Without hesitation, the captain used the emergency red line to contact Commander Zosia and the rest of the anti-royality alliance's heads.
In a few seconds, all of them picked up the call and joined a holographic meeting.
"What's the issue?" Zosia asked with a serious expression.
The others remained quiet and stared at the captain's pale face, knowing that what was about to come wouldn't please them one bit.
"A supernova fleet being led by a mother battalion is merely two months away from the Toppoki's wormhole!!" The scouts' captain informed with an agitated voice.
Before they could ask him about the truthfulness of the news, he showed them the last scene that the sergeant saw and told them everything that happened.
"How is this even possible?!" Maganda Chief banged the table with a furious look.
He should be pissed since his territory was the one getting targeted!
"I don't understand." Gabriel murmured, "Is the asteroid real or just a fake hologram."
"It can't be a fake hologram." Berry added, "No one has yet to reach such a level of technology besides the Metal Race. We all know that most technologies purchased from them are banned from being used in wars."
The Metal Race had written this on the contract of most of their deals.
They wanted to share their technologies with the others but only if they were being used to serve the civilians and make their lives easier.
The anti-royality alliance also purchased the technology to make supermassive realistic holograms that span over tens of kilometers.
But, they didn't plan on using them in this war since it was simply impossible.
"So how?!"
Everyone turned back to the recording and played it again in slow motion, hoping to find out a key to solve this mystery.
They knew that if they didn't solve it, the royal family would continue using this strategy against them.
Even if they didn't use it, the anti-royality alliance would be forced to start scanning every asteroid or meteor in their territories.
This wild goose chase would cost them too many necessary resources.
"If it's not a hologram, then it's got to be an illusion array." Zosia proclaimed calmly.
"That's impossible!" Maganda Chief was the first to disapprove of her claim, "The Sage Race will never sell such an advanced array to the royal family!"
Everyone nodded their heads in agreement.
Just like the witches and dwarves, they were a race that was part of the top ten rulers due to their utility not overpowering strength.
While the dwarves were able to craft artifacts and witches capable of concocting potions, the Sages were capable of making array scrolls.
The system used was almost the same as the dwarves.
The dwarves craft artifacts by engraving abilities into gems called futharks. Then, putting those futharks into weapons or equipment.
Meanwhile, the Sages used their own unique language to write down elemental abilities or skills on scrolls made out of special material.
As long as one used the right keyword, the scroll would be activated and the ability written on it would manifest into the real world.
They seem quite similar to the Talism Race. Both of them inscribe abilities on pieces of paper and then manifesting them as they wished.
But in reality, the Sages were much more dangerous than the Talism Race.
That's because arrays scrolls could actually be used by other races and for multiple times!
Meanwhile, Talismans could be used only the Talism Race, and they were a one time deal.
The moment an ability manifest, the Talisman gets burned forever.
That's why the Sages were part of the ten rulers while the Talisman Race was part of top thirty races.
Still, just because they could be used by other races, it didn't mean that anyone could get their hands on some arrays.
Due to the Sages' low population throughout the universe, their arrays were extremely hard to get.
The top nine races had almost a monopoly over the best arrays that gets released for sale, making it impossible for the other races to circulate some in their territories.
For such a realistic illusion array that was able to manifest a twenty kilometer flying asteroid, Maganda Chief refused to believe that the royal family had enough pull within the SGAlliance's inner circle to get their hands on it!
"Don't forget that they had two hundred years of preparation." Zosia knitted her eyebrows, "God knows the things they prepared for this war."
Upon hearing so, the others had no idea how to retort. Two hundred years was a long time.
In addition, the royal family was one of the ancient families, who survived for millions of years in the galaxy. So, there was a small chance of them having a deal with a Sage.
This meant, the royal family could have actually secured a scroll or more by their ancestors and were kept hidden for the right moment to be used.
Array scrolls could survive through most extreme environment and also the passage of time just like the Sages.
In fact, Felix owned a scroll that allowed him to enter Lady Sphinx's lab that was placed in a pocket dimension.
He simply had no idea about it due to his non-existent contact with array scrolls.
"I know it's hard to believe, but it does explain why Queen Ai didn't avoid the rocks when she was operating the spaceship." Zosia reasoned, "Why would she avoid a rock when she knows that it was unreal based on her data."
"Make sense."
"I can back that."
"No wonder."
This time, the others started to feel more inclined to believe in her theory.
They knew that as the creator of this battleground, Queen Ai recognized what's real and what's fake.
So, she didn't bother to dodge the rock, forcing the sergeant to manually operate the spaceship.
"Right now, we shouldn't be focusing on the method used but how to stop their invasion as fast as possible." Maganda Chief swiftly changed the subject, "There is a high chance of them completely dropping their disguise and going full speed in direction of the wormhole."
"If they did so, they would reach it in less than a month."
"He is right." Zosia approved and started giving out orders, "The first thing we will do is transport a a five stars nova fleet to block the entrance of the wormhole."
"Isn't better to send out a supernova fleet?" Berry inquired, "A five star nova fleet will merely slow them down."
"I know." Zosia retorted, "Do you think that greedy geezer will be dumb enough to send out only one supernova fleet?"
"By now, he must have known that his asteroid has been exposed."
It was common sense to think so since all soldiers' recordings get sent back to their superiors after their death.
Since they had been filmed getting ambushed, it was natural to assume that the asteroid was a ruse.
"He may not know that we actually found out about their fleet but still, he will be prepared for our retaliation." Zosia concluded, "So, we can not pull all of our troops in the Maganda Tribe to the wormhole. We must not leave them defenseless like that when we don't know if he had another fleet hidden somewhere."
"God knows how many more illusion arrays they got."
The other leaders had nothing to add after hearing her reasoning. It put them at ease by knowing that Zosia played at her own pace instead of getting led by the royal family's pace.
Other commanders or generals would have sent all of their troops to defend the wormhole since time was pressing them.
But Zosia planned on simply using the defensive station as a way to delay the supernova fleet until the true reinforcement arrives.
Those reinforcements wouldn't be from the Maganda Tribe but from the other closest regions.
Naturally, it would take more time for them to arrive, but it was better than pulling most troops from a single region.
"We need to prepare for a counter-attack." Zosia added, "We now know that they are one supernova fleet down. Figure out which region it is supposed to defend and send our troops there."
"I will handle it." Berry ensured.
"Gabriel, I need you to check other regions in case the royal family had sent another supernova fleet disguised as an asteroid or something." Zosia commanded.
"Will do."
"The rest will focus with me on this invasion." Zosia narrowed her eyes, "The rest of the war will be a hundred times more difficult if we got our ass handed to us in the Toppoki region."
Everyone understood what she meant.
For an alliance made out of hundreds of backgrounds, moral and confidence was everything. Right now, everyone was pretty confident in their victory due to the numbers difference.
However, if one of the main regions of the alliance got invaded in the first couple of months by a mere supernova fleet, then the morals would go down hard.
It would be extremely challenging to restore it again.
Zosia didn't know if this was their plan all along, or it was just a part of a larger sinister scheme.
Whatever it was, she was preparing for the worst!
