Chapter 6: Apex of the Coleoptera
Simply beautiful.
"Mm-hmm. Let me see. How incredibly rare."
Herta crossed her arms, her doll joints clicking softly as she leaned in to size up the massive, trembling creature backed into the corner of the laboratory.
Rekka honestly did not want to act this cowardly. He was a Trailblazer, a chaotic anomaly who thrived on derailing the universe. But his current form came with heavy psychological baggage. Tayzzyronth, the original Aeon of Propagation, was inherently timid, crippled by severe social anxiety, and burdened with a heavy dose of survivor's guilt and PTSD. Back when the Coleoptera order was mercilessly slaughtered until only Tayzzyronth remained, the lonely insect had ascended to godhood out of sheer, desperate terror.
Right now, Rekka was feeling every ounce of that cosmic stage fright.
"Do you know?" Herta mused, her synthetic voice echoing in the sterile room. "These physical characteristics... he is rapidly approaching the absolute apex of the Coleoptera."
Herta was thoroughly fascinated. Her unblinking eyes tracked the subtle twitches of Rekka's antennae. Fortunately for him, the relatively kindhearted genius did not plan to slice him open for a vivisection. At most, she intended to scrape a few carapace fragments for her collection.
"I contacted another genius," Herta continued, waving a hand dismissively. "She dropped everything and rushed over the second she heard about such a miraculous individual. Tsk, tsk. You are quite lucky, you know."
The laboratory doors slid open with a soft pneumatic hiss.
The woman who stepped inside possessed an incredibly cool, detached temperament. Long dark hair cascaded down her back, framing piercing green eyes that held an indescribable sense of distance. The very air around her felt clinical, quiet, and utterly calculating.
'Is that Ruan Mei?'Rekka thought, his compound eyes locking onto the newcomer.'Of course it is.'
Instantly, his internal insect warning alarms blared at maximum volume. His six massive, scythe-like legs involuntarily shuffled backward. His heavy, armored body scraped against the pristine metallic floor, emitting a harsh, grating friction sound that set teeth on edge. The iridescent elytra on his back popped open a fraction of an inch, buzzing nervously before snapping shut again.
"Interesting."
Ruan Mei's voice was soft, barely more than a whisper, as if she were merely thinking aloud.
"Ruan Mei, you arrived at the perfect time." The Herta puppet lifted her chin, gesturing toward the giant bug cowering by the wall. "Look at this. The Astral Express's newest passenger. He switches Paths on a daily basis, and today, he landed on Propagation. But he is not just some ordinary follower. He is physically approaching the original, primordial form of Tayzzyronth."
Standing safely behind a reinforced glass partition, March 7th pressed her hands against the barrier. "Rekka seems really nervous," she whispered, her brow furrowed in concern. "I have never seen him this tense before."
"Normal reaction," Herta scoffed, not bothering to lower her voice. "Tayzzyronth was socially anxious and immediately went into hiding after ascending. His current form likely inherited the Aeon's deepest instinctual reactions. When facing a threat, the very first response is to flee."
Ruan Mei stepped closer, her green eyes sweeping over Rekka's trembling frame. "He is not an Emanator of Propagation. He is the nascent form of the Aeon itself."
She stated the impossible fact with an absolute, chilling certainty.
"Even if he is not the Aeon," Ruan Mei continued, her gaze tracing the glowing veins of Imaginary energy pulsing beneath his shell, "he belongs to the first generation personally bred by Tayzzyronth. He is fundamentally closer to the source than the Emanator Skaracabaz ever was. He is not a mere creation. He is the origin."
Hearing her clinical assessment, Rekka's six legs scrambled backward another half step. This time, his entire body sank lower to the ground, his mandibles clicking rapidly in distress.
"Alright, alright, Ruan Mei," Herta interrupted, tapping a holographic console. "First, give him a full non-contact scan. We need to collect his Imaginary energy fluctuations and baseline material composition."
"I am far more interested in his genetic information." Ruan Mei did not blink. She simply stared at Rekka with an expression of pure, unadulterated scientific hunger that made his hemolymph run cold.
Knowing the overarching plot of the universe, Rekka understood that Herta would not actively harm him. Ruan Mei, however, was a completely different story. She was entirely capable of subjecting him to horrific technological extremes purely out of harmless, detached curiosity.
Several soft blue beams erupted from the ceiling, sweeping over his massive carapace in a grid pattern. His primal instincts assured him the light was harmless, but he remained huddled in the corner, a giant, terrifying monster acting like a frightened puppy.
