"This is the Ninth Economic Zone! We are under attack by an unknown armed force, requesting support, requesting support!"
"Minono-3 is under attack by unknown machines, requesting support!"
"The third Defensive line is sixty-one percent damaged, requesting a contraction of the front line!"
"We can't hold on anymore!"
Inside the Interastral Peace Corporation, operators were working at full tilt, frantically connecting calls from across the cosmos.
But unlike the usual good news, these transmissions were not reports of new markets being opened by The IPC's frontline personnel. Instead, they were filled with rapid breathing and panicked cries that carried the unmistakable stench of fear.
Such a sudden, large-scale outbreak of crisis threw many of the operators into disarray.
"What's going on?" Topaz asked as she stepped forward, having just returned from leave.
"Ah?! Ms. Topaz, you're back! Multiple star systems have suddenly come under attack by unknown armed forces. The members are requesting assistance. I'm a bit…"
She waved her hand, signaling that it was fine.
These operators were all professionally trained. From time to time, they would receive distress calls from regions facing harassment. But when disasters erupted simultaneously in several places, panic spread easily.
Topaz understood this well. The most urgent task was to sort out exactly what was happening.
The IPC's territories erupting into so many battles at the same time was something that would have been unthinkable in the past.
Did anyone really think The IPC had expanded its markets across countless worlds through kindness and goodwill alone?
Every market was protected by considerable security forces. If a region had sufficient local armed power, joint defenses would be arranged. No one wanted trouble popping up just as business was booming.
And yet now, all of that trouble had exploded at once, piling together in a single overwhelming surge.
If nothing unexpected had happened, the higher-ups were probably convening a meeting already.
"Little Yelena, I heard you're back?" Jade's voice came through the communicator.
"Ms. Jade, are we discussing the unidentified armed attacks?"
"Yes. Diamond is already in position. Director Taravan happened to be out earlier and ran straight into an attack on the market branch in the Osius system. He's on-site right now. It seems someone is deliberately opposing The IPC."
…
As Topaz reached the door to the Stonehearts' conference room, she ran straight into a colleague.
"Well now, lucky you. I heard one of the systems you passed through is within the attacked area," Aventurine said with a dusty grin.
"Heh. You're not doing too badly yourself. That travel-worn look, rushed back in a hurry? Good thing you didn't run into a traffic accident on the way."
She rested one hand on her hip, smiling.
"Mm~~"
"Zing!" At that moment, the door opened automatically without warning.
A purple-haired urban beauty looked helplessly at the two of them joking around at the entrance.
Her red lips parted slightly. "Does this door have some kind of fatigue-relieving function? Otherwise, why would the two of you just stand here instead of coming in?"
After the tease, Jade spoke softly. "Come in, Little Yelena. I brewed fresh black tea for you. Your timing was fortunate. That system erupted into crisis just after you passed through. You must have been startled on the way."
"And what about me, Ms. Jade? Favoritism is bad civilization," Aventurine protested.
Upon entering the conference room, what immediately caught their attention were three colleagues sitting quietly on the sofa, reading and drinking tea.
Sugilite, Obsidian, and the neutral Amber.
"Hi, welcome home."
With wine-red hair cascading down her back and an elegant, classical bearing, Obsidian raised her hand and smiled as she waved. In her other hand was a crystal-clear fruit, its juice staining the corner of her lips.
"It really is lively today. When was the last time all six of us gathered like this?"
"Mm~~" Gently placing the ledgers' front paws on the small table, Topaz accepted the tea Jade handed her and took a sip, smiling lightly.
"Sigh, you all seem so relaxed. I've been running myself ragged out there these past days," Aventurine said lazily, removing his hat and pressing it to his chest.
The Stonehearts always advanced and retreated together. But because of their high positions and personal circumstances, each of them carried out their own business across the cosmos.
Under normal circumstances, unless it was something like an end-of-year evaluation, it was difficult to see them gathered in one place.
