“Oh, Sith… Sith Lem, I thought you would be a bit bolder.”
Taran stared with amusement at Sith, who was so terrified he seemed about to faint. Sith's pain and fear seemed to bring him great pleasure.
"...After all, you are someone who can use the vice-captain and senior medical officer of the Sun God as bargaining chips to negotiate with me."
He paused and then added.
There was a deep, unspeakable bitterness in Taran's tone.
Sith trembled even more violently at his vicious words. It took the pale-faced young man a while to regain his composure and communicate normally with Taran.
He trembled as he pulled the old motherboard, its metal surface gleaming, from his pocket.
Thanks to those computers that were forgotten many years ago, they have dutifully overwritten the old system on the Providence from three hundred years ago. Now, with just Taran's permission to decode, this motherboard can be reactivated by the people on the Apollo... Of course, at this point, probably only people like the Sith still have the need to use computer motherboards on such a large spaceship.
“I have no other request, I just want to go home… I haven’t done anything wrong… Captain, you should know what’s going on.”
Taran's words undoubtedly touched the deepest, most painful spot in Sith's heart.
He stood there unsteadily, tilting his head back and muttering to Taran.
“…I ask for very little. I just want the star map and coordinates stored on this motherboard, and I need an escape pod…that’s all…I don’t want anything else,” Sith’s eyes flickered slightly. When he mentioned going home, he finally mustered the courage to raise his eyes and take another look at Taran in front of him. However, Taran’s swollen and deformed body was clearly beyond Sith’s imagination. The young man involuntarily shrank back and then quickly looked away.
When he spoke again, his voice sounded even more humble than before.
"I won't say anything when I get back..."
"Oh? So you were thinking of going back to Earth to say something?"
Taran looked at Sith with interest, then repeated his statement.
After hearing Taran's words, Sith looked even more terrified than before.
“No, no, no, I never intended to say anything in the first place. Captain Taran, please… I swear to God, I will not say or do anything. I don’t care what you’ve done here. My only wish is to get out of this damned place right now.”
"Sis said urgently."
Perhaps because he was too emotional, he even felt a slight headache while speaking.
He unconsciously touched the back of his ear.
That was the location where he installed the external computing chip. (As a crew member on such a long-distance spaceship, this kind of external computing chip was basically standard equipment. However, in the previous decades, Sith had never experienced the discomfort of being burned by the heat of that chip itself.)
Unfortunately, the situation he is facing is so dire that he is completely unable to concentrate on thinking about the chip issue.
Not far from him, Taran's soft, swollen "hem" (Bryce later learned what that soft, thick hem meant) twitched rapidly several times.
"Oh God, perhaps I really misjudged you. Although you are cowardly and shameless... your heart is certainly hard enough."
Taran spoke in a hoarse voice, his bulging eyes twitching slightly with each word.
Sith had to clench his teeth tightly to avoid spitting it out.
He thought he had concealed it well, but the look of disgust he showed when he saw Taran was still extremely irritating to Taran.
Although they had long ago decided to abandon the human body and considered humans to be merely a lower form of life...
For some reason, when Taran saw Sith's obvious disgust, he felt an overwhelming surge of indignation.
The next instant, he suddenly raised his voice.
“My dear Sith, what do you think of me now? Why must you go back? You can stay, and I can transform you into a divine body, freeing you from the clumsy and sluggish human form.”
As he spoke, Taran slowly wriggled his body, climbing down from his seat step by step, and then, like a real worm, slithered closer to Sith.
For a moment or two, he seemed almost amiable, but even at his most foolish, Sith couldn't miss the deep malice hidden beneath his gentle tone.
The so-called help to transform Sith was just a pretext. Taran simply didn't want to hand over the star map to Sith (even though it was just a piece of cake for him). Sith had no doubts. All Taran wanted was to keep everyone on the ship trapped here with him forever, and then turn them into monsters.
Realizing this, Sith's lips trembled slightly. Due to excessive tension, the muscles around his lips twitched incessantly, making his expression look comical and ridiculous.
"No...no need. I like myself the way I am now. I wish I were human. I...I just..."
"You just want to go home... You've said it countless times, I'm tired of hearing it."
Taran murmured softly in place of Sith.
"By the way, you also think I'm a monster, right?"
At this point in their conversation, Taran suddenly spoke.
Sith knew he should deny it immediately, after all, he didn't want to provoke Taran at all, but...
Upon meeting Taran's terrifying gaze, all of Sith's words caught in his throat, and that moment of silence spoke volumes.
Sure enough, the aura surrounding Taran became even more terrifying the next second.
"...This is actually quite funny, Sith. You actually think I'm a monster, hahahahaha... But look at what you've done, do you know what's funny about it? The funny thing is, you're the real monster."
After he finished speaking, Taran, who was originally some distance away from Sith, suddenly stretched out his body and grabbed Sith tightly.
He looked down at Sith, and as he spoke, thick, pale green saliva dripped continuously from the gap between his mouth and mouthparts.
Those bulging, mulberry-like eyes, densely packed together, were aimed directly at Sith.
