"Lock, fire!"

The Matrix's voice remained as unfeeling as ever. Nevertheless, the moment its voice subsided, Merlin's empire-level warship blasted more than a dozen dazzling beams of light.

The huge light beams lit up the sky in a spectacular display. It actually hit the fortress cannon first. The combined impact of more than a dozen light beams was pure terror.

"Boom."

Before the fortress cannon could even fire, it was blown into pieces. The warship attack system controlled by the Matrix seemed to be much faster than the average warship.

Merlin realized with a jolt. Apparently, with an intelligence system like the Matrix, the warship would undergo some changes.

"City-level warships?"

Merlin looked at the screen. There were a few city-level warships that were preparing to flee. Regardless, Merlin had no intention of sparing them. He immediately commanded the Matrix to open fire and destroy these city-level warships completely.

"A fortress destroyed, just like that?"

Bellio watched the destruction on the screen with his mouth agape. It was important to note that the fortresses built by the Rebellion Army were extraordinary. Even faced against an empire-level warship, it had the ability to intercept and destroy the empire-level warship.

However, this fortress, including the fortress cannon, was blown into pieces. The entire fortress was destroyed by Merlin's empire-level warship. Nevertheless, when Bellio thought carefully, he realized how Merlin had emerged as the victor.

"Speed, it's the warship attack system's speed. Even though the fortress cannon was the first to lock down the warship, the full-intelligence system onboard is able to open fire upon command. Hence, the fortress cannon was shot down before it could launch an attack."

After the initial shock, Bellio eventually calmed down. He looked at this empire-level warship in amazement. Merlin had displayed too many surprises. Such a fast response speed coupled with a fully-intelligent warship. Despite the fact that there were no component upgrades whatsoever, the combat power of the warship was massively enhanced.

"The military's secret research on full-intelligence systems is truly powerful. If the entire fleet of the First Battalion is equipped with this full-intelligence system, then the battalion's strength would be enhanced by unknown proportions."

While Bellio was speculating the benefits of the full-intelligence system on the warships, the rest of the people from the First Battalion were utterly stunned, expressions of incredible disbelief were plastered all over their faces.

A fortress destroyed, this was equivalent to a declaration of war!

"We're dead. If the warships of the Second Battalion get here, they can kill us with proper justification because the fortress was destroyed. Currently, we're not too far from the Second Battalion's base."

Everyone realized that the severity of the situation at hand increased significantly. If the Second Battalion managed to arrive at the scene, all of them would be in grave danger.

Thinking of this, Bellio spoke to Merlin gravely. "Merlin, we must leave now and hurry towards the base of the First Battalion as fast as we can. Only then, with the help of Commander Keno, we might be able to smooth this matter over."

Honestly, Bellion was not sure whether this matter could be smoothed over, but in the current circumstances, he had no choice but to say that. Moreover, a fully-intelligent system empire-level warship like this would greatly increase the overall strength of the Rebellion Army. Therefore, should the leader decide on a punishment, it most probably would not inconvenience Merlin too much.

Merlin nodded. Naturally, he anticipated the consequences of his actions. However, since the other side had activated the fortress cannon, he could not afford to hesitate and struck first.

"Let's go!"

Activating the empire-level warship, they left the fortress as quickly as possible.

Shortly after the warship departed, three empire-level warships and a dozen city-level warships rushed to the fortress. Lombass looked at the ruins of No. 8 Fortress with a dark expression.

"Great, marvelous, they even dare to destroy a fortress. Hehe, but this is good too. Now we can justify destroying this warship. Alert all the fortress checkpoints, anyone who spots this empire-level warship, destroy it immediately. Activate the first level warfare alarm right now. Every fortress cannon should be charged to their highest limits. In addition, mobilize another ten empire-level warships and surround that warship!"

A ruthless sneer appeared on the corner of Lombass' mouth. Since the Second Battalion could not obtain this warship, he would not allow the First Battalion to obtain it either.

"Merlin, can the warship go any faster?"

Bellio asked with a sense of urgency. In fact, he was not the only one who was nervous. The rest of his men were also very anxious because along the way, they had been locked down by several warships.

Fortunately, the empire-level warship was fast enough, coupled with the Matrix's full-intelligence system. With a single command from Merlin, the warship could respond accordingly, so they had been able to prevent another violent battle so far.

