Half an hour later, Lei Ting and Yvenheiler stood on a hillside near the road leading out of the town.
The sky was nearing dusk, and a rustling sea breeze blew, painting everything in a soft, rosy pink. Most of the pedestrians on the road wore simple linen clothes, though some were dressed in cotton robes or coarse hemp cloaks.
Closer to the town, guards patrolled on horseback. Some wore leather armor, with metal plates concentrated on key vital areas.
The two men in the distance had not changed their clothes or removed their gear. Yvenheiler’s trench coat and light tactical gear, combined with Lei Ting’s cloak and futuristic heavy armor, made them look utterly out of place in this world.
Consequently, they had to use mental suggestions to influence the passing pedestrians, forcing them to subconsciously ignore their presence. Both of their psionic signatures were incredibly radiant; forget turning invisible—even lowering their presence was a challenge.
Truthfully, if they entered the city like that, influencing too many people with mental power would inevitably trigger a psychic backlash. But if they didn't influence enough people, they might end up being written into some local myth or legend.
Bound by gravity, this ancient civilization and these visitors from the stars could never truly understand one another. And if the former were allowed to interpret the latter through their own cognitive inertia, things would quickly become unpleasant for the two travelers.
Lei Ting and Yvenheiler looked at each other.
"So, the 'Fire Wine' of this era is on Earth?" Yvenheiler asked suddenly, his tone somewhat strange. "How did you... bring 'that thing' here?"
One had to remember that they had crossed through time. Even the bodies they inhabited, which could barely be considered living, were only obtained recently through the grace of a certain 'Lover' at a specific point in time.
At this moment, when neither of them could even contact their 'savings' from the future, Lei Ting had somehow produced a grain of 'Fire Wine.'
"It is a form of materialized energy. As long as it's converted back into energy, carrying a bit of unconscious tissue is possible," Lei Ting explained. "My psionic density is high enough."
"Then why were you carrying it? And inside your psionic threads, no less?" Yvenheiler’s expression grew even stranger.
"..."
Lei Ting’s expression also turned odd. Snapping out of his thoughts, he felt caught between laughter and tears. "...Are you jealous?"
"No," Yvenheiler denied flatly.
"Then you definitely are... Yven, why are you jealous of a ball of flame slime? Especially since you're so much older than me."
"Are you trying to say I'm not mature enough? That I'm not meeting your expectations?" Yvenheiler let out a huff of a laugh.
Though his words seemed fine on the surface, Lei Ting felt his hair stand on end for some reason.
"...No, not at all." He denied the hypothesis with extreme speed and focus. "In my eyes, everything about you is wonderful. Better than anything else."
Yvenheiler choked on his next words. He hadn't intended to let Lei Ting off the hook so easily, but now that the words were at the tip of his tongue, he couldn't say a single one.
He even instinctively averted his gaze, stopping his observation of the town and the powerful aura hidden within it, leaving Lei Ting with nothing but the sight of the back of his golden head.
The bright yellow light diffused as the delicate red faded; the rose-like colors receded from the horizon. The sky gradually turned purple, and the stars quietly revealed themselves.
Lei Ting looked at the other man’s mid-length blonde hair and his high collar, feeling a momentary pang of regret that he couldn't see the line of his nape. Well, an Alpha thinking this way about an Omega might seem a bit like a pervert, but since it was his boyfriend, it probably didn't matter.
He also looked away, maintaining a composed demeanor.
"The energy link is mutual; he must have felt its presence," Lei Ting said. "But just as I’m unsure of what state he’s in to be appearing here in this era, he’s likely unsure of our intentions."
"It sounds like you know the origin of 'Fire Wine'... and you're very clear on what he should or shouldn't be doing." Yvenheiler’s voice deepened, turning serious as his curiosity faded. "Furthermore, you’re wary of him... at least, the version of him from this time?"
"An alien who should be the ruler of the entire galaxy in the distant stars, mysteriously appearing on a planet at the edge of the Milky Way, staying in a town built by what are essentially primitive natives to him, and seemingly doing nothing..." Lei Ting spoke softly.
"...Stop, let me process this," Yvenheiler murmured, his expression carrying a hint of irrepressible shock. "So... 'Kothares'?"
"Mm-hmm. And for your information, the 'Commander' is the same. They once belonged to the same entity," Lei Ting added.
Yvenheiler fell into deep thought, his fists gradually tightening. "How do you plan to call him out?"
"There are many ways, most of which I’d rather not use," Lei Ting said quietly. "There are too many ordinary people here..." He watched the passersby—farmers, servant women, mercenaries, and merchant caravans. "My power would too easily... scorch them."
Yvenheiler said nothing more. His mental power swept through the entire town, leaping lightly over the hearts of the people and leaving a sense of tranquility before his power could be noticed or feared. He quickly locked onto the target.
The target possessed a mental fluctuation that was both familiar and strange, which made Yvenheiler’s transmission of the message even smoother.
—[Hello, 'Kothares.' We mean no harm. Please come outside the town for a meeting.]—
A voice with a strange echo rang out in the mind of someone in the city, causing him to pause mid-sentence while giving instructions. He looked up.
From his appearance, he was a tall human male with a handsome face, fair skin, and bright blue eyes. He had hair as red as fire; even in ordinary clothes, he did not seem ordinary at all.
The most extraordinary thing was that red hair—a red so vivid it was nearly the color of blood, ensuring he would be spotted in a crowd instantly, no matter where he was.
Upon 'hearing' the voice, he smiled slightly and finished his sentence: "...And that is the most suitable way for you to observe the stars."
