AFS: The Final Act 5 - Killing the Motherbrain?! (Story End?)

AFS: The Final Act 5 - Killing the Motherbrain?! (Story End?)



After a few more weeks of intense training and seeing everyone’s significant improvements, it was finally time to leave on our end-of-year mission.

We boarded the Blue Jaguar, one of the military school’s major attack ship’s that they used during finals that required students to attack Star Bugs. Though a mission like this, where the school would attack a mothership was rare, it wasn’t unheard of either.

They assigned each of my team members rooms next to each other. Fortunately, no one had to bunk with each other. I had a feeling it was partially because my mother was a duchess of some standing in the Empire and our skills had proven to the teachers that we were one of the better teams.

Of course, it could also be because we were going on a dangerous infiltration mission.

I gathered everyone together in my room and set up the room’s program to not record anything.

“So, according to the school, we’ll be traveling through hyperspace for a week to get to the location the Mothership is flying. We’ll spend three full days attempting to take down the Mothership. If we can’t either target the brain from the outside or kill it ourselves and get out within those three days then we’ll leave.”

I paused. In the book, they’d managed to kill the massively powerful humanoid Star Bug, but they had to leave early before the ship was trashed. Well, I guess I was about to change that.

“This is not an option for us. We’re going to get to the brain and kill it before anyone else has the chance to. But that’s not all, We’re going to get out of there safely too. Just because we kill the Mothership doesn’t mean that all the bugs stop working. Humanoid and Mantis types have the ability to control a few of the ones around them so while getting out won’t be as dangerous, we can’t let ourselves die right after we’ve succeeded.”

Everyone nodded.

“That’s why we’re going to spend the next days leading up to the attack training.”

“The other teams are resting during this time,” Jessica pointed out. I didn’t blame her for wanting a break. Frankly, during the last few weeks I’d been the hardest on her since she needed the most improvement. Of course, that was mostly because she was a freshman and hadn’t been through all the classes that the others had. Well, MingRen was a freshman too but I didn’t really count him since he was too good at improving. I was pretty sure his physique and spiritual energy was nearing SSS Rank at this point.

Considering that he was the female protagonist’s blood relative, that made sense.

I raised an eyebrow. “Most of the other teams are either fighting the bugs outside or are protecting the Blue Jaguar.”

“Their jobs aren’t easy.”

I grinned. “No, but they’ll have an easier time retreating. We don’t take breaks because we won’t get them.”

They all looked very sad.

I chuckled. “Take the day before off, but don’t do anything crazy. I want you to take that day to rest. At most, you can stretch or do some light calisthenics.”

They all looked like they were about to cry with joy. Okay, I had been a bit of a hard ass these last few weeks, but I did it to keep these kids alive! Whatever.

With a few taps to my screen, I sent everyone the light training schedule I developed. This would allow them to keep sharp but not anything more.

They all looked at their schedule with grim faces.

“This is a light schedule. More than half of your day is spent on free time.”

MingRen cleared his throat. “We were just surprised about how light it was.”

I nodded sagely.

Derrick patted Jessica’s shoulder, “It’s okay, we’re not going to die from this.”

“I know... I just.”

“Think of it this way, once you come back, you can take a month off.”

“Yes!”

“Dismissed.”

Everyone left except MingRen who sat down at my desk and raised an eyebrow at me.

I raised an eyebrow back. “Why aren’t you starting your training schedule?”

“Because you took training with you off of everyone’s schedule aside from a short hour group practice. I wanted to ask you why?”

“What? Are you missing your pseudo-nominal sister that much already?”

He sighed. “Fairy Lin.”

“Because we still haven’t been able to pass that special hallway scenario I decided that our mechs need a little something extra. I’ll need this week to add a little something special to everyone’s mechs.”

“What is it?”

“A protective talisman.” While researching ingredients for advanced mechs I’d discovered that a few of them were similar to materials used to make a certain type of defensive spiritual item. I’d been planning on adding something like that to their mech for awhile now but I didn’t want the materials to go to waste during a simple practice.

He blinked. “A protective talisman?”

