Brilliant, colorful light bloomed within those mirror-like gray eyes, like countless different flames mixed together and burning fiercely.
No matter how mixed or chaotic the powers were, under his control they became perfectly unified, turning into the most original and pure form of power.
From the pitch-black, heavy blade, an invisible and pure sword aura suddenly shot out, splitting the pyrolysis death beam in half and destroying it completely.
Facing the Swarm King's terrifying attack, the young man only made one simple move. As if he had merely split apart the waves in the air with the most basic strength, he completely destroyed the quantum beam that could have torn apart countless celestial bodies.
The sword aura continued forward. The Swarm King tried to dodge, but one of its remaining antennae was still cut off.
The sound of its wings became restless. Vast energy gathered once more inside the Royal Jaw, and one Swarm King Cannon after another blasted out.
The pure energy shells, formed by compressed quantum energy, carried terrifying power. They destroyed the walls and machinery throughout the containment section, and their firing speed was extremely fast.
For a moment, Nero seemed to have fallen into the middle of an indiscriminate bombardment.
But amid the destruction caused by the Swarm King Cannons, the white-haired boy swung his greatsword and leaped high into the air. Now that the distance was right, it was naturally time for everyone's favorite part.
No creature that had ever fought Nero had been able to ignore this simple yet powerful move...
'A jumping overhead slash!'
In that instant, the Swarm King panicked.
The boy falling from above and the black blade suddenly became terrifying. It was as if endless terror poured from them, and the sword seemed dozens, even hundreds of times larger than itself.
It frantically fired Swarm King Cannons, but not a single shot hit the danger that had driven every instinct in its body into full warning.
By the time the heavy blade came down on its head, the force field shield spread by the Disaster-Breeding Armor shattered instantly, and its hard shell proved as fragile as pottery.
The blade cut into flesh. The giant bug let out a miserable cry. Skaracabaz desperately beat its wings, but it could not stop its defeat. Like a torn paper kite, it fell to the ground through the blood spilling from its body.
Did the copied Swarm King have memories?
Did it have its own will and thoughts?
No one knew.
But regardless, during that attack, it felt as though a huge, heavy planet had smashed its head apart.
After landing, Nero immediately looked up.
In battle, you should never let your enemy disappear from your sight.
Amid the insect blood and broken shell fragments scattered everywhere, among the severed antennae and mangled flesh, the Shattered Star Swarm King struggled back to its feet. It could barely stand.
Even flapping its wings with all its strength only let it hover less than ten meters above the ground, swaying unsteadily.
Driven into a corner, the Swarm King raised its head, opened its giant jaws, gathered enormous energy, and released it.
This was its final attack.
Its last struggle before death.
A spherical force field formed before it. A point of gravity spun at its center. The light gradually dimmed, stars turned into dust, and it seemed as though all living things were being twisted toward that tiny point.
Its dying body was like the last bit of a candle.
Yet that final, crumbling flame shone so brightly it was impossible to look at directly.
The Swarm King cast down that tiny light that could destroy the world.
'Collapsed Star Egg!'
The energy turned violent, blowing everything around it away. Powerful shockwaves rolled outward, shaking everything in their path.
Enormous pressure descended from the Egg, nearly crushing everything into powder.
A lightless point like a black hole shone inside it, as though all matter would collapse into its depths.
Nero looked up at the Collapsed Star Egg. His snow-white long hair whipped wildly in the raging wind. The colorful flames burned even brighter within his emotionless eyes as he tightened his grip on the sword.
The next moment, he swung the greatsword with both hands and smacked the Collapsed Star Egg.
A flash of colorful light burst out.
The Collapsed Star Egg was actually knocked straight back by Nero.
Then Nero slowly raised the sword in his hand. A terrifying aura rose from the young man, and an overwhelming presence that seemed capable of destroying everything surged through the blade.
The rebounded Collapsed Star Egg slammed into the Swarm King. The enormous insect let out a scream, but in the next instant the Egg shattered. Countless fragments were pulled toward the sword and were completely absorbed into it.
At that moment, the Swarm King was briefly dazed.
The next instant, it felt a familiar gravitational force pulling at it, as though it were the core of the Collapsed Star Egg.
Its body flew toward the young man against its own will.
As the young man swung his sword down, the Swarm King realized that the world before its eyes had begun to sway, tilting in two different directions.
It saw its shell shatter, insect blood pouring everywhere. Then, as its broken body hit the ground, it noticed the other half of its own body.
Only then did it realize...
That one slash had cut it cleanly in half.
As its chirping grew fainter and the sound of its wings gradually weakened, the copied Swarm King's life slowly faded away.
Above, Professor Ratio stood where he and Stelle had previously overlooked the massive breeding facility.
Beneath the plaster head, he frowned, his eyes fixed through the glass on the white-haired boy, whose clothes remained spotless, just as neat as they had been before the battle.
He clearly remembered the description in Ruan Mei's experiment records.
"After 56 seconds, it could no longer maintain its own existence and completely vanished, as if it had never been born."
But now...
"Thirty-six seconds... Is the gap between Ruan Mei's creation and the original Swarm King simply too great? Or is the gap between a fragment of an Aeon and an Emanator simply too great? Or perhaps... both."
Professor Ratio raised a hand and gently stroked the chin of the plaster head, muttering to himself before turning to leave.
"Forget it... The threat has been eliminated. There's no need to stay here."
Nero carried Black Cleaver back to Stelle's side and wiped sweat from his forehead that didn't actually exist.
"As expected of a copied Emanator. That last move was really impressive."
"But raising something like that inside the space station... it's like she never cared about the lives of the other researchers at all. I really don't like her."
Stelle nodded.
She felt almost the same way about Ruan Mei as Nero did.
The two of them then left and found Ruan Mei again.
The meeting of the geniuses seemed to have ended, and the genius was once again standing by the platform, looking at the scenery.
Ruan Mei noticed the dislike on Nero's and Stelle's faces, but she simply said calmly, "I'm sorry. I have nothing to defend myself with."
"Up until today, my experiments have failed countless times, and the outcomes have always been within my expectations."
"I created a copy, but the distance between it and that Emanator... was still impossibly great."
Ruan Mei's apology came quickly and calmly. That ordinary attitude instead made it somewhat frightening.
Her behavior was exactly as Nero had expected.
Every genius had a different personality.
For Ruan Mei, what happened during the process of reaching a result, and what she herself had to do, did not really matter. She did not value those things very much.
It was as though...
She wasn't communicating with a person.
She was communicating with the person in her calculations.
She knew what reaction you would have if she made a certain move.
After that, Ruan Mei talked with the two of them about a few other things.
When she learned that the Swarm King had been killed in just thirty-six seconds, she seemed unexpectedly more excited.
Compared to everything unfolding exactly according to the calculations in her mind, she seemed to like unexpected outcomes much more.