Something was wrong.
Something was very, very wrong.
Mediator Ruo remained as silent as a literal block of peach-flavored jelly. He knew things had taken a turn for the worse.
Historically, the Gaahe had always been a race that sought internal order and resource cycling. While they had significant issues with superstition within their society, it was always part of their "seeking answers within" philosophy. Under normal circumstances, this isolationist race would never use their own dogmas to measure the rest of the universe.
The tenets of the "Gaa" faith simply did not allow for it!
Furthermore, anyone with a brain—no, he’d been spending too much time around Orion humans—anyone with a "thinking organ" that functioned even slightly normally should know that while "civilization" and "chaos" coexisted, they were eternally opposed. For a civilization, even the worst order was better than no order at all.
"...Is this Dun’s intent, or the intent of the Gaahe?" Mediator Ruo asked.
As a Mediator, Ruo traveled far and wide, and he certainly wasn't doing it just for... well, it wasn't just a vacation on the public dime. They also bore the responsibility of intelligence officers.
"This is the will of Gaa," Dun said. "On the mortal path of seeking philosophy within, the Great Gaa has descended His will, creating a miracle imbued with great love, leading us into the most high and holy light..."
As these proselytizing words rang out, the surrounding Gaahe began to resonate in unison. Soon, sounds like clashing crystals and hollow echoes reverberated throughout the vast, high-ceilinged hall. The various colored lights emitted by the crystal clusters illuminated the interior in a kaleidoscopic display.
And Mediator Ruo... though he knew in his heart that no "god" in the religious sense existed, he did not rashly contradict them.
In the myths and legends of these crystalline beings, their self-existent and only deity, Gaa, was a magnificent entity higher than the sky and larger than a star. He was the origin of all crystalline life; the Gaahe were merely the fragments shed from His body. And when they shattered and died, they would go to another world where spirit determined everything, returning to Gaa.
This process of "returning" sounded familiar, didn't it?
Indeed, the idea that the Gaahe merged into Gaa after death was actually a literal truth. Because of the Gaahe's faith in Gaa, a super-powered entity identical to the Gaa of myth had long since been birthed within the Ethereal Plane.
From then on—just as Orion humans would merge into the "Radiant Exemplar" after death—most civilizations in the universe that had birthed a corresponding super-powered entity would experience such a phenomenon.
But... Gaa was a "Guardian Super-Entity." His natural purpose for existence was to protect civilization and order!
The current state of the Gaahe was clearly abnormal. If Gaa had truly developed an independent will and issued a statement dragging an entire civilization into collective suicide, then the problem was truly catastrophic!
Ruo’s internal mechanisms whirred at high speed, and the super-core located in his chest emitted a faint pinkish-purple light.
Since this "abnormality" existed in the world, it must have its own internal logic. A Mediator’s duty was to understand the internal logic of every race and attempt to eliminate their conflicts.
Therefore, Ruo was not prepared to give up just yet.
"I am pleased to learn that the god of the Gaahe has issued an oracle..." Ruo weighed his words carefully. "...Dun, do you intend to proclaim that great will to the galaxy?"
"That is only right and proper," the magnificent mountain of crystal clusters resonated.
"Even if the galaxy will not understand, and you... might die?"
"Death is fearsome, but if we die to proclaim the Great Will, we shall surely return to the embrace of Gaa in the silence..."
Amidst a faint, viscous gurgling sound, the giant crystal clusters on Dun’s body began to shift, and heavy, sharp crystalline blades slid out. The fluctuations on the outer layer of Ruo’s jelly-like body suddenly stopped—a reaction that occurred only when a Dotta was extremely tense.
This was because he saw amber spheres growing at the base of those massive crystalline pillars and flying blades, covered in black-red flesh.
Every crystalline blade, as wide and heavy as a highway, was linked to the amber spheres at its base by seven or eight writhing tentacles. It looked as if a person had grown nearly a hundred arms, each one ripped out from the root, connected only by nerve lines encased in flesh.
A terrifying sense of danger forced Ruo to take two steps back.
Amidst hissing corrosive sounds, foul-smelling black blood dripped from those biological structures that could never naturally appear on a Gaahe, forming a vivid contrast between dream and nightmare against the brilliant, magnificent crystal blades.
A writhing black mist began to grow from every corner, accompanied by muddled whispers. The atmosphere of the entire hall changed, and in this transformation, it began to vibrate, as if something incredibly massive was about to burrow out from underground—
"...Dun?"
As Ruo retreated, the Mediator armor on his body emitted a faint mechanical whirring. When he discovered that the hundreds of Gaahe guards around him were undergoing the same transformation as Dun—though appearing slightly less dangerous—the mechanical sound grew louder.
In the gradually dimming reflected light of the crystals, hundreds of tentacles suddenly burst from Dun’s body with a loud *bang!!* Each tentacle was tipped with varying numbers of eyeballs, all turning to stare at Ruo simultaneously.
"You do not wish to help us, nor do you understand us, my friend. Just as we once could not understand the sensation of perceiving the universe through 'vision'..." Its grand voice rang out. "But it does not matter. We have understood everything... everything that was once incomprehensible.
"We will help you understand, and in an orderly fashion, return step by step to the Great Unorder... Danger and death have never been an issue. Once this great work is complete, we too shall return to eternal death, while Gaa grows infinitely, from within the galaxy to beyond it..."