However, they could surmise that the Second Battalion must have issued a siege order. Otherwise, the warships that they encountered would not have chosen to target and open fire at Merlin's warship as soon as they spotted it.

"Beep beep beep. Warning, warning, extreme danger, we've been locked down as target!"

"Locked down again? Matrix, retreat backward."

Merlin made a decisive call. They encountered too many target locks within this period of time but he had been able to handle it flawlessly thanks to the Matrix's near-perfect control of the empire-level warship. This linkage allowed the warship to be a lot more responsive compared to the other empire-level warships.

"There is a fortress in front? No wonder we were locked down. Is there any other way around here?"

Merlin asked with a frown. A fortress lied ahead of them, obviously guarded by the Second Battalion as well. The extreme threat detected earlier was definitely due to them being locked down by a fortress cannon.

It was impossible to activate the full limit of the fortress cannon in such a short time, so the only reasonable explanation was that Lombass had already raised the alarm to the first level, which was in preparation for war.

In other words, Lombass' Second Battalion was now dead set on destroying Merlin's empire-level warship.

"Damn it, how can they be so despicable? Lombass has gone crazy. Is he trying to pick a fight between the First and Second Battalions?"

Bellio was furious but helpless all the same.

"It's a war now!"

Merlin also felt slightly helpless. He did not expect that just as he was about to infiltrate the Rebellion Army and slowly understand the situation of the entire Atlan civilization, he would encounter such a crisis.

If the Second Battalion managed to catch up to them, he could not rely on this empire-level warship alone to escape. So, when that time comes, Merlin could only wield his true abilities. Despite being able to Mind Control the Rebellion Army, it was troublesome.

After all, Mind Control was not a perpetual control. Once the person leaves the effective range of Merlin's Mind Power, they would recover. Thus, Merlin's tracks would be uncovered.

Bellio said helplessly, "We don't have an escape route anymore. It's possible to circle around the fortress, but it is still within the firing range of the fortress cannon. As soon as we advance a little further, we will be locked down immediately."

Merlin had no desire to test the power of the fortress cannon. One strike could strip the defensive layer of the warship and lose 50-60% of its energy, whereas two or three strikes could destroy the warship.

The fortress cannons had been specifically designed to deal with empire-level warships. These fortress cannons were still considered harmless compared to the fortress cannons installed on the important starships. Those were true horror. Even dimension-level warships were unable to withstand more than a few hits.

"Warning, warning; large number of warships detected!"

Just as Merlin was caught in a dilemma, the Matrix blared out a piercing alarm. At some unknown point of time, a huge fleet of warships had appeared behind the warship.

"Tsss."

Seeing this huge fleet of warships, everyone inhaled sharply. This was a massive force composed of twelve empire-level warships and almost thirty city-level warships.

Looking at the insignias, they were obviously warships that belonged to Lombass from the Second Battalion!

"We've been surrounded…"

Bellio clenched his fist tightly but he was powerless to react. Under the siege of twelve empire-level warships and the fortress cannon, there was simply no way for them to escape.

Merlin stared at the fleet coldly. If they really dared to destroy his warship, he would not spare any thought to show his true abilities and crush all of them to dust.

However, Merlin's identity would be revealed.

…

In the Second Battalion's fleet, Lombass was seated inside the commanding ship. Looking at the empire-level warship, a grin broke out across his face. "Hehe, we've finally caught up to you. Let's see where else you can escape to this time."

"Sir Commander, do you want us to destroy it now?"

"Stupid!"

Lombass sneered. "I allowed you to destroy it earlier on to prevent this empire-level warship from falling into the hands of the First Battalion, but now that it has been surrounded by us, it will become the main warship of the Second Battalion. Are we going to destroy our own main warship? No matter what, this is an empire-level warship. Recently, the Federation has been imposing a stricter restriction on us, we can't even transport some key spare parts. Replacing warship spare parts is already problematic enough, let alone building new warships."

Lombass looked at the warship greedily. Thus, he ordered ten empire-level warships to slowly surround it. However, he was extremely cautious and kept the commanding ship far away, outside the firing range of an empire-level warship. The rest of the warships locked down Merlin's empire-level warship securely.

If there were any peculiarities, all the warships would open fire at once.

"Tell them, take the spaceship and leave the warship immediately. No one must be left behind on the warship. Otherwise, we will open fire and destroy the entire empire-level warship!"

Lombass' tone was indifferent, but his eyes portrayed a malicious glint.