Chapter 33: Pushing the Sun Towards...
In the bridge of the flagship *Vanguard*, the command ship of the Central Fleet of the Midgardians, Commander Taquin finally lowered his hands from behind his back and pressed them against his face after witnessing the lifeless flesh of the Void Mother Beast. The old man trembled as he exhaled, then laughed with a weary voice: "It's over... these past few months have been... hateful Void Mother Beast, hateful Volpir!"
As he spoke these fragmented words, the old man's voice gradually filled with resentment. Flickering psionic light could be seen shooting out from between the fingers covering his face. The commander of the Midgardian Fleet could no longer suppress his hatred for their neighbors—if the Volpir hadn't summoned the Void Mother Beast and failed to eliminate it, if the Volpir hadn't fled their homeworld in panic without resistance, if the Volpir hadn't given them any warning, intending to use them as bait to delay the Void Mother Beast, none of this would have happened! If the Volpir had notified the Midgardians earlier and cooperated with them, perhaps the Void Mother Beast would never have had the chance to grow to such a terrifying size!
Everything could have been far less dire. Everything was the Volpir's fault.
This sentiment spread throughout Midgardian society, causing countless young Midgardians who had once harbored goodwill toward unknown alien races to completely reverse their views. The once open-minded attitude toward outsiders shifted into a wary, exclusionary mindset. All of this was the Volpir's sin. Taquin silently swore in his heart that if he ever encountered the Volpir's refugee fleet again, he would lead his forces to destroy them, purging every last one without mercy!
Just as they had purified the Void Mother Beast.
Lowering his hands, the old man looked up at the starry sky. There, a ship was slowly approaching the seemingly lifeless flesh of the Mother Beast. All crew members and researchers had accepted the possibility of death. They would determine at close range whether the Mother Beast was truly dead and, if possible, locate its psionic core.
Honestly, Taquin didn't believe the Mother Beast could survive the subspace fragmentation cannon's bombardment. He had seen the aftermath of failed warp jumps before—even the strongest special alloys were sliced into sand-like fragments, the crew's flesh mixed with oil, flowing through the wreckage of semi-organic ships. No life could survive in such chaotic space, let alone be exposed afterward to cosmic radiation of all kinds.
This was his belief, and the belief of most Midgardians—including those stationed at the Neptune Fortress. Many Midgardian soldiers who heard the news breathed a sigh of relief, glad they didn't have to face the Mother Beast head-on. Even if they were willing to sacrifice their lives for their comrades and homeland, not dying was certainly preferable. After 'defeating' the Mother Beast, many had already begun fantasizing about returning home in glory, while others wept for their fallen comrades.
But in the distant reaches of space, the abnormal movements of the Chaos Monster mercilessly shattered their fantasies.
"High energy reaction!"
Just as a hint of a smile appeared on every Midgardian's face, the detection station suddenly flashed a red alert! In that instant, from the remains of the Mother Beast's flesh, thousands of thick tentacles burst forth, tightly coiling around the research ship that had been cautiously approaching. The sturdy alloy hull and emergency warp escape mechanisms were useless. Within a single second, it was twisted into a mass of steel wreckage, then exploded violently into countless fragments.
At the same time, a beam of light, sharp and bright as a sword, shot out from the flesh remains that should have been completely inert—it crossed light-seconds in an instant, directly striking the subspace fragmentation cannon itself, that silver diamond-shaped octahedron. The terrifying energy fluctuation pierced through the enormous artificial construct, the pride of the Midgardians, from end to end in an instant. The residual energy even burst out from its rear, shattering the shields of numerous Midgardian ships and leaving them temporarily paralyzed.
Not long ago, the apocalyptic beam that had even ambushed the legendary mage Nostradamus appeared again. But now, it was far from the world-shattering power it once had—merely a thick, concentrated fortress-grade main cannon. Even so, it was more than enough to destroy a newly built superweapon without its supporting shields and defenses, catching the Midgardians off guard.
