The plan to use the Blood Moon to delay the Reapers succeeded — to a degree.
The reason it was only to a degree was simple.
The Reaper fleet had far too many ships.
Duanmu Huai had originally hoped this might bring the Reapers to a halt, but the Reaper fleet reacted with almost no disruption — they simply dispatched a few additional warships to deal with the Blood Moon. After all, when you have that many ships, you can just brute-force it.
Which was incredibly aggravating.
And in the process, Duanmu Huai also identified the Blood Moon's weakness.
Simply put — as the ultimate aggregate, the Blood Moon did possess considerable combat power. But that power had its limits.
After all, even in its ultimate form, the Blood Moon was only roughly the size of a small asteroid. Of course, given that level of defensive capability, ordinary warships on their own couldn't destroy it.
The reason was simple: insufficient firepower.
But conversely — sufficient firepower, and the Blood Moon became a sitting target.
Which was exactly the problem against the Reapers.
The Reapers already had greater firepower than this side's fleet. While one or two ships couldn't do much to the Blood Moon, if they coordinated hundreds or thousands of warships in a simultaneous volley, the Blood Moon was finished. After all, the Blood Moon had no ranged attack capability — it could only swing its tentacles like a jellyfish and strike nearby enemies. So as long as the warships stayed outside its reach and kited it from a distance with enough concentrated firepower, destroying the Blood Moon without taking damage was no difficult feat.
Of course, for biological beings, facing the Blood Moon also meant enduring a round of psychic assault — but the Reapers were all fusion constructs, exactly like Duanmu Huai's own puppets. Psychic attacks were completely ineffective against them.
But Duanmu Huai had still achieved his original objective.
As noted before, the Reapers didn't simply eliminate the civilizations they harvested — they collected them, processed them, and incorporated them to increase their own numbers. In a sense, every Reaper warship was constructed from the remains of the civilizations they had harvested. Just like the Blood Moon in its essence.
That was precisely why Duanmu Huai had created the Blood Moon — to steal the Reapers' harvest right out from under them. And as it turned out, it was an extremely effective approach.
To convert their prey, the Reapers either had to capture them first and then process them, or impale their bodies on metal spikes and turn them into Husks. Generally speaking, they relied on relatively methodical techniques.
The [Abomination] conversion, however, followed no such logic — its conversion speed made the T-Virus look slow. So no matter how the Reapers tried to compete with the Blood Moon for the supply, they were never going to win. And even if the Reapers eventually destroyed the Blood Moon, everything inside it was destroyed along with it — leaving nothing behind. That way, the Reapers couldn't replenish their forces from local bodies.
For exactly this reason, once a Blood Moon appeared, the Reapers would immediately concentrate their forces to attack it — which gave Duanmu Huai the opportunity to wipe them out together.
This was where the Wan Yi Dreadnought came in.
It had to be said, whatever else could be criticized about the ship the Cabal had constructed, the concept was excellent. Triggering a stellar detonation to destroy an entire star system was far more efficient than blowing up planets one by one. Of course, for exactly that reason, Duanmu Huai generally didn't use the Wan Yi Dreadnought casually — after all, you couldn't very well detonate a star in a human star system.
But the situation now was different. Whether Asari or Turians, Salarians or any other alien species — they were all alien in the end. Not human. So eliminating them all in one sweep caused Duanmu Huai absolutely no hesitation. On top of that, the Blood Moon was strong in defense even if not in attack, meaning every time one appeared, the Reapers had to send thousands of warships to deal with it — and what Duanmu Huai had to do was wait until the Reapers had destroyed the Blood Moon, then summon the Wan Yi Dreadnought and detonate that star system's sun.
That ensured no stragglers escaped.
By the time Duanmu Huai had cycled through every Citadel species' star system, the Reaper fleet had suffered significant losses, while the alien races were on the verge of extinction. After all, even those lucky enough to survive the Blood Moon and the Reaper slaughter had no way to escape the collapse of their entire star system from a stellar detonation.
Of course, as a result of all this, the star maps would probably need to be redrawn...…well, that was nothing to do with Duanmu Huai.
Let the Systems Alliance astronomers give themselves headaches over it.
It wasn't his hair falling out.
Then again, he didn't have any hair to lose in the first place.
Hahahahaha — was that supposed to be a joke?
Hahahahahaha...…for crying out loud.
Whatever the case, after this series of actions, the Reaper fleet's numbers had been reduced by roughly a third. The remaining count was still deeply troubling, but at least it was now something that could be managed.
More or less.
And next...…it would be time for the direct engagement between humanity and the Reapers.
A flash of light passed before her eyes.
Stepping out of the portal and looking at the magnificent starscape visible through the window, Mary couldn't help but draw a quiet breath. It wasn't her first time on the Inquisition's mothership, but every time she saw this view, it left her breathless. Honestly, if it weren't for the need for secrecy, she would have loved to bring Shirley and Ashelica here to see it.
But...…the ship seemed unusually lively today??
The corridors were as quiet as always, but from the recreation room not far away came the sounds of animated chatter. Curiosity got the better of Mary, and she found herself drifting over and knocking on the door. Lorena's voice came from inside.
"Ah, come in."
"Sorry to intrude."
As she said this, Mary pushed the door open and stepped inside.
And there she found Lorena — as well as several unfamiliar girls.
They were sitting on the sofas, cups of tea in hand, apparently in the middle of a conversation. Lorena sat among them, and beside her was Olgis in her black Gothic dress, her silver-white hair flowing long. Duanmu Huai had once introduced her to Mary as one of his most important companions.
Seated across from those two was a girl with long brown hair who radiated a lively energy. Beside the brown-haired girl sat a short-haired girl — the two wore matching uniforms, looking like students from the same school. Though the short-haired girl had a peculiar pair of wings growing from her back — and looking more carefully, she had horns on her head as well, and a long, thick tail hanging beneath her skirt.
