(A/N: Phew, I'm finally freed from too much overtime, anyway here's the chapter! Sorry for the delay)
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[Getter Emperor's Larva has reached its maximum growth limit!] said Theresa as Ryoma finally devoured the sun as a whole after the grueling 12 hours struggle.
His titanous mechanical form had grown to an unprecedented degree, eight million kilometers tall! Slightly bigger than the star he just devoured! But as his system maid said, he could no longer grow in this stage signified by the thin cracks which had begun forming throughout his whole body.
Nevertheless, was it the end? Absolutely not! The cracks on his body only served as the sign that something underneath it was already impatient to be unleashed!
["Very well! Final Evolution….. Begin!"]
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Upon his command, the cracks on his body began to expand, and intense emerald radiance started to seep from them. Then following the light, emerald crystal branches burst forth from underneath the cracks of his body and they began to twist and turn, connecting into each other then forming a colossal crystal cocoon which enveloped his whole form.
[Final Evolution Countdown Start!]
[89 Days : 23 Hours : 59 Minutes : 59 Seconds]
Thump! Thump! Thump!
As the circuitry-like patterns decorating the surface of his cocoon started pulsating grotesquely in unison, the sound of his heartbeat began to echo through the cosmos beyond, marking the countdown of the end of this Universe….
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.
.
.
But, would the universe stand still while its existence was being threatened?
Ȃ̵̤̮͍͔͚̣̐̂̋̋̅̈A̵̦͉͖̎̓͑̎͗̌̎̈́̕Ă̸̢͈̙̥̥̞̞͚̳̂A̶̲̤͍͊͋̈́͒͆̈́A̷̭͍͓̫͚͔̔̉̋͑͊͂A̶̢̙̜̞̲̞̣̿͗̄̀̅A̵̡͚͗̀̅̌̑́͝A̶̧̦͓̳̠͇͊A̶͖̯͔͈̐A̶̟̟͖͈͚̞͑̂͌̎͊͑̈́͆͘͜͝Ă̶̢̩̳̻̗͔̗Ȁ̴̺͔͎͙̩͓̏͗A̵̛̻̻͙͖͊̒́̓̈́͂̊̕͝Ả̴̢̜̥̭͙̭̈́̀̃̍͘ͅA̵̪̱͔̺̳̺̐Ą̷̹͈̰͇̜̦͖̊́̌͐̔̀̚͠A̸̡̨̨̘̭̝͎̳͊̍̍̃̀̾̓̊͘͝
["Enemy attack?!"] Esdeath got up from her ice throne in full alert as she heard a scream which followed her husband's soothing heartbeat.
And It was eerie as hell! Like beasts and humans screamed together, both males and females, making it impossible to discern their origins. Furthermore, it felt like the shriek echoed from all sides as if the source was the universe itself, making it even more terrifying than it should be.
So, was she scared by it? Absolutely not! Instead she wanted to tear the source of this scream apart because she could feel the unbridled hatred of whatever that thing was towards her dearest husband!
[Mr. Devourer and Harvester, I have bad news…]
And it seemed like her husband's digital slave knew more about it.
["Just tell us… short and simple.."]
["Indeed…"]
Eh? How come her husband was still awake? Didn't creatures undergoing metamorphosis like Butterflies hibernate when they are inside their cocoon?
["Well yes, but actually no."]
["Okay…"]
Yeah she didn't get it at all….
["Hahaha, most of my main processing units are currently inactive so it's not wrong to say that I'm essentially sleeping. But, the few ones left are way more than enough to keep me awake"]
["Ohh… i see… then isn't it better for you to rest?"]
Indeed, He was saving power for his evolution right? Then he should just sleep and leave everything to her!
[That's right, Me and Harvester are enough to handle the incoming adversaries. So you can rest easy under our protection.] His slave chimed in, being annoying as always.
But even though she absolutely loathes to admit it, that digital abomination was extremely useful in this dire situation as she knew much more things about their current predicament and can control the whole battlefield better than herself thus providing an even more secure protection for her dearest husband. That was why she would let this thing off….. For now…
So wasn't she worried about this thing's potential betrayal? She had to hatefully admit that she wasn't in the slightest but this was the one that made her absolutely pissed off as she could tell that this slave desires her dearest husband!
