Gao Wu: You have science, and I have magic!

The starry sky of Cygni β-307 is like a hollowed-out cheese ball, full of pits and holes.

When the Stargazer emerged from the jump, the familiar sea of ​​stars that should have appeared outside the porthole was replaced by a constantly wriggling dark spot.

In the deep darkness, there seemed to be some substance that could absorb and distort light, folding the light-year scale space of the surrounding star fields into morbid folds.

What’s even more frightening is that it is slowly but steadily expanding.

"The space readings are all messed up..."

Old Chen slapped the navigation device fiercely. The mechanical right eye emitted an abnormal blue light, and he cursed: "This is really hell, the laws of physics here are being rewritten."

The crystal on Ye Qingzhou's left arm had spread to his shoulder, and the burning sensation of the super-dimensional mark turned into a cold numbness.

Through Skywalker's sensors, he saw that in the center of the dark spot was a building that should have been a cage. It was a huge black sphere with pulsating blood vessel-like structures on its surface.

Unlike the geometric beauty of the Watcher, this cage looks like a living tumor, constantly oozing purple-black mucus, which makes people's scalp tingle just by looking at it.

"Devourer."

Cecilia's thought waves were transmitted directly into everyone's consciousness.

Her Chant mech hovered beside the Stargazer, its twelve wings of light vibrating slightly, creating golden ripples in the air.

"It is even hungrier than the watchers describe. Any matter that escapes here, even cosmic dust, will be devoured."

Chu Yao suddenly covered her forehead, and the triangular pattern between her eyebrows emitted a dazzling green light, projecting a holographic image in the cabin.

In the picture, countless starship wreckages were seen surrounding a black sphere, some of which were contemporary designs, while more were unrecognizable ancient models.

What is most disturbing is that these remains are being slowly "digested" by some force, and a network of blood vessels similar to that of a cage is growing on the metal surface.

“It eats all the visitors…”

Chu Yao's voice had a double echo, as if another person was speaking through her vocal cords.

The Stargazer's alarm system suddenly went silent, and all alarm thresholds were breached simultaneously.

On the radar screen, a signal as big as a planet is emerging from the depths of the dark spot.

It was neither a ship nor a living creature, but some strange existence that transcended the conventional material form.

“Here comes Maurice.”

Ye Qingzhou activated the Skywalker's gravity anchor, and his crystallized left hand merged with the joystick: "Old Chen, prepare for evasive action. Cecilia, I need your chant to build a spiritual firewall."

But Lao Chen did not respond. At this moment, he was standing alone in front of the porthole. The blue light in his mechanical right eye became brighter and brighter, and his metal fingers unconsciously stroked the nameplate on his chest.

A string of ancient coordinates is engraved on the silver-white metal nameplate.

“Mars Canyon…”

Lao Chen's voice suddenly sounded thirty years younger: "We shouldn't have opened that door in the first place..."

As soon as he finished speaking, a purple-black lightning suddenly split the void.

Then, a huge hole appeared in the center of the dark spot, and Morris's fleet poured out.

In fact, it could no longer be called a fleet. What came into view was a deformed collection of various starship wreckages.

The main ship retained the logo of the Covenant's Science Department, but semi-liquid metal was wriggling on the surface of the hull, like exposed muscle after being skinned.

"Welcome, Key Keepers."

Morris's voice vibrated directly through the hull of the Stargazer, cold and merciless: "You came at the right time."

A holographic projection unfolded in the cabin, revealing a humanoid figure enveloped in purple-black energy.

Morris's face was vaguely recognizable, but something was moving beneath his skin, causing his features to constantly distort and reorganize.

The most eye-catching thing is the object embedded in his chest, which is a black crystal similar to the triangular module held by Ye Qingzhou, but with jagged edges.

"Anti-key..."

Ye Qingzhou understood instantly: "They want to use this to force the large filter system to shut down."

The void being that occupied Morris' body let out a teeth-aching laugh at this moment: "Shut it down? No, we want to distort its function. Turn the dimension increase into dimension decrease, and drag the entire universe back to a wonderful chaotic state!"

Inside the β-307 cage was a black sphere with a ball of silver-blue light trapped in the center, pierced and entangled by countless purple-black tentacles.

The light was faint but pure, completely consistent with the energy characteristics of the Watcher.

"There are still some Watchers alive..."

Cecilia's Chant Mech vibrated violently, as if resonating with her emotions: "They use pain to maintain the cracks in the cage!"

In a flash, the battle was about to break out. Morris's deformed fleet released thousands of infected mechas, which swarmed like locusts.

