"ROOOAR!!!"
A death throe echoed throughout the entire star system.
The Magor Serpent's form was incomplete. Its three vibrant heads had all been instantly killed by Cerberus's all-out strike. The remaining two screaming heads had not yet developed into a form capable of bearing its [Emissary]-level power. In its complete state, the Magor Serpent's form should have been called the [Five-Headed Emperor Dragon]—a special Dragonkin capable of rivaling a Grand Monarch.
There were no second chances.
The Magor Serpent's life force was rapidly fading.
The power of "Voracity" that Cerberus had absorbed helped her drain the crystal condensed from the power of the Path within the Magor Serpent's brain.
Its magnificent body rapidly withered, and its ferocious crimson grew dim.
As a great number of Vajra Zerg in the deep void rained down to their deaths, the Magor Serpent's aura plummeted past rock bottom… and then vanished.
However, just as all of the Magor Serpent's energy was absorbed by Cerberus and its entire body turned to ash and scattered into the deep void—
BOOM!!!
The internal organs hidden deep within its shell did not die with it. The very instant Cerberus's power of "Voracity" touched them… they exploded!
Swoosh!
A corrosive, tri-colored poison of yellow, green, and red splashed outwards.
This final, dying strike did not have the power to repel, or even injure, Cerberus. But this special venom had the same effect as "squid ink"—all perception within its range of effect was completely obscured by the Magor Serpent's fluids.
An eyeball, a thousand times smaller than when it was in the Hive Mother, transformed into a crimson stream of light and fled madly outwards!
The Magor Serpent's main body was dead, but its name would be passed on to a successor. This ability stemmed from a special application of the Swarm's origin, "Propagation": at the moment of death, it could condense its knowledge, memories, and what little Imaginary energy remained into an egg, which would then fly back to a safe place (usually a Hive Mother) to await hatching.
However…
SNAP!!
A slender, triangular head shot out like a bolt of lightning and, in the instant before it could enter warp space, swallowed the Magor Serpent's egg whole!
It was a snake's head with smooth, triangular scales.
To be more specific, it was Cerberus's "tail."
Gulp—
As the egg shattered, the last essence of the Magor Serpent was devoured. A shriek that came to an abrupt end deep within its soul signified the complete and final demise of this [Swarm Emissary].
"…"
Burp!
The Vajra Hive Mother above the star system also froze on the spot.
Its command hub had been completely taken over by Haxxor Bunny. With its commander gruesomely killed, it had become a mindless, "masterless thing."
At the same time, fine scales rolled across the three-headed hound's steel-like fur.
Shrouded in a dense, bloody mist, Cerberus reverted to her humanoid form.
"It's been a long time since I've eaten so well."
A slightly weak voice sounded in Haxxor Bunny's ears.
"I need to find a place to digest… Since the threat has been eliminated, I'll leave this place to you."
"…"
Cerberus transformed into a stream of light and shot directly into warp space. Judging by the coordinates, she was not heading for the Imperial parent world.
"As an Emissary, to have eaten another opponent of the same level whole…" Vill-V's voice sounded from within Heavy Armored Giant Rabbit's mechanical structure. Fortunately, her body was slender enough; otherwise, Haxxor Bunny, who hadn't prepared a cockpit, would have nearly flattened Vill-V within the [Machine God Armament].
"She is not one of us. If she continues to evolve, the threat she poses may be no smaller than that of the Antimatter Legion."
"Don't worry," Haxxor Bunny said as she began to disengage the ridiculously large [Machine God Armament]. "By the time she reaches the level of a Grand Monarch… the Monarch will likely have already reached a level that is untouchable."
---o---
Hiss.
A forked snake tongue flickered back and forth in the slime.
A massive amount of pheromones, immense in quantity yet extremely "simple" in content, was continuously relayed to the brain through the tongue.
A great black serpent swam slowly through the [Zagg Hive Mother].
A black that reflected no light, a perfect circle formed into a single line—its elegant form and the magnificent gems embedded in its body made this great serpent seem utterly unique. Yet, a mist that surrounded its body blocked off all attempts to peer at or perceive it.
"Mmm~↗"
Following the ubiquitous crevices within the Hive Mother and the short-range teleportation gates used by the forged pheromones, the great serpent advanced rapidly toward the Hive Mother's central hub with a pace that seemed slow but was in fact fast.
"This should be it."