To have six of them drinking tea, chatting, and eating fruit like this was truly rare.
"Pearl has preserved herself," Amber suddenly spoke, breaking her silence.
Pearl, one of the Stonehearts, an Intellitron.
The meaning of "preserved" was simple.
She had temporarily shut down her perception of the outside world, entering deep sleep under the effect of special equipment. The process would not be disturbed by external factors, and if her life were threatened, she could revive herself.
If Pearl had not preserved herself, there should have been seven people here now.
"A perfectly reasonable measure. This is clearly targeting inorganic life. If Pearl hadn't done this, she would likely have been affected as well," Aventurine said, idly playing with a chip.
Machine malfunctions were occurring throughout the cosmos, with news constantly coming in of Intellitrons suffering unexplained incidents. As members of the Stonehearts, even without concrete intelligence, they already knew who was behind the attacks.
Pearl certainly had methods, but facing a Lord Ravager was still too much.
An ordinary person might hesitate, but Intellitrons were ruled by pure rationality.
"Has Irontomb gone mad? Celenova only fell not long ago, and he's already stirring up trouble. The Xianzhou Alliance is watching him the same way they watch the Abundance abominations," Topaz said, raising an eyebrow.
"Perhaps he believes the Xianzhou Alliance is weakened and won't confront him in the short term," Obsidian replied.
"That's true. But the Alliance's real losses weren't that severe. With that Nihility path-strider present, they held a significant advantage," Topaz agreed.
Previously, Feixiao alone had faced the Lord Ravager alone. In the short term, she could hold them off, but if they had attacked the Cloud Knights below, it would have been a massive disaster.
Acheron's appearance did not directly eliminate Irontomb, but it did halt his actions.
Until General Huaiyan of the Xianzhou Zhuming arrived with reinforcements.
That battle hinged entirely on Acheron. While everyone was chatting, the door opened again.
This time, the one who entered was the Stonehearts' nominal leader, the Emanator of Preservation.
Head of the Strategic Investment Department, Diamond.
He was only the nominal leader because the Stonehearts gathered together for their own purposes.
On this path, they all practiced their faith in the Amber Lord. Once their goals were achieved, Diamond? Who was that?
It wasn't quite that exaggerated, but not far off.
"This meeting came quickly," Jade said with a smile as she set down her teacup.
Big matters meant small meetings, small matters meant big meetings. This truth had never changed.
The Stonehearts stood at the very top of The IPC, but a meeting convened under these circumstances was clearly tied to the broader situation.
If things failed, it would be the struggle of the higher powers.
"What did the higher-ups say?" Obsidian asked, crossing her shapely legs.
"The IPC's markets have suffered losses without cause. Naturally, this won't be treated as if nothing happened," Diamond said calmly.
As for who those armed forces belonged to, the answer was already obvious.
Irontomb's legion bore unmistakable identifiers. Anyone with eyes could tell at a glance.
As for why he was attacking The IPC's holdings.
It could only be said that his target wasn't The IPC. It was everyone.
The IPC merely suffered simultaneous attacks because of its vast scale and sprawling reach.
Strictly speaking, the ultimate target was the entire cosmos.
But being attacked and not striking back was not The IPC's style.
"The Strategic Investment Department will be busy for a while," Diamond said evenly.
…
At the same time, within the Imaginary Tree.
Mobius had been keeping an eye on Irontomb for quite some time.
She was also receiving information from outside, aware that flames of war now engulfed the cosmos.
The culprit was obvious. What was he trying to do?
Mobius was puzzled.
Every action had a purpose. Even seemingly aimless wandering carried subconscious motives like thinking, distraction, or easing one's mind.
So what was Irontomb's purpose? As a Lord Ravager, bringing devastation to the cosmos was his normal behavior.
Countless people cursed the Lord Ravagers, but only a small few turned their guns toward the Aeon of Destruction itself.
