Now aware of the terrifying severity of the situation, Ziusudra took out his communication artefact and attempted to contact his trusty old friend, Shara. But even after waiting for a while, no connection was ever established.
Feeling a faint terror grip his heart, he hastily began to ascertain whether or not his worst worries had come to pass. Trying to reach out to every communications line on Enki XVII that he could think of, he was always met with the same results: Silence, and the inability to get in touch.
As a last Hail Mary, he put in his son's number, his usual air of confidence having all but faded. To be honest, he didn't expect to get an answer, but he had to make sure nonetheless. Fortunately, this time, within a couple of seconds, the call went through.
"Are you alright, Enmerkar? What is happening in Enki XVII? Why can't I reach anyone there?"
Before his progeny could even open his mouth, he had already bombarded him with a couple of questions, leaving the youngster tongue-tied for a moment. Only after sorting through his thoughts for a bit did he come up with a coherent response to every inquiry.
"Yes, Father, I'm alright. The Heaven's Chosen we've met is too powerful for me and Ganzer to deal with, therefore Uncle has sent us to Enki XII on a Voidfaring Vessel. We've just arrived there. Before we left, our foe's sneaky and slippery tactics have caused us to lose many troops, but Uncle should slowly be gaining the upper hand now that he doesn't have any more burdens weighing him down. But from what you've said, something seems to have gone wrong. Maybe it's caused by all of the Planetary Destruction Cannons that were fired, and the resulting spatial turbulences? That's my best guess."
Contemplating this option for a while, Ziusudra eventually shook his head, then heaved a reluctant sigh. Although he would have loved to delude himself into thinking that he was merely jumping at shadows, the very much real presence of the Imperium-spanning barrier in front of him let him know that the danger which he felt was completely real.
"I'm relieved that you're alright. But unfortunately, I cannot share your optimism. The entire Imperium has been enclosed in some sort of barrier, which prevents passage. We're currently caught like turtles in a jar. There is clearly something much more sinister at play. Give me a moment to think."
His father's words caused Enmerkar to blanch and exchange a worried glance with Ganzer, whose brows had begun to furrow. They would have doubted anyone else, but the Imperator's claims were beyond reproach. Clearly, they had significantly underestimated their opponent.
"... from what I can gather, this barrier is fuelled by Energy, so it should be connected to the Energy Veins in some way–and to many of them. There should be a number of nodes responsible for creating and maintaining it, likely located at places where many veins are present. Due to most Voidfaring Vessels currently being on Enki XVII, we can't really properly search the void, therefore our best option is to comb through all of our worlds carefully. Enmerkar, you and Ganzer will take charge in Enki XII and search it for these nodes. They are likely extremely well hidden, so be thorough! And... take care of yourself, alright?"
Finally putting together a makeshift plan in his head that might allow them to deal with this disaster, Ziusudra gave his instructions, his voice turning soft and doting towards the end. Sensing his father's care, Enmerkar felt like tearing up, but kept up a stoic facade.
"Got it, we won't let you down!"
Ending their conversation with a smile on his lips, Ziusudra turned more serious immediately afterwards, quickly contacting those in charge of all of the Imperium's worlds. He ordered them to look for clues and–if at all possible–to destroy any nodes that they found.
But during this process, another grim realization hit him and caused him to grow increasingly pale over time: Many worlds could not be contacted at all! He counted four of them in total, other than Enki XVII! What exactly was it that had happened to them? And how come it had all occurred this silently? If he hadn't tried to get in touch with them personally, then he never would have found out at all!
'One thing is clear: There is either more than one enemy, or this one Heaven's Chosen can control multiple bodies at once. From the very beginning, all of our actions have been predicted by them.'
Frowning, he went over his options one by one, not satisfied with any of them. No matter how he acted, he would always be playing straight into the hands of the one who had cornered his Imperium. But if he didn't act at all, then nothing good would come of it either!
'I can sit here and hope for those who I have sent out to destroy some nodes, then attempt to shatter the barrier. Doing this would open up a path of retreat and retain some hope for the future, even if we lose. But there is no guarantee at all that I'll hear back from them anytime soon.'
Glancing at the barrier, he eventually shook his head. It just didn't sit right with him to be this passive, especially when he represented the peak combat power of his civilization. He could utilize himself far more effectively than this.
'Alternatively, I can pay a visit to the worlds that I cannot currently reach. Maybe inspecting them personally will lead to further information, or even to a way to reverse this situation. But where should I start?'
On the one hand, there were four worlds–and on the other, there was just one, but also most of his Imperium's military force. It wasn't hard to figure out which option could bring about the greatest changes. As soon as he had decided, he rushed off into the distance.
'Enki XVII it is.'
-----
After he had sent away the two young prodigies and made his way back to the base of operations, Shara resolved himself to deal with their foe as quickly as possible. He hadn't wanted to inflict even further damage to the world previously, but the reality of the situation simply didn't allow him to continue to be soft-hearted.
