As the legions of angels and dark deities forged by Gu Xiechen surged out of Dark Starfield I6, a tremor ran through the Chaotic Sea of Stars.

The Romans, who had been entangled with Terrans for hundreds of years, had recovered the legacy of the Roman Knights Templar, the legacy of the Roman Emperors, and the legacy of the Roman Academy of Sciences.

But the legacy of the God Chain, which represented the supreme divine authority of the Romans, remained elusive. Or perhaps, someone had found it long ago, only to be annihilated along with the rest of the Romans before they could ever wield it.

Forty-nine years ago, a faction of Romans from the Pol Pot lineage vanished in this universe. Forty-nine years later, a delicate, miniature vessel shaped like a leaf carved from emerald jade sliced lightly through the chaotic energy flows of the Sea of Stars. It skillfully evaded meteorites and boiling dust clouds capable of shattering it into dust, arriving at the very region where Ducat’s self-destruction had annihilated eleven Mother-God-class super-fortresses and crushed the entire fleet of the Romans and the Creek Star Alliance.

A colossal black hole, nearly a million kilometers in diameter, spanned the void, perpetually devouring everything that drifted too close. Around this singularity, a vast nebula was slowly taking shape.

Immense clouds of gas spun at incredible velocities around the black hole; dust particles attracted and merged with one another, generating countless dust clumps, large and small, within the nebula. Perhaps, in a few hundred million years, new stars would ignite within this haze, forming a galaxy as grand as the Milky Way.

From the front of the hundred-meter long vessel, a faint, hazy green light was projected, gently pushing aside the dust ahead and carving a clear path. It circled the black hole, searching again and again within that region, but found nothing. Ducat’s catastrophic explosion had destroyed everything; all that remained in the void, besides the massive black hole, was this stellar dust stretching for nearly a hundred light-years.

Inside the main control cabin, which resembled a jungle of crystal, six Romans—each standing about three meters tall, far more slender than the Pol Pot faction and possessing an aura of nobler, ethereal refinement, their forms enveloped in a wispy cloud of pale green mist—gazed mournfully out the viewport at the boundless stardust. Suddenly, a crystalline tear tracked down the cheek of one. The one commanding the warship was an elder whose skin faintly showed shifting green arcane markings, and whose triple-layered beard trailed almost to the floor. He stared blankly at the stardust outside, then murmured a low command: “Fly toward the black hole. Get as close as the vessel can manage. We must see if any trace remains.”

The elder gritted his teeth and hissed, “Descendants of the Demonic Tyrant Longen, we Romans shall have unending vengeance! I can feel the anguished wails of countless kin scattered throughout the void! Our people!”

The bodies of the six Romans trembled. Compared to the Roman faction that wished to ally with Gu Xiechen, these six were far more inclined toward the divine, possessing far more developed mental powers but possessing bodies of extreme fragility—so fragile, perhaps, as the ephemeral mayfly that lives but a single day. Conversely, their mental strength was thousands of times greater than that of the common Roman, allowing them to perceive things beyond the senses of other life forms—such as the final, sorrowful cries left behind by the Romans in the vacuum of space.

Without hesitation, the ship ignited a streak of green light and sped toward the black hole. It quickly reached the absolute limit of approach; one step further, and the ship’s engines might fail against the black hole’s pull, drawing them in to be atomized into a stream of particles, or perhaps leaving nothing at all.

The elder gritted his teeth, quietly sensing the persistent echoes of lamentation and weeping in the surrounding space. Suddenly, he caught a strange, new fluctuation. He roared sharply, “Activate all reserve power! Everyone, prepare the overclocked psychic shields! Deep within that black hole’s core, there is something we must retrieve!”

Again, with no hesitation, these Romans acted as if they were setting out for a pleasant family camping trip rather than diving into the heart of a singularity. They eagerly marshaled all their mental strength, forming intricate hand seals that draped the hull in layer upon layer of psychic shields woven like green vines. The ship suddenly erupted in a blinding flash of light and vanished from its position. In the next instant, a faint glimmer of light erupted from the very core of the black hole.