Moreover, she felt that this thing has a few screws loose just like herself, the trait her lovely husband likes the most! So it was only a matter of time until this thing lay her dirty hands on him if she herself doesn't do anything to get rid of her as soon as possible.
Nevertheless, this wasn't the right time to pick a fight with this damn slave as she still needed its assistance to ensure her dearest's safety.
Moving on from her intrusive thoughts…..
["Ahahaha, both of you are truly the best things that happened in my life!"] Her man lightly chuckled at her and his slave's then said the thing that can make her pounce directly on him.
Unfortunately she couldn't, because they had urgent things at hand…..
["But you see, I can't sleep like a useless vegetable while my wife and maid are fighting with their life to protect me, right?"] Her man continued, asking her and his slave a question that didn't need any answer.
Yes, she would absolutely do the same as him. Like hell she can stay on the sidelines while her man is fighting with his life for her!
["Um… can you still fight?"] though she asked in confusion and concern after seeing her dearest state.
He was literally cocooned without being able to move a single muscle, so how would he fight?
["Ahahaha~ good question! But I don't even need to lift a single finger to fight as I can control all units inside one outpost remotely with my remaining active processors"] Explained her husband, a hint of smugness could be heard from his voice.
["If you say so… then Housekeeper, you may continue with your report"]
If he was still so capable then it was useless of her to try and convince him. Furthermore, if she insisted then it would only serve as annoying.
[Alright, ehm!] His digital slave cleared her imaginary throat and continued, [The bad news is, the odd screech we heard prior is a sign that this universe has a will of its own…]
["I see… then i presume it has already detected the threat to its existence from my dearest devourer's evolution and will try it's best to annihilate him, am i correct?"] she nodded in understanding and inquired further.
And if her conjecture was true, then things had become extremely thrilling!
[Indeed, Harvester. Fortunately, I predicted that this universe's sentience is still in its infancy stage. if it isn't, then we might have already faced extreme cases of retaliations like directly erasing us from existence or kicking us out into the void] His slave concurred, which made her relieved and peaked her excitement at the same time.
Why? It was because she and her husband would finally have their first ever universal war!
["Hmm, so what kind of self defense mechanism we are going against, Housekeeper?"] Her husband asked his slave too as this news intrigued him very much.
Right, if this universe couldn't retaliate directly then how would it fight against him?
[The worst retaliation we will face from an infant will of the universe like this one is the attempt of our annihilation by every single living beings inside of it caused by the will's influence on their minds] and his slave explained calmly the information which would still make anyone's skin crawls and their blood runs cold even though she already said that this universe's attempt wouldn't be very extreme.
Who wouldn't be when they knew that the countless advanced civilizations and extremely powerful space monsters lurking around inside this vast expanse of cosmos were going for their throats? Hell, they even got no place to hide as they were currently inside the thing that desired their demise the most!
But was it the case for this love crazed pair?
["Phew, that's the best possible outcome…"] the man only sighed in relief as he didn't have to worry about dealing with more bizarre things that the will of the universe could chuck out into them.
As for the exceptionally numerous creatures coming to try ripping their heads off? He wasn't worried about them one bit as fighting hordes of enemies are the specialization of his armies.
So how about his woman?
["Hehehe~ HAHAHAHAHA~ I can finally break my kill count record!"] She laughed maniacally for one obvious reason that is the opportunity to revel in a much grander slaughter that she could possibly imagine!
The most she had ever slain with her own hands in one battle was around a few hundreds of thousands and that doesn't count the ones died by her and her dearest husband accidental burst of power in her former home planet. But this time, how many could she massacre? Billions? Trillions? or even more?! Ahh she couldn't wait for it!
In short, they weren't afraid at all…
["Hmm….. So how long until our first contact, Housekeeper?"] asked Ryoma as he was quite curious about the time they had to prepare.
Alien civilizations and space monsters have high chances of having space jump/hyperdrive technologies after all, but they would surely be forced out of their warp space after reaching the restrictive domain.
And if he relied on the fact that super luminal travel is nearly impossible without entering subspace, then their first contact would be a month from now at the earliest as the universe's defenders would be held out by the restrictive domain. But, he couldn't count on that as many of his troops were already able to move faster than light without relying on spatial manipulation using Getter Rays to cheat physics and who knew that those civilizations and space monsters had anything similar to him?
