CH 118

The white dwarf star, one of the final forms of a fixed star, floats silently in space.

Stars that do not have enough mass to become neutron stars often expand to become red giants, which then eject their outer layers, leaving behind a core, the white dwarf.

White dwarfs do not undergo nuclear fusion reactions.

However, they do radiate energy and have enough mass to be used as degenerate reactors.

Therefore, for Goetia, white dwarfs and the surrounding space were of some value, despite the low efficiency of resource and energy extraction.

“Even if it’s just a village or a water well, we cannot surrender it to a hostile power.”

One of the five Goetian tribes, Uvall, had taken measures to control one of their white dwarfs.

In preparation for the invasion of the hostile Gremory, they had placed a mass-produced white dwarf Administrative Intellect, designated Valak 773, and were prepared to have the White Dwarf swallowed by an artificial black hole.

Valak 773 was on standby for the invasion of Gremory, which may or may not even bother to stop by for a single well of water that will surely be destroyed, endlessly awaiting its last day.

And today, unexpected intruders stormed into the observation range of Valak 773.

They were completely unexpected intruders for Valak-773, the white dwarf star Administrative Intellect.

The first to appear was a huge artificial object reaching 90 kilometers in length. It appeared suddenly out of nowhere, without the use of a gate or normal navigation methods.

「All observation satellites are in normal operation. Impossible… new technology from Gremory…?」

Valak 773, which had deployed a large number of observation satellites in the surrounding sector in preparation for Gremory’s invasion, was baffled by the unmistakable results.

So far, Gremory ships contracting with the Daemons had only existed in the 800-meter class.

This is the minimum practical size for an interstellar ship with a Degenerate Reactor, and the maximum size that can be operated with a Daemon crystal.

Three tribes are pressured by only one other, but if a new 90-kilometer-class ship were introduced, the situation would be hopelessly out of balance.

Valak 773 temporarily suspended its original plan of self-destruction and switched to a policy of gathering as much information as possible and relaying it to the motherland.

Originally, the necessary gates and power were stored for reporting back to the motherland.

In front of Valak 773, which switched priorities, the 90-kilometer-class artifact unleashed an unknown amount of energy toward the white dwarf at speeds exceeding the speed of light.

「Unfamiliar event observed from emergent Unknown. Purpose unknown, effect unknown. Self-destruct mechanism intact. Resuming observation.」

While the attention of the observation satellites was focused, the 90-kilometer-diameter object spat out a series of naval vessels from its interior.

They were rough, rectangular parallelepipeds, without a single tentacle or arm, an inefficient and incomprehensible shape that could not be imagined by the life forms of the Planet Sloane.

Twenty-five ships of the 1,200-meter class and 56,700 of the 600-meter class emerged. They weren’t that many, but surprisingly, they all showed the output reaction of the magic element engine. It was impossible to imagine a reason to send so many information thinkers against a single low-value white dwarf star.

Valak 773 continued its observations of the mysterious artifact while maintaining its readiness to self-destruct at any time.

After more than 50,000 ships had been deployed, a new warp-out reaction appeared in the sector. The output response emitted by the magic element engine was one registered in Uvall.

「Reporting to motherland. Blaze Dahlia confirmed at White Dwarf 773.」

Blaze Dahlia is a Count-level Thinker belonging to the Great Legion under Ashen Adreana, the Duke of Gremory, which is advancing to cut through the space between Uvall, of which Valak 773 is a part, and Crocell, which is in a co-operative relationship.

Recently, Adreana made an inexplicable retreat in the Orias Star System, shortly before an imminent victory.

There is a connection to the actions of Dahlia, a subordinate of Adreana. As Valak 773, who made this assessment, was about to transmit additional information, the flow of dark energy surrounding the surrounding space sector was transformed.

It was as if a typhoon had suddenly appeared in the sky over the calm ocean.

Dahlia’s warship tried to communicate its position with a Multidimensional Magic Conversion Communication Wave while forming a simple gate, but the communication wave magic elements were disrupted and could not fly through high-dimensional space.

In addition, countless white vortexes appeared in the space around the Dahlia warship.

