The Mech Touch

5858 Subjugation Comes

Normal storm clouds did not make faces.

In fact, even tribulation storm clouds did not make faces.

Ves had experienced enough of them to know that aside from raining down much more powerful and exotic lightning strikes than usual, the storm clouds did not look all that differently.

What happened on this fateful day utterly defied his expectations and put him on a collision course with an alien being of unimaginable power.

Ves could not imagine the immense amount of power and mastery required to reach across a huge amount of light-

years and directly insert a part of one's consciousness into a distant tribulation storm!

He was pretty sure that no True God was capable of this astonishing feat.

No matter whether they were god pilots, Star Designers, sword gods, qi cultivators and so on, Ves seriously doubted whether any of them had the ability to impose their strength onto a tribulation storm of all things!

An extremely strange phenomenon was taking place above the Dominion of Man!

The effects of this intelligent alien being inserting himself right inside the tribulation storm had far-reaching effects.

The E energy radiation flowing in the entire region of space grew more powerful but also beca lot more turbulent than before.

The distant light radiating from Messier 87 becabnormally more luminous and noticeable in space.

A semblance of the powerful alien being's domain started to blend into the tribulation storm, thereby causing its very character to becinfected by foreign concepts.

This was the most ostentatious display of power that Ves had ever witnessed so far. Not even the amazing performance of the god pilots during Operation Night Jazz could compare to this astonishing display of power.

The tribulation storm continued to exude more and more oppression in the surroundings.

It becso bad that even the crew members of the escort vessels that were stationed tens of thousands of kilometers away started to experience random bouts of fright!

Suffice to say, this was a threat that the Red Fleet had never expected to confront at this time!

As the storm clouds continued to roil, the crackling of lightning had begun to form. A multitude of small but numerous bolts coursed through the immense cloud cover.

Instead of the usual bright blue of empyrean purple bolts, they started to glow into a sickly shade of green.

From the moment Ves caught sight of them, his Jutland organ began to constrict.

There was a powerful sense of constriction to these bolts. Their power was definitely potent enough to kill a baseline human outright, but Ves suspected that they were supposed to do more than inflict a lot of damage.

The constricting force possessed a strong and distinctly alien imprint as well. It did not take much thinking to determine that it was an intrinsic element of the alien deity's domain.

Ves already learned a lot from the three-eyed insectile-

looking alien. The noseless being's enormous face peered down with a mouth filled with razor sharp teeth.

While there was a possibility that the entity showed off the equivalent of a smile for his species, the sheer malevolence radiating from the tribulation storm did not give Ves the idea of a friendly greeting!

What upset Ves most of all was that he could feel the alien paying particular attention to him. No one else aboard the Dominion of Man received as much attention.

It did not matter whether there were many layers of hull plating and deck plating in the way.

It did not matter that Ves had suited himself up in his Unending Regalia.

It did not matter that Ves was just one human among many aboard the Dominion of Man.

The alien deity somehow managed to identify Ves in an instant and never ceased to break its malevolent gaze!

"Ugh… can't you look elsewhere for once?"

The thought that this alien entity paid special attention to Ves because of his latest actions was scary beyond belief!

Just when Ves thought that this incredibly intimidating staring contest would go on for several more minutes, the gigantic alien face opened its mouth and projected a sound.

"<nullb>%#$*@(*#."

"My head!"

"Did you hear that?!"

"No human can make those noises!"

"How come… how cI am able to understand what he is saying?"

"What is it saying?!"

The storm hijacker… communicated with the humans aboard the Dominion of Man.

He did so in his own native language… which somehow possessed such abnormal properties that it was able to project sound directly into people's skulls!

The sheer weight of the alien deity's words was powerful enough to exert painful pressure to those who were more sensitive towards spiritual phenomena.

To Ves, it felt as if… the heavens spoke to him directly.

The scary part about all of this… was that Ves' domain gave him advantage over other people.

Whereas the confused and disoriented crew of the Dominion of Man simply heard a bunch of alien noises that were completely indecipherable, Ves somehow managed to interpret the meaning of the alien creature.

A part of him really wished that he was unable to parse the actual meaning of those alien noises.

Still, it was better for him to obtain a bit of information about the alien being that was about to make his life hell.

According to his own domain, the alien being, who cacross as masculine in his species, conveyed this particular meaning in his opening statement.

"<nullb>BLASPHEMERS."

That was certainly a pleasant introduction.

Ves silently groaned in his mind. He always had trouble with religious nuts. The native aliens were already bad enough, but at least they tempered their worship of phase whales with the knowledge that they could evolve into similar beings.

This new alien not only made it clear in his first statement that he was an authentic believer, but that he also hated humans like Ves for the crof not sharing his beliefs!

After a short pause, the alien ponderously spoke his next words.

"<nullb>@&$@&#@&%@#."

As multiple people including Sigrund winced as they held their pounding heads, Ves tried his best to parse the meaning of this more complex statement.

"<nullb>BY THE LIGHT OF THE COSMOS, I JUDGE YOU, THE LOST CHILDREN WHO HAVE CFROM THE DARK BEYOND."

Oh boy.

There was so much meaning and context behind these translated words that Ves did not even know where to begin.

There was special emphasis on the phrase 'The Light of the Cosmos'.

