Chapter 751: Spoiler Title Hidden At End Of Chapter
The Specter companion’s messages were still continuing to come through.
“Do not hesitate, do not waver, leave at once, go quickly. I won’t be able to hold on for much longer… The power of the Neutron War Star has surpassed anything any of us imagined, it has even surpassed the imagination of that scientist named Xu Junpo. His estimates were off, and the technology that borrows stellar energy to enhance my combat strength also has flaws. When my combat strength is raised to its peak, that is also when my life force begins to burn…”
“Even if there were no Neutron War Star, I would not live much longer. Xiao Yu, my companion, I am very glad to have had this period of fighting side by side with you. From now on, you will have to face this boundless journey alone. The responsibility of reviving humanity and uncovering the truth is now handed over to you… That’s it, farewell, farewell.”
Xiao Yu only felt as if an incomparably huge block of ice had frozen his entire being solid. In this moment, even his thoughts came to a halt. After receiving those messages from the Specter companion, Xiao Yu’s first thought was, “No, this won’t do, it cannot be like this, absolutely not like this.”
His second thought was, “I must go back and change all of this.”
But the follow-up messages from the Specter companion arrived.
“Go, go, do not let your actions be controlled by emotion. At this moment, you must be rational. You must understand, even if you come back, aside from throwing your life away for nothing, reality will not undergo any other change. No one understands my situation better than I do. The so-called soul technology cannot save me. Go, go, I believe that with your wisdom, you will definitely be able to find a way to change your Luck Value and thus wipe out the impact my death will have on you. You will eventually annihilate the Neutron War Star, annihilate the Sweepers Civilization, become a Level 7 Civilization, and ultimately fulfill our ideal. Xiao Yu. Do not let me down.”
Xiao Yu only felt thousands upon thousands of words drifting around in his heart, yet he could not say even a single sentence. Xiao Yu wanted to go back, but in the end, that last trace of rationality held his actions in check. Xiao Yu thought of many, many things. From the first time he encountered the Jovian Phantoms, to the first time he heard the name of the Specter Race, to when he was utterly defeated in the battle against the Luka Civilization and almost fell into a crisis of certain death, only to have the Specter Race ultimately save his life. He thought of how, in the past, although he and the Specter companion were worlds apart, in his heart he nevertheless knew that somewhere in a corner of the Milky Way Galaxy there was an absolutely loyal comrade striving hard for the sake of their shared future. He thought all the way to when they faced the Level 5 Civilization Alliance, and the days of fighting side by side afterward, all the way up to this very moment…
“So the time for our final parting has already arrived?” Xiao Yu murmured to himself, thousands of thoughts and countless impulses surging within his heart. But in the end, all of these emotions were condensed into a single sentence.
“I’m going now, Specter. Don’t worry, I will accomplish the ideal we share. Goodbye.”
“Goodbye.” The Specter companion spoke the last sentence of his conversation with Xiao Yu, then suddenly burst into wild laughter. “Neutron War Star, you are very strong, aren’t you!”
The Specter companion once again charged toward the Neutron War Star. The difference this time was that the Neutron War Star was no longer knocked away. At this moment, the Specter companion was like a curtain, abruptly wrapping itself around the Neutron War Star. The Neutron War Star, which had been moving at high speed, suddenly came to a stop and began to maintain a motionless state.
It made no movements at all. The Specter companion merely completely wrapped around it and did nothing else. Only the Neutron War Star’s radiation was still continuously being emitted, sometimes intense, sometimes faint, like an electric light bulb flickering on and off due to unstable voltage.
Xiao Yu did not know what this meant, nor did he know in what manner the Specter companion was battling the Neutron War Star. But Xiao Yu knew that this process was definitely extremely perilous. The Specter companion was staking its life to buy him time to escape. The more Xiao Yu worried about the Specter companion, the faster he fled. Because Xiao Yu knew that only by staying alive could he live up to what the Specter companion had done for him.
“You should all be dying now.” Looking at the several hundred thousand spaceships belonging to the Sweepers Civilization within the small universe, Xiao Yu spoke faintly. Then, under Xiao Yu’s personal control, the last remaining several tens of millions of warships launched their attack simultaneously. Among these ships, the largest was no more than a Province-Class spaceship.
Several tens of millions of small spaceships began to besiege the hundreds of thousands of Sweepers Civilization warships.
For the first time, the small universe was engulfed in the flames of war. Fortunately, since the Neutron War Star had been lost, even though Xiao Yu’s ships were mostly small vessels, they were still sufficient to suppress these ships belonging to the Sweepers Civilization.
