Chapter 932, The Emperor's Sword

Gu Hang casually flipped through the battle reports.

Every day, countless wars are raging throughout the universe, in the Dark Side Expedition, and in the areas under the Terra Expedition Alliance's jurisdiction.

He would also receive countless reports.

Of all these battles, the Battle of Papalir was the most important.

Or rather, the Battle of Papal Ridge was the largest battle the Alliance had fought in the last decade or so.

Although its duration was short, lasting only a little over half a month from the appearance of the Calamity Fleet, its intensity was by no means low, and the enemy's strength was also extremely high.

That's why, after finally winning, the results were quite remarkable.

This was the first time the Alliance had systematically destroyed a Calamity Fleet, and according to prisoners, this Calamity Fleet, while not the largest, was certainly one of the largest in the entire fleet. Its destruction was a heavy blow to the entire Chaos faction.

The alliance's main fleet also suffered some losses during this process.

Although the enemy lost its central command and was in disarray, and was being attacked from both sides, the quality of their fleet was undeniable. In a desperate, do-or-die situation, they were still able to achieve some success. The Alliance fleet suffered approximately 300 losses overall, and the Glory Queen battleship required significant repairs and maintenance to regain its combat effectiveness. A total of six battleships and aircraft carriers were lost, along with six battlecruisers.

This is a significant loss for the Southern Front Army. However, while it will have some impact on the Southern Front Army's expeditionary operations, it will be relatively limited. They can still continue to carry out their missions, but they cannot be too reckless. If they encounter any major or difficult problems, Queen Glorious will have to reconsider her actions, especially if repairs and replenishment of the main fleet are not yet in place.

The Southern Front Army shouldn't need too long to restore its overall combat strength. With a year and a half of maintenance on the Glory Queen, there shouldn't be any major problems. And once the flagship is repaired, a new batch of Alliance warships should be ready to be delivered to the Southern Front Army, at which point the main fleet's size will be restored to its pre-Battle Papalil level.

Another reason why Gu Hang was so interested in this battle was that it was the first battle Martins had participated in after completing the transformation. Gu Hang really wanted to see how this God's Child he had created would perform, and whether he was worthy of the effort and considerable investment of his subspace essence.

As it turns out, it was still worth it.

From both perspectives, Martins' outstanding campaign command ability and individual combat strength were quite remarkable.

It was even so strong that it surprised Gu Hang.

He originally called Mattins' achievement a 'small primordial body', and the minimum requirement was that it should be able to reach the level of combat power of the Bone Crusher King, which would barely be considered qualified.

However, the actual results exceeded the passing grade and reached an excellent level.

Martins' individual combat strength must surpass that of the Bone Crusher.

As for whether he can reach the level of a true son of God... Gu Hang felt that he was probably still a little short.

After all, he had truly witnessed the power possessed by a real Son of God.

That would naturally be Robert.

For the Empire, even for the Infinite Starfield, Robert's place of awakening and home base, Robert disappeared without a trace after gathering a Terran expeditionary force and leading them into the warp.

Only very occasionally, every few months, the Star Speakers on Supersea Star are able to receive fragments of messages sent back by the Expeditionary Force across the warp. Only this evidence proves that the Expeditionary Force, having entered the warp, is still alive and still striving towards Holy Terra.

But fourteen years have passed since then.

If you use an astral tunnel and there are no obstacles in between, traveling from the Infinite Starfield to Holy Terra will take at most a year and a half, or two years at most.

Robert's army has been conducting subspace travel for fourteen years now.

This shows that, setting aside the safety and instability of subspace travel, its time efficiency is far inferior to that of using interstellar tunnels.

Of course, if it were normal subspace travel, it wouldn't take so many years.

Robert himself is qualified to speak on this. Before he entered the stasis field on his deathbed, back when the Empire still commonly used warp travel technology, he had made countless voyages from Superstar to Holy Terra. The time spent in those voyages was generally between two and four years, certainly not as long as fourteen years.

The reason it took so long was clearly because his voyage was not going smoothly.

While others couldn't see it, Gu Hang, through his real son who was on the ship, could see it clearly.

For the past century since the Cataclysm, the warp has been turbulent, making warp travel even more difficult and dangerous.

Moreover, as the only living Son of God in the human empire, his appearance has attracted countless eyes.

Countless warp demons are eager to come knocking. If they can kill this son of god and offer a great gift to their own evil god, they will greatly please the gods and thus ascend to godhood!
However, finding ships traveling in subspace is no easy task.

The warp is far too vast and immense, even for the demons that are native to it.

The ancient technology from ten thousand years ago is now in effect, making human fleets move stealthily while sailing. It takes demons time to find them, and they often mistake them for the right ones.

Besides, does coming to them guarantee a win?
Under the Emperor's Sword wielded by the Son of God, no demon who dares to come will escape death.

And it was real death.

This was terrifying for the demons.

Generally speaking, the reason why demons can wreak havoc and act with impunity, whether in the real universe or in the warp, is that they are actually immortal. They possess the essence of the warp, and since this essence is indestructible, even if they are killed, they will simply return from the warp after a period of time.

Very few things can truly destroy them.

But the Emperor's Sword is exactly that kind of thing.

That was truly a divine sword that the emperor had personally wielded.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Still owes 79
(End of this chapter)