When Immortal Ascension Fails Time Travel to Try Again

AFS: The Final Act 5 - Killing the Motherbrain?! (Story End?)

After a few more weeks of intense training and seeing everyone’s significant improvements, it was finally time to leave on our end-of-year mission.

We boarded the Blue Jaguar, one of the military school’s major attack ship’s that they used during finals that required students to attack Star Bugs. Though a mission like this, where the school would attack a mothership was rare, it wasn’t unheard of either.

They assigned each of my team members rooms next to each other. Fortunately, no one had to bunk with each other. I had a feeling it was partially because my mother was a duchess of some standing in the Empire and our skills had proven to the teachers that we were one of the better teams.

Of course, it could also be because we were going on a dangerous infiltration mission.

I gathered everyone together in my room and set up the room’s program to not record anything.

“So, according to the school, we’ll be traveling through hyperspace for a week to get to the location the Mothership is flying. We’ll spend three full days attempting to take down the Mothership. If we can’t either target the brain from the outside or kill it ourselves and get out within those three days then we’ll leave.”

I paused. In the book, they’d managed to kill the massively powerful humanoid Star Bug, but they had to leave early before the ship was trashed. Well, I guess I was about to change that.

“This is not an option for us. We’re going to get to the brain and kill it before anyone else has the chance to. But that’s not all, We’re going to get out of there safely too. Just because we kill the Mothership doesn’t mean that all the bugs stop working. Humanoid and Mantis types have the ability to control a few of the ones around them so while getting out won’t be as dangerous, we can’t let ourselves die right after we’ve succeeded.”

Everyone nodded.

“That’s why we’re going to spend the next days leading up to the attack training.”

“The other teams are resting during this time,” Jessica pointed out. I didn’t blame her for wanting a break. Frankly, during the last few weeks I’d been the hardest on her since she needed the most improvement. Of course, that was mostly because she was a freshman and hadn’t been through all the classes that the others had. Well, MingRen was a freshman too but I didn’t really count him since he was too good at improving. I was pretty sure his physique and spiritual energy was nearing SSS Rank at this point.

Considering that he was the female protagonist’s blood relative, that made sense.

I raised an eyebrow. “Most of the other teams are either fighting the bugs outside or are protecting the Blue Jaguar.”

“Their jobs aren’t easy.”

I grinned. “No, but they’ll have an easier time retreating. We don’t take breaks because we won’t get them.”

They all looked very sad.

I chuckled. “Take the day before off, but don’t do anything crazy. I want you to take that day to rest. At most, you can stretch or do some light calisthenics.”

They all looked like they were about to cry with joy. Okay, I had been a bit of a hard ass these last few weeks, but I did it to keep these kids alive! Whatever.

With a few taps to my screen, I sent everyone the light training schedule I developed. This would allow them to keep sharp but not anything more.

They all looked at their schedule with grim faces.

“This is a light schedule. More than half of your day is spent on free time.”

MingRen cleared his throat. “We were just surprised about how light it was.”

I nodded sagely.

Derrick patted Jessica’s shoulder, “It’s okay, we’re not going to die from this.”

“I know… I just.”

“Think of it this way, once you come back, you can take a month off.”

“Yes!”

“Dismissed.”

Everyone left except MingRen who sat down at my desk and raised an eyebrow at me.

I raised an eyebrow back. “Why aren’t you starting your training schedule?”

“Because you took training with you off of everyone’s schedule aside from a short hour group practice. I wanted to ask you why?”

“What? Are you missing your pseudo-nominal sister that much already?”

He sighed. “Fairy Lin.”

“Because we still haven’t been able to pass that special hallway scenario I decided that our mechs need a little something extra. I’ll need this week to add a little something special to everyone’s mechs.”

“What is it?”

“A protective talisman.” While researching ingredients for advanced mechs I’d discovered that a few of them were similar to materials used to make a certain type of defensive spiritual item. I’d been planning on adding something like that to their mech for awhile now but I didn’t want the materials to go to waste during a simple practice.

He blinked. “A protective talisman?”

I grinned. “Since you’re here, you may as well give me your mech to be my first experimental subject.”

He nervously handed me the gold ring he wore on his right hand’s index finger.

I chuckled evilly while staring at the ring.

“A-are you sure this is going to work?”

“98%”

“And the other two percent?” His voice seemed to get a bit higher.

“Boom!”

He jumped like he was about to grab his mech back.

“Don’t worry. If I blow up your mech, I’ll just get you a spare.”

“But those spares aren’t good at all!”

“Then you better hope I’m as good as I say I am.”

His fingers twitched like he wanted to take his ring back.

“Now, go do your training schedule. You’re already eating into your free time.”

“Fuck!” He ran out the door.

