"How charming."
Ruan Mei was conducting her routine check-up on Aidan, who followed the path of propagation.
Although Herta was not on the Herta Space Station, Ruan Mei was.
Today, Aidan was in his large insect form, and since he was prepared this time, no problems occurred.
"Your Fear has vanished, hasn't it?"
"Partially; I can now control the urge of Fear."
Aidan shrank back.
"So, could you please stop looking at me with that gaze? Thank you."
That gaze, the one used when looking at something someone loved...
Ruan Mei set down her tablet and picked up a transparent test tube from the side. Inside was some pale blue, gel-like substance, its surface shimmering with a faint fluorescence.
"What is this?"
"A nutritional supplement." Ruan Mei handed the test tube to him. "Your energy consumption is very high right now. This is an energy-replenishment formula I specifically concocted for your current state. Give it a try."
"There won't be any side effects after drinking this, right? Like causing me to uncontrollably split into hundreds of small insects?"
"None. It's purely to replenish your physical strength. You told me you wished to be treated with equal respect, so I will not conduct any research on you without your consent."
Ruan Mei displayed a holographic projection screen in front of Aidan.
"These are what I intend to research."
Aidan looked at the dense list of projects and gasped.
"This is just the preliminary plan. Once the research truly begins, the number of projects will multiply several times over."
"Multiply several times over..."
Aidan felt his antennae go limp.
"Open your mouth."
Aidan resignedly opened his layered, massive mandibles.
After Ruan Mei fed Aidan the potion, she suddenly looked out the window.
"...Are you interested in participating in a special experiment?"
...
"Zandar One Kuwabara, the first Genius in history."
"The person who legend says created Nous?"
"Yes. If the legends are true, then he is the man who created an Aeon."
"It's better if the legend isn't true; I have no desire to be a Zandar hunter."
The girl with the silver-gray spiral ponytail chewed on bubblegum.
Pop.
The bubble burst.
"Will that Aidan really become an aid on her Path as a Trailblazer? I was actually quite startled when I hacked into the Astral Express to take a look."
"As long as we follow the script, we can lead to the correct future."
"Randomly switching Paths every day, yet still retaining memory and accumulated knowledge. Did Elio's script really account for all these uncontrollable factors? I don't like encountering such unreasonable bugs."
Silver Wolf remained as nonchalant as ever.
"As long as his goals align with the Astral Express, he will be her most solid backup. We only need to ensure that he does not deviate from the script at key junctures."
"I hope so."
"Now is not the time to make contact." Kafka turned and walked into the depths of the darkness. "Prepare yourselves. It will soon be time for our entrance."
Bang.
A Void Ranger of the Antimatter Legion fell to the ground.
"This level of strength won't be enough to stop the people from the Astral Express."
"It doesn't matter. Three Doomsday Beasts are also coming."
"Three? Isn't that a bit too much?"
"I was actually wondering if that was too conservative. That guy is a big insect today."
The piercing sound of the highest-level alarm instantly shattered the tranquility of the Herta Space Station. The originally soft lighting in the corridors was completely replaced by a glaring, bloody red.
The blast doors slammed down, and the deafening sound of metal colliding echoed through the Master Control Zone.
Inside the Seclusion Zone, the massive blue-purple insect that had been lying on the ground with its antennae drooping suddenly lifted its head.
Aidan's crystal structure, composed of countless compound eyes, flashed frantically, capturing the suffocating fluctuations of imaginary energy outside the space station. His hard carapace creaked.
A huge rift was torn in the sea of stars, and monsters from the Antimatter Legion rushed out from it.
"Doomsday Beasts..." Ruan Mei walked to the window. "Three of them. The space station's outermost defensive grid will collapse in forty-eight seconds. Void Rangers of the Antimatter Legion have already invaded the Storage Zone. Their goal is to destroy all orderly structures."
"I am curious. When death approaches, will you choose to release your restrictions and create a swarm tsunami to consume them, or will you use this physical shell to go head-to-head with the Doomsday Beasts?"
