World Keeper

Chapter 1137: The Swarm That Is Approaching

On the third day of the invasion, Pierce left Olympus. Although it had been incredibly helpful to utilize his gifts in order to obtain information ahead of time, there were clear limits. The amount of divinity he needed to constantly peer through the lines of fate as he had been doing was too much, and we had begun to compensate him with divine coins from Olympus’s vault. Additionally, the amount of information that he had been able to provide was showing a stark decline after the first day.

The fact that the enemy monsters don’t follow any sort of logical process to decide where they want to attack meant that we were only able to get warnings at the last minute, barely enough time to organize a defense. There had been a similar case even when the Origin of Fate herself was involved, leading to the dispatch of Priscilla against the swarm.

Ultimately, that was what it boiled down to. The enemy wasn’t actively choosing where to attack based on any criteria, and that created far more uncertainty in the future. It was no longer feasible to employ Pierce’s talents in this battle.

That said, we were able to learn a lot from him before he left. Thanks to his help, we were able to identify numerous monsters with dangerous abilities, and prepare our defenses against them. Thus, before he left, we made sure to compensate him heavily for the help that he gave us, as he did not wish for his contributions to be made public knowledge.

Sadly, there were still more problems left to face. With the knowledge that Pierce gave us, we were able to learn more about the swarms spreading throughout Deckan and the new Metong homeworld. These swarms were differentiated based on how their threat level escalated.

The swarm type that Priscilla fought was dangerous, for sure, but only risks becoming a universal threat after devouring a god. On the other hand, the swarm invading the Metong homeworld will gradually get stronger over time as they gain new adaptations.

Neither of these were what I was worried about for the immediate future, because there was still one swarm that posed a very real, immediate threat. The final swarm, which devoured metals to reproduce, would normally be the least threatening of the three. After all, although it can replicate without slaughtering planets or gain the power of gods, the individual strength of such a swarm was usually predetermined.

The problem here was the fact that this swarm happened to be located in Deckan. This gave them immediate access to an incredibly powerful metal, Dimensium. At this point in time, it was only reasonable to assume that the swarm had begun devouring entire planets, and thus gained access to this material which was native to that universe.

As soon as I realized this, I racked my brain to try to figure out what abilities the swarm might receive from devouring Dimensium, but Pierce was the one that ultimately answered that question. He warned us of a mass outbreak from Deckan, where billions of metallic creatures flooded into the void all at once, and escaped to other universes.

Lena and Dana were good, but they had proven unable to stop every member of that swarm before they could reach their destination. Their visions had been completely obscured by the cloud of small creatures, but it was believed that some of them had already escaped to every dimension.

Now, because of the fact that these monsters were formed from Dimensium, Pierce informed us that they had the ability to transport their units between universes, without physically appearing in the void. For the moment, this was limited to just members of that same swarm, as the monsters in this invasion did not appear to hold allegiance to one another.

Regardless, the fact remained that every universe was now occupied by this swarm, making it the largest, most immediate threat. I didn’t know how I was going to combat these monsters, and Chelsea didn’t leave any notes regarding an enemy of this type.

When I spoke with James, he told me of three possibilities. The first was that each member of the swarm had its own unique mind, but operated according to a firm loyalty to the hive. This would make it so that there were no tangible connections that could be used to attack the main body of the swarm by capturing an individual member. According to him, this was the method that he would choose if creating a swarm for an invasion, because of the difficulty in countering it.

The second possibility was that the swarm was one massive gestalt consciousness. If this was the case, a strong enough mental attack on a part of the swarm would cascade throughout the entire swarm. However, at the same time, the more members of the swarm there were, the stronger the attack required to incapacitate the collective.

The final possibility was a mix of the two, the ‘queen bee’ theory. With this theory, there was a chain of command among the swarm, with lower ranked individuals receiving orders from higher ranked ones. If this were true, the swarm could be defeated by only eliminating the higher ranked individuals, and there was a possibility that a mental attack could be sent from one lower in the chain of command.

When I brought this information to Pierce, and sent a command to the research team to create a containment field capable of capturing a member of the swarm alive, he was able to tell us that the eventual research revealed that this was a gestalt consciousness. However, he wasn’t able to tell us what level of attack was needed to eliminate the swarm. This was likely because it was dependant on the swarm’s size, which grew exponentially over time, leading to unpredictable results in his foresight.

Still… this was all of the information that we had been able to receive before Pierce left. Now, James and his team were hard at work developing a device that could attack the swarm. It was just a matter of finding them, and hoping that the device was strong enough to kill them all.