***

Because the ship was equipped to go into battle, it had a mech emergency bay where mechs would be repaired quickly during battle so they could go back out and kill more Space Crabs.

It took some minor bribes, but I managed to convince the guy responsible for repairing mechs to allow me to use a single mech bay for my repairs.

I brought out MingRen’s medium-sized mech. With its big arms, it looked almost like a brawler.

Then I took out the ingredients that I needed to add a protective talisman to the mech.

It had taken me a while to figure out where to place something like this, but I finally decided that it should go on the arm as a flat piece that could be taken off and discarded once the protection ended.

This required me to make a spoon for it on the forearm of the mech.

I grabbed the device that allowed for easy armor removal and took off a piece of the forearm. From there, I set up a secret crafter’s technique and molded a section outside of the armor. Once done, it was time to make the correct shape out of a handful of Four Stars Manic Steel. I did this by placing the steel inside the formation for a minute then used some of the tools I brought to perfectly craft the steel to fit the slot in the armor. Just before I took the steel out of the formation, I carved the right glyphs into it.

Next was the difficult part. I grabbed the Empowered Cold Blue Silver dust that I’d spent hours making. Then I carefully shoved it into the glyph. To make the powder melt, I slowly poured my spiritual energy into it. This empowered the protective spiritual item.

Once I put everything in place, it didn’t look half bad.

Damn, I was good.

And since I was here I might as well calibrate his mech as well.

But this had already taken too much of my spiritual energy. I’d have to wait until tomorrow to create another of these. Let’s see, who would be my next lucky test subject? Muahahaha!

***

Between needing to recover my spiritual energy and working on all of the mechs, the peaceful days went by far too fast.

Soon it was the night before the big operation. I’d been trying to fall asleep when I heard yelling coming from the other room.

Frustrated, I threw on my robes and went to check it out.

MingRen had apparently also heard the yelling because he was rubbing his eyes as he walked out of his room. We turned to the room where all the commotion was happening.

It was Derrick’s room. The fuck was happening in there?

Just then, Jessica opened Derrick's door. She froze when she saw us and her face turned bright red.

“You know,” I said, “the rooms here are designed to use a force field in case of a hull breach. This means that they could use less materials when creating the non weight bearing walls. You know what happens when walls are thin… right?”

“Sorry!” She bowed to me and to MingRen in apology.

I sighed. “Frankly, I don’t care what you’re doing in Derrick’s room this late at night—“

“We were…” she looked impossibly frustrated and angry. “Just going over weapons schematics.”

Oh. This poor girl wanted a booty call the night before a dangerous and life threatening mission and got a mech rifle obsessed nerd instead.

Although I wasn’t the type of person to do something like that myself, I’d seen it countless times over the years.

I saluted her in my heart.

“It’s not what you think.”

I nodded sagely. “Of course not. Just get some sleep. Maybe try meditating.”

She scowled up at me but then nodded and left to go to her room.

“Ah, Fairy Lin?”

I sighed and turned to my nominal brother. “What is it?”

“If I don’t make it out alive—”

I sent a flick of spiritual energy toward his glabella. He practically jumped to the ceiling despite the artificial gravity. When he landed, he rubbed his forehead.

“Ow!”

“Are you awake now?”

He looked hurt.

I grinned. “Listen up. While it’s fine to always be prepared for your own demise… you shouldn’t think about it like that. Instead, think about things that you have to do so you’ll fight tooth and nail to stay alive, even if it’s only as a head in a jar.”

“Like what?”

I thought of what kept me going… mostly it was spite and anger. But it was also a love for myself. I mean, I was fucking badass.

If anyone’s efforts to reach immortality should be rewarded, it was mine.

I grinned. “Tell you what, if you’re able to survive I’ll allow you to learn how to cultivate.”

He scowled. “Why would I need that?”

“So you can become immortal.”

“Immortality sounds like a curse.”

I laughed. “That sounds like propaganda developed to stop people from trying to reach it. If you love yourself enough and are willing to walk the path alone, then there is nothing better than cultivating immortality.”

“But you’d have to watch your loved ones die while you live on.”

“What’s stopping that from happening anyway?” I pointed out. “This universe has no guarantees. Even I, as powerful and knowledgeable as I am, could die tomorrow.”

His eyes unfocused and he paled. “You’re not going to die though, right?”

“If I do, I’ll have my soul go take over one of my clones.” I laughed.

“That’s not funny.”

“Of course it is! Now, go to sleep.”

He seemed a bit dazed, probably from exhaustion, but he nodded and went back into his room.

It was time I finally slept as well.

***

The infiltration teams all gathered in a particular hangar bay. To conserve our mech’s energy, we would be taking a shuttle through enemy bugs while wearing combat spacesuits.