*Plop, slurp—*
In the vacuum, sound waves couldn't travel, but in the minds of all Midgardians staring in shock at the distant space, there seemed to appear sounds of rotten flesh and internal organs slapping together, then reassembling. In the bridge of the Midgardian Central Fleet's flagship, Taquin extended a hand, trembling as he pointed at the Void Mother Beast slowly regenerating and reforming in the optical lens. He opened his mouth as if to speak, but an invisible force pressed on his vocal cords, leaving him only able to tremble as he watched the Mother of Monsters reappear in this world once more.
Reborn from the thousand cuts of spatial fractures, the Void Mother Beast restored itself to its original spherical sea-urchin-like shape—but compared to its initial form, its size had greatly shrunk. Its diameter was now only about 550 kilometers, and its originally sturdy shell had not yet regenerated, covered only with countless shattered, loose black chitin fragments. Its thick psionic shield was so transparent it seemed almost nonexistent. Yet even so, it was still a super-lifeform larger than a fortress. Reassembling from its dispersed nanovirus form into this massive individual, the Mother Beast felt unprecedented hunger—all its severely damaged tissues cried out for energy and organic matter. It urgently needed to reach a life-bearing planet, plunder its ecosystem, and feast to restore its mass and condition.
But clearly, due to planetary orbital mechanics, the nearest ecological planet in the Far Light Star System was still dozens or even hundreds of astronomical units away. With its broken, battered body, it might fall apart during the journey. But that didn't matter.
Wasn't there plenty of organic resources right in front of it?
The Mother Beast rotated its body, aligning its thickest armored front toward the Midgardian fleet, which was in chaos but rapidly reorganizing its formation. For an indiscriminate Chaos Monster, the Midgardian fleet—mostly semi-organic, semi-mechanical constructs—was a delicious feast. At most, it would need to peel open the outer metal cans. It didn't mind such a small inconvenience.
So the next moment, the Void Mother Beast, roughly reassembled but several times smaller, lunged at the barely reorganized Midgardian fleet with the ferocity and savagery of a wounded beast. Its speed instantly accelerated past 0.003 times the speed of light. The Midgardian fleet didn't hesitate to open fire simultaneously, using psionic lances to counter the massive intruder. But even the combined volley of over 3,500 ships—the Central Fleet plus the three Colonial Star Fleets—could at most scorch about one-tenth of the Mother Beast's front, penetrating no deeper than 300 meters. Though painful for the Mother Beast, it was merely like having a chunk of muscle gouged out, nowhere near enough to stop its advance.
Attack: ineffective. Defense: meaningless. Escape—facing a massive meteor impact over 500 kilometers in diameter, ships on the periphery could flee, but what about the main force at the center of the formation? They would still be crushed to pieces by the Mother Beast's collision!
What other method could deal with it?
From great joy to great sorrow, Commander Taquin's eyes now held nothing but bewildered rage. He could lead a fleet to weave through asteroid belts with other races' ships, easily drive off massive space amoeba swarms, but he had never encountered such a situation, nor did he know how to deal with this enormous, durable, regenerative super-lifeform that could survive even being ground to powder—this was simply beyond his capabilities.
But clearly, the old man had forgotten one thing—their reinforcements from the homeworld weren't just the Central Fleet delivering engines, but also the void lifeforms they had summoned through the Void Portal.
Behind the Mother Beast, a scorching red flame, accompanied by explosive speed, struck from behind and arrived first. Just as everyone was wondering what had happened, the Mother Beast, which had been ferociously charging at the Midgardian fleet, convulsed as if spasming, then veered off course. On a cosmic scale, for an object moving at 0.003 times the speed of light, a slight deviation in direction meant a complete miss. A dozen seconds later, a stunned Taquin watched as the massive Void Mother Beast scraped past the edge of the Midgardian fleet and flew off behind them!
