Intergalactic conquest with an AI-Chapter 373: Xylos struggle. {5} Learn to fear the swarm II

Ys clapped her hands together like a girl delighted by a surprise gift.

"Ooooh~! So that was its plan!" she sang, giggling behind her fingertips. Her legs kicked playfully beneath her, as if she were watching a comedy unfold.

"You clever, clever little Weaver~ You weren't losing... You were baiting~"

"Mmm～, while It's true that the Khryssari worms really can devour anything. Not just solid things like metal or rock, but energy, fire.... even the air itself... they're like living black holes. But even they aren't unstoppable. Even they have a breaking point. And once that point is reached…"

Ys smirked and gave a mischievous flick of her fingers. "Well… heheh～ Let's see what happens next."

In an instant, a storm of glowing lights filled the sky with thousands upon thousands of luminous fireflies appearing from thin air.

They zipped and danced through the air like sparks from a divine forge, circling the monstrous worms from every direction. The creatures roared and twisted, confused and enraged, as the swarm clouded their senses.

Ys's eyes gleamed with excitement, her smile growing wider with every second. She looked like a playful goddess watching a grand game unfold, her joy only growing as the chaos escalated.

Meanwhile, panic erupted inside the command tent.

"General! We have a serious problem... the attack… it completely failed!" a breathless soldier burst through the entrance, nearly falling over in his haste. His face was ghostly pale with sweat dripping down his temples.

"What?!" the general shouted out while spinning toward the man. "And the pilots?! What about the strike team?!"

The soldier swallowed hard, trembling under the weight of the general's furious grip."N-none of them made it back, sir! The insects… those flying things! they ripped through our ships like they were made of paper!"

Before the general could process the nightmare unfolding, another scream echoed from outside the tent.

"GENERAL! YOU NEED TO LEAVE—NOW!"

With barely enough time to think, the general shoved aside the canvas and dashed outside. And just then... a flash of blinding, searing light engulfed everything.

The Khryssari worms had taken in every drop of energy from the bombs launched at them and it was far more than they could safely contain.

Their long, armored bodies began to swell grotesquely, like water balloons filled to the brink of bursting. Their skin shimmered with a terrible, radiant glow that only grew brighter and hotter.

And then.... with a sound like a mountain cracking in half, the worms exploded, not in pieces, but in power.

Under the weaver's command, the beasts released a terrifying storm of spheres made of pure energy, each one glowing like a miniature sun, each one charged with the power of a megaton blast.

"TAKE COVER! GET TO THE BARRIER!" the general shouted with all his might, his voice ragged with desperation as he sprinted toward the city's protective shield.

But for most of his men, the warning came far too late.... within seconds, the sky rained death.

The ground shattered as the energy orbs collided with devastating force. The battlefield became a sea of fire and destruction.

Tremendous shockwaves tore across the land, tossing tanks, tearing apart bunkers, and flattening entire platoons in the blink of an eye. Soldiers were vaporized where they stood, their final screams lost in the roar of destruction.

It felt like the wrath of a god had been unleashed. Even distant battlefields surrounding the fortress city quaked under the weight of the blast, as though the entire planet groaned in pain.

Meanwhile, Somewhere Across the Galaxy...

On the edge of a dead star system, a savage duel shook the emptiness of space.

Zynaria's colossal axe crashed into the Blood Clan Patriarch's chest with brutal precision, the impact sending the Tier 7 powerhouse hurtling backward through the vacuum.

He slammed into a floating asteroid so hard that the giant rock split clean in two. Chunks of stone drifted away like shattered ice on a black ocean.

Zynaria floated above the wreckage, her crimson hair flowing like fire in the void. She twirled her axe lazily, her voice dripping with amusement.

"Hahaha! That's all you've got? I was expecting a real fight. Don't tell me I crossed galaxies just to slap around a weak little boy with anger issues."

The patriarch coughed while wiping blood from his mouth, his breathing ragged. His armor was dented and cracked, his limbs sore from the relentless blows.

Every time their weapons clashed, the truth grew more obvious... he couldn't win. Not in strength. Not in speed.

"You savage beast!" he growled, pride burning in his chest. "If you're so confident! then fight me without your weapon! Prove you're a real warrior!"

Zynaria blinked, then threw her head back in wild laughter.

"PFFT—HAHAHA! That's rich! You're the first Tier 7 coward I've ever met who's afraid of a girl with an axe!"