Even Prince Chad was there, looking like a sleek spaceman in his black suit. Our eyes made contact and he sneered at me before turning away.

Whatever.

Professor Glass stood in front of us, eyes stern.

“Most of you already know this, but for those who don’t, We need to kill off this mothership. Its current path of destruction is heading right toward an Empire colony.”

He paused, probably to let that sink into everyone. “Currently, it’s stopping to refuel at a gas giant in the Quasar 7 star system before it makes its next hyperspace jump right into Empire territory.”

Someone raised their hand. “Is there a humanoid space bug on this ship?”

“As far as we know, there isn’t. However, if any of you see a humanoid star bug, then, if you’re below SS Rank then you’re probably already dead.”

Someone else raised their hand. “Do we know where the Mothership’s Master Brain is?”

Professor Glass glared at the student. “If we did, then we could shoot it out using the big guns and infiltration missions like these wouldn’t be necessary.”

A soft alarm sounded.

“Warning, we’re approaching a Star Bug Mothership. Everyone prepare for contact with the enemy!”

“Alright. Each team has a spy drone that will allow you to keep in contact with a teacher at all times. If you find yourself in a tricky situation and are unable to retreat, the drone will inform the nearest teacher and their team will quickly come and back you up if they’re able. That said, don’t get too far from the main teams. This isn’t a race.”

He pulled out several balls from his spacial ring and threw them into the air. They started flying towards each of the different teams. One even flew over to me… then bumped into me. Fuck! Had we gotten a defective one?

I poked it, and it flew back a bit. Then it started to fly around my group.

Maybe Chad had given us a bad one so we couldn’t call for help. I eyed it suspiciously.

“Professor Glass! I’d like a different spy drone.”

He opened up a screen on his light brain and glanced at some numbers. “Your drone is fine, Miss Lin. It just… likes you. They do that.”

Do they? I glanced at everyone who seemed like they had something better to look at than in my direction. Even my team. Fuck, whatever.

“Now that you have your drone. It’s time for you all to enter the shuttle. These are being piloted by some very brave shuttle pilots. Be sure to follow their instructions when it comes to exiting with your mech and staying in your group. The last time we did something like this, several students didn’t follow directions and ended up flying into the middle of a Space Bug swarm.”

Professor Glass looked like he wanted to keep lecturing us for a few more hours but instead briefly closed his eyes. “You have been the best students I’ve ever had the pleasure to teach. I hope to see you all again at the end of this fight.”

Through speakers, a cool voice said, “Infiltration teams, please get ready! You will be clear to go in four minutes!”

We ran to our designated shuttle and boarded it. Each of us put on our six point safety harnesses and sat in the big bubble area of the shuttle.

The pilot called out on the speakers, “Alright you crazy kids. You should be trained on how to wear your mech in case we take fire and my ship goes boom right?” He cackled.

“Mr. Pilot, you’re not giving us a lot of confidence,” MingRen yelled.

“I’m not! Well, buckle up then, because it’s going to be one hell of a bumpy ride. We’re gonna go straight up this Mothership’s ass and ride her behind until we come in for a driveby landing.”

There were so many things wrong with that last statement that I didn’t know where to start. Did the fucker Chad assign us to the crazy pilot?

Fuck it. Sometimes crazy is what got you through in a fight.

“Everyone be prepared for emergency mech materialization!”

“Will do!”

A soft woman’s voice came over the comms. “Captain Lee. You’re free to depart in, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.”

Even with the inertia dampeners, the acceleration we experienced during take off was significant. Of course, they probably took into account that we all had at least S Rank physiques and could handle a few extra Gs.

Our pilot cackled madly as we raced forward. A massive gas giant took over a small portion of our screen, but even at this distance, we were considered too close for comfort. Gas giants gave off a fuck ton of radiation.

SS Rank physiques could take a certain amount and still be fine but the fuck would I take any chances.

And speaking of, I double checked the radiation shielding on my spacesuit. It was working as it should.

Soon a small pinkish black dot appeared on the screen. It quickly started to become larger and larger.

So, this was the Mothership. It didn’t exactly look like a crab, but it did look like something out of some kid’s nightmares with it being twisty with massive mountain sized spikes growing out of its top and bottom.

For a second I wondered if, at golden core, my divine sense could cover that whole area… Then I remembered that my divine sense was at Immortal Ascension level.

Yeah. This was doable.

That was when the first weapons started to fire in our direction.

“Listen up kiddos! The bugs have noticed our group. While I’m going to do a bit of evasive maneuvering, be sure to hold on to your stomachs! Bahahahaha!”

Motherfucking crazy ass pilot. I approved.

The ship jerked this way and that. It even seemed to speed right the fuck up.

