"I suggest you turn your pain sensitivity down to zero, Stelle. After all, once he ascends to godhood, there's no way we'll survive;
we don't even know how we'll die. Tch, can't be helped. There's nothing left in his head but breed, breed, breed. The only thing we can be sure of is that we'll meet a very miserable end..."
"Oh, okay. What about you?" After getting Herta to adjust it, Stelle looked at Zhang Xiu.
He turned his gaze toward the fiercest battlefield in the distance. "I can't be satisfied with this. As I am now, I'm not even an Emanator."
"I'll temper my will and ignite my soul. I'll face the Swarm head-on and weigh my worth in the slaughter."
"If my soul isn't worthy of enduring it, then I'm destined to never become an Emanator or an Aeon."
Hearing Zhang Xiu's plan, Herta fell silent, while Stelle said rather foolishly:
"Oh, well, good luck, then. But won't that really hurt?"
Zhang Xiu blinked, amused enough that even the weight his plan had placed on his heart eased. "Yeah, but it doesn't matter. All right, let's go."
"Where?" Stelle picked up her dried clothes.
"No idea. There's fighting everywhere, so it doesn't matter where we go." Zhang Xiu shrugged.
"Then... who should we help?"
"From the big-picture perspective... the bugs. But most of them aren't very intelligent. Help them, and they might bite you too."
He picked up a pebble and shot it toward the distant Swarm that had spotted them.
The immense force sent the Swarm tumbling in an instant, splashing crimson blood everywhere.
"But the universe is vast, and there's no end to its wonders. You could even meet someone identical to yourself, so I have reason to suspect that some of the bugs here possess..."