"Fire the Planetary Destruction Cannons at every location from which he will likely try to ambush our troops."
Recalling the recent wails of the World's Will, the soldiers' and officers' faces lost colour, yet they still faithfully carried out their orders. Within moments, the remaining Guarding Eyes' weapons were trained on many hundreds of sparsely populated regions, ready to bathe them in rays of destruction.
Right as they were beginning to gather Energy, sirens once more began to resound loudly, and the entire Central Fortress was thoroughly illuminated by warning lights.
"S-Sir! We've lost control of all of our Guarding Eyes! A-And... the Planetary Destruction Cannons... they're all aiming at us! We have to evacuate, right now!!"
Hearing this report, Shara's eyes widened in shock, then he wrapped as many people as he could in his Energy and dashed outside, as far away as possible. Carrying them all along slowed him down a fair bit, but it still wasn't too difficult to make it out of the eventual blast radius.
As for resisting at least 800 Guarding Eyes' most powerful means head-on? That was something which he would much rather avoid! While he would probably survive, he would likely be heavily injured–and everyone else would be dead.
A few tens of seconds after he had made it to safety, a bright red light illuminated most of Enki XVII's skies, and the World's Will cried out in agony, heavily impacting everyone's spirits.
When the attacks were finally over, another region with extreme spatial turbulences and massive scars had been born. The Central Fortress was nowhere to be seen, yet the Voidfaring Vessels were unscathed. They could resist even the Lesser True Void, therefore this wasn't too much of a big deal to them.
'Maybe we should have fashioned our military fortifications after our Voidfaring Vessels. That way, even when met with an event like today, they could have continued to stand the test of time. We wouldn't have needed to flee either, as we could have simply shrugged off all of those blasts.'
Shaking his head, Shara ceased his wishful thinking. Previously, nobody would have considered wasting all the precious materials necessary to create their fleets on simple local structures. After all, they had never fought an enemy who had forced them to this point, and as a result, they had grown proud and careless.
It was at this moment that his gaze fell upon his communication artefact, which displayed the local troop movements in real time. But almost immediately, his eyes widened once more in horror, as the dots representing his men were disappearing at a rapid pace!
'Damn it! The attack on the Central Fortress was merely a distraction!'
Identifying where his foe was currently busy massacring his army, he rushed off immediately, almost instantly getting close enough to sense the actual situation. What he saw made his blood boil, yet also caused a cold shiver to run down his spine.
Utterly unbothered with keeping a low profile any longer, the familiar white-haired, icy blue-eyed young man was teleporting from one area to the next, encasing thousands of squads in his deadly ice at every moment in time. The frozen 'sculptures' left behind were then shattered, too many lives disappearing constantly. It was as if he was reaping crops, the power now displayed by him numerous times higher than ever before.
"Cease your actions at once!"
Bellowing furiously, Shara was finally close enough to intervene, gathering as much Energy as possible, then blasting it outwards in the form of an enormous tsunami that was bearing down on Theodore from all sides, threatening to crush him.
Yet instead of taking it seriously, to Shara's dismay, he merely smiled at the approaching Prime Grand General and calmly uttered a sentence.
"I've been waiting for you."
The next moment, everything around him–whether it be the ridiculously large waves, the mountains, the soldiers, or even the very air–it all froze over.
-----
At around the same time, in many of the worlds of the Enki Imperium, Theodore's Subordinates noticed that the still-garrisoned troops, as well as all available experts, had begun to move. Naturally, depending on their cultivation stages and realms, their ranges of perception differed, causing some to be aware of more than others, but overall, everyone noticed this trend.
Fortunately, they could make use of Kiran's network to communicate, therefore the ones with access to less intel were quickly brought up to speed by those who had discovered more about their current circumstances.
Some of them didn't need to worry at all, because the efforts of the Enki Imperium wouldn't reach their locations for a long time, but most did have to begin preparing a number of countermeasures.
Naturally, they hadn't been idle for all this while, and some had begun to reinforce their own positions a long time ago. The biggest downsides of the strategy that they were using was that the Compound Array Disks couldn't easily be moved after they had been connected to the Energy Veins, so as soon as they were discovered, their positions would inevitably come under attack.
Due to most of their enemy's important structures having been built in the vicinity of nearly all suitable spots which could have been used to activate their Compound Array Disks, quite a few of the Subordinates were actually extremely close to their foes.
Mere minutes after the various worlds had begun their sweeping searches, despite the outstanding concealment measures in place, the first unfortunate soul was discovered. It was Satoru.
"Seriously, why is it always me!?"
Grumbling unhappily, he tossed aside the last one of his assailants, all of which had been expertly knocked out. Although there had been a few at the Initial Ascension Stage, regular cultivators at that level didn't even warrant him taking a second glance at them.
'The real problem are those...'
Staring outside and at one of the many 'space stations' far above, he couldn't help but grin excitedly.
'I wonder how much an attack from a Planetary Destruction Cannon can injure me!'