Under the leadership of Samantha and many other capable leaders, the Martian crew gained more experience by the day. After every victory, the crew’s confidence increased as much as their skills improved.

Karl and Flash had affected the soldiers around them with their phenomenal skills and charismatic personality. After the major victory against the dark ones, Li Hong and Xiao Se were completely captivated by Samantha’s leadership skills. As the three leaders worked together, the Armada started to unleash its full combat potential.

The Armada were divvied into three columns: the center column commanded by Samantha herself, and the left and the right columns being under the command of Karl and Flash respectively. Both Karl and Flash were promoted to the rank of generals; Karl was nicknamed the Tiger General, and Flash was nicknamed General Perfection.

As the human armada made significant progress around Mars, the immortal fleets were forced to respond. However, as soon as the vanguard of the fleet reached Mars’ outer space, they were greeted by a wave of onslaught led by Karl.

Karl was well known for his decisive and swift maneuvers, able to surprise the enemy with risky moves. As soon as Karl delivered a blow to the Immortal fleet, he turned on his heels and disappeared in the vast space. The Immortals were not only caught off guard by the abruptness of the attack, but they were also ill-prepared for the advanced weaponry on the human ships.

That being said, Karl’s small victory did not amount to the total victory of humans in space, as the main force of the Immortals’ fleet pressed on and soon reached Mars’ space territory. The Divine Lord had given the Martians his ultimatum; the final space battle between the Immortals and the humans was about to draw back its curtain.

The number of ships in the immortal Armada outnumbered that of the human fleet fifty to one. With such a decisive advantage, Immortals were confident that they could defeat the humans in one fell swoop.

Despite their disadvantage, the humans didn’t waver, particularly those from Mars. If they were able to endure the dark ones’ brutality and savagery for six years and emerge victorious in the end, they had nothing to be afraid of in the world.

The immortals had dumped all of their battle cruisers into this mission, and therefore, the checkpoints between earth and the moon were barely guarded.

Despite the tailwinds, the human armada had sailed into previously, their final test had arrived with the Immortal armada. The Martian coalition on the ground had also geared up to embrace themselves for the incoming attack from the space. Despite everyone’s heightened spirit, how to defeat the huge armada remained a burning question.

“Wang Tong should do something on the Earth while we fight back, trapping the Immortals in our pincer.”

Although the vanguard of the Immortal armada had sustained heavy casualties, the main fleets of the Armand had made it to Mars safe and sound. The human resistance force tried to harass the battlecruisers, but to no avail due to their sheer size.

Dimalis stared into the vast space as he lamented on his miscalculation about Wang Tong’s plan. Unlike he had previously thought, Wang Tong didn’t lead the Martian armada straight to the Moon; instead, he had gone to the Earth by himself while the Armada focused on strengthening their control around Mars.

Although Dimalis knew that the Immortals’ real enemy was Wang Tong, he didn’t have to worry about how to deal with that Earthling teenager. His order was simple: to eliminate the Human armada and recapture Mars.

Dimalis reckoned how easy this mission was since Wang Tong was out of the picture. The thought of fighting the latter was tempting to him, but with such great responsibility on his shoulder, the Immortal Admiral knew he should think better of it.

“Admiral, the human fleet is out greatly outnumbered, and we already have victory in the bag. If we were to catch that pestering Karl, I would like to skin him alive!”
The immortals had given Karl a unique nickname: Karl the pest, in honor of his unscrupulous combat strategies. Like a rat with lightning speed and a thousand filed teeth, Karl and his captains would attack the Immortal armada when it was the least prepared, and disappear when the Immortal pilots would still be putting on their pilot suits. It nibbled at the enormous fleet, one morsel at a time.

Dimalis knew that his priority was not Karl, and therefore, he didn’t let the harassment slow down the main fleet’s pace. Once Mars was within their bombardment range, the human armada would have no option but to come out of hiding. This operation was so unchanging that it almost felt boring to Dimalis. He would rather be fighting against a powerful foe such as Wang Tong than squashing some defenseless humans.

“Sir, our ship will enter hyperspace. Please advise!”

“The third and fifth fleet will take the lead, and we will bring up the rear. Tell them to prepare for an ambush on the other side. They have my permission to at fire at will. Teach those SOBs a lesson!”

