Zeratul landed on a desolate planet drifting alone through the starfield, the only celestial body within hundreds of light-years.
Two years ago, he had suddenly felt something strange. Something unseen had been warning him, and that feeling... had been very bad.
Though the sensation had been faint and fleeting, Zeratul had still keenly discerned a direction and continuously warped toward this place.
Foresight was a racial gift of the Nerazim. Because they cultivated Void Psionic Energy, they needed to draw energy from beyond the universe, allowing them to more easily perceive large-scale changes in the cosmos. The more adept they were at controlling Void Psionic Energy, the more clearly they could sense those changes.
In theory, the Tal'darim should have held a greater advantage in this regard. Yet under the social system of the Ascension Chain, hardly any Tal'darim could settle down and contemplate the changes of the universe.
They might as well spend that time participating in another Rak'Shir...
Of course, this foresight merely analyzed the broader trends of cosmic change; it did not truly show images of the future. The Ian Crystal Zeratul had given Raynor in Wings of Liberty, which recorded the end of the universe, had not been created through his own visions alone.
During his archaeological expeditions, Zeratul had discovered prophetic murals left behind by the Xel'naga. Only when his foresight resonated with the Xel'naga prophecy had he truly been able to lift the veil of the future.
Zeratul stepped onto the silent planet. He needed to act quickly, because the Star Array showed that this region belonged to the Deno Civilization. Although the universal Star Chart He Xi had initially provided had not marked the coordinates of powerful civilizations, it did display the approximate ranges of their territories. That was already enough for the Protoss to decipher their exact coordinates.
The Void Seeker landed beside a strange crater. It was enormous, around fifty kilometers in diameter and several thousand meters deep.
The moment Zeratul disembarked from the Void Seeker, he immediately fixed his gaze on the center of the crater. At first, he had assumed it might be a meteorite crater, but he quickly ruled out that possibility.
Though the darkness at the bottom made it difficult for Zeratul to see clearly, he could still vaguely make out countless round objects scattered across the crater floor. Their shapes were highly regular; meteorite fragments would never be so orderly.
To resolve his doubts, Zeratul decided to investigate. However, just as he reached the crater's edge and prepared to jump down, a group of people he had expected stopped him.
"Protoss! This is territory of Deven Star, not a sightseeing planet open to the public. I am Viscerro, Third Guard Captain of the Light Shield Elite Guard. Leave immediately if you do not have a pass, or we will regard you as an invader!"
A young commander clad in silver-white armor trimmed with gold and accented in blue descended from the sky before the crater, a flashy spear in hand. Dozens of fully armed soldiers followed behind him.
"They came quickly."
Zeratul pondered to himself, Fifty first-generation Super Soldiers, one second-generation Super Soldier, all with top-tier genetic sequences. And there is a flagship-class cruiser above...
Although Gaius's research had failed to ideally achieve compatibility between Angel Super Genes and Protoss genes, he had still produced many research results, such as methods for determining the quality of Super Genes...
Naturally, Zeratul could share that knowledge as well.
With his uniquely advantageous cloaking ability, Zeratul felt that eliminating this group would not be difficult. However, that cruiser was not something he could handle alone.
Besides, Uncle Zeratul was a decent fellow. He had been in the wrong for trespassing on their territory in the first place. It had been one thing while no one was around, but now that the owners had appeared, he could only cooperate.
After all, he could hardly say that he had followed his intuition here and would feel terribly uneasy if he did not take a look below.
"Very well. I apologize for entering your territory without permission. I will leave at once."
Though Zeratul felt somewhat disappointed, he returned to the Void Seeker. He did not tell Viscerro about the strange objects at the bottom of the crater. His intuition told him that perhaps leaving those things alone would be for the best.
After the Void Seeker departed, Viscerro pressed his joined index and middle fingers against his temple and opened a secure communications link to the Deven Cruiser above. "What was that Protoss doing here just now?"
"Guard Captain, it appears that he had only just landed and was preparing to descend to the bottom of the crater. Perhaps something down there attracted him. This planet is the remotest and most barren one under our jurisdiction, so there is no need to worry that he would do anything here detrimental to the Deven Federation."
Viscerro nodded. The Protoss, a civilization that had emerged only recently, had been invited to participate in the Theocratic Conference, and word of it had long spread throughout the Known Universe.
Every Aerospace Civilization had begun gathering intelligence on the Protoss, only to find nothing. The only thing they knew was that the Protoss had achieved a horrifying casualty ratio of three digits to fifty thousand in a war against the Trigonians.
No civilization in the Known Universe had ever achieved such a casualty ratio. Even the Angels, whose legions possessed the strongest combat power, could at most achieve one to ten, and most of the time, they remained below one to five.
This era would later be described by He Xi and Yan, in a conversation twenty thousand years afterward, as—"an era where victory in war still depended on having more people."
Therefore, Viscerro had no desire to clash with the Protoss. This star region was simply too remote, a place where the borders were unclear. Other Aerospace Civilizations had often wandered into this area by mistake in the past.
"Something unusual at the bottom of the crater?"
Viscerro was not the permanent commander stationed in this star region, but he patrolled it roughly once every ten years. He had never discovered anything unusual in this crater before.
Having made up his mind, Viscerro leaped forward. His Super Gene was the latest research product of Deven Star, and its genetic sequence was entirely different from those of ordinary first- and second-generation Super Genes.
Perhaps it should have been called a first-generation God-Slaying Super Gene.
De Star Spear. That was the codename of Viscerro's Super Gene.
Mobility was its greatest trait. It granted extraordinary running speed and astonishing jumping power, though its strength was somewhat lacking.
Leaping down several thousand meters was about the same as an ordinary person jumping a few dozen centimeters.
Boom!
A heavy impact rang out. Viscerro rose to his feet and activated his night vision to observe the dark crater floor.
"What is this?!"
As Viscerro looked around and clearly saw the hundreds of densely packed, bizarre objects he had never encountered before, his pupils contracted...
Three months later, news that shocked the universe spread: the Form War had officially ended!
The Angel Civilization had won.
For the first time, Keisha revealed the super-celestial computer she and He Xi had jointly designed and created: the Holy Knowledge Treasure!
Keisha, Angel King, bestowed upon herself the sacred title.
Holy Keisha!
A brand-new era was about to begin!
(Hello, everyone. I am Hierarch Artanis. Amon has taken the Golden Armada, so I must gather my forces anew, but I need your help. As long as every one of you casts all the recommendation votes and monthly votes in your hands, I will be able to activate the Spear of Adun. In return, I will pilot the Spear of Adun to come and guide you.)
Before you continue