Clad in his combat armor, Iwenheller was flying through the deep reaches of space.
Compared to other conventional super-powered mecha pilots, his method of flight was highly unusual.
A streak of white light sliced through the darkness, scattering stardust across the heavens before surging forward—he would vanish instantly into a cloud of drifting cosmic dust, only to reappear a second later at an immense distance along his trajectory. It was as if, in an interval too brief to even be called a moment, he had crossed the vast river of stars from another dimension.
With a single flickering dash, he traversed a distance equivalent to half a standard star system.
Converted into common units of measurement, it was a distance so vast a normal person could not walk it in a lifetime.
As for why he was in such a hurry...
"Roar...!!!"
Wherever that ten-thousand-fathom "Star Stream" passed, turbulent phantoms occasionally flickered into existence.
Within those phantoms seemed to lie another world... a dark realm opposite the physical universe, devoid of any natural celestial bodies. This was the "Ethereal Plane," also known as the "Ethereal Space," the "Mirror World," the "Void-Black Dead Sea," the "Demon Realm," the "Spirit Realm," the "Lightless Sea," the "Nightmare Void," the "Spirit's Depths"... and countless other names bestowed upon it by myriad civilizations throughout history.
In the eyes of the Galactic Empire, it was the "Ethereal Space." In the parlance of the current Union, it was the "Ethereal Plane." Iwenheller didn't know why those people insisted on changing it to such a seemingly meaningless name.
But that didn't stop him from taking a shortcut through that wretched place, teeming with demon-like monsters, while he converted himself into an energy form for spatial transit.
Nor did it stop the mass of black mist pursuing him from taking the same shortcut.
In fact, that place was the home of that cursed, malevolent soul... it didn't need to "borrow" a path; returning there was simply going home.
Iwenheller flew with an expressionless face, occasionally performing an "Ethereal Shift" of varying duration. Every time he entered that deep, terrifying world, tens of millions of "Abyssal Demons" would fix their gazes upon him and lunge.
Those ghostly things, bearing a high resemblance to abominations, sought to kill him every single time.
But whenever they did, a gentle spiritual light would descend from the void, manifesting as golden stars, winged angel statues, old-fashioned super-powered mecha warriors holding up a steel Earth, or eye-closed figures clutching scriptures and wearing gold rings as they chanted... various entities, large and small, humanoid or merely conceptual, fending off the threats attacking from all sides.
If there was a place in this world that faithfully reflected everything in the physical realm—good and evil, light and shadow, right and wrong... everything, whether starkly black and white or chaotic and murky—as long as it pertained to "energy," "spirit," and "life," then as the source in the physical world developed, a corresponding super-powered entity would coalesce in this mirrored dark world.
That was the "Ethereal Plane."
And if such a miraculous world corresponded to a "physical realm" long mired in chaotic warfare and endless suffering, yet at the same time, every generation produced powerful, perhaps mentally unstable beings who protected it... then it was not difficult to understand why the things derived from this would be called "demons" or "gods."
Unfortunately, Abyssal Demons attacked all life indiscriminately, but gods did not protect all life indiscriminately. As an Orion, Iwenheller was only protected by the super-powered entities corresponding to the Orion ancestors.
In that space where every light source was a massive super-powered manifestation of good or evil, the black-and-gold armored esper moved through the howling shadows of light.
As he prepared to leave this space once more, he turned back and nodded slightly toward the massive phantoms in the distance that had cast their protective power over him.
Simultaneously, a phantom that had been hovering over him nodded in synchronization.
It was another "Iwenheller," though its features were blurred, its eye sockets filled with drifting starlight, and four sharp, jagged black horns protruded upward from its golden hair. Upon closer inspection, one would realize it was actually a black crown wrapping from the back of the head to the front.
This was the appearance of his spiritual body, the form of his corresponding super-powered entity in the Ethereal Plane.
Between the tips of those black horns floated a cluster of starlight, representing his unextinguished spirituality.
Seeing his nod of gratitude, the golden stars silently receded. The winged angel statue vanished with a flutter of wings, and the old-fashioned mecha warrior holding the steel Earth dissipated peacefully.
The chanter holding the scepter and wearing the gold ring stopped His silent recitation. With eyes still tightly shut, He smiled and nodded back to him.
Then, He raised the scepter in His hand, pointed toward the distance, and vanished.
"...?"
To be honest, Iwenheller didn't quite understand what He was signaling. But he could sense that the other party seemed very satisfied with something...
He looked in that direction and saw only something very bright—very, very bright.
Carrying the cursed soul he still hadn't shaken off, he plunged into the starlight and returned to the physical world.
Those powerful super-powered entities followed certain rules; they would not casually interfere in any conflict.
The reason he was being followed by this thing was actually... he had just gone and cut down the remaining two princes of the Hatarn. When he was on the verge of decapitating the Hatarn King, the creature had sacrificed a part of its body to whatever entity granted it power, hurling this curse at him before teleporting away to parts unknown.
Truth be told, it was hard to say he was the victim in this situation who needed help from those "deities"...
However, the super-powered entities of the Hatarn ancestors would never help a traitorous king who traded with Abyssal Demons for power, which was a small mercy.
In the physical world, Iwenheller's figure traced a streak of starlight as he flew into the distance. He had entered the Ethereal Plane enough times for one day; next, he had to fly toward a star and use its power to incinerate this curse.
