Chapter 336
She instinctively thought Nicholas was a low-level alien life form, but the fact that it gave Freya its name showed that it possessed powerful intelligence, and even... a civilization of its own.
Throughout Shigure Kira's explanation, the alien life form that called itself Black Sugar remained silent.
After Shigure Kira finished her understanding of this alien life form, the alien life form, which had crimson eyes and a body that covered half of Shigure Kira's body like black liquid, spoke again.
"Hello... Your Majesty, the Saintess of the Alliance. As you can see, I am what humans call an alien life form. According to the precepts of our race, we cannot allow other races to discover our existence. If we are discovered... we will have no choice but to leave this planet."
"Oh?"
Freya stared at those crimson eyes with some surprise.
"Having disciplines, it seems you truly possess a complete civilization..."
"... No, Saintess Majesty, our race has stagnated in its development, spending our days hiding in the Milky Way, unwilling to be discovered by the natives of our hiding planets, nor by the 'People from the Sky'."
The alien life form, who called itself Black Sugar, said.
"[People from the Sky]?"
Simply put, it means Star Civilization that is more advanced than the civilization on Earth.
In response to Freya's question, Black Sugar replied.
Shigure Kira was completely bewildered.
"Is this civilization hunting 'Honkai'?"
However, after Freya asked the question, Rita behind her and Shigure Kira opposite her were both stunned, while the alien life form covering Shigure Kira was surprised.
How did you know?
"Sister Tesla made a conjecture on this matter, and I made a bold assumption based on her. When you mentioned that your race has stagnated in development and that you don't want to be discovered by the People from the Sky, I concluded that the People from the Sky are able to hunt Honkai... or rather, for the purpose of obtaining Honkai Energy."
Freya rubbed her brow.
To be honest, she hoped her guess was wrong.
This means that the civilization of the People from the Sky is far more advanced than that of Earth's current civilization.
If we consider the Honkai brought about by the Honkai and the Herrscher as tests, then Earth's civilization failed in its first test 50,000 years ago, and what it is now undergoing is its second test...
The civilization of the People from the Sky had already passed the test of the Honkai. After they defeated the Honkai, the Honkai no longer brought disaster but a large amount of energy.
Of course, once civilization defeats the Honkai, the Honkai Energy may no longer increase.
In order to advance, the People from the Sky had no choice but to target other planetary civilizations that were resisting Honkai.
In this universe, the development of civilizations will inevitably be subject to the selection of Honkai, but in the process of these civilizations fighting against Honkai, they may be hunted by these civilizations that want to obtain Honkai Energy.
Whether it was civilization or Honkai, it was all devoured by these hunting civilizations.
Developing civilization can be thwarted, and there are also hunters... So this alien race stagnated in its development, and in order to avoid being targeted by the People from the Sky, they hid in the Milky Way.
The current result made Freya feel a stomachache.
I got stuck on the Herrscher of Finality in my first playthrough, and I'm not entirely confident I can beat her in Herrscher of Finality second playthrough. And now... I've been told there's a high-level player who likes to force PvP.
Freya felt utterly exhausted.
"Impressive. Perhaps... I should have chosen Dr. Tesla. My original host Shub, was the Valkyrie of Schicksal's strongest squad. I originally thought I could get close to that Grand Bishop..."
Black Sugar seemed to regret that she hadn't been able to make contact with the Grand Bishop of Schicksal.
"You want to contact Otto?" Freya asked.
"Yes, Your Saintess, I want to know if the other party is the right person... After all, this planet may have already been discovered by the 'Scout Star' of the People from the Sky."
"Scout Star? Could you elaborate?"
Freya quickly rallied, realizing that even if a more powerful enemy than the Herrscher of Finality awaited in the future, it did not mean that the enemy was invincible.
Just as this powerful enemy was able to defeat and hunt Honkai, Freya firmly believes that the Alliance will eventually be able to defeat and hunt Honkai as well.
At the same time, Freya was also glad that she hadn't started any rafting plans.
Initially, she did consider that since the current civilization had failed to defeat the Honkai, she decided to reshape the Earth and let it drift in the universe to avoid the Honkai's calamity.
Simply put, as long as the Earth moves fast enough, the impact of the Honkai will not be able to keep up with the Earth.
However, with such advanced civilizations capable of hunting down the Honkai in the universe, the plan to drift to the planet could very well end up as lambs to the slaughter.
"Scout Star are probes used by People from the Sky to search for other civilizations in the universe. In order to avoid being detected by other advanced civilizations, they are disguised as ordinary asteroids, and their destination is set to be a star or a black hole."
After a moment of silence, Black Sugar slowly spoke.
