The Star Speaker's words were like a pebble thrown into a calm lake, creating ripples throughout the conference room.
" The Reapers?" Robin repeated the word, her archaeologist's instincts flashing with a mixture of excitement and wariness in her eyes. "A civilization that feeds on Chaos? That niche..."
"It's not about ecological niches, it's about plunder." The Star Speaker's silvery-white eyes flickered, as if rummaging through fragments of long-forgotten memories deep within his mind. "The memories of the Triangular Body Civilization's ancestors are very vague, but one thing is clear: wherever the Reapers went, Chaos creatures suffered mass extinctions."
He walked to the holographic control panel and placed his hands on the control panel. Strange silver-purple patterns spread from his palms to the surface of the control panel, and the system automatically brought up the outpost's deep database.
"During the process of ordering, I gained access to the Triangle Bodies 'Racial Memory Bank'," the Star Speaker explained. "Although most memories have been distorted and fragmented over billions of years of evolution, fragments about the Reapers... have been deliberately preserved. Like... a warning."
A series of fragmented images appeared on the console:
Against the backdrop of a starry sky, countless enormous black rhomboid structures floated in the air. Their surfaces were as smooth as mirrors, without any seams or windows, making it impossible to tell whether they were biological or mechanical.
--These rhomboid structures emitted dark red beams of light, sweeping across a Chaos Nebula. The Chaos creatures within the nebula, which had been freely shifting in shape, let out silent screams as their forms disintegrated into the most basic energy particles, which were absorbed by the structures.
--Final scene: A colossal Reapers mothership, hundreds of times larger than the other constructs, with countless holes opened on its surface, releasing a tidal wave of miniature Harvest units that swarm towards a planet where intelligent life has just emerged.
"They don't just Harvest Chaos energy," the Star Speaker's voice trembled unusually, "They also Harvest the nascent civilizations born from Chaos... the ancestors of the Triangular Body Civilization were their prey."
Rena gasped, "You are... survivors?"
"The fugitives," the Star Speaker corrected, "Our Triangle Bodies ancestors sensed danger before the Reapers arrived, tearing apart a small section of the Chaos Nebula and hiding in Spacetime Crevice. When we emerged, our home planet and most of our kin... had already vanished."
Ge Xiaolun stared at the cold, black constructs in the image. "Where did they come from? What is their purpose?"
"There are no answers in the fragments of memory," the Star Speaker shook his head. "Only a recurring warning message, encoded with the most primal Chaos fluctuations, is etched into the very depths of every Triangle Bodies consciousness—"
He closed his eyes, and a strange, low-frequency hum emanated from his throat. It wasn't language, but rather a pulse of information directly affecting his consciousness:
[Beware of the black rhombuses... beware of the hungry Reapers... they will return when Chaos is at its most intense... Harvest everything... devouring everything... and then slumbering... awaiting the next harvest...]
The buzzing stopped, and the conference room fell silent.
"Periodic Harvest," Zoro gripped his sword hilt, "Like a farmer waiting for the crops to ripen."
"What's even more terrifying is—" Yan pulled up the cosmic Chaos concentration monitoring chart, "... take a look at this."
On the star chart, the curve representing the concentration of Chaos is rising slowly but steadily. Although the magnitude is not large, the trend is clear.
"Since Allen began guiding the Chaos Consciousness Side back to its proper place, the Chaos energy level of the entire universe has been rising." Yan zoomed in on the graph. "This is a necessary stage in the balancing process—for the Chaos Consciousness Side to 'return to its proper place,' the Chaos energy must first return to normal levels, rather than being excessively suppressed."
"But this also means..." Nami's face paled, " that the Reapers ' criteria for judging 'crops ripe' have been met?"
"Very likely." The Star Speaker pointed to several specific areas on the star map. "According to the memory fragments, before the Reapers left, they buried ' Harvest Outposts' in areas with high Chaos potential. These outposts will continuously monitor the Chaos concentration, and once a preset threshold is reached, they will automatically activate and send a signal to the mothership."
Shanks asked in a deep voice, "Can we find these outposts?"
"Theoretically, yes." The Star Speaker retrieved another set of data. "The outposts themselves emit faint disturbances of order—because they are highly ordered creations, like lighthouses in the night in Chaos environment. The problem is—"
He zoomed in on a corner of the star map. "Based on the coordinates of the memory fragments, the nearest possible outpost is located in the core of the Chaos Remnants's settlement area."
Princess Shirahoshi whispered, "Isn't that...?"