I grinned. “Since you’re here, you may as well give me your mech to be my first experimental subject.”

He nervously handed me the gold ring he wore on his right hand’s index finger.

I chuckled evilly while staring at the ring.

“A-are you sure this is going to work?”

“98%”

“And the other two percent?” His voice seemed to get a bit higher.

“Boom!”

He jumped like he was about to grab his mech back.

“Don’t worry. If I blow up your mech, I’ll just get you a spare.”

“But those spares aren’t good at all!”

“Then you better hope I’m as good as I say I am.”

His fingers twitched like he wanted to take his ring back.

“Now, go do your training schedule. You’re already eating into your free time.”

“Fuck!” He ran out the door.

***



Because the ship was equipped to go into battle, it had a mech emergency bay where mechs would be repaired quickly during battle so they could go back out and kill more Space Crabs.

It took some minor bribes, but I managed to convince the guy responsible for repairing mechs to allow me to use a single mech bay for my repairs.

I brought out MingRen’s medium-sized mech. With its big arms, it looked almost like a brawler.



Then I took out the ingredients that I needed to add a protective talisman to the mech.

It had taken me a while to figure out where to place something like this, but I finally decided that it should go on the arm as a flat piece that could be taken off and discarded once the protection ended.

This required me to make a spoon for it on the forearm of the mech.

I grabbed the device that allowed for easy armor removal and took off a piece of the forearm. From there, I set up a secret crafter’s technique and molded a section outside of the armor. Once done, it was time to make the correct shape out of a handful of Four Stars Manic Steel. I did this by placing the steel inside the formation for a minute then used some of the tools I brought to perfectly craft the steel to fit the slot in the armor. Just before I took the steel out of the formation, I carved the right glyphs into it.

Next was the difficult part. I grabbed the Empowered Cold Blue Silver dust that I’d spent hours making. Then I carefully shoved it into the glyph. To make the powder melt, I slowly poured my spiritual energy into it. This empowered the protective spiritual item.

Once I put everything in place, it didn’t look half bad.

Damn, I was good.

And since I was here I might as well calibrate his mech as well.

But this had already taken too much of my spiritual energy. I’d have to wait until tomorrow to create another of these. Let’s see, who would be my next lucky test subject? Muahahaha!

***

Between needing to recover my spiritual energy and working on all of the mechs, the peaceful days went by far too fast.

Soon it was the night before the big operation. I’d been trying to fall asleep when I heard yelling coming from the other room.

Frustrated, I threw on my robes and went to check it out.

MingRen had apparently also heard the yelling because he was rubbing his eyes as he walked out of his room. We turned to the room where all the commotion was happening.

It was Derrick’s room. The fuck was happening in there?

Just then, Jessica opened Derrick's door. She froze when she saw us and her face turned bright red.

“You know,” I said, “the rooms here are designed to use a force field in case of a hull breach. This means that they could use less materials when creating the non weight bearing walls. You know what happens when walls are thin... right?”

“Sorry!” She bowed to me and to MingRen in apology.

I sighed. “Frankly, I don’t care what you’re doing in Derrick’s room this late at night—“

“We were...” she looked impossibly frustrated and angry. “Just going over weapons schematics.”

Oh. This poor girl wanted a booty call the night before a dangerous and life threatening mission and got a mech rifle obsessed nerd instead.

Although I wasn’t the type of person to do something like that myself, I’d seen it countless times over the years.

I saluted her in my heart.

“It’s not what you think.”

I nodded sagely. “Of course not. Just get some sleep. Maybe try meditating.”

She scowled up at me but then nodded and left to go to her room.

“Ah, Fairy Lin?”

I sighed and turned to my nominal brother. “What is it?”

“If I don’t make it out alive—”

I sent a flick of spiritual energy toward his glabella. He practically jumped to the ceiling despite the artificial gravity. When he landed, he rubbed his forehead.

“Ow!”

“Are you awake now?”

He looked hurt.

I grinned. “Listen up. While it’s fine to always be prepared for your own demise... you shouldn’t think about it like that. Instead, think about things that you have to do so you’ll fight tooth and nail to stay alive, even if it’s only as a head in a jar.”

