A single star held a full eighteen terraformed planets in its gravitational grip. Some orbits even contained four planets revolving together, one at each corner.
Such audacious remodeling of a star system demonstrated the civilization's formidable technological capabilities. The entire system was also enveloped in a cloaking device, rendering it invisible not only to optical observation but also to gravitational detection.
Even a light-level civilization would have struggled to detect this inhabited system. Beyond the cloaked system stood a stargate, a gravitational guidance device designed for faster-than-light travel.
Hiding was always one way to protect oneself. Unfortunately, the system had ultimately failed to escape encirclement by the "prickly pear" army. Everything had been annihilated.
Within the entire three-thousand-light-year region Luo Qi observed, not a single civilization remained. Only billions of spiked, prickly-pear-like planets moved erratically through the cosmic void.
Some were enormous enough to rival the true body of the mutated Cthulhu Mythos lifeform Luo Qi had once encountered. Even the smallest measured four thousand kilometers in diameter. Under Universe No. 3's laws, their immense mass endowed them with powerful gravitational and electromagnetic fields.
Some "prickly pears" even clung tightly to planets, merging with them like two melting scoops of ice cream pressed together. But the "thorns" wrapped around that half of the planet's surface were noisily slicing through its continental plates, their terrifying strength tearing the planet apart bit by bit.
A closer look revealed that each was actually a gigantic lifeform with hundreds of long necks. Its body was not spherical; instead, it was surrounded and protected by spiked necks dozens of kilometers long.
That was why its surface appeared crisscrossed by exceptionally tall mountain ranges, each ending in a hideous, gaping maw like a snake's head.
"This is another universe invaded by alien species. Did they sort