84: Chapter 84 Goodbye Leviathan!! The Swarm! The Swarm

Abyss of Sorrow · Fourth Hive

The Zerg Swarm belonging to the Fourth Hive of the Abyss of Sorrow has been really annoyed lately.

It's not a lack of food—the neighboring Fifth Hive just handed over three metal-rich asteroids last month, enough to gnaw on for quite a while.

Nor is it a territory dispute—though that old bastard from the Third Hive spent all day buzzing about "crooked boundary lines," he'd have to weigh his own Queen's strength before actually starting a fight.

What annoyed them was that something was missing from home.

And it wasn't just any ordinary thing.

It was the little princess of the Hive, a newly born Queen who had just turned forty, the ultimate product of the Atavism Project, and the most talented high-tier Zerg in the Abyss of Sorrow for six hundred years—Olivia.

"So, can someone explain to me—"

The Hive Mind vibrated within the deep underground cavity, the viscous neural fluid rippling with the fluctuations of emotion. The dozen or so high-tier Cerebrates standing by simultaneously retracted their necks—if those short, thick fleshy pillars could even be called necks.

"Why would an individual designated for 'high-priority care, forbidden from going out alone, and especially forbidden from approaching the human border,' leave a neural signal saying 'I'm going to the human side to play' during a gap in the 'Holy Alliance raiding party's routine hunt' alarm and vanish without a trace?"

The Cerebrates exchanged silent pheromones.

「I said we should have installed a tracking gland on her...」

「The Queen said that would be 'inelegant,' and Her Highness Olivia also opposed it...」

「Now it's elegant, and she's gone...」

「By the way, what does 'going to the human side to play' mean? What's so fun about humans? They don't even have carapaces; they crush with a single squeeze...」

「Maybe it's... aesthetic atavism?」

「But the Atavism Project was clearly meant to return Life Divine Energy...」

"Enough." The Hive Mind cut off their private chat channel, and the entire cavity fell into a helpless silence.

Olivia—this name meant "Breath of Life" in the ancient language of the Zerg. She was the 734th offspring of the current Queen of the Fourth Hive and the only individual to successfully awaken the ancient bloodline of Life Divine Energy.

Other Zerg combat units relied on carapace hardness, acid concentration, and numerical violence.

Olivia was different—although it wasn't yet known exactly how to use the talent of Life Divine Energy, her mere presence in the Hive could increase the incubation speed of all Zerg units by eight hundred percent.

She was the future of the Fourth Hive, the trump card for the Abyss of Sorrow to compete against Hives from other star sectors for the "Overmind Promotion Qualification."

And then, she ran away.

Ran off to "play on the human side."

This "play" had lasted for an entire year.

The Hive Mind hadn't failed to send searchers. Seventeen batches of scout Zerg Swarms alone had been lost—either riddled with holes by human border defense fleets or torn to shreds after straying into interstellar turbulence.

The only useful information sent back was: "The last known coordinates of Her Highness were at the edge of the Holy Alliance's 'Holy Violet Legion' defense zone; the signal completely vanished on the third day of the seventh month of the Standard Calendar."

Then followed months of silence.

Until a few days ago.

"Beep beep—beep beep beep—"

The signal receiving cavity deep within the Hive suddenly began to flash frantically. The Cerebrate on duty lunged toward the sensory membrane, its tentacles plugging into the receiving port, instantly decoding the neural signal that had crossed millions of light-years and was so weak it had almost dissipated:

「...Coordinates... locked... life signs... weak... request... extraction...」

Signal source: Olivia's individual neural marker.

Attached coordinates: An unnamed void point deep within the buffer star sector between the Blazing Dragon Federation and the Holy Alliance.

The Hive Mind practically bounced out of the neural fluid pool on the spot—if that mass of biomass aggregate covering the entire cavity could be said to "bounce."

"She's alive!" Pheromones exploded throughout the Hive network. "Immediately! Now! Organize a rescue group! Dispatch every Leviathan available! Drones, Zerglings, Hydralisks, Mutalisks..."

"No, those are too slow. Send the Brood Lords and Devourers directly! The escort fleet must be the strongest! Pull out those million-year-old Leviathans from the 'Immortal' sequence too! If the little princess loses even a single hair, all of you will be taking a bath in the acid pools!"

The entire Fourth Hive instantly entered the highest state of combat readiness.

The leviathan motherships slumbering in the stardust clouds were forcibly awakened by neural pulses, their thick biological carapaces slowly unfurling in the vacuum as their blowholes spewed out metabolic exhaust accumulated over a millennium.

Deep within the nest, hundreds of billions of flight units burst from their incubation sacs, surging toward the launch chambers like a reverse waterfall of blood.