“Like what?”

I thought of what kept me going... mostly it was spite and anger. But it was also a love for myself. I mean, I was fucking badass.

If anyone’s efforts to reach immortality should be rewarded, it was mine.

I grinned. “Tell you what, if you’re able to survive I’ll allow you to learn how to cultivate.”

He scowled. “Why would I need that?”

“So you can become immortal.”

“Immortality sounds like a curse.”

I laughed. “That sounds like propaganda developed to stop people from trying to reach it. If you love yourself enough and are willing to walk the path alone, then there is nothing better than cultivating immortality.”

“But you’d have to watch your loved ones die while you live on.”

“What’s stopping that from happening anyway?” I pointed out. “This universe has no guarantees. Even I, as powerful and knowledgeable as I am, could die tomorrow.”

His eyes unfocused and he paled. “You’re not going to die though, right?”

“If I do, I’ll have my soul go take over one of my clones.” I laughed.

“That’s not funny.”

“Of course it is! Now, go to sleep.”

He seemed a bit dazed, probably from exhaustion, but he nodded and went back into his room.

It was time I finally slept as well.

***

The infiltration teams all gathered in a particular hangar bay. To conserve our mech’s energy, we would be taking a shuttle through enemy bugs while wearing combat spacesuits.

Even Prince Chad was there, looking like a sleek spaceman in his black suit. Our eyes made contact and he sneered at me before turning away.

Whatever.

Professor Glass stood in front of us, eyes stern.

“Most of you already know this, but for those who don’t, We need to kill off this mothership. Its current path of destruction is heading right toward an Empire colony.”

He paused, probably to let that sink into everyone. “Currently, it’s stopping to refuel at a gas giant in the Quasar 7 star system before it makes its next hyperspace jump right into Empire territory.”

Someone raised their hand. “Is there a humanoid space bug on this ship?”

“As far as we know, there isn’t. However, if any of you see a humanoid star bug, then, if you’re below SS Rank then you’re probably already dead.”

Someone else raised their hand. “Do we know where the Mothership’s Master Brain is?”

Professor Glass glared at the student. “If we did, then we could shoot it out using the big guns and infiltration missions like these wouldn’t be necessary.”

A soft alarm sounded.

“Warning, we’re approaching a Star Bug Mothership. Everyone prepare for contact with the enemy!”

“Alright. Each team has a spy drone that will allow you to keep in contact with a teacher at all times. If you find yourself in a tricky situation and are unable to retreat, the drone will inform the nearest teacher and their team will quickly come and back you up if they’re able. That said, don’t get too far from the main teams. This isn’t a race.”

He pulled out several balls from his spacial ring and threw them into the air. They started flying towards each of the different teams. One even flew over to me... then bumped into me. Fuck! Had we gotten a defective one?



I poked it, and it flew back a bit. Then it started to fly around my group.

Maybe Chad had given us a bad one so we couldn’t call for help. I eyed it suspiciously.

“Professor Glass! I’d like a different spy drone.”

He opened up a screen on his light brain and glanced at some numbers. “Your drone is fine, Miss Lin. It just... likes you. They do that.”

Do they? I glanced at everyone who seemed like they had something better to look at than in my direction. Even my team. Fuck, whatever.

“Now that you have your drone. It’s time for you all to enter the shuttle. These are being piloted by some very brave shuttle pilots. Be sure to follow their instructions when it comes to exiting with your mech and staying in your group. The last time we did something like this, several students didn’t follow directions and ended up flying into the middle of a Space Bug swarm.”

Professor Glass looked like he wanted to keep lecturing us for a few more hours but instead briefly closed his eyes. “You have been the best students I’ve ever had the pleasure to teach. I hope to see you all again at the end of this fight.”

Through speakers, a cool voice said, “Infiltration teams, please get ready! You will be clear to go in four minutes!”Updated from novelbIn.(c)om

We ran to our designated shuttle and boarded it. Each of us put on our six point safety harnesses and sat in the big bubble area of the shuttle.

