Rhazor’s face was incredibly solemn at this moment. The reports Solenne had constantly sent were still echoing in his ears. Moreover, there were also battle videos, showing how the army of several tens of thousands was slowly pushed back by the 110 Arboreal Winged Serpents and the giant, humanoid World Tree.

"So, that’s our enemy. She is a World Tree that can summon herself in a humanoid form on the battlefield. Moreover, she can summon Arboreal Winged Serpents who don’t look like fakes."

An advisor at the side spoke. "Other than those spikes that killed the first Moon-Type, the World Tree has not shown much ability to attack. It is clear that the World Tree is a summon-type World Tree..." The advisor added with a sigh. "One of the worst types of World Trees to face."

If there was any type of World Tree every single creature abhorred to fight, it was one that was an expert in summoning. After all, summoning was the only skill that the World Tree could spam regardless of the distance. As long as the World Tree had summons and essence, and their enemies were within their domain, the World Tree would flood them with wave after wave of summons.

While these World Trees were much easier to take down after breaching through the summon encirclement, the price to pay to breach that encirclement and waves was usually too high.

Rhazor spoke. "Change tactics. Tell the Left and Right Wing armies to retreat and gather. We will create a unified front, and I will personally join it. Stubbornly continuing our original intent to divide and conquer will backfire if the World Tree can hunt us down little by little."

A supervisor asked. "Lord, what about the Vanguard army? From our reports, one World-Type and over 90 Moon-Types have been destroyed in just three hours of battle."

"Tell them to retreat..." Rhazor lingered and smiled wryly. "I am sure they’ve been trying to do that since the beginning. However, it seems that they are too deep within Tianlian Liu Shu’s domain. Moreover, Arboreal Winged Serpents are hunters. So, with them fleeing, they will be easy targets."

An advisor spoke with a heavy heart. "So, this means..."

Rhazor spoke with a solemn nod. "Most likely, they will be annihilated. Tell them to focus their attacks on the humanoid World Tree that manifested. If we destroy that, I am sure the World Tree back in Ceperet will receive backlash of some kind."

"Understood."

Another asked. "What about the assassin and church groups? From what we know, they have yet to be discovered. Otherwise, the World Tree would’ve targeted them already."

"Tell them to be on standby and approach slowly. Our tactics need to change." Rhazor opened the Solar System map, his fingers tracing some lines in the battlefield. "At first, we wanted to do a pincer approach, dividing their army into two sections as we pushed inside. However, the combat strength of the World Tree is far beyond our expectations."

Honestly, while Rhazor was still confident in winning, he was a bit reluctant to continue the war. He could already tell that the sacrifices they would need to make were many. Still, thinking of the Nexus’s tactic, he gritted his teeth. ’If we don’t win this flank and I am unable to open a hole through here, the losses will be too heavy.’

Right now, he was not in a position where he could retreat. So, even if they had to pay a heavy price, he would advance.

"General Solenne, how many of you will be able to keep your lives?"

On the battlefield, Solenne was currently commanding when she heard that question. Her face was a bit pale, a Moon-Type nearby being struck by torrential lightning from an Elite Arboreal Winged Serpent and exploding into a red fireball. "Lord Rhazor... We might not make it. The healers of the Arboreal Winged Serpent side are too ridiculous."

Rhazor frowned at this new information. "How ridiculous?"

Solenne smiled wryly. "Actually, we managed to do an ambush on one Arboreal Winged Serpent and blew through its scales, crippling it. However, in just five minutes, the serpent was back to full health again and returned to the battlefield."

This news was too abnormal not to pay attention to. "Has this happened often? It might be a racial trait from that particular serpent."

"There have been no casualties on the other side, Lord!" Solenne, knowing that she might die here, was direct and without any formalities.

Her eyes were bloodshot as she saw her soldiers die one after another, the army of several hundred thousand being sliced down little by little in a battle that was 15,000 to 1. The side with the fewest soldiers had not lost anyone, and her own had already lost over 20% of the total army!

"Rhazor, I am telling you this because I am unsure if I am even going to make it out alive. The opponent this time is much more complicated than you think. The 10 leaders of the Arboreal Winged Serpents have the strength of a weak Star Emperor. While they might not compare to you, they are basically invincible against <First Ascension> people. Not because we can’t damage them, but because their regeneration is just abnormal. When you fight, deal with the Healers, or we won’t have a chance."

Hearing these words, Rhazor’s heart felt a bit heavier. The advisors around him had also stopped looking relaxed, all of them with tensed expressions.

The Vanguard had around 1.5 million soldiers out of the total 10. This number was prepared by Rhazor so that, in case something went wrong, they would have enough numbers to retreat.

