The Foreigner on the Periphery

The royal Endelions watched the situation remotely.

They watched the scene where the satellite had bombarded the ground with a precision Photon Cannon strike.

A red line appeared in the sky, looking as if it would tear the world in half, followed by a violent, massive explosion.

Rumble!

At that moment, both the Endelions who had evacuated deep underground far away and those who remained panicking in other colonies felt the tremors. The destructive power was that immense.

The superheated air expanded as it mixed with the flames. In the intense heat, the colony evaporated in an instant.

After the violent shockwave and flames scoured the earth and swept through the atmosphere, ashes and dust bloomed into a mushroom cloud.

Following the king's orders, golems were deployed. When the dust that had spread over a massive area was cleared, the revealed sight was gruesome.

"My god!"

The king's eyes twitched.

'It couldn't be helped.'

She had prepared herself for the sacrifice of the Endelions in that colony.

It was an unavoidable choice to eliminate Asiph-1 before he could move to the other colonies and blow everything away.

The enemy had likely aimed for their hesitation by appearing in that Bomb Armor.

Just as the AI had warned, the Photon Cannon had sparked the gunpowder known as the Dragon Heart.

"What about Asiph-1?"

"There are absolutely no life signs at the scene!"

Was he eliminated?

She couldn't relax her guard just yet. After ordering them to search every inch, she looked at the explosion site again and felt her anger erupt.

There was an error in the AI's prediction.

"...This planet has suffered far too much damage!"

The explosion triggered by the Dragon Heart not only blew away the colony but also obliterated the plains spreading beneath it. As a result, a crater comparable to the depth of a deep-sea trench was formed, a scale no one present had anticipated.

Some of the retainers thought of the gods worshipped by the ancients.

'That looks just like the mark left behind by the Tentacle that Wraps the Stars pressing its tentacle into the ground!'

After carving away the soil layer, the shockwave and heat devoured the bedrock beneath it. Unstoppable, they wounded the deep flesh of the planet that was never meant to be exposed.

Where a normal planet would have deep tectonic plates, a dense metal layer that could not have formed naturally was slowly melting away.

That was the reason the Endelions could move their planet like a spaceship. While the bright, quiet, and pleasant surface was clustered with the residential areas of the tentacles, the dark, hot, and noisy underground housed the planet's engine and other organs.

"What is the damage status of the Mechanical Department?!"

Reports followed. There was no damage to the core organs; only the outer hull had been damaged.

The king ordered that even if repairs had to wait, they must thoroughly search for any physical or spiritual traces of Asiph-1 first.

Right then.

"...Ah!"

A retainer looking at the control panel seemed to have discovered something. The king urgently asked.

"Did you find his soul?"

The king felt a whirlwind of alternating expectation and tension. In her anxiety, she glared at the retainer's face.

Please, cheer.

Rejoice that you've confirmed a disembodied soul, or that you've found traces of it passing onto the spirit realm.

Don't stutter in shock as if you've seen something unspeakable, like you've already done so many times today. Don't fumble for words in a panic. Enough. Stop stuttering!

"..."

A brief moment passed like an eternity.

The retainer spoke.

"Y-Your... Your Majesty!"

The king felt murderous intent.

*

Right before the satellite fired the Photon Cannon at the planet.

Asiph-1 had sensed it beforehand and looked up at the sky.

The Endelions probably didn't know. From the moment his presence was exposed, Asiph-1 was already preparing a spell.

His brain began to accelerate to a level beyond the limits of biological life. Time seemed to stretch like taffy, flowing slowly.

Extreme concentration.

Even the spell of a Dragon with six brains wouldn't be as precise and efficient as this. The Magic Metal fibers substituting for neurons in his brain exhibited their functions to the fullest. He felt a sense of elation. Once again, glory to his mother.

The important thing was timing. With his accelerated thoughts, Asiph-1 waited patiently.

Finally, light blazed at the muzzle. The moment right before it breached the critical point.

Clack-clack-clack!

Mechanical sounds rang out from Asiph-1's entire body.

It was a sight reminiscent of a crustacean molting. The Bomb Armor, linking a Dragon Heart with metal, separated from his body by a very shallow margin. It was as if a layer of air had been created and inflated between the armor and Asiph-1's skin.

In that state, Asiph-1 completed his spell.

'Teleport!'

