Chapter 127 Iva

Hao Ren looked at the Siren Queen beside him in surprise: "Iva? What's an Iva?"

"Our myths and legends... we believe that the primordial consciousness in the sea created the Siren race. This primordial consciousness is called 'Iva,' and all Sirens are fragments of 'Iva.' Iva sleeps in the depths of the Water Mother. Every wave and tsunami on the sea surface is Iva's breath, and every lightning strike on the water is Iva's gaze..." The Siren Queen explained with a strange sense of awe, leaning closer to the holographic projection to carefully examine the face on the surface of Io. "No explicit records describe Iva's appearance, but if she really exists... I believe this is what she would look like. Most Sirens imagine 'Iva' in this form."

The seawater on Io's surface surged, and the female face revealed an increasingly angry expression in the continuous deformation. An even larger amount of seawater detached from the planet's surface, spreading into space to form arm-like structures. The scene was bizarre and horrifying.

While operating the equipment to scan the energy flow inside that ocean, Hao Ren asked in surprise, "Ancient legends? You've forgotten everything about your homeland, but you still remember this 'Iva'?"

"Because this legend itself only slowly spread after we came to Earth," the Siren Queen shook her head. "Perhaps some memories of our homeland still remain in our subconscious, and these memories have subtly transformed into 'Iva'..."

Vivian frowned. "So you actually don't know what it is?"

"Whatever it is, it's clearly very angry right now..." Hao Ren said quickly, "Her bombardment is coming!"

Driven by some supernatural force, the ice chunks flying out of Io's surface accelerated to near-light speed and began to densely bombard the shields of the Tortoise Rock Platform. In an instant, the space around the spaceship was filled with countless ice fragments, as if it had broken into the tail of a comet. The Tortoise Rock Platform's shields flickered, but their status remained stable. Hao Ren breathed a sigh of relief. "Phew... doesn't seem like much of a threat."

The data terminal shouted loudly, "But our sample is about to be smashed to pieces!"

"Damn it!" Hao Ren turned his head and was immediately shocked. The black warship that had been painstakingly salvaged from the seabed was completely exposed to the bombardment of near-light-speed projectiles. In an instant, it was riddled with holes. The black crystal plates on the spaceship were smashed into flying fragments, and the entire wreck began to roll towards the depths of space. "Transfer the sample away first!"

Before he could finish speaking, he saw a flash of light suddenly erupt from the belly of the black warship. Then, the entire spaceship rapidly spread a burst of light from the middle to both sides, as if setting off firecrackers. The tens of kilometers of wreckage exploded into a sky full of fragments in a series of explosions.

Hao Ren remembered the warhead that exploded in the wreckage of Zala Thane. He realized that the black warship's armory might have been detonated.

A large number of explosive fragments slammed against the Tortoise Rock Platform's shields with a series of bangs. Lily muttered blankly, "...No need to transfer it."

The black warship was blown to pieces, but the attacks of Io-Iva did not stop at all. More and more near-light-speed ice blades began to hit the spaceship's shields. Obviously, the Tortoise Rock Platform had now become "her" only target. Hao Ren frantically checked the remaining shield capacity and immediately ordered the activation of the evasion process after discovering that the shield capacity was decreasing. At the same time, he loudly asked the data terminal, "Have you figured out what this is?!"

"Boss, you might not believe it when I say this..." the data terminal's voice paused for a moment, "But she seems to be a Siren."

Hao Ren: "What?!"

"She's a Siren, super huge, super powerful, the size of an entire planet... a Siren," the data terminal's voice was finally not so cheap. "This unit stores the mental spectrum characteristics of Sirens. This unit can now confirm that it is a Siren. The entire Io is a Siren!"

Shaqira and Soma hugged each other tightly in horror (and also tangled together), while Nangong Wuyue seemed to suddenly realize something and muttered to herself, "...Water has no fixed form..."

The Siren Queen nodded vigorously as if confirming something. "This is Iva."