Then, he rose from the white stone slab he had been sitting on, glanced at the small arena currently under construction before him, and waved off those who wanted to stand and see him out. He walked away alone along the dusty roadside.
A short while later, Lei Ting and Yvenheiler, who had been playing a card game outside the town, put away the cards they had just fashioned from metal elements in the nearby soil. They patted the dust off their clothes and cloaks and stood up.
"If you cheat again next time, I'm punching you," Yvenheiler ground out in a low voice.
"..." Lei Ting pretended he hadn't heard a thing. *Cheating is part of the game! I can manipulate metal, and the cards are metal, so isn't it perfectly reasonable for me to change the patterns?*
In his line of sight, a striking red-haired man approached from a distance. He raised a hand and shouted with a smile, "Long time no see!"
"...?"
Yvenheiler and Lei Ting glanced at each other.
'Long time no see'? And with such a warm attitude?
This was getting interesting.
"Oh, right. It seems you haven't met me yet in this era—or rather, you haven't met 'me' in this state."
The red-haired man rubbed his hair and reached out his hand, intending to perform a handshake like an ordinary person from the 'future.' "It’s been a long time, my friends whom I am meeting for the first time. Lei Ting, and Yvenheiler!"
Lei Ting raised an eyebrow slightly and reached out to shake his hand.
In that instant, a massive vision unfolded in his mind—it was the entire Milky Way as it existed at this moment. Within it, traces like crimson flames outlined a vast territory. Above that blood-fire was the phantom of an incredibly massive, complete fortress-city. Inside it sat a giant clock and a circle of neatly arranged symbols representing psionic entities...
The 'Crown' that was like a shackle, the 'Shackle' that was like a crown, the 'Warning Bell' standing in the center, the 'Sharp Blade' that was sharp and ever-changing, and the silent 'Fortress.'
Five symbols surrounded a massive humanoid phantom, which both extracted thin streams of dissipated energy and tiny fragments of starlight from the entire territory and funneled that energy into the center.
It was a massive, man-made psionic entity.
It was similar in nature to the 'Recorder,' possessing a vessel and medium in reality that were one with it... but deep within its core, a profound darkness lay hidden.
Its left hand was raised, gathering the incoming energy and allowing it to enter its body; its right hand was pointed downward, letting fresh, pure energy pour out.
Lei Ting shifted his perception upward.
As expected, it had the face of... 'Kothares.'
...
Following the invisible connection, Lei Ting withdrew his gaze from the other world and refocused on the face of the red-haired man before him.
"Atlin Kothares." Lei Ting narrowed his eyes, which glowed with golden light behind his visor, and withdrew his hand. "Do you know that you have already been polluted?"
Yvenheiler looked up sharply. *Wait, this time period... doesn't it seem a bit off from the earliest recorded time of the first fallen 'Ebon's' incident?*
Kothares’s expression remained unchanged, his face still wearing a bright, cheerful smile. "I know."
He then extended his hand toward Yvenheiler. Seeing that Lei Ting did not stop him, Yvenheiler also reached out and shook it.
This time, the vision clearly surfaced for him as well.
Soon, Yvenheiler also withdrew his hand. His expression was slightly odd; he had clearly seen the situation for what it was.
In this period, the Galactic Empire had established links between their five psionic entities and segments of the populace.
While people were alive, the psionic entities collected the energy dissipated from their psionic threads during daily activities. After they died, the entities collected their psionic threads, filtered out the redundant parts, and returned the purest 'Spirit' back into life, allowing them to be reborn.
This was a 'Samsara' cycle that belonged solely to the people of the Galactic Empire.
It artificially created a heaven where one need not worry about their destination after death, and it also created the most powerful psionic individual in the entire galaxy.
Yes—'Atlin Kothares' himself was not powerful enough to surpass everything.
His strength was built upon the entire 'Galactic Empire.'
But now, that strength, and that entire Empire... had begun to be parasitized by dim phantoms. Consequently, it was impossible for Kothares to remain untainted!
"...I see," Lei Ting said softly. "Those offspring of yours—they aren't natural lifeforms, are they? They are merely products of you diverting this power and its corresponding burden."
Kothares nodded readily. "And because their lives come from the psionic entities, and the entities are built upon the aggregated power of my people, they naturally follow the psionic entities—or rather, they act according to the subconscious of a portion of the people."
"You know what kind of disaster this will become," Lei Ting said coldly. "You are handing over the power of decision and direction, but it should not be touched by the 'masses'!"
Human hearts were too chaotic and fragmented. Ten thousand people would have ten thousand different opinions on the future of the 'collective.'
Even a single car could flip if it suddenly jerked left or right; how much more so for an interstellar empire the size of the Galactic Empire?
"Ah, about that..." Kothares’s bright smile took on a hint of melancholy. "...At first, I wanted to try. Later, I found that I could no longer stop."
For a fleeting moment, a murky blackness flickered in his eyes before returning to their normal color.
"You’ve seen it too. I am the Empire’s first and greatest 'Polluted One.' I am beyond recovery, stepping toward the role of the arch-culprit..."
In the distant stars, within the 'Ringworld,' the ruler sitting atop a staircase hundreds of meters high closed his eyes and sighed.
His long hair and eyes were like blood-red flames, but his sigh caused a bone-chilling wind to howl through the empty palace.
"...I ask you to kill me. In this era," he said. "I think perhaps this starry sky does not lack me, nor does it need me... Without me, life in the galaxy will go on just the same.
"...So, try to change history, my friends who gave me my 'name.' Even though we all know that in all likelihood, it will be in vain."
***
