The planets shook, the stars trembled. I put my hands together and space around me violent churned and warped under the influence of the resulting shockwave. Making me glad that I’d taken measures to shift the earth and its nearest inhabited neighbors to one of Terminus Earth’s adjacent sub-dimensions.

A grand collection of stellar vessels were reduced to scrap in mere seconds. A second later that scrap was reduced to a subatomic form. For the first time ever, I made use of my true might in combat, and I was stunned to find how easy it was to make the enemy before me fall.

Besides the spell that I used to shift most of the milky way galaxy out of harm’s way, I didn’t cast any other spells. I didn’t use any other concrete abilities. Instead, I relied on raw magic and will.

I simply clapped my hands, and the millions of starships and mechanized warriors that had gathered to assail my solar system, to cease. Just like that, they all crumbled to nothing. The metal and magic that made up their weapons and starships peeling away like tissue set in front of a hurricane.

“Er...A-, All according to plan,” I said. Feigning confidence in front of my silver-haired companion.

I frowned as I reviewed what I’d done. Playing a video feed of the phenomenon in my head because it was over so damn fast. I felt similar to an ordinary person who’d squished a bug barehanded and was grossed out by the mess it left on their palm.

I couldn’t help wondering if these fools from, what technically be called a perpendicular reality since their world was on another branch of the multiverse, had been more than a little insane.

I found it hard to believe they really thought they could take over an entire universe using only mortal means. Hell, they’d tried to even take over Uhrwerk so I couldn’t be feel taken a little aback by their overconfidence.

Margot’s fight was also over. Ending even earlier than mine did. She’d done it from the comfort of her office. She used a spell to create what was essentially a massive collection of stars and used their heat and flame to scourge away those ships and mechanized soldiers that had managed to make it into Uhrwerk’s space.

Then she used the console to create a dimensional labyrinth between the universe the enemy had inserted themselves into and Uhrwerk. This labyrinth would serve as a sort of barrier dimension. Then she allowed the attacking force to enter the labyrinth.

Her finishing touch was transforming that barrier dimension in a massive space-time anomaly. Essentially creating a wall made entirely out of specially structured blackholes, and allowing the immense gravitational forces at play to do most of the work.

*************************************************************************************************************

Captain Christine Best of North Star Fleet 00001 gazed down at the grand blue marble that was her homeworld’s twin. The planet known to its locals as Earth was the exact duplicate as her reality’s “Terra” save for the fact that it more than a hundred times larger and much less polluted.

Considering the scale of the planet and the fact that her own reconnaissance teams had been able to confirm that the people down there, hadn’t been able to inhabit all that land and likely wouldn’t be able to do so for quite some time, the Captain couldn’t help but wonder if this operation was ill-advised after all.

Alas, their gods were not Terra’s gods. Their leaders were not Terra's leaders. Those in power had no desire to bend knee or bow their heads, to get what they needed. Thus instead of trying to find some kind of compromise, the Union of Cardinal Stars was sent forth into their reality to wage and win a war of conquest before their own reality had all its resources exhausted and their civilization collapsed under its own weight.

“C-, Captain…” said one of the deck officers. His already sallow face looking even paler.

“What is it, Matthews?” said Captain Best.

“We seem to have an issue, Captain,” said the Deck officer.

“Well? Out with it, man,” said Captain Best. Finding herself growing impatient with the trembling man.

“We’ve...We’ve lost contact with the other vessels within the fleet, ma’am,” said the Deck Officer.

Captain Best’s brow furrowed as she tried to think through the possibilities. Losing contact with one’s allies could be calamitous in a situation like this. It was for this very reason that Union of Stars’ Military comman had set the South Star Fleet to the task of taking over “Earth’s” communication capabilities to render them deaf, dumb, and blind during the moment of the attack.

“Have you asked the Techies in Engineering? How about our people in Comms?” said Captain Best. Trying to work through the possibilities and hopefully, find a solution.

“M-, Ma’am...I’ve already been to the people in Engineering and Communications...They say the problem isn’t with us. Even the Quantum Antennae aren’t working,” said the Deck Officer.