Barely one hundred-thousandth of a second later, the vessel reappeared in its original spot. Its psychic shield was completely annihilated, a layer of armor stripped away, and the translucent, crystal-like green hull was twisted and rent with dozens of cracks, large and small. Countless intricate conduits, resembling delicate, flowing leaf veins, snaked out from within the ship, sparking with minute, sputtering green flames. A thick plume of smoke trailed from the stern, and vast quantities of viscous green energy fluid were venting from the propulsion nozzles.

Inside the command cabin, golden blood trickled from the seven orifices of the six Romans. Only the elder could still stand; the other five younger Romans lay limp on the deck, their lifeless eyes fixed on him. All were gasping desperately, sweat erupting from their bodies and quickly soaking their garments.

The elder, whose body still trembled uncontrollably, ignored the need to stabilize his own power. He stared in astonishment at a bizarre object clenched in his palm—a strange crystal artifact the size of a fist, shaped like an infant, entirely green yet nearly transparent. Inside this crystal-sculpted child burned a golden light mass the size of a thumb. The mass was so densely packed that at first glance, it did not look like light at all, but rather a chunk of pure gold compressed to a density nearing that of a neutron star.

The elder gazed at the infant with awe, trembling as he sensed the energy emanating from it. He gently stroked the infant with his shaking hand, treating it as an incomparably precious treasure, murmuring softly, “What a marvelous creation. By what method did this lineage manage to fabricate such a wondrous lifeform? To survive within the core of a black hole—it is extraordinary, truly extraordinary. And this condensed consciousness within... my child, what is your name?” The golden light flickered once, and the elder nodded as if realizing something profound: “A descendant of the Holsom lineage... Ah, yes, you cannot be called a descendant of the Holsom line. You are the psychic aggregate of this entire faction, an entity nearly as powerful as a god. However, since your primary consciousness is named Polpot, then Polpot you shall be.”

The battered ship laboriously turned its orientation, trailing a hazy green luminescence as it traversed the vastness of space. After several spatial jumps, it arrived in a bizarre stellar region.

Here, four stars formed a perfect tetrahedron. Around this near-perfect geometric core, billions of meteorites, none larger than a human head, spun at extreme velocities. These asteroids rotated with near-manic speed; those on the outermost layer were already traveling at speeds exceeding half the speed of light. Any ordinary vessel struck by these objects would only be shredded.

Yet, this damaged ship navigated through the debris field, thousands of millions of kilometers thick, as if strolling through a calm park, suffering no damage whatsoever. It was inexplicable how it flew; not a single speck of its plating was grazed by the countless stones. The vessel moved slowly through the field, finally entering the innermost and quietest layer, where all the meteoroids hung suspended in place, motionless for tens of thousands, even hundreds of millions of years.

The ship passed through a gate formed by nearly ten thousand suspended asteroids, instantly arriving in a wondrous space far beyond, bathed in an azure radiance.

A colossal, three-headed white dragon, exceeding one hundred million kilometers in length, floated silently in the void, its six massive, fleshy wings hanging stiffly behind it. Two enormous trees, whose height was immeasurable but whose branches spread out to completely envelop the white dragon, were deeply rooted within its body. Their root systems coiled around the dragon’s form, having already consumed its internal tissues, leaving only the outer layer of scales. Its interior was a dense entanglement of these two trees' roots.

The two trees rested lazily within the dragon, every branch and every leaf emitting a faint green glow. This luminescence spanned an entire star sector, overpowering the light of nearly a hundred nearby suns and coating all surrounding stars in a verdant hue.

Millions of exquisite warships, shaped like leaves or flowers, floated nearby, masterpieces of delicate engineering. Varying in width, vines extended from one warship to another, covered in green light that formed countless ornate pathways. Slender, nobly refined Romans moved along these vines, laughing lazily and exchanging warm greetings, resembling a community of peaceful herbivores.