“The Motherbrain is dead so the one controlling these bugs is probably that Mantis crab,” I announced. “Also, you’re not injured. Fortunately, MingRen covered for you both while you had your little moment there but he can’t last that long.”

They both coughed awkwardly and started fighting again.

I joined in for a little while, then became frustrated as fuck.

“Hey, MingRen. That spy drone is being a bother. Interrupt its sensors for a sec.”

He coughed. “Um... Shouldn’t we call for backup?”

“Naw. Too annoying. Besides, the only one close to us would be Prince Chad’s team.”

He finished slicing a few of the crabs in front of him then grabbed the spy drone in one of his massive hands.

“Finally.” I grinned at all of these little small fries. And slashed towards them, “Ten Thousand Cuts!”

Not only did all of the small bugs slice into two, but even the walls took on massive amounts of damage. This only left the large mantis.

“Uh, team leader? What was that?” Jessica asked.

“Something you’re going to keep your mouth shut about... because even if you say it, no one will believe you.”

“Y-yes!”

“Derrick, kill that Mantis — I don’t feel like wasting my energy.”

“Yes, team leader!”

The Mantis knew what was up and made a run for it... well, since the gravity was out, it was technically a ‘fly for it.’ Derrick aimed his rifle at the back of its neck and pulled the trigger, sending a high-powered blast straight through its neck with perfect aim.

“Good work.”

“It’s all thanks to your technique.”

I cleared my throat. “So, now that the corridor is clear, do you two need a minute?”

“Please just... Can we leave now?”

“What? Why be embarrassed now? That was a very sweet way to confess your feelings.”

“I’m gonna go change schools now.”

“Fairy Lin,” MingRen, probably trying to be kind to poor, embarrassed Derrick, caught my attention, “can I release the spy drone?”

“Let’s move out of the area first.”

***

We spent another twenty minutes flying through tunnels. Any of the Space Crabs we ran into were so busy running around trying to figure out what to do while they lacked the Motherbrain’s instructions that they completely ignored us.

While leaving, I tried to keep my divine senses open so I could tell where the dangerous places were.

Of course, one of the dangerous places was the fight going on between the Male Lead and the Humanoid Space Bug. These fuckers were crashing through walls and seriously compromising the internal structure of this ship.

I had thought that the pathway out of here that I’d chosen would have been way the fuck clear of their fight, but it appeared like they would intercept us at any moment...

“Goddamn it!”

I quickly sent instructions to MingRen’s mech to go down the pathway I’d set. Then I grabbed all of their mechs with spiritual energy and threw them behind me right as both the humanoid bug and Chad’s golden panther mech fell through the wall right in front of me.

The golden panther stayed still. But the alien did not. Got to its bare purple and pink feet and turned it’s fucked up humanoid head to stare at my mech with it’s beady black eyes.

This wouldn’t have been so disturbing, except part of its head had obviously already been clawed off... and it was still going like the fucking wound was nothing.



I contacted Prince Chad’s mech through my own. “Hey, are you still awake?”

The alien took a step toward me.

Fuck. Chad was supposed to beat this thing. Why the fuck was he out already.

“If I have to kill this thing for your ass, I’m going to demand extra payment.”

Still no word. I cursed. Considering how much energy I used just killing the Motherbrain and all those crabs earlier, I was down too much for a prolonged fight. Looked like I’d have to rely on my physique here.

Something bumped into my mech, and I realized that I’d forgotten to toss the damn spy drone to the others.

Motherfucker!

Well, I’d have to find a way to kill this bot. I mean, it didn’t do anything wrong, but I couldn’t have it recording me... and it wasn’t like I'd named it Steve and become emotionally attached to it.

Shit. Its name was Steve now.

That was when the evil, pink bug flew toward me at speeds that my current physique couldn't follow. Fortunately, my divine sense and spiritual energy could keep up with it.

I pulled out my side arm and fired several rounds that bounced off the bug’s head.

The fuck was this thing made of? And could I use it to make a weapon?

