Chapter 48 : Show of Force "%€ ù§%#é$#é£ §%€..." "Do you think you can translate what this guy is saying ?" [Well... I can try, but it might take some time...] The humanoid Alice caught was speaking in a totally unknown language, we had no idea what he was talking about. He seemed scared and wary of us, but I didn't sense any hostility so I just ignored him for the time being. "Just do so. Now that we confirmed intelligent humanoids species are living on this planet, we have to find a way to communicate with them as soon as possible." [The language issue won't be solved before the unknown forces Douglas detected arrive at the ship though... Even with my calculation capabilities, I still need some time to interpret and translate an entire language from scratch.] "Yeah, I know... For now, just try your best. Even understanding a few words here and there would be enough. I will deal with the natives myself." This fellow could be pleading for his life or cursing our ancestors that we wouldn't know. For now, we should head back to the flagship and prepare for the other humanoids' arrival. "Alice, let's go." "Yes." I was still feeling uneasy about meeting and confronting a Scylla the moment we crashed on an unknown planet, but for some reason, I was calmer than expected. I didn't know if this was because of this Scylla behavior that was much friendlier than what we were used to, or if it was due to the confirmation that it was alone. I can't imagine what would have happened if this planet was inhabited by more than one Scyllas, especially if they were all in their original form. Our previous fight reminded me that no matter where we are, we will always meet stronger existences. This rule had been etched in my mind from the first day I awoke within the Scylla mother-ship, and today's battle once again proved that I was correct. "Leader, unknown presences following us." "I know. Keep the captured humanoid close to you, I will deal with them myself if they try anything." When we were about half the distance from the ship, we detected two unknown beings following us from behind. Thanks to my improved vision and the mini-map in my HUD, I could keep an eye on them without having to look at them. I felt a weak ill intent from them, but they didn't seem powerful enough to be a danger to Alice and me. The reason why I didn't preemptively reduce them to dust like I always do when facing a threat was only because they seemed acquainted with the humanoid we kept prisoner. If we plan to communicate with the natives, I shouldn't be the one pulling the trigger first. I accepted their presence to some extent since I suspected it was due to the capture of their friend that they were following us while unconsciously releasing ill intent toward Alice and me. After walking at a steady pace for long minutes through the dense vegetation, we could finally see the battle-drones patrolling the defense perimeter around the lake. "Let the two beings fifty meters behind us pass through if they keep following." When I reached the drones, I didn't forget to warn them about our two little followers. It would be unlucky for these two fellows to get pulverized by the drones only because they cared about their friend we captured. 'Master.' Before I could enter the ship's remains, Alpha Zero appeared out of nowhere in front of us. "Report the situation." 'Two. Small. Sized. Armed. Group. Are. Heading. Toward. Our. Position, A. Third. And. Bigger. Group. Is. Entering. The. Forest.' "Are there different factions among the natives of this region ?" 'It. Seems. So.' "What about their numbers ?" 'The. Two. Groups. Closest. To. Us. Are. Around. A. Hundred. Each, The. Third. Group. Invading. The. Forest. Is. A. Ten. Of. Thousands. Strong. Army.' "Armaments ?" 'Primitive. But. I. Noticed. Many. Unknown. Devices. And. Materials.' "I see... Go spy on the third group, they seem hostile and I do not want to face thousands of them when we have no intel about their combat capabilities. You have permission to silently abduct a few of them in order to obtain information through mind control, so be sure you know what their objectives for invading the forest are this time. Report to me once you are done." 'Yes. Master.' The reapers have the ability to extract memories from weaker souls than their own, which makes them ideal for these kinds of covert ops missions. Their skill isn't as efficient as the Scyllas' mind control and it's only temporary, but if those invading the forest are the same species as the humanoid we just captured then Alpha Zero is powerful enough to get what he wants from their mind. "Gladia, lock a proton warhead onto each of the two group coming our way, and one more onto the third group location. Be ready to launch the missiles when I give you the order." [Are you sure about it? We only have five proton warhead remaining, I don't believe using three of them so soon is a good idea. Especially since the destruction they would cause would devastate a large portion of the forest, it may attract the attention of stronger indigenous species.] "What other options do we have ? If my guess is right, the third faction is most likely invading the territory of the two other groups." [Then why don't you side with the most powerful faction instead of preparing to fight all of them ?] "Because we don't have enough intel about these natives. Until Alpha Zero comes back, do as I say." [Yes.] "What about the language translation ?" [9% completed. I already updated your synaptic circuits, so you can understand about a word out of ten.] "Keep working on it, I'll tell Alice to bring the prisoner inside an isolation cell so you can study him. Do as many experiments as you want if it speeds up your progress in interpreting their language, as long as you do not make him suffer." [Yes.] When I arrived at the flagship, I was welcomed by Douglas who jumped to the ground from the top of the destroyed upper deck escorted by two elite-drones. He didn't do