After a brief moment of contemplation, Roya marked the star region he had just discovered into Im's consciousness, sending a transmission:
"Imu, gather the crew. Prepare to depart!"
The entire primitive planet immediately came alive, like clockwork wound tight.
The tribal warriors were once again assembled under guidance, boarding the Hades via transport ships. The scientific and technical teams that had previously been deployed across the surface also returned aboard.
Under the devout kneeling of the tribal natives, the Hades, covering the entire sky, burst into dazzling blue light, and in an instant vanished into the boundless void of the cosmos.
Roya returned to the throne in the command chamber, immersing himself into the subspace spiritual projection map.
"At our current speed, we'll reach the star region of the Silent King within at most a month."
"The Silent King has already brushed against the threshold of traversing within subspace itself—that's why his physical entity can enter subspace. It seems he still cannot move freely within it, but unless I crack this technique, there's no way to strike him effectively."
"In this expeditionary force, I'm the only one capable of directly launching attacks into subspace. Yet the farther we get from the Pirate Star, the weaker my efficiency in mobilizing subspace energy becomes. The Silent King, however, will be fighting on home ground. That puts me at a severe disadvantage."
"Fortunately, those three Star Gods don't appear to be completely aligned with the Silent King—otherwise they wouldn't have revealed this information to me in such a manner."
"But no matter what, I must decipher the secret of traversing subspace before we reach that desolate star domain!"
With his objective clear, Roya no longer poured most of his spiritual sense into binding the Demon Lord's projection. He left only enough threads of sense to hold it in place, withdrawing all the rest.
Every shred of spiritual power he could muster sank into deduction within his consciousness. Drawing from the knowledge gained from the Star Dragon's remains and the Silent King's lair, he focused entirely on unraveling the key to traversing subspace.
Of course, he hadn't forgotten about the three Star Gods, who still drifted along the edges of his projection's territory, endlessly repeating their mechanical motions that represented the spatial coordinates between subspace and the material world.
They had, by now, practically become his live tutors—demonstrating over and over again the very principles he sought.
With external pressure mounting and multiple streams of information converging, Roya's understanding of subspace grew at a rapid pace.
Meanwhile, the Hades itself was like a colossal, ever-more-proficient super factory, processing vast resources at the highest speed and converting them into the latest models of combat armor, re-equipping the entire army.
Though these combat suits could not match the subspace-powered mechs in sheer strength or performance—limited to short-range propulsion in space and modest boosts in power and speed—for the countless ordinary soldiers who had yet to awaken psychic abilities, such armor was more than enough.
Unnoticed, a month slipped quietly by.
And then—it came.
A palpable wave of deathly silence surged forth, locking onto the Hades completely!
Jolted by this chilling aura, Roya snapped awake from his deepest deductions.
The confrontation with the Silent King had finally arrived!
Roya rose, standing before the viewing window. Gazing into what seemed like utter void ahead, he knew—the Silent King, drifting between subspace and the material realm, was at that very moment standing within the command chamber of his pyramid tomb, staring back through a porthole and the subspace barrier, fixing his gaze on Roya's position with equal intensity!
A strange ripple stirred within subspace.
A faint smile curved Roya's lips. For this ripple, caught by his spiritual sense, was undeniable proof of the very conclusion he had labored over for a month to reach!
Although, aside from the Star Gods, Roya had never seen any being achieve true free movement of their spirit within subspace, his deductions were clear:
Any entity possessing a spiritual projection must, without exception, share an eternal link between its physical form in the material world and its projection in subspace!
That link would not break, even as the entity traversed vast cosmic distances. Instead, by the nature of subspace, it would transcend spatial boundaries and persist unbroken.
"The physical body in the material world and the spiritual projection in subspace have always been two sides of the same whole!"
"These ripples are the waves created by the link between the Necron legions' projections in subspace and their entities in the material realm!"
In an instant, Roya unleashed his spirit completely, no longer holding back—his spiritual sense poured outward in all directions!
It was as though a blazing star had been reborn in this star domain, scattering immeasurable waves of power across the cosmos.
Because Roya had grasped the first truths of the connection between subspace and the material world, his spiritual sense now carried a quality that blurred the boundary between the two.
As his sense spread, subspace and the material realm began to overlap, however faintly, within this star system.
The Necron armies that the Silent King had hidden, cloaked within subspace, could no longer remain concealed—they were revealed within the Hades' observation arrays and energy scans!
Im realized with shock that the Hades had already been surrounded on all sides—above, below, front, back, left, and right—by no fewer than six pyramid ships!
The nearest one loomed less than a kilometer away!
Scarlet alarms blared instantly through every corridor and chamber aboard the Hades!
Though all warbands had already prepared for battle upon entering this star domain—including the newly formed Psychic Battle Group—the sudden appearance of enemies at such close range still caught the warband leaders off guard.
"Thank the heavens! Lord Roya cracked the enemy's greatest trump card at the very last moment! Otherwise, if the Necrons had struck us suddenly from subspace at this distance—even if we held the line in the first wave—we would've suffered devastating losses!"
Imu wiped at the cold sweat that could not possibly exist upon his biomechanical brow, his eyes upon Roya's back growing ever more fanatical and reverent.
At the same time, he relayed targeting data and combat orders into the minds of the warband leaders.
"All warband—deploy!"
"Whitebeard Warband, engage Enemy Ship One!"
"Kaido Warband, engage Enemy Ship Two!"
"Supernova Warband, engage Enemy Ship Three!"
"Navy Guard Warband, engage Enemy Ship Four!"
"All-Metal Warband, engage Enemy Ship Five!"
"Psychic Warband, engage Enemy Ship Six!"
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Sealed hatches blew open in thunderous succession. The six warbands, each locking onto their designated targets, surged out under their commanders' lead—launching the counterstrike!