[It is unknown when the first contact will be, Mr, Devourer. But until now, we still aren't able to detect any spatial distortions or objects traveling at superluminal speed towards us in a 300 LY radius]
["I see…. Then Housekeeper, allocate 85% of our supercarriers energy and main processing units into the production sectors, 10% to the shield, and the rest to charge their main canon."] Ryoma laid down his order after thinking for a while.
The current situation was quite optimistic for them as they still had more time to prepare so he would do just that.
[Affirmative!]
The thick energy shields enveloping the five mechanical megastructures began to dim as most of their energy supplies were redirected into their main canon and the industrial sector on their surfaces and mantle, triggering the overclocking mode of the production machinery inside them as they began to harvest the materials and manufacturing them into more troops with more efficiency.
So where did the supercarriers even get the materials for further productions on this solar system which had been drained of all its resources by their Emperor? If that wasn't obvious enough, they used their own body to produce more troops, utilizing their rapid regeneration to its utmost efficiency.
And this was why Getter Emperor is a menace! Not only can he produce armies without relying on external resources because he can just use his own flesh and blood to create them by abusing the hell out of his absurd regeneration, his creation can also do the same! Making their number virtually limitless!
["Next, activate the Wall of Ramiel on full power"]
He too didn't forget to activate protection against over the horizon attacks because this incoming interstellar war might not be what the usual fictional works portray it to be with fleets of opposing factions clashing, but a war of extreme range bombardments.
[Affirmative, Initiating power core inspection….]
[Calibrating Resonance….]
[Setting up energy filters…..]
[Initiating final total check….]
[0%]
[50%]
[100%]
[Complete!]
[Powering up The Wall of Ramiel in 3…2…1!]
Bzzzzttt!
As the countdown ended, every single Ramiel deployed in Zone C began to transform to reveal the emerald crystal on their center which acted as their core and from those cores, torrents of green ray were fired off into a distance which then split off into branches that connected into the others from the surrounding space fortresses, strengthening each others as they formed a colossal all enveloping barrier void of weak spots.
[Initiating Post Operational Inspections…..]
[0%]
[50%]
[100%]
[Complete! The Wall of Ramiel is functioning perfectly!]
["Well done!"]
Now the next best move on the chessboard would be….
["And now we wait…"]
What? They had already set up their impenetrable turtle shell so the best move should be staying on the defensive while amassing as many troops as possible. Taking the initiative to attack? That's such a dumb decision because their most powerful card, which is Ryoma Getter Emperor's Body, was literally unusable. Furthermore, their main objective was protecting his evolution progress, not the annihilation of every living being of this universe.
So moving on, days passed as the numbers of his troops kept piling up for the arrival of the defenders….
Not only that, their troops were getting stronger as time passed because of being exposed to their Emperor's evolutionary power, especially the ones in the earlier batch. Moreover, the combat a.i were trained by Esdeath directly in the sparring mode alongside Theresa to optimize the results, effectively turning the hivemind with zero flight hour into a monster of its own.
And at last, on the seventh day since The Getter Emperor's evolution began….
[Mr. Devourer, huge numbers of spatial distortion points detected on the border of the restriction domain from all directions!]
Their adversaries had finally come, signified by the opening of countless portals with various sizes and colors right at the border of the stabilized space-time domain which then poured out fleets of unknown origins with vastly diverse shapes and sizes as they were forced out from their spatial travel.
Calling their sheer numbers a lot was an utter understatement as the emergence of the first batch alone had blotted out the light from the countless stars surrounding the dead solar system and that was only the first wave from the countless others spewed out from those portals.
But from the billions upon billions of spaceships bee-lining towards his cocoon with sub-light speed, none of them looked like the typical spaceships at all, they were more like an obscene creation of biotechnology with thick stone-like chitin covering their hideous hulls composed of flesh and bones complete with humongous tentacle-like appendages that amplified the disgusts to the ones who saw them.
["Heh~ those guys look familiar… Housekeeper, do you have them recorded in your database?"] Ryoma inquired with gleaming curiosity as he had seen those biotech abomination fleets in two fucked up fictional works in his previous life.
[Please wait a moment, Mr. Devourer…]
[.....]
[Search complete!]
[The invading fleets are composed of Tyranids and Zergs, Mr. Devourer.]