Leaving the Bomb Armor suspended in midair.

Asiph-1 transferred only his core, including his actual body.

The next moment, he was back in the vacuum of space without a single breath of oxygen.

Down below, a massive explosion was already blooming on the blue planet. It was a scale discernible even from this distance. The Photon Cannon had directly struck the dangerous shell he'd left behind.

'That was close.'

If he had detached the armor too early before the satellite fired its laser, he might have been detected by the enemy.

Conversely, if he had been too late, he would have been blown to bits along with the bomb.

Capturing that split-second timing to complete the spell was all thanks to a nervous system that had overcome the limits of biology.

'Let's see.'

He cast his gaze into the distance.

A galaxy made of floating slime swarms stretched out before him. It looked like a waterway piercing through the night, narrowly brushing past the planet.

They hadn't gone too far yet. If they changed direction, they could reach it in an instant.

Asiph-1 twitched his index finger.

'Now, come here.'

The moment his mental waves touched the slime swarm.

Like a waterspout surging from a river, the slimes rose from the cluster, growing branches and extending outward. The beasts that had seemed utterly disinterested in the planet just moments ago approached with astonishing speed.

Naturally, all hell broke loose on the ground.

"Those crazy things are approaching again!"

The terrified tentacles responded immediately. Satellites fired Photon Cannons in unison, and red streaks of rain crisscrossed the void. However, the slimes continued to charge without dodging.

The starving slimes were in a frenzy.

Now that a hole had temporarily been punched in the planet's Distortion Field, the slimes felt an urge that seemed to twist their entire bodies.

What stimulated their senses was the underground metal layer, exposed when the soil and bedrock were blown away by the explosion. All Asiph-1 had just done was call the slimes close enough for them to confirm it.

It was a grand feast composed entirely of Magic Metal, the most precious material in the universe, melting down into a perfect, bite-sized form.

Asiph-1 lent a hand.

'While you starved for a long time, the tentacles living on that planet hoarded so much ore. They hid away things they won't even eat.'

Asiph-1 was trying to awaken an emotion those beasts had never experienced before.

'You don't know what you're supposed to feel at a time like this, do you? I'll teach you.'

Asiph-1 recalled a certain emotion.

The slimes resonating with it began to broadcast it to the swarm through primitive telepathy.

This communication method, which had previously only relayed simple information like the location of food, was now being used to infect them with emotion. Just as fast as always.

Asiph-1 watched the hatred he had cultivated spread among the slime swarm.

'Yes. Go!'

The beasts that had awakened to hatred flew in at a speed incomparable to before.

The target had already shifted. To the homeworld of the Endelions.

The tentacles belatedly mobilized all their satellites in an attempt to annihilate them, even at the risk of wasting Mana Crystals.

But the golden time to observe from afar and respond leisurely had passed. The slime swarm had come too close to the planet. Eventually, a few of them seized an opening and pushed close to the atmosphere. Right where a hole had been torn in the Distortion Field by the Photon Cannon.

There was no way the satellites would just stand by and watch...

—!

A sudden explosion blocked the path between the satellites and the slime swarm. Asiph-1 had intervened.

Taking advantage of that opening, the slime swarm descended lower and lower.

And a minority of them barely managed to breach the atmosphere. In terms of sheer numbers, it was only a few tens of thousands, but it was enough to turn a single planet upside down.

The slimes first landed at the site where the earth had exposed its metallic inner flesh. Then they densely covered the ground's wound and began ravenously devouring it, melting the earth.

Unfortunately, not all slimes got such an opportunity. Some of the slimes that failed to secure a spot turned their gazes upward instead of downward. Perhaps there was no need to waste time melting from the surface up.

Surprisingly, it looked as if food might fall from the sky as well.

In a colony that had yet to collapse, the evacuating Endelions gasped in horror.

"What is that?!"

Creatures that shouldn't exist here were flying in.

Photon Cannons rained down from the sky, but the slimes paid them no mind and continued their advance. No matter how many were killed, there was no end. Eventually, they reached the outer walls of the colony, pressed themselves tightly against them, and began to eat.

The walls crumbled, and the slimes ran amok. The beasts, consumed by hunger and hatred, went on a rampage.

The beasts no longer even distinguished whether what was in front of them was organic or inorganic. The slimes pounced indiscriminately on the real Endelions and the metal golems mimicking them. The tentacles shrieked as they saw the slimes latching onto their epidermis and melting their bodies.

