Sacre-D: Reborn as the Swarm's Apex | Chapter 6 | The Eye of the Storm | Novela.app

The pronunciation for the energy planet in the Zerg common tongue was *Ja*. Gela explained that the word carried the meaning of "eye." When the battered raider ship suspended itself above the planet, Sakdi understood what he meant. Storms brewed upon the planet’s surface, forming a massive vortex that resembled a giant’s pupil. Two near-orbit satellites circled the energy planet; from a distance, they looked like teardrops falling from that eye. Beneath the storm lay the Akasha Rifts. These rifts delved deep into the planet’s core, surrounded by unstable spatial turbulence where star-core energy was produced. Should a rift collapse, the entire energy planet could be sucked in and torn to shreds. During the reign of the White Emperor, the Akasha Rifts near the capital planet experienced a harmonic tremor. They were ripped apart by the instantaneous and rapid expansion of space. The capital planet, Shaval, along with the starship *Fahna*, completely disintegrated upon falling into the Akasha. Alien contamination then spread throughout the entire habitable sector, becoming the greatest tragedy since humanity migrated into space. This had once caused humans to turn pale at the mere mention of the Akasha Rifts. However, the immense wealth represented by star-core energy was something neither humans nor Zerg could easily abandon. Everyone held their breath and persisted in mining, firmly believing the baton wouldn't break in their own hands. As long as the digging didn't kill them, they would dig until they died. Sakdi slowly raised the ship’s external armor plates, and the external images were projected simultaneously onto the front of the bridge. This star system possessed a main-sequence star in its prime. The stellar light pierced through the bridge, bathing both the raider and Ja in brilliance. The two orbiting satellites looked even more like precarious teardrops. Gela leaned against the projection as if touching the actual universe. Unable to restrain itself, it reached out to stroke the flowing colors before it. Light particles lingered on its fingertips. Its pale hands had retracted their xenomorphic traits, appearing completely humanoid. As its fingers stirred, the sea of light scattered and floated like a long river. Its expression was like that of a curious larva, its scaled tail swaying gently behind it. As an unregistered planet, Ja never appeared on official navigational charts; it was classified as the secret private property of a certain core-genetic clan. Upon hearing this intel, Sakdi wore an expression of realization—an illegal "black pit" mine. He didn't ask where Gela had obtained this information. There was much to be unearthed from his "good neighbor," and the other's attempts at concealment were far from mature. During the process of "eradicating illiteracy," Sakdi had coaxed many interesting things out of the male. The illegal mines attracted a large number of raider ships and smugglers. The continuous output of star-core energy and energy stones of various qualities made the black market trade flourish. The entirety of Ja had become a lawless land, devoid of formal procedures and steeped in chaos. In essence, the basic law of the Zerg was no different from a free-for-all. As long as you beat all the other insects into submission, the final victor was the law. The core-genetic clans only wanted to extract ore from Ja; they didn't care about the "spiritual civilization" of the energy planet itself. Even if worker females were fighting in the streets until their appendages flew everywhere, as long as the energy stones were produced as usual, the high-level genetic species wouldn't spare a glance. Their armed forces would only deploy if a large-scale riot affected the mining operations. Those armed forces remained within bases on the two satellites, monitoring everything below with cold indifference. All sorts of messy ships landed and departed from the port every day. Black market transactions didn't care about identity verification. Sneaky wandering Zerg and raiders could be seen everywhere. There was no command tower and no flight schedule. Everyone existed in a mental state that could only be described as supernatural; operating a ship relied on instinct and intuition, the radiance of idealism shining upon the land. The starport was located on the far side of the planet, away from the ore veins and the storm. The landing process was as bumpy as ever. After witnessing two mid-air traffic accidents, Sakdi gained a brand-new understanding of the energy planet’s level of chaos. He liked this chaotic style. The free and savage environment made him feel like a fish in water; even the air tasted of freedom. Before landing, he was even in a good enough mood to drape a coat over Gela. The white male was wrapped in soft fabric. When it stood up, it only reached Sakdi’s chest, looking quite scrawny. During the voyage, Sakdi had used the gaps between dismantling weapons to fashion these shapeless things. If anyone else were to judge them, it would be difficult to recognize the finished products as clothing. "I can st—stay on the ship," Gela said, its four eyes darting around uneasily as it began to want to wag its tail again. "No, you cannot." Coldly and heartlessly rejecting the request, Sakdi watched as the male’s expression turned dejected, but he remained unmoved. "You’re coming with me." Leaving Gela alone on the ship, the possibility of the ship vanishing by the time he finished shopping wasn't high, but it certainly wasn't zero. Thus, throughout the