Mid-sentence, the metal statue suddenly froze. Seconds later, it collapsed into a wave of cold alloy, the silver light flowing backward like a receding tide to rejoin the isolation wall, which had been thinned by a layer just moments before.
Evanheiler stared at the blank wall, his expression turning slightly strange. *That guy... even when he leaves in a hurry, he actually remembers to put the metal back.*
Meticulous. Far too meticulous.
So meticulous that Evanheiler remained lying flat for several minutes, his hand tracing the neck collar as if absentmindedly.
Then, in a sudden burst of movement, he leaped up. Transforming into a streak of starlight, he dove through the isolation wall and plunged straight into the command center.
Amidst Morgan’s bewildered stare from the console, Evanheiler rushed forward. He gripped the collar with one hand and used the other—fingers pressed together like a blade—to strike with a sharp edge of dissipating stardust, precisely severing the band.
The open collar let out a faint sound, snapping cleanly into two pieces.
Despite having shown no deformation even when faced with heavy industrial cutting machinery of the interstellar age, it now broke under a single ordinary strike.
Morgan looked at the two curved golden rods, his expression shifting. "What happened?"
"He was just here, but he left due to an emergency, even withdrawing his energy," Evanheiler said, his face grim and his narrative clear. "The problem must be significant. I’m ending my rest; prepare for a warp jump."
"How many target locations do we have? Filter out those near the Human Union’s controlled zones and show me the beacon data."
Out of trust, Morgan didn't waste words and immediately followed the instructions. However, he still notified the others, and soon, the group gathered.
"What’s going on? What’s going on?!" Tan He sat in a floating chair modified with a weapon system that gave it an incredibly aggressive silhouette, waving a mechanical femur. "I haven't even finished installing my left leg!"
Beside him, Ani glanced at the bone, her expression odd. "Where’s your patella component?"
"Just finished lathing it, it's in precision finishing," Tan He said, maneuvering his chair forward. "So, what’s the situation?"
"Stop talking. Prepare for the jump. We’re heading outward; it’s our best option."
Evanheiler donned a standard Human Union operator helmet modified by the Resistance. This gear included a head-tracking visor and armor, but after passing through the hands of the engineering department led by Tan He, it featured more detailed operational controls than the original.
Refusing the floating chair Morgan pushed toward him, he stood before the massive starship console. Through eye-tracking, gestures, and supernatural input, he rapidly entered a string of outrageously long commands.
"The warp engine hasn't been sabotaged..." Evanheiler felt a wave of relief that Lei Ting didn't want them dead yet. "Aeon, lock onto the target..."
As he spoke, he designated a bright spot on the star map. It was located at the outermost edge of the Human Union’s territory, the furthest star system currently known to be in enemy-occupied territory where civilians had not yet evacuated.
That location was the patrol sector of the Human Union’s Seventh Legion.
"...Here," he said, his gaze deep beneath the visor. "Calculate the star-gates that might still have partial functionality, the warp fields that might still be in service, and the enemy-occupied danger zones. Then, plot a viable route."
"Understood," Aeon’s synthesized voice replied. "Our ally indicates they can provide assistance. Shall I receive the plan overview?"
"Yes," Morgan said suddenly.
He strode forward and patted Evanheiler’s shoulder, frowning at the sensation beneath his palm. Aside from the fine silver-white hairs growing beneath the blond locks earlier than they should have for any of them, Evanheiler was also thinner than he had been years ago.
For a warrior, excessive thinness was synonymous with weakness, and weakness was the footstep of death.
Though Evanheiler was far from that point yet, the momentum of internal frailty had clearly begun to surface from the deep.
"We can’t keep taking detours, Evan," Morgan said. "Of course, on this path, we will try to take everyone with us, but the destination must be..."
"It’s 'that place,' I know," Evanheiler said softly. "I spent two of the last five years there. I know exactly how much it will change the situation. But, Solo, you don't understand that man’s power. He was just here, do you realize? If he wanted to, he could tear all of this apart at any moment—you, me, our fleet, and this entire desolate star system."
Hearing this, the expressions of everyone in the room varied, though most leaned toward horror.
"None of us know just how far his ability’s radiation range extends. As long as his output doesn't exceed a certain threshold, he doesn't even manifest energy light," Evanheiler said, shaking his head with a touch of melancholy. "I can't see his limit... no, I can't even see his baseline level. Against such an enemy, one can never be too careful."
If there is an enemy in this world so powerful that you cannot even see them clearly, you had best assume they are truly omniscient and nearly omnipotent, and act accordingly.
Otherwise, there will come a day when you regret it.
"I don't know what he went to do," Evanheiler said. "But I know that no matter what the problem is, he..."
...
"...will solve it very soon..." a low voice murmured in the deep of space.
