At this moment, facing the uninvited guests from beyond the heavens, everyone knew that the Federation’s military was not the target—the vast rear they protected was.
Within the radiation range of the near-S-class Aberrant’s pollution, Valiana, who was maintaining the anti-reflecting protective shield on the front line, found that she was suddenly struggling to think normally. Even her sprawling blue, sea-urchin-like spiked orbs of light began to flicker.
That pollution originated from a level beyond ordinary human comprehension. With just a single glance, she felt her body trembling of its own accord. Every cell surged with a violent impulse, calling for her life force to mutate and flow toward an unknown direction.
Even if Valiana’s psychological state wasn't the most stable, she was still an A-class.
If such power were allowed to spread across the Federation’s civilian-inhabited planets, heaven only knew what everything would become!
"C-class and below espers, enter the stasis pods! All other personnel, deploy spirit-specialized shields and interception nets!" Amidst the flickering blue light, Valiana donned her psionic combat armor, and the pressure suddenly lightened. She roared a command while sprinting toward the bridge: "Maintain the wartime succession system for command! At all costs, stall until the rear evacuation is complete!"
Simultaneously, the A-class espers, having checked their equipment and prepared themselves, followed her lead in full battle gear: "Yes, Ma'am!"
In the starry void, the enemy emitting terrifying pollution whistled past. The fleet flashed with a strange, pure radiance, deploying a massive blue interception network. They fired anchor missiles at full power—weapons usually reserved for locking down star-beasts—all just to delay the enemy for a single second.
But while these tactics were effective against the massive frames of star-beasts, they were far too weak against an Aberrant that was now only a hair’s breadth away from S-class.
Valiana barked a curse and led her team as they leaped onto their ship. A streak of light flashed within the battlegroup; this assault squad, worn down by war to only half its original size, braved the void behind a fluorescent blue shield spiked forward. In a short time, they accelerated to a terrifying speed, chasing directly after the target.
Immense pressure, enough to crush an ordinary person’s ribs, bore down on them. However, the small-scale repulsion fields of their seats, their G-suits, their shields, and their iron wills kept them silent.
Yet, the closer they got to their target, the greater the other form of pressure became. Someone even let out a low groan of pain as they neared the objective; their face twisted slightly, and the look in their eyes began to change.
"Activate personal anti-interference protection," Valiana ordered.
The team members issued commands to their combat-grade internal network computers. A faint light flashed in front of their ears, and their expressions eased slightly.
Those were anti-interference patches issued by the Federation’s Psionic Research Institute. They were primarily designed to counter the control and interference of spirit-specialized espers, but they could also react to pollution from Aberrants.
"Those things come from the 'Spirit’s Depths'; they cannot stay in the physical realm for long without environmental modification." Valiana stared intently at the steady glow of her 'Champion' war-spear’s monomolecular cutting edge, analyzing calmly: "Stall if we can. If we can't, we go up and self-destruct. I’ll be the first, then follow the numerical order. No redundant operations—don't waste resources."
"Yes, Ma'am!" the group responded in unison, their faces grim and cold, showing no hint of fear or resentment.
At the same time, they began to activate their spirits to the fullest to resist the pollution more effectively.
One had to remember that these were A-class espers—high-level powerhouses who, by all rights, were guaranteed to be capable of destroying a planet.
If even they were polluted to an irrecoverable degree... then this sudden battle was truly doomed!
Soon, the ship, propelled by the pinnacle of civilization's technology, caught up with the target near a star system after several reckless short-range jumps.
The warriors ejected from the cabin toward the target, their bodies soaring through the freezing interstellar space!
*BOOM!!*
A sharp, fluorescent blue semi-arc shield intercepted the target, colliding heavily with it and shattering instantly. The target was successfully halted for a moment, its flight speed slowing. It opened an eye on its rear and looked back.
Valiana felt a massive portion of her energy drained instantly, a dizzying sensation surging up. But battle-hardened as she was, she felt no fear, only staring fixedly at the target’s form.