Surprisingly, Derrick was the first one to look like he needed to throw up.

After several more minutes of intense maneuvering, our little shuttle’s side thrusters turned all the way around and started slowing us down.

We spent several more minutes like that until we were so close to the Mothership that I thought we might crash if we kept our speed and course.

“Alright. This is where you four get out of your harnesses and into your mechs. We have one more minute before you need to be ready to start flying under your own power.”

We quickly unbuckled our harness and flew to the back of the shuttle.

Already everyone was taking out their mechs and entering the cockpit. I took out my own.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to admire its magnificence, because it was time to go!

I entered the cockpit and booted it up. I could almost feel the personality of the mech.

“Alright, you crazy kiddos! You’ve trained for this, but I’ll go over it one more time. Once I release your mechs, you’ll need to use your flying pack to adjust your trajectory. Find a nice empty hole to enter the Mothership and hide as fast as you can. While the bugs will have our mech distracting their asses, you need to do your job and kill this Mothership’s fucked brain. Shit! Ready or not, your mechs will be ejected from the shuttle in, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1!”

The shuttle turned and the small mech bay in the back opened up to the vacuum outside. While our shuttle increased its acceleration in the opposite direction, we kept going.

“Everyone use your packs to slow down!”

I expanded my divine sense and found a nearby tunnel that was empty.

“Follow my lead.”

I sent everyone the coordinates of the tunnel just in case they got lost and booked it… and by that I meant slowing down in that general direction, but whatever.

I avoided a few random shots that weren’t exactly aimed at us but more at the ships we came from. Actually, these Motherships didn’t exactly have the best defenses against Mechs, which was one of the reasons the Empire used them against the Star Bugs.

A few minutes of slowing down while avoiding getting shot later and we landed outside the tunnel. I ran forward for a bit and watched each of my teammates safely land.

When Jessica touched down she said, “I don’t think I’ve ever been so grateful for space being so big and for us being so small.”

I know, girl. I know.

“Where do we go from here?” MingRen asked.

Derrick adjusted his rifle. “I think we’re the first ones to land.”

“Well, let's get deeper into this tunnel before we decide anything.” I said.

We flew for a few minutes. The architecture of this Mothership was strange and organic. Fortunately it had decent lighting, though that didn’t matter between our variety of sensors and my divine sense.

And speaking of my divine sense. I’d already located the Motherbrain and calculated the safest path.

“Alright. Our goal is to get to the Motherbrain in 10 hours. And get out within 16.”

There were several shocked gasps coming from everyone’s comms.

I grinned. “Follow me, and you’ll never go wrong.”

***

When Wang MingRen first heard Fairy Lin say that she’d take everyone to the Motherbrain (shit, now he was calling it that) he thought she was just insane. They estimated three days for a reason.

However, as they passed empty corridor after empty corridor, he had a weird suspicion that she knew where the bugs were going to be before even they knew.

Was she some kind of diviner? And if this was the case, then he wondered why she’d trained them so damn hard… Fuck. Everyone was going to die on this mission, weren’t they? That was the only thing that made sense.

Oh, there had been a couple of small skirmishes with the tiny Star Bugs that patrolled the hallways, but that was mostly a quick assassination. Most of the time, the bugs didn’t know what hit them.

He’d also been thinking about what she’d said about immortality. But, rather than thinking about what it would be like to be immortal, he couldn’t help but consider what her life must have been like. She must have been so alone on her path. And, if she chose to go down that path again in this life, she’d be even more alone since there would be no one to fight against. No one to discuss things with.

Instead of being alone with many equals, she’d be alone and unequaled.

And when he saw her so easily doing things like lead everyone through the most dangerous mission they’d ever signed up for as casually as taking a walk in a garden, he realized that…

Well, that would be for later. If they made it out of this alive.

He still didn’t trust this string of good luck.

***

So, one of the reasons I made it take 10 hours instead of zooming there within six, was because I knew from the novel how long it would take Prince Chad to meet with the Humanoid Star Crab.

Except that it had already been 9.75 hours and Chad was literally on top of the Motherbrain. All he needed to do was turn a few corridors and he’d reach it! Also, why the hell did he leave his team behind? The fucker wasn’t invincible.

Oh wait. He was a Shojo male lead, so maybe he was.

I grabbed my mech sized pistol and fired it into the brain area of one of the small crabs that was blocking my path.

We needed to speed up or Chad would make it there first.

I turned the corner just in time to see Chad’s mech stop in shock a few yards from the entrance of the room. Then he ran for it. Shit he was fucking faster and closer!

Just after he entered the doorway his mech flew directly out of the brain room and even crashed through a few walls.

I, very cautiously, took a step back behind the corner and signaled my team to stop and be fucking quiet.