“My Keeper, there has been a report from Sher Dien.” Tsubaki spoke up, snapping me from my thoughts and causing me to look over at her. “The emergency evacuation is underway. With Aurivy’s help, the entire solar system was transferred into a dungeon, which Aurivy is going to be storing for the time being.”

“After the invasion has concluded, she will find a suitable home for the solar system and its inhabitants. Given the likelihood that their home universe will be destroyed in the coming days, it was suggested to relocate them to the Metong universe, as that is currently the only universe unaffected by memetic hazards.”

I nodded my head in understanding, silently agreeing to the statement, before my body suddenly froze. Tsubaki looked at me in concern, but even I could tell that my face had gone pale. “My Keeper?”

I held up a hand, signaling her to wait as I contacted James. James, I need to talk to you. We might have an even more pressing problem on our hands.

What’s the matter, boss? We’re still drawing up the plans for the Swarmkiller. He responded, and I cut straight to the point.

If one member of a gestalt consciousness were to encounter an infectious meme, what would happen? I asked, and James fell silent.

Well… funny you should mention that. That was one of the proposed plans for the Swarmkiller, actually. We would infect a metal with a self-destructive memetic hazard, and throw it at the swarm. Once it consumed the metal, it would infect itself, and the infected information would be shared with the gestalt consciousness, causing them to cannibalize themselves.

As a gestalt consciousness is different from a normal hive, any memetic effects would be immediately transmitted from one member of the gestalt to all others. He answered, before letting out a groan. You’re worried that the swarm will come across a memetic monster, and transmit that meme across every universe, aren’t you?

That’s right. I nodded my head, but James simply chuckled.

Honestly, that would be the best case scenario for us. I sincerely hope that happens, and pray that they get infected even one minute sooner.

…Excuse me? My eyes widened, unable to process why he had made such a statement. However, it clicked when he continued his explanation.

The Hyperlane Network barrier can currently not block the swarm because it is not tainted with any void-like properties. However, if the swarm were to become infected by some form of meme, the barrier would be able to harm them as it does any other memetic creature. If this happens, the threat level of the swarm will be instantly dropped to a relatively low value, because the individual members of the swarm aren’t strong enough to break through the barrier. That’s why we gave serious consideration to the memetic Swarmkiller. However, we threw the idea out because of the risk of mutation when infecting so many entities at once. The Swarmkiller is useless if it doesn’t kill the swarm.

I nodded my head, letting out a sigh of relief. My greatest fear was that the memetic monsters that the swarm encountered in the void would lead to every universe becoming even more flooded with memetic hazards. Perhaps because the barrier was destined not to play a pivotal role in this invasion, I hadn’t taken that into consideration.

What’s your current plan for the Swarmkiller, then? I asked.

Well, its official name is a Concentrated Mana Pulse Generator. It fires an extremely condensed pulse of mana at a target. This mana should overload the gestalt consciousness, and cause it to collapse. However, we need a truly astronomical amount of mana to guarantee its effectiveness, so we are already storing energy in as compact of a form as we can manage.

I nodded again, before looking up at Tsubaki. “My apologies. I needed to urgently contact James.” I said, but she shook her head.

“It is fine, my Keeper. However, shall I now continue the report?” She asked, to which I motioned for her to do so. “As of present, we have confirmed the destruction of thirty-eight primary enemies. This does not include the ‘King’ monster, which is still considered a universe-level threat to Sher Dien. Unconfirmed, we suspect that more than one hundred monsters have been killed by various sources, whether infighting or wandering dangers. The only evidence to support this is traces of massive viscera that have been discovered by those following the trails of these monsters.”

“Understood.” I said, before thinking. “Have any Avengers been deployed to the Metong universe yet?”

Tsubaki blinked, thinking back. “As I recall, there have been twenty-five Avengers deployed thus far, including the failed attempt to kill the ‘King’. Of those, three have been deployed in the Metong universe, yes.”

“Good… that means that the Origin of Fate has likely been obtaining energy.” I nodded my head, before blinking. “If the Avenger killed a monster, severing its fate at the point of detonation, but it had later gone to eat another world, would that world be brought back, as if nothing had happened to it?” I asked. Tsubaki offered a small smile, shaking her head.

“I had a similar question when I learned the method by which the Avengers operated, and consulted with the twins. According to them, this would not cause any fates which have already been severed to return. The dead will remain dead, and that which is destroyed will remain destroyed.”

I let out a sullen sigh, nodding my head. “I thought it was too much to hope for. I was thinking, maybe, if we were to discover the origin points where these creatures spawned in, and blast those areas with Avengers, we could undo all of the damages that they caused. I suppose that’s not going to happen.”