Who knew that this initial charge to test the waters fell into an inescapable swamp of death?

"Are you sure you can’t escape the encirclement?"

"No. They are... too fast." Looking at the creatures outside whooshing through the void as if they had been accelerated, she was helpless. The giant World Tree with the enormous shield, which should’ve been slow and heavily armored, was fast enough to dodge the starship’s main cannons.

Moreover, just because of her side, each of her attacks could implicate thousands. The giant World Tree was a reaper in this battle, like a giant smashing a nest of ants.

Liu Shu, observing the battlefield, had long pierced through the sense-blocking of the World-Types and was listening to Solenne speak with Rhazor. Her heart was settled when the other party had not noticed her <Acceleration Domain>.

She had to keep more trump cards, so she had not used the <Slow Domain> and <Pause Domain> skills yet. Moreover, her own participation was barely there: She was only using some spike strikes from time to time and hitting World-Type shields, while keeping her healing active.

’The Arboreal Winged Serpents are much stronger than I expected.’

Still, she admitted that if it were not because of her healing spell, the serpents would not have been able to resist the bombardment of the hundreds of thousands of soldiers on the battlefield.

Even Star Lords were struggling to damage them, but the sheer number of them and starships would’ve been enough to push Warlya and the 110 Serpents past their limits. ’At that time, I would’ve needed to intervene myself and reveal more cards.’

Her eyesight shifted away from the battlefield, observing how the largest groups turned around and tried to leave her domain as fast as possible. Her mind spun quickly. ’Can I damage them somehow?’

She wanted to attack their retreating figures to weaken them, if even slightly. But the number of deaths she would achieve during their retreat might increase their caution beyond her objective.

’Currently, I look strong, but I am still beatable. If I show much more strength, the other side might hesitate and straight up retreat.’

Not knowing that Rhazor was here to pierce through the flank, Liu Shu slightly mischaracterized his intentions. So, she was holding back much more than what she would’ve ideally needed.

Rhazor looked at the map, his mind spinning. "Is Ceperet even worth keeping?"

His question startled the advisors, but in the next second, they all became thoughtful. "The reason we initially chose Ceperet as our base of operations is because we thought it would be an easy conquest."

Rhazor listened, his gaze sharp.

"However, Lord. This World Tree is showing much more strength than anticipated. Even compared to Altherion’s reports, our information can only be considered outdated. Our enemy is... strong."

Rhazor nodded, showing he was listening.

"Therefore, we suggest that we scorch this Solar System. We should not attack Ceperet, but a more distant objective that’s a bit more manageable."

"Which is?"

"Their Sun."

Rhazor paused, and then he frowned. "Ceperet’s star is not big. However, it is not small either. According to our reports, the star is about 2 million kilometers wide. To destabilize and destroy a star of that size, our entire army of starships would need to focus their beams onto it for a few days."

While a star was a stationary object, it was a ball of raw energy created by constant explosions that could destroy worlds easily. So, the attacks would need to fight not only the star’s dense surface, but also the star’s constant process of creating energy.

The amount of energy needed to destabilize a Star was just... ridiculous. Therefore, Rhazor knew that if they wanted to fulfill that objective, they would need to fight back against Ceperet’s World Tree, while also redirecting a large chunk of their firepower toward the star.

Rhazor crossed his arms. "We can consider this as plan A. However, the second we notice their offensive surpassing our ability to divert firepower, we will give it up. We have around 30 hours before we reunite with the Left and Right Wing armies. I want to hear more than one plan during this time."

"Yes, Lord!"

Back in Ceperet, Liu Shu was unaware of this plan. After all, her senses were not sharp enough to pierce through the Star Emperor’s defenses without alerting him. So, she didn’t bother.

Instead, she was focused on keeping the <Phoer> of all the Arboreal Winged Serpents up, using her roots as a last line of defense, while simultaneously speaking with her own armies.

The over 5,000,000-strong army she had sent to face the Right Wing army was now returning. With the armies returning, Liu Shu had no reason to mobilize them. Instead, she regrouped and prepared to send everyone when the other side returned.

’What I must do now is not allow Solenne to escape without showing all my strength. Only when facing Rhazor should I release everything without holding back.’

Still, Solenne was not an easy fight either. The number of Arboreal Winged Serpents was a bit too low to kill everyone quickly. So, eventually, 2 World-Types and 16 Moon-Types escaped, with around 300,000 survivors.

Tallying the enemy death count, it totaled around 1.2 million.

"A very good start." Liu Shu sighed, but her guard didn’t lower. The true battle had yet to come.