Chapter 252: Only a Common Enemy Can End the War
Inside the Blue Commander's camp, the hardcore military-style canteen buzzed with the gruff chatter of alien soldiers.
Gwen stared down at the metal tray in front of her. Her stomach, which had been rumbling just minutes ago, instantly tied itself into a tight knot.
"Ugh..." she muttered under her breath.
Who could blame her? Resting in the center of her plate was a roasted chicken—except its skin was a vibrant, toxic shade of purple, and it sported six thick drumsticks jutting out at unnatural angles. Beside the mutant poultry sat a pile of lumpy, slime-green fruits and a slab of violet bread that emitted a pungent odor resembling burnt rubber mixed with sour milk.
"Gwen? Aren't you eating?"
Xiaojie, happily gnawing on one of the squishy green fruits, tilted his head at her in confusion. Sweet juice dribbled down his chin.
Gwen forced a stiff, polite smile, subtly pushing the tray an inch away. "I'm... not quite hungry yet. You go ahead."
She turned her attention to the Blue Commander, who sat at the head of the heavy iron table. "So, I haven't actually asked yet. Why exactly are you guys fighting this war?"
The Blue Commander paused, a chunk of purple meat halfway to his mouth. He looked genuinely surprised by the question. Realizing the human girl wasn't trying to trick him, he set his food down and sighed. "We are simply protecting ourselves. I told your leader the exact same thing."
He leaned forward, his expression hardening. "However, those red guys across the battlefield claim the exact same nonsense. But they're just making excuses! They are the real invaders!"
Despite his passionate declaration, the Blue Commander wasn't being entirely truthful. The war's origins ran far deeper than mere border disputes. It was a bitter struggle over planetary resources, and more... the absolute allegiance of the Great Wise Man.
The Wise Man was a legendary figure from a forgotten era. He had established their civilization, penned their laws, and guided their ancestors. In his honor, the people had erected a colossal, hundred-meter-tall statue.
But time was a cruel mistress. Over the centuries, the harsh planetary winds had completely stripped the paint from the ancient monument. Now, absolutely no one could remember if the Wise Man had originally been painted red or blue.
Thus, the two factions bled each other dry, desperate to claim the Wise Man's legacy as their own.
Just as Klein had deduced upon arriving on this rock, there was no tragic misunderstanding to clear up. As long as the Red and Blue armies coveted the exact same idol, their war was an inevitable, endless meat grinder.
Klein, possessing a detached, almost god-like perspective on these petty squabbles, knew that talking them out of their religious fervor was a waste of breath. He was far too lazy to play the righteous savior anyway.
So, he opted for a much more pragmatic, trollish method: he would hand them a common enemy.
He didn't plan for this scapegoat to actually fight the combined armies to the death. The goal was simply to draw the absolute, unfiltered hatred of both factions, shatter their reason for fighting, and then slip away in the chaos.
As for who this unlucky scapegoat would be... Klein already had the perfect candidate in mind.
After lunch, Gwen received a crisp transmission from Klein. Her orders were simple: escort the Blue Commander to a designated neutral zone for friendly negotiations with the Red Commander. Ben was tasked with dragging the Red Commander to the same spot.
When Gwen relayed the itinerary, the Blue Commander broke out in a cold sweat. He was fiercely reluctant, but he didn't dare refuse the terrifying outsiders. He only breathed a heavy sigh of relief when Gwen assured him that Klein wasn't planning an execution, and even permitted him to bring his elite royal guard along.
Hovering in mid-air near the towering, hundred-meter-tall statue of the Wise Man was a sleek metallic spaceship.
Inside the vessel's spacious council chamber, the atmosphere was thick enough to cut with a knife. The Blue Commander and the Red Commander sat at opposite ends of a long table, glaring daggers at one another. Their respective subordinates stood rigidly behind them, hands twitching near their holstered weapons.
At the center of it all sat Klein, leaning back in his chair with an aura of absolute indifference. Gwen stood by his side, watching as he delivered a half-hearted, incredibly casual speech about the virtues of friendly coexistence.