Then I used my divine sense to track the humanoid alien as it flew after Chad. The two started to really fuck shit up so bad that the ships walls shuddered

“It’s going to start getting dangerous from this point on.”

“You mean that infiltrating a goddamn Star Bug Mothership wasn’t already dangerous?”

“Are you okay, MingRen?”

“I… let’s just kill this brain and go back to the ship.”

“Not so simple. According to previous successful attempts to kill a Motherbrain as soon as it senses danger it will start calling all the nearby Star Bugs over to protect it. And that would include the humanoid Star Bug that Prince Chad is so kindly taking care of for us.”

That caused everyone to give a silent fuck in the good prince’s honor.

From there, I assigned Jessica and Derrick to guard outside while my nominal brother and I entered the main room.

That was when I finally laid eyes on a real Motherbrain. It looked different in real life than in the videos I’d seen before. Well, it visually looked the same, like a massive glowing blue mess of aliens brain matter. But now that I could actually feel it with all of my senses, it changed how I perceived it.

Because it was filled with various different energies. Almost as if this brain was the Dantian of the Star Bug ships.

Just to MingRen, I sent, “Because of the possible danger to the mushroom. I’ll need to collect it first before we attempt to kill the brain.”

His mech nodded and seemed to tense.

I put my mech away, and it turned into a beautiful blue ring that I wore on my right ring finger.

I immediately walked over to a corner of the room and received a shock. Not only was the Mushroom there, but there was also another spiritual flower. This particular flower, Three Tears Pink Fire Lotus, was known for being the main ingredient in a Perfected Nascent Soul Dan. It was a good thing that I’d brought more than one jade box.

First, I used my dagger and a brief use of Any Blade is my Sword to cut the hard material of the brain room. This way, I could take the shroom and some of its root system. Finally the Mushroom, the whole fucking reason I was there to begin with was safely stored away inside of my spacial ring.

Next was the lotus. It wasn’t actually a lotus but whoever named it thought that it looked close enough.

Collecting it was a bit more tricky because I had to dig through the hard ground to get to the glowing golden roots. Eventually, I managed it.

Finally! Now it was time to kill a fucking alien ship.

“Fairy Lin! Are you done?”

“I’m done. Just let me get back in.”

I brought out my mech just in time to see the first few small crabs start to attack Jessica and Derrick.

Fortunately, the two had good chemistry… when working together. I wasn’t sure if they could work together in… different ways.

Well, may as well get this party started.

I pulled out my special sword, cast a shielding technique and walked toward the Motherbrain that was larger than my mech.

I could feel the thing hum with energy.

“Hurry up! They’re coming at us on all sides.”

Grimacing, I threw a slash of sword Qi at the base of the brain. It barely scratched the surface… and its stalk connecting it to the ground (or ceiling?) of the room was as thick as a 500-year-old tree trunk.

Considering all the energy running through it, I had expected it to start fighting back. But maybe the brain was really defenseless.

Well, I was probably thinking too much. According to the reports, the brain could only be killed by cutting off the stalk. If we tried to attack the brain matter, the whole thing would explode… which would basically kill us, the crabs and the other teams inside. They had hammered home the importance of killing it by cutting it off.

MingRen started to hack at the base using his plasma sword. He had the same problem that my Sword Qi had.

“MingRen, move back and back up Jessica and Derrick.”

“It’s going to take you forever to slice it off if we don’t work on this together.”

“Trust me.”

“Okay.”

The first thing I did was grab the damn spy drone and throw it out of the room. It buzzed at me with sorrow but then went to spy on the three kids fighting a horde of bugs outside.

I could get away with using a small slash of sword Qi while it watched, but what I was about to do wasn’t something I could let others witness. Because I was about to pull out some really good moves.

The first thing I did was use the fake Any Armor is my Body technique on my mech to fully integrate myself with it. Frankly, I wouldn’t be able to pull this off otherwise.

Because this was a technique that I could only do at Golden Core and up. Though at Nascent Soul, the way cultivators fought changed from more physical to more metaphysical, so it had been awhile since I last did this. The last time was… when I showed it to a few sword cultivators to help them gain insight? Yeah. Whatever.

This time would be different though since I was casting it through a spiritual tool like this mech, but it should still be effective.

I concentrated on connecting with the sword I’d created. It was a spiritual weapon made with these futuristic materials. But a sword was a sword.

Once ready I flew forward and stabbed straight through the stalk… but that wasn’t the end of it as a hundred swords made of sword Qi, then stabbed out of the stalk at the same plane, severing the trunk cleanly.

“Sword of the Hundred Petaled Flower.”

The brain, released from its location, started floating in space as the small bit of artificial gravity turned off. And the massive amount of energy that had been inside the brain slowly started to seep out.