"What right do you have to negotiate with me? You weak, disgusting, hypocritical bastards..."
Taran's undisguised malice made Sith's headache worse and worse. He was breathing heavily like a broken bellows, and the computing chip behind his ear felt so hot that it seemed to melt his brain.
Strangely, it seemed that precisely because of this pain, Sith felt as if he were calmer than before.
His sixth sense became incredibly accurate—he clearly felt that Taran was no longer planning to obediently hand over the star map as arranged.
This wicked monster is like a cat toying with a mouse. The cat will let go of the mouse it has caught and watch the poor little thing run away with amusement, and then catch it again... Taran, on the other hand, constantly gives him hope, and then destroys that hope.
No……
Sith heard a voice inside his body murmur.
He wouldn't allow that to happen.
He betrayed his best friends, even using their lives to buy a way home—he didn't come here to be toyed with by a monster like Taran.
"Lin Xi, my condition for negotiating with you is Lin Xi."
In a chilling mood, Sith heard himself speaking in a cold, numb voice.
God knows how he could utter such shameless words, as if his body were possessed by another selfish, cold-blooded soul.
And now, that soul is using his body, speaking words that even he himself cannot understand.
"Everyone knows that the real Mother of the Alien Species is Lin Xi... That's the problem. As long as she's around, you'll never get everything you want..."
"Dare you say that again?!"
Upon hearing what Sith was saying, Taran flew into a rage.
As he screamed, he swung his claws, and Sith felt a sharp pain in his cheek as a deep gash appeared on his face.
Crimson blood gushed from his wound instantly, and the monsters, which had become dazed under the incense of Taran, began to stir again. The clicking sound of elytra and fangs rubbing together, along with their greedy and bloodthirsty hisses, permeated the entire bridge.
An uneasy commotion spread outwards from Sith and Taran.
But at this moment, for Sith, neither the wounds on his face nor the monsters eager to tear him to pieces and swallow him whole seemed to matter anymore.
The pain started from the chip behind his ear and spread throughout his entire head.
The monsters that kept hissing and even bared their fangs at him did not frighten him; instead, Sith became even more talkative than before.
"These monsters are proof, aren't they? My esteemed Captain Taran. I knew you were in trouble the moment you walked in. I saw the state of these monsters with my own eyes; they don't actually listen to you, do they? But... this is too strange. If you really are the chosen one, how could you have become like this?"
Sith could feel his voice becoming faster and rougher.
“Poor Taran…you have given your whole heart to that great star god, haven’t you? You long for the blessings that the supreme being bestows upon you, but what you want is not just these things.”
As Sith spoke, he dipped his finger in his own blood and gently dabbed it into his mouth.
For some reason, this time, the fresh blood on his lips had an exciting quality that made him tremble.
"...So, you have to kill Lin Xi so you can take its place, that's how it is, right? It's just that nobody knows where Lin Xi is right now. Unless, unless he finds out that Alyssa and Bryce are in your hands. Once he knows that, he will definitely come looking for you."
As Sith spoke, his entire nasal cavity and mouth were filled with a sticky and disgusting metallic taste.
Sith could feel something crawling out of his nostrils like a reptile, and he believed it was his nosebleed.
Even so, he did not stop his incredibly cold words.
Those words clearly came from his own mouth, but those thoughts and those words sounded as if they came from a completely different person.
“...The Sun God is not a small boat, and you and I both know that. If Lin Xi wanted to hide, he could stay on this ship forever if he wanted to, without worrying about his kin getting out of control... But you... Forgive me for speaking frankly, but I can sense that you can't wait like him.”
After Sith finished speaking, he deliberately glanced at the corner, where Taran's specially made aromatherapy diffuser was located. A wisp of smoke rose and then slowly disappeared into the murky, dark air of the bridge.
The aura of Taran suddenly turned cruel and terrifying.
"Okay, I admit I misjudged you. I used to think you were a cowardly and incompetent guy, but now you seem more like a sharp-tongued and heartless bastard. You—"
Taran whispered to Sith, each word sounding as if carved from his vocal cords with fangs.
If he had looked like this a few minutes ago, Sith would probably have lost the courage to negotiate with such a monster.
"That's why I'm here; I'm here to solve the problem."
But this time, Sith unusually interrupted Taran's whispers. If Taran were still a normal person, he would probably have noticed that something was wrong with Sith at this moment—Sith's eyes had changed color, and blood was gushing from his nose and ears.
"I'm here to help you."
He even smiled at Taran.
“Look, I’ve hidden Alyssa and Bryce now. I know their locations… If you, Captain, are kind enough to unlock the permissions on the motherboard and let me get the star map, I’ll immediately give you the location of those two people. You’ll get them, and once you get them, Lin Xi will no longer be a problem.”
As he spoke, a seasoned malice surfaced in Sith's previously fearful eyes.
"As long as Lin Xi is killed."
"You are the only mother of the alien race."
Sith stared at the man in front of him and spoke slowly, word by word.
After saying that, a sinister smirk appeared on his lips.
"I have to admit, what you're saying does make a lot of sense."
