A finger-sized eyeball flailed its blackened blood vessels and optic nerves, clawing at the surrounding obstructions like a human using limbs or an animal using talons.
To be honest, witnessing this scene alone was enough to inflict psychic damage on the human brain.
This was especially true when the little eyeball crawled out from the gap in the metal and stared blankly at Lei Ting; in certain old-school tabletop games, such a sight would have triggered a massive loss of Sanity Points.
However... considering the cluster of canine eyes packed into the sockets of that man-faced hound earlier, this little eyeball abomination suddenly seemed almost delicate and pleasant by comparison.
Lei Ting scrutinized the eyeball.
The eyeball: "..."
Lei Ting gave up his scrutiny and raised a hand, deciding to "send it on its way."
The eyeball: "!!!!"
"Big bro, don't!!" The eyeball struggled to leap out from the metal surrounding it on all sides. Ultimately, forced by its round physique that couldn't squeeze through the cracks, it used its supernatural power to vibrate the air, letting out a scream in a rather archaic dialect of the Human Union’s Common Tongue: "Don't do it, big bro! I'm human, big bro!"
"..." Lei Ting was momentarily stunned by these two atmosphere-breaking cries of "big bro." "...What did you say?"
"I'm telling you! My soul is human! Purer than an Orionite! Close to a Prime Human!" the eyeball shrieked. "I used to be a part of 'The Gazer'! Pure as can be! Those bastards gouged me out of her energy structure, and they took the 'concept of eyes' with me. That’s why The Gazer can’t clear the Ethereal pollution from the eyes of the Orionites now..."
"...!"
Beneath his visor, Lei Ting’s brow twitched. He could sense that this little thing was telling the truth. Consequently... several points of doubt suddenly became clear.
If the "Speaker" was merely a recording device, then who was it that had descended with power from afar to establish a connection and save Upton Onyé from pollution?
The answer, of course, was those supernatural entities who already possessed the ability to isolate pollution!
Furthermore... the Principal must have known about the "Speaker" as well, for Her connection with the supernatural entity known as "The Recorder" was closer than an ordinary person could imagine.
In that case, perhaps the "Everlasting Life" statue on the massive phantom of the *Solaris* was a manifestation of some connection between "The Recorder" and "The Gazer."
And in Her previous conversations with Lei Ting, She had never implied that the "Speaker" was a living person...
Thinking back, if She had ever mentioned "the Speaker as a person" to anyone, She was likely lying through Her teeth.
Lei Ting frowned. He reached out and took the metal block trapping the little eyeball, instantly reshaping it into a small cage. He held it up to eye level.
...He could indeed sense a trace of an aura similar to "The Gazer" from this thing.
Lei Ting fell silent for a moment, then directly dialed the Principal’s communication line.
After a few breaths, the call connected. There was no video, but the voice belonged to the female Principal, Hiline.
"It’s been a long time... I heard your light appeared in the New Solar System," the Principal said with a lighthearted chuckle. "Combined with your previous question... what? Did someone try to raid your home base?"
"..." Lei Ting’s eyelid jumped. "Not far off. By the way, do you know the situation with the capital planet here?"
"I know. That was a massive undertaking, from the time we began establishing colonies in the New Solar System until we bid a final farewell to our old home..." the Principal sighed softly. "Don't think of it as cruel. At the time, we always thought it would serve a purpose."
A purpose... the purpose of taking the elderly, the weak, the women, and the children to perish together with the enemy in a moment of ultimate despair? Just trying to imagine that mindset made Lei Ting feel a heavy sense of suffocation.
"...Let's not talk about that for now." He cast a "glance" toward the main control center underground and said, "I’ve caught a little thing here. It claims it was once a part of 'The Gazer'..."
"Is it an eye?" the Principal asked.
"Yes," Lei Ting replied, looking again at the eyeball in the cage. It was emitting black miasma and looked like nothing good. "It can talk, and I truly sensed a connection between it and 'The Gazer'..."
"First, I must tell you that this is true," the Principal’s voice turned heavy. "Second... come to the Ethereal Plane. I’ll call 'The Gazer' directly. We’ll tell you face-to-face what this is all about. But remember, that thing can never be our comrade-in-arms again. Destroy it. In the future, every time you see one, be prepared for the fact that there are more fragments... and then destroy every single one you find!"
"Of course," Lei Ting said softly. "It is an abomination, after all."
No matter who the soul that constituted this eyeball once was, the process of becoming an abomination... was irreversible.
As he spoke, the eyeball realized the situation had turned dire. "Wait, big bro, even though I've turned into an abomination—"
*Snap!*
The metal structure collapsed inward. The talking, living eyeball burst like a berry, dissolving into a wisp of black smoke that quietly dissipated in the golden sunlight.
Afterward, Lei Ting performed one last check to see if any of the massive cannon barrels—which looked like continental shelf support pillars—remained unsealed. He remotely dropped a Star Alloy cube containing a sliver of golden radiance into the planet's control center, then turned and flew into the Ethereal Plane.
***
Evenheller was running for his life again.
*Damn it, why is it 'again'?!* He mocked himself inwardly. As usual, he flickered through the dark reaches of deep space, inevitably scattering fine starlight across his trajectory as he moved.
A stream of starlight surged through the darkness... and behind it, a tide of pitch-black waves gave chase.
Pitch-black waves shimmering with a bloody light.
These were countless Abhorrent Creatures—or rather, countless low-level, mindless abominations that lacked the ability to infect others and could exist in the orderly world for long periods.
