Ch.133133. Puppets Hanging on Invisible Strings

Right after turning the Hive Guard at the front into a H/i/v/e G/u/a/r/d, Yon swung his claw at the Hive Guard next to him, but…

Clang!

As expected, the command entity interfered this time.

‘…Tch.’

Crash!

The psychic energy mass that appeared in midair due to the command entity’s psychic power managed to block the attack once before shattering, but it still generated enough repulsive force to stop the attack.

Slightly staggered, Yon corrected his posture by firing jets from the thruster in his backpack, then naturally pulled out a hand axe from his suit’s storage compartment.

Swoosh.

This hand axe, which resembled what people commonly call a Viking axe, was made entirely of mythril from blade to handle, and had grooves carved into its side like engravings, with a few words in his homeland’s script inscribed inside using a material with high psychic absorption properties.

Though called a hand axe, considering his size, this weapon was actually larger than an ordinary axe. Yon pulled it from the storage compartment and, in one fluid motion, threw it with a swing of his arm.

His target was the spinal column and blood vessel bundles connected to the command entity.

The axe, spinning as it flew toward what was clearly a vital area, was naturally the command entity’s primary concern.

Therefore, as it tried to form another massive psychic energy mass in midair to block the axe—something unexpected happened.

Activate!

Responding instantly to the signal, the axe began to glow blue and, surprisingly, not only cut through the psychic energy mass upon contact but completely disintegrated it.

Splash!

Additionally, the command entity, being a psychic user itself, suffered internal injuries causing blood to leak out, which essentially meant only one thing in this situation.

This axe possessed anti-psychic power.

Long ago, this axe that Yon had accidentally discovered in an ancient ruin on his home planet was an extraordinary weapon that not only possessed anti-psychic power but could also be turned on or off—defying common sense.

Despite this, even when the anti-psychic function was activated, the user holding the handle could still use psychic powers without any issues while wielding it. Furthermore, once registered as a user, one could even turn the anti-psychic function on and off remotely.

Thus, the axe, truly deserving of its title as an ancient relic, broke through the command entity’s defense and directly struck the connected spinal column and blood vessels.

Crack!

Whirrrrr…

Naturally, as the anti-psychic-coated axe severed them, the ship seemed to tilt, and the wall lights (eyeballs) began to flicker.

With the connection to the main system’s core cut off and the emergency system frozen, the ship, now just a mass of flesh, began to slowly sink.

As a result, the central core became a complete mess.

The command entity lay sprawled, bleeding from every orifice with blood vessels and tentacles hanging from its back. The Hive Guards, too rigid yet surprisingly sluggish, couldn’t properly aim their overly sturdy bodies in the tilting ship environment.

Watching this scene with a bright smile, he—immediately lunged at a Hive Guard the moment it staggered.

※ ※ ※

What happened afterward was exactly as one might imagine.

Using his recovered relic hand axe and adamantium claw, he slaughtered all the guards, then escaped from the ship just before it crashed, hovering leisurely in the air until he was retrieved by Teresia’s Titan Armor and returned to the village.

About three months after the invasion…

“Hello, Uncle Yon!”

“Hello, Lucy. Are you doing well?”

“Yes!”

Yon had essentially become a member of the village, living peaceful days.

The nearby monster invasion ship had been eliminated thanks to the efforts of the Titan Armor and mercenaries, and most of the remaining monsters on the planet had been dealt with a month ago.

However, the nearest civilized planet was so far away that it couldn’t be reached without interstellar teleportation, and the planet lacked the facilities to build such a ship.

Therefore, all they could do was send distress signals in all directions using communication equipment fashioned from the remnants of civilization.

Anyway, having done everything he could, Yon finished greeting the local child passing by, awkwardly adjusted the ordinary clothes he was wearing, and was heading to the logging site for today’s task of reinforcing the barrier when suddenly—

“…?!!!!”

He began to feel a powerful psychic wave—specifically, what was known as the precursor phenomenon of teleportation.

[Yon! Hela! And the rest of you lot, grab your gear and head to the meeting hall quickly!]

As Teresia, who couldn’t possibly miss sensing this, gave these instructions to everyone, he began rushing to his residence.

The most hopeful scenario would be the arrival of a Federation rescue ship, but… that didn’t necessarily mean the ship arriving at the end of that precursor phenomenon couldn’t be a deserting Federation naval vessel or a wealthy space pirate ship.

Therefore, in preparation for possible combat, the villagers decided to hide in temporary underground bunkers while combat-capable personnel would arm themselves and identify the arrivals.

And shortly after…

As the fully armed mercenaries and Teresia gathered in the village central square, maintaining vigilance, a small psychic dimensional hole suddenly opened in the air—and from it emerged a standard Federation 8km-class cruiser.

Seeing this, the mercenaries—and especially Teresia—were astonished.

“Hey, isn’t that… the same as on your equipment? Your emblem?”

“…Yes. That’s right. That’s… the emblem of our ‘Winter Wolves,’ but… why?”

On the underside of the ship was prominently displayed a wolf’s head biting a hexagonal snowflake symbol—the emblem and insignia of the “Winter Wolves” mercenary group.

‘…Why would such a large ship…?’

Naturally, they all remained silent in this incomprehensible situation.

Unable to think of what to say, with all of them half-dazed staring at the ship, at that moment—

Whoooooosh!!!!

A pillar of light shot from the ship struck the ground, and from within that pillar appeared seven giants—each about 3 meters tall, wearing powered suits very similar to Bjorn’s.

These people, all with their helmets removed except for the one who appeared to be the highest-ranking, briefly widened their eyes upon noticing Teresia and realizing her identity, but only momentarily.

They soon stood before the fully armed Yon, knelt on one knee, and bowed their heads respectfully. Only the one still wearing a helmet remained standing, then removed his helmet.

“…Erik?”

“Yes. It’s been a long time, Captain.”

Behind that helmet was the face of the former 4th Company Commander, Erik Jornson—aged by the passage of time and with one eye replaced by machinery.

“Y-you, how are you…?”

Confronted with completely unexpected individuals, especially Erik—who, even if he had survived back then, should have been impossible to still be alive now—Yon stammered his question.

“…Our mercenary group all returned at different points in time. These men are descendants of the 3rd Company Commander who returned 1,000 years ago, and I returned 167 years ago and have been serving as the temporary leader of the mercenary group.”

The answer was quite shocking.

The 3rd Company Commander and part of the 3rd Company who returned 1,000 years ago rebuilt the mercenary group, and it continued with the addition of others who began returning to this world probabilistically without any regular interval.

These ancient heroes, who were thought to have certainly died fighting that fleet, had returned and were now treated as heroes by the Federation, having received a suitable planet from the Federation to serve as their base, mothership, and territory where they had lived until now.

Each revelation was shocking, but Yon was thinking of something else.

He was not alone.

That thought was healing Yon’s heart, which had felt as if he had been cast adrift alone on a vast ocean.

※ ※ ※

On the way to the winter planet that was the headquarters of the “Winter Wolves” mercenary group, Yon suddenly had a thought.

What if all of this was part of a well-crafted script? That was his thought.

And such thoughts expanded more as time passed.

What if all the paths he had walked were planned by someone’s intention? What if that intention was so secretive and terrible that he couldn’t even imagine it? And what if there existed a transcendent being capable of designing and guiding such a secretive path?

Though momentarily chilled by these thoughts, after some time, Yon reached a conclusion.

All of this was merely coincidence, and even if his suspicions were correct, as long as the end result was peace—there would be no problem.