Taran nodded at Sith.
He seemed to have truly been persuaded by the Sith.
However, the next second, he suddenly grinned at Sith.
Suddenly, huge, ferocious fangs emerged from his mouth, covered in poisonous saliva—and then those fangs shot towards Sith's neck.
In a flash, Sith dodged to the side with unimaginable speed, escaping Taran's jaws from biting his throat. Even so, Taran's teeth still managed to slash a deep gash across his neck, gushing out copious amounts of blood. Sith clutched his neck, trying to stop the gushing blood, but the warm, crimson blood continued to seep from between his fingers.
Sith looked at Taran with a hint of disbelief. His lips moved as if he wanted to say something, but all he could make was a hissing sound like a broken bellows.
Around Taran, the monsters, drawn by the scent of fresh blood, grew even more restless. Sith's vision blurred; he could feel more and more monsters pressing in on him...
Taran clearly had no intention of... and he could no longer control those monsters.
Before him, Karan's monstrous eyes gleamed like two tiny light bulbs.
"...I am the true Mother of the Alien. I hope you remember that. I am the true Chosen One. As for that pretty boy you mentioned, that spineless coward, he's just a lowly, disgusting ordinary person. The nonsense you're spouting is utterly ridiculous...Kill Lin Xi and then take his place as the Mother of the Alien? Hahahaha, why would I need to kill that kind of guy to obtain the identity I already possess?"
Taran contentedly stuck out his long, thin tongue and licked the blood that stained his fangs.
"You...you...you are nothing at all..."
Sith lay on the ground, his body twitching slightly from blood loss. His rebuttal sounded more like some kind of muffled breath, but even so, he kept his eyes wide open, staring straight at Taran standing next to him.
Sith looked completely bewildered, seemingly unable to understand why things had turned out this way.
"I am the Mother of the Alien Species, the cradle of all things, the mother of the Alien Species... This is my destiny and my mission..."
Taran suddenly raised his head, then stared intently in a certain direction, uttering a faint, dreamlike murmur.
"You've... completely gone mad... You're... a madman..."
With his last ounce of strength, Sith managed to utter a weak curse, but Taran remained completely unmoved.
The monstrous man stared at Sith's back, a blissful and infatuated smile suddenly spreading across his ugly, distorted face.
"I'm not crazy..."
Taran's lips trembled slightly with extreme excitement. "I only survived the test that fate had given me through my own perseverance... Look... my favor has arrived."
By the end of his sentence, Taran's entire body had swelled up, and his voice had become high-pitched and shrill.
His tone was so firm that even the dying Sith couldn't help but turn his head with difficulty to look in the direction Taran was looking.
The next second, Sith's eyes widened involuntarily.
He saw God.
In that instant, that was the only thought in Sith's mind.
What an ugly yet perfect individual he was... If you only look at his upper body, it's like a deity sculpture meticulously carved from marble by an ancient master sculptor.
His face was handsome and refined, his azure eyes like the sky and the sea, and his silver hair moved behind him without wind, like wispy clouds. He was expressionless, yet he appeared so holy and beautiful. However, anyone with normal instincts would feel an instinctive repulsion upon seeing him—a premonition of danger, a premonition hidden deep in human genes that helped our ancestors escape various potential threats.
And now, they are calling the police.
The rest of the "Star God" forms a striking contrast to the exquisitely beautiful human form.
Enormous wings spread behind him, black stripes intertwining and shifting against a vivid background, transforming into a highly hallucinogenic image. The grotesque insect's body exudes bloodlust and cruelty in every part. Its incomparably beautiful face combined with its horribly ugly body creates a nauseating yet mesmerizing spectacle.
Faced with such a terrifying appearance, it was not surprising that even the other monsters inside the bridge submitted to him and were afraid of him.
"My exalted...my beloved God..."
Taran tumbled and crawled down from the high command seat, wriggling and swaying his swollen, sickly body as he tried to climb toward the inhuman creature as quickly as possible.
"You have finally arrived, you have finally noticed me..." He trembled with excitement, and his tail secreted a lot of mucus, which left wet marks on the ground.
In contrast to Taran's almost manic joy, the Star God himself appeared remarkably calm.
Even... if Taran were to be even slightly more normal at this moment, he would have noticed that the face of that high and mighty god actually showed some very human expressions.
That was disgust and disdain.
In particular, after seeing the mucus secreted from Taran's body, it subtly retreated a little.
However, as soon as it moved its body slightly, it felt the petite humanoid figure hidden behind it forcefully poking its back.
Lin Xi's soft, delicate fingertips touched the base of "Star God's" wings, a rather vulnerable spot compared to the rest. Xavier's wings quickly changed color, turning a blushing pink with an ambiguous undertone…
Thankfully, at the last moment it remembered its task for the day, so it desperately gathered its strength and then took another step forward with a cold expression.
"Star map..."
Xavier whispered to Taran in a hoarse voice.
Taran looked up at the "Star God" before him, a hint of confusion flashing in his eyes. He had never imagined that the first divine oracle he would hear would be... a star map?
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