The Almighty Ring

It goes without saying that sound cannot travel in a vacuum. Space itself was not a complete state of vacuum, as there are still particles floating about, but in extremely scarce numbers.

It would take an unbelievably loud sound to travel across the vacuum of space. That is what seems to be happening now. A massive tremor was felt even when there was nothing to transmit said energy. But when the rift in spacetime opened, a deafening thump was heard.

“Oh shoot! We have got to go!” shrieked Jiang Fei as he rematerialized the shuttle and sped away.

Such a degree of spatial disturbance was unheard of, much less actually experienced.

A spatial disturbance of such magnitude could be described as a tear in spacetime. If spacetime itself was destroyed, all tangible matter, living or not, would follow suit, no matter how strong or powerful that something or someone was.

Warping space itself, the fundamental principle of FTL travel, cannot be achieved without a solid spacetime foundation. Engaging in warp in such a state would undoubtedly cause whatever was in the bubble to be destroyed.

Even though FTL travel cannot be achieved, the shuttle’s impulse engine would still work fine. 0541 quickly took control of the ship and flew Jiang Fei as far away as he could in that split second.

Fortunately, Jiang Fei would still be safe even if he remained stationary. He was situated at the edge of the Alpha Sector and the effects of the spacetime tear were not as violent there as compared to at the center. Escaping was merely a precaution.

Not everyone was as lucky as Jiang Fei, especially not the Violet Fleet. The entire fleet was positioned directly at the center of the Alpha Sector when the rift opened. Since they had not received an order to retreat, and had not listened to Jiang Fei’s warning, they ended up being engulfed by the wave of destruction.

When the gargantuan wormhole opened, it literally broke the fabric of spacetime in the whole Alpha Sector. All that lay within the vicinity was gone, be it ships, soldiers, planets, and even stars.

It took mere seconds for the entire fleet, and even the entire planet to be reduced to nothing but elementary particles. Countless were killed. Their cries had barely even traveled far enough before they were completely cut off. No one heard them scream. Nothing could escape such a degree of destruction.

Mere seconds later, everything in the Alpha Sector returned to a state of complete silence. There were no radio waves, no microbursts, no electromagnetic waves. Everything that could produce energy of any kind had been wiped out. Stars, planets, and even black holes were all gone.

Jiang Fei could not say anything as he floated in microgravity. What just happened was truly a sight to behold.

“If that thing was created by someone… who in this entire universe could stop them…” he muttered to himself.

Not even the greatest civilization in this universe could have pulled off such a degree of destruction. Nothing, not even the all-powerful Valsalrian Army, had a ship with that level of destructive power.

“That’s a wormhole. Something will come out of it eventually…”

A wormhole the size of a small galaxy was not something one would see every day. Not even a blackhole could reach that size, even though it was theoretically possible given enough time. This thing that had appeared in the Alpha Sector in the blink of an eye was definitely a wormhole.

Jiang Fei had expected to see things like armadas or a swarm of Ultralisks emerging from it, but from the looks of things, the wormhole didn’t look like a gate meant for instant interstellar travel. The spin and the energy radiating from it made it look more like an interdimensional portal.

Jiang Fei frowned as a possible reason for the wormhole to exist came to mind. “What can I make of this… is it the result of a clash of parallel worlds?”

For the time being, Jiang Fei decided to remain stationary until he could understand what it was and how it had formed. One hour later, the wormhole was still radiating the same amount of energy and maintaining the same rate of spin. Nothing had emerged from it yet.

“Should I go and take a closer look?” wondered Jiang Fei.

0541 immediately blared out, “It’s too dangerous!”

No one but the creator of the wormhole would know what was on the other side.

“It should be fine. Everything is alright now, isn’t it? If things get out of hand, I’ll just warp my way out of it!” said Jiang Fei.

There was something about the wormhole that he could not explain. It was as if it was calling out to him.

0541 blared even louder, “Captain. I’m detecting incoming ships traveling through hyperspace.”

“Huh?”

Smaller, minuscule disturbances in spacetime were detected, and several ships leaped out of hyperspace, arriving at the scene.

It seems that the sudden appearance of this gargantuan wormhole had alerted a far away civilization of its presence. The ships that arrived varied from scout ships to military class combat ships. These ships belonged to a civilization that lived in the Domini System and its neighboring galaxy.

Countless reconnaissance probes were released to investigate the nature of the wormhole.

Fortunately for Jiang Fei, his presence went undetected as he had already put away the shuttle. A single human drifting in the void of space was extremely hard to detect. It would be akin to searching for a distinctive oxygen molecule in Earth’s atmosphere.

Just as the swarm of reconnaissance probes was about to go through the wormhole, a massive object appeared from the swirling void of chaos and pushed them all away.

The ship was huge, its entire structure was like a golden cube. Jiang Fei was witnessing the events unfold from so far away and he could not understand its massive size. When it completely emerged, he could see that the cube spaceship was at least 70% of the wormhole’s size.

When the wormhole was already the size of a small galaxy, a ship that was 70% of its size was massive! Not even the word ‘massive’ could do justice to its sheer size!

Jiang Fei gasped in horror. “H-How is that thing even possible?”

The other spectators shared the same thought. No one in the history of this universe had ever seen such a massive spaceship. It was hard to imagine what kind of civilization could develop such a ship…

Not long after its appearance, the huge cube immediately opened fire, destroying all nearby reconnaissance probes. The destructive power of the ship was clear. Countless beams were fired simultaneously, destroying all the reconnaissance probes in just a single round.

A second later, all the ships that had appeared earlier were also destroyed. None were left alive. They had no chance to run or even retaliate. Their weapons were ineffective in doing anything to such a massive ship.

Jiang Fei gasped. “This is the end… it took only a single round to destroy all those ships… who in this entire universe could stop them…”

He knew that even if all the ships in the entire universe were to unite and form a universal coalition, they would still be unable to defeat this massive ship! All of them would be destroyed in one clean sweep.

There was nothing else but debris and the cube itself. Perhaps it was a good thing that Jiang Fei was not in a ship, or he might have been destroyed as well.

After the destruction of all the ships, the cube moved only slightly away from the wormhole and stopped. A golden barrier was projected outward with the cube as its center. This bubble of golden light spread out fast. Judging from how it reacted to the debris, the barrier possessed no destructive capabilities, and was only capable of basic blocking functions.

Not long after its appearance, the barrier spread far out, even reaching where Jiang Fei was. Stuck on the surface of the barrier, he was pushed as far as tens of lightyears away from the cube.

Jiang Fei had a million questions in his mind and one stood out as the most important: “What was the function of the cube?”

Because he had been pushed so far away, Jiang Fei did not know that the cube had split itself into countless smaller, planet-sized ships. They roamed about the vicinity inside the golden barrier. Even divided, those ships were still considered the most powerful ships any civilization could ever hope to develop.