The Foreigner on the Periphery

Minjun thought back to the distant past, to the era when he had first established the concept of Talent.

At the time, his primary research focused on the interaction between soul and flesh. More precisely, he studied what physical matter and the spiritual body exchanged with one another.

People back then knew that interactions between physical matter were mediated by particles—just as the electromagnetic force was governed by the exchange of photons, and gravity was mediated by gravitons.

Therefore, he reasoned that the soul and flesh also influenced each other by exchanging some kind of particle. Naturally, this particle would possess the properties of both.

Mind and matter were intertwined. The flesh realized the mind's desires within the material world, and the process worked in reverse as well. What was their connecting link?

The will the soul transmitted to the brain. The memories the brain transmitted to the soul. He hypothesized a concept encompassing both.

The particles exchanged between soul and flesh clearly transported and mediated information.

   *

To the people of that era, information was defined as data encompassing all possible outcomes.

However, living organisms exhibited the exact opposite tendency within their localized environments. Through the processes of growing, surviving, and reproducing, organisms became increasingly complex. They internalized intricate order, decreased entropy, and increased their total amount of information. Minjun's hypothesis was that this increased information was then stored back into the soul.

This conclusion was the exact opposite of the soul-related hypotheses pushed by the Ancient Race today.

His was a theory that the interaction between soul and flesh existed to increase the universe's total information.

After lengthy research, Minjun finally proved the existence of this new particle. Just as expected, it was an information medium capable of simultaneously influencing both soul and flesh.

To honor his achievement, the noble ones named that special particle after the name Minjun had used at the time.

   *

Minjun knew exactly how to utilize that particle.

Through the particle, the soul acquired the information that the flesh was its vessel. Furthermore, when the soul made a choice based on free will—breaking away from the laws of probability—the flesh used that information as a blueprint to manifest the choice in reality. Thanks to this, life attained uncertainty.

Minjun decided to embark on an experiment to intervene in this interaction.

Specifically, he intended to disrupt the information flowing between soul and flesh.

After an arduous series of trials and errors, his work gradually began to yield results.

"Good. If I do it this way, I can extract souls far more safely than with existing methods."

The separation of soul and flesh was originally a task carrying tremendous risk, but the method Minjun devised made it incredibly easy.

He only needed to feed the soul false information.

Fake information stating that its current body was not the soul's true vessel.

"There's less rejection even when transplanting it into a completely different body."

The process of transplanting a soul into another body also became smoother.

This was because he scrambled the information, making the soul believe the new body was its real vessel.

"Splitting the soul is easy, too."

In the past, in order to sever and extract 1% of the soul contained in a body, 9% of it had to be destroyed in the process.

However, utilizing this particle allowed him to achieve a much cleaner result.

"Alright. Then... the final step. I will try blending the two."

The soul and flesh each possessed foundational information that maintained their respective forms. Something akin to the genetic information that dictated the body's structure also existed within the soul.

Minjun decided to manipulate even that foundational data so that the soul and flesh would melt and mix together.

That result would later be known as Talent.

And the first subject of that experiment was named Adkiel.

   *

The perspective returned to the present.

Minjun watched as Talent erupted from the door torn through the universe's void.

The culmination born of his past research.

—!

The clogged blood vessel burst open, and the pooled bloodstream erupted outward with immense pressure.

It was an ecstatically beautiful light that could never be considered a part of this world. The brilliance washed over the darkness, overflowing in a hazy radiance.

A milky river harboring the light of dawn. The galaxy born from the fusion of soul and flesh scattered across the surroundings.

'If left alone, it will evaporate in no time.'

Talent was highly sensitive and incredibly difficult to handle. When left in the material world, it constantly tended to evaporate and spread in chaotic forms.

Minjun acted to prevent such an outcome.

=To me!=

Following the king's command, the torrential current of Talent seeped into his soul.

Minjun absorbed it completely, leaving nothing behind.

While the blood clot had been absorbing the Talent and blocking circulation, the heart had produced far too much blood. It was excessive, considering the size and function of blood vessels that had not yet fully developed.

'Not yet fully developed.'

Minjun ruminated on those words.

The tunnel-shaped dimension known as Elahu-Praga was a single blood vessel connected to the heart.

Its shape reminded Minjun of a fetus's truncus arteriosus—the primitive, singular blood vessel before its development finished and it split into the pulmonary artery and the aorta.

Elahu-Praga was the truncus arteriosus of the universe.

As time passed, more blood vessels, large and small, would branch out from that single trunk and connect to every corner of the universe.

Minjun hurried the process along.

=Yes, come. Come to me!=

Just as the god desired, the Talent forcefully burst forth.

