113: Meetings and Decisions

The Central Council hall on the Falem Homeworld is located at the top of the planet's highest tower; it is the heart of power for the entire Faleim Civilization.

The interior space design defies conventional geometric aesthetics; the walls and dome are interwoven with flowing liquid metal and holographic light curtains, as if one were inside a constantly shifting mathematical model.

In the center of this oppressive, absolutely rational space, Amira Radiance felt an unprecedented sense of insignificance.

She retracted the three pairs of pristine white wings behind her that symbolized royal dignity, bowing her head. Even so, she could still feel the sharp gazes coming from all directions.

Those were the twelve supreme councilors of the Faleim Central Council, sitting on suspended high-backed chairs. Each person's gaze was cold and profound, as if examining an insect that had wandered into a land of giants.

And at the end of that massive oval conference table, in the seat at the highest point, sat the man known as "the guide".

Lei Wen's holographic projection sat quietly. His gaze did not carry the scrutinizing tone of the other councilors; instead, it was filled with... interest? That confused Amira.

Yes, interest.

Lei Wen was unabashedly sizing up this extraterrestrial visitor.

"Too similar..." Lei Wen marveled inwardly. "It is exactly like the Angels in Earth's myths and legends."

Golden hair, golden eyes, and pristine white wings, even that inherent sacred aura—if she were thrown into St. Peter's Square in the Vatican, the Pope would probably kneel on the spot and shout that a miracle had descended.

Lei Wen even began to wonder if, in Earth's distant past, the ancestors or an exploration ship of the Angel people had truly visited Earth, leaving behind the legends of Angels? Or was this merely another wondrous convergence in the evolution of cosmic life?

However, regardless of how much gossip went on inside his mind, on the surface, Lei Wen maintained the restraint and majesty expected of the Great Guide.

"To facilitate smooth communication, we have temporarily installed brainwave interference translators above the hall."

Consul Price, sitting to Lei Wen's right, spoke first. His voice did not travel through air vibrations but acted directly on Amira's cerebral auditory cortex through a certain force field.

"Within the range of this force field, language barriers will cease to exist, and conceptual thoughts will be directly converted into information you can understand."

Amira raised her head in surprise. She truly understood; not that she understood the language, but she directly grasped the meaning behind it.

This technology was even more efficient and overbearing than the Angel Empire's psionic telepathy.

"Ms. Amira Radiance," Councilor Talon, who was in charge of military affairs, interjected coldly. He played the role of the bad cop. "You claim that your empire is still powerful, but your performance has been like a pack of stray dogs. You were beaten into having no power to fight back by a group of Iof People who only know how to use brute force. What value does such an ally have for Faleim?"

"We are not without the power to fight back!" Amira couldn't help but retort, though her confidence was lacking. "We were just ambushed! The Iof People used despicable means..."

"Losers always have many excuses." Councilor Cridel, in charge of industry, sneered. "In the face of an absolute technological gap, so-called means are just excuses for the weak. Your warships have bloated structures, inefficient psionic engines, and weapon systems that are still using primitive energy focusing methods... Forgive me for speaking bluntly, but I see no benefit in helping you other than wasting our resources."

"Furthermore," the councilor in charge of sociology pushed up his monocle, his tone sharp, "a theocratic civilization that advocates idealism has a logical structure full of chaos and irrationality. You attribute natural phenomena to miracles and entrust technological progress to prayer. This kind of civilization is difficult for us to understand."

The councilors spoke one after another, using the most rational logic and the most biting language to peel away the pride of the Angel Empire layer by layer, trampling Amira's self-esteem underfoot.

Amira bit her lip tightly, her nails digging deep into her palms.

She wanted to retort, wanted to leave in anger, but the grace vessel was still stranded on that desolate planet, and the lives of thousands of her kin were in the hands of the other party.

She felt a deep sense of powerlessness, and her eyes couldn't help but turn red.

Just as Amira was on the verge of breaking down, the supreme existence who had been silent all this time finally spoke.

"Enough."

Lei Wen's voice was not loud, yet it smoothed out the tense gunpowder smell in the air as if by a spring breeze.

All the councilors immediately shut their mouths and lowered their heads respectfully.

Lei Wen looked at Amira, a hint of just the right amount of "mercy" and "tolerance" appearing in his eyes.