"During the journey, the reconnaissance forces on the Scout Star will continuously observe the planets along the way, searching for possible civilizations, and react differently depending on the level of the civilization. For planets with lower civilization levels, the reconnaissance forces will transmit their coordinates back to the front-line base. As Your Saintess knows, the intensity of the Honkai is positively correlated with the level of civilization development. For these planets... we need to wait until they are mature before we can harvest them."
Black Sugar's answer confirmed Freya's and Tesla's guesses.
This universe is like a dark forest, and every civilization is a hunter with a shotgun. Whoever exposes their whereabouts will be hunted down.
Of course, an advanced civilization is like a powerful hunter.
"Of course, the People from the Sky are also afraid of encountering civilizations more powerful than themselves. When exploring the planets of advanced civilizations, the Scout Star will cut off all communication and disguise itself as an ordinary meteor to quickly enter the predetermined 'end point' and destroy itself."
"So, when the Scout Star discovers a Honkai Energy, but not as powerful as the People from the Sky, then... Saintess Majesty, what do you think they will do?"
Black Sugar's words were filled with helplessness.
"I want to get close to the Grand Bishop of Schicksal in order to establish a cooperative relationship with him... Our race also depends on a host for survival. Leaving this planet and finding another planet to hide on would take a long time. Therefore, I want to make contact with the greatest leader of the current civilization and protect this planet together."
It never expected that it would encounter an accident during the Second Eruption.
"Unfortunately, we were unable to make contact with the Grand Bishop. I suspect that the People from the Sky's reconnaissance forces have already sent reconnaissance machines to infiltrate this planet."
As soon as Black Sugar finished speaking, Freya rubbed her throbbing temples.
In fact, before she was even born in 2005, Welt, Tesla, and others had already encountered the reconnaissance machines of the People from the Sky.
To be precise, Tesla discovered a strange satellite and planned to destroy it with the silver bullet she developed, also known as the atomic bomb.
However, due to a problem at the Mexican launch site, the guard was possessed by a strange, palm-sized machine and went insane, and the launch system was also infected with a virus.
Of course, the silver bullets were initially used to deal with the hidden satellite-type Fourth Divine Key of the Schicksal.
However, to prevent the Scout Star in the People from the Sky from being intercepted before they fell into the sun, they specially arranged for reconnaissance machines to sabotage the launch system.
"... Your name is Black Sugar, right? It's a pity that you were transferred to this world with Sister Kira during the final battle of the Second Eruption in 2000. You probably didn't expect that five years later, the People from the Sky would have already sent out reconnaissance machines as weapons to destroy Earth's civilization."
"What!!"
Freya's answer also surprised the alien life form.
Unfortunately, it was impossible to discern the alien's expression from its current possessed form.
Judging from the tone of the other party, this alien life form was indeed shocked by the news.
"How could that be? Even if I disappeared after that, Elder Konpeito would have arranged for someone to take over my mission... Mint Candy and Toffee should know that at that time, if we didn't stop the destructive actions of the People from the Sky, we would eventually have no choice but to flee that planet!!"
While shocked, Black Sugar also revealed the names of three of his compatriots.
Freya shook her head.
"I didn't learn anything about your race from Sister Tesla. In fact, this is my first contact with your alien race."
The possession state of the other party is like being Honkai by the Honkai, and the body undergoes some kind of mutation, which looks quite intimidating.
A lot happened in 2005.
This includes the death of Muryōtō Ryūsuke.
And the launch site of Anti- Anti-Entropy in Mexico is out of control.
Afterwards, Welt also found a small red machine on the guard and speculated that the red machine might be a reconnaissance machine from a Star Civilization, or a piece of advanced technology possessed by a hidden force.
As it turns out, it was thanks to Tesla's extra attention that Freya was able to connect these events together.
"Indeed... Compared to the People from the Sky who can hunt down the Honkai, Earth's current civilization is just a seedling. Whether it is discovered by the People from the Sky or not... If it wants to survive, it can only continue to grow stronger until it becomes so strong that the People from the Sky dare not covet it."
Freya was indeed somewhat anxious at first.
It makes one think that Earth's civilization is powerless to resist the advanced civilization of those in the People from the Sky, and can only be reaped by them.
However, if Earth's civilization becomes more powerful, even if it is treated as a leek by a higher civilization, it should make the other party understand that leeks are not easy to harvest, and if it is not careful, it may be killed by the leeks.
If you want to hunt other civilizations, how can you do it without being prepared to be hunted by them?
As one emperor once said, only those who are prepared to be shot and killed by others have the right to shoot and kill others.
