Ch.460Brawl (1)

The Empress’s most exceptional creation, Toders, had never felt a sense of crisis before.

In the past, deep within the hive, the Empress had created her and her sisters using the most precious genetic essence.

The four queens hunted countless powerful enemies and devoured planets in the Empress’s name. Their power was comparable to the most lethal predators in the universe. No one could stop them.

Naturally, she had never been flustered during battle or felt fear. Only her creator and the Great Queen could instill fear in Toders.

At least, that’s what she thought until today.

At the boundary between planet and space, red light beams and white light clusters chaotically intersect. Toders’ sister Turian is engaged in fierce combat with a mysterious enemy.

Turian’s true form is a collective organism made up of extremely tiny individuals sharing a single consciousness.

Her “body” that resembles a snake is merely a preferred arrangement of these tiny entities. During battle, she splits apart like a cloud or reconfigures into forms suitable for the situation.

That’s happening now. A giant fish formed by gathered small entities blocks the red-glowing intruder.

Just before collision, Turian’s body splits into multiple pieces.

The fragments quickly take on new forms. This time, they’re thin and pointed like spines—drill-like spines with grooves and blades on their surfaces.

“We will pierce.”

The spine-shaped entities scatter in all directions, surrounding their target. Then they spin rapidly and plunge toward it.

The spines aim for the wing membrane and thin abdomen. From Toders’ observation, this creature resembles a Gallergorn. If so, its weaknesses should be similar.

“!”

However, the entity they face is no ordinary Gallergorn. None of the spines managed to inflict wounds. Instead, the attackers suffered damage, being crushed.

This was all due to the defensive barrier surrounding their opponent. An energy shield coating the red scales blocked all of Turian’s attacks.

Toders, who excels at energy manipulation, attempted to disable it but found it difficult. The elements composing the barrier weren’t psychic power but unknown energy. This was Toders’ first encounter with it.

Moreover, the Gallergorn moved too quickly. Even before disabling the energy shield, just keeping up with its position was challenging.

The fastest being she knew was her sister Krieger, but this one was even faster.

The Gallergorn-like creature flaps its wings, shaking off the spine-shaped entities. Then it stares at Toders with vivid purple eyes, seemingly declaring her as its next target.

Turian charges again, but the situation remains unchanged. The two of them alone cannot stop this being.

“We are in danger.”

“Retreating from here now is impossible. Our movement is being hindered.”

Toders aimed her sensory organs far behind the Gallergorn, at a distance from the battlefield.

There was a complex organism with a unique mechanism mixing metal and biological components. That entity, which had been with the Gallergorn-like creature, had been spreading special microparticles to keep them in check.

Toders knows what these particles are. The metal puppets hated by the Empress. Among their weapons is one that spreads warp particles to block faster-than-light navigation.

“Disable it for us.”

“Impossible.”

“?”

When creating Toders, the Empress had given her the ability to counter this—the ability to restrict particle movement using interference waves.

Knowing this, Turian told her to use this ability immediately, but Toders denied.

“I’ve been attempting since the battle began. But that entity’s responses are faster.”

Whenever she disrupted the particles, that unpleasant entity individually adjusted and recalibrated each particle’s movement.

This was something even Toders with her transcendent intelligence couldn’t guarantee success with. The opponent’s computational power was certainly equal to or superior to hers.

Though she had fought countless enemies, this was the first time she’d been overwhelmed by a being using abilities similar to her own.

“We do not understand.”

“That entity is superior to me. So I will support you with power.”

But the gift she received from the Empress wasn’t just this. Turian, knowing what “power” she meant, expressed dismay.

“Are you certain?”

“Yes.”

Among the four queens created by the Empress, Toders has the lowest direct combat capability. She can’t transform or separate her body like Turian, nor move as quickly as Krieger.

But in exchange, she possesses power that her other sisters don’t have.

“Use that power to remove the interference.”

With those words, Toders prepared to unleash her secret weapon.

–

White light rains down from all directions. The spine monsters move nimbly, surrounding Adhigh Orr.

Unlike before, they now have countless blades protruding densely from their surface. The small blades vibrate at frightening speed.

Thousands of monsters charge with threatening appearances. But Adhigh Orr, in the center of the storm, remains calm. The Gallergorn in red armor faces the charging enemies with composure.

A psychic breath shoots out from the tentacle cluster that serves as her mouth. A purple sphere with red gleam hits the oncoming enemies. The massive fiery force pushes back the swarm in front of her in one go.

The monsters lucky enough to be outside the attack range circle around to target her rear and flanks.

In response, Adhigh Orr spreads her four wings and rotates her body. Her wings, protected by “Red Armor,” become sharp blades that cut down the enemies.

“It’s almost, over.”

As she was grinding down enemies, a thought wave flew in from the distant PS-111.

“Don’t, go, too far.”

“Worry” “unnecessary” “distance” “know”

Hearing the intermittently broken thought wave, Adhigh Orr answered while striking a spine monster with her tail.

“Enemy” “characteristics” “what?”

“The target, you’re, fighting now. Energy absorption.”

“Absorption?”

“Takes, enemy’s, power, uses as, fuel, to maintain, swarm.”

Few beings had withstood collision with her Red Armor-clad form. None as small as these creatures.