landing process, the male appeared wilted. Even the giant, eerie head statues standing silently on the vast plains behind the starport failed to pique its interest again. Towering, pipe-like patterns wound like blood vessels across the distant black mountains. The mountain bodies were densely packed with Zerg nests, looking like exposed lymph nodes. The woven net-like structures extended from the surface to the underground, hollowing out the planet’s body. The oppressive mountains flanked the central plains, where terrifyingly massive head statues rose from the ground, spanning the space between heaven and earth. The grotesque heads of various forms had downcast eyes and expressionless faces, like the remains of decapitated gods looking down upon the earth. "What are those heads?" Sakdi’s tail brushed lightly past Gela. He had never known the Zerg to have any religious beliefs. During the war, everyone had just bombed each other’s nests to smithereens, often grinding the ashes on the ruins once more. No one had the leisure to care about their neighbor’s artistic achievements. "A new variety of decoration?" "Those are our ancestors," Gela said softly. It sat in its chair, enduring the tremors of the ship’s landing, and glanced at the high-level female. "They are the different nodes of our evolution." Sakdi was profoundly shocked. He had no such ancestors. Rather than calling these statues different nodes of Zerg evolution, it was more accurate to call them a guide to the extinction order of other species. A skull that was nearly human in form almost held a place among them. "Why only carve the heads when making ancestor statues?" he asked. "Was there a shortage of materials?" "Earlier than the era of the King Worms, we shared a consciousness with the Hive Mother." The male had grown accustomed to its life as a ready-call encyclopedia and didn't give a perfunctory answer just because the question was strange. "The head is where consciousness is preserved. When the body dies, it returns to the eternal life of our consciousness." This answer was too obscure. Gela switched from the human tongue to the common tongue, and then to the language of emotion, before it could express the full sentence. But Sakdi roughly understood its meaning. When the civilizations of humans and Zerg briefly intersected, two Zerg technologies gave birth to the concept of the River of Time: collective consciousness sharing under mental links, and the method of refining energy stones. The former established the ruins-palace of collective consciousness; humans had personally created Havana, where the boundary between life and death was no longer distinct on a mental level. If the Red Polypore had truly uploaded his personality back then, he would already be in a state of digital ascension. The latter provided a stable energy source for this unimaginably vast miracle. Refined star-core energy was sufficient to support an entire intra-galactic network. Withdrawing his gaze from those silent skull exhibits, Sakdi noticed a cluster of buildings in the center of the area surrounded by the heads. "That is the Angon," Gela said, noticing the shift in his gaze. Another brand-new word he had never encountered. The male gestured as it explained to Sakdi, trying its best to convey the meaning clearly. "Every Angon is built under the gaze of the ancestors. It is very dangerous there. Do not go." During the remainder of the landing process, Gela provided supplementary explanations for "Angon," and Sakdi understood most of it. To understand the so-called Angon through a human lens, it was roughly an arena, a sacrificial ground, and a recruitment center for armed species—an efficient three-in-one. Once again, he gained a deeper understanding of the Zerg’s unconventional method of layering functions. When Zerg of different clans fought each other, it was an arena. If they were killed, they were sacrificed on the spot under the gaze of the circle of skull statues. The surviving Zerg had a chance to join the armed guards of the core-genetic clans. A breathtaking form of entertainment. "Extremely dangerous," Gela said. Perhaps the inquiry on Sakdi’s face was too obvious. When the ship finally landed at the starport and all safety alarms subsided, Gela couldn't help but reach out and grab the female’s arm. "Don't... don't go." Sakdi read the anxiety in its expression and arched an eyebrow. "You will die very quickly." The tall core-species pushed aside the seat’s safety restraints and stood over the male. Gela instantly lost its nerve and retracted its hand. When Sakdi reached out a hand, it squeezed its eyes shut. In the next second, Sakdi’s finger flicked the white male’s forehead, letting out a soft, amused huff. The four eyes snapped open, filled with shock. "Sub-adult larvae have no say in the matter," Sakdi said calmly. He watched the male sitting in the chair, clutching its head, a look of bewilderment in every one of its eyes. "Your duty is to follow me closely." *** | Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | Ja | Ja | The Zerg name for the energy planet, meaning "Eye." | | 阿卡夏裂隙 | Akasha Rift | Dangerous spatial anomalies that produce star-core energy. | | 沙瓦勒 | Shaval | The human capital planet destroyed in the past. | | 法赫纳 | Fahna | A legendary starship lost during the Shaval tragedy. | | 安贡 | Angon | A Zerg structure serving as an arena, sacrificial site, and recruitment center. | | 红太岁 | Red Polypore | Likely a nickname or title for a character from Sakdi's past (human side). | | 哈瓦那 | Havana | A digital/mental construct or network created by humans for collective consciousness. |