They were indeed the two well-known world devouring insectoid races!
The first is Tyranids from the famous fucked up hellhole, Warhammer 40K. They are an extragalactic composite species of hideous, insectoid xenos. They actually comprise an entire space-faring ecosystem of innumerable different bioforms which are all variations on the same genetic theme.
The Tyranids are unlike any other intelligent species encountered by The Imperium of Mankind. They are the ultimate predators; to them, all living things, from the lowliest insect to the most advanced starfaring civilization, are mere prey. Unless the Tyranids can be stopped, it will mean nothing less than the extinction of all life. Furthermore, their threat was already proven to be on-par or might be even greater than the daemons as with only three huge fleets they were already capable of laying waste upon tens of thousands of the Imperium Worlds and it's still unknown how many of those biomechanical abomination fleets existed outside of the Milky-Way or if they really have a true queen as every Norn-Queens of their Hive-Fleets seems to be in equal hierarchy without any supreme authorities.
And accompanying The Tyranids were the Zergs, a terrifying and ruthless amalgamation of biologically advanced, arthropodal aliens. Dedicated to the pursuit of genetic perfection, the zerg relentlessly hunt down and assimilate advanced species across the galaxy, incorporating useful genetic code into their own. They are named "the Swarm" per their ability to rapidly create strains, and the relentless assaults they employ to overwhelm their foes.
In a sense, they are similar to the Tyranids and almost as dangerous as the former on their own. But the ones backing them up, The exceedingly powerful Xel'Naga, Amon and The Queen of Blades, Sarah Kerrigan made the Zergs an even more formidable threat than the Tyranids for those two cosmic beings could trash Ryoma pre-evolution state in their peak of power.
Though amidst the dangers knocking on their borders, something piqued him even more…
["Hmm~ why did you sound pretty nonchalant after knowing what those bugs are, Housekeeper?"]
That's right, why did his maid have such a casual attitude against the two exceedingly powerful enemies? It seemed like she had become cockier than usual, should he correct her?
[Mr. Devourer, you must've already realized that they're not the original ones, am i right?] his maid answered with the same nonchalant attitude, yeah he needed to correct her!
["Still, carefulness is mandatory in every situation, Housekeeper. Anyway, you hit the mark perfectly"]
Putting her growing arrogance aside, the thing his maid pointed out was actually true because those bugs were really not their original counterparts.
How could he be so sure about it? Simple, the warp didn't exist in this universe for if it did, then his dearest wife's world would have already been turned into ruins before he arrived as that world was akin to a bright beacon of negativity to the chaos daemons. And for the Zergs, if they were really the original ones then his forces would've already been decimated completely by both Amon and The Queen of Blades.
[My apologies, Mr. Devourer. It seems like I had become quite haughty because I couldn't find anything from those pests which could threaten you] Realizing that she had become quite conceited she apologized but still justified her casual attitude, for those swarms of pests were no match for Her Master's forces.
Nevertheless, was this a baseless claim? Absolutely not!
First, she had scanned the energy reaction of every single ship inside that swarm and none of them had the energy level as massive as her Master's fleets in Zone C and D. Maybe because they were only the first wave? Nonetheless, Her Master still had some ace up his sleeves to handle whatever these hordes sent later on.
Second, while the swarm outrageously outnumbered her Master's force, almost all of them were of low quality and this would be the key for their demise because every single unit inside her Master's armies have indefinite operational time and the capability to power up by devouring their target. So, she didn't have to mention what would happen to those low quality cannon fodders right?
Third, their coordination superiority by utilizing their Hive-Mind was rendered useless as her Master's army has a hive-mind of their own. Furthermore, his Master's hive-mind has her, a system a.i of the highest degree as their supreme authorities, those Norn-Queens hold no chance against her!
So in conclusion, this universe was done for if it could only send these bugs against her Master…
…
Wait, did she just raise a flag?? Nope, it was just her imagination…
["Ahaha then how about we test Housekeeper claims right now? Isn't that right, Harvester?"] Ryoma laughed as he asked his Ice Empress who was currently clenching the armrests of her ice throne so hard that they started to break because of trying to hold her urges to dive straight into the heart of the enemy's fleet and began her slaughterfest.
