Ch.114114. The Descent of the Hive Mind.

The first change that occurred in the Attack Moon where the tentacles had been absorbed was the transformation of the main cannon.

A purple liquid with a jelly-like texture began to pool inside the recessed main cannon area, similar to what appeared in “that series” whose 7-9th installments were complete failures. It transformed into something resembling a real eyeball, slightly protruding from the surface like a droplet—

Flash!

With a yellow iris emerging from within that droplet, the main cannon completely transformed into an “eyeball.”

And the changes didn’t simply end at this stage.

The next transformation affected the vessel’s body. The extremely thick metal armor plates, which must have been several hundred meters thick, began to writhe and systematically separate into pieces, transforming into something that resembled a fusion of machine and organism.

The interior had become rounded flesh, and the armor plates attached throughout the flesh could be folded and unfolded. When folded, it formed a perfect sphere, but when unfolded, it gave the impression of flesh with mechanical parts attached.

Additionally, between the armor plates and flesh, tentacles similar to those that had been absorbed earlier extended in the opposite direction from the eye, giving it a subtle resemblance to octopuses, squids, or other cephalopods.

However, there was something that decisively distinguished this mutated Attack Moon from squid-like creatures.

RIIIIIP!

It was a massive “mouth” that appeared as the lower part split open, featuring not only that tongue made of “tentacles” and metallic teeth, but also an interior that served as a passage to the psychic dimension.

Naturally, this “mouth” connected to the psychic dimension released an immense amount of psychic energy the moment it opened—so vast it defied description—and the “thing that was once an Attack Moon” moved destructively without any distinction between friend and foe.

The “mouth,” even when merely open, emitted a flow of psychic energy that disintegrated engulfed ships to the particle level, while the tentacles lashed out like whips or fired psychic energy beams from their tips at ships approaching from the sides or rear where there was no mouth.

Another Attack Moon fired an overcharged laser from its main cannon, prepared for system overload, but the beam was reflected by a mysterious radiance and ended up targeting its own body. Occasionally, the creature would stop emitting psychic energy from its mouth, approach ships, and swallow them whole.

How could this mutated “thing,” which was much slower than regular ships due to its size, manage to swallow ships before they could escape?

Because “it” could teleport freely without any delay or warning signs, despite being as massive as a moon.

In the space age, teleportation is commonly used with some additional equipment or facilities, though it does come with certain burdens. Nevertheless, teleportation technology and psychic abilities have their limitations.

Person-carried teleportation devices are limited to moving objects weighing up to 1 ton over distances of 10-20km one-way, while ship-mounted teleportation systems are primarily designed for ultra-long-distance travel.

High-level psychic users can use teleportation somewhat flexibly, but the characteristic warning signs and the considerable time required for longer distances make it difficult to use in actual combat…

Yet “that thing” was attacking everything around it indiscriminately, casually ignoring all such risks of teleportation.

The remaining two Attack Moons were hit by more than 10 consecutive laser shots from its eye, leaving them riddled with holes like Swiss cheese, while three satellites collapsed under the flow of psychic energy spewing from its mouth.

However, even this ferocious mutated Attack Moon began to gradually collapse as time passed.

As if unable to withstand its own power, it began to disintegrate—starting with the metal, then bones, flesh, tentacles, and finally the eyeball scattered—

And “it” completely vanished from reality.

※ ※ ※

Afterward, the fate of the invading Balvar fleet was devastating.

The mothership restoration fleet, centered around five Attack Moons, had all its Attack Moons sunk due to various unexpected variables, ultimately becoming delicious food for the monsters through inorganic digestive enzymes.

The fate of the remaining two Attack Moons out of the seven wasn’t positive either.

One was completely transformed into a plant—not just the Hive Moon but the entire fleet—by the space plant virus that had been infamous throughout the universe for thousands of years, becoming another planet orbiting a nearby star. The other one—unfortunately—encountered a passing Hive mega-fleet.

The Attack Moon, which focused on planetary functions at the expense of fleet combat capabilities, suffered the ignominious fate of functional shutdown due to a chain explosion after being hit by a bio-plasma torpedo from a Hive Ship of mere destroyer class. To make matters worse, this mega-fleet included “Metal Gear,” one of the five named monsters with no record of being subjugated.

“Metal Gear” is a monster roughly the size of a standard human wearing a special suit that completely covers its body. It got its name from using a floating fire support platform.

If “Knight” is the strongest in personal combat and “Cosmic Dragon” is the strongest in fleet battles, “Metal Gear’s” characteristic is—versatility.

It has a record of killing three top-tier warriors of the Pisroot (an already extinct species) who had reached the level of creating psychic phenomena by swinging their swords, using only pure close-combat weapons—specifically greatswords. It doesn’t particularly discriminate between weapons, actively using all kinds of weapons with special functions.

In addition to close-combat weapons, “Metal Gear” is also famous for handling firearms well. In particular, the plasma pistol used by “Metal Gear” uses a psychic knight as its power source, giving it firepower and recoil comparable to a ship’s cannon despite being called a pistol.

And unlike “Knight,” who focuses on body enhancement and certain psychic abilities like telekinesis, “Metal Gear” skillfully handles almost all psychic techniques—and of course, this doesn’t mean its psychic abilities are inferior.

Even with special psychic techniques or race-specific psychic abilities, it can perfectly imitate them after seeing them just once. Because of these characteristics, “Metal Gear” is often referred to as “that thing” or “the one whose name should not be spoken” among psychic-specialized species.

And the fire support platform, which is the decisive reason this monster got the identification name “Metal Gear,” is—despite being called a fire support platform—essentially a battleship shrunk down to human size, an irregular item.

The reason it was able to conquer the mothership of the fourth strongest military power in the Human Federation at the time is precisely because of this platform, which is said to contain a psychic knight the size of a fist inside.

Anyway, after the expeditionary fleet was completely annihilated, the Balvar Empire, with its 12,000-year history, completely collapsed at the hands of the monsters.

No matter how much of an international outcast the Balvar Empire was due to its unique supremacist ideology and fascism, it was still one of the major powers in our galaxy that could be counted on one’s fingers, as well as a major axis of interstellar trade.

Naturally, neighboring countries couldn’t just stand by and watch such a major incident, and tried to secure Balvar’s territory as a buffer zone, but…

The monster fleet, as if declaring that if they couldn’t have those territories, they would burn them down, used various viral weapons and planet busters to turn them into extreme environments that couldn’t even be utilized.

This seemed somewhat discordant with the monsters’ usual tactics, which typically avoided such extreme measures in favor of persistent wars of attrition—and the cause of this discordance was revealed not long after.

Evidence emerged that a massive fleet consisting of 87 interstellar navigation vessels (battleship-class by human standards) was advancing toward the Taulian planetary system, a human stronghold and international logistics hub.

As a central point for psychic energy flows that exist in space and assist spatial movement in specific directions, the Taulian planetary system is treated as the second most important strategic point after the Solar System.

Therefore, if that place fell into the hands of monsters, it could have an impact powerful enough to split the Human Federation in half in the worst case. For this reason, the Human Federation established thorough defenses, even calling in reinforcements—

But as if mocking human actions, the fleet heading toward Taulian suddenly changed course and modified its target to somewhere else.

Though not as significant as the Taulian planetary system, it was still one of the central points of psychic energy flow and a sacred site for logistics transportation.

The Hive Mind was targeting the Kupan star system.