Chapter 168: The Starfall Finale, Different Ideals Only to Protect!

The screen of the heavens lit up again.

Without the expected tranquility, a piercing crimson alarm instantly tore through the anticipation of the myriad-worlds audience.

Not one, but three ultimate celestial disasters capable of destroying galaxies descended simultaneously!

Accompanied by a bone-chilling mechanical synthesized voice, the ancient AI defense network "Purging Protocol" awakened in the heart of the galaxy.

A colossal mechanical fleet surged forth from hidden star gates in the dark reaches of the star river.

These warships displayed absolute perfect geometric forms, their surfaces seamless, with azure energy matrices flowing across their hulls.

【Purging Protocol Activated. Eliminate all organic lifeforms.】

In a single encounter,

Several motherworlds of civilizations at the dawn of the spacefaring era were instantly vaporized by the Purging Protocol's main guns.

Billions of living beings were reduced to plasma in extreme heat.

Immediately afterward,

The high-dimensional space on the galaxy's eastern flank was brutally torn apart by an overpowering force.

Entities from beyond subspace—the high-dimensional demons "Riftbreakers"—descended.

They possessed no flesh and blood, composed entirely of violent pure energy, emitting piercing azure light.

A high-dimensional demon planetary in size yawned its void-like maw, directly swallowing a young star and its four surrounding planets whole into its belly.

The star system instantly plunged into the dead silence of the void.

At the same time,

On the Orion Arm at the galaxy's edge, the boundless extragalactic swarm "Insectoid Horde" surged in like a sky-obscuring locust plague of stars.

These were the "Primordial Zerg."

Their colossal biological motherships spewed corrosive acid,

All habitable planets along their path were drained of biomass within a week,

Turning into lifeless, withered yellow dead worlds.

Three great calamities,

Struck in unison!

The Starfall Universe instantly plunged into an unprecedented darkest hour.

Before this apocalypse capable of making any civilization despair,

The United Nations of Earth's once-prided "Multiversal Inclusivity Policy" bore the bitterest fruit.

Those alien allies once sheltered, accepted, and even elected president by the Earth Union, in the face of death, revealed their ugliest nature.

The scene cut to a border spaceport of the Earth Union.

Civilian evacuation was underway.

But the passage to the escape ships was forcibly seized by a group of fully armed lizardfolk.

"Get out! Lowly hairless apes!"

A lizardfolk officer swung his ion rifle, brutally striking a human mother's head.

Blood spattered.

The human mother desperately clutched the infant in her arms as she collapsed into a pool of blood.

Lizardfolk soldiers trampled over human bodies, frantically flooding into the escape pods.

Moreover,

At the Interstellar Confederation Council, those alien councilors with tentacles and arthropod limbs severed communications with the Earth Union headquarters one after another.

They tore up the mutual defense pact,

To seize the limited hyperspace jump lanes, they even turned their warship guns on the Earth Union cruisers that had once protected them.

The Earth Union's homeworld Earth plunged into utter despair.

The "Galactic Alliance" built over centuries collapsed in a single day. When catastrophe struck, aliens were ultimately aliens.

The myriad worlds fell into utter silence.

Trisolaran World.

First Fleet.

The Trisolaran Sovereign watched the scene on the heavenscreen, his thought-wave revealing merciless mockery and icy coldness.

"This is the end result of the Earth Union's bottomless inclusivity."

The Sovereign transmitted a message to the Science Chancellor,

"In the face of doomsday, morality and goodwill are not even worth a scrap of paper."

"Without an absolute power like the Ultraman Prime God capable of suppressing all, how dare they invite alien races into their homeworld—what a laughable species."

"They are about to go extinct."

Shrouding World.

Beidou Star Domain.

The Black Emperor bared his teeth and let out a cold snort:

"A dog biting Lü Dongbin! This Emperor has long said, non-kin must have different hearts—these Earth Union humans are simply too naive!"

On the heavenscreen,

The Earth Union's remnant fleet had already been driven into a dead corner of the Weaver Star Star Domain.

In the void ahead, the azure phantom of the high-dimensional demon spread across the sky and earth.

The Earth Union's main guns struck them, passing straight through without raising a ripple; their energy shields shattered layer by layer under the demon's ravaging.

"Captain, engines dead. We… have no way to retreat."

The first mate closed his eyes in despair.

The Earth Federation fleet captain watched the approaching deathly glow beyond the porthole and smiled bitterly as he lit a cigarette.

"At least, as humans, we fought until the very last moment."

Just as the high-dimensional demons were about to devour this surviving fleet and annihilate the entire Earth Federation force in this desperate situation.

In the pitch-black deep space, a violent spatial distortion suddenly erupted!

