The Queen of Blades placed her palm flat against the enormous rhomboid crystal.

The crystal instantly became translucent, revealing perfectly formed, innate textures extending systematically inward. Watching these textures deepen was a profoundly strange sensation, much like how all the winding rivers and mighty streams, no matter how intertwined, ultimately converge into the deep, vast sea.

It was as if this crystal contained an entire cosmos, complete with its own thunderous storms, misty rain, and internal circulatory systems.

But as the Queen of Blades touched the rhomboid crystal, her entire form vanished from the back of the Spore Wyrm. Then, a faint shadow appeared within the crystal; its silhouette was unmistakably that of the Queen of Blades herself!

Next, she flowed toward the crystal’s apex like a serpent gliding through water. At the top rested an area resembling a royal dais, upon which sat a pendulum-like artifact. This object bore the dull, ancient color of something recently unearthed from millions of years of bedrock, seemingly etched with the very marks of time. Even the mere sight of it evoked a feeling of profound awe, akin to gazing up at the scattered stars in the night sky, where no distracting thoughts could take root!

This was the legendary divine relic: the most potent artifact left behind by the annihilated Xel’naga… race!

The God-Forged Artifact!

Finally, the Queen of Blades’ five fingers made contact with the object. An indescribable sense of fulfillment surged through her entire being—a tremor and an ecstasy vibrating from every single cell. In response, the Queen of Blades let out a scream of excitement impossible to articulate!

Though the sound was piercing, it carried a strange, carnal allure for all male creatures, for her cry could be summarized in two simple, blunt words: pure… lust.

It is well known that both the Zerg and the Protoss were created by the powerful and enigmatic Xel’naga… race. Yet, the end of this race was tragic; it was as if they had opened Pandora’s Box, only to be ultimately annihilated by the very Zerg they had lost control of.

What excited the Queen of Blades at this moment was not the God-Forged Artifact itself, but a thin layer of substance smeared upon it. This material was a priceless treasure discovered by the Protoss within ancient Xel’naga… ruins. To put it plainly, it was the secretion taken from the male reproductive glands of the first-generation Zerg—the species created by the Xel’naga…!

In those days, the Zerg were still in a modulated phase, not possessing the current state of limitless reproduction. They were closer to creatures like bees or ants, possessing male organisms. The substance smeared on the artifact was the extract derived from the male Zerg gonads found in the ancient laboratories of the ruins!!

The reason the Xel’naga… were eventually exterminated by the Zerg was the Zerg’s formidable capacity for self-evolution, which eventually led to them spiraling out of control. However, concerning the drive for reproduction and sexuality, the Zerg never suffered from such internal impediments; thus, the relevant genetic fragments related to lust had never evolved. Their resistance to being aroused by… was therefore nonexistent.

More importantly, the Protoss who set this trap had keenly observed another fact: the Queen of Blades had evolved from humanity.

Humanity, when it comes to sexuality, is a peculiar species among known sexually reproducing life forms. Most exhibit distinct heat cycles; behaviors like self-stimulation, masturbation, or promiscuity only occur during these specific phases.

Humans, once sexually mature, are completely unbound by setting, time, or location; they can engage in intimacy and procreate whenever the desire strikes. Thus, the human drive for sex is, in fact, terrifyingly potent. The Protoss therefore deduced that the body of Queen of Blades Morrigan likely retained this residual human flaw. The combination of these two factors meant the poor Queen had a high probability of falling for the trap!

The facts proved their calculation correct.

As the Queen of Blades’ fingers brushed the “God-Forged Artifact,” she realized that the object detached with just the slightest touch! An immediate sense of foreboding seized her.

At that precise moment, within the Cataclysm Behemoth, a barrage of warnings began to flash across the screens like a spam feed: “Warning: Ambient temperature rising abnormally, increase factor 5844.87 times normal… Warning: Spatial fluctuation coefficient spiking abnormally, exceeding normal threshold…”

“Warning: Energy fluctuation detected, positive and negative deviation exceeding 389.4 Ougens… Warning: Probability of spatial rifts appearing… Warning: 38.44% chance of large-scale Protoss mass-teleportation event. Outdoor combat units must immediately seek shelter in armored fortresses and guard against particle storm damage. If unable to comply, disperse as widely as possible, lie prone, or enter metallic vehicles. Repeat: This is not a drill, this is not a drill.”