Every time they thrashed and swung their tentacles, the natural blue bodily fluids of the Endelions mixed with the slimes' acidic fluids and melted flesh, splattering everywhere.

Upon receiving reports of the situation, the king felt a deep headache.

Compared to Asiph-1, the slimes were not a major threat. Nevertheless, the golem units were summoned to the scene to protect the citizens. They were responding according to protocol as the terrified populace sent out distress signals.

"Asiph-1! Where is Asiph-1?! Find him right now!"

Who else could be controlling them?

They had to find him.

A moment later.

"Y-Your Majesty!"

An urgent message followed, stating that the outer wall of a colony in an area unoccupied by the slime swarm had exploded.

"Where?"

After confirming the location, the king...

"...What?!"

Despite the urgent situation, she wore an expression of utter incomprehension.

*

After distracting the enemy with the slimes, Asiph-1 returned to the atmosphere once more.

'This is truly the last of it. I have no more energy left to run wild.'

The remaining bombs he had saved after detonating so many to block the satellites had just been used up infiltrating this place.

Asiph-1 looked around.

'Just as Mother predicted.'

The interior of the colony he had entered this time was vastly different from the places he had seen before.

Not only was it full of Endelions who had yet to evacuate, but most of them weren't even conscious.

Asiph-1 stared at the tentacled creatures resting with their eyes closed inside liquid-filled tubes.

Although their sizes and appearances varied, they shared one commonality: none of them were adults by their race's standards.

'Endelions raised for body renewal.'

This was the exact body renewal factory Dell had spoken of.

Unlike the scene she had witnessed in the past, all the children were currently unconscious. It was presumed they had been forced into hibernation the moment Talent mining was halted.

The reason was simple. Opportunities for body renewal would be limited for a while. Their biological clocks had been temporarily stopped to prevent them from passing the optimal shipping point and aging.

He recalled his creator's instructions.

'She said I could skip this place if I lacked the strength or if the situation was bad, but...'

Since he had already come this far, he wanted to meet his creator's expectations 100%.

'I don't have much time.'

Relying on the information in his head, he began ransacking the factory.

He couldn't wake up and take all the remaining sleeping children with him as Dell wished.

He probed the subconsciousness of a few as a test, but they had already been implanted not only with anti-brainwashing measures but also aggressive suggestions.

It seemed to be a countermeasure born from the recent experience of losing 168 of them to Minjun.

'Now, where is it?'

Asiph-1's target this time was something every factory installed across the planet possessed at least one of.

As he infiltrated the deepest room, his eyes widened.

'Found it!'

He pulled a shimmering glass Coffin from a cylinder-shaped structure. It was larger than his own body, but he stowed it away with ease.

'To think everything is contained within this small Coffin.'

The royal family might take this theft seriously, but they probably wouldn't consider it a grave crisis compared to the damage the other colonies suffered.

Not only were exact replicas prepared in other factories in case of emergencies, but even if the enemy stole it, it wasn't a material that could be weaponized in the short term.

They wouldn't understand why Asiph-1 spent time and effort targeting such a thing.

Crackle!

Boom! Baboom!

Along with the explosive sounds, he sensed the security golems flying in.

But Asiph-1 was already chanting a dimensional leap spell.

The moment the spell was completed.

Flash!

In the satisfying realization that he had done everything he needed to do today, Asiph-1 thought to himself.

'This should be enough to shock those self-preservationists. The position of the king who allowed a strike on the mainland for the first time in history will also be shaken.'

As a result, instead of moving this planet around like they had been doing, they would band together with the other Ancient Races to build a defensive line.

'Since I blew up the research facilities and killed a lot of bastards who looked like key personnel, schedule disruptions will be inevitable no matter what they try to do from now on.'

And, finally.

Asiph-1 thought of the item he had secured here.

'Father was truly sincere about that promise after all.'

What he had just grabbed could be considered the source and core of this factory.

Embryos containing the cloned genes of every currently surviving Endelion. A library of body renewal materials.

In the split second the light flashed, Asiph-1 muttered.

This was probably a unique gift his creator had prepared for Dell.

'Then again, 168 is far too small a number to sustain a species.'

Minjun had clearly made her a promise.

That he would not let the Endelions go extinct.

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