At that moment, Joshua, who had been sent flying by one of the Mother Beast's tentacles, accelerated again, flying toward its tail—it was the warrior's attack on the Mother Beast's rear that had altered its trajectory, saving the Midgardians. It was also his relentless assault on its body that, having frightened the Mother Beast with his previous intrusion, shifted its attention to attacking him, making it forget it was rapidly moving toward Neptune.
Soon, the Void Mother Beast passed the Neptune Fortress, the artificial fortress built at the gravitational equilibrium point of Neptune, and together with Joshua, flew rapidly toward Neptune's inner orbit. During this time, the Mother Beast naturally realized it was being pulled downward by the blue gas giant's gravity. It tried to accelerate to break free, but with Joshua present, that was impossible. Using the Mother Beast's own flesh, Joshua reignited his furnace, pouring all his strength into distracting it, leaving the Void Mother Beast no time to change course or accelerate. Unless it wanted him to enter its body again and cause another big explosion.
If that happened, Joshua wouldn't mind truly detonating himself again, blowing up the Mother Beast's two remaining energy cores.
Covered in condensate—plant tissue exuding moisture—Taquin wiped the sweat from his forehead, looking uncertainly at the direction where Joshua and the Void Mother Beast were falling toward Neptune. With the fleet commander's intelligence, he naturally guessed that Joshua and the others had just distracted the Mother Beast, preventing it from annihilating their fleet. But forcing it into Neptune's orbit—what was the plan?
His train of thought suddenly stalled. Taquin felt there must be some critical element behind this, but he couldn't understand it, causing the old man great pain. Regardless, as a clearly visible ripple spread across Neptune's surface, it was enough to prove that the Void Mother Beast had fully plunged into the gas giant's interior.
A gas giant whose outer layer was 99% hydrogen and helium.
"What is the 'Giant God' thinking?"
Voices rose in the control room. Through optical instruments, everyone could see Joshua's four-armed giant form locked in battle with the Void Mother Beast. Still shaken, they were naturally grateful for the reinforcements that had saved their lives, but couldn't understand the purpose of his actions—what was the point of driving the Void Mother Beast into a gas giant? Wasn't that letting it use the thick gaseous layer to hide and slowly absorb matter to recover? From their understanding of the Void Mother Beast's abilities, some people were puzzled.
"Could it be that the Giant God plans to use the violent storms on Neptune to tear apart the Mother Beast's structure?"
Someone proposed this possibility, but most rejected it. As everyone had just seen, physically destroying the Mother Beast's flesh only paralyzed it temporarily, with no lasting effect. It might even cause it to split into offspring, making it harder to deal with.
"Wait—look!"
Suddenly, near the observation deck, a crew member's shout rang out. He immediately transmitted what he had seen to those around him. As the news spread, almost everyone saw it—on the surface of the massive blue, yellow, and white planet Neptune, a faint, barely noticeable deep green appeared. At first, it was like a drop of water in oil, but then it began to spread rapidly, almost artistically, with chaotic fluctuations eroding everything around into green waves!
"It's the Mother Beast! The Void Mother Beast is spreading within the gas giant... Don't they only feed on ecological planets?"
As soon as these words were spoken, the Midgardian who said them shut his mouth—even Midgardians themselves contained trace elements. No intelligent life could be composed purely of organic matter. It was no surprise the Void Mother Beast could feed on the gas giant's matter; saying otherwise only revealed ignorance.
At this moment, the Void Mother Beast was enduring the impact of Neptune's storms. Its fragile outer body was being cut and scattered by the chainsaw-like gales, turning into inert particles. But at the same time, it was rapidly condensing a fluid shell to withstand the wind's assault. Additionally, it greedily absorbed tiny particles from the gas giant's outer layers to strengthen itself. Judging by the green's expansion, the Void Mother Beast's abilities seemed to be prevailing over Neptune's harsh environment.
Without a word, the Midgardian fleet began to converge, descending toward Neptune's orbital layer. Taquin, with a grim expression, asked his adjutant for a report, only to receive an even worse answer.