Even when the smoke-trailing vessel that had struggled back finally appeared, these Romans seemed not to notice it, continuing their activities as usual.

The damaged ship slowly approached the two great trees. Finally, when it was still tens of light-seconds away, both trees simultaneously extended a few long, supple branches. These instantly crossed the distance and gently coiled around the ship, setting it down on a patch of grass between the two trees, less than a hundred meters wide—a space practically negligible compared to their immense size.

A voice, clear and melodious like silver bells, chimed out: “My children, did you gain anything this time? Have you found anything?”

The elder and the five young Romans tumbled down the gangway from the ship, prostrating themselves immediately and bowing repeatedly toward the two indescribably massive trees. The elder pressed his forehead firmly to the ground and replied with utmost caution: “Honored Mother-Gods, we have found something rather unfortunate. One of our factions, one of your descendant branches, has been destroyed by the enemy.”

“I sensed their dying wails in the void. I witnessed the moment before their deaths.”

The trunks of the two trees shuddered slightly. The white dragon entwined by their roots convulsed violently. Hundreds of immensely thick root tendrils pierced the dragon’s scales, thrashing wildly in the void like venomous serpents. The delicate voice then sneered, “A branch of our children was wiped out? Which faction was it?”

The elder lifted the green infant in his hand and stated in a low voice, “It was the faction tasked with sacrifice, protected by the Roman Knights Templar, who covered our escape. They managed to evade the pursuit of the Demonic Tyrant Longen’s kin, and they even found an opportunity to restore Roman civilization. But they were killed!”

“Killed!” another clear, gentle voice echoed. “Killed! If they found the chance to restore Roman civilization, why were they killed?”

With a long sigh, both voices inquired simultaneously, “Then, what is that in your hand?”

The elder respectfully presented the fist-sized green infant toward one of the trees, meticulously recounting his perilous venture deep into the black hole to retrieve the infant and discover the miraculous condensed consciousness within. A slender tendril immediately extended, curling around the infant and bringing it before its gaze.

After scrutinizing it closely, both great trees burst into laughter.

Amidst the laughter, the branches of the two trees shook. Amidst the laughter, the bodies of the two trees rapidly diminished in size. Amidst the laughter, a man and a woman, both stunningly beautiful and standing about five meters tall, materialized upon the dragon’s back. The dragon’s hollowed-out scales erupted with a harsh cracking sound. Scales flew off, interweaving in the void to form two exquisitely crafted white sets of armor upon the pair.

The man, smiling faintly, stood with his hands clasped behind his back, gazing at the woman. The woman’s eyes were wide, her four white orbs radiating a sharp, piercing light, staring almost droolingly at the infant in her hands.

“A miraculous mode of life, a body composed of pure energy, yet retaining its original consciousness and will,” the woman’s ugly four-white eyes flickered rapidly. Her tiny pupils were filled with avarice and shallowness, brimming with wickedness and sinister intent. Droplets of glittering saliva shimmered at the corners of her mouth, and when she spoke, her tongue and teeth scraped together, drawing out fine, glistening strings of saliva. The man beside her merely watched her with a gentle smile, like a true collector admiring his most cherished treasure, suffused with deep affection and an ineffable, intimate bond.

After a period of playful banter, the woman continually played with and stroked the green infant, then smiled toward the man: “Sagsen, I adore him! He is mine, alright?”

Sagsen inclined his head affectionately. He wrapped an arm around the woman’s shoulder and lightly kissed her cheek: “My Elrolie, if you like him, he is yours.”

A beautiful aria rose from the man’s lips as he sang tenderly, “Anything you desire is yours, my love. Even if it requires plucking this entire universe, I shall bring it before you!”

The woman sighed deeply, her four white eyes blinking rapidly. She looked at Sagsen with profound emotion and exclaimed, “Sagsen, you are so good to me!”