Even if he already carried seven or eight different curses, he didn't want to take another bite of something whose next effect was anyone's guess...
As for the nearest star...
Though he didn't know exactly where he was, he should be flying toward the Orion Union. If all went well, there should be a yellow sun there, non-toxic to the Orion race.
*Then, I shall head toward that light in the distance,* Iwenheller thought.
The esper's spirit, naturally attuned to the Ethereal Space, brought back a vague premonition. It told him that if he went there, he would not be harmed.
Iwenheller had always trusted his perceptions, so he truly headed in that direction.
Until he realized that the location of that "sun" was not within any star system...
...But was instead a battlefield forced into silence.
***
By now, calculating angles and momentum had long been etched into Lei Ting's instincts through years of practice.
So, as he held up a sun he had created from nothing, he felt no uncertainty about his next move—he knew the enemy's position, and that was enough.
In the illuminated deep space, the youth in pitch-black armor raised his hand to catch the sting spear.
He took his stance, drawing back a powerful arm. The spear in his hand shone so brightly that no one could look at it directly. A powerful and extremely stable radiance of energy slowly spread from the tip to the tail. Now, the entire spear was enveloped in a perfectly circular field of light.
Or perhaps, it could be called a "sun."
When the process—which he named "Light-Dyeing," but which the Principal called "Sunning Mites" and the Logistics Chief called "Marinating"—was complete, he had assumed a standard javelin-throwing posture.
Then—
—He hurled it!!!
Destruction in space remained silent. But everyone knew it had happened.
Because a terrifying light, staggering yet somehow not damaging to the eyes, tore through the darkness of the universe. It was like a stellar collapse, or a supernova explosion.
Perhaps one day, forty thousand years from now, the inhabitants of the Galactic Core's Ring World would still see this light—it was so bright, bright enough to announce its existence to the universe like the brilliance of the stars, bright enough that civilizations hundreds of millions of light-years away might call it a "first-magnitude star."
And when that star-sized sphere of light suddenly expanded to swallow the entire battlefield... neither Iwenheller in the distant sky nor the Commander and others nearby could find any words to say.
For even if that glorious golden light did not harm the eyes, the simultaneous explosion of the Hatarn's countless nuclear-powered vehicles provided enough glare to make them, like the people on the *Mistletoe*, turn away in terror from the sheer, violent power.
Subsequently, intense radiation spread along with the shockwave. Combined with the "Solar Star's" energy radiation, which no metal component could block, it swept through the area, indiscriminately destroying the observation systems of numerous ships near the battlefield and severely disrupting communication systems and many shipboard AIs.
Explosive noise echoed through the communication channels. Various departments were forced to temporarily cut their links. For a time, across major warships and war bases, young people everywhere were frantically closing their eyes against the light while scrambling to activate the main control systems' emergency modes.
The Commander's face was also covered in tears—whether from the shock of such power, the emotion of the Federation producing another heaven-sent titan, or simply from the sting of the light...
"No wonder this guy doesn't want teammates..."
In a dark corner, Yolanda covered her face with her hands, tears streaming down.
And in the distant darkness, Iwenheller stared blankly at that light.
He suddenly realized that back when they were on the Hatarn's planetary weapon, Lei Ting... had actually been more capable of ending the battle quickly than he was.
In the same amount of time, Iwenheller could rely on his exquisite control to cut down the enemy while managing the planet's condition, but if it were Lei Ting...
...That guy could probably have crushed the entire planetary weapon into a ball, extracted all the metal within, and turned a war into a resource collection operation.
Lei Ting had always possessed the power to decide a close-range battlefield through sheer violence. He was merely cooperating with others—cooperating with the Federation to do what they wanted to see, cooperating with his teammates to do things that wouldn't harm them, cooperating with his comrades to ensure they could achieve victory and return home safely... and cooperating with himself, to do what he wanted to do.
Just as he had always cooperated with everyone he felt no need to refuse, doing things he felt were of no consequence.
Iwenheller stared in a daze at that sun which had yet to extinguish—what a colossal power. This single exertion contained more energy than Iwenheller could scrape together even if he drained himself dry.
He gazed at the radiance for a moment, then suddenly turned back to look at the cursed soul behind him, which had been vaporized screaming as the radiance swept past.
His intuition was as sharp as ever. Even if that sun wasn't in a star system, it had still solved his problem.
He suddenly gave a bitter smile. Because he finally, completely understood exactly what kind of... person... the young man he had provoked into his bed truly was.
Iwenheller turned to fly into the deep space. He knew that an esper would fully expand their spiritual field during combat; if he didn't leave now, he might not be able to leave at all.
But before he had flown for even a few seconds, a powerful sense of danger forced him to whip his head back toward the position of that sun.
***
| Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 虚灵位面 | Ethereal Plane | A mirror dimension reflecting reality's energy and spirit. |
| 异魔 | Abyssal Demon | Monstrous entities residing in the Ethereal Plane. |
| 染光 | Light-Dyeing | Lei Ting's technique of infusing an object with solar energy. |
| 晒螨虫 | Sunning Mites | A humorous nickname for Lei Ting's technique. |
| 腌入味儿 | Marinating | Another humorous nickname for Lei Ting's technique. |
| 槲寄生 | Mistletoe | Likely the name of a ship or station mentioned previously. |
