Souta ordered the rebel army to retreat when he found that the empire's forces were heading in their direction. His shadows collided with them and the shadows managed to eliminate some of the forces but there were too many of them and the shadows were crushed.

Even though they could regenerate by using Souta's best feram, they were still crushed so Souta decided to disperse them. It was consuming his energy after all and energy was important to release his full strength in a battle.

At the very least, they've managed to eliminate a large amount of the empire's army that was on this planet. It was enough for them.

The rebel army retreated to their base and fortified their defenses. They knew that they infuriated the empire and the empire would attack them.

Souta divided the rebel army. He didn't dare to gather everyone in a single base. He changed his plan because of the Mana Convergent Bomb. If that bomb was dropped in their base then everyone would die if he wasn't here.

That's the cause of his worry, the powerful bomb that the empire invented. That bomb could destroy everything within 30 kilometers radius. That's not all, this bomb was invented by the empire decades ago so he wouldn't be surprised if they took out a bomb much more powerful than this one.

That's why he had to prepare himself mentally.

Regarding Souta's improvement. His stats have increased exponentially from all the souls that he gathered but he decided to heed Saya's warning and deactivated the [Harvester of the Soul] for the time being.

Such as the rules of the universe. He couldn't let anyone find out about this or he will receive repercussions from his deeds.

Breaking the rules of the universe.

Saya said that he shouldn't use this skill for a while. He asked why and she said that he will face great calamity if he continued to break the rules.

The balance will crumble because of all the souls that he took with him. The soul realm will certainly notice if millions of souls vanished.

Nothing happened to him in the game when he devoured countless souls in the war but that's in the game, who knows what will happen here if he did that again.

This was not a game anymore.

At the very least, he was satisfied that he increase his stats to a certain degree. His base form right now was stronger than when he just evolved a few days ago.

Souta talked to Jamine to learn more about her encounter with the empire. He learned things about the empire from the dragon's perspective, Torkez's perspective, and Lydia's perspective. Maybe this girl knew something about the empire that they didn't know. After all, she became a captive and a lab rat at the same time. Also, a former princess that fought against the empire.

The empire was a huge civilization that ruled hundreds of planets. They were famous for their domineering attitude that fought every civilization that they've discovered. The empire was a solid civilization and there's no dividend organization within it. All of them were loyal to the emperor of the Great Astley Empire.

But something was bothering Souta. According to his special quest, he needed to find the secret leader of the empire. The only problem was that every people who were familiar to the empire didn't have an idea about it. Even Lydia who was once a commander under the empire didn't know about it.

Also, no one knew about that researcher that he fought. He called Torkez, Lydia, and some people but nothing came out of it. That man was a mystery.

He needs to do some digging to discover the truth about this civilization.

"This is getting interesting..."

...

The war against the empire continued for two weeks. The rebel army tried everything that they've could to repel the enemy that kept coming nonstop.

Souta even built an elite team to fight the enemy behind. The elite team's mission was to chip the enemy numbers slowly. They were using guerilla tactics to fight the enemy but then the mountain that they've been hiding was wiped out by a Mana Convergent Bomb.

In these two weeks of tag of war battle, the empire launched a total of thirteen Mana Convergent Bomb destroying a huge part of the land. Even the ecosystem of the whole land was damage because of these bombs.

They were getting destroyed and half of the rebel army has died in the battle. Souta was too busy as he always participated in every battle. He tried everything and eliminated most of the empire's forces but they kept coming.

Jamine volunteered herself to command the army in Souta's place. She said that she was experienced in war and knew how to command an army as she was one of the people that were in charge when her country was fighting the empire.

Souta's tested her and when he learned that she had a talent for this, he let her command the rebel army in his place. He couldn't command them because he was on the battlefield fighting the empire so someone needed to replace his place as a commander. And Jamine was suitable for it.

Even with that, they couldn't break the empire's formation. No matter how powerful Souta is, he couldn't fight endlessly. The whole land was being destroyed and the rebel army was losing its resources. Luckily, in the second week, the dragon and Franklin's forces arrived on the planet to help them.

They've brought a large batch of reinforcement with them and surprised the empire. So they've somehow managed to survive this week with the help of the reinforcement.

Everything was at a stalemate when Lydia and the rest arrived. They had enough manpower to fight back so they've begun their counterattack to annihilate the empire's army on this planet. But before they could do it, the empire launched ten Mana Convergent Bomb at the same time.

The power of the ten Mana Convergent Bomb shook the whole world. The land, the sea, everything was destroyed. The explosion from the bomb drew a huge line between the rebel army and the empire's army in the whole land.

The whole continent was slowly crumbling. The power of the bomb killed every living being and turned the whole area into a desolate place. The temperature and the atmosphere of the whole planet were slowly changing because of the consecutive use of the bomb.

Just a few more bombs and the whole land will die.

In the meeting room, all the high-ranking members of the rebel army were in a huge and wide room.

"This planet is done for. The land can't be used for agricultural purposes and no trees will grow anymore. It will take a century before the planet could recover from the damage that it received from the Mana Convergent Bomb." Torkez said with a gloomy tone.

"Yeah, the empire has some sort of method to revive a planet but that method takes a lot of resources." Lydia paused for a moment before she continued, "The method is too pour mana on a planet. Let it recover using the mana in the surrounding."

"Tsk! That's impossible. Where do you think we could get a large amount of mana enough to supply this planet?" Franklin clicked his tongue and said with annoyance.

"When I was in the army, a device called Energy Draining System is used to suck a person's mana," Lydia said as she slowly explained it to everyone.

It was also a type of training of the soldiers. The Energy Draining System would suck the soldiers' mana and it will not stop until a quarter was left. The mana inside a person's body will naturally recover so no one has a problem with it. And the mana that was sucked from the soldiers is released into the air to increase the density of mana in the atmosphere.

The density of mana in every planet was divided into different levels. Hundred of years ago, the mana density in the Astley World, the home planet of the Great Astley Empire, was level 1. The lowest level and the thinnest mana that they've could find. At that time, the empire wasn't that large. It hasn't begun its conquest to invade different worlds. Yet, they've invented this method. They've used everything and after fifty years, the empire managed to raise the mana density of their planet by one level.

Then, they've begun their conquest. They used every living being to collect mana and poured it into their world. Yet, something occurred that was outside their expectations. The Astley World showed signs of stopping. Its rotation has slowed down and they said that it was because that their planet hasn't adapted to the increase in mana density.

At this time, the mana density of the planet was already level 7. Yes, hundreds of years had passed and they've succeeded in increasing the level of their planet's mana density.

"For those who didn't know, the Prison World's mana density is level 5. It's two levels lower than the Astley World. Yet, Isabella's homeworld, Eidin Planet, has level 24 mana density."

Lydia said as she looked at them.

"So this is the reason why they aren't killing the prisoner in this world. That's why they are sucking the mana inside my body. I thought that they are just preventing me from getting to my peak strength." Franklin laughed as he understood why the empire wasn't killing the prisoners.