Her laughter rang through space like a melody of mockery, echoing between the drifting rocks and broken ships around them. Her enemy's face twisted with rage, his hands clenched in fury.

Just as the Blood Clan Patriarch gathered the last of his energy to charge against Zynaria one more time, but just as he was about to do it, a brilliant silver light flashed, swallowing him whole.

He froze in place mid-lunge, his entire body locking up like a statue. The proud glow of his stellar energy dimmed almost instantly, fading faster than even he could understand.

His eyes widened in horror as he realized he was being drained. Not just his strength… but his very essence.

His skin began to crack and wrinkle, shriveling up like dry bark. His powerful muscles withered, shrinking into brittle cords. Time itself was turning against him. His youth, his power, even his memories... all were being stripped away, second by second.

"N-Nooo! What… what did you do to me?! You damned—" His voice cracked like dry leaves. His words faded before he could finish.

In less than ten seconds, the once-mighty Tier 7 powerhouse... one of the Blood Clan's most feared champions crumbled into nothing but dust. A soft breeze carried his remains into the endless black of space, as though the universe itself had erased him.

Zynaria stared in stunned silence. Her hands gripped the shaft of her axe so tightly that the metal groaned beneath her fingers.

"...What… just happened?"

She flared her aura to its full strength, flooding the battlefield with dark crimson energy. Her senses stretched across every direction, scanning nearby planets, moons, asteroids, and even particles floating in space.

Nothing. No enemy. No weapon. No force to explain it.

Just silence....

"...Well… I guess I did finish him off?" she muttered to herself while blinking in confusion. She scratched the back of her head until her eyes widened in panic. frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓

"Wait—The Young Emperor!"

She didn't hesitate. With a powerful swing of her axe, she sliced open the fabric of reality itself, creating a space rift.

Then, without even pausing to breathe, she threw herself through.

After several harsh and chaotic jumps across space, Zynaria finally burst through her last rift. The moment she emerged, the enormous crimson sphere of the Blood Clan's homeworld filled her vision.

Her body trembled slightly as she gasped for air.

"Hah… Hah… That took way more energy than I expected…" she panted while beads of sweat trickled down her temples. "Please… let him be safe. If anything happened to him…"

She gritted her teeth. "That little firewall AI is going to blast me with lectures for a month!"

With a deep breath, she dove. Her body ignited with dark crimson fire as she shot through the planet's atmosphere like a falling star, leaving a blazing trail in the night sky.

"Young Emperor! Where are you?! Are you okay?!"

Zynaria slammed into the earth like a comet, skidding to a stop just a few meters away from where Rex was lying, resting peacefully on the ground, completely unharmed.

She let out a long breath of relief.

"Thank the stars... He's okay..."

But that relief vanished the moment she noticed someone kneeling beside him.

A woman... calm, graceful, and impossibly beautiful was brushing Rex's hair with delicate fingers; her expression was gentle and warm.

And in that instant, every alarm in Zynaria's soul screamed at once.

Her instincts flared no, exploded. The same instincts that had kept her alive through battles with cosmic beasts and godlike tyrants. This presence wasn't just powerful. It was ancient. Terrifying.

She had only felt this kind of fear twice before in her entire life...

Once when she stood before the Planet-Devourer, a world-killing entity slain only by the Kaelzar Empire's last emperor.

And again when she faced the Void Dragon, the monster whose form had inspired her own draconic transformation.

Now… she felt that exact same fear again.

"WHO ARE YOU?!" Zynaria shouted out with her body erupting into flames as she ascended into her Sun Maiden Battle Form. Wings of fire spread wide behind her, and her armor glowed with radiant heat, bright enough to scorch the night air.

But the woman didn't flinch. She didn't rise or fight back.

Instead, she smiled sweetly and lifted a single, elegant finger to her lips.

"Shhh… there's no need for such aggression, my dear."

Her voice was soft like the breeze before a storm. Beautiful. Gentle. But beneath it… there was weight. Timeless, cosmic weight. A presence that didn't just command attention but demanded reverence.

"I'm only here because of him," she said while nodding gently at Rex. "I would never harm my own child."

She smiled again and in that moment, it was as if the stars themselves bent toward her light. Even Zynaria felt her heart stutter. Her cheeks warmed, not from the heat of battle, but from a deep, strange blush she couldn't explain.

"...His mother?" Zynaria whispered, her eyes wide in disbelief.