Captain Best’s heart fell into her stomach. It was only thanks to a well-trained mastery of her expression and body language that she was able to keep the officer from realizing that she too had begun to panic.

Quantum technology within their universe wasn’t all that advanced but they’d managed to figure out how to use coupled particles as channels for send and receiving simple radio signals. For the moment, the technology behind the quantum antennae was limited in how much information could be transmitted at one time, but it came with the benefit of staying in contact regardless of the distance. The only way the “q-antennae” fell out of contact, was if the antenna was destroyed, or the vessel that held the antennae went into an area of heavy time-space disturbance, such as a wormhole or warp gate.

“Try...Again. Go ask again,” said Captain Best. Not sure what else to say, because she knew that nowhere in Unified Stars’ plans had there been a call for some kind of mass warp maneuver and contemplating the only other alternative would likely lead to her shutting down while her men needed her most.

“M-, Ma’am?” said the Officer.

“...Go,” said Captain Best. A touch of steel entering her voice.

“Yes, Ma’am!” said the Deck Officer. Saluting and then running off.

A few minutes later the Deck Officer came running back, looking faintly out of breath and even paler than ever.

“Well…?” said Captain Best.

“We...We have a signal, ma’am,” said the Deck Officer.

“So you’ve gotten in contact with our people,” said Captain Best. Struggling to hide how very relieved she was, and how very worried she’d been.

“Er...N-, No, ma’am,” said the Deck Officer.

“What?!” said the Captain. Her voice rising above a speaking level for the first time. Drawing the attention of all the other staff on deck.

“We’re...We’re being hailed, ma’am,” said the Deck Officer.

“Hailed?! Hailed by whom. Weren’t we already told that the communications tech of the earthlings was already under control?” said Captain Best.

“I...I don’t know, ma’am…” said the Deck Officer.

Captain Best sighed. She looked around and realized that the men and women around her were starting to look her way and starting to look concerned. She realized that trying to hide what was happening would do no good.

“Patch us through,” said Captain Best.

A massive screen appeared above the center of the deck. A dark-skinned man with glowing red eyes and glowing pink hair appeared. He was handsome to the point of looking monstrous and he seemed to be levitating. Captain Best guessed at his identity, supposing him to be one of this world's superhumans or magic users.

A small voice in the back of her head said she was thinking too small, too mortal. He had pointed ears, and a certain etherealness to his features, but he didn’t look like any one of the fae she’d seen. He didn’t have the look of a god, or a devil, and the angels had already given their word that while they wouldn’t be acting against the Terrans they also wouldn’t be going out of their way hurt Earth either.

Floating next to the pink-haired man was another man, with silver hair, gray-green eyes, and tan skin that were practically glowing with health. His ears weren’t pointed but there was a distinct fae-ness to him that made him recognizable as being related to one of the races of the fair folk.

“This is Captain Best, Head of the North Star Fleet, of the Stellar Military of the Unified Cardinal Stars...May I know to whom, I’m speaking?” said the Captain. Drawing herself to her full height and trying to project an air of calm and confidence that she frankly didn’t feel.

“You’re the last ones, so you get to live…” said the Pink-haired man. His dispassionate and carefree tone, filling the Captain’s veins with ice.

“When you go back...Show them!...Show them what happens when you mess with earth!” said the silver-haired man. His hot-blooded tone making him seem more human than the pink-haired monster at his back.

The video feed was cut, and when it restarted again, the horrified Captain and her horrified crew were treated to the sight of all four fleets that had been arrayed around earth, simply ceasing to exist. Leaving strange particles of dust in their wakes. Dust particles which then proceeded to collapse into airy motes of light.

Then they were treated to an encore, where the fleets that had been sent to try and take the secondary universe that was nested directly within this universe were all, burned, blasted, compressed into nothing at the heart of the single most massive singularity that’d she ever seen.

The video feed ended a second time, and the Deck Officer ran to the Captain’s side.

“Captain!”

“What?!” said a thoroughly shaken and frazzled Captain Best.

“I’m...I’m not sure how, but we seem to be back in Terran space…”

“Back in our own universe…” said the Captain. Now already so far gone, that she felt she could no longer be shocked or surprised by anything.

“Yes, ma’am…” said the Deck Officer.