Stars See Me [Interstellar] | Chapter 150 | The Secret in the Core | Novela.app

In terms of raw combat power, the ‘Devourer’ was strong—exceptionally so. Tens of thousands of eyes, each representing a specific ability—powers seized from various lifeforms and nurtured within itself to this day. As that planet-sized entity crawled out of the darkness, visible forces of fire, ice, and lightning erupted in deep space. Simultaneously, a heavy pressure weighed down on everyone, accompanied by a chilling sense of danger. Anonymous red-glowing dust drifted through the void, waiting for a breach in their protective energy to cling to them like maggots on a bone. Judging by the number of its eyes, the Devourer possessed at least thirty thousand types of abilities. It did not bother collecting simple powers unless they reached A-rank, and it ignored anything below that unless it served a specific purpose. Consequently, its combat strength far exceeded the S-rank, having evolved into the ‘Double-S’ tier. Although it could only utilize twenty abilities at once, and an ability would vanish once the energy in its corresponding ‘eye’ was depleted... If not for the fact that its fighting style lacked all logic and reason—as if it had no concept of ‘tactics,’ ‘synergy,’ or even ‘optimal choices,’ driven only by pure survival instinct—this battle would have very quickly turned into a one-on-one between Lei Ting and the Devourer. The former possessed abundant energy and an incredibly fast self-recovery rate, while the latter held a massive reservoir of power. If it truly came down to that, they might have fought until the very galaxy was ground to dust. A battle-axe burning with blood-light tore through the writhing living planet. Tentacles were severed and eyeballs burst, scattering explosions of various colors. A terrifying spatial rift was suddenly ripped open, spewing a torrent of energy with horrific heat. ‘Emperor’s Blade’ stood firm with his sword, a radiance spreading from his body. Though his power had nothing to do with ‘shields,’ his exquisite energy control transformed it into four orbs of buffing and defensive light that covered the four of them. Lei Ting marveled at such skill, thinking for a moment, *“My ability also has the characteristic of ‘transmission.’ Can I perform a similar maneuver to protect others in team combat?”* The answer to that question was: *“Yes, but it requires practice.”* At the same time, Lei Ting did not show any weakness. He directly erected a spherical metal barrier with distinct layers of mechanical structures. The precision instruments within warmed up in seconds, converting the superpowered energy he injected into it into layers of energy barriers with extremely high efficiency. Supported by the high-consumption ‘Immobility’ ability, it perfectly withstood the initial energy eruptions. This caused both ‘Emperor’s Blade’ and ‘Dragon Slasher’ to glance at him. Such high-precision, powerful war machines usually didn't appear on the front lines away from the main army. Just as a plan with more steps is more prone to error, the more precise a machine is, the easier it is to break—this was a law of nature. In a real battle, superpowered individuals with enough strength didn't need much ‘technique’ or ‘preparation’; those were essentially reserved for combatants of similar levels. The brevity of time it took for Lei Ting to summon this barrier proved exactly how well-prepared he was and how refined his skills had become. Planning ahead, working hard... these were virtues that almost no previous ‘Double-S’ had ever displayed. While those two watched Lei Ting in surprise, ‘Starflow’ instead used the momentum of that heavy machinery to lunge forward, transforming into a bright and sharp light that vanished from the spot. This startled all three of them—Ethereal Shifting?! One had to understand that in this sector of space, currently saturated with superpowered and chaotic energy, ‘Emperor’s Blade’ and ‘Dragon Slasher’ were completely unable to initiate a shift to displace themselves and avoid danger. And while Lei Ting could do it, he would have to use a near-violent method, outputting even more massive amounts of energy to tear through the chaos with ‘Immobility’ just to achieve the effect amidst such a huge disturbance! But... ‘Starflow,’ Ivanheller, did it with ease. That light cut through the sky with agile sharpness, drawing a fine, jagged line in the physical universe and leaving behind intermittent trails of stardust. Every time he vanished, he precisely avoided an impending hazard. Clearly, if one were to include the scene within the Ethereal Plane, his jagged line wouldn't be a dashed one, but a complete, sharp blade. A free blade crossing the vast sky, unhindered and unbound by anything! *Squelch!!!