“It's a spaceship! It's an enemy vessel!”
Adian screamed, sounding completely hysterical.
It seemed utterly absurd, but as the distance closed, no one could deny that the approaching Hive Mothership was indeed a real spaceship, only slightly smaller than the warp-engine-equipped Rum.
“Biological signatures...”
Elena muttered blankly.
The radar was indeed detecting biological readings from the target.
To them, it was utterly unbelievable. The enemy vessel currently hurtling toward them was a living, breathing organism.
Almost simultaneously, a sudden realization dawned on them.
The Goddess of Light had warned them to stop the servants of the Outer God.
If this was the creation of an Outer God—an entity that defied common sense and embodied absolute terror—then such a monstrous thing was not impossible.
“Incoming fire!”
“Return fire!”
The Hive Mothership was the first to strike.
The moment it entered range, the massive Disintegration Cannon inside its body unleashed a devastating barrage.
The incoming beams of light slammed into the Rum's ether shield, causing the hull to violently shudder as warning lights flashed red.
Adian gritted his teeth and ordered a counterattack. The Rum fired its main cannon—the very weapon that had previously obliterated Gaia's body in a single strike.
Similarly, their ether beam collided with the psionic barrier enveloping the Hive Mothership, sending powerful shockwaves rippling through space.
“What on earth is that...?”
However, just as the two vessels traded fire in what seemed like a conventional fleet battle, the creature finally closed the distance to the Rum.
Under the relentless bombardment from the Rum, the Hive Mothership's barrier was on the verge of shattering. In response, it compressed its body, which had accelerated to its absolute limit, transforming into an incredibly hard sphere.
With its defensive capabilities significantly boosted, it shrugged off the Rum's direct hits and executed an unbelievable tactic.
Maintaining its blistering speed, it rammed straight into them.
Adian screamed in terror for the crew to evade, but even after frantically redlining the engines, they could not avoid the collision.
“Ugh...”
The violent impact threw Adian to the floor.
The panicked screams of the other crew members echoed through the bridge.
This is insane...
Adian thought, filled with dread as he looked through the viewport. Massive, thick tentacles were erupting from the Hive Mothership's body, tightly wrapping around the Rum.
This was Elise's decision. Realizing she had virtually no experience in space warfare, she concluded that rather than fighting clumsily and suffering unnecessary losses before gathering enough data, it was far better to fight in the way they knew best.
The immense energy surging from the Hive Mothership's tentacles violently battered the Rum's ether shield, causing deep fractures to spiderweb across its surface.
Then, the creature thrust out its mouth, which had been concealed beneath its carapace, exposing massive, razor-sharp teeth aimed directly at the cracked barrier.
“Hull breach detected! Evacuate immediately!”
“We're stuck! We can't move at all!”
Between the gaping jaws of the Hive Mothership, secondary pharyngeal-like teeth snapped forward, instantly shattering the remaining barrier and sinking deep into the reinforced hull of the spaceship.
The crew desperately tried to break free from the creature's grasp, but they had never encountered such a bizarre form of attack. Escaping now was no easy task.
“So, this is the inside of a spaceship.”
At that moment, Celia, who had hitched a ride on the Hive Mothership, breached the fractured hull and stepped inside the vessel.
“Captain!”
“Grab your weapons! We have to hold out until we can evacuate!”
Adian gritted his teeth as he saw the deployed defense drones concentrate their fire, successfully severing one of the Hive Mothership's tentacles.
If they could sever the remaining tentacles and break free, they would have a chance. They just had to hold out until then.
The problem was that the enemy they had to face with their rifles and armored suits was Celia.
With a loud crash, the thick bulkhead was torn open, and Celia emerged before them, staff in hand.
“Capture them all.”
Elise's voracious command echoed within Celia's mind.
There was only one reason why Celia had personally come instead of sending other units.
It was to secure this prey, which possessed invaluable knowledge of spaceships and space warfare.
“A human?”
“It doesn't matter! Fire!”
Ignoring those who hesitated out of confusion at Celia's appearance, Adian raised his weapon and fired in resistance.
However, neither their state-of-the-art rifles nor the ether blasts from their powered combat suits could penetrate the multi-layered magical barriers surrounding Celia.
They built such a magnificent spaceship, yet their individual combat strength is so weak. Is this truly a civilization completely dependent on machinery?
Celia slammed the butt of her staff onto the floor, casting a spell.
Magic chains erupted from the unfolding magic circle, binding the screaming crew members while unleashing a lethal toxin that quickly clouded their consciousness.
“N-No...”
Adian gasped, struggling against the binding chains.
When Celia stepped in front of him and removed her mask, revealing the beautiful face of a silver-haired woman, Adian's eyes widened in sheer shock.
A monstrous body encased in an exoskeleton, topped with the jarringly beautiful face of a human woman. Anyone seeing this for the first time would undoubtedly be utterly bewildered.
“You will all be kept alive, so resisting will only bring you unnecessary pain. Her Majesty is highly interested in your technology. Consider yourselves fortunate to be captured; our own technology is still incomplete, insufficient for us to wage war and roam freely across the cosmos.”
Celia conveyed her intent to him using translation magic.
Hearing those words, Adian's body began to tremble.
Only then did Adian realize why she wanted them alive.
“Rum, this is the Domion. Initiating warp now!”
Just then, a voice crackled through the communication console.
Both Adian and Celia turned their heads toward the source in surprise.
“This appears to be some kind of detection device.”
Celia stared at the massive radar display crowded with signals on the hologram, her eyes shimmering with curiosity.
Thanks to Elise's influence, though it was not outwardly obvious, Celia also felt a deep sense of joy and satisfaction whenever they acquired new technology and knowledge.
“Are those reinforcements?”
On the radar, blue dots representing friendly vessels began to multiply one after another.
Unaware of the situation, their allies were warping into the sector.
“No!”
Adian cried out, groaning in agony and despair as he watched his allies willingly rush into the waiting maw of the Hive Mothership.
In the distance, however, the flagship Domion had already established a warp field, pulling along the allied ships that lacked warp engines.
Of course, a faint glimmer of hope still lingered in his heart. Surely, a fully armed reinforcement fleet could obliterate a single creature with concentrated, indiscriminate fire?
“What?! What is this?!”
“Rum! We have arrived at the designated coordinates. We are detecting a massive number of unidentified hostile—”
However, that hope was instantly shattered.
The moment information was shared through the hive mind, a swarm of Hive Motherships bypassed the Rum and gathered around the warp field's emergence point, waiting in ambush.
Subdued and unable to speak, Adian could only listen to the horrific screams as his hard-won reinforcements were swarmed and dragged into close-quarters combat by the Hive Motherships.
“The casualties are rising,”
Celia remarked indifferently, watching the ships being seized, torn apart, and blown to pieces.
Because their arrival coordinates had been completely compromised, the reinforcements couldn't even mount a proper defense. Under attack from all directions before they could even comprehend what was happening, they were utterly overwhelmed by the Hive Motherships.
What foolishness have we committed...?
Unable to bear the sight any longer, Adian watched his entire fleet get wiped out in an ambush at the warp coordinates he had once believed to be completely secure. Slowly, he slipped into unconsciousness.
His mind was consumed by a single, bitter regret: he should never have accepted the request of Goddess Hestia.
Rate on N.U.