It would have been a touching diplomatic moment if Klein had actually put any effort into it. But he didn't believe for a second that mere words would stop a holy war, so he barely bothered to hide his boredom.
Ten minutes of aimless mediation dragged on. Klein eventually stopped talking entirely, letting the two Commanders bicker, insult, and shout at each other over trivial historical slights.
Half an hour passed in this agonizing stalemate.
Ben, who had been completely ignoring the political shouting match, was leaning against the reinforced glass window. He stared out at the pale yellow landscape and the colossal statue several kilometers away.
Suddenly, he blinked, pressing his face against the glass. "Hey! What the heck is that?!"
The sudden outburst shattered the argument. Everyone in the room, including the red-faced Commanders, turned to look out the viewport.
High above the surface of the pale yellow planet, right next to the towering head of the Wise Man's statue, the fabric of space tore open. A deep, starry portal swirled into existence.
"Ah ha! I, Albedo, am finally free!!!"
A figure clad in a black and red jacket leaped out from the spatial rift, glowing with a blinding, crimson light as he plummeted through the sky.
With a thunderous, earth-shaking roar, the red light expanded. A massive alien materialized in mid-air. It stood nearly five meters tall, its upper body resembling a jagged, rocky crab, with miniature planets orbiting its dense form.
"A Galilean from Keplorr? Gravattack?" The Red Commander gasped, instantly recognizing the species.
Even from several kilometers away, the towering rock-beast was unmistakable, despite looking like a pebble compared to the hundred-meter statue beside it.
The Blue Commander pressed his hands against the glass, utterly bewildered. "What is that portal? Why is he here?!"
In truth, Albedo was just as confused as they were.
He had been rotting away in a high-security cell at the Plumbers' headquarters, behaving perfectly. But the prison food was a nightmare. Driven mad by hunger, he had been forced to gnaw on disgusting, shit-green nutrient bars that tasted infinitely worse than stale cardboard.
While he was sitting in his cell, questioning his life choices and craving real food, a spatial anomaly had flickered in front of him. Out of nowhere, the final, crucial component he needed to repair his broken Ultimatrix dropped right into his lap.
He had no idea where it came from or who had sent it. He knew damn well that whoever delivered it had ulterior motives.
But Albedo didn't care. He had no other choice. It was either rot in a cell eating green sludge, or fix the Ultimatrix and break out.
And he swore to the cosmos he was never eating one of those shit-green energy bars again.
"I want to eat..." Albedo had growled, staring hungrily at the newly repaired Ultimatrix on his left wrist. "Chi! Li! Fries!!!"
The moment he slammed the dial, a portal had swallowed him whole, spitting him out into the sky of this barren world.
"Albedo?" Ben squinted at the crimson alien.
"You know this guy?" the Blue Commander asked, shooting Ben a startled look.
Kevin, standing off to the side with his arms crossed, scoffed. "Yeah. He's the psychotic knock-off we sent to the Plumbers' maximum security prison."
The Red Commander nodded slowly, trying to process the information.
Then, under the watchful gaze of the entire council chamber, Albedo did something none of them could have ever predicted.
Suspended in the air, the newly freed Albedo looked up at the colossal, featureless face of the Wise Man's statue. A sudden wave of irrational annoyance washed over him, coupled with a strange, overwhelming urge to break something.
"Perfect," Albedo's deep, rocky voice echoed across the plains. "Time to test the Ultimatrix's latest function."
He reached up and slapped the spiked red symbol on his chest. "Ultimate Gravattack!"
A blinding flash of crimson energy engulfed him. When the light faded, a far more ferocious entity floated in the sky. His lower limbs had completely vanished, replaced by a jagged, floating planetary core. A dense ring of jagged meteorites orbited his body at blinding speeds.
Under the horrified, unblinking eyes of the Red and Blue Commanders, Ultimate Gravattack unleashed a terrifying wave of gravitational force.
With a single, deafening crunch, the intense gravity field seized the sacred, hundred-meter-tall statue of the Wise Man—and violently tore it into a million pieces.
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