“We’ll hijack one of those lamb-ships. Even if the damn things are small as children’s toys, they’re barely flyable,” another superpowered soldier said. “Don’t worry about us, ‘Double S.’”
“I understand. Also, I’ve been meaning to ask,” Lei Ting said softly, “did you recognize me from the very beginning?”
Though he knew he was a frequent topic of discussion on the Star Net, the speed with which these two had dropped their guard was still surprising—most military optical computers couldn't connect to the Star Net, and he hadn't even phased through the walls yet when they first saw him...
“Of course... I saw your light, and those metals... In the Federation military, there isn't a soul who doesn't recognize you and your power. You should have more confidence in your fame among us.”
The man’s lips twitched into a strained, rigid smile—if a ferocious expression mixed with rage and killing intent could be called a smile. “Thanks,” he said. “I doubted you before, but I was wrong. I have to say, you really are our Supernova.”
He reached out and patted Lei Ting’s solid arm, unsurprised when the limb didn't budge an inch. Then, he grabbed his still-dazed teammate, forced the man to thank Lei Ting, and picked up his weapon to solemnly chamber a round.
“I’m Sergeant Bolen of the Third Legion. He’s Sergeant Nott of the Fifth. Those two are Ailer and Rob. We all owe you our lives. If we make it back alive...”
He paused for a moment.
“...Well, I don't have much to offer in return, probably just this life of mine.” He grinned. “If you ever need it, just say the word.”
Without further lingering, they took their two comrades—who seemed lost in a bizarre, lingering nightmare—and strode into the corridor that felt somewhat cramped for their stature.
Lei Ting also turned to go his separate way.
Given that this was enemy territory, he first arrogantly swept his mental strength across the entire planetary weapon. After provoking the approaching enemy—who was currently transforming into a roiling black cloud—into a furious roar, he once again suppressed his supernatural fluctuations as much as possible. Carrying his ‘New Sun,’ whose residual heat could still melt most metals, he dove into the Hata’an’s labyrinthine architectural structures, preparing to lead the enemy on a chase.
However... before he began his move, he frowned slightly.
In the distant sky... why did the light feel a bit off?
Could it be that the other Hata’an Prince was prepared to use orbital weapons to bombard their own territory?!
***
In his confusion, Lei Ting left the site of the incident. He wanted to prevent the energy shockwaves from affecting him prematurely if the Hata’an truly decided to blast through the power furnace from the small basin he had just created.
The explosion of a planetary main power furnace was no joke. If he took a direct hit, let alone himself, even another planetary weapon of similar size wouldn't necessarily be able to keep the damage below ten percent.
Thus, he did not see exactly what kind of light was shining in the interplanetary space surrounding this massive planetary weapon.
It was starlight.
Fragmented, calm, and coldly serene white starlight.
It wasn't like the ‘Sun Star,’ which formed a towering, immovable domain wherever it shrouded; nor was it like the radiance just emitted by the ‘New Sun,’ which tore through steel and earth with high temperatures and intense heat.
The starlight merely flickered in the void, as if the stars themselves had descended, or perhaps it was just the fragmented whispers shed by the celestial bodies—gentle, tranquil...
...Flowing around Evenheiler.
***
A while ago, in the asteroid belt surrounding the planetary weapon, scattered fragments of starlight had begun to glow.
Then came the surging ‘Starstream.’
Shipboard AIs were shut down due to massive energy interference that was nearly impossible to trace. Almost all Hata’an collapsed the moment they touched that starlight. They did not die; they merely sank into a peaceful, clean dreamscape.
For the ‘Starstream’ never engaged in slaughter, and because he knew the Integrated would not let these time-pressed little lambs live anyway.
As for himself... he was no longer an internal member of the Human Union, nor could he be considered a legal member of the Integrated. Rashly killing too many lives that didn't need to be moved not only violated his moral code but would also make it harder for him to achieve his goals with ‘precision and efficiency.’
