Soul of Searing Steel

Chapter 788: The Lost Forerunners

Within the white Starherder Court, the eight-legged fungus bent all four knees and half-knelt, even as towering fungi pillars emanated spectrum of varying colors. As noisy sound frequencies rippled, it spoke nervously, If this continues, the World Eater’s awakening may come quicker than we imagined!”

At those words, Kumocinda declared without hesitation, “I volunteer to lead the First Behemoth and reach the location of the World Eater, and delay its awakening!”

“One Behemoth means nothing, Kumocinda. One Star-eater Behemoth could never hope to obstruct an unawakened World Eater.”

The Great Khan’s voice rang with a thousand echoes, while Kumocinda, who appeared to already have expected that reply, continued sonorously, “I am aware, Great Khan. Therefore, I appeal that the ‘Star Chain’ that shackles the First Behemoth be unlocked, and that World Zero-One would be temporarily moved onto another Behemoth.”

“Unlock the Star Chain and have the Behemoths feed upon one or two worlds, hence allowing them to temporarily recover their full forms. That way, I could control the First Behemoth and briefly subjugate the World Eater from awakening, just as our Fleet could composedly prepare for both those unknown beings and the chance to utterly slay that World Eater!”

Though World Eaters were powerful, they could be repelled—there would always be some civilizations which could chase them off, and while the Starherders were not so powerful, suppressing a weakened World Eater would pose no issue.

That was why Kumocinda was willing to take the risk.

The Great Khan did not answer but appeared to be considering the suggestion of its subordinating monarch. At the center of the Court, warped Spiritual Void throbbed as if about to come to a decision.

But abruptly, shrill alarms interrupted their conversation.

“Highest alert! The unknown masses temporarily named ‘Silver Star’ and ‘Green Star’ had suddenly accelerated and are rapidly approaching! Highest Alert! Silver Star and Green Star’s speed is five point two five times of the Fleet’s average speed! Estimated contact in ninety-three Sinas (approximately three minutes)!”

The urgent alarms rang without ceasing, leaving the interior of the Court in an uproar as well. Kuomcinda could not hear the Great Khan’s reply, but knew that its risky move was impossible now.

Both the sealed World Eater that was awakening and the unknown threat of the Lost Galaxy were things the Starherders had to stay vigilant of. It could even be said that when compared to their archnemesis the World Eater, those unknown threats of unknown intentions were worth more of their alertness.

Furthermore, was their acceleration a bid to bombard their Fleet formation or to hurry toward the World Eater?

Kumocinda did not know, but the entire World Fleet having assumed defensive formations and bracing for the collision.

Soon, after ninety Sinas, it realized the intentions of the Silver and Green Stars.

***

In the Void, the massive World Fleet was rapidly advancing. Void Behemoths in the form of giant crabs swayed their eight appendages to quickly move through the Void—space was their ripples and gravity their paddles, and they hence cut through dimensional turbulences and carried worlds forward.

It was then that the two stars, one green and one silver appeared to their rear, and approached swiftly at a speed that far outruns the fleet.

“Prepare countermeasures!”

The Behemoths closed ranks. Stalwart gravity shield comparable to World Barriers were manifesting distinctly, and the rear half of the entire fleet form a semi-spherical beehive network—the tough barrier would stop most world-devastating impact, having ensured the safety of the Starherders countless times.

However, neither Silver Star nor Green Star had any intention of crashing into the World Fleet. They simply sped away, streaking past the Fleet indifferently past their right flank.

It appears that they were not hostiles.

Kumocinda sighed in relief at the sight. Although it was still unsure of their origins, the Stars were probably beings native to the Lost Galaxy and resembling Void behemoths, and their intentions was to attack the World Eater.

However, just as that though flash through Kumocinda’s mind, a clip suddenly flashed in the display within the Court: A black-haired man stood upon the Silver Star, his cold, icy gaze visible as he turned toward them.

The eight-legged fungus could hardly understand the meaning behind human facial expression. For their race, mood was represented by the fungal cap on top of their heads that flashed in various spectrum, just as spiritual ripples and machine frequency completely conveyed the meaning of languages. Their sensory organs were not even eyes—logically speaking, they would not understand gaze for they did not even understood what ‘eyes’ were. To them, humans were indescribable monsters.

But somehow, Kumocinda understood much from its gaze… It was ignoring, indifferent, threatening, as well as various clear emotions and warning.

“Intelligent beings!” The First King of the Akasha exclaimed in unimaginable surprise. “Intelligent beings native to the Lost Galaxy, and Star Eater Class at that! How could they move so quickly? We never detected any nearby civilized worlds!”