The alien also used the expression 'judge' as if it was his absolute right to determine the life and death of humans he had never met in the past.

The meaning of 'the lost children who have cfrom the dark beyond' made it abundantly clear that the alien knew that the Red Ocean was originally located a lot further away.

The combination of meanings led Ves to make an incredibly frightening solution.

The alien deity originated from Messier 87.

The powerful being was somehow able to cast a portion of his power and awareness hundreds of thousands of light-years away and establish a direct connection to a tribulation storm!

Given that the storm had yet to cast down its first lightning strike, it appeared that the powerhouse had gained enough control to impose his will on this heavenly manifestation!

Such a being surpassed the power of ordinary True God to such an extent that there was no contest!

The ultimate conclusion that Ves drew from all of the clues was that the three-eyed noseless alien was a God King from Messier 87.

He gulped.

It was already bad enough that his antics had somehow been responsible for calling over one of the distant enemies who wielded far greater power than anyone else in the Red Ocean.

What truly made this experience awful was that the alien God King directed special attention towards Ves!

If Ves looked upwards, he would probably be able to lock 'eyes' with the giant alien apparition if not for the fact that there were a lot of decks and structural elements in the way.

The gigantic alien face spoke again.

"<nullb>#$&#*$@."

"<nullb>REJOICE, WORMS OF THIS RED FILTH. THE LIGHT OF THE COSMOS HAS BEGUN TO GRACE YOUR SEA OF STARS. WITH THE BLESSING OF THE GREAT LIGHTHOUSE THAT RADIATES THE STARS AND BESTOWS US WITH THE GIFT OF IMMORTALITY, THE EMPIRE THAT ILLUMINATES THE COSMOS EXERCISES ITS CLAIM ON YOUR STARS. I SHALL SUBJUGATE YOUR SOULS AND YOUR PETTY NATIONS AND TURN YOU INTO THE SLAVES OF THE KRELION RACE."

How the hell was this alien able to pack so much meaning with so little noises!?

Ves began to experience a stronger headache as he desperately tried to unpack the meaning of this God King's speech.

There was too much for him to analyze. The Light of the Cosmos. The Great Lighthouse That Radiates the Stars. The Empire That Illuminates the Cosmos. The Krelion Race.

Krelion.

That was the nof the species, at least when Ves' overstrained Spirituality tried to parse it into human speech.

The meanings conveyed by the all-powerful God King encompassed far more than words alone.

The awful noises also conveyed emotions and even hints of visual impressions.

The overarching concept that colored all of the alien deity's speech was subjugation.

The mere thought of the word 'subjugation' conjured images of chains, of enslaving weak and unworthy races, of imposing one's will onto others and of humiliating powerful rivals.

The God King was a tyrant, one who delighted in oppressing and conquering willful alien opposition.

Any foe that dared to sully 'The Light of the Cosmos' or stood against 'The Empire That Illuminates the Cosmos' deserved to be put into chains, both physical and spiritual ones!

"<nullb>&*#$#**$#$$#."

"<nullb>I AM THE SUBJUGATION KING. I SHALL BRING YOU INTO THE LIGHT. AWAIT MY ARRIVAL. THOSE WHO SURRENDER NOW SHALL BE DEEMED REDEEMABLE ENOUGH TO EARN A CHANCE TO CAST AWAY YOUR CHAINS. THOSE WHO RESIST WILL BECMY ETERNAL SLAVES."

This pretty much confirmed it. This was the mysterious God King that had set off from Messier 87 in order to conquer the Red Ocean.

The native from Messier 87 had developed in a much more energy-rich environment, so the God King was not only a lot more powerful, but likely mastered a lot of techniques as well!

Ves did not like the notion of being turned into an 'eternal slave'. The phrase held special meaning to the God King. There was a strong suggestion that not even death could liberate a slave from his chains!

The fact that this so-called Subjugation King fixated so much on capturing and enslaving his adversaries suggested that he preferred not to kill his opponents.

That should normally provide relief to his enemies, but it was very much opposite in this case!

The tyrannical alien God King could do far worse to his captives than those who managed to get away easily by dying right away!

There were ephemeral glimpses of battlefields where indistinct alien figures turned their weapons against themselves just so that they did not end up in the hands of the much-hated Subjugated King!

"<nullb>#*$$#*."

"<nullb>YOU."

The gigantic face exerted a lot more oppression towards Ves all of a sudden!

The pressure was so great that Ves almost felt he was being flattened by a press!

"Me…?"

"<nullb>#$*@#@%."

"<nullb>YOU HAVE BLASPHEMED AGAINST THE LIGHT. YOUR CRIMES ARE FAR TOO MANY. YOUR SOUL IS BLACKENED BY THE SINS COMMITTED AGAINST THE LIGHT OF THE COSMOS. THERE WILL BE NO ESCAPE FOR YOU. YOUR SOUL IS MINE."

Just as Ves finished parsing those alien noises, he suddenly felt a huge shock to his Spirituality!

"Ahhh!"

Ves felt violated in a way he never experienced before!

Somehow, the alien face managed to project his power through the tribulation storm and instantly strike his Spirituality without any chance of resistance!

As Blinky quickly inspected what had happened, the companion spirit instantly noticed that Ves gained a foreign element!

His Spirituality had beccontaminated by a brand-new mark!