A pulsating chamber wall blocked the path ahead. All forward trajectories were completely obstructed by an eight-petaled, pinkish-purple mass of flesh.
"Very good…"
The serpent's body rose up, its senses sweeping the surroundings. The movements of all the Zerg followed their predetermined paths, without the slightest change.
Ting.
In the center of its vertical pupils, a crescent-like brilliance began to rotate in opposite directions.
At the junction of the diaphragm-like chamber walls, the gelatinous semi-solid slowly liquefied, clearing a path for the "gate" to open.
Shhh.
A highly viscous liquid spread out like a spider's web.
It would block any creature that tried to enter without permission, and its corrosiveness was enough to melt the armor of a Havoc Vanguard.
However, the slime did not hinder the great serpent's advance. It even parted automatically to either side, as if welcoming its master.
"Oh~"
The great serpent poked its head inside, and the spectacular sight made it gasp in amazement.
Although the Swarm's behavior was chaotic and seemingly random, the Astral God of Propagation, at its origin, was initially on the side of Order; until touching the truth of the Tree made it lose its sanity… or perhaps, find its true path.
Regardless, the "architectural structure" at the center of the Hive Mother gave the great serpent a sense of unusual, orderly beauty. The division of labor among the individual Zerg and their resource utilization rate far surpassed that of more than ninety-nine percent of advanced civilizations.
And in the next moment—
"Intruder."
SPLURT!!
KRAKOW—
Yellowish-green fluid splattered within the Hive Mother.
The giant eggs surrounding the control room did not contain unhatched Zerg; they were all hive guardians in a state of hibernation.
Eight of these giant spider-like Zerg, known as [Eradicators], appeared, and all of them possessed Star-busting level combat power. Under the influence of the Hive Mother's environment, they might be even stronger when formed into a "Zerg formation."
Clearly, awakening the [Eradicators] was not something that could be done in an instant. Before the great serpent had infiltrated this far, they had already received orders in advance and blocked all of the intruder's escape routes.
A black scarab, its head shimmering with a golden halo, emerged from within the central hub.
The one who had issued this series of commands was none other than the Magor Serpent's second-in-command, the commander of the Zagg Hive Mother: Arachne.
"Surrender!"
"…"
Arachne had discovered the intruder long ago.
However, the opponent's stealth capabilities were quite strong. Their tracks were only fully captured when they had already infiltrated to the eleventh level of the Hive Mother (out of thirteen). A Star-busting level intruder was nothing to be concerned about, but to prevent the opponent from damaging the Hive Mother and to compensate for the lack of individual combat power on the outer layers, they had allowed the opponent to reach the central hub.
The goal was to use the [Eradicators] to capture it completely.
"Mmm~↘"
The great serpent tilted its head in a very human-like manner.
"You must have discovered me a long time ago. To only make a move now… your patience is quite commendable."
Arachne did not respond to the great serpent, merely ordering the [Eradicators] to tighten their encirclement.
"But," the serpent's vertical pupils contracted again, appearing like a thin red line, "are you sure… this body wasn't intentionally allowed for you to find?"
"!?"
HISS!!!
The moment the great serpent finished speaking, an identical black snake suddenly shot out from the void, its gaping maw biting down directly on the control hub where Arachne was located!
SPLAT!
At the same time, seven other black snakes also leaped from the void and, together with the "main body" that had just spoken, launched a direct attack on the [Eradicators]!
BOOM!!!
Exploded juices rolled down the slick, fleshy walls.
In an instant, all the Zagg, including Arachne, perished on the spot.
The nine great serpents, having bitten the cores from the Zerg and swollen in size, slowly slithered toward Arachne's corpse, of which only two segmented limbs remained.
And then…
A human male with seaweed-like hair stood up from the liquid, which was, in every sense of the word, physiologically unsettling.
The Pillar of the Sea, Leviathan.
"A Swarm that hasn't updated its friend-or-foe identification system in a long time… is just this and nothing more."
The sneak attack just now was not a spatial ability.
It was a [Quantum Stealth] far more exquisite than Beluga's. Leviathan had his avatars navigate the surface layer of the Sea of Quanta. In the instant of transition between the real and the imaginary to launch an attack, it was impossible to react with conventional means.
It might not be very effective against opponents stronger than him, but against those of the same level… it was basically an instant kill.