This was clearly the Lost Darkened Galaxy. Those few local who had accidentally teleported into the Akasha notwithstanding since their tools may have been left by the ancient empire of their forebears, but would intelligent Star Eater beings have appeared so quickly?

“And… why are they so powerful?”

Kumocinda watched as the two Stars vanished in the distant Void and mumbled bewilderedly. “Legend has it that it is absolutely impossible for such a powerful presence in the Lost Galaxy… why else would there be not a single creature venturing outside in the past twelve thousand years?”

***

In contrast to Kumocinda’s loss of composure, the Great Khan did not say much.

For it knew far more than Kumocinda did.

The full name of the Lost Galaxy was the ‘The Galaxy of the Lost Forerunners’.

Twelve thousand years ago, a great disaster had befallen the Multiverse. Most races that now flourished in the same Multiverse were unable to know the truth of that disaster for most of their civilizations were barely sprouting then—they were therefore the second wave of intelligent civilization that naturally appeared, which both allowed them to escape the disaster and kept them unaware of that situation.

At the time, presently flourishing empires were still toying with stone tools, majestic civilizations had yet to build languages, with some latently developing races not even knowing the way of the flame. However, in that same era, ancient pioneering civilizations had already begun to explore the Void, their massive fleets influencing planetary orbits while their champions created worlds and all things. The galaxy they resided within was the center of the Multiverse, although it was in fact the center of the Multiverse. They pridefully patrolled each spiral arm of the galaxy, assimilating all that they see within their borders.

All was prosperity and thriving as if oil to fire. The brilliance of the pioneering civilization shone upon countless races, blessing countless primitive lifeforms with wisdom and spreading the seeds to every single spot. Without the pioneering civilization’s spreading of seeds and nurturing, the races in the present-day Multiverse would have needed dozens of millennia to slowly develop their own civilization—even if the pioneering civilization themselves did not mind, their name and legend would still flow amidst the Multiverse.

Be that as it may, in a certain unknown moment in that era of prosperity, an indescribable disaster suddenly occurred in the galaxy at the center of the Multiverse.

Infinite light enshrouded the entire Multiverse in a split second and vanished. Endless civilizations saw that light appeared and then dimmed, and after that, endless darkness appeared from the unknown, sealing the center of the Multiverse.

Innumerable World Eaters thus appeared, consuming worlds and civilizations as a war that involved dozens of thousands of realms ignited, just as curtains fall came without anyone knowing.

Thus, after everything, the stars dimmed as the dimensions shifted in unthinkable measures. In that ancient era when the second-generation civilizations could barely step out into the starry skies, the form of all things had changed, and the former galaxy at the center of the Multiverse became a thing of legends, becoming a dark zone, a Lost Galaxy at the edge of the Multiverse.

Just as the pioneering civilizations that once boasted splendor became the civilization of the Lost Forerunners.

What was once the axis of the Multiverse was now a forbidden, barren place that existed only in legends and myths, recorded only in the smallest of notes in the most ancient of texts and tablets.

And the twelve thousand years was actually a mere imaginary number.

In truth, no civilization could precisely describe the active period of the Forerunners Civilization—

But now, the Starherders found that galaxy.

The Lost Galaxy, wandering the very edge of the Multiverse. Quite simply, the earliest text recorded it to be twelve thousand years ago, and before that was a long, dark period. No civilization could have strode out into the Void then, to find the relics of the Forerunners Civilization.

The Great Khan never imagined that civilizations would existe within the Lost Galaxy—legends had it that the war between the forebears and the World Eaters had destroyed all things, and that vast vacuum region devoid of all matter was the outcome of that war.

If there were indeed survivors from the civilization of their forebears, they could well have recovered and left the galaxy after roughly ten thousand or up to thirty thousand years, and the reality was that they did not. The ancient civilization of their ancestors had definitely been wiped out, and even if some of their bloodlines lived, they may have become primitive beings that had to rebuild civilization from nothing.

Even if, like before, several native beings wielding Star Eater-class enchantments arrived within the World Fleet, the Great Khan did not believe that those enchantments were the natives own work, but relics inherited from their preceding civilization. After all, they could have headed anywhere they wanted with such power—would they have huddled themselves within a devastated galaxy?

According to normal logic, such a hypothesis would absolutely have been right.

The existence of Extraordinary individuals tends to destroy most ‘logic’.

‘Perhaps we were all wrong.’

It thought thus, releasing a wave of high frequency spiritual waves into the Spiritual Void. “Everything is much more complicated than we imagined.”