"We're going to the place where the Chaos Remnants are being guided," Luffy in, grinning. "Perfect, we can solve two problems at once!"
"Don't be too optimistic," Ben Beckman analyzed calmly. " The Chaos Remnants are inherently hostile to the existence of Order. If they discover that we are about to destroy an Order construct (outpost), they might see it as a provocation."
"But that creation of order will summon the Reapers to destroy them." Sanji exhaled a puff of smoke. "They should be able to understand that, right?"
The Star Speaker smiled wryly, "The thought process of Chaos beings... is different from that of ordered beings. They tend more towards instinct and emotion than rational analysis. In particular, their fear of the Reapers may be etched into their genetic memory—to the point that they dare not approach it, let alone actively destroy it."
"Then persuade them," Zoro said, "With a knife."
"Wait a minute." Robin suddenly raised her hand. " Star Speaker, did you see any weaknesses in the Reapers ' memories? Every civilization has weaknesses."
The Star Speaker remained silent for a moment, seemingly digging deeper into his memories.
"There's something strange..." he said slowly, " The Reapers are almost invincible—they're immune to physical attacks, absorb energy attacks, and ignore Rule Distortion. But in a fragment of memory, I saw a Reapers construct... and hesitated."
"Hesitate?"
"Yes. We were facing a peculiar Chaos creature—a creature without a fixed form, but at its core was a small cluster of... platinum light."
Everyone held their breath for a moment.
" Sparks?" Ge Xiaolun blurted out.
"Or something similar." The Star Speaker nodded. "That Chaos creature touched the Reapers with that ball of light, and the Reapers's movements froze for 0.3 seconds. Though brief, it was enough for that creature to escape."
Yan immediately retrieved Allen's ability data. " Allen's Sparks possesses the characteristic of 'harmony,' enabling him to establish a balance between Chaos and order. If the Reapers are creations of extreme order..."
"Then Sparks might cause logical conflicts in their internal systems," Rena's eyes lit up, "Like inputting 0.5 into a computer that only recognizes 0s and 1s!"
"But Allen is inside the door." Liu Chuang frowned. "Where would we get Sparks?"
As soon as he finished speaking, everyone in the conference room—including the Star Speaker and the Chaos Remnants who had just been guided behind him—simultaneously felt a faint resonance.
The feeling was indescribable, like the softest string in the depths of one's heart being gently plucked.
The Star Speaker clutched his chest, his silvery-white eyes widening. "This is..."
The holographic screen on the console suddenly flickered, displaying an interface never seen before. It was a ring-shaped pattern composed of runes interwoven with platinum and dark purple, with a short line of text appearing in the center.
The writing was not any known language, but everyone who saw it understood its meaning in their minds:
[Watch out... the Reapers... is back...]
[Fragments... Resonance... Guidance...]
The text flashed for three seconds, then disappeared.
The conference room was deathly silent.
"That's..." Usopp's voice trembled.
" Allen's message," Yan's voice trembled slightly, but was more resolute, "Was transmitted through the resonance network of the Balance Field Fragment. He sensed the Reapers's threat within the gate, but it's a critical stage, and he can't afford to be distracted."
Luffy clenched his fist, his eyes gleaming beneath his Straw Hat: "He's reminding us."
"It's also guiding us," Robin analyzed. "'Fragment resonance guidance'—he might be telling us that we can use the scattered Balance Field Fragment to create some kind of... means to fight the Reapers."
The Star Speaker suddenly knelt on one knee, his hand on the floor. Silvery-white patterns spread from his body, resonating with the Balance Field Fragment buried deep within the outpost.
"I understand..." he said softly, "The debris isn't just a stabilizer, it's also... Beacon and an amplifier. If we can activate enough debris to form a network, we can amplify the 'harmonizing' properties of the Sparks, covering a sufficiently large area—"
"--Create a zone that makes the Reapers 'hesitate'," Zoro continued.
"But the prerequisite is that we need to control at least six main fragment points and make them resonate in sync." Yan pulled up the fragment distribution map, "And right now, three of them are being attacked by the Chaos Remnants, and the locations of the other three are unknown."
Franky raised his hand. "SUPER--! We can build a debris detector! Since debris emits a special mixture of order and Chaos, it's theoretically detectable!"
"It will take time," Sanji calculated. "Design, manufacturing, debugging... at least three days."
"We don't have three days." An urgent report came from the control room, "A large number of Chaos Remnants have been detected gathering outside the outpost! The number... exceeds five hundred! Their target is clear—fragments of the energy core!"