No. This could be useful as a power source to create a powerful weapon. This might be my one chance to steal it since I doubted the military would let me keep it as spoils of war. I opened my cock pit, wrapped my spiritual energy around the leaking brain, preventing all of its energy from escaping. Then I threw it into one of the spacial rings I’d made before returning.

Since spirit stones didn’t exist, I’d have to find new energy sources to use so I didn’t have to constantly drain my own energy. This Motherbrain could be one.

***

Now that it was detached from the ship, and the systems were starting to shut down I could sense the panic coming from the various swarms of Star Crabs.

However, the ones attacking my team weren’t letting off. Instead they became even more desperate. Even as some of them failed due to lack of gravity.

I quietly flew out of the brain room and watched for a second as Jessica protected everyone from a mass of confused and desperate Space Crabs.

I thought she was doing pretty well but she turned on the comms, “This… this is almost like all those cross section virtual missions we failed. My Mech’s energy is draining too fast.”

“It’s not that bad,” MingRen said.

“No. It’s worse because we're down the team leader.”

She threw off several crabs with her shield and stabbed another two small crabs through their brains. “I’m sorry. I don’t think I’ll be able to last much longer under this onslaught!”

Uh huh. My protective talismans hadn’t even activated yet.

“You can do it!” MingRen said and sliced a few more bugs that she couldn’t get to at her angle. “Let’s just back up to the brain room.”

Just then a mantis crab came out of the mass of small crabs it had been hiding within and sent several strong blasts at our heavy mech’s cockpit. From the angle it was coming from, it would perfectly bypass her shield too.

“Jessica!” Derrick’s rifle mech got between her and the blast.

My protective talisman activated taking the hits in his stead but, maybe they both didn’t notice in the heat of the fight because she said, “Derrick!”

He must have thought he was down because he said, “Jessica. I want you to know... that I like you more than rifle schematics!”

“Oh Derrick!”

Fucking nerds. Still, they were a little adorable.

“The Motherbrain is dead so the one controlling these bugs is probably that Mantis crab,” I announced. “Also, you’re not injured. Fortunately, MingRen covered for you both while you had your little moment there but he can’t last that long.”

They both coughed awkwardly and started fighting again.

I joined in for a little while, then became frustrated as fuck.

“Hey, MingRen. That spy drone is being a bother. Interrupt its sensors for a sec.”

He coughed. “Um… Shouldn’t we call for backup?”

“Naw. Too annoying. Besides, the only one close to us would be Prince Chad’s team.”

He finished slicing a few of the crabs in front of him then grabbed the spy drone in one of his massive hands.

“Finally.” I grinned at all of these little small fries. And slashed towards them, “Ten Thousand Cuts!”

Not only did all of the small bugs slice into two, but even the walls took on massive amounts of damage. This only left the large mantis.

“Uh, team leader? What was that?” Jessica asked.

“Something you’re going to keep your mouth shut about… because even if you say it, no one will believe you.”

“Y-yes!”

“Derrick, kill that Mantis — I don’t feel like wasting my energy.”

“Yes, team leader!”

The Mantis knew what was up and made a run for it… well, since the gravity was out, it was technically a ‘fly for it.’ Derrick aimed his rifle at the back of its neck and pulled the trigger, sending a high-powered blast straight through its neck with perfect aim.

“Good work.”

“It’s all thanks to your technique.”

I cleared my throat. “So, now that the corridor is clear, do you two need a minute?”

“Please just… Can we leave now?”

“What? Why be embarrassed now? That was a very sweet way to confess your feelings.”

“I’m gonna go change schools now.”

“Fairy Lin,” MingRen, probably trying to be kind to poor, embarrassed Derrick, caught my attention, “can I release the spy drone?”

“Let’s move out of the area first.”

***

We spent another twenty minutes flying through tunnels. Any of the Space Crabs we ran into were so busy running around trying to figure out what to do while they lacked the Motherbrain’s instructions that they completely ignored us.

While leaving, I tried to keep my divine senses open so I could tell where the dangerous places were.

Of course, one of the dangerous places was the fight going on between the Male Lead and the Humanoid Space Bug. These fuckers were crashing through walls and seriously compromising the internal structure of this ship.

I had thought that the pathway out of here that I’d chosen would have been way the fuck clear of their fight, but it appeared like they would intercept us at any moment…

“Goddamn it!”

I quickly sent instructions to MingRen’s mech to go down the pathway I’d set. Then I grabbed all of their mechs with spiritual energy and threw them behind me right as both the humanoid bug and Chad’s golden panther mech fell through the wall right in front of me.

The golden panther stayed still. But the alien did not. Got to its bare purple and pink feet and turned it’s fucked up humanoid head to stare at my mech with it’s beady black eyes.

