To make matters worse, the original missing three thousand warships and two battalions had yet to be located!
This entailed that more than 60% of the royal family's forces were on the move, and she had absolutely no idea of their target.
"Director! I leave things here to you." Zosia passed over the command completely and disappeared from the operation center.
Maganda Chief and the others had received the same news, making them realize that the Toppoki region wasn't their worst problem now.
After they grouped up with Zosia, she set up an emergency gathering with the rest of the leaders and addressed them.
"I want everyone to be on high alert!" Zosia stressed, "It's clear to us now that the Toppoki region war was meant to attract our attention while they aim at other regions."
To be fair, Zosia and the others did assume that this might be their strategy.
But, it seemed too simple and predictable. She believed that the infamous cunning emperor Rawal would think of something more sinister.
"We have a list of the region they pulled those troops from." Zosia forwarded the list to everyone and said, "Unfortunately, all of them came from regions that are inaccessible for us. We need to break through the heart of the empire to reach them."
"Our latest Intel made it certain that it would be impossible to achieve that. Most of the reserve troops had been pulled into the capital region to bolster their defenses even further."
"So forget about going on offense." Zosia paused for a second to check if they understood her.
She really didn't want anyone to propose a counter-attack by taking advantage of the fact that 60% of their forces were not in the royal family territory.
She focused more on the horrific notion that those forces would aim at a single region and attempt to breakthrough forcefully.
It was possible with a seven thousand fleet.
"We need to prioritize defending the Silk Isle Region and Sheyrus regio…"
"What the f*ck!!!"
Zosia was interrupted mid-sentence by a long-horned skinny man, who was sitting in the front seats.
Before Gabriel could berate him for his crass behavior, the leader eyed them with a horrified look and exclaimed, "Three of my planets are under attack at this moment!!!"
"What?"
"Bob, get a grip already."
"The only two wormholes in your region are being defended heavily."
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtThe leaders next him started condemning him with irritated looks, knowing that it was impossible for an attack to be carried out on his territory.
If he said that the wormholes were being under attack, they would have believed him…But three planets at the same time? That's just impossible.
"Huh? My mining asteroid belt is under attack?"
Before Bob could defend his statement, another leader exclaimed with a dazed look.
"Not you too…"
"I am under attack as well." King Sollumas said while listening to a telepathic report from his subordinate.
He was informed that the economical hub of his territory had been raided by five hundred warships.
Since he was the king of the kingdom, naturally he received the news before Zosia.
After hearing that even King Sollumas was saying the same, the leaders had no idea how to react.
No one was stupid enough to believe that an Origin Bloodliner would joke around like this. Even when the content was truly unimaginable in their minds.
Unfortunately for them, the nightmare wasn't over yet.
Seven more leaders followed King Sollumas' footsteps and declared that multiple planets were being invaded simultaneously.
Some of those planets were for resources like big patches of farming fields or elemental mines.
While some planets held major cities in them and could be considered as part of the backbone of their kingdoms.
Whatever it was, no one had expected that a full wide scale invasion like this was even possible without them knowing about it.
"What's going on…Why is this happening?…How is this happening?" Stunned and confused, Zosia kept murmuring while supporting herself with podium.
She was absolutely shell shocked by the revelation of having ten regions being invaded while they were here discussing which targets would be aimed at.
She knew that it was impossible for the royal family fleets to reach the mentioned regions in less than ten minutes.
All of those regions were tens of millions of kilometers away from the royal family's major planets even if they shared the borders.
The hidden fleet could reach those regions' wormholes since she believed that they were on the move for months now.
She would have actually been fine if they targeted one of the wormholes and attempted to breach it.
But, that wasn't the case.
Ten regions were invaded, multiple planets were hit at once, and not a single warship had been spotted near those wormholes.
'How? How? How?…' Zosia felt like she was losing it.
Her mind reached only two possible conclusions for this insane scenario to be carried out.