That was because the Path of Destruction had been truly recognized. Yet even actions taken along the Path of Destruction carried intent.
Especially after Irontomb entered the Imaginary Tree and witnessed the grand existence that shaped his world, he began making these moves.
His resolve was firm, his actions swift, as if he had realized something.
A Lord Ravager, a Emanator who enacted the will of Destruction. Whatever he had comprehended must be closely tied to destruction.
Could it be that his realization was to launch a war between inorganic and organic life, erasing all organic existence?
The explanation seemed plausible.
…
Clang.
Bang.
"Heave-ho!!"
"Spin around!"
If Asta were here, she might have thought she had arrived in heaven.
Everywhere she looked, there were little Herta's.
If Silver Wolf were here, she would probably abandon herself to asceticism and want to shut her eyes forever.
Herta bent slightly, gently gripping her chin as she examined the disassembled attack-type machine with an investigative gaze.
"Mm. Same as the intelligences from the Rupert era. Their programming has changed."
The anti-organic equation. The Equation that triggered the Mechanical Emperor's Wars.
This equation should have only remained within a handful of locations which were long lost after Emperor Rupert's fall.
Yet now it appeared in the newest model of the Intellitrons.
"Ruan Mei, come take a look. See where this thing crawled out from," Herta said.
"Herta, you didn't call me here just to study these, did you?" Ruan Mei replied calmly, lifting her gaze toward the machine engraved with an equation that had terrified countless lives.
As a genius, she had achievements in many fields, but her greatest and most fitting discipline was life sciences.
It allowed her to comprehend the true nature of life.
The anti-organic equation was interesting, but it was far less captivating than life itself.
"Tch, you're always like this. Don't you think this is fascinating? When Rupert started the Wars, we hadn't even been born yet. I thought that after the end of the Second Mechanical Emperor War, something like this would probably never happen again."
That war between organic and inorganic life that swept the cosmos directly led to the birth of the Aeon of Destruction.
Nanook of Destruction was acknowledged as the youngest Aeon. Even so, he was roughly five thousand years old.
Five thousand years ago, Herta and Ruan Mei didn't even have a trace of their existence.
"This cosmos is full of interesting things. Someone has proactively posed a problem. That's a rare opportunity," Herta said.
Ruan Mei fell silent. Herta was always like this. When something piqued her curiosity, she pursued it with full enthusiasm.
Her own research had reached a certain stage anyway. Since Herta wanted to play, she would accompany her for a while.
As she thought this, a warm sensation brushed her cheek.
She looked down instinctively. A little Herta was standing on tiptoe, struggling to hand her a cup of hot milk.
"Thank you," Ruan Mei said softly, accepting it and taking a small sip.
The warmth slid down her throat and into her stomach. Comforting and soothing.
Just as she swallowed, with a whoosh, a head popped up from below, peering around.
"What are you people doing here all day?" the Herrscher of Sentience complained unhappily.
These people were always holed up here, fiddling with who knew what, and never came out to play with her.
"Didn't Herta have a puppet play games with you?" Ruan Mei asked.
"That thing was totally useless, okay? I beat it in no time. Boring," she replied.
"…," Ruan Mei was momentarily speechless.
Could she really say that the reason the puppet lost was because Herta was worried that if the Herrscher of Sentience never won even once, she would cry and come cause trouble for her?
As for the Herrscher of Sentience, Ruan Mei had been extremely attentive to her.
Her research required validating many hypotheses, and many forms of life had been born from her hands.
In the earliest stages, she personally raised and observed them during infancy.
Later, after creating various auxiliary systems, she rarely raised them herself.
But the Herrscher of Sentience was different.
Though she didn't know why she possessed knowledge beyond her own behavior, Ruan Mei could tell at a glance that she had only been born recently.
From the perspective of life, she was still a child.
Ruan Mei had also visited the world where she was born and learned from others that she was the Herrscher of Sentience.
And according to her age, the proper way to address her was…
"Little girl."