Deep inside the passageway aboard the Silent, in a compartment just a hundred meters from the core control room, a sharp blade of light swept across like a new moon. A monster as large and bulky as a mammoth was split in two, its halves falling apart in opposite directions.
Where the beast should have had tusks, more than a dozen octopus-like tentacles sprouted instead. They were agile and powerful, and seemed to be covered in some kind of specialized mechanical structure. Even after its body had been sliced in half, the tentacles kept thrashing wildly, as if each one were alive in its own right.
But before they could cause any more trouble, the marines, freed from the influence over their minds, swarmed forward and began pounding them with every kind of sword, spear, halberd, axe, hook, and fork.
As it turned out, once separated from their host, the tentacles' threat level had indeed fallen dramatically. Their mechanical components were smashed to pieces, flying like sprays of flesh and blood. The Void Realm flesh beneath their metal shells began to dissolve under everyone's close scrutiny.
One unarmed person wearing nothing but a white suit of power armor even leaned closer, operating a floating recorder to get a better shot while working away at their terminal. They seemed to be conducting a thorough scientific analysis.
Gongsun Qing watched the other person at work, then flicked her wrist, shaking the remaining ash from her blade.
A few scorch marks marred her plain, close-fitting powered suit, but she still stood straight as a pine. For a psionic who had fought her way to the Saint stage with nothing but a sword, a heraldry mech was useless—unless it was a specially made artifact disguised as one.
"Professor?" she asked.
Professor Eddington, the chief