Chapter 54 — The Arrogant Fleet

Beneath the massive dome forged of silver titanium-chromium alloy, white higher-dimensional clouds flowed as pure as holy light.

This was the main command cabin of the Aries vanguard army's flagship, the "Silver Ram's Horn". In stark contrast to the dark, muddy mortal defensive line down in the Grand Canyon—filled with the stench of rust and machine oil—this spacious command cabin was entirely adorned with the highest specifications of white stone and golden reliefs from the heavenly realm. The white marble floor underfoot was as smooth as a mirror, reflecting the law halos gliding across the dome. On both sides of the tall and majestic colonnades, dozens of hovering translucent holographic stream-light disks quietly rotated, unfolding the data of the desolate blind spot star sector below in real-time through elegant geometric shapes and golden characters.

In the eyes of these higher-dimensional divine officials, this Red Stone planet in the lower realm was nothing more than a clump of crude, heavy, low-dimensional mud filled with disordered physical impurities.

"Has the frequency sweep finished?"

On the golden throne in the center of the cabin, Phalan, Divine Envoy and Commander of the Vanguard Fleet, slouched lazily. He wore a set of heavy sacrificial armor in white and gold; his bright silver cape was embroidered with a massive double-broken-line Aries emblem. His slender, pale fingers gently swirled a glass goblet filled with divine nectar, his expression arrogant and casual, as if he were not commanding a battle at all, but admiring flowers in his own courtyard.

As a trusted Divine Envoy under the Aries Lord, Phalan had participated in dozens of "orbital purification" missions targeting fringe star sectors. In his long, almost static life, the mortal beings of the lower realms and the sand and stones on barren planets had no essential difference; they were nothing more than a bunch of low-entropy bugs who couldn't even comprehend law circuits.

"Reporting to the Commander, the amplitude feedback of the first phase of airspace purification has been completed."

An Aries vanguard officer wearing silver form-fitting armor stepped forward, knelt on one knee, and reported respectfully, "The physical shielding net below the Grand Canyon is somewhat thicker than anticipated. The probe's frequency sweep discovered that those mortal ants have constructed up to three layers of physical shelters using crude heavy lead and scrap titanium-iron at the bottom of the valley and on both sides of the pass. Moreover, they are releasing an electromagnetic polarized interference fog with disordered wavelengths, attempting to obstruct our higher-dimensional causality fire control system from locking on."

Hearing this, several Aries officers in the main command cabin couldn't help but chuckle softly; an atmosphere of cheerful disdain filled the air.

"Physical lead plates? Electromagnetic interference fog?"

Divine Envoy Phalan shook his head, a contemptuous sneer curling the corner of his mouth. He straightened up slightly, downing the divine nectar in the glass goblet in one gulp, his voice echoing in the solemn stone hall:

"These mud bugs of the lower realm, their heads are indeed filled with nothing but mud. They probably think that the LinBoo Divine Court's law main cannons operate on the same principles as their crude chemical gunpowder weapons. Using rusty lead plates to block the transmission of gravitational laws is as foolish as using a torn fishing net to stop a torrential flood."

"However, Commander," the vanguard officer looked up somewhat hesitantly, lowering his voice extremely low. "According to the private kill order issued by Lord Aries, our primary objective is to retrieve the Akashic-class black box stolen by the mortals. If we directly use the higher-dimensional main cannon to execute an indiscriminate energy sweep over the entire Grand Canyon, will it physically damage the law crystal core inside the black box? After all, the contents recorded within... concern the Lord's secret of privately withholding thirty percent of the star-marrow divine ore over the years to expand his personal legion. Recently, the civil officials under Asclepius, Director of the 6th House Inspectorate, have been snooping around for rumors, and the auditors under Saturn are watching very closely. Just in case..."

"Shut up."

Divine Envoy Phalan frowned slightly, cutting off his subordinate's words coldly. "Every soundproofing array in this battleship is running at full capacity, but your cowardice and stupidity still exceed the tolerance of the law. The Akashic-class memory alloy is the highest specification container uniformly supervised by the Sanctum's Hall of Administration in the heavenly realm. Never mind the sweep from this flagship's secondary cannons, even if the entire planet suffered a chain supernova thermonuclear collapse, it would absolutely not bear a single physical scratch. The Lord embezzled the ore to prepare for the impending power reshuffle in the Chief Minister's cabinet. Once our personal divine soldier legion is fully assembled, those cowardly civil and clerical officials who impeach us in the council will have no choice but to shut up. And these mortal ants are historical garbage that must be completely erased."