As PS-111 said, these swarming monsters were clearly stealing the Gallergorn’s power to strengthen themselves. That’s why they remained intact after colliding with Red Armor.

“Small adult” “resembling” “enemy” “characteristics” “what?”

“Power manipulation, and disruption, I, presume. Even our, conversation, is being, interfered with.”

“Annoying”

Adhigh Orr glared at the enemy beyond the chaotically flying spine monsters.

That monster, waving its tentacles while watching the battlefield, resembled the small adult—No. 26.

Not just in appearance, but in ability too. She had attacked several times to keep it in check, but couldn’t land a single hit.

An invisible force distorted the trajectory of her psychic breath. This was similar to techniques No. 26 had shown multiple times.

“Enemy” “weakness” “tell me”

“The enemy, you’re fighting, has a limit, to how much, power it can absorb.”

“Limit?” “Not” “infinite?”

“Restriction…”

Suddenly, PS-111’s thought wave cut off.

Simultaneously, the spine monsters that had been continuously attacking all stopped at once. Then they began merging together.

“?”

Over a thousand entities combine into one, growing larger. It wasn’t just increasing in size. The energy amount detected by her tentacle cluster was rapidly increasing too.

Something was wrong. Sensing the abnormality, Adhigh Orr tried to retreat. But a massive tentacle shot out from the merging entity and wrapped around her front legs.

“This” “let go!”

She struck the tentacle with her Red Armor-clad wing as before, but the result was completely different. Only a small scratch appeared where they collided, while the tentacle itself remained intact.

Meanwhile, other completed tentacles grabbed her. In an instant, Adhigh Orr’s body was tightly secured by numerous tentacles.

“Strong!” “Why?”

No matter how hard she struggled to escape, it was useless. Even firing psychic breath had no effect. It was as if the enemy was also using Red Armor.

“Danger” “calmness” “needed”

Trapped in the prison of living tentacles, Adhigh Orr forced herself to calm down. She focused her senses on her tentacle cluster to observe outside the prison.

The first thing she felt was alien energy. Multiple energy streams extended from the monster holding her.

The direction they pointed was where the observing monster had been—the one resembling No. 26. That monster was behind this.

But there was an even more important fact.

From the opposite direction, she detected familiar movements. Small spine monsters were flying toward PS-111’s location.

“Trouble!” “Run away!”

PS-111 is not compatible with these spine monsters. The enemy absorbs even Adhigh Orr’s power. He won’t last long.

She sent thought waves urging him to flee quickly, but there was no response. Instead, feeling intermittent energy explosions, it seemed he was fighting rather than retreating.

He’s a smart friend. He must know he’s at a disadvantage. The other monster that strengthened the spine monsters was clearly interfering.

Their thought waves were also blocked by it, making it difficult to request help.

A truly desperate situation. Only she could resolve this.

“Problem” “enemy” “solution” “method” “think” “think”

Inside the pressing translucent tentacles, Adhigh Orr pondered deeply.

PS-111 had said it. The enemy absorbs power, but has a limit.

Her most powerful weapon might be able to destroy this tentacle prison.

The problem is that using that power in this state would engulf her too. No matter how strong the red armor is, it’s not invincible against the power of a star.

While desperately searching for a solution, she suddenly remembered something from the past.

Her comrade whom she calls her ugly friend, the Sky Mother, once taught her fighting techniques—techniques to turn the weakness of having a smaller, more diminutive body than her kind into a strength.

She never used it after completing her growth. She thought there was no need for techniques used only when she was weak.

But now, the past she tried to forget provided a clue for breakthrough.

Adhigh Orr gathered the latent power within her body while maintaining Red Armor. The Dragon Power, which Gallergorn call the power of stars, awakened to its master’s will.

Normally it would gather in the tentacle cluster around her mouth to prepare for external release, but not this time. The massive power spread evenly throughout her slender body.

With this, the Dragon Power meant for Star Flame collided with the Red Armor covering her scale surface. Scales and skin tore, and the red energy armor began to tremble.

“No” “difficulty” “nothing” “impossible!”

Though wounds increased on her body one by one, Adhigh Orr maintained her concentration.

In the past, she wrapped her body in psychic power before using super-acceleration. Now, only the type of power used was different.

And the true master of the star’s power is the daughter of the meteor, Adhigh Orr. She commanded inwardly:

Obey.

Shortly after, Adhigh Orr’s entire body glowed red like a star. The frantically trembling Red Armor stabilized.

“You” “like” “eating” “power?”

“?!”

The enemy binding her reacts belatedly. It seems to have realized what it was trying to swallow, but it was already too late.

“Go ahead” “eat” “all you want”

Adhigh Orr released the energy she had gathered toward the enemy trying to spit her out.

Red lightning surges from each tiny scale. The power that could destroy an asteroid in one blow became thousands, tens of thousands of lightning bolts striking the tentacle prison.

The translucent tentacles encountering the star’s power turn crimson. They seemed to be trying to absorb the energy somehow, but it was futile.

The rage emanated by the queen of dragons traversing space was not something easily dissipated.

Before long, the monster’s body collapsed like a sandcastle hit by waves. The broken fragments did not transform into small fish monsters.

The enemy that had constricted Adhigh Orr was oxidized in the storm of red lightning extending into space.