Chapter 3449: Type-Two
"Man..." the Astromind groaned. "We are so dead."
His body was covered in what appeared to be a sleek astronaut’s suit, looking extremely out of place sitting before several screens in a lab within the Kandrian Manifold. None of the assistants from the Esocline Federation and those provided by the Kandrian Empire dared to ask the legendary Immortal Sage why he chose to act the way he did.
Even the Esoterist sitting beside him grimly had never questioned the peculiarities of his friend and colleague. After all, the Esoterist wore a highly advanced technosuit himself with all manner of gizmos.
More importantly, the data that their satellites and telescopes from both the Esocline Federation and the Kandrian Empire had revealed was troubling.
"These bastards..." the Esoterist muttered as he gazed at the astronomical data that they had got their hands on. "They are more technologically advanced than we could have ever imagined."
The Astromind nodded as he gazed at the data. "I had partially suspected it, but now we can be certain that each of the prime six civilizations on Gaia is a Quasi-Type-2 civilization."
The data from the telescopes in their satellites, when calibrated properly and angled in a particular manner, revealed that there were six bodies floating on the other side of the Sun in orbit.
Further data and analysis revealed that it was exactly what the Immortal Sages had feared.
"Quasi-Dyson Spheres."
Dyson Spheres were a concept within the technological sphere in human civilization that sought to build massive constructs that closely orbited the Sun to absorb its energy at a scale hitherto undreamt of. A Type-Two civilization was a civilization that had harnessed all the energy of its star. While no individual civilization, not even the elves of Genora collectively, had reached that phase by themselves, all species of the Homo genus had collectively reached that stage.
They studied the Quasi-Dyson Sphere data as much as they could, which wasn’t easy given how disturbed the data was. But it became clear which Dyson Sphere belonged to which civilization.
The most recognizable one of them was that of the elves. There were two giant sunflowers in space eating all the energy of the Sun; they absorbed the light, transmitting it to another flora-like space station in orbit that then transmitted it to the light and dark elves, respectively.
"This one must be the dwarves... it looks like a masterpiece of art."
It resembled a giant black convex mirror with circuitry engraved across its entire surface, absorbing light with incredible efficiency.
"This one must be the tekvores, since it makes use of cyborg technology."
It resembled a floating cross-section of a nuclear fusion reactor with some biotechnology integrated into it. This made sense given that even the spaceship that they captured from Plasmatron, which had killed the Gatekeeper, contained biotechnology within it.
The tekvores specialized in cyborg technology because of their path.
"This one must be the evolutionaries, looks a lot more bog standard."
It resembled a simple curved structure that filtered light through multiple transparent layers, absorbing light in a less flashy way than the others, but still quite effectively.
"Then there’s this... giant."
What shocked them the most was that there was a humanoid figure of extraordinary proportions that revolved around the Sun. A male the size of a small moon with spread arms, as if sunbathing in orbit around the actual Sun wasn’t lethal.
Its eyes were closed.
Its expression was one of deep sleep.
They had confirmed that he was a member of the giant species.
The Esoterist and the Astromind stared at the image with shocked expressions, unable to fathom what they were even looking at.
"That must be... Suneater."
They had heard legends of a giant so powerful that he was indisputably one of the top ten. They hadn’t managed to get intelligence on why the giant was considered Suneater before, but they figured it out when they studied data from their revamped satellites and telescopes had gotten them recently.
"This is what we’re up against."
There were other minute vessels and structures revolving, but they couldn’t be considered of the same caliber or kind.
"That explains why their siege weapons are as powerful as ours," the Esoterist muttered as he tried zooming in on all of them for greater definition. "Our weapons are as powerful as they are because of esoteric matter. I always wondered where they get all that energy from, but when the Emperor of Harmony finally told me about Rui’s report on light coming from space, it finally clicked."
Ordinary nuclear weapons could destroy a city.
But the Panama Continent had Apocalypse-Class siege weapons that could easily eviscerate entire countries and landmasses in the blink of an eye. The Kandrian Empire alone had hundreds of such weapons, not to mention the tens of thousands of Catastrophe-Class siege weapons that were stronger still, all thanks to the power of esoterics.
The true world didn’t have esoterics yet, and yet could match and even exceed Panama’s destructive power. Now it made sense when they considered where one of the largest sources of energy they had came from.
They used this energy to generate antimatter for antimatter energy cores and weapons. They used it to generate black holes that would serve as energy sources. They even used it to power their massive titanic civilizations that consumed an unfathomable amount of energy.
They got it from outer space, from the Sun.
"That’s not the only thing that they’re getting from outer space, though," the Astromind pulled up images from various planets in the solar system that they were in. "They... they have operations on other planets. They’re drawing resources from other planets to bring them back to their continents to use. Damn...! No wonder the Evolutionary Army built and rebuilt their base on our continent a million times in one month, each time we destroyed it. It was as though they had endless resources!"
It was also why the Imperial Tekvorian Federation had wasted so many resources on their marine naval bases without hesitation. They had massive reserves from other planets in their solar system.
"Damn...! When they said ’Race to Space,’ they were talking about interstellar space!" the Astromind gaped. "We thought they meant the solar system at the time because we hadn’t gone there ourselves!"