He slowly walked to the transparent higher-dimensional observation window at the front of the main command cabin, looking down condescendingly at the Grand Canyon below, which was being torn apart by the golden divine light.

"Commander, while the fire control system was performing 3D modeling of the lower realm's gravity well, it discovered a minute algorithmic anomaly."

The Aries vanguard officer in charge of radar fire control suddenly looked up, pointing somewhat puzzledly at a faintly jumping red sine wave on the holographic light disk. "In the locked life fluctuation of the fallen god Orion, a causality frequency deviation of about 0.01% was detected. This deviation presents in the waveform as an extremely thin law interference signature, akin to a faint halo, causing the fire control system's gravitational algorithms to incur extra computational overhead during the causality lock-on iterations. The main cannon's ballistic computer must run three more iteration loops to lock onto his precise physical coordinates, which will produce a system delay of approximately a fraction of a millisecond. Do we need to pause charging and perform an environmental baseline offset recalibration?"

Hearing this, Phalan glanced at the tiny clutter faintly appearing on the edge of the light disk and waved his hand dismissively:

"Foolish, dead pedant. Recalibrating takes at least five seconds of wasted time, and I don't want to wait even one extra millisecond. Orion has long been a cripple stripped of his divine core; the law circuits in his body are seventy to eighty percent rotted. It is an absolute inevitability of physical laws for his gravitational constant to produce clutter due to the exhaustion of his divine power. In the face of this gravity sweep, not to mention a fractional millisecond of deflection delay, the resulting causality oppressive force remains irresistible. Ignore that clutter, continue charging, and fire according to the original plan!"

He raised his right hand and made a cold, empty slash in the air:

"There is no need to deploy the ground divine soldier legion to engage those filthy ants in close combat; that would dirty my warriors' silver boots. Order the secondary cannon groups to increase energy output to one hundred and twenty percent and execute a carpet-style 'gravity purification sweep' directly onto the Grand Canyon's pass. I want all the rocks in the entire canyon physically melted and pressed into a glass mirror smooth enough to cast reflections. As for the black box, once this place is turned into a dead, silent lava lake, we can just send mechanical golems down to fish it out."

"Yes! Commander!"

Following the issuance of the command, the hull of the entire flagship "Silver Ram's Horn" let out a low gravitational hum.

Below the battleship, the muzzles of dozens of silver secondary cannons lit up simultaneously, each thick barrel surrounded by densely packed golden halos of the law. Massive energy was frantically extracted from the Aries divine power furnace at the bottom of the flagship, flowing along conductive fiber optics into the fire control system. The higher-dimensional causality algorithms began to frantically refresh at a rate of hundreds of millions of times per second, attempting to lock every life signature in the canyon onto the coordinates of destruction.

In Divine Envoy Phalan's arrogant logic, this battle was already over the moment they opened fire. He had even begun calculating that in two minutes he would finish the sweep, retrieve the black box, and then order the fleet to return, so he could still catch the evening tea time at the Aries fortress in the heavenly realm.

However, his high-and-mighty higher-dimensional perspective was entirely unable to penetrate the chaotic blind spot obscured by the physical electromagnetic fog below.

He did not know that deep within this gravity-disordered canyon, an 'Anomaly' that had completely broken away from the star-track algorithms was coldly watching them; he knew even less that those mortals he saw as mud bugs had, at this moment, within the capacitor matrix of the electromagnetic rail, prepared a poison of destruction for their noble and holy flagship, capable of physically depriving a divine core of its laws.

"Main cannon charge at ninety percent... ninety-five..."

On the holographic stream-light disk, the golden progress bar had neared the finish line, and the urgent warning sirens transitioned into the melodious divine music signaling the launch.

"Fire."

Divine Envoy Phalan turned around, casually picking up another cup of fresh mead from a servant's tray, too lazy to even turn his head and spare a glance at that impending wave of golden destruction.