Minjun embraced the blood that had been overproduced beyond necessity, feeling his soul boil and resonate.

'...'

Minjun waited.

Because there was an entity supposed to emerge from that door along with the Talent.

If the blood vessel had been unclogged, it was only natural that he slip out as well.

He waited, and waited.

But.

'...?!'

Although his desire had already been fulfilled.

The god could not comprehend the situation.

=Why isn't he coming out?!=

He had unclogged the blocked vessel to save his people.

And the scope of his people now included Ha Eun-seong.

Yet why hadn't that spiritual body come out?

His face contorted in incomprehension.

=...!=

He turned his head.

Beyond the darkness where his son's fleet had just passed through.

He sensed the presence of beasts approaching from that direction.

A fleet of over two hundred ships rushing in hot pursuit, trailing nearly an hour behind the son's fleet that had previously shaken them off.

   *

"Give the heretics the most miserable deaths! Bring down a brutal judgment!"

"Oh! God! The avatar's blessing!"

"God's protection is with us!"

On the planet's surface.

At the entrance of a bunker prepared for the high-ranking members of the Committee.

Along with the tremors of the earth, loud shouts rang out—making it hard to distinguish whether they were curses or prayers. The zealots, or perhaps berserkers, ran intoxicated by ecstasy and hostility.

To the eyes of the Ancient Race mobilized to defend the bunker, the enemy forces looked like rampaging monsters.

Clad in thick armor-type artifacts, those pale-skinned priests kicked off the ground and charged forward, boasting heights of over two meters.

Madness gleamed in their wide-open eyes. The fact that many of them wore bright smiles as if receiving grace, even while exuding murderous intent, made the defense guards' hair stand on end (or in the case of those without hair, their hides and fluff).

What was more, red streams of blood gushed down from the crusaders' foreheads without exception. From the Ancient Race's perspective, it was a sight that warranted hoping for a mass fainting spell due to severe blood loss. Unfortunately for them, the chances of those priests, overflowing with faith and Divine Power, collapsing from anemia were absolutely zero.

The fanatics, their foreheads and cheeks stained red, closed to within a stone's throw of the defense force. Blood-slicked teeth and gums were exposed between their wide-open lips. The clergy, who had come to massacre the heretics, laughed while crying, and prayed while singing.

An unknown Kavite muttered, appalled.

"Those... crazy bastards! Attack! Attack!"

Energy bullets, various weapons, and attacks utilizing Supernatural Abilities rained down from the Ancient Race's encampment.

At the same time, a vigorous roar erupted from the priests' side. A three-eyed one acting as a bishop shouted out with pious divinity.

"Tear them all to shreds!"

Both forces clashed violently.

Gruesome screams spread across the battlefield like a round song.

Among the defense forces here, the Todds were the most numerous. The crusaders slammed their weapons down onto their heads. The Divine Power, having activated their vitality to its absolute limit, elevated their bodies to the level of a Weapon Master.

To fully exert that strength, the priests wielded melee murder weapons in addition to their firearms. Looking as though they had been forged from only the most brutal parts of hand axes and iron maces, these weapons could sever, explode, snap, or mince an opponent depending on the angle and force of the swing. The Divine Power even mimicked aura, glowing with a golden light as it coated the metal.

Crack! Thud!

The sound of flesh and bones being crushed rang out. Wherever the priests passed, Todds rolled around, a full span shorter in height. A passing glance might suggest the Todds had utilized their specialty and hidden their heads inside their shells. However, a careful look at the cross-sections would reveal that to be an illusion. After all, unnamably minced lumps and bone fragments decorated the space above their shoulders.

The slaughter continued. The priests' hymns and the Ancient Race's curses tangled together. Intoxicated by the battle, the believers felt even the sound of their own rough exhalations and inhalations was like a holy chant. In the ears of the Ancient Race, on the other hand, the noise sounded like a funeral dirge sung by demons.

The smell of blood and heat filled the battlefield. A Kavite, reduced to scraps of meat, was scattered across the floor. The priests ruthlessly trampled over him, leaving harsh footprints behind. A Todd, having lost its lower half, screamed without even the mercy of death.

Farther out, a tank-type Magic Tool flipped over completely. The priests' attacks rained down upon it. Like a beast getting its belly sliced open, the Magic Tool's metal armor split apart, exposing a gap. Humming their hymns, the priests infiltrated its interior. The screams of the Ancient Race echoed within the tank. A moment later, the priests emerged covered in blood and chunks of innards, sprinting forward once again.

Just as that gruesome pandemonium was unfolding outside.

Deep inside the bunker, a top-ranking Kavite was trembling in fear while watching a screen.

"Those... demonic bastards!"

