As it always was, the moment the imperial government informed the citizens of the time an announcement would be made, schedules and plans all over the empire immediately shifted to accommodate and adjust for it, as everyone knew it was going to be very important.However, there was really no need for schedules to be shifted too aggressively in the first place, since using time compression, the announcement that would take hours in VR could be completed within just a few real-world minutes. So, unless something needed to be done at that exact time and couldn’t wait to be done a few minutes later or earlier, it was postponed.So, when the announced time arrived, nearly everyone, other than those who were unaware of the situation or military personnel responsible for the security of the solar and Proxima star systems, found themselves in front of a massive colosseum that housed the entirety of imperial citizens, and imperial citizens only. It was a citizens' exclusive address, at least i

The speech went on longer and covered a few more additional points, like how imperial citizens could help accelerate the preparations for the Great Gathering, and if the accumulation of Merit Points was going to still be in effect despite the war technically being over. Finally, he reminded them that the Great Gathering was also going to be the day that their rewards would finally be handed out based on the Merit Points each individual had accumulated during the entire period where they could be earned.When the speech was over, hours-long videos of the war were finally made public for people on all sides to access, which showed both transparency but also acted as a warning to anyone that could think of escaping that the empire had enough manpower to chase after them.Despite that, a few people still attempted to escape. The empire had deliberately turned a blind eye, allowing some of them to get into ships and get away. But they soon realized why exactly it was so easy for them to ga

FWOOM!!!!Two wormholes opened on each of the poles of the dwarf planet as two individuals floated through them, landing within ten seconds on exactly opposite ends of the dwarf planet.The feed, showing all of this from different angles, was at the moment the most-watched event in the entire Conclave, as more than ninety-nine percent of everyone had currently tuned in to watch it happen in real time. The remaining one percent were children who were not yet conscious enough to even register what they were seeing, the military on high alert in case something happened during the match, or those traveling at FTL in space with no connection to VR, making them unaware of the situation.There was only a minute left on the timer, but with each second ticking down, the tension felt by humans increased severalfold. The Xor’Vak citizens, on the other hand, were full of confidence in their leader, the Grand Xor’Vak, due to the history that trailed him.As for the rest of the Conclave, the curren

Aron immediately moved from his location without wasting a single second, the moment he sensed spatial instability, as it was one of the only few attacks that could actually go through his shield.But the spatial fractures were just the after-effects of a complete attack from the Grand Xor’Vak, who had used the stellar storms in space and forced the magnetic lines in them to cross and short-circuit, releasing a burst of energy equivalent to millions of hydrogen bombs.At the same time, he had also compressed the stellar wind into a razor-thin blade of high-pressure plasma, creating a shock front that missed Aron, who moved from his location very fast, and went on to hit the dwarf planet. The pressure difference was so extreme that it created a supersonic boom in the plasma, creating a visible ripple on the stellar medium that looked like a crack in glass as it physically shattered the material structure of the dwarf planet.The joint effects from the two attacks created a thermal pres

“I knew he was strong, but this is way beyond my imagination,” Seraphina said, her scales standing upright, expressing her goosebumps as she watched the number of mana the emperor was outputting on the massive cube that was containing the Grand Xor’Vak increase its density with the intent of forcing him to either surrender or be crushed.Her surprise wasn’t limited to the amount of mana the emperor was outputting, but also the strength that the Grand Xor’Vak himself had shown. It made her realize that he had made sure they all underestimated his strength and held the belief that with enough resources, they could create a powerful enough challenger to take his position. It was clearly impossible to bridge the gap realistically based on the amount of resources an individual could consume, which, due to the limited procurement avenues, meant that even a daily limit wasn’t reached. The same couldn’t be said for the Grand Xor’Vak, who had access to them in abundance, meaning that even bef