This wouldn’t have been so disturbing, except part of its head had obviously already been clawed off… and it was still going like the fucking wound was nothing.

I contacted Prince Chad’s mech through my own. “Hey, are you still awake?”

The alien took a step toward me.

Fuck. Chad was supposed to beat this thing. Why the fuck was he out already.

“If I have to kill this thing for your ass, I’m going to demand extra payment.”

Still no word. I cursed. Considering how much energy I used just killing the Motherbrain and all those crabs earlier, I was down too much for a prolonged fight. Looked like I’d have to rely on my physique here.

Something bumped into my mech, and I realized that I’d forgotten to toss the damn spy drone to the others.

Motherfucker!

Well, I’d have to find a way to kill this bot. I mean, it didn’t do anything wrong, but I couldn’t have it recording me... and it wasn’t like I'd named it Steve and become emotionally attached to it.

Shit. Its name was Steve now.

That was when the evil, pink bug flew toward me at speeds that my current physique couldn't follow. Fortunately, my divine sense and spiritual energy could keep up with it.

I pulled out my side arm and fired several rounds that bounced off the bug’s head.

The fuck was this thing made of? And could I use it to make a weapon?

I holstered my mech-sized gun and pulled my sword back out. This was no time to hold back. I inserted my spiritual energy into the mech just like I had when I first arrived, only this mech was one I’d designed specifically to take it.

When the alien neared me, I slashed towards his torso in an attempt to slice him in half. His purple skin… wasn’t actually skin. It was a hard shell. Harder than any other crab I'd come across since I’d come to this time. But only slightly harder than the Mothership’s brain stalk.

To kill this thing, I’d need to use another Sword of the Hundred Petaled Flower.

But, with my spiritual energy as drained as it was, I could only do one more before I needed to meditate for an hour or two.

The problem was that I could easily waste it if I wasn’t careful.

This pink crab person was no joke.

He flew towards my cockpit as if he were about to fly straight through it. I flew to the side using my thrusters, avoiding him.

His hand barely came into contact with my armor and left a nasty scratch on the surface, but that was it.

We turned to look at each other, both of us gauging the skills of the other. I was sure we’d have a lot to talk about if the crabs bothered to learn the human language or if humans could even fathom the strange crab language.

In a last attempt to wake up the male lead, I said, “Fine, if you don’t come help me beat this thing, then I’m gonna tell Miss Liu that she can find a better guy than you!”

I thought for sure that it would work. Eh, too bad. Looked like I was on my own here... Aside from Steve that kept fucking running into me.

We exchanged a few more testing blows, and I realized that, while this crab person was strong, and had a deep spiritual pressure that could make those under SS rank suffer, it couldn’t use its spiritual energy in an attack.

Of course, that didn’t mean I had the advantage. The bug was like dealing with a pure body cultivator in-between Golden Core and Nascent Soul.

Just then, a strong blast of mech rifle fire hit the injured side of the Star Bug’s pink head.

Goddamn it.

Over my comms, I heard MingRen’s voice. “We’re not leaving you to fight this thing alone.”

I scowled. “You should. You’ll all just get in my way.”

“At the very least, I can hold that annoying spy drone for you.”

Then his stupid looking mech with its big arms appeared around the corner and snatched the stupid spy drone from mid air.

“Its name is Steve.” Everyone was looking at my mech strangely but whatever. “But you’re right. We shouldn’t let it see this.”

“And I can distract the Space Bug with a few well placed pot shots,” Derrick said, while firing another blast at the crab person.

Then Jessica’s heavy mech came barreling around the corner, her shield in front of her, ready to take a hit. “And, at the very least, I can protect these two so you don’t have to worry about them.”

“I thought you were running out of energy?”

She coughed. “I replaced my battery pack.”

“It’s why we took so long getting back here after you threw us out of danger.”

I grimaced and exchanged a few more blows with the Alien.

“Alright. If you all are willing to face this Crab Person with me then so be it. MingRen, hold that damn spy drone in one hand and fire your pistol with the other. Derrick, you fire on him from there. We need to get him cornered enough that I can attack him with a special technique I have.”

“Yes, Team Leader!”

We exchanged blows. I managed to keep him in check by blocking his creepy crab hands with my powerful sword.

The two just barely managed to get him to move by taking shots at him.

One more sword slash from me and he was stuck to the corner of the room.

I powered my thrusters to get maximum acceleration and used up the last bit of my sword Qi in a final thrust... my sword pierced through his stomach and a hundred blades of sword Qi exited from his body, bisecting the fucker. Only... as its purple blood leaked from its mouth, it smirked at me... It fucking smirked at me! Then it grabbed my mech’s wrist and used its claws to bypass my shield and slice my arm off!