On the surface, mountain-sized Ultralisks roared at the sky—though there is no sound in space, the infrasound waves caused by their vibrating carapaces were enough to knock nearby asteroids off course.

A super Zerg Swarm, centered around two hundred and forty-seven leviathan motherships and with a total number of combat units exceeding a trillion, completed its assembly within seventy-two hours and leapt into the curvature channel.

Target: The signal coordinates.

"Retrieve the little princess and return immediately. If anyone stands in your way—"

The Hive Mind's final pheromone command carried a murderous intent that said, "I'm very cranky right now, don't mess with me":

"—Crush them."

...

However, reality is always leaner than the plan.

As soon as the Zerg Swarm transitioned near the coordinates, they realized something was wrong.

First, Olivia's signal source wasn't in the expected "back of some planet" or "deep within an asteroid belt," but inside a frantically fleeing, pure white, elegantly lined spaceship.

The Cerebrates observed the ship through the Leviathans' compound eye arrays.

「What is this? A new human toy?」

「It looks delicious... the shell is shiny; it should be very crunchy to bite into.」

「That's not the point! The point is Her Highness's signal is inside!」

「So Her Highness was captured by humans? Locked in this shiny box?」

「Then what are we waiting for! Catch up! Tear the box apart and rescue Her Highness!」

And so, the chase began.

As they chased, the Zerg Swarm became even more confused.

That "white box" was running incredibly fast, specifically picking curvature turbulence zones to dive into, slippery as a greased flea. Although the Leviathans were thick-skinned and heavily armed, they were simply no match in maneuverability for a diplomatic vessel specifically designed for running away.

What annoyed the Zerg Swarm even more was—why did the white box's escape route look more and more like... it was guiding them in a specific direction?

「Is it leading us in circles?」

「Doesn't look like it... the trajectory has a clear orientation.」

「What star sector is ahead?」

「Searching... It belongs to the sovereign territory claimed by the 'Blazing Dragon Federation.' There's a permanent defense fleet at the border, designated 'Watcher Legion'.」

「A human fleet? What scale?」

「Unclear. We haven't broken in yet. In the largest historical battle, 33 Planetary Warships appeared simultaneously...」

「Hiss... it seems we might not be able to beat them...」

The Cerebrates exchanged a wave of pheromones and reached a consensus:

「Doesn't matter.」

「Her Highness is in the box.」

「The box is running that way.」

「So we chase that way.」

「Someone's blocking the way?」

「Crush them.」

Clear logic, simple motivation—very Zerg.

So the Zerg Swarm adjusted its formation. Two hundred and forty-seven leviathan motherships, like two hundred and forty-seven moving flesh-and-blood planets covered in bone spikes and compound eyes, trailed sickly green biological energy wakes across the void.

Inside the abdominal cavity of every Leviathan, the incubation chambers were running at full power. A continuous stream of combat units burst from their membranes, gathering around the motherships into a Zerg cloud that blotted out the stars.

Mutalisks turned into a torrent of brown lightning, carving distorted trajectories in the vacuum.

The Scourge swarms were like dark clouds before a storm, each one raising its head, its acid sac contracting violently.

The Corruptor swarms spread out into a living curtain covering tens of thousands of kilometers, their wing membranes vibrating and causing micro-tremors in space.

The Brood Lords slowly unfurled their abdomens, and countless parasitic spores drifted toward the cold deep space like dandelions of death.

This was a destructive force capable of leveling seventy standard star systems within thirty days.

And now, they had only one goal: catch up to that white box and rescue the little princess.

As for whether they would bump into some human fleet along the way...

The Zerg Swarm said: Oh.

...

The Zerg Swarm has arrived!

The second after the defense line sensors captured the curvature disturbance, the pitch-black starry sky was forcibly "squeezed" to reveal two hundred and forty-seven sickly green rifts flowing with viscous biomass light.

The leviathan motherships slid out from them, like two hundred and forty-seven flesh-and-blood planets violently torn from sub-space. On their thick bodies, covered in bone spikes and carapace nodules, countless compound eyes, like a suddenly opened cluster of blood-red stars, coldly locked onto the steel defense line ahead.

Immediately after, the Zerg Tide gushed forth.

It was a locust plague on a cosmic scale, a living nebula that blotted out the sun... Trillions of units roared silently, crushing toward the human defense line with pure, suffocating "numbers."

On the bridge of the "purple subtlety," Major General Zhao Yu stared at the red patch on the main screen that was rapidly devouring the starry sky. He raised his right hand and let it fall.

No words, only a command.

"Boom—!!!"

And so, the Legion volleyed.

Hundreds of billions of muzzles fired.

Rushing beams of energy filled the entire space.