"Sorry, Commander... Due to the subspace fragmentation cannon's power consumption and the several volleys against the Mother Beast, the ships' remaining energy is low... We can't both resist Neptune's gravity and fire psionic lances."
The adjutant, pale as paper, mechanically reported the Midgardian fleet's predicament. Similar scenes played out in the command centers of all other ships: everyone was told they could either watch the Void Mother Beast recover in the gas giant and then face it head-on, or fire psionic lances while being pulled down by Neptune's gravity.
To put it plainly: wait to die, or go die.
"...This is a super-lifeform beyond our technological capabilities."
The commander of the First Colonial Fleet, a bald middle-aged man, rubbed his completely bald head and made an indescribable expression. He spoke calmly in the psionic communication channel open only to commander-level personnel:
"I'm a bit tempted to surrender."
Meanwhile, the commander of the Third Colonial Fleet, a middle-aged Midgardian named Xena, looked at a withered yellow leaf that had just fallen into his hand. He was silent for a long time. This Midgardian recalled many things—how he joined the military, how he sailed through space, how he climbed step by step from a low-ranking officer to fleet commander. Finally, Xena remembered a familiar old man, one who piloted a space fighter and sacrificed his life to warn two void lifeforms.
The image of Alzera walking calmly toward death echoed in Xena's mind, calming his heart. The Third Fleet commander felt a surge of power filling his entire body.
"Absolutely not."
He said this, filled with determination.
After speaking, Xena actually laughed. No longer anxious, the Midgardian commander immediately ordered: "Shatterer, all personnel evacuate the ship."
"Confirm coordinates: Green spot. Location of the Void Mother Beast."
—The Midgardians had already sacrificed many. One more wouldn't matter. Thinking this, Xena let out a long breath: "Fire the lance, then ram."
In the bridge command room, there was no sound except for the control crew following the captain's orders to set the psionic lance firing coordinates and collision coordinates. The middle-aged commander closed his eyes and sat back in his command chair. The light screen in front of him showed a long parabola and a straight line—the trajectories of the Shatterer's descent and the psionic lance's firing—but he showed no intention of heading to the emergency escape hatch.
"Engine self-destruct countdown..."
But just as the ship, no longer resisting Neptune's gravity, began to slowly fall toward its surface, causing a moment of weightlessness, Xena suddenly opened his eyes. He looked around and angrily scolded the command staff: "I said all personnel evacuate! What are you damn idiots still doing here?!"
No one responded. Everyone remained in their seats. Some used their light screens to pull up photos of their families on the colony, some were leaving messages on psionic channels for distant, possibly still-living relatives, some were crying, some were cursing themselves for being foolish enough to join a mass sacrifice on impulse, while their friends joked that their souls could travel together and merge at the Mother Tree.
The entire Third Fleet consisted of people whose homeworlds had been destroyed by the Mother Beast. They had no place to return to.
No one left.
The ship was falling. The psionic lance had been fired four times. The lances, at millions of degrees, pierced the Mother Beast's outer shell. This would normally be a minor injury, but Neptune's powerful currents widened the wounds, causing the Mother Beast to lose surface mass. Because of this, inside the Shatterer, aside from the red emergency lights indicating energy shortage, there was no other light. The once-roaring psionic engine gradually stopped, but the light grew brighter—the overloaded, violent psionic energy was building up, waiting for the moment of explosion.
"Engine self-destruct countdown, 82, 81, 80, 79..."
Not just the Shatterer, but many other ships were also falling one after another. They too fired lances, attacking the Mother Beast, stripping away part of its surface mass. Like a rain of steel mixed with streams of high heat, emergency escape pods flew from the ships breaking orbit, received by other ships that hadn't fallen. This scene was silent, like death itself.
Too lazy to scold his disobedient crew again, Xena closed his eyes once more and sat in his seat. Images flashed through his mind like a lantern show, but none of them were about himself. This made the middle-aged man secretly angry: he had planned to review his life before dying, but his instincts refused to cooperate.
