Ch.136136. Lizardman

In truth, humanity had known that the kaiju would attempt such an expansion.

It was almost textbook for them to use Hive Cults to create internal chaos right before an invasion, and the fact that most cults had simultaneously rebelled made it even easier to predict what would follow.

And indeed, most of those predictions proved correct—except for one crucial error: the target of their expansion was not humanity.

The kaiju were targeting the civilizations of relatively weaker minority species.

Of course, “weaker” is relative—in this chaotic cosmic era, maintaining a unified power requires control of at least one to three planetary systems.

But still, the scale of the kaiju’s full-scale invasion was far too massive for powers of that size to handle.

Even if they mobilized their entire fleet of perhaps three 10km-class vessels at best, they couldn’t withstand even a small invasion fleet led by a 20km interstellar Hive Ship. Moreover, the gods—the secret weapons of psionically specialized civilizations—were simply devoured by the Hive Mind itself.

Unlike previous absurd false invasions, this massive invasion force of at least 500 small invasion fleets operated on an entirely different level of military might.

One planetary system fell into kaiju hands each day; within a week, a solid cosmic-level power would collapse; within a month, an entire civilization would be erased from the universe and a species would go extinct.

Alien civilizations witnessing this tragedy tried joining forces, as it was literally a matter of survival, but these efforts proved ineffective against the endless attacks of this ultra-large power that forced them into a war of attrition.

Furthermore, since this kaiju invasion force continued its journey divided into exactly five fleets, even if the alien civilization alliance scraped together all their military forces, they would struggle to face just one fleet.

Thus, the alien federal civilization was consistently pushed back against the kaiju, who poured out so many planetary landing dropships that they looked like fog from a distance… but then.

Their advance was blocked from a completely unexpected direction.

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The Lizardmen—an alien species named after their resemblance to animals native to Earth, humanity’s home planet—were commonly regarded as a species with a mixture of civilization and barbarism.

They are a massive power in the Milky Way, having achieved space exploration entirely on their own and occupying a total of 189 planetary systems. However, they also exhibit severe imbalances between their various technologies.

For example, the vessels they used for space exploration were merely “containers” made of wood, stone, and clay, possessed by psionic entities. Yet the fluid dynamics knowledge reflected in the structure of these “containers” is assessed to be at least 600 years ahead of humanity’s.

They also use spears with obsidian blades as their main weapons, which—thanks to the psionic circuits engraved on their surface—are more efficient than mediocre psionic blades despite being made of only obsidian and wood.

This knowledge isn’t passed down through oral tradition but is bestowed at birth from knowledge repositories that exist one per planet. As a result, Lizardmen are innately scholars and intellectuals, warriors and technicians, and farmers all at once.

Of course, post-natal training is also possible, so they typically determine their future aspirations early and develop in that direction—but that’s not what’s important here.

Lizardmen are considered genetically and ecologically closest to the kaiju, precisely because they too use knowledge repositories as a form of small-scale Hive Mind, allowing them to repeat death and rebirth infinitely.

Consequently, to be recognized as an expert in a particular field among them requires at least 100 years of dedicated practice, creating a social structure where everyone is essentially a veteran of extreme experience.

Given these characteristics, one might wonder why they’re considered barbaric, but that stems from unfamiliarity with their culture.

They worship their knowledge repositories as personified deities, and in this process, they have a tradition of human sacrifice using captured members of other species from wars, absorbing their knowledge into the repositories and consuming their flesh.

Additionally, similar to Aztec or Inca civilizations, almost all their armies prefer cold weapons, with ranged weapons replaced only by the psionics of certain talented shamans, further reinforcing this perception.

However, aside from their collectivist mindset and human sacrifices, they rarely initiated hostilities with humanity or neighboring sentient beings. Though avoided, they maintained relatively good relations—until the kaiju invaded their territory.

Of course, the Lizardmen are a rare species with excellence in both physical and psionic abilities.

Their warriors possess scales comparable to adamantium and physical abilities on par with upper mid-tier kaiju through physical enhancement psionics, and even without such enhancements, they can easily block laser rifles.

But still, the enemy was kaiju—essentially superior versions of themselves. As the Lizardmen, who had not joined the alien civilization alliance, were swept up in the attack by the kaiju, other species offered condolences for their fate… but what’s this?

The Lizardmen were successfully repelling the kaiju invasion using a variety of hidden and innovative weapons.

First, to intercept attacking ships from the air, they used limestone pillars shaped like increasingly pointed square pyramids installed throughout their planets.

These pillars, with psionic crystals as fuel cells inside and various psionic circuits drawn on the limestone brick surface, normally interconnect to form a planetary-scale anti-air protective shield, while also being capable of firing psionic shots powerful enough to pierce a 20km Hive Ship with a direct hit.

Of course, despite this solid anti-air defense system, breaches do occur, but that’s when their various secret weapons come into play.

The most representative secret weapon is the Aztec-style pyramid temple—which serves as both a religious facility and a breeding/nurturing facility—with at least one in each city. In planetary crises, these transform into their true form: mobile fortress pyramids.

Yes, these so-called temples are all the Lizardmen’s ultimate weapons, capable of transforming into giant stone golems.

Instead of heads, they have massive psionic crystals floating inside cage-like stone structures, serving as both the power source for these mobile fortress pyramids and as a means to fire psionic beams.

Additionally, the giant stone psionic constructs—commonly called golems—that they normally use as labor and heavy equipment are converted directly for combat use, and various creatures inhabiting the Lizardmen’s motherworld also provide significant support.

But their most fearsome aspect is that—just like the kaiju—they can rapidly evolve by absorbing kaiju genes, and each planet is ruled by a powerful psionic user known as a “Priest-King.”

These individuals, at the pinnacle of all Lizardmen both physically and psionically, are the only Lizardmen who can receive and use any knowledge accumulated in the knowledge repositories. They can also conduct rituals that concentrate the shamanic (psionic) powers of Lizardmen shamans around themselves.

Therefore, the psionics used by Priest-Kings are extraordinary in scale, most notably the future prediction psionic ability—the primary contributor to their success in repelling the kaiju invasion.

This future prediction, activated by slightly twisting spatial psionics, is closer to prediction through big data analysis than actual future sight, but that’s not what matters.

The Priest-Kings, having completely fathomed the kaiju’s strategies and tactics, drove them back with almost divine command, and when a planet seemed about to fall, they prolonged the war by sending only the knowledge repositories and Lizardmen souls through an interplanetary psionic network.

And while they bought time this way, humanity—having finished their own business—arrived with reinforcements, and with the power of the combined forces sent by the entire galaxy, they even succeeded in driving away the kaiju.

Emboldened by this achievement, the combined forces, despite humanity’s dissuasion, dispatched fleets to the territories that had fallen this time, seeking to gain both territory and prestige—

And, with predictable inevitability, they were completely annihilated by the kaiju’s unlimited war of attrition.

The entire galaxy learned how difficult it was to resist the kaiju, while simultaneously realizing that only humanity could successfully repel them.