On the other side, a girl with long pale blue hair, also with horns and a tail, was lying listlessly across a blanket, staring at the computer in front of her doing something or other.
Fortunately, having spent so much time following Duanmu Huai, Mary had encountered enough unusual people that she wasn't particularly startled.
"Ah, Miss Mary!"
Seeing Mary come in, Lorena gave her a cheerful wave and beckoned her over, then looked toward the others and spoke.
"This is Miss Mary Clarissa Christie."
"Ah, a native of that world, right."
"That's right. And speaking of which...…"
After introducing Mary to the group, Lorena turned back around and began making introductions the other way.
"Miss Mary, this is the Princess of Manaria — Anne. And beside her is Princess Guleya of Regnis...…you've noticed Miss Guleya's tail and wings — she's actually a hybrid of dragon and human, what's called a dragon-kind. Oh, and Miss Phyrin over there is also a member of the dragon-kind."
"Hm?"
Hearing Lorena's introductions, Mary was startled — though not by the dragon-kind. It was because...…
"Your Highnesses?"
That genuinely alarmed Mary. She was just a girl from a middle-class family and had never had any cause to be in the presence of royalty. And these two before her were both princesses?
"Hello, Mary. I'm Anne."
Faced with the startled Mary, Anne gave a cheerful wave. Guleya gave her a slight nod as well.
"I'm Guleya. Hello."
"Sure."
Over on the other side, Phyrin listlessly raised one hand and gave a vague wave in lieu of a proper greeting.
"Ah, yes, it truly is an honor to meet all of you...…"
Mary had gone completely rigid, her mind a blank. It was rather like going to visit a friend and inadvertently running into a head of state — she had absolutely no idea how to handle it.
"You don't have to be so careful, you know. From what Lorena says, you've joined the Inquisition too — that makes us companions. You don't need to speak so formally. It actually sounds strange to us."
"Ah, yes...…"
Mary gave a careful nod and gingerly took a seat. The maid brought over a cup of tea. And to put Mary at ease, Lorena started a conversation with her.
"Now that I think about it, we don't see you here very often, Miss Mary. Is there something you needed?"
"Ah, yes."
Hearing Lorena's question, Mary came back to herself, and reached into the paper bag she had brought.
"Actually, my first novel has been published...…"
"Oh? That was fast!"
That was indeed the reason Mary had come. The story she had written was based on the incident at the lakeside — the old men who had become zombies — and she had submitted it to several publishers in succession. Eventually one had been willing to publish it. Since it was a short work, the first print would include illustrations, with a total run of one thousand copies...…a small number, certainly, but for Mary it was a humble first step.
"Would you like to take a look, Miss Lorena?"
"Yes yes, I would!"
Lorena excitedly accepted the book Mary held out and began flipping through it carefully.
"Oh, there are illustrations inside too?"
"Yes — since the word count was relatively short, the publisher felt adding illustrations would make it more appealing...…honestly, because of that, the book price isn't very cheap. I had originally wanted to price it as low as possible so more people could read it, but the publisher said...…it's precisely because of that that the price should be set where it is. When people pick up the book, they'll be curious why a book like this is priced this way, and that will spark their interest, and once they're interested they'll buy it...…though I didn't entirely understand the reasoning."
"I see."
At that, it was actually Anne who gave a knowing nod.
"The publisher's strategy is correct, actually. Blindly lowering the price only devalues the work itself. If someone else prices it at something they don't mind spending and still sells it that way, yes, it will sell. But there's no guarantee the buyer will actually read it. On the other hand, at this price, at least everyone who buys it will take it seriously...…"
"Is that so?"
"More or less. By the way, what is it about? Is it the adventure story in that world that Lorena mentioned?"
"Ah, yes...…though some parts might be a little exaggerated. I'm worried Mr. Duanmu will be upset...…"
Even after the publisher agreed to publish it, the manuscript couldn't remain unchanged. From the publisher's perspective, Mary's novel handled atmosphere and narrative pacing very well — the only thing that needed adjustment was the characterization.
Specifically, there was only one character who needed to change, and that was Duanmu Huai.
In the story, Mary appeared as the second assistant, Lorena as the first assistant, and Duanmu Huai as the lead. In Mary's original ending, she had wanted to steer Duanmu Huai in the direction of Holmes — in simple terms, she had hoped to show readers a side of him that was both brave and clever.
But the editor felt that approach was too in-between — neither one thing nor the other. Since the character had already been established as fierce and formidable throughout the story, why not commit to that fully in the climax? After all, readers would have already expected him to be dangerous from the very first physical description — so how dangerous was he exactly? The editor felt the ending could go bolder and leave readers feeling he was even more ferocious than they had expected.
So Mary had bitten the bullet and made the changes.
But she wasn't sure whether Duanmu Huai would like this version of the ending, so after it was published she had brought it along to show him.
Though Mary was nervous about it, even so...…
"This is completely fine."
After reading to the end, Lorena gave her verdict.
"Hm? It's fine?"
"Yes — if anything, it feels a little more restrained than Sir Knight usually is."
"..."
That was restrained? Mary felt like she had basically written Duanmu Huai as some kind of wild beast.
"Ooh, I want to read it too!"
Before long the impatient Anne had leaned in and snatched up the book, then settled in shoulder-to-shoulder with Guleya and flipped through it rapidly.
Their reactions after finishing were...…
"Hmm? Mr. Duanmu isn't this gentle."
"It's fine — when Sir Knight is actually fighting...…he's fiercer than this...…"
"...Hm???"
Hearing that, Mary went completely blank.
(End of Chapter)