Chapter 30: The Queen of Flesh and The Queen of Shadows
Location: The Bio-Sector – Orbit of the Hive World
The Void Piercer sat suspended in a soup of green nebula gas. Outside the void shields, billions of organisms—ranging from microscopic spores to moon-sized tentacled leviathans—circled the ship.
They didn't attack. They danced.
It was a hypnotic, sickening spiral of biomass.
"COME DOWN..." The psychic voice dripped into the bridge like warm honey. "MY CHAMBERS... ARE READY."
On the bridge, Feng Xi gagged. "Ugh! She sounds like she's chewing on a microphone. Gross!"
Mo You stood by the captain's chair, her knuckles white as she gripped the hilt of her dagger. The killing intent radiating from her dropped the temperature of the room by ten degrees.
"She wants to mate," Mo You whispered, her voice dangerously low. "She thinks she is worthy."
"She has the Key," Jiang Chen reminded her, standing up. "We need to go down there. But we go on my terms."
He turned to the AI.
"Keep the shields at maximum. If anything touches the hull, vaporize it. We're taking the shuttle."
Location: The Hive World Surface – The Womb Chamber
The shuttle descended onto the planet. It wasn't a planet of rock and water. The ground was made of muscle fibers. The trees were massive veins pumping nutrient sludge. The oceans were amniotic fluid.
They landed on a platform made of calcified bone.
Jiang Chen stepped out, wearing his armor. Mo You and Feng Xi flanked him.
Waiting for them was an honor guard of Zerg Knights—insectoid warriors with chitin armor that shone like diamonds. They bowed as Jiang Chen passed, chattering in clicks and hisses.
"They respect the Alpha," Jiang Chen noted. "My Grandmist bloodline is triggering their submission instincts."
They walked into the central structure: The Womb Chamber.
It was a massive cathedral of flesh. The walls breathed.
In the center, resting on a throne of living neurons, sat Queen Ara, the Hive Mother.
She was humanoid from the waist up, with pale, flawless skin and hair made of prehensile nerve endings. From the waist down, she was a colossal arachnid abdomen, swollen and pulsing.
She looked at Jiang Chen. Her compound eyes glittered with hunger.
"YOU ARE HERE," Ara purred. She stood up—or rather, detached herself from the throne. Her lower body shifted, transforming into human legs wrapped in chitin greaves.
She walked toward Jiang Chen, ignoring the wives completely.
"I CAN SMELL IT. YOUR DNA. IT IS... PERFECT."
She circled him, her nerve-hair reaching out to touch his face.
"THE SWARM IS STAGNANT. WE NEED EVOLUTION. GIVE ME A CHILD... AND I WILL GIVE YOU THE GALAXY."
SLASH.
A black dagger intercepted the nerve-hair, severing it inches from Jiang Chen's cheek.
Ara hissed, recoiling. She looked at the source of the blade.
Mo You stood between them. Her eyes were vertical slits. Her shadow rose behind her, forming the silhouette of a snarling Dragon.
"Touch him again," Mo You whispered, "and I will feed your entrails to your own children."
Ara looked at Mo You. She didn't look angry. She looked... amused.
"A COMPETITOR?" Ara laughed. "YOU ARE PRETTY. BUT CAN YOU BREED AN ARMY? CAN YOU BIRTHE A BILLION SOLDIERS IN A DAY?"
Ara spread her arms. The walls of the chamber opened, revealing millions of eggs.
"I AM THE MOTHER OF LIFE. WHAT ARE YOU?"
Mo You smirked. It was a cold, cruel smile.
"I am the End of Life."
"THEN PROVE IT," Ara screeched. "THE RITE OF QUEENS! THE WINNER TAKES THE MALE!"
Ara transformed. Her human guise exploded. She grew to ten meters tall. Four scythe-like legs erupted from her back. Her jaw unhinged, revealing rows of serrated teeth.
[Boss: Queen Ara (The Hive Mother)]
[Rank: SS-Peak (Bio-Titan)]
[Ability: Infinite Regeneration.]
Jiang Chen stepped back. He crossed his arms.
"Husband?" Feng Xi asked, holding a fireball. "Aren't we helping?"
"No," Jiang Chen watched Mo You. "This is personal. If I interfere, Mo You will never forgive me."
Mo You dropped her daggers. She didn't need steel for this.
She stepped into her shadow.
[Abyssal Art: Dragon Ascendance.]
Shadows erupted from the floor, engulfing Mo You. When they cleared, she was gone.
In her place stood a Humanoid Dragon.
She was covered in obsidian scales. Horns curved back from her forehead. Her hands were claws that dripped with liquid darkness.
"Let's see how fast you regenerate," Mo You's voice was distorted, echoing with the roar of the Abyss.
Ara lunged. Her scythe-legs moved faster than sound.
CLANG.
Mo You caught two scythes with her bare hands.
"Weak."
Mo You ripped the legs off.
Ara screamed, retreating. Green blood sprayed. But almost instantly, new legs spurred from the stumps.
"I AM ETERNAL!" Ara roared, spitting a stream of acid.
Mo You walked through the acid. Her scales sizzled but didn't melt. The Abyssal energy neutralized the biology.
"You are meat," Mo You said. "And meat rots."
Mo You vanished.
She appeared on Ara's back. She plunged her claws into the Queen's spine.
"Abyssal Art: Necrosis."
Black veins spread from the wound.
