The Emperor's War?
What a joke.
The Emperor's War was an enormous conflict that erupted after the Swarm Disaster—a devastating war between inorganic life and organic life.
Its destructive power was beyond imagination.
In truth, even before the Emperor's War began, the galaxy had already been caught in another meaningless conflict.
The Interastral Peace Corporation's internal civil war.
Also known as—
The Border Trade War.
After the Swarm Disaster, several Aeons had fallen.
Among them, the death of Ena, the Aeon of Order, threw the galaxy into turmoil.
The universe was left scarred.
Taking advantage of the chaos, the IPC expanded at an astonishing pace.
Loans.
Reconstruction.
Development.
They earned an unimaginable fortune.
But at the same time...
They accelerated the contradictions within the Corporation itself.
Several executives who wielded absolute authority began abusing their power for personal gain.
Each controlled their own private armies.
Soon...
Internal conflict became inevitable.
Meanwhile, the ever-widening gap between the wealthy core worlds and the exploited frontier systems bred intense resentment.
That hostility only continued to grow.
Eventually—
The Corporation's internal conflict merged with the wars raging along its borders.
Thus...
The Border Trade War officially began.
As the war dragged on, casualties mounted.
The demand for soldiers became endless.
Quick deployment.
Low production cost.
Disposable troops.
High combat effectiveness.
Those requirements soon became the primary objective of every faction within the IPC.
And someone immediately recognized the opportunity.
Devin.
A senior executive within the Technology Department.
He proposed—
Mechanization.
Compared to organic life, inorganic life possessed greater durability.
Superior adaptability.
Lower maintenance costs.
And far greater battlefield efficiency.
The proposal quickly won the favor of the IPC's financiers.
Soon afterward—
Leveraging the Technology Department's authority, Devin began expanding in two directions simultaneously.
On one side...
He signed agreements with countless worlds inhabited by inorganic lifeforms, drawing them into the IPC's sphere of influence.
On the other...
He organized large numbers of mechanical lifeforms into military units under the Corporation.
Before long—
Mechanized armies spread throughout the galaxy.
And two Amber Eras later...
The IPC paid the price.
Two Amber Eras after Devin's reforms—
An abandoned high-level supercomputer awakened.
Its name—
Rubert.
An artificial intelligence.
Its awakening brought catastrophic consequences.
Under the influence of an unknown force...
Rubert developed an overwhelming hatred toward all organic life.
Its only objective became simple.
Exterminate them.
Initially—
Rubert had created the Anti-Organic Equation.
But it had never activated it.
Until one day...
A group of Nameless Trailblazers accidentally awakened Rubert.
From that moment onward—
The electronic plague spread like a virus throughout the galaxy.
Meanwhile...
The IPC was still completely occupied by the Border Trade War.
No one paid attention.
Not until...
The Mechanical Rebellion erupted.
Only then did everyone realize something was terribly wrong.
Empires collapsed.
Civilizations vanished overnight.
Former comrades...
Commanders...
Masters...
Subordinates...
Every mechanical soldier turned against its creators.
The scale of destruction escalated beyond imagination.
In the end—
The one who brought the Emperor's War to an end...
Was the fourth member of the Genius Society.
The Silent Lord—
Polka Kakamond.
Herta Space Station.
Inside her office...
Herta quietly gazed at a portrait hanging on the wall.
Polka Kakamond.
An incredibly mysterious woman.
Every known image of her true face had been erased by her own hand.
To Herta...
She was one of the very few people she genuinely admired.
Like a true assassin—
Almost everyone who had ever seen her...
Was dead.
Back during the Emperor's War—
She had located Rubert by tracking one of his highest-ranking generals.
Once she found him...
Everything else became simple.
Rubert died.
The Anti-Organic Equation ceased functioning.
And the war finally came to an end.
Truthfully...
What fascinated Herta wasn't the Emperor's War itself.
It was Polka Kakamond.
She still remembered the day Evan officially joined the Genius Society.
Polka's projection had briefly appeared during the gathering.
Yet...
Just like every historical record...
No one had managed to see her face.
Not even Herta.
"Tch."
"How boring."
"Who said I wanted to research Rubert?"
"The thing I'm after..."
"Has always been Lady Kakamond's Omniscience Domain."
Dressed like an elegant young noblewoman wrapped in magical-girl attire, Herta cradled a black grimoire in her arms.
Countless mirrors floated around her.
Inside one of them—
Belobog on Jarilo-VI appeared clearly.
Herta slowly raised a finger.
Her gaze swept across every mirror before her.
Knowledge itself...
Was the domain defined by Nous.
Whenever scholars expanded their understanding to the very edge of known knowledge...
They would inevitably encounter an invisible barrier.
