Beastmaster of the Ages

Ether-class nova source worlds were quite massive. Before a world the size of the Sun, even an infinitum-class divine astralship looked like a fishing boat. As such, the fleets of the Exterminatus Army looked no different from flies beside a gigantic rock. The head-like Ebonfiend with hair-like chains was merely a slightly larger fly. Even if all those astral gods came out and deployed their lifebound beasts and totems, they wouldn’t be much compared to a world that could sustain trillions of people.

Even so, there were even fewer flies on the side of the Sun, less than a tenth of the enemy’s. Tianming had them take refuge within the Sky Palace Formation. Even if the enemy astral gods got into the Sun, they wouldn’t be able to do much against the Sky Palace Formation. During the attack of the Star Hunters, some hundred thousand astral gods had managed to enter the Sun and ended up slaughtered clean all the same. Without the protection of their divine astralships, being unable to do a thing to the Sky Palace Formation meant that their deaths were only a matter of time.

”The Sky Palace Formation only feared ether-class ships when the Sun sun was only sanctuary class. Now that the Flameyellow Fusion Formation has become stronger, the defense of the Sky Palace Formation has also risen. By now, I don’t think anything but an infinitum-class ship has a chance of piercing it.” The only enemy ship capable of such a feat was the Ebonfiend. In other words, the Sun should be relatively well defended.

”In the unlikely event that the Sky Palace Formation falls, we’ll have no choice but to surrender.” Tianming would defend the people within it like his own life.

The looming enemy forces above the Sun caused heart rates on both sides to quicken. The troops of the Exterminatus Army beheld the burning, pink world. It was markedly different from other ether-class worlds that they were familiar with. Seeing the volatile, but powerful nova source made their hearts thump.

Fortunately, the Ebonfiend was still at the head of the fleet, leading along more than a hundred ether-class ships, a thousand plus sanctuary-class ships, and some ten thousand deific-class ships. Each and every ship flew the banner of the Infinitum Bodhimanda, a sign of faith in the cause.

Everyone had a way to justify their noble fight. Those on the Sun fought in the name of defending their land and forming a new nation, the Tianming Dynasty, so that they would be able to exist independently in the Infinitum Bodhimanda! The Exterminatus Army, on the other hand, was there to put down a revolt. It didn’t matter whether they actually had the authority to do so, nor did it matter who were actually tearing the Infinitum Bodhimanda apart, so long as they had a flag and a slogan to go with it.

The millions of astral gods surged with fighting spirit, crying out war chants from within their ships. Though they were fighting on the scale of planets, it was like sending in troops from the sea to fight on land. The main objective was for their forces to reach the planet’s surface, so crossing the Flameyellow Guard Formation was the most crucial step.

When the dark aura from the Ebonfiend touched the flaming clouds of the Sun, a loud announcement was sent across the entire ether-class world. Shenxi Xingtian was the one who made the proclamation. ”The Infinitum Bodhimanda has determined that the Etherean of Gladeus, Lin Xiaodao, as well as the second branch master of the Lin Clan and Swordgod Disciple Lin Feng, have pilfered the wealth stored within the Myriadstar Zone for their own use. In addition to that, they commandeered two-thirds of Gladeus’s nova source reserves. They’ve also raised the flag of revolt, officially proclaiming the foundation of the Tianming Dynasty. All of those sins are punishable by death, and only death! The Infinitum Bodhimanda has formed the Exterminatus Army for the righteous cause of wiping out these vile insurgents so that Lin Xiaodao and Lin Feng may face justice! Any who resist shall be put to death like them!”

That was the final verdict. The troops’ morale shot up once more when their cause was reinforced. The booming of war drums echoed from the divine astralships, sounding louder than Shenxi Xingtian’s announcement. The soundwaves hammered against the Sky Palace Formation heavily, putting pressure on the people within.

Since morale was a potential weakness of the Exterminatus Army, Shenxi Xingtian had made sure to give a final verdict to reinforce it and ensure their faith and cooperation. Though they had expected Lin Xiaodao to respond with a statement of his own, nothing like that ever came. The ether-class Sun seemed to just have absorbed their verdict and drumming like an endless sea. When all of that was over, the pink world burned even stronger, which felt like a slap to the face. Their spirited proclamation had been completely coldly received, falling flat.

To ensure that they still had the will to fight, the Exterminatus Army had to end things as quickly as they could. However, the flameyellow fiends didn’t care; they didn’t have emotions and didn’t ponder over what cause they were fighting for, whereas morale and righteousness were important to astral gods.

”Warriors of the Infinitum Bodhimanda, join me and eradicate the fiends! Kill!” Shenxi Xingtian said with the most charismatic voice he could muster, triggering a roar in response. Eleven thousand ships started charging up their nova sources, glowing bright with power. The sky looked completely alight from the surface of the Sun. Three million astral gods held their breath in anticipation of the godly destruction they were about to render. While the ships would be doing the bulk of the fighting, the astral gods themselves might have to leave them to fight as well for the best results. Wars between nova source worlds weren’t solely determined by clashes between astralguard formations and divine astralships; the final deciding factor still rested with the top elites.

However, they wouldn’t be facing off against normal opponents. In fact, they wouldn’t be fighting that many people at all. The world they were attempting to conquer was one that had just risen to prominence, having formerly been a fallen world. The Sun’s main bulwark was its astralguard formation, and few people would truly be involved in direct conflict. As such, morale wasn’t a factor they had to worry about. Even the roars of three million enemies didn’t shake them in the slightest.

Eventually, the first wave of enemy soldiers arrived, attempting to blow open a path through the astralguard formation with a nova source blast. Even if that would only serve to slightly lower the density of the formation, it still went a long way toward getting their ships to land. Astralguard formations didn’t have the ability to actively attack, so there wasn’t much they could do against an assault by a fleet from afar.

The first wave of blasts was indeed shaping up to be quite powerful. Despite only charging up for the span of a hundred breaths, the ten-thousand-plus ships were able to muster quite a huge amount of energy. They got into a square formation with the Ebonfiend in the center, pointing their cannons toward the Flameyellow Guard Formation.