"Mm-hmm. Such astronomical Imaginary energy levels?" Herta leaned over the console, her artificial eyes widening slightly.
"His gene sequence is entirely indistinguishable from the Swarm," Ruan Mei noted, her fingers dancing across her own datapad. "Yet he is actively suppressing the instinct to divide. How incredibly strange."
The two geniuses fell into a rapid-fire discussion, trading complex biological theories and quantum physics equations. While Herta's personal interest in the Path of Propagation was not nearly as obsessive as Ruan Mei's, having a live, perfectly harmless, and completely unique sample right in front of her was an opportunity she refused to waste.
"His subconscious is maintaining an iron grip on the instinct to multiply," Herta explained, glancing back at March 7th. "If he stops controlling it for even a second, he will create a Swarm capable of consuming this entire space station within five minutes."
"F-five minutes?" March 7th stammered, her hands dropping from the glass. "Madam Herta, are you joking? Is it really that exaggerated?"
"Exaggerated?" Herta crossed her arms again. "I am being highly precise. However, as long as he keeps his wits about him, he will be fine for now."
A short time later, deep within the Seclusion Zone.
To prevent Rekka from accidentally causing a catastrophic station-wide incident, the two geniuses fitted him with a custom-made stabilization anchor. The heavy, glowing collar rested securely around his thorax, designed specifically to ground his consciousness just in case he forgot he was human and fully succumbed to the mindset of a mindless bug.
The heavy blast doors sealed shut behind him. He had entered the containment bay alone. Or rather, one giant insect had entered alone.
This particular sector of the Seclusion Zone was already populated. Several True Stings, artificially cultivated by Ruan Mei, were wandering aimlessly around the metallic enclosure. The moment Rekka stepped inside, his newly acquired antennae twitched. He could instantly read the chemical pheromones saturating the air.
How should he put it...
These bugs were absolute idiots.
The True Stings were significantly smaller than Rekka, barely reaching half his towering height. Their carapaces were a dull, muted brown, looking entirely unimpressive compared to his own magnificent, bioluminescent blue-violet shell.
But then, something entirely unexpected occurred.
Rekka blinked his compound eyes, and suddenly, his vision fractured. He could see the containment bay from the perspective of the True Stings.
These lesser insects, which normally did nothing but wander foolishly in search of food and a place to divide, immediately snapped their attention toward him. The moment he drew near, they swarmed his position, their movements frantic and desperate.
'Existence. Kin. Superior. Source. Lord. Queen. Father God.'
The invisible pheromone signals flooded his brain, mixing a chaotic cocktail of meanings. Some concepts Rekka could easily decipher, while others were a jumbled mess of primal static.
Worse still, Rekka quickly realized he could not sever the mental connection.
The visual perspectives of the True Stings hung permanently at the edges of his consciousness, acting like dozens of unclosable split-screen monitors. He could feel their hollow, gnawing hunger. He could feel their desperate craving for warmth. He could feel their overwhelming desire to approach him, held back only by their absolute terror of his superior presence.
The sensory overload was giving him a massive headache. Finally, an idea sparked in his mind.
He recalled that a certain type of insect possessed a unique biological function for feeding their young. Granted, that was usually a trait of the Blattodea order, and he was currently a proud member of the Coleoptera. Still, with the power of an Aeon coursing through his veins, he figured it was worth a shot.
He lowered his head and began fiddling with his massive, terrifying mouthparts.
A few minutes of gross, squelching effort later, a highly concentrated, solid, translucent sphere materialized between his two scythe-like claws. It looked exactly like a massive drop of solidified amber honey. In reality, it was a pure nutrient block condensed directly from the Path of Propagation, packed with an absurd amount of life-sustaining energy.
The glowing sphere was easily three to four meters in diameter.
The chaotic, scrolling text in Rekka's mind instantly shifted. The garbled code vanished, replaced by a uniform, deafening chorus of begging. Dozens of compound eyes lit up simultaneously across the room. The True Stings stared fixedly at the glowing sphere in his claws, their mandibles opening and closing incessantly, filling the bay with a frantic clicking and scraping sound.
Rekka raised his body and vibrated his iridescent wings, emitting a sharp, commanding hum. It was the exact equivalent of a tired parent scolding a group of rowdy children.
Instantly, the True Stings ceased their frantic clicking. They obediently shuffled into a neat, orderly line, guided entirely by his dominant pheromones.
Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.