“Yes, sir!”

“The eleventh and the twelve will follow them in about ten minutes. ”

“Yes, sir!”

The five gigantic fleets slowly detached from the main formation and prepared for the hyperjump.

“Admiral, when are we going to enter the warp?” An immortal general asked curiously.

“We will not take the warp. We fly there.”

“That is going to take a long time… Plus the insistent harassment from Karl…”

Dimalis waved in dismissal at the general, and then he rubbed his forehead, his face looking troubled. “I have a bad feeling about the warp, so better safe than sorry.”

“Hehe, you are too circumspect. Anyways, those five fleets should be enough to handle the entirety of the human fleet. Perhaps when we get there, there would be nothing left for us to kill. Haha!”

The Immortal laughed with the general who had spoken. Their advantage was too great for the humans to handle, and the best that the latter could achieve was delay their inevitable defeat.

The first five fleets had come out of the warp space and landed inside the Padlock quarter. The commanders of the fleet had calculated that they would encounter the heavy presence of the human armada here. However, when they got there, they saw only one ship. Did the human armada give up Mars for their lives? What about the people on Mars?

Although the single ship was a Zeus class battle cruiser—a hulking Bethlehem by itself— it looked tiny before the massive Immortal fleets.
Inside the battleship, groups of soldiers were already in their space METAL. However, none of them carried a weapon or a gun.

The leader of the group was Guan Dongyang and Michaux. Guan Dongyang tuned to Michaux and nodded. “The Immortals main force has entered subspace. We have about ten minutes. ”

Michaux nodded back, “Let’s start.”

Michaux and Guan Dongyang jumped out of the loading bay, with the rest of the soldiers trailing behind. When they got outside the ship, they didn’t stray far from it; instead, they linked their hands and formed a pentagon.

The soldiers included not only Michaux and Guan Dongyang, but also Xiao Yuyu and many other powerful mastery casters. The entire team was comprised of three thousand, five hundred and eighty-nine mastery casters. They had been practicing this spell ever since Wang Tong had left for earth. The mastery casters knew that the Immortal fleet would come sooner or later, and they had even plotted the Immortals’ course and concluded that the Padlock quarter was the best place to deliver a blow. This was their only chance at stopping the massive Immoral armada, and they had chosen to use Mastery as their weapon.

Although the combined might of Michaux and Guan Dongyang were less than a fraction of Wang Tong’s, their understanding and skills in mastery were at par. Both of them had achieved enlightenment after the asteroid storm, thanks to Wang Tong.

That being said, the two of them would not be able to stop the Immortals without help from mastery casters all over the Mars.

Among the three thousand or so casters, Michaux saw many familiar faces; nearly all the casters on Mars had gathered under his banner. Michaux slowly turned on his sea of consciousness and connected it with the primordial forces around him. Without Wang Tong to lead the spell, the felt an overwhelming dread and loneliness once he opened up to the boundless sea of energy. He swallowed down his fear and despair and pressed on.

“Now!”

Guan Dongyang, Xiao Yuyu, and Ye Zi followed suit and channeled their soul energy to follow Michaux. The infusion of the other casters soul energy gave him comfort, so he picked up speed.

The rest of the casters joined the spell one after another based on their level. Every single one of them had to face and overcome their fear. Fortunately for those who had not reached the legendary level, the insensitivity of their sea of consciousness became an advantage as it helped to alleviate the fear. All they had to do was to follow Michaux’s lead.

As the Immortal fleet approached their exit, the space-time continuum started to become unstable. The vacuum in space gained a liquid-like texture with ripples that expanded in all directions. Then, a singularity appeared at the center of the ripples, reaching the size of a city in a blink. Just like that, the giant hole disemboweled the five fleets, each consisting of thousands of ships, in mere seconds.

“Let the stupid Zergs go ahead first. We will stay behind.”

“All hand on deck, ready for battle!”

“Long live the Immortals!”

Fifty space hives were the first that started attacking the only human ship in space; they were the cannon fodders. Michaux had teleported near the warp in the space and coaxed the energy of the portal under his command by synchronizing his energy with that of the portal.

No human technology known to the Immortals was able to alter the frequency of the portal; it was as stable and absolute as time itself. However, with enough skills, a mastery caster could change the frequencies with a snap of a finger.