["THAT'S WHAT I'M WAITING FOR!!"] So following her emperor's approval, she immediately jumped out of her throne which broke the poor seat apart, the thrusters on her backpack already lit up in white-bluish flames and her visors shone intensely as a sign of her immense excitement.
From the moment those monstrous swarms of space bugs arrived, she almost teleported herself and her valkyries right into the center of the enemy formations as her battle hunger was instantly triggered upon the emergence of the impossibly huge number of foes to massacre.
But, she remembered that she isn't the supreme authority of this operation, it is her dearest husband. So as a good– no, his best wife and operative, she decided to be obedient and wait for his next orders.
Thus, when her love finally allowed her to let loose her burning desire for rampage, she took the chance straight away, afraid that he might pull back his words because of his overprotectiveness.
["Oh right, my dearest Harvester…"] her Emperor called out again, making her put an abrupt stop in charging her boosters and looked back in silence into the massive crystalline cocoon far away with annoyance visible on her pair of lenses.
Was he trying to stop her?! Hah! Didn't he know that delivered orders can't be revoked that easily?! But still, she decided to keep her complaints inside while waiting for his next words, though it wouldn't change anything if he really said that she must pull back.
["Take care and have fun!"] But contrary to her beliefs, he just gently encouraged her which made her battle spirit soar higher through the sky.
["Hehehe~ I definitely will!"] she replied with happy giggles just like a little girl who has been cheered up by her dad before going into the playground as she resumed charging her thrusters, the space around her distorted because of her sheer amount of energy.
["Oh one more thing! Want me to play some background music for you?"] Her man called again, asking her something which should've been obvious already.
["Fufufu~ The scream of pain from my enemies is already more than enough! So with that being said, Esdeath-Hel, launching!"] And without further ado, her fully charged thrusters burst forth, sending her straight into the composite bug fleets vanguard beyond the speed of light.
.....
[Mr. Devourer, is it okay to let Harvester advance recklessly like that?] Theresa expressed her concern, even though she loathed that psycho with all her mainframes, that genocidal maniac woman is her deares– ehm! most respected Master's beloved wife, and if something bad happened to that maniac because of her reckless act, she herself was afraid that her Master would be aggrieved…
'[But if that woman perished…. then i might be able to– ah! Bad thoughts, bad thoughts!]'
Oops, it wasn't time to let herself be led astray…
["Let her be, she has been waiting for long to have her fill. Furthermore, she has so many safety measures in her arsenals."] Said her Master calmly, but she knew that he was keeping a strict watch on his wife and would immediately rescue that damn woman if things really went south.
[I see… then Mr. Devourer, shall we exterminate some of these pests as well?]
Right, she wouldn't let that sadistic idiot hoard the spotlight because she had to show how amazing she truly is to her Master!
["Ahahaha indeed! We have to test how effective our new tools truly are in a real battle scenario!"] Exclaimed her Master with burning excitement after knowing that he could unleash the mass destruction weapons upon those bugs.
And she finally realized how her Master became really attached to that woman. Because not only does he desire her yandere tendencies, his hidden genocidal maniac side was stimulated by that mad woman too.
Though Theresa conveniently didn't realize that she was the one who excitedly asked her Master to initiate a massacre….
[Very well! Switching All Fleets Getter Beam to Type-E!]
Getter Beam Type-E, a Getter Beam variant specialized for biological targets extermination, hence the E in its name.
While regular Getter Beam could already over evolve and cause genetical collapse into extremely adaptive organisms like the Invaders, this type of Getter Beam amplifies the collapsing effect many times over, making it able to exterminate most organisms with a single graze albeit having to sacrifice most of its firepower because the beam will split off into countless light threads which will seek more targets after reaching the desirable distance or impacting solid objects.
Nevertheless, what they were going to face right now are colonies of organisms so what's the use of overwhelming firepower if they could annihilate their foes with a single touch?
[All artilleries have been fully charged! Awaiting further orders!] Theresa announced a few seconds later.
The main canon muzzles of all heavy artillery mech battalions (filled with his version of mechs from other series like Seravee Gundam, Gundam Double-X, etc.), titanous tens of kilometers battleships, and colossal space fortresses had lit up in unison, their bright luminance as they awaited their Emperor's order was akin to a beautiful array of constellations inside the dark solar system.
["FIRE!"]
Thus, as the Emperor decreed, the dark solar system turned into a brilliant emerald supernova!