Skywalker and Holy Chant attacked at the same time. The gravity vortex created by Ye Qingzhou crushed dozens of enemy planes, while Cecilia's light wings produced golden sound waves, purifying the purple-black energy.

But the number of enemies was too large, and the Stargazer was hit by three infected ships, causing its shield energy to plummet.

Lao Chen fell down due to the violent vibration, and the outer shell of his mechanical right eye broke, revealing the miniaturized super-dimensional crystal inside.

"It's you, Chen Yuanhang."

Morris's projection suddenly appeared in the cockpit, and its purple-black tentacles stretched out towards Lao Chen, "The last explorer, the little pet of the watcher..."

Chu Yao rushed forward, and the green light emitted from the lines on her forehead temporarily blocked the tentacles.

At the moment of physical contact, she saw Chen Yuanhang's memory flashback through telepathic resonance.

It turns out that six hundred years ago, a twelve-member expedition team discovered super-dimensional ruins in a canyon on Mars.

Young Chen Yuanhang was the first to touch the Watcher and gain a fragment of foresight into the future. He saw his teammates being bewitched by the void and decided to seal this part of the memory in the mechanical eye...

From then on, he wandered around as "Old Chen", waiting for the trinity in the omen...

“You knew it!”

Chu Yao's tears formed floating water droplets in the zero-gravity environment: "Why didn't you tell us?"

Old Chen smiled bitterly and pulled open his collar, revealing the super-dimensional lines on his heart: "Everyone who knows the truth will become a target. I have lived so long just to wait for you three..."

His words were interrupted by a violent explosion. The right side of the Stargazer was pierced, and oxygen was leaking rapidly. Worse, the blood vessels on the surface of the black cage suddenly bulged and began to pulsate regularly - the Devourer was about to break free.

Morris' projection swelled with a wild laugh. "Too late! The last lock is about to be unlocked."

Deep in the dark spot, the faint light of the Watcher in the center of the cage flickered violently, and a connection across time and space was established. Chen Yuanhang's mechanical eye completely shattered, releasing the long-sealed memory hologram:
When the expedition team discovered the cage, Leonardo Claudius, the founder of the first generation of the Church of the Illuminati, heard not an oracle, but the mental manipulation of the Void imitating the Watcher.

It was a purple-black energy light curtain that could guide humans to extract source fire and weaken the cage system through mental suggestion.

The real watcher was always resisting, and even split off a trace of consciousness to stay in Chen Yuanhang's eyes, locking this scene deep in his sea of ​​​​consciousness, fortunately it was revealed at any time.

Such as now.

"You understand now."

The voice of the Watcher came through Chen Yuanhang: "The Void has no entity. It can only operate through deception and temptation. As for the Devourer, it is actually the dark side that we have separated from."

Morris's purple-black body twisted violently: "Shut up! What do you ants know about the truth of the universe!"

The black crystal on his chest began to pulsate, in sync with the vibration of the cage, "Witness the true power!" The black spherical cage contracted like a heart, and then - exploded.

There was no sound, no shock wave, only the sudden collapse of space. The dark spot instantly expanded tenfold, directly swallowing up one-third of the infected fleet and two Shenzhao battleships.

The dark tentacles extending from the cracks were actually some more primordial existence, pure and primitive, even older than the void.

The Devourer has awakened.

Skywalker's system was alarming frantically.

Ye Qingzhou saw that the space curvature reading exceeded the limit and regional anomalies appeared in the speed of time flow.

What’s even more terrifying is that all matter touched by the dark spots is “transforming”, not being destroyed, but turning into some kind of chaotic state between existence and non-existence.

"Trinity!"

Cecilia's cry exploded in the mental link: "Now!"

Ye Qingzhou did not hesitate, and rushed towards the Chant mecha with all his strength. His crystallized left hand directly grabbed Cecilia's right hand. Chu Yao was ejected from the Stargazer, and the Starweaver pattern on her forehead glowed, pulling her towards the two giant mechas.

When the hands of the three people touched in the void, the triangle module, the power of source fire and the star-weaving energy merged perfectly.

A dazzling white light burst out, forming a temporary micro-universe bubble that blocked the expansion of the Devourer.

Within this artificially created bubble of time and space, the three experience perceptions beyond the physical form.

The three witnessed the birth of a super-dimensional civilization.

They were originally just an ordinary race. After discovering the dark side of the universe, they chose to imprison it instead of accepting it. Under the guidance of the void, they destroyed the cage...

When the white light dissipated, the three returned to normal time and space.

Chu Yao was carefully held outside the cockpit by Skywalker, her whole body covered with glowing patterns. Cecilia's twelve light wings formed a perfect geometric array, and Ye Qingzhou's crystallization had spread to half of his face.