He was the one who had ascended to the position of Grand Committeeman in place of the old Kavite who had turned into something akin to a plant.

As he spasmed while watching the footage outside, his aide spoke in a frantic voice.

"Grand Committeeman! Please look at this!"

Instantly, the new Grand Committeeman inhaled sharply.

The screen the aide pointed to displayed a landscape farther away, instead of the disaster outside the bunker.

Zero Point.

An anomaly was occurring at that spot, which had been buried in the black void to the point where it was hard to even distinguish the door just moments ago.

The most beautiful flash in the universe flooded out, dyeing the darkness.

The reason for the sudden change was easy to guess.

"Could it be, Asif-666?!"

The Talent that had flooded out the door exhibited a bizarre pattern. Instead of evaporating instantly as it normally would, the fountain of light was being drawn into a single point and converging. Like water being sucked down a drain.

It meant someone was absorbing it.

"Asif-666 is devouring even more Talent?"

The Kavite had already learned what Asif-666 was capable of doing with Talent through the invasion operation on the order's headquarters.

At the time, the members of the Ancient Race with body renewal experience who had been aboard the Space Mothership before it was hijacked had their souls forcibly extracted, even from a great distance.

It was literally a god-like miracle.

It was believed that the reason Asif-666 hadn't unleashed that terrifying ability again since then was because he had exhausted all his Talent.

But now, he had replenished that fuel.

Now, that monster could strip the souls and flesh of the Ancient Race with the flick of a finger.

It was at that moment the Kavite became convinced that resistance was futile.

Of course, preparations to evacuate had already been underway.

"Grand Committeeman!"

At his aide's call, he immediately sprinted out. The subordinates following him had already secured something.

The most precious things to them.

'As long as we have that... we can survive. So we just need to escape first and plan for the future!'

One of them was a cylinder-shaped artifact identical to the one Asiph-1 had stolen from Endelion's star a while back.

The embryo library that served as the seeds for body renewal.

The species was different, however. This one contained the materials for the Kavite.

'And...'

And the other was a container sealing the Talent they had separately set aside.

While evacuating through the underground passage, the new Grand Committeeman issued an order.

"Contact our kin in the returning fleet! If Spirit Realm Communication is dead, use radio waves!"

The roughly 200 Space Motherships that Asiph-1 had shaken off.

They now knew that those ships were on their way back to the homeworld.

This was because the radio transmissions from the fleet had reached the planet before the battleships did. Since the distance was so immense, the transmission was laced with static, which had taken time to decode.

"Even if they come back, they'll be annihilated if they run into Asif-666! They need to turn their bows around right now and escape!"

Even though their homeland had been usurped, they had to secure those 200-plus Space Motherships. That way, they could flee and establish a government-in-exile.

They tried to relay this news to the fleet urgently, but...

"It's impossible. The airstrikes have already paralyzed the outdated communication equipment, including the antennas..."

"Damn it!"

Despair constricted his throat.

In the end, he gave up on everything and kept moving with his aide. The surface aerospace facilities had been destroyed long ago, but there was a separate, hidden location housing emergency escape spacecraft.

That was their last hope.

"Damn it!"

Riding in a capsule-type mobility vehicle tearing through the underground tunnel at supersonic speeds, the Kavite muttered anxiously.

"Damn it, damn it! We can't... we can't just let everything end like this!"

After what felt like an eternity.

The capsule finally came to a halt at the station.

"Let's go!"

The new Grand Committeeman, his aide, and the escort warriors scrambled out.

And prepared to board the emergency escape spacecraft.

The moment that ship launched, similar spacecraft hidden all over the planet would launch out of the atmosphere simultaneously. Serving as bait.

They frantically bolted toward the boarding hatch. A faint thread of hope was drawing near, right before their eyes.

"...!"

Into their ears...

KABOOM!

"N-no!"

A deafening roar echoed.

Followed by the sight of the ceiling collapsing and debris showering down.

From above, a hymn that sounded like a hellish military cadence drifted down.

"Ahhh...!"

With a stupefied expression, the Kavite stared up at the despair raining down in droves.

   *

In space, just outside the atmosphere.

Minjun gazed into the far reaches of the darkness.

Roughly 200 Space Motherships were approaching to reclaim their already plundered homeland. Toward the masses of metal cutting through the vacuum's darkness...

He extended his arm.

Light boiled within his grasp.

Flash!

A brilliant radiance shot out, cleaving the darkness in two. It was so intense that the surrounding starlight lost its luster in comparison.

The pillar of light was a lighthouse beacon guiding ships through a chaotic universe. Or rather, it looked like the righteous path presented by a god to those who had lost their way or wished to stray.

The light called out to them all.

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