Azure warp light blazed forth like sharp swords piercing the darkness, lighting up in vast swathes at the edge of the Vega Star Domain.

Not one ship.

Not two ships.

But a full ten thousand pitch-black battleships in a massive formation!

On the hulls, that emblem of a bloody sword piercing the starry sky appeared incomparably ferocious amidst the flames of war.

Not enemies.

But the Human Federation, which had originally been utterly incompatible with the Earth Federation, even clamoring to "completely purify" the Earth Federation!

The Human Federation's black iron torrent roared as it crashed into the high-dimensional demons' battle lines.

Tens of thousands of light lances fired in unison, forcibly tearing open a wall of fire before the Earth Federation fleet.

At this moment, the emotional tension of blood being thicker than water instantly maxed out, igniting the emotions of all viewers across the myriad worlds!

United Star, Human Federation High Command.

Grand Marshal Sidney stood before the holographic star map, hands gripping the command console tightly.

Her eyes were bloodshot, staring fixedly at the battle situation in the Vega Star Domain.

"Grand Marshal, to rescue the Earth Federation, we abandoned the Sirius defense line."

The adjutant reported in a low voice.

"Shut up."

Sidney's voice was hoarse,

"Those fools on Earth can only die by our Human Federation's hands!"

"Those lowly xenos don't even have the qualifications to touch their genes!"

The Human Federation, which had always pursued absolute genetic purity, at the moment humanity faced extinction of their race, chose to cross the galaxy to save these fellow countrymen they called "impure" and "polluted."

No superfluous nonsense.

Only the thunderous roar of cannon fire.

Due to the three Great Calamities bringing indiscriminate full-spectrum electronic interference and terrifying psychic suppression, the highest-level interstellar quantum communication network was completely paralyzed.

Human Federation and Earth Federation warships intertwined in the chaotic star sea.

In absolute silence.

The Human Federation flagship's searchlights suddenly began flashing rhythmically.

Short, short, long, short.

The Earth Federation captain froze.

He violently shoved aside the first mate, lunged at the console, and stared dead at the flashing lights.

That was Earth's most ancient, most primitive communication method from hundreds of years ago — Morse code!

"Translate!"

The Earth Federation captain roared with red-rimmed eyes.

On the tactical terminal, a line of simple text was parsed out:

【Back to back. Right wing to us.】

Dit, dit-dah, dit.

The Earth Federation flagship's searchlights immediately responded.

【Received. Left wing to me.】

The Wandering Earth universe.

Inside the space station.

Liu Peiqiang stood straight, watching the searchlights flashing incessantly on the sky dome, his eye rims slightly red.

He saluted a standard military salute with force.

This kind of absoluteness in the apocalypse — not asking right or wrong, discarding all ideological disputes, only for the resolve that the human species might continue — profoundly interpreted the hardest bottom color of human civilization.

Just like them.

Marvel world.

Tony Stark downed a mouthful of hard liquor in one gulp, his eye rims red.

"Well done. That's what compatriots are."

Three great tragic interstellar battles erupted simultaneously!

Orion Defense Line.

The Human Federation's main battleship group formed a steel array, confronting head-on the endless mechanical tide of the Rectification Protocol.

Azure neutron torpedoes and crimson antimatter beams wove a great net of death in space.

Vega Star Domain.

The Earth Federation's heavy carrier battle group deadlocked with the high-dimensional demon devouring stars.

Fighters swarmed out like bees, shuttling and self-destructing amidst the demon's energy tentacles.

Solar System outskirts.

The Human Federation and Earth Federation formed the most tragic mixed fleet in human history.

Gray armor and white hulls stood shoulder to shoulder, using the steel bodies of warships to stubbornly block the extragalactic swarm's advance toward the homeworld.

However,

Conventional weapons simply could not completely eradicate these three calamities that defied all reason.

The United Fleet was annihilated as organized formations.

The sky-screen gave an extremely heart-wrenching close-up.

A Human Alliance dreadnought-class battleship, its shields already completely overloaded and shattered, its hull corroded full of holes by the swarm's acid. Its magazines were entirely emptied.

A raging fire blazed in the engine room.

The Human Alliance captain's face was covered in blood.

He looked at the densely packed swarm motherships closing in on radar, and the corner of his mouth pulled into a wild grin.

He lit his last cigar, taking a deep drag.

"All hands, shut down life support. Divert all power to engines."

The captain drew the laser pistol from his waist, pointing at the holo-screen ahead.

"Let humanity be great once more. Ram them!"

The powerless battleship turned into a giant steel meteor, trailing a long tail flame, crashing straight into the core of the swarm mothership.

Boom—!

Blinding white light swallowed everything.

This warship, together with tens of thousands of xenos, perished together.

The countdown hung over all humanity's heads.