While the flames of war burned fiercely within the small universe, in the main universe, the battle between the Specter companion and the Neutron War Star maintained a strange tranquility. Through the observation instruments he had placed here in advance, Xiao Yu kept a constant watch on the situation. Xiao Yu saw that, in its static state, the Neutron War Star was like a great pot whose lid had just been lifted, with countless things resembling steam passing through the body of the Specter companion that enveloped it and diffusing into the void of space.
As soon as these steam-like substances drifted past the Specter companion’s body, they underwent violent explosions. Their volume instantly expanded by a factor of thousands or tens of thousands. Because their volume expanded too rapidly, this gave rise to scenes resembling explosions. In the process of exploding, they changed from extreme neutron star matter, which had no atomic structure, into ordinary matter. They began to possess atomic nuclei, began to possess electrons and protons, as well as neutrons. Ultimately, these microscopic particles combined into the most common element in the universe, hydrogen.
One cubic centimeter of such steam-like material, after passing through the Specter companion’s body and exploding, would expand to a volume of dozens of cubic kilometers. Endless steam was leaving the Neutron War Star. Almost in an instant, the Neutron War Star and the body of the Specter companion were both shrouded within an endless expanse of hydrogen.
The hydrogen was so densely concentrated that it blocked Xiao Yu’s detection. Xiao Yu did not know what was happening within that mass of hydrogen cloud. He attempted to control his observation instruments to enter and probe, but these hydrogen clouds seemed to possess an extremely high energy level. Any probe that attempted to approach would be destroyed in an instant.
In this battlefield littered with warship wreckage, stellar remnants, and shattered space, endless hydrogen was spreading, like a bubble that constantly swelled in size. This bubble concealed all information about the Neutron War Star and the Specter companion. Xiao Yu could not see them, but from that deepest inner connection, Xiao Yu was certain that the Specter companion was still alive.
Only, it was merely still alive. Xiao Yu could sense that the Specter companion was in terribly poor condition at this moment. Xiao Yu knew that it was in the midst of an immense crisis. Yet Xiao Yu had no ability to change this situation.
By now, the battle within the small universe had already drawn to a close. In total, over four hundred thousand Sweepers Civilization ships were either annihilated or captured. The small universe under Xiao Yu’s control once again returned to tranquility.
Xiao Yu was fleeing rapidly away from this place at a speed over one hundred and forty times the speed of light. Xiao Yu did not know where he ought to go, but Xiao Yu knew that as long as he left this place, anywhere would be a good place for him. Xiao Yu was not worried that the Neutron War Star would catch up to him, because the Spatial Bombs had already completely erased any traces left by his escape.
On the battlefield, that dense hydrogen cloud was gradually thinning. It was ceaselessly diffusing outward into the surrounding regions of space. Previously, it had remained dense only because it was constantly being replenished. Now it began to grow rarefied, which clearly meant that the Neutron War Star had stopped losing mass.
This also meant that the battle between the Specter companion and the Neutron War Star was close to reaching its conclusion.
Even though he had long since known the final outcome of this battle, Xiao Yu’s heart still tightened. Xiao Yu hoped that after these hydrogen clouds dispersed, he would once more behold the familiar figure of the Specter companion. But Xiao Yu was disappointed.
When the hydrogen clouds finally dissipated completely, what was revealed instead was the terrifying figure of the Neutron War Star. The Specter companion was nowhere to be seen; no one knew where it had gone. And at that very moment, that special sense Xiao Yu had always had deep within his mind toward the Specter companion was completely severed. From this moment on, Xiao Yu could no longer feel the presence of the Specter companion at all. As if something had vanished from the depths of his soul, Xiao Yu knew that, from a certain level of meaning, from this point forward he would be truly solitary. Never again would there be such an eternally loyal comrade to fight at his side.
Xiao Yu knew that the Specter companion had died.
At this moment, the Neutron War Star’s volume had become slightly larger than before; its diameter had increased by about one kilometer. For an object like a neutron star, the larger its volume, the smaller its mass. Its volume increasing meant its mass had decreased. After making a simple estimate, Xiao Yu arrived at a conclusion, in the prior phase, this Neutron War Star had lost at least the mass of twenty Jupiters, approximately equivalent to the mass of a brown dwarf.
The Neutron War Star did not begin to search for Xiao Yu’s whereabouts; it seemed to know that such an effort would be futile. It merely hovered quietly in space, as if resting, or perhaps contemplating something.
A total of more than two hundred million conventional warships had been completely destroyed. Of the vast fleet of the Sweepers Civilization, only a single ship remained at this moment, and it was also the most powerful one, the Neutron War Star.
But Xiao Yu knew that the war was far from over. The Sweepers Civilization would, sooner or later, rise again and become even stronger. If he did not perish in the universe due to the loss of Luck Value, then one day, he too would once again stand before the Sweepers Civilization, stand before the Neutron War Star.
[T/N: Chapter 751 – The Death of the Specter]
