The first sucking sound of the infant insect against the air was accompanied by the rhythmic syllable of a crimson moth draining life.
The place where the "Propagation" Aeon, the ascended "Tayzzyronth," first descended and revealed the primal motive force of His Path was called Planet Dalabol. On this planet lay an island isolated from the world—Mandele Island.
The people of this island had a particular characteristic: they loved to bear children. They believed that the birthing of life, that new life itself, was the best way to resist the fear brought about by death and loneliness. Perhaps it was precisely this ill-fated affinity, coinciding with the nature of "The Propagation," that attracted the ascended "Tayzzyronth" to come and bestow His favor.
After "Tayzzyronth" descended, the number of "newborns" on Mandele Island reached the highest peak in recorded history. A few days later, these "newborns" matured and charged off this isolated island on their own. Consequently, "Insect Tides" began to appear in the skies all across Planet Dalabol.
Planet Dalabol held on for twenty-one days, but in the end, it was no match for the "Insect Tide." The entire world fell, and they sent out an interstellar distress signal. At that time, the Amber Lord Support Group had only recently transformed into the Interastral Peace Corporation; the massive credit system of later eras was merely in its embryonic form during this age. Whether in terms of technological level or armed forces, they were far from the standards of future generations.
Yet, despite this, the Corporation still came. At this time, they still harbored a heart of true "Preservation," not yet the merchants of later days who would not rise early without profit. Under the arrangement of the rescue team, most of the survivors were successfully evacuated. However, during the rescue process, there was a woman who, no matter how much those around her tried to persuade her, was unwilling to leave this place, unwilling to leave Planet Dalabol.
This woman was named Mercedes, one of the residents of Mandele Island. The reason she was unwilling to leave was simple: her "child" had flown away not long ago. She was afraid that if she left, her "child" would not be able to find its mother when it returned later. So, no matter what, she could not leave; she had to wait for her child to return and take him with her.
The people of Planet Dalabol thought she had gone mad. Quite a few tried to forcibly drag her away, but all they received in return were bites and violent blows. Thus, everyone had to give up and escape for their own lives. After all, their own lives were more important. As people of the same locality, they had already done their duty; if Mercedes herself was unwilling to go, they had no other way.
Leon, who had witnessed everything with his own eyes, knew that her child could never return. Because her child, before it was even born, had already been polluted by "The Propagation." Or rather, at the moment "Tayzzyronth" descended, every blade of grass and every tree on Planet Dalabol had long since become a hotbed for "The Propagation."
The number of newborns on Mandele Island reached its peak this year. But were these newborns really human? No, these newborns were all insects—every damn one of them was a Swarm of "The Propagation"! These insects used humans as seedbeds to be born from human bellies!
As a human, Leon felt both nauseated and outrageously angry when witnessing this scene. What was most infuriating was that before the insects burst out of their stomachs, these people felt nothing unusual at all; they only thought it was still their own child inside. They cared for it with meticulous attention, full of anticipation for the birth. And the result? The result was giving birth to a bug in the end!
How many people would suffer a mental breakdown because of this? Mercedes was the best example. Saying she was crazy was no joke; after watching her own child fly away with her own eyes, she truly succumbed to madness. She had broken down to the point where she dared not face reality. "Tayzzyronth" had directly twisted the concept of "reproduction"; just like modifying common sense, everything born in the galaxy ought to be an insect. Let alone humans, even if you were an inorganic lifeform, you had to obediently produce bugs.
Precisely for this reason, no act of mating was needed to serve as a medium for breeding. This was the most sorrowful part. Because these pregnant people, without knowing, lost their own flesh and blood connected by bloodline just like that, in silence. They could perceive nothing unusual about it. For no reason at all, they became seedbeds for insects, and everything they did became a dowry for the bugs. There was a reason why "Tayzzyronth" and the "Swarm" were reviled by everyone.
Leon never considered himself some so-called bleeding heart. But the things happening before his eyes, the destruction of the very word "humanity"—anyone who was human would find it hard to accept. If a Legendary King of Love were here, he would probably overheat directly and shout, "Where is Tayzzyronth? Get out here right now, I'm coming to love you too!" This damnable cur truly deserved to die.
