A Hollow Technique: Purple That Silenced Every Alarm on the Space Station

The little finger and index finger of his left hand came together.

A blinding red light sprang to life at his fingertips.

It was a power utterly opposed to the "Blue" he had used moments ago.

The red light seethed with a force that repelled everything.

The air was sucked from the corridor in an instant, and the pressure plummeted.

Stelle's mouth fell open. It felt as though all the air had been squeezed from her lungs, leaving her chest aching.

Welt gripped his cane so tightly his knuckles turned white.

Red and blue light met at Su Chen's fingertips.

The two extremes of energy collided, unleashing a staggering recoil.

In his current seven-year-old body, Su Chen's frame was too light.

His little leather shoes slipped on the metal floor, and he slid half a step back.

He quickly braced himself, digging his toes against the soles of his shoes.

Only then did he barely steady himself.

He had nearly fallen flat on his back in front of everyone.

Su Chen pursed his lips in annoyance.

Gritting his teeth, he forced the repelling red and attracting blue together.

The violent energy formed an unstable sphere before his small hands.

In less than half a second, red and blue fused completely.

Dazzling purple light flooded the corridor.

It was so bright that it swallowed even the red glow of the emergency lights.

For a brief instant, everyone in the corridor lost their sight.

Purple was all they could see.

Su Chen fixed his gaze on the enormous Antimatter Legion Commander outside the window and spoke softly.

"Hollow Technique: Purple."

The purple sphere of energy erupted.

Rather than shooting forward like an ordinary shell, it became a terrifying beam over a hundred meters wide.

It tore straight toward the floor-to-ceiling viewing window with enough force to rip through dimensions.

March 7th squeezed her eyes shut, crouched, and covered her head with both hands.

She had already braced herself for the glass to shatter and the vacuum of space to rush in.

She bit her lip hard, waiting for the weightless sensation of being dragged into space.

But nothing happened.

Su Chen diverted a sliver of his mental focus to precisely control the energy's reach.

The purple beam passed through like a ghost from another dimension.

It slipped through the thick, specially reinforced bulletproof glass without resistance.

Not a single crack appeared on the glass.

Only a faint ripple of heat crossed its surface as the beam passed through.

The purple light surged into Outer Space.

The Antimatter Legion Commander, a monster comparable to a Doomsday Beast, was roaring as it hurtled toward the space station.

It came on at tremendous speed, bearing down with unstoppable force.

Then it struck the purple beam.

There was no deafening explosion, no spray of flesh and blood.

There was only an unnerving erasure.

The instant the purple light touched the Antimatter Legion Commander, its dark-gold exoskeleton—said to withstand the main cannon of a planet-killing warship—melted away like snow in boiling water.

It vaporized without so much as a bubble.

The monster's cavernous jaws were still open in a roar.

Fear had not even had time to appear in its compound eyes.

Its vocal cords, its head, its massive body surging with antimatter energy—

All of it was crushed into nothing by imaginary mass in a tenth of a second.

It had no time to scream.

The colossal monster simply vanished.

Only a faint purple trail remained in space as proof it had ever existed.

But it was not over.

The purple beam kept going, spreading outward in a fan.

The Antimatter Legion Warships that had just emerged from the Wormhole, along with those trying to turn and flee,

ran headlong into that overwhelming force.

Their black metal hulls twisted instantly.

The barrels of their main cannons wound together like braided rope.

The Antibaryons aboard did not even understand what had happened before they and their warships disintegrated into the most basic particles in the universe.

A third of the vast fleet was swept away like rubbish by an invisible, gigantic broom.

Not a scrap remained.

At last, the beam slammed into the dark-purple Wormhole, ten kilometers across.

The violent energy at the Wormhole's edges tried to devour the intruding force.

Two powers capable of tearing space apart collided in the Abyss.

A sudden flash lit up space.

It looked like the first sign of a supernova.

Then the massive Wormhole began to collapse violently.

Space was forcibly stitched shut.

The dark-purple vortex twisted a few times in a soundless wail.

At last, it shrank to a tiny black dot.

With a soft pop, it vanished completely.

Outside the space station, the deep black silence returned.

Space was spotless, as though someone had washed it with the most powerful cleaner imaginable.

