant beams of light revealed themselves from beyond the darkness as well.

The two waves of light closing in on each other clashed, but the sheer difference in their output was overwhelming.

   *

Whirrrrr! Whirrrrrr!

"What the hell? What's going on out there?"

The planet housing the Committee Headquarters.

Scenes similar to what had happened on the tentacles' planet were unfolding in every city. The Kavite and Todd had evacuated to an underground bunker.

They stared at the screen with anxious eyes from the underground bunkers of their respective city centers.

They couldn't see the battle raging out in space, but the constantly rolling surveillance cameras at least gave them a grasp of the situation inside the atmosphere.

But then.

"...Huh?"

Bzzzt!

Sparks crackled violently across the Magic transmission towers scattered throughout the city.

It was a signal that the large-scale barriers protecting the city were temporarily amplifying in response to a detected threat.

Just as the people's faces grew painted with deeper concern and terror...

"Over there!"

Someone spotted a flash on the screen. A sharp light flashing between the clouds.

Before they could even finish their sentence, he instinctively felt that something was wrong. His dormant blood screamed at him to run away. But his surroundings were walled in by barriers and metallic walls. He had nowhere to run.

In the next moment, the magic broadcast the citizens were watching cut out entirely.

Because of that, the gathered crowd would never know the identity of what killed them.

The fact that it was a thunderbolt of a photothermal wave crashing down from beyond the atmosphere.

ROAAAAAR!

A storm of light swept through the city.

   *

The god was still lingering in the void of space.

Hiding his presence to avoid radar detection, he gazed forward from in front of the door leading to Elahu-Praga.

The tentacles' planet, having received its punishment, was still boiling red. Flames that seemed to symbolize his absolute fury blanketed the earth, rapidly turning the beasts' home into a living hell.

Furthermore, the fleet led by his son seemed to have closed in to a sufficiently near distance, even if he couldn't see them with his naked eye from here. The ships were invisible, but the trajectories of the Photon Cannons they rained down were clear as day. The Committee's fleet standing by here was wholly inadequate to respond. Eventually, the photothermal waves reaching the Committee's Headquarters Planet pounded against the shields until they started tearing holes through them. Right now, he could see yet another city evaporating.

In the meantime, his son did not neglect attacking the enemy battleships. The missile barrage was growing denser. Amidst the crucible of chaos where laser-headed shells and Photon Cannons painted the sky together, the enemy seemed entirely unable to gather their wits.

The god stared quietly at the spectacle.

A faint curve formed at the corners of his mouth.

His lips moved a few times, but the mediumless darkness failed to carry his murmurs anywhere.

His gaze took in everything.

One planet burning as red as a newborn sun.

Another planet being riddled with holes by blinding light and heat.

White rays of heat carving up the black void, as if separating light from darkness.

And even the veil of missiles, sprouting countless luminaries across space before fading away.

"..."

As he beheld everything he had wrought here...

The god saw that it was truly good.

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