Chapter 345: Extra — The Marshal and An from the Original Ending (1): He Could Take Him Away and Hide Him in His Little Nest

At the end of a story, there always had to be one final battle between the opposing sides to bring everything to a close.

Ulysses’ mental state had already reached its limit, yet his physical strength was still at its peak. In this final decisive battle, he did not even pilot a mech, relying solely on the strength of his own body to fight his enemies.

Simply standing there brought with him an overwhelming sense of pressure and intimidation, enough to make any Zerg tremble with fear.

The only one who could truly enter Ulysses’ combat range was Helios. Everyone else could only watch from far away.

Helios piloted his exclusive mech and had the long-range psychic support of an S-rank Male Zerg, yet even so, facing Marshal Ulysses still made his scalp go numb.

That was the Female Zerg he had admired since childhood, an insurmountable mountain, an eternal star that would never fall. Defeating him was practically impossible.

But today, even if it was impossible, he had to do it.

For the Federation, for the Zerg race, for billions upon billions of Zerg citizens, for those he loved and those who loved him—and also for the Marshal himself—he had to defeat the Marshal, defeat his superior and his teacher.

They were above Capital Star. Both sides were deliberately restraining the spread of their energy, limiting the battle to the space between them, but even the residual shockwaves still affected vast stretches of buildings below.

If this continued, perhaps the ecosystem of the entire planet would be destroyed.

Ulysses saw the devastation below.

Helios saw it too, and anxiety inevitably rose in his heart.

Although large numbers of civilians had already been evacuated in advance, no one could feel good watching the place they had sworn to protect being destroyed like this.

This had once been the most prosperous Capital Star of the Zerg race, the center of its economy and politics, home to countless crystallizations of wisdom and civilization.

Now, it was riddled with devastation.

Ulysses beat his partially insectized dark wings and hovered high in the sky. Chaotic, immensely powerful energy swirled around his body, while the light in his eyes flickered erratically.

Helios sensed that the energy surrounding the Marshal had grown even more chaotic and violent, and his heart tightened.

That was a bad sign.

Everyone knew just how difficult a Female Zerg in a psychic frenzy was to deal with. Not only would he lose all reason and become terrifyingly aggressive, but more importantly, if the situation was handled incorrectly, there was always the possibility that his Zerg core might self-destruct.

The Marshal’s mental state had long since approached its limit. The fact that he had managed to hold on until now without completely losing control was already a miracle.

His willpower was so strong that it inspired awe.

But what if...

What if he completely lost control?

Helios did not dare imagine what kind of situation they would face.

If the Marshal’s energy ran out of control, or if his Zerg core self-destructed, then it would not merely be Capital Star that was destroyed.

The entire star system containing Capital Star would be annihilated, and the residual waves of energy would affect the surrounding star systems as well.

Countless Zergs would die.

Countless lives would be plunged into catastrophe.

Helios swallowed. His mouth was dry, and he could feel the crushing weight of responsibility and pressure bearing down on his shoulders.

He could not allow that to happen.

But could he truly stop it?

Phoenix’s psychic power continued flowing into his mind, giving him calm, steady comfort and support.

Helios tightened his grip on the control lever.

No matter what happened, he had to stop all of this.

Helios stared resolutely ahead, only to see that at the heart of the energy storm, Marshal Ulysses seemed to cast one distant glance at him.

A spatial wormhole opened behind Ulysses.

Helios realized what was happening.

Before he could stop him, he saw the Marshal step into the spatial wormhole and leave without looking back.

The wormhole closed.

The violent energy lingering around them gradually dissipated with the departure of its source.

This great battle had begun suddenly, and it ended just as abruptly, without any proper conclusion.

Phoenix’s urgent voice came through the earpiece. He was ordering Zergs to search for and locate Ulysses, while chaotic background noise made the panic of everyone present obvious.

Helios knew what they were afraid of.

In Ulysses’ current state, no matter where he appeared, he would bring devastating disaster to the area.

They were afraid Ulysses would bypass them and go destroy other Zerg planets.

Yet for some inexplicable reason, Helios felt that the Marshal would not do that.

He remembered the Marshal’s final glance.

That complicated look had seemed like a farewell, yet also like an entrustment.

There had still been reluctance to part with the Zerg race and with this country in his gaze.

But in the end, he had walked into that wormhole without looking back.

Helios did not know where the wormhole led, but he vaguely understood what the Marshal intended to do.

The Marshal had led the Zerg race in his own way, and he had protected it in his own way.

Even though his methods had grown increasingly extreme toward the end, his original desire to protect the Zerg race had never changed.

He would never want to destroy the country and race he had spent his entire life protecting.

If one day he himself became the source of danger that might destroy the Zerg race, then he would only...

Destroy himself first.

Helios heard the heavy pounding of his own heart beneath his chest, accompanied by an indescribable sense of dread.

He piloted his mech out of Capital Star and went in search of the Marshal’s trail.

Even if what awaited him at the end might be destruction and radiance like the explosion of a supernova.

...

The first thought An Ruo had upon realizing that he had arrived near the later part of the original story was that he had to save Ulysses from the protagonist.

But by the time he rushed desperately to Capital Star, what awaited him was already the final battle between the protagonist and Ulysses.

Capital Star had been sealed off, and he had no way whatsoever to approach the two Zergs in the middle of their battle. He was frantic with anxiety.

By the time he finally thought of secretly slipping over using his psychic power, he saw Ulysses turn and walk into a spatial wormhole.

“?!!!”

He knew what that meant.

He also knew what Ulysses intended to do.

He hurriedly chased after him.

At that moment, his psychic power completely shed the form of a physical body and transformed into a psychic storm, hurtling toward Ulysses at a speed surpassing anything known in the universe.

He knew where Ulysses would go.

Driven by the last remnants of his consciousness, he would head into the uninhabited depths of space, far away from the Zerg race, and ultimately destroy himself.

The energy storm caused by the self-destruction of his Zerg core would illuminate the entire star system he was in.

The light would continue for months or even years before gradually weakening, fading away, and finally returning to silence.

An Ruo saw the dazzling eruption of light and heat.

A psychic body clearly had no tears, nor could it be affected by blinding light, yet An Ruo still felt as though something had blurred his “vision.”

Without the slightest obstruction, he passed straight through all that light and radiance and plunged toward the heart of the energy storm.

He saved Ulysses.

An Ruo himself did not know whether he had saved Ulysses before he had managed to self-destruct, or whether he had gathered together a Ulysses who had already shattered into billions upon billions of fragments of energy and pieced him back together again.

In any case, when Ulysses’ body fell into the embrace formed by An Ruo’s supporting psychic power, that complete, warm, breathing body filled him with overwhelming relief and gratitude.

It felt like surviving a catastrophe.

With his psychic power, he gently wrapped around Ulysses, who looked as though he were merely sleeping.

He was going to take him away.

He was going to hide him.

Marshal Ulysses was already dead.

The current Ulysses could not conveniently appear before other Zergs.

So An Ruo could take him away and hide him in his little nest.