Ships hastily pulled back from their positions, engines roaring as they scrambled to obey the sudden and desperate command for retreat.
The once-coordinated assault fractured into scattered movements, soldiers and officers alike abandoning their objectives in confusion.
At the galaxy's centre, the giant projection of Vaelon I watched this with cold eyes, the space around him bending even more as he drew even more of his power into his projection.
He raised his hand, and cosmic energy poured in from a different dimension, widening the rift that had summoned him.
The projection, initially imposing, began to expand, growing impossibly larger with each passing moment.
What had once been merely colossal now swelled to incomprehensible proportions, dwarfing the largest planets in the Perileos Galaxy.