Stars See Me [Interstellar] | Chapter 273 | Echoes of a Ruined Future | Novela.app

The tide of battle shifted in the blink of an eye. In the heat of the fray, Evenheiler exerted every ounce of his strength to maintain his simulation of ‘Immovable,’ but as wave after wave of relentless enemy assaults crashed against them, his face grew increasingly pallid. Eventually, he looked as though he might shatter at any moment, his essence scattered into the starry void by a single breath. Anyone could see he was a spent force, a bowstring stretched to its breaking point. Voids of annihilation formed and vanished in an instant. It was a sound beyond the perception of ordinary biological life—the mournful wail of the chaotic seas of spacetime being torn asunder and stitched back together. Lei Ting lowered his left hand. From his fingertips to his elbow, his armor had been melted away, and his flesh was a charred ruin. Dark purple energy, tinged with blue, twisted and pulsed within the cracks of dried blood. It actually drew in the surrounding energy, beginning to leach the metallic substances directly from his blood. Just moments ago, he had intercepted an attack for Evenheiler, and in doing so, he had deciphered the enemy’s primary ability: by absorbing the constituent matter of a biological organism, they could resonate with the target’s energy to achieve a state of total replacement. In essence... it was a form of simulation. It was unexpected that this visitor from afar possessed an ability that shared a subtle, common logic with Evenheiler’s own. A sharp, blossoming pain radiated from his flesh. Lei Ting lowered his hand, his expression composed. Evenheiler did not know what Lei Ting was thinking. He looked down at that charred hand, his own expression remaining unchanged. Yet, both sides present could sense from the instantaneous shift in his energy that his mental state had fluctuated violently due to Lei Ting’s injury. But Lei Ting did not panic. “...You believe you can keep me here,” he said. The Monarch of Metal raised his hand once more. His healthy, intact left hand shimmered with a wheat-gold reflection in the light, echoing the depth of his abyss-like eyes. A layer of silver-white flowing beneath his skin returned to its normal pathways. These were concentrated, mobile calcium ions—his most superficial means of self-repair, used to mask other, more precise and complex internal processes. The preceding battle had left his hair somewhat disheveled. Though his golden crown had not tilted, strands of white hair, previously hidden meticulously beneath the black, now spilled out, adding a touch of gravitas to his mature, handsome features. The storm howled, stripping away the gentle golden light, but it could not reach even a tenth of his recovery speed. Lei Ting curled his fingers and gave a light flick. With a faint, crisp crack, a bolt of lightning—a mix of brilliant gold and dark purple—erupted between his distinct, rugged knuckles. The power that had previously invaded his wound had been mostly neutralized by his own energy. The remainder was gathered into a dim, vivid orb of energy that lingered at his newly armored fingertips before being pinched out of existence. Evenheiler, held in his arms, saw it clearly: if that orb of light were dropped into the physical universe, it would be enough to detonate a star. Such terrifying power, wielded with such effortless grace. Evenheiler pursed his lips. He knew all too well that if he couldn't simulate Lei Ting’s abilities, he would be—if not a burden—at least useless in a battle where everyone was brute-forcing their way through reality. But that didn't mean he would give up. He knew he must—and would—do more. “How do you intend to do it?” Lei Ting asked softly. He gently patted Evenheiler’s back to soothe his emotions, while continuing: “We all know that to kill a Limit-Breaker, you must make them abandon their own resistance... Otherwise, even you cannot stop my self-repair. “So, how do you plan to achieve it? “By destroying my galaxy? Killing my lover? Forcing me to face my psychological shadows? Or will you simply tear apart the broken universe I hail from, letting the so-called ‘Spirit’s Depths’ surge upward to completely drown every spark of life within?” —As this battle truly commenced, a clarity like a bright mirror dawned in Lei Ting’s mind, and he suddenly realized something. That was: the universe he was born into, and its parallel timelines... their broken, dilapidated state was clearly wrong. Whether it was the content of his education or the spacetime rift Evenheiler had left behind years ago... he had known from the start that spacetime possessed a self-healing mechanism. And spacetime was the very set of laws by which the great entity known as the Universe measured itself. Thus, even if the damage was so great that the entire universe was forced into contact with that superpowered shadow world known as the ‘Spirit’s Depths’... ...Over the vast stretches of time, the wound caused by the Caligan civilization should have long since healed into a void of complete dimensions, devoid of spontaneous matter! And powers like super-abilities, which transcended the rules of reality, should have a ceiling imposed by the universe’s self-repair! Was the birth of a ‘Limit-Breaker’ truly logical? Where did that seemingly infinite energy come from, appearing whenever it was needed? It came from the Limit-Breaker themselves. Then, where did the seemingly infinite lifespan, granted by the organism’s boundless vitality, come from? —It also came from the Limit-Breaker themselves. Yet everyone knew that even the universe had its birth, death, and limits. How could a ‘Limit-Breaker (Double S),’ who surpassed and removed those limits—whose abilities directly involved fundamental laws—exist within a finite universe? Furthermore, did the dimensions of the universe, which theoretically should expand outward at an ever-increasing speed, possess such near-infinite power? Clearly—no. Even now, the universe Lei Ting saw remained inextricably entangled with the ‘Spirit’s Depths.’ That wound showed no sign of closing or healing. Yet, the universe’s own self-healing mechanism had not malfunctioned. This situation... was as if the ‘Spirit’s Depths’ was preventing the healing! This was the truth Lei Ting had realized— —Foreign entities like the ‘Spirit’s Depths’ and ‘superpowers’ were, to the universe, a form of injury in themselves. This was a long-term invasion!! Every existence born from that starless, lightless world—every existence that clearly did not belong to the primary material plane yet could interact with its lifeforms—was a vanguard, whether they knew it or not! “No, we will not do that,” ‘Cortares’ said. It seemed to be smiling. Smiling at his realization. “Those things cannot bind you... ‘Lei Ting.’ Your essence is without limit; external conditions cannot drive you. Only you can make yourself choose. “We all know that protection fuels your fighting spirit. But if we destroy everything you care about, you will instead let go of your self-control and exert every effort to demolish our Frontline. I have already felt this quite sufficiently.” ‘Frontline’... ‘felt this’... Lei Ting’s heart sank. As expected, there was an alliance spanning across spacetime. How many ‘Cortares’ existed within it? And how many... ‘Superpowered Entities’ were there? Those great powers... the existence of each one made the connection between matter and the bottomless ‘Spirit’s Depths’ more stable, more unshakable. And through such connections, the ‘Spirit’s Depths’ continuously pumped new chaos into the material realm. It locked down this wide-open world, accelerating its entropy, increasing the variables of every choice, and making the universe rush toward death faster with every passing second... And because the fundamental layers of spacetime lacked true concepts of ‘time’ and ‘space,’ this chaos spread throughout the entire timeline, climbing into parallel universes. From the birth of the universe, infinite parallel universes began to be born infinitely. By now, the original timeline might have long been destroyed. Everyone was ‘themselves,’ yet they were all counterparts developed from the foundation of someone who existed in the distant past! “I’m curious, what kind of people exist in your ‘Frontline’?” Lei Ting asked softly. He put on an air of pure curiosity. Even if, given his well-known seriousness and rigor in official matters, no one present would believe this act was genuine. But no one could guess what was currently on his mind. “You really are the same as ever...” The enemy, who had been mid-battle just moments ago, actually cooperated and began to chat. It sighed: “No matter which ‘you’ it is, they all start out this way. “Of course, now a third of them are dead, and a third are still resisting. As for the other third...” ‘Its’ faceplate distorted, resembling a terrifying smile. A ‘Commander’ of the ‘Frontline’ was smiling at its enemy on a true battlefield. A grand domain expanded. A complete cycle of a Superpowered Entity and a ruined yet still resilient fortress covered Lei Ting’s vision. “Merge with us... ‘Lei Ting.’ Merge into our future.” They said. “You should know that only after death is there new life...” That voice tugged so hard at the soul that Lei Ting couldn't help but daze for a moment, a scene flashing through his mind. —[Amidst the ruins of the boundless galaxy, within the endlessly erupting torrents of energy, a tall figure stood silently in a solid rift of spacetime.]— —[It was an Orion human, over two meters tall. He radiated a faint golden light, wearing the cloak of the Orion Union Chairman and bearing the insignia of the First Legion on his shoulder. His full head of white hair seemed to dance yet remain still in the energy turbulence, swaying yet hanging heavy.]— That was... the back of ‘Sun Star.’ The back of ‘Sun Star,’ as watched by a future ‘Sun Star.’ With Evenheiler’s support, Lei Ting stumbled back two steps. —He remembered. That was the four-hundred-year-old ‘himself,’ and also his four-hundred-year-old ‘counterpart.’ Yes, spacetime could not be completely reversed... because the ‘past’ could not be changed. He and that four-hundred-year-old self had always been one, yet they did not exist simultaneously on different timelines—initially, they were the same person, but because of their subsequent experiences, they had long since diverged. And the original him, using his limit-surpassing soul to pierce through spacetime, had brought a few fragments from those ruins—that star graveyard and infinite prison—back to a certain period he craved. In that period, the pain he suffered had not yet been born, the price of his losses had not yet drifted away, and his broken home still existed. He could still see with his own eyes the stars people called ‘suns,’ listen to every similar or different voice within civilization, and then talk to people, being jokingly called a ‘revivalist’... ...Rather than being forced to stay in a chaotic yet extremely solidified spatial node, voluntarily imprisoned in a galaxy that no longer flowed with the universe and would sooner or later be destroyed on another level, eternally gazing at the faint light from the Orion Arm on the other side of the star system. In that light, civilization had not yet been destroyed, and the people had not yet died. The stories before the stories he had lived through were all still continuing.