"...Is there any possibility for those changed by 'The Propagation' to return to their original form?"
Although he already knew the answer in his heart, Leon still asked Herta. Herta turned her head, looking at his side profile which had gone completely dark. She remained silent for a long time. She was someone who was personally experiencing this history together with Leon, so she knew and understood his current mood, and even empathized with it. For a Galaxy Ranger, the suffering before his eyes was too heavy. Heavy enough that even he found it hard to bear.
"...No."
Herta wanted very much to say yes, but she could not. "Places swept by the Swarm will leave behind Swarm evolution genes known as 'Propagation Factors,' turning the entire planet into an insect nest that constantly breeds offspring."
Later generations had conducted much research on "The Propagation," and there was long since a conclusion regarding this aspect. "Stars nestified by the Imperator Insectorum will all become irreparable hells of terror. This has been verified by multiple parties; the final result of handling is often to use planet-destroying weapons to carry out indiscriminate strikes on the polluted planets to eliminate future trouble forever."
Herta's meaning was clear: it couldn't be done. Even a biological expert like Ruan Mei, a Genius, couldn't do it. "Propagation Factors." This thing was basically equivalent to the underlying logic of the entire Path of "The Propagation." It was the concept within the core of cores. To really have the ability to analyze and understand the mysteries within it, and master it, would be no different from mastering the entire Path of "The Propagation."
If one compared it to a disease, then no matter which doctor, for a patient who contracted this disease, the evaluation would presumably only be: hopeless, wait for death.
"Is that so..." Leon was not surprised. He had known this answer in his heart long ago; just thinking about it, he knew it was impossible. If there really was such a possibility, there wouldn't be zero news about it in the galaxy.
"Mercedes, what is her final ending?"
The scene before them did not change, indicating that Mercedes' story had not yet ended. Herta did not answer, implying that he should watch for himself. Whether she didn't know or didn't want to say it herself was unclear. Leon remained silent, looking down at everything from high in the sky, quietly waiting for the story to continue developing.
Very quickly, he knew whether Herta was the former or the latter.
One night, while Mercedes was still bitterly waiting for her child to return, an insect broke in through the dilapidated window. Mercedes was overjoyed, thinking her child had returned, so she went forward and hugged it, tearfully recounting her longing. After that, she began to treat this insect—which had accidentally broken in through the window only because it sensed the aura of a living person and wanted to feed—as she would her child.
Regarding Mercedes' behavior, to be honest, she couldn't help it either. Her child had turned into a bug. But bugs basically all looked the same; it was very hard to distinguish. So she had no choice at all; even if she saw her child again, she might not necessarily recognize it. Perhaps this bug really was her child, who could say? Mercedes could only use such psychological comfort to deceive herself.
From a bystander's perspective, the fact that this insect could suppress its own instincts and not immediately devour Mercedes, but instead live in peace with her... the possibility of this speculation was actually not small. But others didn't know and couldn't detect it. Leon, however, could. The answer obtained by his "Hunt" intuition surpassed any deduction.
This bug had absolutely zero connection to Mercedes. It was just a bug, not one from the batch of Mandele Island humans turned into bugs.
"Why is this?"
Herta was a bit surprised by the scene before her eyes. She only knew the general sequence of events of the Swarm Disaster, but as for what happened within it... she didn't know much. If not for this retrocognition of the Swarm Disaster, she wouldn't be able to see these things that had long been buried in the river of history.
"This bug actually didn't immediately swallow this woman, but could live in peace with her?" This was truly an eye-opener. "Did it gain sapience?" Herta speculated a possibility, then personally denied it. "No, even that guy 'Tayzzyronth' has nothing in his head except breeding, so the Swarm as offspring couldn't possibly gain sapience."
Even the "Propagation" Aeon Himself didn't have sapience to speak of; it would be a ghost story if the Swarm could gain it. Wouldn't that be turning the natural order upside down?