a single noise when his feet landed on the ground, which surprised the prisoner behind me. "Leader... there is a problem." "Speak." "This planet is empty of Singularity energy. When we fought against the Scylla, I had to muster all the energy I could feel just to fire a single shot." "Yeah, I also noticed how hard it was to use the Singularity energy when I used【Dark Explosion】..." "Leader, look at this." Douglas raised his rifle and prepared one of his skill. Small bubbles of dark-purple energy floated over his hands and hovered above his rifle for a few seconds, before everything suddenly stopped. The Singularity energy particles got dispersed and disappeared in the air, and the black matter on his arm withered to reveal his naked skin. "Our black matter needs Singularity energy to function properly, and there is barely enough on this planet to even keep our【Dark Armor】active. This might be a serious issue later on when we exhaust our reserves of Singularity energy." "Indeed... From now on, try to not overuse it. Prioritize the little energy particles still present in the air over your reserves and pass the message to Kat and Jerome. If my guess is not wrong, this problem might be related to the disappearance of the Singularity dimension after the rift collapsed." "Yes, Leader. Also..." Douglas nodded, then looked at the prisoner behind Alice. "Speak." "The two groups I detected halted their advancement toward us. Instead, they sent out a dozen of their people to scout the lake and they might reach us faster than expected. They will arrive in less than ten minutes." "I see... give me their locations and prepare for a hostile encounter, I'll meet them halfway. Activate code 2 protocol." "Roger." I wanted to check the condition of the Lance of Kar'goth after crashing so violently, but now it will have to wait until I figure out what these natives' intentions are. In normal circumstances, after crashing into unknown and undiscovered territory such as this planet, we should have brought whatever we could from the flagship and evacuated the area as soon as possible. However, I refuse to let the Lance of Kar'goth wreckage behind especially if this forest is populated with an intelligent species. They could dismantle the ship and steal our technology ; if they happen to be hostile, it would represent a risk far too great to be taken. I don't want to let them scavenge our ship and use the ancient technology it contains against us. "Alice, bring the captured humanoid into an isolation cell so Gladia can study it. After you're done, join Katarina's quarters to get some rest." "Yes, Leader." "Douglas, send me the scouts coordinates and be sure to keep the area safe until I come back." "Roger." Once everything was settled up with the squad, I engulfed myself in the forest again but this time in the opposite direction of where we first explored. I carefully examined the living-beings signatures Douglas sent me and I added them to my HUD mini-map so I could track them. It has now been more than an hour since we landed, and the anxiety I had to bear lessened when I realized it. I remember how hellish was the first hour when we got deployed to Kar'goth ; in comparison, this planet was a paradise. If I do not count the unknown Scylla appearance, this forest seems to be populated by both lowly life-forms like the ant we previously encountered and intellectual humanoids like the one we captured. If I could communicate with the latter, we wouldn't have to battle them. ___ I sprinted as fast as I could through the thick vegetation shattering everything in my path, whether it was the branches or the rocks scattered around. After a few minutes, I got close enough to the targets to have them on visual. I did not plan to act furtively ; the events on the mega-structure taught me how bad I was at hiding myself. Alice and Alpha Zero were far better for this kind of mission than I was. Still, out of precaution, I activated the【Dark Veil】skill I learned from Alice when we were on Kar'goth. I stopped running and cautiously observed them from afar, hidden behind a tree. I could see they were wearing two different kinds of outfits. The first group looked the same as the humanoid we captured. They were tall and slender, had pointy ears, pale skin, and piercing eyes that glowed in the dark. They were dressed in leather clothes, had a bow tied behind their back, and curved blades made of an unknown metal were hanging on their hips. Just behind them was the second group. These ones were a bit shorter, but seemed bulkier and more muscular. They were all clad in heavy armor, and they had a finely crafted longsword in hand. Different patterns were engraved on their chest, and the one leading them had a golden armor with lion heads sculpted on his shoulder plates. They reminded me of the Templar and Paladin clones the Scyllas designed to enter the Singularity dimension. When I saw them, a blurry memory of my previous life passed through my mind and I couldn't help but mutter a word under my helmet : 'Knights'. After observing them for a little longer, I decided to initiate the first contact. From what I've seen, none of them were able to detect me under my【Dark Veil】even though I was standing just a dozen meters from them. "Identify yourselves." I slowly emerged from the darkness of my camouflage, before speaking loudly enough so they could hear me. "???" The moment I revealed myself in front of them, they were all startled and both groups took a fighting formation, facing me with the tip of their blades. I expected as much, so I wasn't really bothered by their hostile reaction. What surprised me, however, is how the golden knight leading the second group started to glow when he unsheathed his sword. 'What the hell is this ?...' I detected strange energy fluctuations all around his body, yet my sensors couldn't scan them. "§é$#...are...