I holstered my mech-sized gun and pulled my sword back out. This was no time to hold back. I inserted my spiritual energy into the mech just like I had when I first arrived, only this mech was one I’d designed specifically to take it.

When the alien neared me, I slashed towards his torso in an attempt to slice him in half. His purple skin... wasn’t actually skin. It was a hard shell. Harder than any other crab I'd come across since I’d come to this time. But only slightly harder than the Mothership’s brain stalk.

To kill this thing, I’d need to use another Sword of the Hundred Petaled Flower.

But, with my spiritual energy as drained as it was, I could only do one more before I needed to meditate for an hour or two.

The problem was that I could easily waste it if I wasn’t careful.

This pink crab person was no joke.

He flew towards my cockpit as if he were about to fly straight through it. I flew to the side using my thrusters, avoiding him.

His hand barely came into contact with my armor and left a nasty scratch on the surface, but that was it.

We turned to look at each other, both of us gauging the skills of the other. I was sure we’d have a lot to talk about if the crabs bothered to learn the human language or if humans could even fathom the strange crab language.

In a last attempt to wake up the male lead, I said, “Fine, if you don’t come help me beat this thing, then I’m gonna tell Miss Liu that she can find a better guy than you!”

I thought for sure that it would work. Eh, too bad. Looked like I was on my own here... Aside from Steve that kept fucking running into me.

We exchanged a few more testing blows, and I realized that, while this crab person was strong, and had a deep spiritual pressure that could make those under SS rank suffer, it couldn’t use its spiritual energy in an attack.

Of course, that didn’t mean I had the advantage. The bug was like dealing with a pure body cultivator in-between Golden Core and Nascent Soul.

Just then, a strong blast of mech rifle fire hit the injured side of the Star Bug’s pink head.

Goddamn it.

Over my comms, I heard MingRen’s voice. “We’re not leaving you to fight this thing alone.”

I scowled. “You should. You’ll all just get in my way.”

“At the very least, I can hold that annoying spy drone for you.”

Then his stupid looking mech with its big arms appeared around the corner and snatched the stupid spy drone from mid air.

“Its name is Steve.” Everyone was looking at my mech strangely but whatever. “But you’re right. We shouldn’t let it see this.”

“And I can distract the Space Bug with a few well placed pot shots,” Derrick said, while firing another blast at the crab person.

Then Jessica’s heavy mech came barreling around the corner, her shield in front of her, ready to take a hit. “And, at the very least, I can protect these two so you don’t have to worry about them.”

“I thought you were running out of energy?”

She coughed. “I replaced my battery pack.”

“It’s why we took so long getting back here after you threw us out of danger.”

I grimaced and exchanged a few more blows with the Alien.

“Alright. If you all are willing to face this Crab Person with me then so be it. MingRen, hold that damn spy drone in one hand and fire your pistol with the other. Derrick, you fire on him from there. We need to get him cornered enough that I can attack him with a special technique I have.”

“Yes, Team Leader!”

We exchanged blows. I managed to keep him in check by blocking his creepy crab hands with my powerful sword.

The two just barely managed to get him to move by taking shots at him.

One more sword slash from me and he was stuck to the corner of the room.

I powered my thrusters to get maximum acceleration and used up the last bit of my sword Qi in a final thrust... my sword pierced through his stomach and a hundred blades of sword Qi exited from his body, bisecting the fucker. Only... as its purple blood leaked from its mouth, it smirked at me... It fucking smirked at me! Then it grabbed my mech’s wrist and used its claws to bypass my shield and slice my arm off!

Pain shot through my mind. This was another consequence of my pseudo-Any Armor is my Body skill.

Motherfucker! I lost another arm! Granted, this was a mech arm, but still.

Then, the damn crab started fucking eating my arm! The wound I just made partially closed.

Seriously. The fuck was this thing?

“T-team leader?”

“I’m fine.”

“What do we do now?”

There was only one thing left to do... use a technique that I’d loathed with every fiber of my being. But, it was effective.

“What I’m about to show you all, must never be spoken of to anyone. Do you understand?”

“Y-yes, Team Leader,” Jessica said.