Inside the station, all hell broke loose.

The moment the purple light faded, the control consoles lining the corridor let out shrill alarms.

The powerful energy aftershock triggered a localized electromagnetic storm.

Sparks sprayed wildly from the seams of the panels.

The metal housings grew scorching hot.

Bang! Bang, bang!

A string of sharp cracks rang out.

Several high-precision detectors mounted on the corridor ceiling overloaded from the sudden surge of readings and exploded.

Shattered glass and plastic casings scattered across the floor.

Thick black smoke poured from the ventilation ducts, carrying the acrid stench of burning rubber.

The blaring air-raid sirens sounded like roosters with their throats suddenly gripped shut.

Their cries caught in their throats.

After a few harsh bursts of static, every red warning light went out at once.

Every instrument in the outer section had gone dead.

Welt's cane clattered to the floor.

It rolled twice across the metal plating.

He did not pick it up.

The Former Herrscher of Reason braced his hands on his knees and gasped for breath.

Sweat had soaked the back of his shirt.

What had he just witnessed?

An imaginary mass outside known physical laws had forcibly erased space and matter.

The Pseudo Black Hole Welt had taken such pride in looked like a child's mud pie beside that power.

This was more than a crushing difference in combat strength.

It was an attack from a higher dimension.

Stelle had long since lost track of where she had dropped her baseball bat.

She stood frozen, staring into the empty space beyond the window.

Her jaw hung open, and she did not even notice that she was nearly drooling.

She raised a hand and rubbed her eyes hard enough to turn them red.

There truly was not a scrap left outside.

March 7th was still crouching on the floor.

After a while, when she heard no glass breaking, she cautiously opened one eye.

She looked at the untouched glass and the unnaturally empty space beyond it.

Then she dropped onto her backside, her legs too weak to stand.

Himeko leaned against the metal wall. The Mechanical Saw in her hand was still spinning, but her hand trembled faintly.

Blue pop-ups flooded Su Chen's vision like a waterfall.

[Shock Points +3000!]

[Shock Points +2500!]

[Shock Points +2800!]

[Shock Points +1900!]

Most of those points came from the Astral Express Crew and Arlan, who lay sprawled on the floor.

The dense stream of numbers made his eyes swim.

Then a special notification edged in gold appeared.

[Logical breakdown detected in Genius Society member Herta. Shock Points +5000!]

Su Chen licked his lips. His mouth had gone dry.

He had made a fortune from that one move.

He lowered his left hand and tucked both little hands back into the wide pockets of his uniform.

Then he turned and looked up.

The corridor was deathly silent.

Only a few damaged pipes in the distance still hissed as gas escaped.

Welt, Himeko, Stelle, March 7th, and even Arlan, covered in blood—

Everyone's eyes were fixed on Su Chen.

Power that could destroy stars.

One strike had erased an antimatter fleet and a massive Wormhole.

A feat that could overturn the balance of power across the universe

had come from a seven-year-old little girl barely tall enough to reach an adult's waist, whose voice still sounded childish.

The Imaginary Divine Court.

That name now weighed on every heart like a mountain.

It left them struggling to breathe.

The Seventh Seat could destroy a fleet with the flick of a finger.

Then what about the Female Lord of the Fourth Seat they had seen earlier?

What about the three higher seats they had never met—or even the leader?

Welt's lips moved.

A dry rasp scraped from his throat.

He wanted to ask something, but he had no idea where to begin.

Amid the suffocating silence,

a harsh metallic screech suddenly came from the far end of the corridor.

Gears spun frantically, and the sharp sound of a spring wound to its limit cut through the quiet.

Clack, clack, clack!

Heavy footsteps raced closer.

A Herta puppet in a purple-and-white dress burst through the smoke at the other end of the corridor like a madwoman.

The rush of air had torn its skirt, and its hat was nowhere to be seen.

It paid no attention to the smoking control consoles around it.

Nor did it care about the Astral Express Crew's startled stares.

It stumbled toward Little Satoru Gojo, a feverish red light flashing in its mechanical eyes.

When it was still two meters from Su Chen, the puppet lunged.

It thrust both metal arms forward without hesitation, reaching for the little girl's shoulders.