382. She's almost as powerful as the Second Herrscher; she's not so easy to bully.
Just when you think the Honkai is the final boss, you're suddenly told that after defeating the Honkai, a group of alien life forms that hunt the Honkai will appear as new enemies. This setup seems particularly low-class...
Most importantly... Freya couldn't look Kevin, who had become her ancestor, in the eye.
His life's mission is to defeat the Honkai, even if it may lead to the death of 99% of humanity. In order to prevent the Herrscher of Finality from descending, he will forcibly carry out the Stigmata Project.
Looking back now, how moving his tragic wish was, how lamentable his obsession was back then, seems so ridiculous now.
Who knows, he might have perfectly created a 'battery pack' for the People from the Sky.
After all, the core of the Stigmata Project is to distribute the Honkai Energy of this world, to distribute the Honkai Energy of the present and the future evenly, so as to create an environment that prevents the Herrscher of Finality from descending. This has nothing to do with the strength of the survivors themselves. The significance of the survivors' existence is more about accommodating more Honkai Energy.
However, when Honkai Energy distributed to the survivors who have activated their Stigmata, the People from the Sky will probably be very happy to accept this great gift. They will probably even thank Kevin for his kindness, as this will reduce the steps they need to take to harvest Honkai Energy. They can simply take those survivors away directly.
"... How should I put it, I feel more and more sorry for Kevin now."
When Kevin spared no effort to defeat the Honkai, he only pushed the planet and all of humanity into another hell.
"Little Freya? Who's this Kevin you're talking about?"
"Sister Kira, don't worry about it. I was just talking about a BOSS who was suddenly changed and turned out to be terrible."
Freya replied with a smile.
Of course, she actually had some guesses that she didn't say.
After all, judging from the records of the War of Finality the Previous Era, the power of the Herrscher of Finality is suppressive.
Freya couldn't imagine any Star Civilization that could defeat the Herrscher of Finality. Therefore, the Herrscher of Finality might be a test that only their planet could face, while the final test that other Star Civilization encountered... might be weaker.
However, these conjectures lacked supporting evidence, Freya chose to let a few people have a general understanding of them, as she did not want these conjectures to affect the Alliance's current period of rapid development.
"Well..."
Shigure Kira clearly didn't understand the joke Freya was making.
Rita, standing behind Freya, had a hesitant expression on her face.
As Freya's adjutant, Rita knew information that ordinary people did not, including the purpose of the World Serpent's Lord.
Based on the information revealed by this extraterrestrial life form, the enemies that Earth civilization faces are not only the Honkai, but also those malicious 'hunters' in the universe.
From this perspective, the World Serpent Organization's actions have been just as disastrous as Freya described.
Previously, they helped the Honkai to harm their own people, and now they're helping alien life forms harm their own people. They're practically the best double agent.
"Rita, don't worry about it... No matter what, I won't let him succeed. Even if that Stigmata Activation Plan can stop the Herrscher of Finality from descending, it's none of our business... We just need to make the Alliance stronger."
After speaking, Freya looked at the alien life form covering Shigure Kira.
"Black Sugar ...you once wanted to cooperate with that bastard bishop. In that case, cooperating with me is the same. I am one of the four governors of the alliance, but my power and prestige far exceed those of the other three...I am definitely your best partner."
"Saintess Majesty, I am well aware of the dark side of humanity. Perhaps the younger generation in our race thinks the precepts are ridiculous, but Your Saintess knows better than I do just how untrustworthy humanity truly is."
Black Sugar's voice was filled with indifference.
"Although I have trustworthy human companions, such companions are few and far between. The reason I appeared before you is simply because I had no other choice... Saintess Majesty the Saintess decided to take my human companions back to that world. If that were all, I would have continued to hide. However, Saintess Majesty the Saintess has noticed my existence, and I do not have the strength to defeat Her Saintess the Saintess... Therefore, I have no choice but to appear and surrender to Saintess Majesty the Saintess. The two sides are completely unequal in strength, so this cannot be called cooperation."
From a rational perspective, it shouldn't be so honest.
After all, what it said was likely to arouse the other party's disgust, but it felt that if it lied, the consequences might be even more miserable.
The moment it appeared, its instinct told it to be honest.
Yes, its instincts prevented it from escaping.
It also tells it the most likely way to survive.
"You're so honest... I like your honesty, of course, if you were hiding something, you would have already vanished."
At that moment, Freya unleashed her aura, which resembled that of the Herrscher of Finality, without any restraint.
In an instant, the alien life form covering Shigure Kira felt what fear was.
As if she were just toying with her opponent, Freya quickly withdrew her aura, but her aura still instilled a strong sense of fear in the alien life form.