§%€ ?" While I was trying to analyze the strange aura surrounding this golden knight, he asked me a question with his sharp sword pointed at me. This time, I could understand a few words thanks to the translation of Gladia. 'Should I call her Gladia-Translator from now on ?' [Did you forget that I can hear your thoughts ?] 'Ahah, sorry.' The translation wasn't advanced enough to have a proper conversation with these natives, but it was better than nothing. I could guess they asked me who I was. "I am the Void Rifter B213-84, but you can call me Jun-Yeob. What about you ?" "§é$ #§%€ é$ù#§% !!" This time I couldn't understand a single word, but from how loud he yelled at me, they were also unable to understand me. They seemed panicked by my sudden appearance out of nowhere. Since I couldn't communicate with words, I decided to take a different approach. I took a few steps forward before coming to a halt only a few meters away from them, before they felt threatened enough to attack me. I then raised my right hand, and displayed a hologram big enough for all of them to see. "Gladia, show them our ship falling and crashing into their planet. Use images simple enough for even a kid to understand." [Yes.] After Gladia pictured what happened to us in a few images, they all vividly reacted. I couldn't see the knights' expressions under their helmets, however, I could see the people from the first group had a look of disbelief after watching the hologram. Before I try to explain myself, one of the tall guys with pointy ears from the first group talked to the golden knight from the second group in a panic. They were arguing about something I couldn't decipher. I patiently waited for them to finish, until the golden knight nodded at the first guy and lowered his weapon. The weird aura surrounding him also faded away, which frustrated me as I still couldn't analyze the source of energy from within him. I thought these intelligent beings were weak compared to us, but it seems that some of them harbor an unknown power that even Gladia and the advanced sensors of my【Dark Visor】can not detect. I have to be careful. "§é$ #§% ...follow... %€ ?" "You want me to follow you ?" I creased my brows under my helmet when I heard this. If I want to make a good impression and appear friendly toward them, following them without making a fuss would be the best course of action. However, I felt uneasy after the golden knight used this strange energy. It was something to be careful of, and I refuse to blindly follow someone using unknown energy I can not detect nor analyze. If I follow them to their camp, who knows how many of them could wield this unknown energy ? What if this was a trap ? "If you want me to follow you, I'll need some insurance." Even If I knew they couldn't understand me, I still talked before acting so they will not freak out too much. I released my Red Mist at its full power, and started gathering Void energy in my left arm. The red lines pumping my blood appeared all over my【Dark Armor】and glowed in a crimson shade, before slowly expelling a thick red smoke buffing all my stats. Meanwhile, my left arm exerted a dangerous aura all over the place. Purple particles of Void energy floated and hovered around my arm until I gathered enough of them in case something went wrong. Fortunately, there was an abundant amount of Void energy in this world. Despite the Singularity energy being scarce, I could largely compensate for it with Void energy. I also enhanced my【Dark Visor】with Void energy, and the usually simple dark glass of my helmet transformed until resembling the beautiful starry sky we could see in high orbit, tainted in a dark and blueish-purple tone. It looked as if a colorful nebula was condensed into my visor and my hidden face behind the glass was a gate to outer space. From their point of view, I was probably looking like a monster with the shape of a human. I did not enhance my【Dark Visor】very often, but since these natives were using an unknown energy I could not detect, I needed my sensory system at its maximum. As expected, after my show of power, they all lifted their weapons again and nervously prepared for combat. Yet, I didn't move. I just randomly pointed at two of their people, one from the first group and one from the second group. 'Gladia, could you teleport these two to isolation cells ?' [Yes, but the ship's core is offline so we do not have a lot of energy to spare. Please be mindful of this, unless you want to plug back the core.] 'Yes, don't worry. This is just an insurance for my safety. I might be able to overpower these two groups, but I do not know what is this weird aura the golden knight used and I do not want to risk antagonizing an enemy I have no intel about. If two of their comrades are in our hands, they will think twice before being hostile to me.' [sigh... Alright, just be careful.] The two people I pointed to with my finger disappeared in a flash of light, to the utmost surprise of their comrades. "If you try anything funny..." Before they could understand what happened and attack me in response to the disappearance of these two soldiers, I suppressed them with the aura of my【Red Mist】at its full power. While all the other natives present were crouching under the pressure and had trouble breathing, the knight leading them was radiating his golden aura to resist the pressure of my【Red Mist】. Yet, even he was affected by my skill and I could hear him panting heavily under his helmet. When his hands holding his sword were shaking and his blood was about to burst out of his veins, I decided that this was enough for a warning. I approached the golden knight and released my【Red Mist】to let them move, before adding. "Lead the way." Once I set them free, the sweating golden knight was smart enough to understand the clear intention of this sudden show of force : I meant no harm, but I would not hesitate to slaughter all of them if they are hostile. "...follow... #é." He briefly said while struggling to stand up, before leading me to their camp further into the forest.