Chapter 97: Behind Victory-After I Became a Planet, I Was Discovered by Earthlings(No profit)

Warning! Ship engine core overload!

At the same time, every vessel in the fleet let out a terrifying groan unlike anything before, the sound rolling through their hulls. Yet none of the crew panicked. They simply moved in silence to positions they had long since drilled, then adjusted the direction of the ships' energy transfer.

Before long, the front of Sevi Fleet's flagship slowly unfolded, gradually forming an energy deflector. Then, in perfect unison, every ship in the fleet began channeling power into the flagship.

Sevis, stationed aboard the flagship, had to keep watch over the movements of the mechanical army while also tracking the countdown on the information capsule and the charge for the final attack.

A blinding torrent of energy surged madly through the deflector, and the flagship's outer armor, burdened beyond its limit, began to split with spiderweb-like fractures.

Though this strike might well smash the command center of Skysea Star in a single blow, the threat posed by the mechanized legion was far greater in this moment, and from the instant Sevis opened the information capsule, he had already abandoned all hope of victory.

"Prepare to fire the beam!"

At Sevis's command, all ships ceased transferring power. The engines of the entire fleet died at once, and countless vessels hung motionless in the silent cosmos.

The sphere of energy was confined by a special field at the prow of the flagship. Sevis placed his hand once more over the red button, then fixed his gaze on the movements of the mechanical legion.

The instant the tip of the red dot representing the machines entered outer space, Sevis slammed down on the red button, and the energy sphere was hurled forward.

The moment it was fired, the flagship's energy shield vanished in an instant, and the front of the hull burst apart. Several nearby ships were instantly vaporized for lack of the power needed to raise their shields, while a blinding beam lanced into the ocean of machinery.

Like a heated knife cutting through butter, every machine touched by the beam exploded apart, and on the display the red cluster of lights opened up into a massive gap.

Yet that gap began to close again, as though it could heal itself, though the pace of its advance was clearly slowed.

Sevis no longer watched the display. Instead, he stared at the countdown for the information capsule's launch as it ticked steadily to zero. Only after the specially made capsule, like an arrow loosed from a bow, was pushed into hyperspace did he finally let out a breath.

Seeing the ship's shell growing increasingly strained and on the verge of collapse, Sevis immediately ordered all surviving Sevi to put on space suits.

At the same time, the entire fleet came to a complete halt, suspended in the frozen void like lonely coffins in a boundless graveyard.

A faint white mist slowly gathered inside the life-support helmet Sevis wore. He looked at the machines outside, already closing in on the flagship, and before he could issue his final order of resistance, his pupils suddenly dilated.

A void began to open at the center of the mechanized legion, and without any warning at all, they vanished.

Yes—like marks wiped away by an eraser, those machines began to be slowly erased by some incomprehensible force.

Silently, they dissolved into nothingness.

Not an explosion, nor a distortion.

A true and utter erasure.

And the very stretch of space they occupied was transformed into an indescribable void.

Even the Sevi fleet was gently pushed aside by the edge of that unfathomable force, like fallen leaves nudged away by ripples on water.

He even saw a figure standing there, perfectly still, in the open reaches of space!

The face looked just like those fleeing Earth people!

Sevis was too stunned to speak. He could not understand any of what he was seeing. Each hurried breath caused the mist inside his visor to gather and disperse again, and in his eyes that figure suspended in the void was tiny as dust, yet it carried an absolute pressure capable of erasing all things in the galaxy.

He watched as the figure calmly swept its gaze across the motionless ships around it, then fixed on the flagship where he stood.

And then, through the vacuum of space, an irresistible voice exploded in Sevis's mind, already on the verge of collapse.

"Capture them."

Only when he heard those words did Sevis lose all strength, slumping back in his seat, before issuing his final, despairing order.

"Abandon ship... surrender."

Of course, it was not only Sevis who heard that voice.

At Skysea Star Command Headquarters, Qu Shixin and the others also heard that voice, filling them with joy beyond measure.

"The High Priest!"

"It's the High Priest!"

"The High Priest has acted!"

Everyone cheered, praying fervently toward the direction of the High Priest they revered. Commander Qu Shixin promptly issued the order as well:

"Recover all Sevi warships and any surviving prisoners!"

After giving the order, Qu Shixin suddenly remembered Xu Weiyi and quickly looked to the side, only to find the seat where Xu Yiyi had been was already empty.

"Old Xu!"

For some reason, Qu Shixin's heart lurched. He hurried out of the command center and made his way toward the Wanderer.

...

The Wanderer

Xu Yiyi's slender figure tore through the wreckage of the hatch she had forcibly ripped open and rushed inside, searching frantically for Xu Weiyi. At that moment, it felt as though something were scorching her from within.

Her heart was a sheet of cold code.

But right now, her core was running a command more ferocious than any human emotion.

Find Xu Weiyi!

The hatch of the Wanderer had twisted inward into a horrific depression, the edges smeared with traces of high-temperature melting.

Beyond it, the orderly maintenance platform was gone. In its place, ruptured power conduits spat blinding serpents of electricity, while black smoke from the blast, mixed with the white mist of coolant, drifted and spread.

Find him!

At last, the instant she burst into the control room, her visual sensors locked onto the figure standing still in place.

Or rather, onto what was left of him.

"Mr. Xu?"

Beside him lay more than a dozen battle units, all completely ruined beyond recognition. It seemed he had taken them on alone.

Several of his armatures had vanished from the shoulder joints, and from the shattered points of disconnection, tangled circuitry burst outward, spraying tiny sparks like dying fireflies.

From the knees down, both leg assemblies were gone entirely. His core torso bore several horrifying perforations, as though pierced through by something at extreme speed.

His entire body had originally been made of orderly layers of cosmic alloy blades, but now it was twisted and broken like the inner workings of a smashed precision clock, pieces even interlocked and impaled against one another.

A viscous silvery-gray fluid seeped slowly from the deepest wounds, gathering in a small pool on the cold deck.

Xu Weiyi's last remaining visual sensor caught Xu Yiyi's figure, and the dim red light in that sensor flickered rapidly.