The incident had started because both he and the high-ranking members of the Resistance were worried about the viral threat currently facing the Orionites. Thus, they had hidden their small territory as usual and sent out A-rank and higher espers to investigate.
Then, relying on information previously gathered by the Resistance, Evenheller had actually managed to peel back the layers and find a specific location—near the edge of the galaxy, close to the Large Magellanic Cloud, something was very wrong.
Now that he’d found the place, how could he not take a look?
Evenheller had taken a few A-rank espers whose abilities were suited for stealth or escape. After smuggling themselves out of the Union’s jurisdiction through the Ethereal Plane, they had taken a starship from the lawless border regions and quietly crept toward the target location.
The thrills along the way were beyond words, but the final result was the most shocking of all—they had been horrified to see a massive "Living Planet" covered in tentacles and eyeballs.
And then they started running.
Naturally. Even for an S-rank and several A-ranks, when being hunted by an army of Abhorrent Creatures estimated to be in the hundreds of millions, there was no better plan than to scatter and flee. But one should not think this proved they were weak. Although A-rank combat power was often considered little more than a side dish in front of a Double-S, in this starry sky, it was the "A to D" rank espers—with their population advantage—who defined the average level of the superhuman community.
Furthermore, an A-rank esper in their prime could at least destroy an Earth-sized planet.
As for Evenheller, an S-rank... he was a different story. He was indeed stronger than those A-ranks, but to delay the deterioration of his damaged "Heavenly Eye," he could not commit fully to battle. He had to steer clear of any fight that required more than seventy percent of his strength.
If the damage to the Heavenly Eye only reduced his supernatural power, he might have risked his life at a critical moment. But years ago, on the *Solaris*, he had visited his former comrade-in-arms, Lif. She was a former Super-Armored Pilot whose Heavenly Eye was in a state of ruin.
From her, Evenheller had confirmed once and for all that the damage to the supernatural organ known as the "Heavenly Eye" was accompanied by a decrease in mental strength and cognitive ability. If it collapsed entirely, the person would not die... but they would lose the ability to think, becoming a hollow shell without a soul.
Or rather, the soul would still be there, but it would be "dead." Dead like a pool of stagnant water.
To Evenheller, that was more terrifying than the most cruel torture in the world.
Therefore, he had long ago decided that he would never use Lif’s method of extensive modification and implanted controllers to forcibly support his cognitive functions. Thus, he had to... commit suicide before that moment arrived.
Even though there were still so many things in this world he cared about. No, it was precisely because those things held his heart that he decided to hold back as much as possible, allowing himself to live just a little bit longer.
This "little bit longer," by current estimates, was probably only a few years. And he had absolutely no intention of telling Lei Ting—it was a predetermined future, and there was no need to make the young man worry too much ahead of time.
He would just consider it a moment of selfishness.
Evenheller’s mind was a mess of chaotic thoughts as he dove once more into the Ethereal Plane.
But the frustrating part was that he couldn't head directly back to Federation space. Lead those pursuers into the Human Union? Force the ordinary people of those border regions to face monsters large and small enough to drown a habitable planet? If he did that, he wouldn't be Evenheller Kahn; he would be a criminal for the ages!
*Is it finally time to accelerate the cracking of the Heavenly Eye...*
Unlike ordinary abominations, Abhorrent Creatures without infectious capabilities could freely traverse the barrier between the two dimensions while in a tracking state. If he wanted to fight, Evenheller had to deal with them within the Ethereal space. But doing so would surely attract even more abominations. Thus, he had to return to the position corresponding to Union space first, to summon a wave of supernatural entities to help him isolate the pollution and the prying eyes...
Within the Ethereal space, Evenheller, flying before the pitch-black "waves," gritted his teeth and looked up toward the direction corresponding to the Federation sectors.
For the longest time, that had simply been "the direction of home" to him. But in recent years, as everyone could see, a brilliant golden light resided there.
Over the past few years, almost every esper in the galaxy who had established a connection with the Ethereal Plane knew that since the "Solar Star" first appeared in this place, that sun-like sea of supernatural light had been shining over the Ethereal regions corresponding to most of the Federation sectors, greatly reducing the concentration of abominations within.
However, no one had yet successfully figured out two questions: One, did the named abominations that vanished simply run away, or were they hunted down and skewered for a roast by the seemingly somewhat vengeful "Solar Star"? Two, which genius little abomination had planned that battle years ago—the one analyzed repeatedly by various factions—and picked up a "daddy" for the Ethereal Plane from the material world? No, not a daddy, a god of death.
Of course, at this moment, Evenheller wasn't thinking about any of that as he looked at the light.
He just had a momentary flashback to a pair of warm, gentle golden eyes.
*"If you're ever troubled by something, you know where to find me. We'll face it together."*
That person had once said that to him. Even though they both knew that if the Resistance truly began to expand, the conflict between them would be inevitable.
...Ha.
Young people are always so quick to make promises in the heat of the moment... but at least in the past, back when Evenheller was young, he had never seen anyone's promise actually be fulfilled.
Including words like "let's live on together."
Amidst the fine stardust, Evenheller closed his eyes.
A moment later, he suddenly revealed a smile. He surged forward, transforming into a sharp beam of light, and threw everything into a desperate dash toward that magnificent sun that illuminated the vast reaches of the void.
***
Enjoying the story? Rate this novel:
Stars See Me [Interstellar] | Chapter 120 | Flight Toward the Sun | Novela.app | Novela.app
