The moment Su Wen finished speaking, the atmosphere in the arena instantly tightened. The Empress knew talking more was useless; she could not possibly relinquish the troublesome fleet. Thus, a major battle seemed unavoidable.

"Then, I wonder if the meticulously calculating Sandvo ever accounted for your demise right here?" Yang Ying's voice suddenly cut in.

Yang Ying had just been testing the various functions aboard the command vessel. He discovered the Godhead Core system was completely paralyzed. A highly clandestine program had been lying dormant within the fleet's core system, suddenly activating to cripple everything. Clearly, this program was ninety-nine percent related to Sandvo, or at least authorized by him.

Yang Ying had attempted to use his own knowledge of optical computers to crack the program, but several tries yielded no success. This program was not simple; it appeared to be the work of a Level Four entity profoundly skilled in optical computer knowledge.

If Yang Ying had ten minutes, he was confident he could neutralize it. The problem was whether Yasouwen and the others would grant him that time.

"We shall perish here? Hahaha!" Milleru suddenly roared with laughter. His voice carried an eerie, sinister quality, unsettling like a banshee's wail, yet embedded within it was a frenetic disregard for consequence—like a searing flame tightly encased by an icy wall, utterly contradictory.

"Lord Yang Ying, to be honest, every time we oppose you, we feel an extreme sense of danger, as if our lives could end at any moment. It is the same now," Milleru declared loudly. "Yes, I feel the terror of annihilation, but do you think I will fear it? Or retreat because of it? You are profoundly mistaken."

Yasouwen followed immediately, stating, "The worry of demise is something we have encountered more than once throughout our tens of thousands of years of life. But, simultaneously, we have delivered that demise to our enemies."

"After enduring countless brushes with death, we finally trampled everything that obstructed us underfoot, ascending to the pinnacle of all living things to become these incomparably glorious Level Four existences."

"Do you believe we are mere mortals incapable of seeing through life and death? Level Four is an ineffable, wondrous realm. Rational thinking, logical deduction—these things are almost useless for advancing to Level Four."

"If we hadn't embraced the resolve to disregard life and death, we would have died tens of thousands of years ago, our bones turned to dust. We could never have become Level Four beings. You, being Level Four yourselves, should readily understand what I mean."

"If that is the case, why do you follow Sandvo's orders?" the Empress asked, perplexed, while simultaneously addressing Yang Ying: "Lord Yang Ying, please grant me a little more time; let me try to persuade them one more time." Yang Ying agreed; he needed the time as well.

Hearing the Empress's question, Milleru replied coldly, "Because Regent Lord pointed us toward the only correct path, something the Royal Family has been incapable of. Since these exchanges used mental transmission, the soldiers on both sides could not hear, allowing them to utter disrespectful words without concern."

Yasouwen added, "The Empire is rotten to the core now. Its foundational cornerstone—the Sea of Primordial Force—shattered ten thousand years ago. Although the Empire clings to survival and appears outwardly magnificent, it is gravely ill within. The Royal Family can no longer suppress the myriad conflicts; piracy and rebellion are escalating everywhere."

"That is precisely why!" the Empress interrupted. "I introduced the initiative for the new Awakening Serum. I will use this opportunity to remake the Empire, setting it back on the right course! You can help me!"

"It is too late to have such ambitions now," Milleru hissed. "Only Regent Lord Sandvo can truly revive Atlantis! The Royal Family must be overthrown! Order must be reestablished! Only then can all these malignancies be purged! Your sacrifice will pave the road to the new world!"

"Enough. We have given you three seconds; no more time will be granted! If you do not surrender now, we will attack!" Yasouwen’s voice was like iron.

"Then what are we waiting for? I'm sure the Empress will not surrender. Attack directly," Femude’s voice dripped with bloodlust.

Because their communication relied entirely on telepathy, a mere thought could convey an entire sentence. If executed quickly, the exchange above would take less than a tenth of a second. Thus, Yasouwen felt three seconds was already excessive.

In the blink of an eye, another second passed. Seeing the Empress remain unresponsive, Yasouwen's tone grew even harsher: "It seems Femude is correct. Her Majesty refuses to yield the fleet... Engage!"

Before Yasouwen could utter the word "Engage," Yang Ying had already made his move. He instructed the Blade to continue cracking the program and ordered Catherina to immediately rendezvous with the Empress.