All three of them understood their mission.

“Old Chen!”

Ye Qingzhou called Chen Yuanhang through the public channel and shouted to him: "Contact all active ships! We need to concentrate our firepower on the seventh node of the cage!"

"Shenzhao Fleet, listen to my orders!"

Cecilia's voice was amplified by the Chant Mech, carrying unquestionable majesty: "In the name of the Source Fire, direct all the energy into my Light Wings!"

"Survivors of the Covenant and the Human Alliance!"

Chu Yao floated in the vacuum, but her voice was clearly transmitted to the communication system of each ship: "Aim at the location I marked. Don't attack the Devourer, attack the purple-black energy around it!"

Surprisingly, the remaining ships of the three forces obeyed.

Shenzhao's Seraph mecha group arranged in a sacred geometry formation, gathering the source fire energy to the light wings of Shengyan.

The remaining ships of the Covenant released all their drones to form an energy transmission network.

The monks of the Human Union used their combined martial arts to draw huge super-dimensional runes in the void.

The Skywalker Mecha became the gathering point of all energy. Ye Qingzhou's crystallized body was suffering unimaginable pain, but his consciousness was unusually clear.

When the energy reached the critical value, he threw the triangular module towards the seventh node of the cage without hesitation.

The moment the module hit the node, the darkness of the Devourer suddenly stopped.

Then, to everyone's surprise, it began to change drastically.

The purple-black energy lost its violent color and turned into a deep indigo blue.

The distorted folds of space slowly unwound, and even the infected ships stopped attacking.

At the original location of the cage, a translucent silver colossus emerged - similar to the Watcher, but more primitive and ancient, full of marks of time.

"You are different."

The Devourer's thoughts were no longer full of hostility: "Humans are truly a miraculous species that can overcome their instinctive fear of their own dark side."

Cecilia's Chant Mech played the "Sound of Creation", and the light of the twelve light wings became softer: "Because we have wisdom and know how to balance."

Chu Yao's Star Weaver patterns weave a complex energy network: "Every life has light and shadow. What matters is not right or wrong, but the power to choose."

Ye Qingzhou's Skywalker deployed a gravity field and reversed the function of the triangular module: "Do you want to continue fighting?"

The Devourer was silent for a moment. When it spoke again, there was a kind of ancient sadness in its voice: "It's too late... The Twister of Orion is free... All three locks must be opened before the real program can be started..."

The holographic star map automatically unfolded, showing that spatial distortion was occurring in a certain area in the direction of Orion.

To make matters worse, Morris's Black Crystal Anti-Key was nowhere to be found, no doubt having sneaked away in the chaos.

“It’s not too late.”

Chen Yuanhang suddenly interrupted the communication, his mechanical eye completely falling off, revealing the super-dimensional crystal pupil underneath: "The Watcher left one last gift."

He pressed the Stargazer's control panel, and the ship's engine suddenly overloaded.

Before anyone could react, the battered research vessel had already rushed towards the Devourer, and the hull disintegrated and reassembled to form a miniature cage structure.

"I'm going after Maurice."

Chen Yuanhang's image flashed in the cockpit: "You have completed the final preparations. When the three keys gather in Orion..."

His voice was drowned out by the noise of space jumping.

The Stargazer had now turned into a glowing geometric shape and disappeared into the jump channel in the blink of an eye, leaving only a coordinate beacon pointing in the direction of Orion.

The Devourer's form began to dissipate, but the last words it conveyed shocked everyone: "We are one... Tell the Twister... The time to return has come..."

When the dark spots completely disappeared, the β-307 star field returned to peace.

The remaining fleet floated in the void, and the former enemies looked at each other in bewilderment.

There was no cheering, no celebration, only a heavy realization.

Ye Qingzhou looked at his almost completely crystallized left half of his body and knew that time was running out.

Cecilia's wings of light folded into a cloak, wrapping around her body which was beginning to crystallize.

Only Chu Yao's change was positive - the Star Weaver energy was repairing her damaged body, but the lines on her forehead had become a permanent mark.

"last Stand."

Ye Qingzhou adjusted Skywalker's course: "Orion."

Cecilia's Chant Mech stood beside him: "The journey will come to an end, but for the future, this may just be a new beginning."

Chu Yao floated between the two of them, and the green light connected the three mechas like a bond: "Trinity."

When the jump engine started, they all looked back at the same time. In the void of β-307, it seemed that a pair of silver-blue eyes were watching them leave.

Until the end of the world, the watch will never stop. (End of this chapter)