Thus, a tall, golden-haired man with a straight posture became the only sentient life remaining in this stretch of space.
He did not summon the armor that had once been famous throughout the galaxy. He simply stood alone within his ‘Starstream,’ his brilliant golden hair occasionally swaying gently as the stardust flowed past, reflecting dazzling, magnificent colors in the starlight.
Unlike Lei Ting, the Evenheiler of back then had been vigorously promoted by the Federation as a ‘representative figure’ from the moment he awakened.
The reason the Federation did this was precisely because... at that time, people needed a sufficiently eye-catching topic of discussion. And he, Evenheiler Kahn, was the most striking one in terms of both ability and appearance.
In more ways than one.
Now, the man who had weathered many storms stood in space with his eyes closed. His mature, handsome face bore a serene expression, looking as though he could attend a ‘high-society’ banquet at any moment.
But those who knew him were well aware that he not only disliked the so-called ‘upper class,’ but also insisted that every class called ‘upper’ based on money and power was the filthiest thing in the world. If someone tried to force him to associate with those people, the situation would almost certainly fast-forward to: “By the Galaxy, these bastards deserve a good slashing...”
Every single time, the villains who committed atrocities before him were crushed.
Every single time.
Back in the Federation, he was relatively mild... but after leaving the Federation, once he determined an enemy truly deserved to die, he wouldn't even give them a chance to quibble or wait for reinforcements. He would lock on with energy and strike with a single blade—high attack, high speed, swift and violent destruction of everything. He would settle the matter cleanly and then sheathe his blade and leave.
Even some old friends in the Resistance who had gone to school with him joked that, given his temper—which was as violent and rigid as his exterior was quiet and refined—they really didn't dare let him return to the Federation interior on a whim...
Fortunately, the blade that truly belonged to the ‘Starstream’ had been broken for ten years. It was so broken that only half the blade could be found. Now, that object was displayed in the Federation Museum on the first planet of the Capital System. Its security level was ‘K-2,’ second only to the great treasures left behind at the Federation’s founding, and it was one of the few ‘K-level’ classified items the museum exhibited to the public.
To be honest, it wasn't that Evenheiler hadn't thought about taking it back... but he understood clearly that the broken blade shining in the place closest to the sun was a trap.
Therefore, when he visited that museum planet as ‘Enan Valen,’ he showed no great concern for the broken sword. He merely took a photo and posted it on the social media account tied to his ‘Half-Life’ identity, with a caption lamenting that he had seen a hero’s blade today, and that the hero was truly a ‘hero’—quite a useful character.
Evenheiler breathed within the starlight. Naturally, he wasn't breathing starlight itself, but the air pre-stored within this energy.
He could convert some light-mass inanimate matter into his starlight and then retrieve it at critical moments. He could also convert targets that didn't meet those two criteria into his starlight, and then they would become compliant and permanently become part of his power or dissipate entirely...
In a situation where his level, energy, and technique were no lower than his opponent’s, he was nearly invincible within the same rank. Actually, put that way, it sounded quite unreasonable, but before him, there was a ‘S-rank’ like ‘The Chemist’ who was an unreasonable bastard who acted as his own nation, and after him, there was Lei Ting... forget it, that little bastard’s future wasn't even on the same track as normal superpowered individuals.
It was said that from ‘S-rank’ onwards, superpowered individuals were fundamentally different from other life forms. But the result of his close observation of that ‘Double S’ over the past few years was that he now felt he was actually quite normal and ordinary. His old habit of being slightly arrogant and dismissive of everything was almost cured...
Thinking of that person, Evenheiler still did not smile. He even frowned, the deep lines between his brows etching a deeper sense of melancholy.
A moment later, he cut off his thoughts and opened his eyes, deciding to get to work.
Then, he saw a pillar of blue-violet light shooting into the sky. And of the two Xenodemonized targets he had just locked onto from another dimension, one suddenly... vanished.