It was a massive 'head' aggregated from over a hundred eyeballs, with an alien torso hanging beneath it like a silken thread.
Fine. Before this Aberrant transformed, it must have possessed a high intelligence, filled with curiosity and a thirst for knowledge.
Valiana instantly formulated over a dozen response plans, but simultaneously, she felt a stinging pain in her eyes, her vision blurring slightly.
*Damn it, this is hard...*
The tall woman brandished her war-spear. The energy halo on the spear spun rapidly, its tassels burning like fire as she began to charge for a subsequent strike.
*But there's nothing for it but to do it!*
She let out a great roar, turning into a blade-like streak of fluorescent blue light as she charged ahead.
And because she had activated her anti-interference, she did not hear the long sigh that echoed from the Spirit’s Depths—both far away and right beside her.
...
It was common knowledge that star systems on the edge of the controlled zones would always encounter the first, earliest, and most intense impacts.
But when someone on a planet—one that had urgently entered a state of first-level combat readiness and been taken over by the military—observed such a terrifying monster charging from beyond the heavens, there were still those who screamed in heart-wrenching despair until they nearly collapsed.
Prayers, pleas for mercy, roars of anger, sobs... all sorts of different sounds merged into a chaotic mass, and these masses constituted the planet.
In a world of vibrant colors, clusters of different spirits collectively released similar yet distinct emotions; different individuals performed similar yet distinct actions.
This was the human settlement in the eyes of the 'Recorder.'
Setting aside the 'Principal' aspect of their identity, as an incomplete artificial psionic entity, the Recorder could actually only see 'humanity' in the physical world.
Human thoughts, human civilization, human collectives, human actions.
Humans were the Recorder's way of perceiving the world; they were everything in their field of vision.
If there were no humans, all things in the physical world would be nothing but darkness in their eyes, even if they existed.
For centuries, the Recorder had known that their incomplete self, which grew weaker by the moment, would one day fade away completely.
But they did not care about the fading itself.
What they cared about...
...was what kind of benefit this 'fading' could buy for the humanity of today, and what kind of change it could initiate.
In the darkness, the beautiful giant, neither male nor female, tore a page from the manuscript in their hand and cast it toward the place they had come from—toward the distant glow shining like a supernova.
Then, they composed their attire with practiced ease and stepped forward, just as they had every time they set out in the past, crossing the barrier between the darkness and the stars.
Their posture was proud, head held high, returning to the appearance they had centuries ago when they were still human. Back then, those two had led their teams out of the gates of the Human Command in the New Solar System, walking toward the ships bound for the Galactic Federation. Both he and she had held their heads high—one wearing a ring engraved with oaths and pride, the other holding a scepter that wrote history and civilization.
Facing the unknown stars and the future, they had never shrunk back. They straightened their backs as they crossed 'Chang'an' and 'Rome,' and straightened their backs as they walked into the hall of giants among the stars.
And now...
They, along with those on that starship who trusted them and were willing to guard the rear of civilization with them, had become true 'giants.'
When they stepped across the barrier and entered the physical world as 'Psionic Entities' carrying the expectations and power of countless people, let alone a single Aberrant...
Even the darkness of the future would have to briefly make way for them!
The Recorder smiled and opened their eyes.
Standing between heaven and earth, they intercepted the Aberrant.
"Hello," they said. "Hello to you all."
That magnificent voice echoed through the endless starry sky, and also in the hearts of all humans within the Milky Way who remained within the Recorder's perception.
In countless worlds, people froze in a daze. Some looked left and right, some thought they were hallucinating, and others thought a spirit-specialized esper was causing trouble, dialing emergency lines in a panic.
In the Council Chamber, the crowd suddenly fell silent.
Yondel also abruptly looked up, his eyes widening—then, a message was sent to the computer in front of him. His lips moved, trembling slightly.
But he didn't know what to say.
He could only slowly stand up, solemnly walk away from his seat, and bow his head deeply in that direction.
