Morlix was a lifeform who walked the wastelands of a barren planet. Conditions on his homeworld were brutally harsh, and once his people reached adulthood, most of them left to seek experience on other planets...
He remembered one younger member of his race, a mischievous little punk named Boros, who had chosen to abandon everything on their world and set off to wander the stars.
But Morlix had never cared about any of that. All he wanted was to stay on this planet in peace. It was the place that had raised him. No matter how broken or worn-out it was, he wanted to live here, and die here.
Yet just when Morlix thought he would get his wish and quietly turn to dust on this world, the sky split open.
He remembered it. He would never forget it, not for the rest of his life.
The heavens cracked apart, and countless blue tendrils came pouring down. Every member of his race who stepped forward to resist was drained dry in an instant, reduced to withered bones. In front of those tendrils, all resistance was meaningless...
Then the tendrils finally touched down on the planet and, in a single moment, devoured his homeworld completely.
With no other choice if he wanted to live, Morlix had fled in panic.
It was the greatest shame of his life.
"Big guy, time to move out!"
Just as Morlix was reliving those memories, a shout by his ear snapped him out of it. He slowly opened his eyes.
Standing in front of him was an alien who looked like a giant octopus, greeting him in a friendly way.
"So, it's time?"
Hearing that, Morlix dusted himself off and rose to his feet.
"Yeah. It's time. What happens to the future of this universe now depends on what we do."
The giant octopus looked grim.
This crisis was no mere disaster threatening one or two planets, or even one or two star systems. It was a catastrophe involving the entire universe. And to fight this terrifying enemy, the Enemy of Life...
The last thirty billion surviving warriors in the universe had formed an army.
They were the last living beings left in this universe, and the final proof that life still refused to give in.
"Good thing that guy who calls himself a god helped us. Thanks to him, we finally have something that can fight that monster."
At the mention of that, the giant octopus seemed to relax a little. He pulled a rifle from behind his back.
After the being they had named the Enemy of Life had devoured ninety-nine percent of the universe, leaving behind only the final fraction, a mysterious figure who called himself a god had appeared before them. He brought them a strange weapon, one capable of firing red energy completely opposite to those blue tendrils. It was only after obtaining those weapons that these last survivors of the universe found the courage to stand against the great Enemy of Life.
"Then if everything's ready, let's go."
With two massive energy cannons slung over his shoulders, Morlix headed with the octopus alien toward the battleship's main hangar.
This gigantic space battleship, capable of carrying over a million passengers, was now packed to capacity. Aliens of every imaginable appearance stood shoulder to shoulder, and without exception, everyone gathered here was powerful.
At the very front of the crowd, a gigantic screen was showing a speech from a middle-aged man who looked almost human.
"Everyone, the Enemy of Life has set its sights on the universe we inhabit, but..."
"There is no need for fear!"
"Because it is not invincible. We can defeat it!"
"At this very moment, all of our lives are hanging in the balance. At this critical turning point, with the continued existence of this universe at stake, I ask every one of you to hold nothing back and unleash your full strength. If we can destroy the enemy's true core, it will vanish for good!"
The man who called himself a god spoke with fiery intensity, rallying the last living beings in the universe.
"Oh!!"
After hearing that cry from the self-proclaimed god, Morlix raised his weapon high and shouted, as if declaring his resolve to fight the Enemy of Life to the end.
"Oh!!"
Everyone else roared along with him.
"Everyone aboard the Dawn, you are the elite of the universe. Every single one of you possesses power great enough to destroy an entire civilization. The hardest mission of all, striking down the Enemy of Life and blowing apart its core, has fallen to you in the end. I will burn away my own life to use teleportation-phase technology and send your ship to a point eighteen million kilometers from the Enemy of Life's heart!"
As the cheering continued, the man calling himself a god went on speaking.
"So we're the hope?"
Hearing those words, Morlix clenched his fist. Last time, he had run. This time, he had to win back his honor.
"Although that will make it easier for you to complete your mission, it also means that the final stretch, that last minute or so of flight you'll have to cross on your own, will be up to all of you. Even I can do no more. At this final moment, I want..."
The so-called god's eyes seemed to glisten with tears. It looked as though he wanted to tell the people aboard this ship, this warship carrying over a million souls on what was nearly a suicide mission, how guilty and grateful he felt toward them.
Boom!
An explosion suddenly rang out through the screen.
"Everyone, it seems I don't have much time left..."
"I'll use the last of my strength to open a space-time passage for you. We'll draw the Enemy of Life's attention ourselves. Your job is simple, destroy the Enemy of Life. Remember this, once you move forward, do not look back. No matter whether we are destroyed by the Enemy of Life or not, do not look back. Farewell. I hope we can meet again in a world with no Enemy of Life, my friends."
The human-looking god finished speaking, and the screen instantly went dark.
In the next second, a blue passage opened before the battleship and swallowed the entire vessel.
"Damn it..."
Aboard the battleship, every warrior tightened their grip on their weapon. They were furious. Furious at the Enemy of Life, this existence threatening the survival of all life in the universe.
"Distance to the Enemy of Life's heart, fifty million kilometers!"
"Distance to the Enemy of Life's heart, forty million kilometers!"
"Distance to the Enemy of Life's heart, thirty million kilometers!"
