Chapter 1 A New Round of Attacks

The Corruptors' offensive was becoming increasingly frequent.

Before this, aside from the first few hundred years of the war, there would always be intervals of at least a month, and up to several years, between large-scale attacks by those freaks. These intervals would only be interspersed with probes and skirmishes by small groups of troops. But in the last three or four years, they had uncharacteristically increased the frequency of their incursions, with a large-scale assault arriving on average every ten days. The two rounds of attacks this time were only three days apart—almost as soon as their last offensive was disintegrated by the End Tide, the next one arrived on its heels. The soldiers on the front lines had no room to breathe in those mere three days.

Salamon the Dauntless, legion commander of the Guardian Giants, stood on the defense platform above the Hub, watching the universe illuminated by the artillery fire and magic of the warring parties. A ghastly white light cast countless grim shadows on his thick-bearded face. The scene before him was almost a replica of the battle a few days ago: the Corruptors arrived in overwhelming numbers, occupying almost half of the space in his field of vision. They continuously used cannon fodder to weaken the Hub's defenses, reduce the number of guardians, and leave their corrupting aura on the battlefield, creating a more lasting and terrible threat. Meanwhile, the number of defending troops was far from sufficient to stem the enemy's offensive.

Salamon could imagine what would happen next: he would have to activate Agdoor's doomsday weapon again. The End Tide would drive out all the corrupted monsters on the battlefield as before, but this would only be a negligible loss to the enemy. The doomsday weapon's damage to the spatial structure near the Hub would even exceed the damage to the enemy, and those corrupted auras…they would be purified by the End Tide, but before that, they would have already caused sufficient damage to the Hub's shield.

A heavy "Crystalline Barrier" enveloped the Hub. This was the energy gathered from all over the universe by thousands of Starfolk, which had saved the planetary shield from being almost completely penetrated in the first impact. But under the continuous weakening and impact of the past three thousand years, its strength had decreased by more than half. No one knew how long those Starfolk could last—the will of the Starfolk dwelling in the barrier had been unable to respond to the Guardian Giants' calls for many years.

"Legion Commander," a younger Guardian Giant stood behind Salamon, "the enemy's attacks are becoming more frequent."

Salamon turned his head, his eyes flashing with wisdom: "What do you think about this, my brother?"

"We are isolated in the Holy Land, and we know nothing about what is happening in the depths of the universe, my brother," the younger Guardian Giant said. "But I believe that some kind of change must have occurred in the depths of the universe to make these distorted monsters so urgent—their offensive is becoming increasingly fierce, but at the same time, it reveals tension and panic. They are increasing the frequency of their attacks at the cost of their own potential."

Salamon nodded slightly, though agreeing, his thick-bearded face did not show any expression: "You are right, these freaks have become more impatient than before, and they are under some kind of pressure. I received a report that a few days ago, a distorted monster legion suddenly advanced towards outer space and never returned. After that, these freaks had a lot of inexplicable movements… I suspect that another force has intervened in this world."

"Another force?" the younger Guardian Giant looked at the Legion Commander, "Does Mother have other allies besides us?"

Salamon said in a deep voice: "Mother left many secrets, some of which even we do not know, just as this Holy Land we guard is unknown to outsiders. Perhaps Mother also…"

Before he could finish his words, the space behind him suddenly showed signs of distortion. A Guardian clad in white armor walked out of the space gate and hurried to him: "Legion Commander, our warriors have found a…strange thing on the edge of the battlefield."

"A strange thing?" Salamon raised an eyebrow. It had been many years since he had heard such a strange statement from his subordinates. "What is it?"

The messenger lowered his head: "A…seemingly advanced artificial aircraft, its style and technology are unlike anything we know, but this aircraft seems to be trying to establish communication with us."

Salamon frowned: "Bring it to me."

Two Guardian Giants quickly brought the strange aircraft to the platform. Salamon could not help but frown when he saw it: this was indeed a "strange thing."

It was carried by two giants, and the aircraft, which was more than ten meters long, did not seem so large in the giants' hands. This silver-white oddity was a clear mechanical creation. It had a metallic outer shell, half of it like a spaceship, and the other half like an insect's severed limb. The thing was covered with a bunch of miscellaneous attachments, but the most striking thing was the huge holographic subtitles constantly projected on its surface.