"Really making things difficult for me."
Just then, a calm, unfamiliar voice sounded in Xena's mind: "Willingness to sacrifice is a good thing. Brave people are always likable, but it just increases the workload for me and Joshua."
"Live well, don't keep thinking about dying—being a hero isn't your turn."
Accompanied by words that seemed both mocking and praising, Xena suddenly felt himself enveloped in a deep blue light—as a familiar temporal-spatial fluctuation rippled, he was teleported somewhere with a startled cry, not knowing where. The same happened to everyone inside the ship—even all Midgardians in every falling ship preparing to self-destruct.
As a deep blue temporal-spatial channel opened behind the four-armed steel giant standing atop the Mother Beast's head, Nostradamus's legendary projection appeared beside Joshua. The warrior didn't turn around, only said in the mental link: "Rested enough?"
"Barely enough for one move."
The old mage, who had been hit head-on by the Mother Beast's high-energy laser capable of instantly vaporizing a city, replied seriously: "Any more and I'd be dead."
"Then freeze the big guy below—just need less than a second."
The steel giant opened his four arms. The massive gravitational field shift caused the endless hydrogen and helium in Neptune to flow like a reversed waterfall, gathering into his embrace. As Joshua gathered these microscopic elements—whose purpose neither Nostradamus nor the Midgardians, who had always used psionics and rarely studied microscopic particles, understood—he said softly: "Then you'll need to take me and retreat—remember, we have to get far enough away!"
"Don't worry."
Nostradamus first frowned, glancing at the massive Void Mother Beast beneath his feet. He found it troublesome—freezing something this large with temporal-spatial magic was nearly impossible. Even at a certain cost, success was only a possibility. But to Joshua's latter request, the old mage readily agreed: "Can't guarantee success, but I'll do my best. I'll go first."
Before finishing, without waiting for Joshua's reply, he transformed into a blue streak of light, flying toward the Void Mother Beast's location. Not long after, accompanied by a temporal-spatial fluctuation, the massive Void Mother Beast actually paused for a brief moment. Through the thick gas layer, one could faintly see a blue humanoid figure flipping through his grimoire, burning its pages, consuming the power of the magical source to maintain the spatial freeze with all his might.
In that brief moment, Joshua did many things. In his mental sea, Firefly and Lin resonated with his soul. The three minds assisted him in extremely complex calculations. Joshua took a deep breath, and a massive hydrogen-helium cloud, large enough to obscure the Midgardian fleet, was drawn from Neptune's surface, then rapidly compressed and condensed by the warrior's Steel Force into an almost imperceptible point.
"Since it's all hydrogen and helium, nuclear fusion isn't strange." With a bizarre thought flashing through his mind, Joshua looked at the countless hydrogen-helium aggregates in his embrace, compressed to the extreme, almost invisible to the naked eye. His entire body blazed with blinding golden-red light. As the warrior steadily increased his energy output, pouring endless energy and heat into the tiny point in his arms that was nearly ready to explode, a hurricane arose. The heat flow, so intense it made space boil, overflowed, even blowing away part of Neptune's surface gas.
And a crimson light illuminated half of Neptune.
At this moment, a golden, pulsating miniature sun was held in Joshua's embrace, just as he had once held his own heart. The power, scorching to the extreme, originating from the universe's creation, surged between his four arms. In the warrior's mind, there was nothing but the coordinates of the Void Mother Beast. He thought of nothing except completely destroying the Mother Beast.
—Is it strange to perform nuclear fusion with just large amounts of hydrogen and helium?
Actually, yes, it's very strange and unbelievable. But magic and transcendent power are inherently miraculous things. Their purpose is to enable people to accomplish incredible, miraculous feats.
Legendary warrior Joshua believed he could do such a thing.
So today, he didn't push the Void Mother Beast into the sun, as he had once thought.
Instead, he pushed the sun toward it.
The next instant, the sea of fire formed by nuclear fusion ignited Neptune.