Chapter 409 The Fall of the Guardian
Over a century ago, Mountain and Three-Body had cleverly disguised themselves as the black fog material commonly seen in this battlefield, silently drifting like cosmic dust.
Guardians, curious about the third force of the Unknown Civilization, could never have imagined that the real threat was hidden in such inconspicuous "dust."
At that moment, four newly arrived Guardian Battleships prepared to jointly construct a massive spatial conjugate array to showcase their unrivaled might. Yet, they were oblivious to an unprecedented crisis stealthily approaching.
At this instant, the "dust" where the membrane and micro civilization were concealed was like a ghost in the quantum world, approaching the Guardian Battleships with an unpredictable trajectory.
Meanwhile, the Guardian detectors paid more attention to the outskirts of the battlefield and areas with "spatial anomalies." They largely ignored the black fog material that had been present for over a century, let alone the few hundred or thousand particles of "dust" with anomalous trajectories.
Of course, this was also a great gamble. Had the Guardian detectors "noticed" these "dust" particles and captured some abnormal data from them, it was highly likely that the hidden membrane and micro civilization would be discovered.
Before this, every step Divine Vessel Civilization took was a clever ruse to lead the Guardians into a cognitive blind spot. Inter-civilizational strategizing was often counterintuitive, and sometimes it was the thinnest of disguises that were the most conspicuous. The most obvious and familiar things, however, were the easiest to overlook.
And now, in this battle, the crucial moment that Divine Vessel Civilization had long waited for in silence had finally and quietly arrived. As if by a twist of fate, two other battleships belonging to that mysterious conjugate array had, without a sound, stealthily approached the region of black fog material harboring a substantial number of membrane and micro civilization entities.
This sudden stroke of luck seemed like a colder and more brutal joke played by the universe, but it also appeared to be a rare opportunity granted by the heavens throughout the long years of the membrane and micro civilization.
Facing this sudden "gift," the membrane and micro civilization did not hesitate to launch their most formidable weapon—Chain Macro Fusion.
Its nature was to unlock the endless material energy contained within the microscopic High-Dimensional Space, thereby causing a space energy burst on an unprecedented scale.
While Humanity had a rudimentary understanding of macro fusion during their 0.7 level civilization era, it paled in comparison to the current display by a 1.9 level High Order civilization such as the membrane and micro civilization.
Humanity back then hadn't even grasped the principles behind the enormous energy produced by macro fusion, and their application was greatly limited. But now, Chain Macro Fusion, attacking at light speed, was so devastatingly powerful that it made the fabric of space itself turbulent, and even time could be twisted by this violent release of spatial energy.
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It was also at this moment that three groups, totaling twelve Guardian Battleships, all converged on areas with a large concentration of the membrane and micro civilization hidden in black fog. This was largely thanks to the extensive distribution of the membrane and micro civilization in this space.
The timing for the attack was ripe, and the long-conceived, meticulously planned Chain Macro Fusion finally woke up like a slumbering behemoth, unleashing the ultimate crystallization of their endless wisdom and power.
The Chain Macro Fusion spread swiftly like the speed of light. Wherever it passed, microscopic High-Dimensional Space collapsed instantaneously, resulting in a massive space energy storm that affected distances spanning tens and even hundreds of astronomical units.
At the moment of activation, the entire starry sky seemed to sense this terrifying power about to be unleashed, quietly amassing in the void until it reached its limit, and then, like a volcanic explosion, burst forth violently, triggering a series of microscopic collapses in the surrounding space, as if the very structure of the universe trembled at this moment.
Soon, three separate Chain Macro Fusions erupted on the battlefield, each engulfing the nearby Guardian Battleships. The Guardians' proud Time Stop armor proved powerless against such a macroscopic scale assault on the microscopic level.
Because time in the microscopic world wasn't like a single-directional river as in the macroscopic world—it was intertwined with countless tiny temporal loops, and its temporal characteristics were entirely different from those in the macroscopic world.
The sturdy Time Stop armor of the Guardian Battleships became twisted and eroded in the microscopic time reflux.
However, with the detection limits of the Guardians' Time Stop defense uncovered, their greatest threat was already neutralized, and the outcome of the battle was all but decided.
These Guardian Battleships, once like sovereigns of the stars, defying the cosmos, seemed invincible but under the onslaught of that spatial energy became like flimsy boats on the vast ocean, helplessly tossed about in the violent storm, in constant danger of capsizing.
At this moment, the spatial energy storm became an invisible giant hand, clutching the battleships tightly and proceeding to tear and crush them mercilessly, pushing them step by step towards the abyss of destruction.
