"You're actually quite a fighter."
March 7th put away her bow.
"It's not safe here, let's go quickly."
After arriving in a safe place, Stelle wandered aimlessly, eventually circling back to the side of the large blue bug that had brought her out.
"Is there anything I can do to help you?"
"You want to help?"
"Yes."
"...Well, there is something." Aidan said.
"Fight with me."
Stelle looked at the scene outside, didn't hesitate, shouldered her baseball bat, and started to walk out.
"Wait, wait, what are you doing going out there?"
Aidan blocked Stelle's path.
"Huh? Didn't you say you wanted me to fight with you?"
"I did say that, but that's not how you fight. If you go out there, you'll be flattened in one slap."
Aidan shook his head, then climbed onto Stelle's back, slowly shrinking.
"I'll connect your consciousness to my body. I'll split off a body, and you help me control one of them."
Aidan said.
"Oh~ but I don't really know how."
"You don't need to know much, just knowing how to use the mouth cannon is enough."
"Mouth cannon?"
The large Aidan outside spat out a beam of blue quantum light from its mouth.
"Exactly this."
"Oh~! Cool."
Stelle turned her head to look at the little Aidan on her shoulder.
"Then how do I get into your body?"
"...That phrasing sounds really weird." Aidan scratched his head with his forelimbs. "Never mind, don't resist for now. I'm connecting your will to the swarm consciousness."
"That sounds like the kind of setup that would fry my brain."
Aidan shook his head: "It won't, it won't. Now, empty your mind."
Stelle hesitated for two seconds, then nodded.
"Fine, anyway my brain is already empty, a little emptier doesn't matter."
At first, it was pure darkness, then countless small specks of light lit up in the dark. Those specks of light rapidly enlarged, turning into clear images. Hundreds of perspectives flooded into her mind simultaneously, making her feel a little dizzy.
"Don't look at the perspectives of those small bugs, it's too chaotic. Focus your attention and feel the largest one." Aidan guided her.
Stelle took a deep breath and focused her attention on the central source.
In an instant, her vision changed.
Aidan's massive body suddenly pulled away from the Doomsday Beast and split into two. Stelle's consciousness took over one of them. This near 360-degree vision instinctively made Stelle feel a wave of dizziness.
"How does it feel?"
Aidan's voice rang out in Stelle's mind; it sounded like it was being broadcast directly into her nerves.
"Super good."
"Don't just spin around, look ahead." Aidan reminded her.
Stelle controlled her compound eyes to look straight ahead.
Two Doomsday Beasts were glaring at them menacingly. The commotion from Aidan's split had clearly intimidated them, but these monsters soon let out angry roars.
"Mouth cannon, huh? Let me try it."
She could feel an extremely vast amount of energy surging from the abdomen of this insect body, rushing up her spine all the way to her throat. The pair of ferocious mandibles on her face suddenly opened to their maximum limit.
A blue beam of pyrolytic death light sprayed from her mouth, and the violent imaginary energy shockwave spread outwards like a tsunami.
Inside the Herta Space Station, Asta and the security staff watched the battle on the screen.
"Is this us fighting the Antimatter Legion, or is the swarm helping us fight the Antimatter Legion?"
"I don't know..." Asta wiped the cold sweat from her forehead. "But as long as they don't turn around to attack us, let's just consider them friendly forces for now."
"... Asta!"
"Ah... Ms. Himeko, it's you."
Asta turned around.
"Please don't be nervous. The True Stinging Insect is one of our passengers... uh, it's Aidan. He is currently outside entangled in a fight with the Doomsday Beast. Please, do not fire on him..."
Hearing this, Asta widened her eyes, watching the two blue-purple giant bugs on the screen beating up the Doomsday Beast.
"Ms. Himeko, you... that's a passenger on your Astral Express?"
"Yes, you should know about it from before... He has been to the space station before. Since we've confirmed they are friendly, could the security department provide some firepower support? Although it looks like they have the upper hand, finishing it early is always better."
"He wasn't... this big before."
Asta twitched her lips.
But it really is good news that he is friendly.
Several scorching laser beams shot out from the perimeter of the space station, hitting the Doomsday Beast that Stelle was holding down.
"Hot, hot, hot!"
Stelle jumped in surprise, quickly letting go of the Doomsday Beast and dodging to the side.
"The space station's support is here, hurry up and finish it off!"
Aidan's massive body stretched to its limit in space, two huge blue light blades slashed down in a cross.
"Yay! Took one out!"
"Don't celebrate too early, there's still one more!"
"Leave this one to me!" Stelle flapped her wings and flew toward the last one, grabbing the Doomsday Beast tightly with her forelimbs, refusing to let go no matter how hard it struggled. "Take this!"
Blue quantum polymer gathered frantically deep in her throat, the light stinging one's eyes.
You can't deploy a shield at this distance, can you!
Boom—
The battle finally came to an end. Stelle opened her eyes and found herself still sitting in the chair, but surrounded by a circle of people.
"...Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, just a bit of a headache from fighting the Doomsday Beast earlier..."
Stelle rubbed her temples.
"That's good... We saw Aidan lying on your back earlier, not knowing what he was doing. We came over and realized you were inside Aidan's body..." March 7th scratched her head. "How did it feel?"
"It was amazing."
Stelle answered seriously.
"How should I put it... It's like piloting a super-sized mech, and the view is omnidirectional. If I don't like the look of someone, I just spray a beam of light at them. It was so stress-relieving."
March 7th reached out and poked Aidan: "Aidan, is your main body okay?"
Bang!
Aidan exploded. The literal kind of explosion.
March 7th:!
"I, I, I... I didn't do anything! I just poked him!"
"Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang—"
The whole swarm exploded.
Aidan's main body flew in listlessly and collapsed onto the ground with a thud.
He was exhausted.
Moreover, Aidan's current appearance was quite miserable. His six legs were splayed out limply, his mouthparts hissed as they opened and closed, and the carapace on his back, which originally shimmered with beautiful blue-purple fluorescence, was now pitted and scarred. The most miserable part was his long left antenna, which had a section broken off, with blue blood oozing from the break.
"You're in such a sorry state. Can this antenna grow back?"
"I'm so tired."
Aidan didn't even move.
Himeko walked up, half-crouched beside Aidan, and reached out to gently stroke the edge of the uninjured carapace on his back.
"You've worked hard, Aidan. If you hadn't held back those Doomsday Beasts, the losses to the space station would have been much worse."
"Huff... huff..."
Aidan's compound eyes dimmed.
"..."
Crack.
A smaller version of Aidan pried open the battered shell and crawled out from inside.
"It's so cold, can someone get me a blanket?"