Chapter 49: The Wall, The Enemy's Black Hole Weapon

After several hundred years of development, Ella's manufactured warships had become faster.

The average speed of the entire fleet was now 7,145 km/s.

It was estimated to take 13 years and 4 months to reach the Long Snake Starfield.

Kage was a former military general of the Kate Civilization who was dismissed due to certain circumstances and later became the captain of an explorer team.

His exploration direction was the opposite of the Long Snake Starfield, and he had been outside during the "epidemic," so he was spared.

But his luck ended there.

When he returned to Alpha Centauri, he found his home empty.

His family had perished in the "epidemic," and he was the sole survivor.

Later, when he learned that this disaster was not caused by a virus but was a declaration of war by another civilization, he became furious.

A natural disaster had turned into a man-made catastrophe.

His initial guilt transformed into rage.

He was willing to sacrifice his life for revenge.

During recruitment, he stabbed himself with a sharp knife, gouging out his own heart to demonstrate his determination.

He excelled in training and, due to his previous experience, became the commander of the first legion.

He stood in the control room of the ship.

Or, to be more precise, he had been standing there for several days.

Because the Long Snake Starfield was almost within reach.

A few days ago, a reconnaissance aircraft had been sent, but there had been no news since. The deep and dark starry sky, the tail of the snake, was silent and still.

He knew those guys were hiding there, watching with cold eyes.

This was his first interstellar war, a war between races, but he felt no nervousness, only an overwhelming anger building up inside him.

The power of emotions is strong.

He could sense not only his anger but also the anger of millions of others in the legion.

"All ships, prepare for battle!"

"The main cannon can begin the first round of charging. We will conduct a probing attack to gather as much information about the enemy as possible. Even if we cannot win, we can collect valuable resources."

The deputy commander standing next to him issued the order with a heavy heart and then sighed.

"It's a pity that the Civilized Federation is too large to provide us with the support we need immediately."

"We can't rely solely on ourselves, or defeating the enemy would be a piece of cake."

Kage glared at him.

"What are you saying?"

"Relying on other civilizations is cowardly."

"We fight for our civilization and for our fallen loved ones. Even if we die here, it will be a worthy death."

"In human civilization, there is a book called 'Letter to Ren An,' and I like one line from it: 'Death is inevitable, but one can choose to die with dignity or insignificance.'"

"Our deaths here are dignified, without shame to our civilization, our families, or ourselves."

Kage was an avid admirer of human civilization.

All the officers in the control room were taken aback by his words, but they soon reflected on them deeply.

Their determination grew stronger.

...

The first round of charging was quickly completed, and the main cannon fired its first attack, with an energy level equivalent to 900 billion tons of TNT.

The energy reached the "forbidden zone," just 21 light-seconds away, at nearly the speed of light.

Three days later, the dark matter from the main cannon reached the target area.

Six days later, Kage observed the results.

The space in that area was severely distorted, like a stone thrown into calm water, creating ripples.

But he was certain that it was not a distortion of space; to distort spacetime, the ultimate fabric of the universe, would require an unimaginable amount of energy, something even a 3-level civilization could not achieve.

The gravitational waves caused by the detection of gravitational particles were merely fluctuations of gravity, not distortions of spacetime.

"There is a wall made of an unknown material in that area."

"Implement Plan B. We must explore the composition of that wall."

In the vast starry sky, hundreds of ships pushed a dwarf planet, accelerating it to 200 km/s.

It is worth noting that the asteroid that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs millions of years ago was only 10 kilometers in diameter and traveled at a speed of approximately 13.6 km/s. Its impact energy was around 100 billion tons of TNT equivalent.

The impact energy of this dwarf planet was even greater than that of the main cannon of the Spirit Legion's flagship.

However, this method of attack had limitations. It was slow and was only effective against stationary targets.

But the target ahead was like a turtle shell.

"Our energy cannot penetrate this turtle shell, but the enemy civilization is estimated to be in the early stages of a 2-level civilization."

"There are no energy mines nearby, so their energy must also have limits, especially when maintaining such a large energy field."

"They wouldn't dare to directly block a dwarf planet's attack."

This was another probing attack.

To stop a dwarf planet, defense was not an option.

As expected, when the dwarf planet accelerated to 200 km/s, a large square box flew out from the wall.

The box was small, measuring only 100m x 30m x 30m, almost insignificant in this cosmic battlefield.

The box flew towards the dwarf planet.

As it approached the dwarf planet, it contracted into a sphere and then shrank to the size of a particle in 0.01 seconds, as if a massive gravitational source had appeared there.

The moving dwarf planet and many other planets nearby were pulled into orbit around that location, spinning faster and faster, as if caught in a vortex, towards the center.

Within 10 minutes, the dwarf planet was torn apart into countless fragments, and a terrifying energy ring formed around the vortex created by the box.

After 30 minutes, the dwarf planet had completely fallen into the vortex, which soon became visible to the naked eye—a pitch-black hole.

The enemy civilization had created a cube-shaped black hole right in front of them!

After the dwarf planet's matter disappeared, the black hole became unstable. Two powerful gamma-ray bursts erupted from the black hole's poles.

One of them was aimed directly at the Fifth Fleet, annihilating more than half of its ships.

"Not good!"

"This artificially created cube-shaped black hole is highly unstable and can only exist for a fraction of a second. During this time, it will expel most of the matter it has absorbed."

"Due to its small size, it may explode instead of evaporating in the final stage."

"Engage magnetic shields immediately! All ships, change course and retreat beyond a radius of 20 light-seconds!"

Kage's expression changed, and he quickly issued the order.

However, the black hole collapsed too quickly. As Kage had predicted, after expelling 97% of its matter, it suddenly collapsed and exploded.

Terrifying energy radiated from the black hole, spreading at a speed faster than one-tenth the speed of light. There was no escape.

Although the ships' magnetic shields were deployed, the powerful energy instantly engulfed the entire Spirit Legion fleet.