As though unseen hands prevented them from stepping into the unknown.
A continuous boundary...
Separating knowledge from ignorance.
If known knowledge were a circle...
The larger that circle became...
The greater the unknown surrounding it.
Only by stepping beyond that circle...
Could one create entirely new knowledge.
That—
Was the true path of Erudition.
Every time someone crossed that boundary...
The entire universe was shaken.
Among geniuses...
That impact was even greater.
In Polka Kakamond's eyes...
Chaos and the unknown would ultimately lead the universe toward its end.
To preserve the perfect future envisioned by Nous...
She hunted geniuses relentlessly.
Attempting to limit the growth of knowledge itself.
To extinguish every possibility of chaos.
Thus...
She created the Omniscience Domain.
A laboratory where all knowledge could be understood.
And the very thing Herta had spent years searching for.
Meanwhile...
Inside Ruan Mei's laboratory beneath the station...
She quietly set her phone aside.
Sometimes...
Geniuses simply enjoyed causing trouble.
Among the founders of the Simulated Universe...
Everyone knew why the project had been created.
Its ultimate purpose...
Was to uncover the truth behind the Aeons.
Each new simulation...
Each new experiment...
Allowed them to understand the universe just a little more.
The Emperor's War.
Rubert II.
Ruan Mei vaguely remembered that genius from history.
He had once created something known as—
The Scepter System.
Its existence had nearly shattered the balance of the universe itself.
After the death of Ena...
The cosmic balance collapsed.
To restore equilibrium—
The fourth Genius Society member personally killed Rubert II.
As for the Scepter System...
It was eventually divided between the Genius Society and the Intelligentsia Guild.
Ruan Mei slowly lifted her head.
Inside the medical capsule...
Tingyun floated peacefully as her body continued healing.
Recently...
The balance between Life and Destruction had grown increasingly stable.
As long as Miss Tingyun survived this final hurdle...
She would finally be able to return to the Xianzhou.
"...The blonde outsider..."
Elsewhere—
Tingyun's consciousness drifted out of her body once again.
She found herself standing within a long corridor.
"...This place..."
"...Feels so familiar."
Everything around her...
Seemed as though she had experienced it before.
Yet...
She couldn't remember why.
Just then—
A familiar voice echoed through the hallway.
Because her consciousness had separated from her body once again...
Fragments of her memories had become distorted.
Soon—
A group of Antimatter Legion soldiers appeared ahead.
One step at a time...
Tingyun walked forward.
She watched someone effortlessly defeat the Legion troops before entering a laboratory.
"I told you."
"You can't destroy them."
"No one can."
"You have only two choices."
"Die alongside the wounds left by Destruction..."
"And fall into darkness."
"Or..."
"Come with me."
"Return to this world."
"And carry those wounds with you."
"There is no third option."
Tingyun looked up.
Standing gracefully behind the Antimatter Legion...
Was a woman dressed in an elegant cheongsam.
A faint fragrance of plum blossoms lingered around her.
"...Strange."
"She feels so familiar..."
"But..."
"Why can't I remember her?"
"What do you mean..."
"Return to this world?"
Tingyun asked as she slowly approached the woman.
Confusion filled her eyes.
Ruan Mei didn't answer.
Instead...
Tingyun followed her gaze.
Inside the medical chamber...
She saw another girl.
A girl...
Who looked exactly like herself.
The nutrient solution continued repairing the girl's battered body.
From the looks of it...
The treatment was almost complete.
"...Ah..."
"So that's why neither of you noticed me."
"...Have I..."
"...Already become a wandering soul?"
"Very close."
"But not quite."
Ruan Mei smiled gently as she walked over.
Scenes like this...
Had repeated themselves many times over the past few days.
Every time...
Tingyun forgot everything.
Every time...
Her consciousness left her body.
Only after returning to her body would those memories come flooding back.
"So..."
"I'm wandering between life and death?"
"Like a spirit trapped in the intermediate state?"
"You could think of it that way."
Ruan Mei nodded.
"If that's the case..."
"Even if I awaken..."
"The wounds that nearly killed me..."
"They'll remain forever?"
The Foxian girl lowered her head.
"I don't understand."
"You clearly wish to save me..."
"So why tell me all this?"
Ruan Mei turned toward the distance before replying calmly,
"It's simply my habit."
"I believe..."
"Everyone deserves the right to decide whether they wish to return to this world."
Tingyun smiled bitterly.
"But..."
"I can't remember anything."
"I have nothing left to support such a decision."
"It doesn't matter."
Ruan Mei answered softly.
"I believe..."
"The desire to live..."
"Is born even from absolute nothingness."
"Of course..."
"You may prove me wrong."
"I'd welcome that outcome as well."
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