In a near-extinction desperate situation, in the darkest hour when casualty rates had already exceeded eighty percent.

The high commands of the Human Alliance and Earth Alliance made the most insane, most ruthless, and most heartbreaking decision in human history — activate the three Ascension Plans!

Since conventional forms cannot survive, then discard the existing form!

The scene cuts to the United Planet's underground fortress.

To counter the Souzheng Protocol's emotionless, terrifyingly computational cold logic, the Human Alliance decided to abandon what they had once sworn to defend to the death — pure flesh and blood!

Inside the massive modification factory. Tens of billions of Human Alliance soldiers lined up, expressions wooden yet determined, lying into cold surgical pods.

No anesthesia.

Mechanical arms roughly cut open their skulls.

Data cables flashing with blue light plugged directly into their cerebral cortexes.

"Flesh is weak, mechanical ascension!"

Grand Marshal Xidini stood on the highest platform, watching countless compatriots drained of blood and encased in steel shells below; his lips were bitten bloody by his own teeth.

This was the ultimate contrast and tragic grandeur. The Human Alliance, who most cherished pure human genes and viewed gene pollution as heresy, in order to let humanity survive, personally ended their own physical form as "humans".

Cold electronic eyes lit up.

Squadrons of pure silver synthetic bodies marched out of the factory and boarded the warships.

Their computing power instantly linked with the warships' main brains.

Warhammer Universe.

Holy Terra.

The Emperor sat on the Golden Throne, watching the Human Alliance abandon flesh for survival; his fists clenched tight, and a glimmer of tears actually appeared in his tiger eyes.

"What a tragic sacrifice..."

The Emperor murmured to himself,

"For the race's continuation, willingly locking their souls into cold iron shells. The hymn of humanity is the hymn of courage."

On the other side,

Earth Alliance's secret base.

To seal that high-dimensional daemon against which physical attacks were completely ineffective, the Earth Alliance chose a second path — "Psyker Ascension".

The Earth Alliance summoned all human psykers in the galaxy. They sat encircling a massive array at its center.

"Contact the Immaterium."

The Earth Alliance psyker master's voice was hoarse, carrying a resolve that allowed no turning back.

They voluntarily cast their own consciousness into that mad and indescribable high-dimensional Immaterium. Attempting to forcibly steal high-dimensional power.

The sacrifice began.

Half of them could not withstand the Immaterium's whispers, descending into madness on the spot, flesh twisting, turning into deformed monsters covered in tentacles and eyeballs, tearing at each other.

The other half forcibly stabilized their minds. They burned their own souls and life force.

Boom!

A dazzling purple psyker storm erupted from the Earth Alliance fleet.

Countless psyker phantoms manifested in space; they turned into purple chains, tightly binding the high-dimensional daemon's true body, dragging it bit by bit back into the depths of a Warp rift.

And at the rearmost battle line.

The remaining minority of humans, facing the extragalactic swarm's terrifying reproductive capacity and endless numbers, chose the most forbidden "Gene Ascension".

They opened the "Xeno Gene" vault once sealed by the Earth Alliance.

Since the bugs win through melee and numbers, then we'll become monsters even more terrifying than bugs!

Cold test tubes shattered.

They forcibly injected the most ferocious alien beasts' genes, even captured swarm genes, into their own bodies.

On the sky-screen, the modification process made one's hair stand on end and bones chill.

Human skeletons were forcibly stretched taller, reshaped.

The shrill screams echoed in the laboratory. Skin peeled away, replaced by an indestructible carapace.

Fingernails fell off, replaced by bone blades that could cut through iron like mud.

They were deprived of pain, and fear was removed.

When the hatch opened,

what rushed out was no longer human, but a group of three-meter-tall super biological weapons that knew only slaughter.

They were no longer like humans.

They had lost human facial features.

Yet they still gripped their grenade guns tightly.

Under the cover of the interstellar landing craft, they directly smashed into the core of the insect swarm's nest. Chainsaw swords and bone blades flew together, and in the alien's flesh-and-blood mire, they carved a bloody path.

Three ascensions.

Three paths of abandoning humanity, with no return.

On the celestial dome, the human forms on these three battlefields had already become unrecognizable.

They had turned into cold iron shells, illusory spiritual bodies, and twisted beasts.

But at this moment, across the myriad realms, no one spoke a word of mockery.

No one called them "heretics" or "monsters" anymore.

Super God Institute world. Angel Nebula.

Holy Kashia sat upon her throne, gazing at the celestial dome, her eyes violently trembling. This queen of the gods of the universe was utterly broken through.

She slowly rose to her feet, slightly lowering her proud head toward the celestial dome.

"This is not a fall."

Kashia's voice echoed in the vast hall, filled with deep reverence.