The voice came from a twisted figure about a dozen meters tall, hiding a profound madness and chaos within. Perhaps it didn't even know what it was saying, much less who it was supposed to solve or how.
If it were just this, Lei Ting naturally wouldn't have severed the connection with Evanheiler mere seconds after the communication began.
But... within those few seconds of blurred imagery, the massive monster speaking those words bore the face of 'Emperor's Blade'!!
Something had gone wrong!
Lei Ting surged to his feet, a brilliant light like a blazing sun exploding from him, his golden studs glinting with a terrifying sharpness. His dark silhouette transformed into radiance and vanished, a flash in the darkness.
On the computer terminal he left behind, the emblem of the Human Union briefly appeared. With Lei Ting’s permission, 'Tianhe' took over momentarily and began deleting all previous records.
The deletion was fast, but when the progress bar reached 60%, it paused for a brief moment.
At the same time, near the convergence of the Milky Way and the Large Magellanic Cloud, about six hundred light-years from the former site of the 'Devourer,' a strange 'Sky Island' floated.
Buildings of all kinds 'grew' in a chaotic fashion from all sides of the island. The overall style spanned ten thousand years of history, but the arrangement was entirely without logic, like a handful of withered flowers tossed together.
Sharp, limb-like appendages grew between the buildings, stretching out in hundreds of directions to hook and stabilize the entire island, embedding it between the material realm and the 'Ethereal.'
"The corruption process of 'Emperor's Blade' has been accelerated to completion. The final masterpiece is finished. Just as planned, 'Tane' was destroyed by his own hand."
Inside one of the buildings, the Abyssal Demon Eibon reported with a smile to a figure standing less than five meters tall ahead of him.
"However, we have confirmed that in the final moment before he lost his cognitive abilities, he sent a communication request to the 'Solar Star.' The 'Solar Star' connected quickly and saw 'its' current state."
In these past few days, it—or rather, 'they'—had successfully induced Emperor's Blade, who was already overwhelmed by pollution, to mutate into a new Abyssal Demon. It simply hadn't received its own name yet.
In such matters, they were masters of the craft.
The figure said nothing in response—it simply waved a hand, producing a transparent bottle from the void.
Eibon bowed respectfully as he took it, looking at the white fungal strain rooted upon a piece of strange flesh inside. A twisted smile flickered across his face.
...
Lei Ting’s expression was solemn.
His silhouette flickered through the starry sea, each appearance spanning a distance further than a dream. He used his deployed drone fleets as springboards; this wasn't the first time he had used such a long-distance travel technique.
Thus, he arrived quickly—by using such a clever method, he surpassed the speed of light by thousands of times.
Furthermore, as his growth curve as a 'Limit-Breaker' became increasingly absurd, his linear perception radius had long since exceeded one-third of the Milky Way's diameter. As long as he didn't actively travel to the edges of the galaxy, such as the New Solar System or the original Solar System, the locations in the 'Ring World' that he paid special attention to could not escape his monitoring.
At this moment, it seemed no one in the outside world had received the news yet. There was no unusual movement from the direction of the Coalition; they were frantically dealing with the man-made disaster occurring inside the 'Ring World' and had imprisoned the Human Union personnel stationed there in their own rooms.
But Lei Ting knew that a lethally dangerous, high-ranking Abyssal Demon had appeared.
It was currently stationary above a burning, shattered planet. Its external form shifted constantly; occasionally, a mass of tentacles seemed ready to burst from its joints, but the distortion of flesh was quickly smoothed over.
This nameless Abyssal Demon had destroyed its own civilization. Clinging to the last shred of conscious awareness, it had made a communication call lasting less than five seconds, then attempted suicide. It failed, lost its selfhood entirely, and now only knew how to stare blankly down at the planet beneath its feet.
That was a rare planet that possessed an independent ecosystem before the Tane people arrived. It had once been an absolute wasteland, transformed step by step by someone born later among them into a place that could sustain the life and prosperity of an intelligent, supernatural race.
'Emperor's Blade.'
Lei Ting chewed on the name in his mind, approaching at extreme speed and suddenly coming to a halt before the twisted form.
The half-human, half-monstrous demon looked like a statue composed of earth, stone, and biomass.
When it leaned back to look at Lei Ting with that familiar stone-carved face, fertile soil soaked in dried blood cascaded from its body. Hard, dark stones reorganized outside the flesh like clumps of mud, unhesitatingly squeezing out the metallic flesh as well. Using only cold, hard inorganic stone, it formed a massive, sharp-edged, elongated hexagonal monolith.
In the void of space, Lei Ting gazed at the giant monument. It was hard to describe the taste in his heart at this moment.
And in the center of that monument, the massive face re-emerged, though this time, eight hollow, dark, petal-like 'eyes' replaced the upper half of its lifeless face.
***