Although Catherina possessed the mental strength of a Limit of Level Four, her disposition was gentle, favoring peace over combat. The Empress, while possessing the peak mental power of Level Four, had always lived deeply within the palace and seldom engaged in personal fighting. Having them together offered mutual support.

Even if neither was skilled in direct combat, their mental prowess surpassed even Yasouwen and Milleru, the strongest on Sandvo's side, meaning they could hold out for a while.

How long they could sustain the defense depended entirely on Yang Ying’s ability to alleviate their pressure.

Yang Ying stepped out of the command vessel, his entire being transforming into a bolt of electric light. In an instant shorter than a blink, he shot into the heart of the Regent's Guard fleet.

"All units, open fire!" Yasouwen roared.

"There are some things I didn't intend to use at this stage, but this opportunity is simply too perfect," Yang Ying's voice traveled across the mental transmission waves. "Yasouwen, Milleru, take this!"

The electric light that was Yang Ying flew directly to the center of Yasouwen's fleet, where his true form materialized. He raised his right hand, and a flash of gold appeared. Ten figures suddenly manifested in the void! The psychic field emanating from each figure was as vast as the cosmos. When these psychic fields merged with Yang Ying himself—eleven fields in total—they radiated immense mental power, causing sparks of electrical fire to erupt in the void, resembling a space composed entirely of lightning. Spanning ten thousand kilometers horizontally, vertically, and depth-wise, this field enveloped the entire Regent's Guard fleet.

"Such immense psychic fields... Correct, that is the Limit of Level Four. These aren't clones... Could they be... true bodies? All true bodies?" Yasouwen’s shocked voice rippled out along the psychic waves.

The eleven figures of Limit Level Four standing in the void, including Yang Ying, were all humanoid. They dispersed instantly, flying toward various parts of the fleet.

Their objective was clear: the dozen or so core centers within the fleet.

"Quick! Stop them!"

Yasouwen did not know how these ten new Limit Level Fours had appeared or where they came from. In his view, the surrounding space had already been sealed by his fleet; even a Limit of Level Four could not tear open a wormhole to escape or arrive here from elsewhere.

But the ten Limit Level Fours summoned by Yang Ying were demonstrably real. After a moment of shock, he reacted instantly, commanding the fleet to target all eleven figures, including Yang Ying.

Upon Yasouwen’s command, the entire fleet focused its firepower on the eleven figures. Yasouwen, as the overall commander of this operation, had assistants who were, at minimum, Upper Level Four, no less potent than Bedac. Furthermore, the Imperial Fleet was several tiers stronger than the Gallan Star Fleet. The Regent's Guard was yet another tier above the standard Imperial Fleet.

By this calculation, the combat formation assembled by this fleet possessed an undeniable power superior to Bedac's fleet—enough to allow a single Upper Level Four, or even a Limit of Level Four, to engage, perhaps even gain the upper hand in a confrontation!

Yang Ying and his ten avatars flashed through the fleet as streaks of light, moving at speeds equivalent to light, comparable to particle beams. However, penetrating the overwhelming bombardment to find an opening was far from easy.

Dense beams of light wove into a three-dimensional net that doggedly followed every figure, with each avatar simultaneously enduring hundreds of thousands of strikes.

After a brief engagement, one figure broke through the surrounding net of light first and plunged into an enemy command vessel.

Serving as the Godhead Core within this specific warship was Femude, who had once been severely wounded by Cass. He possessed hair like fire and specialized in fire-related sorcery.

In the command cabin at the heart of the warship, Yang Ying's avatar encountered Femude. This was an expansive space, approximately three hundred meters long and fifty meters wide, with a high platform in the center where Femude stood.

Of course, this spaciousness was relative to normal body size; if a Level Four being enlarged their form, this area would barely suffice for stretching limbs.

"I have waited a long time for you. Although I don't know where you materialized from, I assume you are allied with Yang Ying and the others. Recently, your ally took good care of me—that fellow covered in purple flames, I think his name was Cass. I intend to return all the suffering I endured from him onto you! After you perish, go complain to him!"

Femude clapped his hands together, then grasped with his right hand, drawing forth a longsword of flame from his left palm. Its blade unfolded like the wings of a phoenix, burning with crimson flames that left beautiful, fan-shaped trails as they sliced through the air.

The avatar wasted no words, raising a hand to condense a lightning javelin, five meters long, entirely silver-white. Electricity danced over the shaft, emitting a sizzling sound. He flung the javelin forward, hurling it toward Femude!