"Then why is it?" She murmured, "Truly strange." There were few problems Herta couldn't find the reason for, but the matter before her eyes certainly counted as one. After all, the "Propagation" side had no brains; they were creatures dominated by the instincts within their bodies. This was common knowledge. If it were an ordinary scholar, they would definitely say at this moment that an isolated case cannot be used as a reference. But Herta never thought that way. Since it existed, it meant there was such a possibility. A true scholar should figure out this possibility under the drive of curiosity, not evade it.
"Because the two are of the same kind. A very simple reason."
While Herta was confused, Leon suddenly spoke up to answer for this Genius.
"Same kind?" Herta looked at him, not understanding where this statement came from. "What aspect of 'same kind' are you referring to?" She didn't doubt Leon's words in the slightest; she just wanted to figure out his basis.
"Same kind on the Path." He pierced through the maze with a single sentence.
Herta heard this and immediately knew what he meant. "How is that poss—" She subconsciously felt this was impossible, but a few short moments of thinking in her brain made her stop her mouth. "No, so that's it, so it turns out to be like that..."
The Genius immediately retracted her words because she realized the weight of this statement. This was what the saying meant: talking to smart people saves trouble.
"Is this the intuition of 'The Hunt'?" Herta looked at him and asked. She increasingly felt that other Paths were just too convenient, having both stats and mechanics. And looking back at "The Erudition"? It had nothing. The most critical ability was just a Moment of Anchoring, and the Mechanical Head wouldn't possibly teach that to outsiders. After all that, "Nous" was the trash among trash. Among the eighteen "Aeons," the Mechanical Head clearly belonged to the upper-middle tier, but among the eighteen "Paths," He was the one stingiest to his subjects. Speechless.
"Yes."
Why was this insect indifferent to Mercedes? The answer was right on the surface. The people of Mandele Island had a characteristic: they loved having children very much. They believed that new life could withstand the fear brought by death and loneliness. Please think about it: why did "Tayzzyronth" ascend?
Mandele Island had already coincided with the deepest origin of "The Propagation." Before, "The Propagation" had not yet been born, so there was no Path for the Mandele Island people to step onto. But after the Path of "The Propagation" was brought out by "Tayzzyronth," every Mandele Island person had the qualification to become a walker of "The Propagation." But not purely. As long as they were human, they could not be as pure as the Swarm. It was precisely this impurity that had long destined Mercedes' ending.
Leon's gaze did not shift for a moment. In the days that followed, Mercedes lived together with this insect. The former began to knit clothes and shoes for the latter, and used all her heart's blood to try and teach the insect to walk and wear shoes. Even to speak. But the insect paid her no heed, only breeding blindly.
Soon, Mercedes' dwelling was covered in offspring. Inside and outside the house was a mess; the things on this planet had basically been eaten clean by the insects as food. And she had knitted eighty-seven garments and over seven thousand pairs of small shoes. Yet not a single one was worn.
"The food is gone, isn't it..."
Some insects gathered in front of Mercedes; the latter spoke to the former on her own accord. She completely disregarded the bloody maws already opening toward her.
"Wait a moment, Mom will go buy some," Mercedes said. Weakly, she stumbled toward the main door, preparing to go out and procure some things.
The Swarm present, at the moment she stood up, instantly shifted their gazes—filled with the desire to feed—onto her. Everything edible on this planet had been eaten by them; only this one single ration remained.
Leon exhaled a breath of turbid air; that fury had not yet been voiced, but it was deafening. Following his line of sight, one could see a crushing black mass all crowded in front of Mercedes' door. Those were all insects wanting to divide and devour her. At the moment Mercedes opened the door, they would swarm forward. The ending left for her, from beginning to end, was only death.
Leon clenched his fist, veins bulging on the back of his hand. Looking at the Swarm Disaster in its entirety, he only realized one word—Kill!
"What are you going to do?" Herta called out to him, looking at his back and asking. Leon turned his head slightly. "Do what I should do."
"Don't you remember what I said before?" Herta understood his feelings. "You can't save her."
But that was just a waste of effort.
"If it's me, I can do it."
He spoke each word, firm and unwavering.
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