"Next—"
Leviathan's hair transformed into countless, ever-extending thin snakes. These creatures, whose golden eyes were their only feature not completely fused with the darkness, began to connect one by one to the surrounding "tentacle intubation tubes."
The Emissary whose traces Pontos had captured came from the Zagg Swarm.
In other words, being inextricably linked to the Zagg Hive Mother, it could borrow the Hive Mother's inexhaustible supply of Imaginary energy in battle. This vast reserve of Imaginary energy was the Swarm Emissary's greatest advantage in a fight against equals, and also a reliable means of escape.
That's right.
As retainers of the Astral God of Propagation, the "laying an egg of oneself" ability, which was like something out of King Piccolo, was just a basic move that even Cerberus was accustomed to. The truly powerful ability of rebirth came from the Zagg Hive Mother, which had not launched a surprise attack along with Magor.
This was a very cautious move, but also a very foolish one. Magor thought that the Imperial legions' remaining combat power was concentrated on the Mechanical Celestial Sphere, but the true trump card from the Imperial parent world was far beyond what Arachne and eight [Eradicators] could stop.
Therefore—
"Little dog, I'll create the opportunity."
The Hive Mother provided power to the Emissary, but it could also become its weakness.
"As for whether you can take out that wretched bug… I hope His Majesty did not misjudge you."
Zap!
A crimson line of fire spread along the intubation tubes throughout the entire Hive Mother. This instant, and the moment the Magor Serpent attacked Haxxor Bunny… were perfectly synchronized!
"—"
As hundreds of thousands of tentacles ruptured, Leviathan's body trembled violently, and his eyes rolled back to pure white.
"…"
A long time later.
Phew.
The small snakes on his head died off in droves. The newly grown small snakes were clearly not up to standard length… Shesha's dense, seaweed-like hair had become short hair.
If he were to revert to his Collapsed State, one would definitely see a row of short, conical horns on his forehead—a far cry from his originally magnificent, thunderous golden horns.
"Did I miss one?"
"…"
Shesha squinted and thought for a moment.
"Forget it. The guys over there should be able to handle it."
---o---
Solar System, Third Planet.
Six conical, spaceport-like Landing Cities orbited outside the tide of the time vortex.
"Aysha."
Inside the artillery-type Landing City "Nexus," within the Meteor Chaser Cannon "Baumkuchen."
A black-haired, red-eyed girl was sitting in a semi-enclosed linkage gunnery pod. While stuffing a donut with an excessive amount of sugar from a snack basket beside her into her mouth, she was scrolling through Imperial intelligence on a rather classic "touch-screen phone": looking for new dessert shops to check out.
The reason she was using a phone was simply for the purpose of slacking off. This ancient device could receive "illegal" information on a special, non-military frequency through a "modified radio" she had attached to the outside of the gunnery pod.
Incidentally, to ensure the gunner's safety, the gunnery pods of the Landing Cities were, in principle, supposed to be fully enclosed.
"What is it?"
In the Landing City's hangar, Aysha Lopez, with her long, reddish-brown hair, was inspecting the armor of "Hikka's" squad. Unlike Musei Hikka, who engaged the enemy with long-range firepower, Aysha, as the squad leader, was primarily responsible for boarding actions.
"I'm running out of donuts."
"…"
"I remember we filled two entire suits of armor before boarding the Landing City."
Aysha remembered very clearly. At Musei Hikka's request, she had brought aboard all the dessert ingredients from her closed shop. Incidentally, she and Musei Hikka had first met at the dessert shop Aysha ran.
"Well, it has been a long time."
In stark contrast to her lazy demeanor, Musei Hikka stuffed the entire donut into her mouth with extreme speed.
"That's true…"
Aysha stopped what she was doing and thought for a moment.
"But Hikka, you should still try to make them last. The latest 'permitted transport units' have been compressed again. The mission on Earth should be ending soon. I'll make you more when we get back to the parent world… I've come up with a lot of new ideas recently."
"Alright."
Fair-skinned, almost excessively so, fingers fumbled in the snack basket for a while, but in the end, they only managed to stain the girl's fingertips with a sweet, oily sheen. Placing them between her cherry lips, Musei Hikka reluctantly sucked on the last remaining flavor of the donut.
"When we get back…"
Before she could finish her sentence.
WEEE!
WEEE!
A piercing spatial alarm was already sounding simultaneously in all six Landing Cities.