A horrifying chorus of wet, heavy chewing sounds echoed through the containment bay. Rekka shifted his weight, feeling a deep sense of unease as he watched them devour the block.
As they fed, visible changes began to ripple through the lesser creatures.
Their dull brown shells darkened, taking on a thick, oily sheen. The bodies of several insects visibly swelled at a rapid pace, their thin wings thickening into sturdy, translucent blades. A few of the largest True Stings became so energized they began spinning rapidly in tight circles, looking exactly like digital monsters mid-evolution.
They were not actually evolving, of course. The pure Path energy was simply too rich, leaving them incredibly hyperactive.
"Rekka? Rekka!"
The heavy blast doors hissed open. It was March 7th's voice.
"I was still a bit worried about you," she called out, stepping into the dim light. "I brought you something to eat... Waaahhh! Rekka! What are you doing! What are they eating! Are they eating you?!"
March 7th had completely misread the situation.
She shrieked, nearly dropping the large metal thermos clutched in her hands. Her right hand instantly flew to the crystalline bow strapped to her waist. From her angle by the door, the dense swarm of hyperactive insects completely obscured Rekka's lower half, and the wet, heavy crunching sounded exactly like giant bones being gnawed to dust.
"Don't... buzz... misunderstand... buzz!"
Rekka panicked. He flapped his massive wings frantically, emitting a series of urgent, vibrating buzzes that rattled the metal walls. He quickly swept his massive forelimbs forward, shooing the True Stings away like a man swatting at annoying flies.
"Scatter... buzz! Everyone scatter... buzz!"
In the blink of an eye, the hyperactive bugs scrambled backward in sheer terror. A large, empty circle opened up around Rekka, leaving only the half-eaten, glowing nutrient sphere resting alone on the floor.
"Hoo... buzz... It's fine... buzz..."
Rekka let out a long, rattling sigh of relief. His glowing antennae drooped downward, and he deliberately tucked his scythes against his chest, adopting the most obedient, harmless posture a giant terrifying space bug could possibly manage.
March 7th froze completely solid. She stood near the entrance, her hands still gripping her unstrung bow, blinking owlishly at the bizarre scene in front of her.
"Uh... they... actually listen to you?"
She carefully lowered her weapon, her pink hair bouncing as she peered around the room. The terrifying True Stings were now huddled in the far corners of the bay, trembling violently.
"Were you... lecturing them?" she asked, tilting her head. "Or feeding them?"
"Feeding them... buzz... They were hungry... buzz..."
Rekka slowly extended one massive forelimb, pointing a sharp claw at the glowing amber sphere.
"Nutrient block... buzz... I kneaded it myself... buzz..."
"You kneaded it yourself?"
March 7th's expression twisted into an incredibly complex mask of horror and amusement. She looked at the translucent, faintly glowing sphere covered in bite marks, then looked up at Rekka's razor-sharp, scythe-like claws. Her mind vividly conjured the image of the giant, terrifying monster carefully rolling a massive ball of bug-spit like a child playing with mud.
"Ew! That sounds kind of gross!"
She wrinkled her nose in dramatic disgust, but a second later, a bright, ringing laugh escaped her lips.
"Alright, alright. Seeing that you still have the energy to play parent and feed your little brothers, I am officially relieved. I snuck into the Seclusion Zone risking a massive scolding from Madam Herta. If you had actually been eaten by bugs, this food would have been brought for nothing, right?"
She walked confidently up to Rekka, completely ignoring the trembling True Stings in the corners, and found a clean spot on the floor to sit. She made sure to keep a very healthy distance from the half-eaten nutrient sphere.
"Um... I have never raised giant space bugs before, so I honestly do not know what you like to eat right now," she admitted, unscrewing the cap of the heavy thermos. "But I asked Sister Himeko, and she said insects mostly suck fluids. So, I took the liberty of blending all the leftover fruits and vegetables from the Astral Express's refrigerator, and then I mixed in the fresh carrot juice Pom-Pom just bought! I blended it all together! Even though the color looks a bit like... well, you know, that thing... the nutrition is definitely rich!"
She proudly held up the thermos, revealing a thick, sludgy, violently orange-brown liquid that smelled faintly of despair.
At that exact moment, the collective hive mind of the True Stings flared with a sudden, violent craving. The swarm desperately wanted to leap forward and chew the noisy, pink-haired girl to pieces.
Rekka's eyes narrowed. With a single, crushing pulse of his dominant will, he mentally slapped the entire swarm down, burying their violent thoughts under a mountain of absolute, terrifying silence.
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