Chapter 86: Seiko

Chapter 86: Seiko

The surroundings transformed in an instant. The shattered walls of the military prison's corridor, damaged in battle, suddenly restored themselves, but the narrow passage became the square-shaped cells of the military prison.

In the center of the room, a fine mesh of metal bars had been erected, enclosing a cluster of vivid red ice butterfly spirit energy.

Seiko: "…"

This was a use of spatial folding technology that it had never imagined.

During spatial folding, the energy field around it shifted, causing the original wormhole to twist and be forcibly interrupted. Seiko, still on the military prison side, hadn't managed to escape towards the Ice Butterfly Star Region in time and was trapped within the folded military prison scene.

Rong Mi, standing outside the mesh fence, tilted his head slightly.

"You've never used it on ice butterflies before because you usually create large wormholes. With such a vast area, it takes longer to stabilize a spatial fold, making it less practical," the young man explained kindly. "But this time is different."

"The military prison already has energy limiters, and there's also a spatial stabilizer outside. You've expended too much energy just now, so the wormhole's range has significantly shrunk, and its connection is unstable, almost severed."

"How does it feel, after all that effort, to end up back in a military prison cell? Quite satisfying, isn't it?"

Seiko: "..."

The crimson ice butterfly energy threads hit the ground and transformed back into Seiko's human form. Its self-repair ability was clearly functioning at a sluggish pace.

On its head, the gash that Rong Mi had sliced from its forehead to its nose was still visible, blood oozing out from it. Both its hands were severed, and numerous wounds adorned its chest and abdomen, the marks of the Silver Wolves' assault.

Nonetheless, none of these injuries were fatal to the ice butterfly.

It sighed, expressing its frustration, "I didn't expect this."

"No wonder Father always says that the intelligence of ice butterflies falls short of humans."

"Ao." Behind Rong Mi, the large silver wolf bowed its head and grabbed Rong Mi's sleeve, pulling him backward, signaling him not to waste his time with Seiko.

The young man's wounds remained untreated, and the skin that had come into contact with the ice butterfly's mental power needed immediate disinfection and bandaging. He also needed to consume the ice butterfly antidote.

Rong Mi caught a glimpse of the gray mecha standing outside the prison cell with him. He allowed the wolf to tug on him but remained still, fixing his gaze back on Seiko.

"Your mental energy has hypnotic qualities," Rong Mi looked directly at Seiko. "But other butterflies apart from being able to open spatial wormholes, don't possess any unique mental abilities."

"In contrast, the range of your spatial wormholes is limited, and your self-recovery isn't as swift as other Ice Butterflies. Your mental strength is also inferior to that of other varieties."

"You seem to favor your human form quite a bit."

Whether it was the Arachne Rong Mi had encountered in her previous life, those she met during the battle in Space City, or even the fully-transformed Cecil, they all tended to revert to their original forms after being injured.

Seiko's behavior was distinctively different.

"You want to know why I'm different," Seiko observed the prison bars around them, confirming that it lacked the strength to break through the folded space and open another wormhole to escape. Eventually, it resigned itself to the situation and sat down on a chair in the corner of the cell.

"Because I possess human genes," Seiko answered unexpectedly, cooperating with the question.

Rong Mi was slightly taken aback, then heard it continue, "A portion of my genes comes from Kane, the source of my hypnotic power. Have you perhaps heard of him?"

"He's... somewhat well-known in the human military, I suppose."

Rong Mi: "..."

The young man had heard this name from Chen Mo and Lu Yi before.

The former commander of the Tenth Legion had also shown signs of a second awakening. He was highly regarded due to his exceptionally unique hypnotic abilities.

However, before he could truly begin his second awakening, he fell into an icy butterfly ambush during a battle and ultimately sacrificed himself to cover the main ship's escape.

"He perished on the battlefield," said a voice devoid of any distinctiveness, emanating from the gray military-standard mecha behind Rong Mi.

Rong Mi glanced at the mecha without revealing any emotions.

Though the speaker's voice could be altered, the pilot's enunciation habits and tone were eerily familiar.

With a neutral tone, he stated, "General Kane and Colonel Adeline's mecha signals have vanished, and their mental energy has dissipated."

It had been a joint operation between the First and Tenth Legions. As a newly-joined mecha pilot of the First Legion, Lu Yi had also been aboard that main ship.

The battle had been perilous, with reinforcements arriving late. After receiving backup, they returned to the battlefield hours later, driving away the icy butterflies and searching for remains. They found numerous mecha parts and floating human flesh. Among them were remnants belonging to Kane and Adeline.

"Both mechas self-destructed... but one failed to do so," Seiko murmured. "From what I understand in your human terms, perhaps it's because a mother always wants to protect her child?"

Seiko's voice echoed through the mecha's voice recorder and into the intra-mecha communicator, eventually reaching Zhang Lingyu's communication bracelet.

The Supreme Commander's expression was cold as he unconsciously clenched his fists.

"She had just found out she was pregnant and hadn't had the chance to tell anyone. Her husband didn't know, and neither did the Human Military," Seiko continued. "My mother… an underbutterfly, took her as spoils of war back to the star domain. She dragged her out of the cockpit, entered her body, absorbed her energy, digested her flesh..."