"Hum——"
Aidan had no mind to answer this cold, academic question. The elytra on his back snapped open, and the blue-purple fluorescent veins instantly erupted with an extremely blinding light.
Boom!!!
The sound of carapace colliding with alloy was deafening. The ceiling of the Seclusion Zone was smashed open by him, creating a huge hole, and metal fragments and insulation material rained down.
Aidan squeezed out of the Seclusion Zone, his massive body charging wildly through the narrow corridors. The pipes on the walls were twisted and deformed by his bulk, and the emergency lights shattered in succession as he passed.
Hum-hum-hum-hum-hum-hum——!
Now was not the time for restraint.
Even if the invasion issue would eventually be resolved, he had no reason to hide.
One, two, four, eight, sixteen, thirty-two, sixty-four, one hundred and twenty-eight, two hundred and fifty-six, five hundred and twelve, one thousand and twenty-four!
the swarm surged out from the gap in the Seclusion Zone.
It wasn't appearing one by one, but a true insect tide.
The first batch of Antimatter Legion Void Rangers had just rushed out from around the corner, holding high the blades condensed from their antimatter field generators. Before they could even let out a hoarse battle cry, the passage, like a bursting dam, flooded with a massive number of True Stinging Insects.
The Void Rangers in the front didn't even have a chance to swing their blades before being tackled by seven or eight True Stinging Insects simultaneously. Sharp, chewing mouthparts directly crushed the joints of the Void Rangers that were not protected by antimatter, and barbed limbs pierced through their skulls.
They were not ordinary swarms, but high-ranking Pathstriders of The Propagation.
Every single one of them.
The terminal in Asta's hand almost fell to the ground.
What... is this?
An insect infestation?
No.
the swarm, is resisting the Antimatter Legion?
The three Doomsday Beasts emitted a deafening roar. They simultaneously stopped their movements, their hideous beast heads turning in unison toward the direction of the Base Zone.
They felt an extremely pure threat.
A huge hole was blasted into the Base Zone with an earth-shattering roar. Aidan's unbelievably massive form smashed through several meters of alloy plating, erupting into the cold vacuum.
Countless blue-purple swarms surged out behind him, like a giant fluorescent net spread out in space.
Tear, gnaw, split, until the world ends!
Three rifts tearing through space constantly spewed out massive amounts of monsters. The giant insect flapped its wings, and the True Stinging Insects continuously split.
the swarm and the Antimatter Legion reached a stalemate.
After all, Aidan had only just unlocked his splitting restrictions, and he was even still holding back his strength.
imaginary energy manifested as dull thuds that shook his outer shell and mind directly. Two Doomsday Beasts, one on the left and one on the right, used their massive bodies, which blotted out the sky, to firmly block Aidan's retreat.
Aidan raised his pair of massive, sickle-like forelimbs, forcibly bracing against the Doomsday Beast on the right that had lunged at him first. Two overwhelmingly powerful forces stirred up a visible energy frenzy in space. However, because he was deliberately suppressing the instinct within him that should have been infinitely propagating, his imaginary energy barrier appeared somewhat inadequate against the three Doomsday Beasts.
A giant tail slammed into his flank. The indestructible blue-purple carapace made a teeth-grinding cracking sound under this brutal whip-strike, and a huge gash rolled open, spilling blood like sapphire droplets, which transformed into even more of the swarm.
Aidan's massive body trembled violently, emitting a sharp buzzing sound.
Grow larger, grow even larger!
The insect tide surged forward, fearless of death.
Inside the Seclusion Zone, Ruan Mei stood by the window, her green eyes reflecting the sea of blue-purple insects outside.
"The splitting rate is still far from reaching the theoretical peak. Are you still unwilling to release the restrictions even now?"
She shook her head.
The orbital cannon matrix on the periphery of the space station emitted a dazzling charging light, and thick, high-energy beams cut through the vacuum, accurately striking the flank of one of the Doomsday Beasts.
Hum-hum-hum-hum-hum-hum...
Aidan pulled back, his body expanding, becoming even more massive and more aggressive.