As the alarms still echoed in the air, an indescribable spectacle manifested from the side: a massive, ink-black shadow, vast as a solar eclipse, slowly approached, gradually overlapping with the current plane of reality.

The immense, deep black shadow spanned at least ten kilometers in diameter. Its shape was irregular, yet upon closer inspection, it resembled a colossal island, seemingly ripped from the earth’s core by an unseen giant hand, with dark red magma still dripping from below, hissing fiercely upon the metallic floor…

Fang Senyan felt a bone-chilling cold wash over him upon seeing this apparition. The massive black shadow felt strangely familiar. He couldn’t help but turn to Ronnie for confirmation. Ronnie sucked in a sharp breath, then slowly stated:

“They even brought the Trial Sanctuary straight through the planet’s core. This is indeed a formidable trap. Look, the God-Forged Artifact is activating.”

One could clearly see a fierce, murderous illusion circling above the Trial Sanctuary, appearing both like a fractured shard and the sharp edge of some weapon. Immediately following this, beneath the “God-Forged Artifact” the Queen of Blades had uncovered, a strange radiance appeared. Then, an object with a curved, crescent-like outline flew out. Its nature remained unclear, only that its shape vaguely resembled the Chinese character “” (le) lying on its side.

The Queen of Blades now clearly sensed the gravity of the situation. She darted back and forth inside the rhomboid crystal, seemingly trying to find an exit route, but was thrown back every time she collided with the barrier. The Zerg outside hammered against the crystal relentlessly, but to no avail.

Thus, everyone could only watch the unfolding event helplessly. The God-Forged Artifact fragment from the Dark Templar Sanctuary began to drift toward the “”-shaped God-Forged Artifact fragment. As they drew near, they merged, and instantly, everyone realized what they had become: the combined pieces formed the shape of a partially fractured scythe, its outline highly similar to the Photon Glaives used by the Dark Templar Warriors.

More critically, though the merged object was still a fragment, the terrifying, surging aura it emitted expanded at an astonishing rate!!!

When separated, the two fragments posed a threat, perhaps comparable to two separate pieces of Uranium-235—slowly inflicting damage through radiation, perhaps taking half a month or a full year to eliminate a single person. But now, the instant unification of the two was like instantaneously combining two pieces of Uranium-235, causing supercriticality and triggering a terrifying, explosive nuclear fission chain reaction!

Immediately after, the combined God-Forged Artifact cleaved downward like a vertical swing of a scythe! Its speed was not fast, yet it induced a resonance with the heavens and earth, making evasion or escape utterly impossible. Just like birth, aging, sickness, and death, no matter where one fled to the ends of the earth, one could not escape the destiny of that single strike!!!!

A flash of light crossed the cosmos! The Queen of Blades’ body instantly became transparent, her skeletal structure clearly visible. This blow seemed to have struck the very core of every cell, every strand of her DNA. Her body, which had nearly stabilized, began to violently disintegrate from the deepest cellular level, letting out a terrible, drawn-out wail!

As the strike passed, the massive rhomboid crystal shattered. The Queen of Blades, with stark finality, closed her eyes and plummeted from the sky like a meteorite. Countless Zerg swarmed to cover their sovereign with their bodies. The shattered crystal pieces rained down like crystalline shards, carrying an ineffable sense of finality and desolation, and then… an unimaginably catastrophic explosion occurred!!!

The terror of this explosion was largely beyond description. The only thing Fang Senyan could recall was that once the blast erupted, the Cataclysm Behemoth, weighing in excess of a thousand tons, possessed absolutely no resistance against the shockwave. It was simply blown away like a trembling feather caught in a gale!

Then the emergency defense systems kicked in. Utilizing the advanced Protoss technology embedded in the Behemoth’s construction, vast anti-gravity projectors were swiftly activated, shielding all occupants. However, the external force was so immense that as Fang Senyan lost consciousness, he clearly heard the computer’s mechanical voice:

“Final emergency measures initiated… Repeating: Final emergency measures initiated.”

“If the intensity of the external turbulence persists at the current level, this war machine will automatically disintegrate in ten seconds. All energy supply modes will switch to survival mode, prioritizing the safety of the crew.” (To be continued. RS)