The violent attacks of Io-Iva continued. The small Tortoise Rock Platform dodged everywhere like a moth in the face of the rage of an entire planet. The planet had now been completely distorted into a terrifying appearance. In addition to a face on its front, two-thirds of its seawater had extended into space, forming countless arms and coral-like tentacles. The dense, unavoidable near-light-speed ice projectiles were launched from those arms, sealing off the entire space. The ocean separated from the planet, revealing the ancient solid planetary surface below. The Siren kingdom with tens of thousands of years of history and the even more ancient seabed tidal flats were exposed to the "surface" in such an unbelievable state, and for the first time since the planet's formation, they were illuminated by the sunlight from outside. The scene was extremely strange and bizarre, and worldly common sense could hardly describe it. Only the most insane and absurd primitive myths would describe one or two.

However, it was what Hao Ren had to face right now.

"Well, this unit needs to remind you," the data terminal shouted loudly in a series of alarm sounds. "This Siren is starting to cast spells - she's getting smarter! It's estimated that she's completely awake!"

In addition to the near-light-speed ice blades, other things appeared outside the spaceship. Layers of radiance emerged on the water arms extending into space. Then, a large number of laser-like beams splashed towards the small Tortoise Rock Platform. Higher-level alarms sounded everywhere in the spaceship in an instant: the shield recharge speed had begun to be lower than the consumption speed, and the power furnace was about to reach its limit.

Hao Ren turned his head and shouted loudly to the Siren Queen, "Do you mind if I fire on your god?"

The Siren Queen was stunned for a moment, then reacted. "I... well, it's an emergency..."

"Thanks for your cooperation," Hao Ren quickly opened the fire control console. "All weapons online!"

The Tortoise Rock Platform's main gun and all defensive secondary guns protruded from under the armored belt and fired madly at the water arms. The water arms were constantly broken and turned into a sky full of water splashes. However, these water elements would quickly re-condense, and their regrowth speed even overwhelmed Hao Ren's firing speed!

"This isn't a battleship... we can't resist here!" Nangong Wuyue cowered in a corner. "Can we strategically retreat first?"

Hao Ren glanced at the shield capacity. He knew that the Tortoise Rock Platform could indeed turn around and run away at this time, but the shield could still hold on for now, and looking at the Io-Iva in front of him, he felt that he couldn't just leave like this.

He wanted to know what was going on with this "Siren."

At this time, Izhaks suddenly said thoughtfully, "Perhaps... these are the Sirens who were left on Io and couldn't escape back then."

Hao Ren raised an eyebrow. "Huh?"

"Soul gathering phenomenon," Izhaks pointed to the violent planet. "For certain gifted intelligent races, when they face a cataclysmic disaster, the entire race's sense of crisis has a chance to give birth to a kind of species instinct. Their spirituality will resonate with something similar to a collective consciousness. This collective consciousness will try to avoid the extinction of the race. Even if the individuals of this race do not perceive its existence, it will give birth to all kinds of miracles - this is why when the doomsday crisis comes, some races will suddenly stimulate talents that violate the laws of nature and escape from death, not because of the power of individual geniuses, but because the entire species does not want to perish."

Speaking of this, Izhaks turned his head and looked at the four Sirens on the ship (three of whom were already cowering). "Sirens are the most suitable race to produce this phenomenon because they are formless, which means that the connection between their spirit and flesh is not rigid, and they also have 'immortality,' which means that their souls are more resilient than their bodies. The spirituality of this kind of creature is very easy to transcend and produce..."

Hao Ren turned to look at the holographic projection. "...Iva."

"Then what's wrong with her now?!" Vivian asked loudly.

"The spirit of the race has become a vengeful spirit," Izhaks said in a low voice. "She failed to prevent the doomsday, and her components died on this planet, so she directly transformed into an unprecedentedly huge undead creature - and due to the immortality of the Sirens, this vengeful spirit completely maintains the power of a living being."

Explosions continued in the space outside the spaceship, and high-energy beams repeatedly hit the shields. Hao Ren looked at the alarm information on the console. "Okay, terminal, how much time do we have left?"

"One hour. We're fighting an entire race plus an entire planet. It's impossible for you to ask such a small spaceship to last too long," the data terminal replied. "By the way, what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to talk to Iva," Hao Ren stood up. "The disaster ten thousand years ago, this vengeful spirit is the first witness."