Opening the portal had drained Zachary entirely of his energy reserve the moment he got pulled in.
Utterly exhausted mentally and spiritually, Zachary could barely keep his eyes open as he escaped the void—just as a chill ran down his spine.
As he looked beyond the closing portal one last time, Zachary saw numerous 'things' getting closer, but the portal closed before any of those things could get too close. Shortly after, he fell unconscious.
Deep in space, Zachary drifts aimlessly and is exposed to all elements. Being unconscious, Zachary was unaware of his current situation. Among the uncertainties, however, Zachary was ultimately still alive.
Not far away, a fleet of ships was cruising, and Zachary's position was in their course.
The fleet does not look pleasing. Not in the slightest. The ships were massive, surrounded by at least thousands of smaller spacecraft.
Upon closer observation, the ships and the smaller spacecrafts were dark in color, coated with carapace and exoskeleton. They had limbs and looked much more like living beings rather than transportation.
It is a convoy of the Synod species. One of the universe's most notorious species for their destructive and devouring trait.
The convoy consisted of numerous non-sapient drones controlled through a vast, interconnected network. The species' hierarchy is simple, yet complex.
This convoy was on its way back to their host world, an artificial living planet where the Broods were waiting for the extracted biomass.
The return of the convoy to the host world meant only one thing. It had extracted enough biomass, and at least one planet had been entirely consumed, leaving it barren and uninhabitable.
Zachary's current state means he's entirely harmless to the Synod convoy. All his senses were non-functioning at the moment, which means he couldn't even escape from being captured by the drone organisms on board the massive bioships.
The drone organisms had varied physical appearances. Some had long limbs, and some were way larger than others.
The creatures that captured Zachary drifting in open space were sleek, their bodies carrying a slime-like softness despite the rigid, nightmarish shape of a starfish crowned with a feral head. Bead-like eyes dotted its face, and at the center gaped a cross-shaped maw, concealing rows of scythe-like teeth.
The creatures are called Lumuphage, one of the most ferocious drone organisms of the Synod species that nobody wishes to encounter.
The size of a Lumuphage is like that of a dwarf compared to the average drone organism of the Synod race, but that was why they're feared.
After the Lumuphage dragged Zachary into the stomach of the bioship, a large drone was already waiting to check if Zachary could be consumed and have his biomass extracted.
The large drone grabbed Zachary with just one limb and opened its massive maw. Rows of teeth smashed down with force into Zachary's body, but were unable to penetrate even his skin.
In fact, the sheer toughness of Zachary's body shattered the large drone's teeth. Green blood began spraying as a result. The creature wailed in distress and anger as it spat Zachary out of its maw.
The wailing attracted various other drones to draw close, and from the hive mind, each could feel why it wails.
The drones around disregarded the large drone wailing and swarmed all over Zachary. One after another, they tried to rip Zachary's body into pieces, but were met with only failure after failure.
It was loud in the area, filled with bloodcurdling wails and howls, until they suddenly stopped moving and making noises. The silence was eerie, as suddenly, the drones that were currently trying to rip Zachary into pieces began moving. They move to a certain direction, deeper into the bioship.
The other drones around also went away, scurrying to everywhere else.
Zachary didn't wake up at all, even while his body was pulled by several creatures, chewed, and even stabbed by dozens of lance-like limbs. He's lucky to have such a tough physique, as no other living creature could withstand the frenzy as intact as he while unconscious.
After many twist and turns, the drones carrying the unconscious Zachary stops in front of a tall gate as they wait for some sort of signal very obediently.
From within, the gate was pushed open by two enormous monstrosities standing on four limbs.
These two gigantic creatures had a humanoid upper body and a lower body resembling a horse, but with insect-like fusion. Both stood well over 20 meters tall, or roughly sixty-five feet in height.
Compared to Zachary, both monstrosities were roughly eleven times the height of Zachary himself. The size difference was staggering, but these two weren't the apex in this setting.
Deeper inside the chamber, is a large resting altar, and a figure could be seen resting on it.
The drones that brought Zachary to the front gate scattered away the moment the two monstrosities showed up, leaving him sprawled on the hard, uneven floor. One of the gatekeepers picked Zachary up and steadily approached the altar before putting him down right before it.
The figure on the altar stirred as it crawled to the edge of the altar, and it closely inspected the specimen before it.
The figure is a humanoid standing at a height of slightly over two meters. Her head is elongated and domed, smooth and glassy, with no visible eyes. In the middle was an organ that looked like a human nose and full lips below.
Her body, however, had a proportion no human woman could ever contend against. Very exaggerated and defying the laws of physics. Wide shoulders framed her upper body, and a long pair of legs completed her appearance.
Despite the humanoid form, she appears very alien, yet could easily ignite a male's basic instinct.
This is the most prominent difference between a hive queen and the mindless drones.
There is more than just a single queen of the Synod species, and this one is among the weaker ones.
The ranking of the queens on the hierarchy was based on seniority, and while the drones were mindless, incapable of having individual thoughts, the queens were almost like an entirely different species altogether, not only because of the difference in appearance, but also in sapience.