They also formed around the 56,725 ships deployed around the Unknown, and the cubes were swallowed up and disappeared one by one… only to jump out in the vicinity of the Dahlia immediately afterward.

「Priority situation report to the motherland. Unusual short-range jump without gate confirmed. Hypernavigational warp, impossible around a star, is suspected. Possibly related to the urgent message from Marquis Almaros of Crocell.」

As Valak 773 awaited judgment, the jumped ships began to attack Dahlia’s warship.

Tens of thousands of Mass Wave Aggregate Bombardments were deployed and thrust into the vicinity of the magic element engine emitted by Dahlia’s warship.

It was a precision bombardment, hitting the target precisely and in sync with its surroundings.

Incredibly, the warship operated by the powerful tag team of Dahlia, a Count-level thinker, and the Daemons was pierced by numerous direct hits. However, the force of the attack could not destroy the outer hull of the Gremory warship, and some of the dark energy that could not be prevented by the outer wall passed through the ship.

In contrast, Dahlia’s warship also extended its tentacles, which formed the simple gate, in all directions, and pelted the unknown ships with electromagnetic waves.

The unknown ships deployed shields using magic element engines, but it seemed that the power of the shields decreased during the attack, and at that moment, the ships hit by the attack exploded one by one.

「Emergency report to motherland. Unknown is identified as an unidentified combat group hostile to Gremory. Unknown and Gremory are currently engaged in battle at White Dwarf 773. Presumed to be an urgent communication event from Crocell, and outside the response authority of the White Dwarf Administrative Intellect Valak 773. Requesting orders from motherworld.」

In the midst of thousands of explosions, a ship emitting a particularly large white glow leapt into the vicinity of Dahlia’s warship.

Dahlia immediately intercepted the jumping ship, but was unable to destroy it as it rammed into her, diverting all of its energy into shields and forcing her to port. The hulls were not damaged, but the hulls of the ships touched.

Despite the close proximity, Dahlia continued to ram the ship with her tentacles.

However, regardless of the ship’s destruction, it jumped into high-dimensional space and swallowed part of Dahlia’s warship.

The magic element engine cannot synchronize the magic power of multiple individuals. If the warships were connected, the magic element engines would interfere with each other and stop functioning.

However, in the space around the white dwarf, Dahlia’s warship had an extremely small shield generation range. As a result of the ship’s jump, the part of the ship where the shield was not generated was swallowed by the higher dimensional space, as if only that part had been stripped away.

Seizing the moment, the tens of thousands of surrounding ships fired Mass Wave Aggregation Artillery fire that incinerated the interior of Dahlia’s warship.

Inside Dahlia’s warship, the Mass Wave Aggregation bombardment killed the miasma-emitting living organisms on board, trampled the ship’s interior, killed the Daemons, and disabled the generator of the magic element engine. The ship jumped again, forcibly docked again, and this time jumped into higher dimensional space with the entire Dahlia warship.

The dimension to which the ship jumped was only a fraction of the distance that humans could jump with the Magic Element Engine.

Even so, Dahlia, having lost the ability to defend herself in the high-dimensional space of the Magic Conversion Protective Membrane, suffered an impact far greater than being knocked from satellite orbit to the planet, and the ship’s functions were destroyed.

The victory was confirmed by Dahlia’s side.

[I am Dahlia, an honored Count of the Gremory tribe of Goetia. Hart Amakawa, Commander of Fortress Kerviel, are you available for communication?]

It is impossible to communicate with the enemy in the middle of a battle.

When Dahlia conceded defeat, the White Dwarf Administrative Intellect Valak 773 even cut off the transmission to the motherland and tried to intercept the communication. As it turned out, the unknown ship’s attack had stopped, and a transmission was sent from the 90-kilometer-long artifact to Dahlia.

From Valak 773’s point of view, it was a bizarre life form.

First, it was not a quantum thought vessel.

Second, it was not even a marine organism.

It was hard to believe that a civilization-level group that was not a quantum thinker could have destroyed Gremory’s warship, but even before that, the question of how it breathed raised concerns about the danger it posed as an organism.

Then, after blinking three times, it changed its appearance to look like a black jellyfish from the human point of view.

“I am Hart Amakawa, Commander of Fortress Kerviel. What can I do for you?”