Evenheiler: “...”
Evenheiler: “?”
Evenheiler was stunned. He watched blankly as that light—which looked like the dyed exhaust of a planetary engine—continued to erupt for over ten seconds before silently dying out... Then he closed his eyes, which flickered with fragmented starlight, and sensed the area from another level.
He couldn't keep his composure.
“...Lei...” His eyes widened in shock as he looked toward the source of that radiance, as if his gaze could pierce through the obstruction of matter to see a tall, handsome young man.
A few days ago, they were in the same room, even the same bed... a few days later, the other was on the surface of a planetary war weapon while he was outside its thin atmosphere.
Evenheiler’s cold, frowning expression didn't change, but a drop of cold sweat slowly slid down his temple.
No... he had to settle this quickly, resolve everything before that guy saw him, and then... leave immediately.
The golden-haired man swiftly retracted most of his starlight, leaving only the necessary minimum. He glanced at the black mist roiling through the planet’s sky and, with a look that couldn't be more serious, withdrew his gaze. With one hand, he reached into the starlight and pulled a sharp light-blade forged from starlight out of another dimension.
The light-blade mimicked the structure and form of a certain long sword that had once actually existed. He gripped the hilt with one hand and wiped the other across the smooth, matte surface of the blade, causing white flames and fragmented stardust to flare up upon it...
Then, he suddenly lunged, donning his armor mid-air.
A breath later, a superpowered warrior in black-gold armor transformed into a streak of light as swift as a kinetic bombardment beam, descending from the heavens!
*BOOM!!!!!!!!*
Swift, sharp, powerful.
Precise, efficient, fearless.
The descending beam of light was so sharp that it pinned a strange creature—slightly larger than a normal Hata’an—from the center of the black mist down toward the ground.
But before hitting the surface, the cold warrior of this flash-like raid spun and threw, exquisitely guiding that massive impact force to hurl the target off the blade. The target turned into a rising meteor, flying toward the upper atmosphere.
Before the turbulent sonic boom clouds in mid-air could dissipate, the black-gold armored warrior landed like a meteorite. The overlapping sounds of the sky-tearing whistle and the air bursts were no less significant than the previous supernatural nuclear explosion.
But in the next instant, he disappeared into a flurry of fragmented starlight.
The starlight vanished rapidly, seemingly moving into another dimension.
Almost simultaneously, that terrifying figure holding the starlight longsword appeared above the strange creature whose upward momentum was fading. He seemed to have completely nullified his own momentum, floating silently beneath the cosmos.
The speed at which this series of events occurred was too fast. ‘Starstream’ was like the finest surgical scalpel in the universe, precisely excising the target he needed to remove from the patient.
By the time the strange creature blankly realized an enemy had appeared behind it, its mouth—which had been about to scream since the initial impact—had only just opened a sliver.
But it would never, ever, ever be able to scream again.
Because that ‘Invincible’ strike—the one that had no name ten years ago, but ten years later was revered as the ‘Sea of Stars and Planets’ due to his past achievements—
—Had arrived.
***
Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation
---|---|---
伯伦 | Bolen | Sergeant from the 3rd Legion.
诺特 | Nott | Sergeant from the 5th Legion.
艾勒尔 | Ailer | One of the rescued soldiers.
罗布 | Rob | One of the rescued soldiers.
沃度·斯托 | Vodu Sto | A deceased soldier from the 1st Legion.
槲寄生 | Mistletoe | Name of a bar.
星流 | Starstream | Evenheiler Kahn's superpower/alias.
伊文海勒·康 | Evenheiler Kahn | The blond man, former Federation hero.
埃南·瓦伦 | Enan Valen | Evenheiler's current alias.
半衰期 | Half-Life | Evenheiler's social media/online identity.
诸行星海 | Sea of Stars and Planets | Evenheiler's signature powerful strike.
异魔化 | Xenodemonized | A state of being corrupted or transformed into a demonic/alien form.