Though the others in the Council Chamber were confused, many who were in the know had their suspicions. These guesses drove them to frantically send messages outward—especially to the Academy headquarters—but in the end, they could only remain silent. Like Yondel, they stood, left their seats, and bowed their heads.
*What should I say?* the Recorder thought.
They didn't know; none of them knew. This period of time had been far too long for humanity. They had long forgotten what they wanted to say to the world, just as they repeatedly forgot time and their own names—
—But at this moment, looking at the clusters of starlight in the infinite, boundless darkness before them, and the tiny specks of starlight near every attacking monster, they still wanted to say something.
*What would be good to say?*
They blinked somewhat vacantly, then as if thinking of something, they scanned the darkness—empty of everything but enemies—and the stars twinkling within it with a beaming smile.
Then, raising their hand adorned with the gold ring, they unfurled the manuscript in their grasp.
—["...By the lakeside,"] they recited the poem they had been reading earlier on the *Solaris*, ["I see the swaying reeds, I see the golden fields and the snow-white swans..."]—
The *Solaris*, currently transporting this year's students through the stars, underwent a violent tremor, but no one on board reacted.
In the Principal’s office next to the hangar, two figures smiled at each other and dissolved into streaks of light, crossing the stars to return to the Recorder.
At the same time, students and teachers discovered with horror that scattered janitors, teachers, some service robots, defense drones, and even some ships around them began to dissolve into light.
—["They bathe beneath the blue sky. And I bathe with them."]—
With the midpoint of the Federation’s territory as the center, a dreamlike domain spread out. It expanded rapidly, spreading at a speed that seemed to infinitely transcend light—no, it should be said that it had always existed, and was only now manifesting in the world.
Within a few sentences, it swallowed the entire Federation star sector.
People saw a dreamlike, gentle scroll of gold and blue unfurl around them, in every place within the Federation, whether inhabited or not.
—["...Bathed in sunlight like wheat fields,"] the Recorder murmured softly, ["bathed in wheat fields like sunlight."]—
The dream of being amidst wheat fields, reeds, and sunlight came to everyone’s side.
In deep space, before the massive black and red waves sweeping toward the Federation’s borders, any hateful creature that crashed into this illusion vanished without a sound in the warm golden sunlight.
But in the inner regions untouched by the flames of war, some were dazed, and some were asking questions.
"What is that?" they asked one another. "What’s happening?"
The Recorder continued their recitation.
In the distant ruins of 'Bastion,' within the forest of monitoring mist pillars, only one unified color remained.
Gold.
A warm, clear, non-aggressive gold.
A gold that was just as dangerous as the 'Sun Star,' yet gave off a completely different feeling.
And the mist pillars, rolling with black smoke, were collapsing irreversibly because of it.
—["Look, how ugly the world is, and how beautiful... I watch, I feel, I think, and my heart is full of joy."]—
When the first ray of golden light pierced the darkness and burned the corner of Eibon’s clothes into a patch of black mist, the Aberrant stumbled back, barely avoiding it, nearly cursing aloud.
—["I see the stars shining through all things,"] the Recorder closed their eyes gently, reciting their dream: ["Shining within my waves of wheat..."]—
The waves of wheat swayed. People looked around in a daze, not knowing where the stars were.
In deep space, from the direction of the Solar System ruins—now shrouded in a clear, gentle blue 'lake'—a fleet bearing the 'Gaia' insignia was rapidly approaching. In the eyes of Morgan on the flagship, a crimson light flashed: "Hey?! Can you hear me, 'Recorder'?! We’re coming right now, don't you..."
—["O Human!"] the Recorder suddenly raised their voice, spreading their arms as if to embrace something: ["When you begin to realize you are truly alive, life is but a long journey home!"]—
—["And this life..."]—
The golden waves of wheat swayed, yet they did not rustle.
The sun set behind the western mountains, illuminating the people’s faces, much like the Recorder’s life which had declined to this point.
In the starry sky, there was only a magnificent, complex voice, like a chorus of ten thousand people led by the voices of a man and a woman, saying to the people:
—["I know that even when the sun sets, there are stars shining, meeting me with their light."]—
***
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