“I will take whatever knowledge you’re about to share to my grave,” MingRen said solemnly.

“It’s only right that we exchange things we don’t want others to know,” Derrick murmured.

“Derrick. If we’re ever in the same group again, remind me to double your training.”

He coughed. “I mean. I swear I won’t tell a soul!”

I couldn’t use a giant mech for this. I pulled the cord that turned my mech to a ring on my finger.

Now that I was looking at this fucker, he was actually pretty big, wasn’t he. Almost half the size of my mech.

The look on its face was full of amusement as if saying, ‘This? This is how you choose to face me?’

I gathered up the spiritual energy within me and performed several hand seals.

The crab person leisurely walked over towards me, even taking a few pot shots from my teammates who were likely freaking the fuck out.

That was when I finished my last hand seal and pointed two fingers at the pink fucker. “Storm of Delight and Solace!”

An army of spiritual puppies appeared behind me carrying pineapples on their backs. One ran through the air and licked the face of the crab person, their adorable tails wagging. Then, after they licked his face, the pineapple on their back flew high above them and crashed on top of him. Since it was a spiritual attack, it didn’t matter that there wasn’t any gravity. This was a pure attack on one’s spirituality... and my eyes.

Seriously, attacks were supposed to be badass. But this one...

Another dozen puppies licked the Space Crab and their pineapples crashed into him. When he realized what was happening. It was already too late.

He attempted to run, but puppies were, in the end, dogs. And dogs could sniff out what they wanted.

By the time the army of dogs finished their licks and pineapple bombardment, the pink crab person’s spirit was utterly obliterated.

I brought out the mech my body’s father made for her because it actually had both arms and was structurally sound. Then I used the sniper rifle that came with it to shoot every single part of the prone alien. Because like fuck did I want to deal with something that could heal by eating my own fucking mech!

Then... because it would be a waste. I grabbed its body for later use in a weapon.

My teammates finally connected to my new mech’s comm.

“Um, Team Leader. What was that?”

“Something we don’t talk about.”

“But.. puppies.”

“We don’t talk about puppies or pineapples!”

“Right.”

Another comm connected, this one, unexpected. “Lady Victoria. What happened?”

It was fucking Chad. “Prince Chad! Good to see you up and well. We took care of the Motherbrain and what was left of the humanoid Star Bug.”

“My team?”

“They’re fine. Once Steve reported the destruction of the Motherbrain, everyone started to head back toward the exit. We should do that too.”

His mech stared at me as if confused. “Who is Steve?”

***



Once the bugs didn’t have the Motherbrain or the Humanoid Crab to give them orders, the students and teachers of the military school quickly wiped the rest of the crabs out.

Of course, this was just one Mothership. There were hundreds, maybe even thousands out there still causing havoc in their quest to eat the universe.

Once we returned to our cabins onboard the Blue Jaguar, MingRen anxiously asked if he could come in and talk.

“This isn’t about that which we don’t speak of, right?”

“Of course not!”

“Then come in!”

He sat down at my desk and bit his lip.

I raised an eyebrow at him. “I do need to cultivate to replenish my energy, you know.”

“Actually, cultivation is what I’ve been thinking of.”

“Ah, so you finally realized that you were being brainwashed against immortality.”

“That’s not it. It was about walking a path alone. I realized that if you continue to cultivate, that you’ll be alone. I... I want to walk that path with you, so you aren’t alone.”

That... was shockingly sweet coming from someone who currently thought immortality was a curse.

Well, if he was the reincarnation of Bloodsword, then he probably had a lot of fate with immortality. Perhaps he’d be able to keep up. Maybe It would be nice to walk this lonely path with someone who could have my back. Alright. I would give this nominal brother of mine one chance.

“I’ll teach you to cultivate, but you’ll have to take up a Daoist name of my choosing. From now on, you’ll be called Spring of the Universe. Little Spring for short.”

“Ah, Little Spring sounds like a kid’s name.” He pointed to himself. “I’m an adult.”

Kid, you are still just a child in my eyes. “Fine. Then ‘Spring’ for short.”

He smiled. “I’ll take it!”