The Hive Mother froze. She tried to regenerate, but the black veins were eating the new cells faster than they could form. The "Infinite Regeneration" was being outpaced by "Infinite Decay."
"NO... STOP... IT HURTS!" Ara wailed, thrashing around the chamber, smashing pillars of bone.
Mo You rode the beast, driving the corruption deeper.
"YIELD!" Mo You roared. "SUBMIT TO THE TRUE QUEEN!"
Ara fell to her knees. Her massive arachnid body was withering, turning grey and dry.
"I... I YIELD!" Ara sobbed. "PLEASE! THE PAIN!"
Mo You jumped off. She returned to her human form, though her eyes remained slit. She smoothed her dress.
"Good," Mo You looked down at the shivering Bio-Titan. "Now, give my Husband the Key. And never look at him again."
The Negotiation
Ara reverted to her human form. She looked exhausted, her skin pale and cracked where the necrosis had touched her.
She reached into her chest—literally reaching between her ribs—and pulled out a pulsating green artifact.
[Item Acquired: Galactic Key (Fragment 2/3)]
[Description: Unlocks the Emerald Gate of the Great Barrier.]
She handed it to Jiang Chen with trembling hands. She didn't dare make eye contact.
"Thank you," Jiang Chen took the Key.
He looked at Ara.
"You mentioned the Void," Jiang Chen said. "Why were you trying to breed an army?"
Ara looked up, fear in her eyes.
"BECAUSE HE IS COMING."
"Who?"
"THE MACHINE KING. THE THIRD WARLORD."
Ara shivered.
"He is not like the Crimson Emperor. He is not corrupted. He... he SOLD himself."
"He made a deal with the Eleventh Lord. He is converting the entire Cyber-Sector into a factory. A factory for the Void Fleet."
Jiang Chen frowned. "A factory?"
"Yes. He is building bodies. Mechanical bodies for the Void Spirits to inhabit. An army of possessed machines."
Jiang Chen looked at Mo You. This was bad. Void Spirits were incorporeal and hard to kill. If they had armored robot bodies, they would be a nightmare.
"Where is he?" Jiang Chen asked.
"The Iron Star," Ara whispered. "A Dyson Sphere built around a dying sun. That is his fortress. That is where the final Key is."
Jiang Chen nodded. "Get your swarm ready, Ara."
Ara blinked. "What?"
"You wanted to fight the Void?" Jiang Chen smiled. "Now is your chance. Join my fleet. Or stay here and be eaten when the Machine King finishes his army."
Ara looked at the powerful male. She looked at the terrifying female beside him.
She bowed.
"THE SWARM... OBEYS THE SOVEREIGN."
Location: The Void Piercer – En Route to the Cyber-Sector
The ship was back in Warp.
Jiang Chen sat in the mess hall, eating a sandwich. Mo You sat opposite him, looking smug.
"You enjoyed that," Jiang Chen noted.
"She needed to be taught her place," Mo You sipped her tea. "She thought biology was superior to divinity."
"Husband!" Feng Xi ran into the room. "I checked the map! The Iron Star is really far away. And... the sensors say the energy signature there is weird."
"Weird how?"
"It's not just Mana," Feng Xi explained. "It's... Math? It feels like the whole star system is a computer."
Jiang Chen finished his sandwich.
"A Dyson Sphere," he muttered. "They encased a star to power a computer. The Machine King isn't just building an army. He's calculating something."
"Calculating what?"
"How to open the Great Barrier without the Keys," Jiang Chen realized. "If he succeeds, he lets the Void Lords in through the back door."
"Then we need to hurry," Mo You stood up.
"System," Jiang Chen tapped his comms. "Maximum Warp. Burn the Void Heart if you have to."
"ACKNOWLEDGED, CAPTAIN."
The ship shuddered as it pushed past safety limits.
The stars blurred into lines.
They were racing against a computer god.
Location: The Cyber-Sector – The Iron Star
Deep in the metallic heart of the sector, there was no nature. Every planet had been paved over with circuits.
In the center sat the Iron Star.
A star completely enclosed in a shell of black metal. Trillions of drones swarmed around its surface.
Inside the shell, in a room of pure white data streams, sat The Machine King.
He had no body. He was a massive brain floating in a tank of blue liquid, connected to the star by thick cables.
"CALCULATION COMPLETE: 99%."
A digital avatar appeared in front of the tank. It was a projection of Void Lord #10: The Architect.
"IS IT READY?" The Architect asked. Its voice was binary static.
"ALMOST," The Machine King's synthetic voice replied. "THE BARRIER ALGORITHM IS SOLVED. I CAN DISSOLVE THE WALL IN 24 HOURS."
"GOOD. THE FLEET IS WAITING."
Suddenly, a red alert flashed on the screens.
[WARNING: UNAUTHORIZED HYPERSPACE ENTRY.]
[VESSEL IDENTIFIED: THE VOID PIERCER.]
The Machine King's brain pulsed.
"HE IS HERE. THE ANOMALY. JIANG CHEN."
The Architect's avatar glitched.
"KILL HIM. DO NOT LET HIM INTERRUPT THE UPLOAD."
The Machine King activated the defense grid.
"INITIATING PROTOCOL: EXTINCTION."
Around the Dyson Sphere, a thousand massive cannons turned, aiming into the void.
"WELCOME TO THE MACHINE, SOVEREIGN."
[End of Chapter 30]