The Time Stop armor on the battleships, amidst the ravaging macroscopic and microscopic storm, began to twist and crack, and the shining glow that once symbolized endless glory dimmed, no longer able to withstand this destructive blow.
Two hours later, when the storm finally subsided, the entire starry sky fell silent.
All twelve Guardian Battleships, including the flagship and command center symbolizing supreme authority, had turned to dust in that strike. The Guardian Commander and his staff were also buried therein.
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Only a few lonely remnants remained, drifting slowly through the cold expanse of space, like the universe's silent wails, narrating the horror and tragedy of the battle as though they were mocking pride and underestimation without end.
The Guardian Commander might never have anticipated, until the very last moment, that the turn of events could be so swift.
Perhaps the fundamental reason for his own defeat was not the failure to predict that the third force of the Unknown Civilization was a civilization similar to quantum life forms, but rather the defeat by that deep-rooted arrogance.
Despite all the intelligence that had forewarned of a third civilization within the Civilization Alliance, he still chose to doubt, epitomizing arrogance in its most unbridled form.
Knowing well about the existence of the third civilization's power, and that they must be hiding within this starry sky, having recently witnessed the Unknown Civilization's methods of concealment, yet still choosing to overlook the exploration of the most "suspicious" Black Fog Material nearby, exemplifying hubris at its best.
Strategically, all that was needed was to engage the Unknown Civilization, so why expose the last four warships, hoping to annihilate all Unknown Civilization warships before reinforcements arrived, exemplifying greed at its finest.
Knowing the defensive limits of his own warships had been thoroughly probed by the Unknown Civilization, how could he naively believe the enemy lacked the capacity for such a massive attack, even deluding himself into thinking he could eradicate that mysterious adversary, which was perhaps just his unwillingness to concede?
While all situations had been analyzed with clarity, akin to unraveling a cocoon, when that decisive moment of fate arrived, the Guardian repeatedly made the most shortsighted and foolish choices.
Perhaps, being high above for too long, they had grown accustomed to standing at the pinnacle of the universe, looking down upon all beings, allowing arrogance and complacency to slowly grow unnoticed, starting to subconsciously ignore those seemingly trivial yet lethal threats.
Arrogance is an obstacle to survival, as are greed and unwillingness to concede!
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After this devastating strike, only five lonely warships of the Guardian remained in this battlefield, as vulnerable as small boats in a storm.
These five warships were quickly surrounded by the human and dinosaur fleets, the Mountain and Trisolaran fleets, and the membrane and micro civilization.
At this moment, the full might of the Six Great Civilizations of Divine Vessel was unleashed without reservation upon these last five warships, as if to wring victory from every inch of space.
Meanwhile, the Divine Vessel Civilization dispatched some salvage ships to collect the remnants of the Guardian Battleships, for even deciphering a trace of their technology could lead to a new technological surge for the Divine Vessel.
Facing this multi-layered encirclement, the last five warships of the Guardian Civilization had no time to consider anything else, their only thought to escape this land of death.
However, the spatial structure of this battlefield was like a massive pipe, with endless distorted space on the exterior, and warships of the Unknown Civilization lying in wait at both ends of the pipe.
To break free, the last five Guardian warships had to penetrate these heavy blockades, and the "weakest" link appeared to be the seemingly sparse human civilization fleet numbering in the millions that lay ahead.
What they did not know was that, in reality, the numerically inferior human civilization fleet before them was the sharpest sword of all Unknown Civilizations.
As they charged with a desperate resolve towards that seemingly weak fleet, they unwittingly opened the gates to their own destruction.
The true might of the human civilization's warships, which had lain dormant like a deep-sea leviathan, was now fully revealed.
In an instant, millions of warships, as if ignited by an invisible flame, unleashed an unprecedented energy, forcefully tearing apart the space in front of them for fifty astronomical units, creating a void.
The Guardian Battleships were trapped within, unable to do anything but drift aimlessly in the endless darkness with just their remaining inertia.
Without the ability to maneuver, the Guardian Battleships, like birds stripped of their wings, could only helplessly await their final judgment.
The fleets of humanity and the dinosaurs, Mountain and Trisolarans, and the membrane and micro civilization coordinated an onslaught unlike any before, unleashing their destructive powers upon the five isolated warships.
In less than 50 minutes, all that was left of the Guardian's last five warships was a single one.
As the Divine Vessel Civilization prepared to destroy this last warship, it emitted a phrase of "greeting" and attached the Guardian's auto-decode system and language samples.
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