Each countdown over the ship's speakers made the hearts of the warriors pound harder and harder. Their faces were tight with tension, sweat running down their foreheads. Just thinking of confronting the cosmic terror that had made the entire universe tremble filled them with dread. Anyone who had never seen the Enemy of Life could never understand that fear, a terror that felt branded into the DNA itself.
But the ship would not stop for anyone's fear.
It kept moving forward.
"Distance to the Enemy of Life's heart, twenty million kilometers..."
But just as the Dawn reached a point twenty million kilometers from the Enemy of Life's heart, something went wrong.
The entire battleship lurched violently, and everyone in the hangar was thrown off their feet.
"The ship has been struck by an unknown object. The transit engine has failed. The ship has exited phased space..."
With that electronic announcement, the ship reappeared in open space at a point twenty million kilometers from the Enemy of Life's heart.
That was two million kilometers short of the original plan.
"Enemy contact! I repeat, enemy contact!"
"The Enemy of Life has located us!"
"The ship is about to be destroyed! All combat personnel, evacuate immediately and engage the Enemy of Life outside the ship!"
Just as the people in the hangar were still struggling to understand what had happened, the speakers blared again. From the control room, the pilot shouted in a voice so hoarse it sounded like his throat was tearing itself apart.
"Get out there! Fight the Enemy of Life to the death!"
The moment they heard the order, the soldiers made up their minds. They would settle it with the enemy here and now.
"I've opened the launch corridor. This is the last thing I can do for all of you..."
The speaker came on one final time while the soldiers prepared themselves, followed by a burst of harsh static. It sounded as though the control room had already been cut off from the rest of them.
At the very top of the Dawn, the captain, an ugly alien with eight pairs of eyes on his face and six arms on his body, removed the captain's hat from his head and stared out through the transparent glass of the bridge.
What he saw outside was a massive blue tendril wrapped tightly around the entire battleship. Countless suckers lined its length, all of them firmly pressed against the bridge glass.
The captain showed no fear at all.
Step by step, he walked up to the glass and stared back at the suckers.
Then suddenly, smack!
The bridge echoed with a sharp impact. Every sucker attached to the glass snapped open, revealing an eye inside.
In an instant, the captain of the Dawn felt as if tens of thousands of eyes were staring at him.
"Heh..."
He looked at those eyes and sneered with contempt. He could see the mockery in them.
Then he gently opened the outer hatch connecting the combat hangar to open space, adjusted his hair in the mirror, and took a final moment to preserve the last of his dignity before death...
Click.
A quiet mechanical sound echoed through the hangar as an enormous door slowly opened.
Whoosh!
The instant it opened, countless tendrils burst in and devoured the tens of thousands standing closest to the entrance in a single sweep.
"Fire! Open fire!"
The rest of the soldiers reacted at once. They slammed their triggers down, and as burst after burst of purple energy shot out, the incoming tendrils were blown apart into nothing.
"Push out! Get into space!"
At the shout of one commanding voice, every warrior in the combat hangar surged through the corridor and poured out into the vastness of the universe.
And the moment they entered space, they all froze in shock.
The entire universe was filled with connected blue planets.
No matter where they looked, there were tendrils. Endless tendrils.
"How are we supposed to fight this?"
One soldier, still wearing his helmet, stared at the scene before him and spoke in a voice full of despair. His words spread through the comms to every other fighter, battering their resolve.
Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle...
Just as hopelessness began to spread through the ranks, every one of them suddenly heard a sound like water boiling inside their minds. Then long blue tendrils, shaped almost like giant octopus limbs, began unfurling from the surfaces of those blue planets...
"Why can we hear sound?"
One of the fighters widened his eyes as he listened to the tendrils spreading. Then he seemed to realize something. He tore off his mask and took a huge breath.
"Everyone, for those of you who can't breathe in space, we don't need oxygen masks anymore! This universe is filled with breathable gases!"
His trembling voice spread over the comms, and suddenly everyone ripped off their masks and drew in deep breaths.
"This is insane. Why is this universe full of gas? Did that monster build some kind of giant oxygen field?"
One fighter asked the question in confusion.
"No!"
"That's because the monster is breathing!"
"This universe... is breathing!"
But the answer came back immediately from someone else.
"The universe is breathing?"
The soldier's eyes widened. He didn't fully understand what that meant, but it still shook him to the core.
Hoooo...
Just as the fighters were trying to process it, those massive tendrils unfurling from the planets, each one dozens of kilometers thick, had already reached them.
But the tendrils did not attack at once.
They floated there, facing the warriors, as if observing them.
"They're watching us!"
Morlix's single eye was razor-sharp. He knew those tendrils were studying them.
"Watching? They don't even have eyes. What are they using to watch us with?"
The octopus alien didn't understand. He had no idea how eyeless tendrils could possibly observe anything.
Pop, pop, pop...
In the next instant, eyes began opening all along those tendrils, staring straight at the invading warriors.
"Uh..."
At the sight of all those eyes, the octopus alien's heart clenched. He could feel a deep and overwhelming malice in them.
Pop, pop, pop...
And just as everyone was starting to feel their skin crawl under that sky full of eyes, new cracks began to split open along the tendrils.
Those cracks slowly widened, like human mouths.
"Eeheeheeheehee..."
A shrill, grating laughter rang out at the alien soldiers.
It was as if the tendrils were openly mocking them, mocking the sheer absurdity of these insignificant warriors coming here to challenge them.
//Check out my P@tre0n for 10 extra free chapters //[email protected]/Razeil0810