Pain shot through my mind. This was another consequence of my pseudo-Any Armor is my Body skill.

Motherfucker! I lost another arm! Granted, this was a mech arm, but still.

Then, the damn crab started fucking eating my arm! The wound I just made partially closed.

Seriously. The fuck was this thing?

“T-team leader?”

“I’m fine.”

“What do we do now?”

There was only one thing left to do... use a technique that I’d loathed with every fiber of my being. But, it was effective.

“What I’m about to show you all, must never be spoken of to anyone. Do you understand?”

“Y-yes, Team Leader,” Jessica said.

“I will take whatever knowledge you’re about to share to my grave,” MingRen said solemnly.

“It’s only right that we exchange things we don’t want others to know,” Derrick murmured.

“Derrick. If we’re ever in the same group again, remind me to double your training.”

He coughed. “I mean. I swear I won’t tell a soul!”

I couldn’t use a giant mech for this. I pulled the cord that turned my mech to a ring on my finger.

Now that I was looking at this fucker, he was actually pretty big, wasn’t he. Almost half the size of my mech.

The look on its face was full of amusement as if saying, ‘This? This is how you choose to face me?’

I gathered up the spiritual energy within me and performed several hand seals.

The crab person leisurely walked over towards me, even taking a few pot shots from my teammates who were likely freaking the fuck out.

That was when I finished my last hand seal and pointed two fingers at the pink fucker. “Storm of Delight and Solace!”

An army of spiritual puppies appeared behind me carrying pineapples on their backs. One ran through the air and licked the face of the crab person, their adorable tails wagging. Then, after they licked his face, the pineapple on their back flew high above them and crashed on top of him. Since it was a spiritual attack, it didn’t matter that there wasn’t any gravity. This was a pure attack on one’s spirituality... and my eyes.

Seriously, attacks were supposed to be badass. But this one...

Another dozen puppies licked the Space Crab and their pineapples crashed into him. When he realized what was happening. It was already too late.

He attempted to run, but puppies were, in the end, dogs. And dogs could sniff out what they wanted.

By the time the army of dogs finished their licks and pineapple bombardment, the pink crab person’s spirit was utterly obliterated.

I brought out the mech my body’s father made for her because it actually had both arms and was structurally sound. Then I used the sniper rifle that came with it to shoot every single part of the prone alien. Because like fuck did I want to deal with something that could heal by eating my own fucking mech!

Then... because it would be a waste. I grabbed its body for later use in a weapon.

My teammates finally connected to my new mech’s comm.

“Um, Team Leader. What was that?”

“Something we don’t talk about.”

“But.. puppies.”

“We don’t talk about puppies or pineapples!”

“Right.”

Another comm connected, this one, unexpected. “Lady Victoria. What happened?”

It was fucking Chad. “Prince Chad! Good to see you up and well. We took care of the Motherbrain and what was left of the humanoid Star Bug.”

“My team?”

“They’re fine. Once Steve reported the destruction of the Motherbrain, everyone started to head back toward the exit. We should do that too.”

His mech stared at me as if confused. “Who is Steve?”

***

Once the bugs didn’t have the Motherbrain or the Humanoid Crab to give them orders, the students and teachers of the military school quickly wiped the rest of the crabs out.

Of course, this was just one Mothership. There were hundreds, maybe even thousands out there still causing havoc in their quest to eat the universe.

Once we returned to our cabins onboard the Blue Jaguar, MingRen anxiously asked if he could come in and talk.

“This isn’t about that which we don’t speak of, right?”

“Of course not!”

“Then come in!”

He sat down at my desk and bit his lip.

I raised an eyebrow at him. “I do need to cultivate to replenish my energy, you know.”

“Actually, cultivation is what I’ve been thinking of.”

“Ah, so you finally realized that you were being brainwashed against immortality.”

“That’s not it. It was about walking a path alone. I realized that if you continue to cultivate, that you’ll be alone. I... I want to walk that path with you, so you aren’t alone.”

That... was shockingly sweet coming from someone who currently thought immortality was a curse.

Well, if he was the reincarnation of Bloodsword, then he probably had a lot of fate with immortality. Perhaps he’d be able to keep up. Maybe It would be nice to walk this lonely path with someone who could have my back. Alright. I would give this nominal brother of mine one chance.

“I’ll teach you to cultivate, but you’ll have to take up a Daoist name of my choosing. From now on, you’ll be called Spring of the Universe. Little Spring for short.”

“Ah, Little Spring sounds like a kid’s name.” He pointed to himself. “I’m an adult.”

Kid, you are still just a child in my eyes. “Fine. Then ‘Spring’ for short.”

He smiled. “I’ll take it!”