Dahlia spoke with a bewildered expression on her face at the clear communication from the man who claimed to be the Commander, who had transformed into a virtual body of a standard electronic thinker from the Goetia point of view.

[I have received information about you. But where did you get yours?]

“Just as you have your Daemons there, we have our Spirits here.”

Valak 773, who had intercepted the communication between the two, was astonished at the weight of the information that Unknown had defeated Gremory’s Count-class Thinker and also possessed Spirits against Daemons.

This existence could be a decisive factor in overcoming the plight of the three tribes. Considering it a top priority, Valak 773 ceased all other activities except interception and concentrated on gathering information.

[I am convinced. By the way, as long as you don’t interfere with my sending information to our motherland, I can show you some leniency within the limits of my authority. But only a little.]

“That is out of the question.”

[I am not proud to call myself a torturer, but retribution and torment are my forte. After I turn your body into an electronic thought vessel, even if you scream and beg for death, I will probably torture you for eternity. I heard about your fiancée from Tenka. I’m sure I can do many things to her.]

The black jellyfish called Hart turned his cold eyes on the smiling Dahlia.

“I wanted to get some more information, but I think I’ll leave it at that. You’re done.”

[…… Kuh !?]

Dahlia, who had a dubious expression on her face for a moment, tried to self-destruct the next moment. But before that could happen, her body disappeared.

After that, a small white jellyfish that appeared next to the black jellyfish floated a spirit crystal-like crystalline object at the end of its tentacles and began to spin it as if playing with it.

Dahlia’s warship, which had failed to self-destruct, showed no reaction and drifted defenselessly in space.

“What the hell was that?”

When Chief of Staff Bertrand asked on behalf of the command staff, Hart, unsure of the scope of his explanation, paused slightly before answering:

“In this star system, my Contracted Spirit has created a temporary realm, the other party attacked. If an enemy who wishes to harm the contractor enters the realm, the spirit will respond accordingly.”

There is a difference in dimensional level between the spirits of higher dimensional life forms and their counterparts who exist in lower dimensions. In other words, between the spirit and the other party, the spirit was superior.

『I trapped it in a variant of the Sky Spirit Crystal. It’s an isolated universe that can be exited by crossing the twelve dimensional barriers, but the time in this isolated universe can be manipulated freely, and since I have recorded Dahlia herself, I can duplicate it and use infinite time and various methods to ask various things.』

（…… aren’t there 11 dimensions? If you block it with a wall of the same height, you can’t get out unless you go over another wall?)

With narrowed purple eyes and a cold tone, Lulu told Hart something extraordinary.

To Lulu, a higher dimensional life form, Hart is not only her direct contractor, but also a person with whom she has a self-proclaimed father-daughter relationship and who has been graciously invited to become a spirit.

Dahlia attacked Hart in Lulu’s realm, and even threatened to make it impossible for Hart to be spiritized, claiming, “After I turn your body into an electronic thought vessel, even if you scream and beg for death, I will probably torture you for eternity.”

Hart, sensing the unwavering norm of the response from Lulu’s appearance, conveyed only the bare minimum of demands.

『Please extract the information that the Tenka Hercules Alliance has obtained. Other than that, you can do whatever you want, Lulu.』

『Yes. Other than that, Lulu will do as Lulu pleases.』

From now on, in Lulu’s isolated universe, the torture will continue for so long that the beginning and end of the universe will be repeated over and over again. Moreover, the torment inflicted must not be limited to the extent that humanity has created.

Lulu didn’t want to encourage Dahlia’s remorse by torturing her, nor did she want to discipline her pet, she just reacted according to her own standards. So, there is no mercy.

Dahlia, who has no magic power, will continue to exist in an isolated universe from which she cannot escape.

Then, after some time in the universe where Hart existed, the information Lulu extracted was uploaded one at a time into the computer at Fortress Kerviel.

In the isolated universe, it is unknown how much time has passed and how many replicated Dahlias continue to suffer the torture. It is likely, however, that all the information that could be extracted from Dahlia has been.

Hart, who learned from this information that the star system in question was another country at war with Gremory, to which Dahlia belonged, attempted to communicate with the white dwarf star Administrative Intellect of the star system in question.