"There might even be only that one Heavenly Immortal."
Blind Ancient closed its eyes.
It had not uttered a single word throughout the exchange.
But it made a gesture.
Its third jointed limb on the right rose slightly and tapped the void ahead.
Just once.
Its subordinate's compound eyes focused on that limb at the same time. Then its body shuddered—it understood.
The entire army.
Attack.
The subordinate lowered its head again, a trace of excitement in its mental fluctuations. "Your subordinate obeys."
It turned around.
Its kilometers-long body rotated in the void, its wing-limbs spreading as blood-red patterns flowed across its surface. It was Summers, the subordinate who had reported to Blind Ancient.
Within the Gold-Eater Clan, its bloodline was second only to Blind Ancient's.
The power of more than five laws flowed within its body. The way of bloodlust was the strongest, holding dominance.
Summers left Blind Ancient's domain.
Behind it, Blind Ancient closed its eyes again. Its mountain-like body returned to deathly stillness.
But the instant it closed its eyes, every member of the Gold-Eater Clan within tens of thousands of kilometers stirred at once.
Mental fluctuations passed from layer to layer.
The entire army was to attack.
Advance to the front.
The command spread outward from the deep-space core where Blind Ancient resided, carried by mental waves. It passed from layer to layer, spreading like ripples into every corner of the black tide.
That boundless black tide began to move.
Hundreds of millions of individuals began changing direction. Smaller ones clung to the shells of larger ones, while the larger ones drew in their jointed limbs to compress their bodies, advancing with the smallest possible cross section.
The entire void writhed.
Like a black river changing course, it surged toward the Solar System, gathering speed.
Blue