Either the royal family had used nine different undiscovered wormholes that popped out of nowhere in the past months in each region…Or, they were assisted by space worm elders.
The only ones able to create long-distance wormholes for transportation besides the universe itself.
Both theories were laughable in Zosia's eyes.
The first theory was self-explanatory.
While the second one was absurd to even think about.
The Space Worm Race was completely banned from participating or selling their services in wars due to their advantageous gifts.
The first-ever wars in the SGAlliance Era were almost single-handedly decided by who owned more support from the space worms tribes.
After all, they were able to open wormholes and close them in the battleground as they wished, making it impossible to do anything without them.
Even the junior space worms could drop nukes in important facilities with a single unexpected space rift.
It wasn't farfetched to call them the scariest race in wars.
Thankfully, the space worms tribes had noticed that their participation in wars were causing civil rifts between them.
After all, they were forced to fight against each other in the wars to support the side that was paying them.
In addition, they were starting to carry bad karma with the citizens around the universe due to the bloodshed they cause.
They preferred not to be the most hated race in the universe.
So, they signed a pact that their race would never meddle in wars again, even thought it was truly too profitable.
Instead of moping about it, they switched their entire focus on being the overlords of transportation in the universe.
'Queen, were there any cases of space worm elders assisting anyone in their war even while being banned?'
Zosia was desperate for an answer, she could only throw cautions out of the window and question the second theory.
She knew that without knowing about the method used, she could never be fully concentrated in dealing with this disastrous invasion.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm'There were a few cases of using enslaved space worm elders within wars.' Queen Ai replied.
It made sense for this to be possible since slaves were property of the owner…Especially, if they signed a strict slavery contract that forced them to give up on their racial status and identity.
The moment they do so, they became nothing but an object that could be used just like any other tool.
'Did they enslave a space worm elder? They dare??'
Zosia's eyes widened in disbelief at the notion that emperor Rawal was crazy enough to enslave a freaking space worm elder.
She never considered this scenario to be an option since enslaving a space worm elder was the same as enslaving a god.
The consequences of being found resulted in one thing. Death of the owner, his family, his friends, and anyone close to him.
If he was a leader, king, or even an emperor. His citizens and territory would feel the true wrath of enslaving a member of the ruling power in the SGAlliance.
The ten rulers weren't to be messed with at all.
The only reason Queen Ai didn't rat on people who enslave those higher beings was because it wasn't banned.
After all, humans, goblins, fishermen, orcs, vampires, slimes, werewolves, and other races part of the alliance could be enslaved as well.
As long as slavery wasn't banned across the board for all races within the alliance, there was no way the ten rulers could exclude their race from the equation.
This was an alliance after all, not ten dictators doing as they wished with the rest.
Since it was impossible to ban slavery when the ten rulers were taking the most advantage of it, the only thing they could do to minimize having their people enslaved was using other methods.
Regarding space worm race, any king or emperor found to be enslaving their people and taking advantage of them would cause not only his downfall but for his entire empire.
In this case, the complete shutdown of all transportation wormholes indefinitely.
If that happened in the Mariana Empire, it was a death sentence for everyone living within it!
"Oh no, oh no, oh no, NOOOOOOOO!!!"
When Zosia reached this part and realized that if emperor Rawal got caught they would suffer with him, she couldn't help but let out a long heart-wrenching painful scream.
The chaotic gathering went deathly silent almost immediately after hearing it. Everyone eyed her with a stunned expression.
Yet, Zosia didn't seem to care about any of their looks. She gritted her teeth in pure rage and fury at both the emperor and herself.
How could she not behave like this when she figured out the true mortifying and cunning scheme of emperor Rawal?
She didn't know if she guessed correctly but based on the lack of options, there was a high chance that she was right.
What's the point of getting ownership of an empire that had no transportation system?
It was the same as ruling over a deserted galaxy.
This meant even if she had evidence of him actually using an enslaved space worm, she would actually be forced to hide it!