* One of the Devourer’s glowing eyes was sliced in half. Surging black blood, nearly solidified, exploded alongside powerful energy. Black flowers bloomed amidst the chaotic colors, and the sharp light dissipated. In the darkness, only fine starlight remained to illuminate the creature that had once used hallucinatory powers to masquerade as a cluster of stars. All of this took only a few seconds. In the blink of an eye, the blade of the Human Federation that had once intimidated half the galaxy was quietly sheathed. ‘Starflow’ crashed back into the barrier—which did not reject him—and folded his arms. He transitioned from extreme motion to extreme stillness, not even sparing a glance at the other three. Outside the barrier, a massive explosion occurred. The spatial rift, which perhaps led to some burning nebula, lost its support. The self-healing nature of cosmic space was fully displayed; the aftershocks of its closure sucked everything around it into a total vacuum. The Devourer was badly hurt by this unexpected development. A small portion of its body was crushed and evaporated in an instant. Although it instinctively preserved a large number of abilities and restored its form, it lost many of its means to restrain the group. Lei Ting’s eyes lit up at this. “Great job, I—‘Starflow’!” He praised the most precise and swift warrior on the field loudly through the mental link, nearly blurting out the man’s name. —That’s right, combat is about attacking the enemy where they must save themselves! Ivanheller: “...” Ivanheller: “...Tch.” “Just do your job,” he replied stiffly. Just as everyone prepared to take this opportunity to expand their advantage, something went wrong—as expected. The Devourer’s body writhed, its diameter shrinking by an amount difficult to measure visually, while dense clusters of eyes sprouted like bamboo shoots after rain from that black-and-red flesh, all lighting up with brilliant energy. The group frowned at the sight, but they weren't surprised. Wasn't this just a war of attrition? None of them were rookies; they would just keep fighting! However, before resuming the fight, Lei Ting glanced at ‘Starflow’s’ terrifyingly fast silhouette. —If this continues, can Ivanheller... really hold out? *** The ‘Recorder’ wrote feverishly. This was His normal daily work. By comparison, His ‘mortal vessel’ at the academy spent its days handling paperwork and repairing old and new starships that could mostly be considered antiques. ‘He,’ the superpowered entity that occupied the vast majority of His energy, needed to record everything about the ‘Orion people’ that randomly appeared in His cognition from the previous day. [A new city is being built on the third planet of the New Solar System.] [The ‘Razor’ human star pirate group in the Scutum Arm has been wiped out.] [At coordinates 39093.7552.64733 within Federation territory, the ‘Destroyer’s’ ability randomly destroyed a non-habitable planet.] [The battle of ‘Sun Star,’ ‘Starflow,’ ‘Emperor’s Blade,’ and ‘Dragon Slasher’ against the ‘Devourer’ is proceeding smoothly.] [A human named ‘Anna White’ is drinking on the Ringworld.] [The flowers planted by the residents on ‘Chang’an’ and ‘Rome’ have bloomed; they are very beautiful.] Due to a chaotic perception of ‘time,’ the events the ‘Recorder’ noted never had time stamps. His records were also characterized by lag and random sequencing; even He found it difficult to distinguish which came first and which came last. Several hours later, the superpowered entity finished recording the information and put down His pen, gazing across the void into the lightless deep space. He and those two principals, ‘Shilin’ and ‘Gomorrah,’ were not actually a single entity, but rather a mysterious trinity. Strictly speaking, He, who occupied most of this individual’s resources, would merge with and be led by the ‘Principal’s’ consciousness when it descended. But... in truth, He was composed of those among the fifty thousand people who had undergone the great fusion with the help of the ‘Gazer’—excluding the ‘Principal.’ He was also the ‘Administrators’ within the ‘Sun’ network. The ‘Recorder’ withdrew His gaze and sighed deeply. Like everyone currently living in the world, He was a ‘passive’ recorder, a ‘lagging’ recorder. Therefore, He could not cross time and space to actively witness the conclusion of that battle... Nor did He know what kind of end the sudden disaster on the Capital Planet in the physical world would have. Even more terrifyingly, His ‘passivity’ and ‘lag’ actually restricted the superpowered awakening tendencies of the Orion people. It was currently impossible for an Orion to awaken abilities like ‘prophecy,’ precisely because of the influence of His superpowered entity. So... when Shane had explained the situation to Lei Ting, he hadn't lied about being able to predict the future. This had been a very wise choice. After all, the return of his soul had been observed by the ‘Recorder’ from the very beginning. Thus, when this child wanted to board the ‘Sun’ just as he had in the ‘past life’ that only he had experienced in this universe, the ‘Principal’—who had originally wanted to test him—only asked a few token questions before easily approving his application. The ‘Recorder’ looked toward the physical world. On the Federation’s Capital Planet, every ‘wealthy household’ that had built a sea-like landscape suffered a massive tentacle attack, including Prince Arin’s large life-support tank. That was the power of the ‘Lord of the Sea’—the Sovereign of the Ocean could naturally tear through all obstacles to reach His kingdom. This was a right He had possessed since the moment of His birth. And at this moment, amidst a mental breakdown and a deep coma induced by drugs, Yabrisak Arin revealed his original form. His octopus-like lower body made it impossible for him to fit into the life-support tanks used by Orions, and his severely plummeted vital signs required him to be in a conventional seawater environment... Then, disaster struck. If not for Angye’s Black Dragon lunging forward with a fantastical-looking breath attack, those massive tentacles would have swallowed Arin into a sucker the moment they emerged, grinding him into dust. But even so, Arin still suffered significant injuries. At a time like this, one could see who had the most conscience—Mira. Yondel didn't even look at the prince whose power was gone; Angye coldly threw himself into other work. Instead, it was Mira, the Assistant to the Speaker, who spoke up to have Arin’s life-support switched to a more superpowered-oriented method... Though this was likely just to provide an explanation to interstellar society and the Consortium later on. The ‘Recorder’ closed His eyes, looking no further at the tragedies. —Things having come to this, it was the path people had to take to survive in the mortal world. *** After a full three days of a tug-of-war battle, the Devourer’s body had shrunk to the size of a building, and the energy barrier blocking external superpowered influence had weakened to a negligible degree. As expected, ‘Starflow’ had rotated out to rest several times over these three days. ‘Emperor’s Blade’ had swapped with him once to rest, while ‘Dragon Slasher’ and Lei Ting had not rested even once. By now, ‘Dragon Slasher’s’ expression wasn't looking too good—even for her, this kind of high-intensity combat was truly taxing. Lei Ting also bore several wounds that hadn't had time to heal. Upon sensing a spindle-shaped core within that black-and-red fleshy egg, which now had only a few eyes left, he didn't hesitate to manipulate the metallic elements within the Devourer’s body into a riot. In an instant, he tore it open, exposing the fragile core inside. In the next moment... everyone froze. Inside was a transparent, artificial crystal-like superpowered core. And within that core, a pained head was suspended by iron chains. Dripping brain matter was frozen in mid-air, and the original body below it was covered in dense, white mycelium that was still full of life. ‘Emperor’s Blade’ was shocked because this theoretically shouldn't exist. ‘Dragon Slasher’ was shocked because she had never seen such a superpowered core—like amber, it could actually encase a living being. Ivanheller was shocked because that was an Orion. And Lei Ting... He was shocked by the person’s identity. Or rather, their face. —That was an acquaintance from his student days, the female instructor who had gifted him his first piece of high-purity metal ‘calcium’: Kingsley.