As the alarm sounded, everyone rushed out of the conference room.
Outside the observation window of the outpost, countless gray-black shadows surged in from all directions in the pitch-black starry sky. They were no longer disorganized lone soldiers, but arranged in formation like an army, with three particularly enormous shadows clustered in the center—those shadows had condensed into blurry but terrifying shapes: one like a multi-eyed giant snake, one like a hundred-armed giant, and one like a burning nebula.
"The Lords of the Chaos," the Star Speaker said in a deep voice, "The strongest beings in each Chaos Remnants settlement. They have Awakening to the point where they can solidify into a fixed form... This means their individual consciousness is extremely strong, but also easier to communicate with."
"Communication?" Yasopp raised his sniper rifle. "Are you sure they're here to chat?"
As if in response, the largest, multi-eyed serpent shadow suddenly opened its "mouth"—which was actually a distorted spatial rift—and let out a silent roar.
The entire outpost shook violently! The energy shield reading dropped by 30% instantly!
"They're attacking the shield's frequency with Chaos resonance!" Ge Xiaolun shouted, " Void Engine, re-frequency the shield!"
"Attempting... Warning, attack frequency continues to change... Unable to lock on..."
Zoro drew his sword and charged toward the exit. "Stop talking nonsense! Beat them into submission first!"
"Wait!" the Star Speaker stopped him. "Let me try. If they've evolved lords, it means they have a rudimentary social structure, and we can negotiate."
"It's too dangerous for you to go alone," Princess Shirahoshi said worriedly.
"No, it's safer for me to go alone." The Star Speaker looked out the window at the three enormous shadows. "Because they can sense... that I am one of them. At least I used to be."
He turned to the Chaos Remnants had already been guided. "Would you like to come with me? To show your people... another possibility."
The shadowy humanoid figure remained silent for a moment, then extended its "hand" and clasped the Star Speaker's hand.
The point of contact between the two emitted a faint but beautiful two-tone light—a blend of silver and gray-black, where order and Chaos coexisted.
"Very good." The Star Speaker took a deep breath and walked towards the airlock. "Gentlemen, please be prepared for both possibilities. If I fail..."
He turned around, his silvery-white eyes sweeping over everyone:
"... Just do as Mr. Zoro said, and defeat them."
The airlock opened, Star Speaker, leading the Chaos Remnants, flew towards the shadowy army in the starry sky.
In the conference room, everyone was ready for battle.
Luffy adjusted his straw Straw Hat and grinned, "But I believe him."
"Why?" Nami asked.
"Because he has the same thing in his eyes as Allen."
Luffy looked out the window; the Star Speaker was facing an enemy hundreds of times larger, her figure small yet resolute.
"That kind of... idiotic look in their eyes when they could have chosen the easier path, but insisted on taking the hardest one."
In the starry sky, the Star Speaker hovered in front of the army of shadows.
The gazes of the three remnant lords were simultaneously fixed on him. They held a complex mix of hostility, hunger, and a hint of curiosity.
[Traitor... lackey of order...]
Hand over the fragments... and I'll spare your life...
The light emanating from you... it's familiar... alluring... and dangerous...
The Star Speaker spread his arms, releasing a silvery-white light of order and a trace of Chaos shadow remaining within him, forming a slowly rotating Balance Field around him.
"I am not a traitor, I am a pioneer."
"I am not a lackey of order, I am a bridge."
He stared directly at the three colossal figures, his voice transmitting through his consciousness to the hearts of every Chaos Remnants:
" The Threshold Bearer are inside the gate, paving the way to balance for the entire Chaos Consciousness Side."
"I'm standing outside, inviting you to walk this path together."
"But what if you choose to refuse--"
The Star Speaker's voice turned cold:
"Then I will choose the other path."
He raised his hand, palm up. Deep within the outpost, the Balance Field Fragment suddenly erupted with intense light!
The light pierced through layers of decks, through the starry sky, and connected with the light in the Star Speaker's palm!
"Using the Spark left behind by the Threshold Bearer, I forced you onto this path."
The three remnant lords roared in anger at the same time, and Chaos energy surged forth like a tsunami!
But at this critical moment—
The Chaos Remnants behind the Star Speaker suddenly flew between the two sides. It spread its arms, fully stretched out its body, and unreservedly transmitted the memory that the Star Speaker had just shown it—the memory of how order and Chaos coexisted within it—to all its brethren.
That wasn't an attack, but a gift.
An invitation to another possibility.
The Shadow Army's offensive suddenly came to a halt.