Sagsen intimately kissed Elrolie deeply. Large amounts of saliva dripped from their mouths. The crystalline drool fell into the void, instantly transforming into emerald-green blades of grass and slender young saplings. These tiny plants drifted briefly in space before dissolving back into glittering green motes of light that merged into the bodies of the two figures.

The profound kiss lasted for three days and three nights. The six Romans, led by the elder, knelt rigidly in the void for the entire duration, daring not to look up. Only when the couple’s lips separated with a crisp ‘snap’ did the elder respectfully state: “Honored, supreme Mother-Gods, our faction was annihilated. We…”

Elrolie snorted coldly. She nodded slowly, “Annihilated, indeed. Revenge must be taken! This child inside tells me they were destroyed by the mongrel half-bloods instigated by the Demonic Tyrant Longen. We must settle this score with the Demonic Tyrant Longen!”

With another cold snort, Elrolie’s face darkened with fury. “Back then, we merely killed his concubine, stole a few of his natal sacred artifacts, and slew a few of his descendants. Did he not plot against us in the shadows? Before we could strike decisively, he was already devising ways to consume us to augment his own power!”

Sagsen spoke gently, “My dear, he even caused our demise! If we hadn’t pre-planted two Seeds of Life, we would have been utterly scattered.”

Elrolie raged, “Yes! If we hadn’t prepared beforehand, our souls would have dissipated completely. After our main body exhausted all its strength sealing him away, he actually ordered those damned descendants of his to attack the empire we established! How many precious children were brutally murdered by them? How many were devoured?”

Weighing the green infant in her hand, Elrolie suddenly laughed. The four large white areas surrounding her small pupils shone brilliantly, radiating a compelling luster.

“Now, with this, my certainty of destroying the Demonic Tyrant Longen has increased tenfold! My dear children, your psychic agglomeration shall merge with the Great Mother-God!”

Opening her mouth, Elrolie swallowed the infant almost impatiently, then let out a satisfied, coarse burp. Her manner of eating was anything but graceful. Sagsen, beside her, frowned subtly, a flicker of disgust and weariness crossing his face too quickly to notice. However, the moment Elrolie looked at him, Sagsen’s expression instantly transformed into something brilliant, tender, and radiating a love deeper than the sea and stronger than gold.

A strong, successive wave of golden light spread from Elrolie’s body, within which the shrill howl of Polpot could faintly be heard.

Elrolie let out several sharp burps and roared roughly, “Be silent, my child! To merge with me—what complaint could you possibly have? Your energy becomes mine, your soul becomes mine, your experience is absorbed by me! Think of how much sacrifice this spares our Roman people! Sacrifice yourself for the Romans! Stop your whining; I will grant you a swift end!”

After a final series of loud burps, Elrolie abruptly raised both hands.

“My children, mobilize! War! The conflict between us proud, noble Romans and those vulgar, crude Demonic Tyrant Longen descendants has begun! Take up your weapons, power up your warships, don your armor, chant the hymns praising me, and recite your most potent incantations! Let us annihilate every last descendant of the Demonic Tyrant Longen!”

Sagsen erupted in wild laughter.

Amidst his near-mad cackling, Elrolie shrieked triumphantly.

“This time, we are certain to win!”

“The Demonic Tyrant Longen will have no more pure-blooded descendants! Because we destroyed his vile concubine!”

“My children, this time you will not face endless waves of pure-blooded Longen descendants. You will only face a gaggle of contemptible half-breeds!”

“Victory belongs to us! Victory belongs to Rome!”

The hysterical, sharp laughter abruptly paused. Elrolie frowned in surprise, then snorted coldly with obvious annoyance.

“The Earth Federation? Gu Xiechen? Such insignificant beings have such a profound place in your memory?”

“Oh, what worthless memories! In this universe, besides the Demonic Tyrant Longen, who else merits being our enemy?”

“Gu Xiechen? The Earth Federation? I can brush them away with a casual flick!”

As Elrolie’s screams echoed, the vast Roman fleet slowly mobilized. Amidst earth-shaking hymns of praise, they departed that region of space.