"This is the most brilliant light life can burst forth in its struggle to survive. They are greater than any deity."

The power of the three ascensions finally reversed the doomed battle.

The terrifying combined computational power of the Machine Man Alliance cracked and overwrote the underlying code of the Purification Agreement, triggering the total self-destruction of the machine fleet.

The sacrifice of the Spiritual Energy Alliance used countless souls to fill the rifts in space, completely sealing the high-dimensional demons.

The decapitation squad of the Genetic Ascension, before the entire army was wiped out, successfully delivered the antimatter bomb into the heart of the insect swarm's nest, severing the hive mind of the swarm.

The three great calamities were successfully repelled by this group of beings who were no longer like humans!

The starlight of the universe rekindled.

The Milky Way lay in ruins.

Countless star systems were reduced to scorched earth, interstellar debris filling the vacuum.

Although human civilization survived, their nature had been permanently altered.

The myriad realm audience held their breath.

The battle ended.

The Human Alliance and the Earth Alliance—these two civilizations that had once fought fiercely over "what constitutes pure humanity"—

after jointly enduring the apocalypse and jointly discarding their original human forms,

would they move toward merger?

Would they establish a unified galactic empire?

Yet the answer given by the celestial dome was utterly unexpected to all.

The scene slowly advanced.

Two battered flagships, side by side, docked in space filled with meteorites.

On the left, the Titan-class warship of the Human Alliance.

On the right, the heavy spiritual-energy carrier of the Earth Alliance.

The captain of the Human Alliance warship, originally a handsome pure-blood human,

now had his lower body fully mechanized, and his right eye had become an electronic prosthetic emitting red light.

In his hand, he still tightly gripped the Earth coin symbolizing human purity.

The captain of the Earth Alliance warship, that once refined and gentle old man,

now had half his face covered in thick purple scales, and his left hand had become a bulky beast's claw.

The two faced each other through the transparent porthole of their warships.

Silence.

The communication channel connected.

They did not discuss merger. They were still arguing.

The Human Alliance machine captain coldly tapped the keyboard, and a synthesized voice spoke:

"You are still so naive. Spiritual energy, this uncontrollable thing, will inevitably bring greater disaster."

"Only absolute logic, by entrusting Earth to us, can ensure humanity's continuation."

The half-beast captain of the Earth Alliance let out a low, guttural roar, his beast pupils constricting:

"Nonsense. A machine devoid of emotion—does it even deserve to be called human?"

"Earth will never be handed over to you lot of metal cans. Get lost back to your United Stars!"

They were arguing.

But the myriad realm audience had red eyes.

Because the content of their argument had changed.

No longer arguing from on high about "who is the true humanity," no longer shouting to send the other to the purification furnace.

Instead, they were arguing, "How should we protect these people who are no longer purely human?"

Even if their forms were completely different, even if their ideals still clashed, they both knew the other was a brother.

The mechanical captain turned his back to the porthole, and the beastman captain returned to his command seat.

The two, backs to each other, simultaneously pressed the fleet-wide return-to-base communication key.

A grand, deep narration, carrying endless vicissitudes, slowly echoed across the myriad worlds, pushing emotions to their peak.

【They still had not unified. They still could not stand each other.】

【They had become machines, become spirits, become beasts.】

【But no matter which path they took, no matter what form they became.】

【They were all doing the same thing—】

【Never, beneath the butcher's knife of the apocalypse, to bend the human spine!】

Boom!

As the narration faded, the two shattered fleets, still radiating terrifying awe, ignited their engines.

They sailed toward the two ends of the galaxy.

They did not force a perfect conclusion.

Yet this imperfect ending made the core of civilization feel more real, more shocking, moving to tears.

Countless viewers silently removed their hats in tribute before the light screen.

The Ultramen of the Land of Light rose in solemn respect.

Shi Hao of the Perfect World raised his wine cup, toasting the distant stars.

【Stellar Cosmos: Human Supremacy and the Stellar Twins, review concluded.】

The image on the celestial canopy gradually faded, turning into scattered stardust across the sky.

But before the viewers could recover from that epic solemnity.

At the center of the celestial canopy, an extremely sharp metallic scraping sound suddenly rang out!

Clang——!

That was the sound of a blade being drawn.

Immediately after, a line of golden characters filled with killing intent, like a thunderbolt, smashed onto the screen.

【Next review: The Armor Glory of the Milky Way!】

【Ares Star and the Armor Civilization!】

……

(The author admits limited knowledge of Stellar Cosmos, wrote with difficulty, the later part is messy, but managed to get through it haha, arranging the Stellar Cosmos fleet for the two chickens in the courtyard later. Next is Armor II, by the way, does anyone want to see Armor III, General Dongmu?)