Chapter 1136: Best Worse Case Scenario

Chapter 1136: Best Worse Case Scenario

Lena narrowed her eyes as she stared at the world barrier in front of her. The Keeper had tasked her with finding a monster so massive that its every movement would cause disruptions in space. However, when solar systems appeared smaller than a grain of sand, it was still difficult to find even something so large.

She had, at the very least, narrowed it down to a single galaxy, focusing her attention only on that, but it was still a lot for her to observe at once. Her eyes focused, sweeping over the galaxy, until she saw a faint ripple. A speck of light vanished, and her eyes widened. Immediately, she sent the coordinates of the disappearing star to the Keeper, turning back to look at Dana.

Dana’s brow was furrowed, and she held a pair of swords at her sides, ready to fight as soon as anything appeared. The Keeper had already warned her of the dangers that the ‘King’ represented to her in the void, so she was waiting for her chance to strike.

The cosmic horror flying through the Sher Dien universe grinned, its wide, toothy maw showing glowing teeth. As it flew past one solar system after another, its clawed hands reached out, fists clenching over the solar system to crush them into nothing but fire and dust. Then it brought those materials to its stomach, where a large, glowing hole could be seen, and inserted them inside.

Judging by the size of these solar systems, it estimated that it would need to consume the materials of at least fifty more solar systems in order to make the weapon that it was working on. Thankfully, it could fulfill that goal quickly, as long as it continued moving.

If there was one thing that it enjoyed, it was the fact that there were no predators large enough to threaten its life. It hadn’t seen a single life-form in this entire universe large enough to attract its attention, though there were likely smaller pests that it had killed by flying past them. Such tiny things were unworthy of its notice.

As it flew, looking for its next target, the giant monster let out a sudden roar of pain, its six eyes widening. Its hand, which it had been repeatedly using to scoop up raw materials, was now missing. Nothing but a bloodied stump remained. How did something take its hand without it seeing them?

Additionally, its tail seemed to have a large gash running through it, but it couldn’t figure out how or when it had been injured. Its senses sharpened, sweeping the area around it. Had there been some microscopic being like those residing within its head, one capable of unleashing power beyond its level?

No matter how it searched, it couldn’t find such a creature, at least not one that appeared to have any sort of intelligence. There were numerous monsters floating about, some with unexplainable body structures or strange protrusions. Some looked like floating oceans, or tiny eyes, but nothing that showed any identifiable hostility.

The beast growled, turning and fleeing at a high speed. If there was a creature there that could deal such damage to it, he needed to find somewhere to escape to as he healed.

My Keeper, the Avenger has been fired successfully. Tsubaki’s voice spoke up in my mind, and I nodded my head. “It’s done.” I said, looking at the Origin of Fate standing before me. She had said that she would arrange for the ‘worst fate’ she could for the ‘King’ monster, so now it was time to see how well she did.

“It would appear that this beast does not directly eat the stars and planets as we had thought.” She muttered, before blinking. “Hmm... things have become... infinitely better, and also infinitely worse.”

“What do you mean?” I asked in confusion, and she began to explain.

I couldn’t help blinking, looking at the duo. “I... really hope that I’m wrong about this, but what did she mean by that?”

The fallen twin put a hand to her head, wincing. “Gimme a second. She was looking at a lot of different timelines at once, so we have to piece it together. It looks like... sooner or later, the monster swarms are going to devour a god. If we divert resources to help one, it will weaken the resistance another can put up, and cause that one to fall instead. Once they do... they’re going to feed their divine monsters to other swarms, leading to a disaster...”

That defense ticket was starting to look very appealing right now. I was tempted to activate it now, that way I could simply smite the monsters together with the Greater Pantheon. However, I had to save it as a last resort. Though the chances were slim, I couldn’t risk the chance that using it now would leave me vulnerable to an even bigger invasion before the next meeting.

This was especially true, given that I was likely to hit the next rank as a Keeper soon. My first battle as a Fifth Ranked Keeper could potentially involve the enemy sending an Origin at me. If that happened, and the only Origin on my side was Terra, who could only be considered a pseudo-Origin at best, I would need to use the ticket immediately.

Lena, immediately withdraw from observing Sher Dien. Under no circumstances are you or anyone else to observe that universe. When the Keeper sent that message, Lena immediately backed away from the Sher Dien universe. A message ordering for something not to be observed meant only one thing.

Is everything alright? Dana asked, glancing towards Lena before returning her focus to the other universes.

The big guy apparently got hit with a memetic effect somehow. Boss just ordered us not to observe Sher Dien in any way. Lena responded, and Dana’s eyes widened briefly, before she nodded her head. The fact that the biggest threat to her life had been dealt with was a relief, though she still had to be wary of the other monsters out there. If one of them could kill her, there was nothing saying that some of the others did not possess their own methods.

Pierce focused on the main screen before him, his eyes straining. At some point, the second screen depicting information about ‘King’ vanished, so he had less to observe. He hadn’t focused this closely on viewing multiple timelines in a long time.

At this point, he had provided the details for three different types of swarm generators, two of which were located in Deckan, and the last was in the new Metong homeworld. The first was, as he had originally identified, a monster race that could clone those that it ate alive, and then graft those powers onto other members of the swarm.

The second type of swarm was one that originated from an inorganic lifeform. The only information that he had uncovered was that it could consume any form of metal, and use that metal to replicate itself. Naturally, this was a major threat, as it did not need any form of life to grow. Already, there were thirteen solar systems confirmed to be lost to this swarm after less than one full day.

The third type was a mutation-type swarm, which absorbed the genetic matter of dead plants and animals, using any beneficial qualities that they possessed to strengthen themselves. The bright side was that this meant that they could only grow through eating organic life, and could not take on the power of energy bodies like the first type. However, as this was the race found in the Metong universe, they had far more chances to find such things.

At least they didn’t land in Spica. Pierce thought to himself. Although the cosmic storms would decimate most of the swarms, if even one hive landed on any planet with surviving plant life, they could gain the universal trait prevalent throughout Spica, allowing adaptation to any environment.

In fact, this danger didn’t only exist within Spica’s universe itself, as plants from Spica were a common tool when terraforming a planet. Additionally, the elves of Spica had spread out and intermarried through various worlds. The only universe where they were actually not likely to encounter any trace of Spica’s adaptation was, in fact, the new Metong universe.

Although they have a larger variety of races there to devour, they won’t get the universal adaptation trait. If they were able to copy that, there would be nothing stopping them from evolving ways to consume energy bodies.