The queens possess the ability to hold individual thoughts, make personal decisions, and more.
Each queen was connected through a larger hive-mind with the other queens, and a personal hive-mind connected to every drone in their control.
The queen grabbed Zachary's neck and dragged him onto the altar as she began examining his body very closely. Not an inch was left untouched as Zachary basically got molested by an alien mommy.
It was unknown how long he had been unconscious, but as he stirred awake, his consciousness returning, he felt a warm and comfy sensation on his crotch.
Zachary groggily opened his eyes, and the first thing he saw was the high ceiling. It looks quite ominous as it was a mash of dark colors blended unevenly.
The second thing he saw was a weird…. thing bobbing at his crotch.
"The fuck?!" Zachary blurted out in surprise.
His reaction came swiftly as he basically stepped away so fast he almost teleported. Zachary appears slightly away from the altar, and as the chilly air passes him from under, he realizes there's not a line of clothes on him.
Well, so does that thing, whatever it is. Now that he's at a distance from the altar, Zachary can clearly see what it was.
"It" was, in fact, a rude word to use. Before he could have a closer look, though, his attention was interrupted as he heard a faint sound coming from behind him.
He looked back, and from the shadow, two massive creatures walked into the light.
"What the…." Zachary muttered to himself as he registered the two creatures in his sight.
"!@!&#@#&@#" Was what the female said, but Zachary couldn't understand the slightest bit of it. To him, it sounds like gibberish.
It doesn't take long for Zachary to know that the female alien wasn't talking to him, but to the two massive creatures, and both slowly back off into the shadows again.
Zachary immediately became aware that the female was clearly the superior one here, at least in terms of hierarchy. As for everything else, Zachary would love to find that out at this very moment as well.
Zachary used his Soul Energy and peered into the female's Life Code, and the very cells of her existence became clear to Zachary.
He had seen a similar sequence in his last life for quite some time during his early immortal life.
"A Zerg queen?" His eyebrows subconsciously shot up, and his eyes widened.
She looks entirely different than any hive queen he had ever seen back in Prime Avaricious Megaverse. Especially her physical features. She looks way too tame and erotically-skewed, so Zachary couldn't help but shudder as one thought crossed his mind.
'Don't tell me I've crossed into that damn carnal realm?!' Zachary had gone to that Megaverse in his last life, and it was the only realm in the endlessness of space that Zachary wished he hadn't gone to, nor does he wish to go again.
Long before he even reached the divine power realms, Zachary liked to wander across realities to seek out challenge and knowledge, and one accident, which he didn't know was caused by fortune or misfortune, had sent him across Megaverse, and Zachary arrived in the Prime Erotika Megaverse.
It was a Realm full of excess and desires. It was a genuine Paradise. One that had almost eroded him of his willpower and his desire to grow stronger.
The Prime Erotika Megaverse operates very differently compared to all other Megaverses that Zachary later learns about, and it was a Realm of safety and indulgence.
It was his fortune that Zachary later found out that he was sent there for a sort of trial and was sent back to his original Megaverse after he triggered some sort of hidden requirements. He managed to clear that initial trial, and the ones that came later, and the reward he gained was some basic knowledge of Existence Code.
In a way, that trial was the biggest reason Zachary eventually managed to become the peak entity of the Megaverse and became a Primordial. And that trial was the very reason Zachary chose to sacrifice most of his emotions and desires.
Zachary doesn't believe that he has been sent to that place again, as he once again peered into the hive queen's Life Code.
This time, Zachary doesn't waste his mindpower to translate the meaning of the Runes, but zooms out to observe the pattern. From his memory, Zachary pulled out his own Life Code, and a few others that belongs to different people, which led to him discovering that the hive queen's Life Code pattern resembling his own, and the people of the Aggrae world.
He was visibly relieved that he wasn't sent to that Megaverse once again, but that also means he's not entirely safe currently.
As he was zoning out, trying to figure out his next course of action, the female alien who had been observing him all this time used her psychic energy to pry into Zachary's mind.
Zachary noticed her attempt and immediately pushed back. A melodious low growl escaped her lips as she was a bit surprised and got visibly more interested, judging from her effort to appear more alluring.
She bent her flexible upper body forward, trying to showcase her curves, and it appeared to be quite effective on Zachary.
He saw what she was trying to do, and Zachary had to admit that he was tempted to try. He was about to take a step forward, but suddenly thought of something.
He didn't know if this is a coincidence or a deliberate machination, as he found himself in this situation after the incident in the void where he finally reignite his emotional sensitivity.
He also doesn't know much yet about how this species reproduces, though he could guess it's through sexual intercourse. What he's more worried about is what came after the deed was done.
If it's anywhere close to how the zerg operates back in Prime Avaricious Megaverse, then the best course of action was the eradication of the entire species.
That's where the dilemma hits. This is no longer the Prime Avaricious Megaverse, and Zachary is entirely aware that different Realm works in different ways and have their own natural rules.
Ultimately, however, after a long deliberation, Zachary chose to fling everything to the back of his mind and just enjoy himself. After all, it's not like he's entirely defenseless. Just coverless.