Hearing this, Ruo decisively abandoned normal communication, merely maintaining a posture of wary retreat. "Fine, fine. But have you ever considered that perhaps the total resources within the galaxy aren't as vast as you think? By then, you might have devoured everything only to turn into a giant crystal ball stuck here until the end of time... All your efforts might be pointed in the wrong direction, and working hard toward a mistake will never lead to a correct future..."
"That is not for us to consider," Dun said.
The tentacles rose, and the sky full of crystal blades and the amber spheres behind them flashed with a crimson light.
"Now, I know... from your corpse, a new member of my race will grow..." Dun said. "...And your protection over those Orion tumors will also—"
Before the sentence could finish, the crystal blades slammed down in succession, the sound of breaking air a deafening roar. Ruo leaped backward, his jelly-like body suddenly deforming. Amidst the swaying tentacles, the mist exploded with the fine, refracted glints of shattering crystals.
A massive crystalline flower bloomed where he had stood.
But a moment later, when the crystal blades were withdrawn, there was only a mangled humanoid combat suit beneath them, with no sign of the golden-pink jelly.
Dun showed no alarm or anger. Its dense cluster of eyeballs turned simultaneously, looking through the crystalline walls toward a certain direction.
There lay a blue-green planet—Planet Qinghe 16-1. And its entire outer atmosphere was wrapped in a fragile, transparent, almost non-existent golden-pink membrane.
"He has returned, right there on that planet," it issued a cold command. "Fire coverage. Before the Federation's legions arrive... let this last pocket of resistance return to the Great Unorder of death!"
***
On Planet Qinghe 16-1, hundreds of millions of civilians had long since retreated into underground fortifications built around weather regulators.
They were organized into units of a thousand and placed in different compartments. A small portion came from other fallen planets, but most were locals. At this moment, some were tense and despairing, others solemn. Some were crying and demanding the immediate arrangement of refugee fleets, while others struggled to smile and comfort those around them.
Medical personnel continuously moved people with severe illnesses from the crowd, arranging them in a unified area closest to the massive medical department.
In one corridor, an old woman lying in an anti-gravity life-support pod asked softly through the blurred glass, "How much longer do we have to stay here?"
"Until a conclusion is reached outside," said the doctor controlling the pod's movement. "Don't worry, the Federation won't abandon us. And even if we die... we'll die together."
"Has... has he come back?" the old woman asked again.
She was referring to Ruo Yiba.
That Mediator from the Consortium had been in this vicinity for two years. During this sudden war, he had protected many surviving civilians and used his super-powered abilities to bring them to the rear...
Of course, this "rear" had now become the front line.
If, at the beginning, most Orion humans found it difficult to accept Ruo's appearance—which was too different from their own and lacked the use of optical brain imaging components for disguise—after these few months, most Orion humans had come to see him as a compatriot. Some had even posted a large number of works related to the "golden-pink jelly" on the star sector's internal network while disconnected from the Galactic Star Net...
Perhaps his soft, cute pink color and the sense of ease provided by his flexible silhouette truly helped maintain people's psychological health.
So, when they saw the enemy fleet approaching and he decided to head into the enemy's midst for one last effort at communication, the vast majority of Orion humans on this planet felt worried for him.
And now, this worried-over golden-pink jelly...
"...Shit!"
Ruo, having teleported back onto the membrane outside the planet, let out a sound that was truly "marinated" in Orion culture.
A short while later, a droplet of golden-pink fluid—a full two-thirds smaller than it had been before the teleportation—flowed down from the membrane. It fell like a rare slime from a fantasy game, struggling to expand its surface area in mid-air to prevent itself from shattering upon impact. Then, like a light sheet of paper, it drifted with the wind into... the ocean.
During this time, a black colloidal substance compressed into a hard sphere had been following him.
Ten minutes later, a patch of golden-pink membrane wriggled as it was washed ashore by the waves. On the beach, it transformed into a humanoid figure the size of an eleven or twelve-year-old child and glanced at the black sphere.
The golden sunlight shone on the black sphere, casting a brilliant golden-pink polarized glint upon it.
"Tsk, Ethereal pollution... those bastards again." Taking advantage of the fact that no one was around, Ruo repeatedly "spouted fragrance." "If I didn't have to cover this planet, I'd have to give you two hundred... no, three hundred punches!!"
"...What?"
Lei Ting, who had just teleported over via energy positioning, was momentarily stunned.
"Solar Star?!! Aaaah!!" Ruo turned his head and was visibly startled.
***
| Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 加赫 | Gaahe | A crystalline alien race. |
| 加 | Gaa | The deity of the Gaahe. |
| 伟大无序 | Great Unorder / Great Disorder | The chaotic state the corrupted Gaahe believe in. |
| 多塔人 | Dotta | Ruo Yiba's race, characterized by jelly-like bodies. |
| 虚灵位面 | Ethereal Plane | A higher dimension where super-powered entities reside. |
| 光辉典范 | Radiant Exemplar | The super-powered entity associated with the Orion humans. |
| 虚灵污染 | Ethereal pollution | Corruption originating from the Ethereal Plane. |
| 青河16一号行星 | Planet Qinghe 16-1 | The specific planet where the civilians are sheltered. |
| 调解员 | Mediator | Ruo's official title/role within the Consortium. |
| 综合体 | Consortium | The intergalactic organization Ruo belongs to. |
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