"Ms. Amira, please forgive my children." Lei Wen said gently. "They are accustomed to measuring everything by efficiency and data, yet they often overlook the resilience and radiance displayed by the survival of a civilization itself."

"Not giving up hope in desperate situations and enduring humiliation for the survival of one's kin is, in itself, a quality worthy of respect."

Lei Wen's words were like a warm current; in this cold world of steel, there was finally a voice giving her a shred of recognition. She looked up at the black-haired, black-eyed man, her eyes shining with gratitude.

"Great Guide..."

"Although our Faleim Civilization believes in materialism and rationality, this does not mean we lack compassion." Lei Wen continued, beginning to cast his bait. "Actually, we had already reached some decisions during our previous internal discussions. We believe we can provide aid to the Angel Empire, Ms. Amira."

"Really?" Amira's voice trembled.

"Of course." Lei Wen nodded with a smile. "We will dispatch our most professional engineering team, carrying sufficient high-purity crystals and repair materials to the S-92 Galaxy, to assist your psionic engineers in repairing that grace vessel in the shortest possible time."

"Thank you! Your mercy is comparable to that of the True God!" Amira was so moved she wanted to kneel.

"However," Lei Wen changed the subject, "according to our ships' scans of the grace vessel, the keel structure and psionic core of the grace vessel are extremely severely damaged. Even if repairs are completed, I am afraid its combat power will be difficult to restore to fifty percent of its peak period. In such a state, traveling through the war-torn star sector to return to the Perseus Arm would be tantamount to suicide."

Amira's face turned pale; she knew Lei Wen was telling the truth.

"Therefore, I have prepared a second plan for you."

Lei Wen waved his hand, and the holographic projection in the center of the hall changed instantly.

A warship with a strange shape, a cross-shaped bow, and elegant lines appeared. Its entire body emitted a faint blue light, and the hull was covered with glowing geometric patterns.

The style of this warship was different from Faleim's silver-white streamlined technological style, and also different from the Angel's sacred texture style; it exuded a sense of vicissitudes and mystery that had spanned hundreds of millions of years.

"This is an Avatar-class battlecruiser." Lei Wen introduced.

This was an exhibit in the "stellar universe" that the Faleim Civilization had confiscated and sealed in the orbital museum—[Museum Hub]—after defeating the Fallen Empire known as the "Doctrine Executor".

Although it was an exhibit, as a relic of a Fallen Empire, its technological content was still shockingly high, and in some aspects, it was not inferior to the battleships currently in service by Faleim.

"The internal systems of this warship have been completely cracked and rewritten by us." Chief Scientist Zeral said. "It was originally designed for psionic users, making it very suitable for you Angel people to operate. We can modify the operating system to a control method you are familiar with at any time."

"If the grace vessel cannot be repaired or you feel it is not safe enough, I can take the initiative to lend this battlecruiser to you temporarily." Lei Wen threw out a bombshell.

"Lend... lend it to us?" Amira's eyes widened. Even through the holographic projection, she could feel the powerful aura emitted by that massive warship, which was labeled as being nearly sixty kilometers in length (the Holy Guardian battlecruiser model flies vertically). It was absolutely a superweapon that surpassed all warships currently in service by the Angel Empire.

"Yes, lend." The smile on the corner of Lei Wen's mouth grew thicker. "As a witness to the friendship established between our two civilizations."

"Of course, all of this does not come without a Price."

The truth revealed.

Lei Wen leaned forward slightly, his gaze becoming profound: "To ensure that our aid can truly be effective, and to better understand the war situation sweeping across the two star sectors, the Faleim Civilization will dispatch a special observer team."

"This observer team will accompany you back to the Angel Empire; they will be responsible for maintaining this warship (if necessary) and assessing the direction of the war."

"We have also prepared a series of resource trade contracts and some special politically related treaties for you. You can take a look."

After reading those terms, Amira was stunned.

Although she was indeed a bit naive, she was not stupid.

She could vaguely feel that these treaties were like tentacles reaching out from the Faleim Civilization toward the Angel Empire, which could potentially cause terrible consequences, and that observer team could become a "shadow emperor" monitoring the Angel Empire at any time.

But having seen the advancement and power of the Faleim Civilization, and thinking of that seemingly extremely powerful warship, Amira felt that she actually had no choice. Whether the Faleim People were tough or polite, it was not something the Angel people could refuse.