The subtitles on the left read, "Don't shoot, we're on the same side," and the ones on the right read, "Calm down, don't be trigger-happy." A line of large characters in the middle was scrolling: "The Goddess of Creation asked me to bring you a message…"

This last line of large characters was the most important reason for all the Guardian Giants to restrain their urge to fire: they all knew that their mother had the title of "Goddess of Creation" in the mouths of mortals.

"It suddenly appeared on the battlefield, followed by a large group of Corruptor pursuers, but it was unbelievably agile and ran faster than anyone else, so it was never caught up," the messenger said with a bewildered look. "Our automatic fire almost riddled it with holes, but the shield that came with this thing withstood the first wave of attacks, and then our warriors saw these…subtitles."

The young Guardian adjutant looked at Salamon with a strange tone: "Is this…another force?"

Salamon looked at the strange silver-white aircraft with some curiosity. His deep-set eye sockets were as calm as water, making it impossible to guess what the old Guardian Giant was thinking. The young adjutant next to him could not help but speak: "This is indeed the language we use, but the technology used by this…machine is completely unfamiliar. It is impossible for a new race that possesses such advanced technology to suddenly emerge in the universe without us knowing…"

"But it is here, and it is trying to establish contact with us," Salamon raised a hand to interrupt the adjutant's words. Then, he came to the strange machine and bent down, "I can feel that something is looking at me through it. Whoever you are, if you want to speak, now is the time."

The silver-white strange machine did indeed tremble immediately. It had been carried by two giants as if it had lost power, but the next second, it was revived and floated into the air on its own. At the same time, a loud voice came from the sound device at its front end:

"See, see, I told you, hanging these subtitles would definitely work—curiosity is something that can't be controlled, and the Guardian Giants are the same."

Then a female voice sounded: "But the drone was still attacked at the beginning."

"Well, it's unavoidable. I think it was automatic fire, or there wasn't enough time to react. Anyway, the drone withstood it."

"Okay, okay, whatever you say is right."

Salamon's eyebrows couldn't help but rise: there seemed to be more than one person behind this strange machine, and this way of talking…seemed a little irregular? Were the people on the other side not soldiers?

"Who are you?" the old giant asked with a frown.

A series of strange noises came from inside the strange machine, and then its front end suddenly lit up. A holographic image appeared in front of Salamon.

A man with a cheerful smile and a woman with a calm temperament appeared in the picture.

Then the picture flashed, and a small creature with a fish tail jumped out from below. She seemed to bump into the camera and then slid down.

Salamon: "…"

The old giant felt that he had never encountered such a strange thing since he was born.

"You can call me Hao Ren, and this is Vivian Ansesesta," Hao Ren was also observing the Guardian Giant that appeared in the picture, but he did not forget to introduce himself. "We are observers."

"Observers?" the old giant repeated this strange word. "You can call me Salamon—where do you come from? What is your purpose?"

"You are fighting a war, and we are here to help," Hao Ren said straightforwardly. After seeing the expression on the Guardian Giant's face change, he did not give the other party a chance to speak. "Please don't rush to interrupt, I know that no one would rashly believe a group of suspicious people who appear out of nowhere—before I tell you the specific situation, I have something to show you."

The holographic image switched, and what was presented to Salamon next was the melee that had occurred around the Nakdal continent not long ago.

Of course, these images had been edited. The drone swarm's entry method, covert operations, specific scale, and deployment speed were all properly hidden, but Salamon could still clearly see the process of the Corruptor legion being completely swallowed up by the tide of armed drones.

As a legion commander who had fought against corrupted monsters for thousands of years, this scene gave the old giant a strange feeling—he was both gratified that those Corruptors had been so completely annihilated, but also a little sad, after all, those corrupted monsters were once members of the Guardians, and they should have been purified by the Guardian legion.

In the second half of the video, Salamon saw something that looked familiar.

"That is…the Nakdal temple complex?"

"You recognized it," the battlefield recording ended, and Hao Ren's image reappeared in the holographic projection. "That is indeed Nakdal, and this battle was also centered around the fragments of Nakdal: those mutated monsters tried to destroy the Nakdal continent, but they were caught by my drone legion. I also came into contact with the fairies on the Nakdal continent because of this accidental aid. From them, I learned about the mutated monsters and the war that is happening in the depths of this galaxy."

"What we want to say is that you are not the only ones fighting these corrupted monsters," Vivian finally spoke at this time. "We are hunting down this evil force throughout the universe."

Salamon was silent for a long time, and finally said, "What do you want to do?"

Hao Ren: "Offer you a cooperation plan."