"Every part of her body, except for her child."

"Perhaps it was because my mother's will to protect her child was strong." It smiled casually, with a hint of complexity hidden deep in its eyes. "That's why she kept the two- or three-month-old embryo within her, hiding it from all the ice butterflies, keeping it from becoming their food, even providing nutrients for it until it was finally born."

"My genes… that child's genes, merged with my mother's during those months." Seiko raised its palm. "I was born in human form, nearly being killed by other ice butterflies."

"Then, I became an underbutterfly."

In that moment of life and death, its originally colorless and transparent spirit threads rapidly turned crimson, outlining the silhouette of wings behind the infant, fluttering in the air.

Releasing its underbutterfly domain, the surrounding low-level ice butterflies folded their wings and perched on the ice. The buzzing ceased, silence indicating submission.

"I inherited part of their genes… part of their spiritual power abilities, their human traits. In turn, my ice butterfly abilities were weakened."

An immature, thoughtless, and militarily insignificant Subbutterfly... an entity never before seen within the Ice Butterfly species.

The original Subbutterfly leader of the group, Cecil, who later evolved into a full-fledged Butterfly, had expelled it from their clan but also realized the potential for human and Ice Butterfly genes to eventually merge.

"Frankly, I quite like the human star domains," Seiko said. "You have your own set of behavioral rules."

"The world of Ice Butterflies adheres almost ruthlessly to the law of the jungle. Back then, I couldn't defeat Cecil, so I had to leave. My mother and I moved between many clans. When I was young, I endured quite a bit of bullying there."

"So Cecil hopes to find a way for humans and Ice Butterflies to coexist outside of war, and I'm more than willing to lend a hand."

"You humans seem to always doubt that we can reproduce and develop together. We don't merely view you as a source of sustenance."

"I genuinely hope that the human military and higher-ups can change their perspective and sincerely negotiate with the Ice Butterflies... Ah!"

Rong Mi couldn't bear to listen any longer. He raised his still-bleeding palm.

A gust of warm wind blew, and purple flames shot out from his fingertips, striking Cecil's head and searing inward through the cracks in its forehead.

"Ahh... Aaaah... Buzz... ——"

"Inflame yourself to cool down." Rong Mi spoke coldly amidst Seiko's wails.

The gray mecha behind him simultaneously stepped forward, its mechanical arm reaching into the cage and clasping Seiko's burning head with its fingers.

With a soft thud, Seiko's still-burning head was ripped off.

Blood splattered, and the gray mecha sidestepped in front of Rong Mi, shielding him from the spray. Seiko's body fell, convulsing as icy-blue spirit threads emerged from the wound.

"Ice Butterflies don't die from losing their heads," Rong Mi said to the body. "But we'll take your genes and spirit domain for study first."

Behind them, more military mechas entered the folded space, led by a dark blue one that strode forward to stand before Seiko.

"Humanity and Ice Butterflies can never coexist peacefully," Zhang Lingyu's voice echoed from within the mecha.

The military mecha pilots affixed a spirit lock on Seiko and set up a second layer of spatial folding to prevent his escape.

"We cannot accept... Adeline's sacrifice, Kate's sacrifice, the sacrifice of their child, and countless human warriors... only to achieve this so-called symbiosis with the Ice Butterflies,"

Rong Mi's lips curled, his mind involuntarily filled with images of starships from the Interstellar Nomadic Era, and the unending dangers and battles that came with it.

The military personnel were still dealing with the aftermath, but his part was done.

There was no intense anger in him towards the one who had spoken of symbiosis, an Ice Butterfly, only a sense of absurdity.

The Silver Wolves gently tugged at his sleeve, urging him to tend to his wounds. Rong Mi finally yielded to Ayin's pull and turned around. The gray mecha placed the Ice Butterfly's head into a spatial pendant, handing it over to the team in charge, then gestured outward, indicating that the spatial fold exit was nearby.

But the young man didn't leave immediately. Instead, he approached the mecha.

This was an engineering-type mecha, designed specifically for installing facilities in tight spaces.

Its combat capabilities were not high. Though Rong Mi instantly understood upon seeing this mecha that the military intended to interrupt Seiko's spatial wormhole, preventing their assault and escape, he found their consideration rather inconceivable.

The risk was high, requiring coordination between Rong Mi and Ayin, as well as the mecha pilot's ability to judge the battlefield and possess formidable combat strength for emergencies.

Otherwise, the likelihood of failure was alarmingly high.

Not to mention... Lu Yi still wore the mental energy necklace that he had hung around the General's neck when they first arrived on the capital planet.

Just as Lu Yi wouldn't usually establish a telepathic connection with wolves, Rong Mi also refrained from actively sensing Lu Yi's location. But in necessary situations... he would still check.

So, before the mecha pilot spoke, Rong Mi had already confirmed his identity.

The young man suspected that Lu Yi had forgotten about the incident. Otherwise... how could the General have dared to appear so openly before him!

He stood beside the mecha and knocked on its metal chest.

"Lu Yi?" Rong Mi sneered. "Come out and let me see if you're adequately prepared."

"Were you planning to take advantage of the time while I'm receiving treatment and leave first?"

"...You deliberately came here to provoke me, didn't you!"