"I... represent the Angel Empire in accepting your proposal." Amira finally lowered her head. "And welcome the arrival of the Faleim observer team."

"Very good." Lei Wen nodded with satisfaction. "Price, make the arrangements."

"Yes, Great Guide."

...

After the meeting, Amira Radiance did not immediately return to the S-92 Galaxy.

According to the arrangements, she would stay on the Falem Homeworld for a few days, waiting for the assembly of the engineering team and the selection of personnel for the "observer team".

To show hospitality, and also to further intimidate this alien princess, Price arranged for her to stay in a luxury guesthouse located above the capital.

It was an anti-gravity dome villa floating in the clouds.

The bottom of the villa was made of transparent high-strength material; as long as Amira looked down, she could overlook the breathtaking prosperity of the entire Falem Homeworld.

Countless towering mega-structures pierced through the clouds, dense streams of flying vehicles pulsed between the cities like glowing blood vessels, and the space elevator connected the earth to the starry sky like a tower to heaven. This was a grandeur built on absolute material power, completely different from the aesthetic beauty that the Angel Empire relied on, which was based on nature and psionics.

It was late at night. The Falem Homeworld had no night, only brilliant neon and artificial light sources dyeing the sky in colorful hues.

Amira sat alone on the villa's spacious terrace, looking at this strange world, her heart filled with confusion and anxiety.

The material life here was extremely rich, and every facility in the room was full of intelligence and convenience that she could not understand. With just a thought (via a brainwave reading device), the food, clothing, or even entertainment she wanted would immediately appear before her through a material printer.

But for a devout believer, this was a kind of spiritual torture.

There were no statues of gods, no prayer rooms, and even the air lacked the psionic fluctuations that made her feel at ease.

"This is a land forsaken by God..." she muttered to herself.

She felt an unprecedented loneliness.

"Xiaodu, Xiaodu?" Amira tentatively called out to the air; she had already learned how to control the intelligent system here.

"I am here, Ms. Amira. How can I serve you?" A soft electronic voice sounded.

"I... I need something." Amira hesitated for a moment before saying, "Can you help me print a statue? A statue of the one and only Lord of the Angels."

"Please provide detailed blueprints or 3D data."

Amira closed her eyes and transmitted the image of the True God—solemn, compassionate, and bearing twelve wings—from her memory to the system via the brainwave device.

"Data received. Building the model... Material printing started."

The machine in the corner of the terrace made a slight humming sound. Just a few minutes later, an exquisite statue about half a meter high, made entirely of pure white jade-like material, appeared on the tray.

Amira picked up the statue with trembling hands.

The touch was cold and delicate, the details were impeccably perfect, even more precise than those carved by the best craftsmen in the empire.

But this was just a pile of dead matter built up by atoms.

No spirituality, no divine grace, none of the warmth that made her soul vibrate.

Although this was just a show of the Faleim People's material technology, at this moment, it was her only spiritual sustenance.

Amira placed the statue on the table on the terrace, facing the artificial starlight filling the sky.

She folded her wings, knelt on the hard floor, clasped her hands together, and closed her eyes tightly.

"Oh, the only great and omnipotent Lord in the world..."

Her voice echoed on the empty terrace, sounding exceptionally desolate.

"Please forgive your servant for being with these soulless heretics."

"Please guide the lost lamb to find the way home in this jungle of steel."

"Please bless the Angel Empire to defeat the shameful demons in the fires of destruction..."

And on the other side, Price and Lei Wen were quietly watching this scene through surveillance equipment that Amira could not detect.

"Lost souls always need a crutch." Lei Wen looked at the fragile figure on the screen and commented lightly, "If possible, I hope this crutch can be replaced by the one we offer."

"Has the observer team been selected?" Lei Wen asked.

"It is decided, Great Guide." Price replied. "Major General Trier will lead the team. Members include diplomats, sociologists, psionic researchers, and a fully armed elite genetic warrior unit... and of course, a large number of one-dimensional surveillance devices."

Lei Wen thought for a moment and added: "What if I also want to take a look at the Angel Empire?"

Price was stunned for a moment, then said nervously: "You just need to have Major General Trier bring a portable projection device and connect it to your high-dimensional quantum communication equipment. It can achieve an immersive experience; there is no need for you to take risks personally."

"Alright." Lei Wen nodded.

"Well, then for now, let that Angel continue to pray."