131: Chapter 131 All mechanisms are paper tigers in the face of numbers.

Prince Krol's lightning still flickered intermittently on the distant edge of the horizon; each burst felt like the heartbeat of the deep cosmos, bathing the entire star sector in a bluish-white hue.

This continuous energy fluctuation was both good news, indicating that Prince Krol was still alive and fighting, and bad news, ruthlessly declaring the failure of the surprise decapitation strike.

If Empress Oriana had been killed or severely injured, the Zerg command system should have fallen into chaos long ago, rather than maintaining an attack rhythm as precise as clockwork, as it was now.

Since the Zerg command sequence was still operating normally, the swarming Zerg sea showed no signs of slowing down; instead, it continued to pressure the defensive lines of the myriad races' fleets with increasingly cunning and ruthless tactics.

At this moment, on the front line of the Blazing Dragon Federation's Watcher Legion, those decisive weapons that once struck fear into the Zerg were experiencing an unprecedented predicament.

"Return to Void system charged for the thirty-seventh time, target area locked—coordinates sector E-7 to K-12, Zerg density peak has exceeded the critical threshold." The mechanical report echoed through the command center of the purple subtlety.

Major General Zhao Yu stared at the area marked in deep red on the holographic star map, where the number of gathered Zerg units was so high that it caused the sensors to overflow with data.

He took a deep breath: "Fire."

The "Return to Void" space annihilation wave cannon roared once again.

It was an attack method that transcended conventional physical laws; the Return to Void directly tore open a void domain in the target area.

All matter, energy, and even the spacetime structure within the domain were "deleted" in an instant, as if the universe itself had patched that area, completely erasing what had previously existed.

In any previous battle, such a strike would have been enough to evaporate at least one Leviathan, completely erasing a hundred-thousand-kilometer-long leviathan mothership from the level of existence.

But now, an incredible scene unfolded.

The void domain had barely been open for less than 0.3 seconds when the surrounding Zerg sea surged toward that "blank" space at a frenzied speed.

Countless Mutalisks, Corruptors, Devourers, and even smaller Brood Lords charged fearlessly into that region where not even spacetime existed, then instantly transformed into pure energy streams upon contact, actively converting their own biomass energy into "filler" to plug the void.

Biological shields are energy barriers that can neutralize energy attacks; biological armor is a material structure that can withstand physical strikes.

But ultimately, the essence of everything is matter and energy—and of course, matter is also energy.

The tactic the Zerg were using now was exceptionally primitive, yet even more unsolvable; it was simply using quantity to fill, using energy to level the void domain, thereby preventing it from striking the mothership.

The life energy of a single Mutalisk might be insignificant, but what about ten thousand? A million? A hundred million?

The entire Zerg fleet was like a giant with an infinite blood bank, using its endless "blood" to neutralize humanity's sharpest "scalpel."

"Return to Void domain duration: 0.87 seconds."

The monitor officer's voice trembled with disbelief, "Domain range reduced to three percent of its initial value... completely annihilated."

On the star map, the area that had been cleared was refilled with new Zerg units within just two seconds, as if the earth-shattering strike from a moment ago had never happened.

The same predicament appeared with other decisive weapons.

When the "Genesis" gamma-ray cannon array fired in unison, it could indeed plow death corridors millions of kilometers long through the Zerg sea.

But on a battlefield spanning dozens of astronomical units, this was no more than a pinprick.

The Zerg units on both sides of the corridor would immediately squeeze inward, piling up corpses to form new walls of flesh.

However, main gun firing had strict frequency requirements; the Watcher Legion's ship cannons were firing at their maximum frequency, with barrel wear alarms sounding one after another, signaling that the weapons were reaching a critical state.

The "Requiem" curved-trajectory particle cannon, originally a long-range, precision-guided weapon, had now become a simple, one-time direct-fire cannon.

There were so many Zerg that it made no difference where they aimed; they couldn't penetrate them anyway.

Those low-tier Zerg units seemed to have become a natural "buffer layer," sacrificing the collapse of their fragile flesh to protect the high-tier units behind them from being affected.

As for the conventional Mega Particle Cannons capable of triggering supernovae, plasma torpedoes, and antimatter missiles... these weapons that once struck fear into the Zerg were now more like pebbles thrown into the ocean; apart from splashing a few insignificant waves, they couldn't stir up any decent ripples.

When the scale of the battlefield reaches a certain level, war degenerates into the most primitive competition of energy and material values.

No matter how exquisite the tactics, how powerful the single-point burst, or how IMBA the mechanics, they all appear pale and powerless in the face of nearly infinite "numbers."

"Dijiang-class battleship 'purple subtlety', report status."

Major General Zhao Yu connected to the communication channel of the most solid anchor point on the front line.

"Armor integrity is normal, active defense system is normal, energy reserves... remaining at 99.99%."

The captain's report was steady and powerful, even carrying a hint of ease, "General, we can continue fighting for at least another three months."

Zhao Yu looked at the data for this warship—since the start of the war, the "purple subtlety" had withstood at least forty direct hits from Leviathan main guns, over three hundred cluster assaults from heavy Zerg units, and the number of Zerg units shot down in its vicinity was so high that the statistics system had automatically switched to "exponential counting mode."

Yet its combat effectiveness remained at peak levels.

This was the design philosophy of the Blazing Dragon Federation: big, dumb, and crude, but reliable.

The Dijiang-class battleships and 15 xihe-class battlecruisers in this escort fleet were all the latest models newly commissioned, adopting Annihilation Engines that used neutron star matter annihilation as an energy source.

A single warship carried nearly 1/10th of a sun's worth of neutron star matter, a neutron star 10 kilometers in diameter.

Given the output power of the Dijiang-class shields and weapons, the three-month limit was due to the need for hull maintenance, not because of energy exhaustion.

The attacks of the vast majority of Zerg biological weapons hitting the energy shields were like water guns firing at a tank—pointless, save for the sound they made.

The Annihilation Engine brought the energy reserves of Blazing Dragon Federation warships to a point of near-infinity, and their sustained combat capability was astonishing.

When the Holy Alliance's warp-light ships had to rotate for rest due to energy borrowing network overloads, the Blazing Dragon Federation warships were still pouring out firepower at a steady rhythm.

The Yanlong Alliance's next research direction was mainly the output power of main guns; the output of the Mega Particle Cannon was actually a bit outdated.

"xihe-class battlecruiser fleet, all-out salvo!"

The order was given.