A few moments earlier, as Noah was running and getting bombed from all sides, even as he felt his body getting destroyed, Noah felt no fear. Only anticipation as he finally was about to obtain the last piece in the puzzle that had been eluding him.

All the time he spent on the planet, despite regular moments of depression and anxiety, he was able to continue trudging on. All that because he had one hope. One way to eventually leave the godforsaken planet even without getting help and perhaps reaching back home.

For Noah, everything was happening slowly. He watched as the snake construct tore through the interior of the Mecha and swallowed the core.

At the same time, he swallowed the core he had stolen from the previous one he destroyed. Like a sea on the eve of a storm, his body seemed to roar while the mysterious energy that was Dark Matter filled his entire being and reached a new threshold.

Finally!

Whether it was Noah's or the Queen’s thought, it was hard to discern.

Everything followed in an instant. Having obtained the reserve of energy she needed, the Queen was finally able to reach beyond. Space and time fluctuated and ripples spread like an ocean being disturbed.

“Come to me! Ouroboros!”

Noah called and his machine answered.

***

In the interior of the giant crimson Mecha, sitting with his hand on the lever, Noah seemed pained.

A mechanical spine affixed to the seat, pierced his back, drawing blood until it reached the base of the neck.

Noah groaned as the fusion proceeded. Soon a blue screen appeared in front of his eyes.

[Neurolink activated.]

[Authentication check: Failed.]

[Asking for input of password]

“Victory is mine.”

[Voice Authentication: Success]

[Password: Correct]

[Booting system]

[Commencing system check]

[Reserve of energy: 50%]

[Equipment status: Red.]

[Initializing tactics log]

[Activating Environmental sensors]

[Activating Inertia Control system.]

A string of information continued to pass, but Noah didn’t move. He was not surprised by the failure of the authentication. Even now, half of his body was composed of the black substance of the parasite while he was healing himself.

He doubted his DNA could even come close to anything human.

But this did not matter.

Not now. Not at this moment

Right now, all that mattered was —

[System Check: Complete]

[Status: Ready]

[Ouroboros activation complete.]

“Haha…”

“Hahahah…”

A crazed laugh escaped his lips. This sensation of molten metal coursing through his veins, the pain beyond belief mixed with the sensation of becoming a giant beyond words.

He was back!

“Fucking finally!!”

[Deep Dive 1: Activation]

“Kuh…”

The world around him and his perception changed.

He was not Noah anymore. He stopped being a puny human made of flesh and blood.

He was a Serpent. The pilot of the Ouroboros.

The eyes of the Mecha were his eyes. The hands were his hands and the entire body was his.

Why was Mecha created in humanoid form even though it was extremely inefficient anywhere outside of space?

Noah did not know the answer for other races. But he knew the technical reason for humans and this was exactly because of the Neurolink. If the Mecha they were using differed too much from the human structure, it would be impossible to use.

—Noah

“I know…It’s time to end this fight.”

His grin grew so large that he became akin to a Cheshire cat. His Mecha was partially destroyed. He only had half of the energy remaining and he only had a spare sword since his spear was lost.

Beyond that, while his Mecha was bigger, it seemed to run with lower tech than the one the pirates were using.

For anyone else, this might be a situation with no hope in sight. Facing eight Mecha with his own was simply impossible.

But for Noah, impossible was a word he despised from the deepest part of his heart . And there was one thing he knew more than anyone else.

“I don’t even need Full Dive to deal with those guys.”

Eight vs one?

Nothing more than a piece of cake.

***

To the despair of the eight pilots who were surrounding Noah, the crimson giant of steel moved, slowly standing up until it towered at an impressive eighteen meters. The pilot of #1 swallowed. The situation was bad, very bad. He did not know how the man managed to summon a Mecha but what mattered was that his munitions were all spent. All he had left was a vibro blade and he did not know how efficient this weapon would be.

The others should be more or less in the same situation.

I fucked up.

Hindsight was always 20/20 and now it was too late to regret.

[# 1: Guys, how is your situation?]

[# 2: All —Bzzz!]

They were not able to process what happened next as the crimson giant used the partially broken shield it was holding like a throwing weapon, immediately destroying the full upper half of #2 in a flurry of explosion and sound.

#1 cursed. This bastard seemed to like killing people as if they were pests on the road.

[#1: Guys! Don’t even try fleeing! You know this won’t change anything! Also, the bastards who fled earlier! Come back fast and support us from afar! If you don’t—]

He was trying to give orders as fast as possible but the reality of the battlefield was ever-changing and Noah had never been one to wait patiently with his enemies. What followed was a one-sided massacre once again rather than a fight.

The two camps did not even play on the same field. Since they neither had munitions nor Dark Matter, they were unable to access even half of the full performances of their Frames. This was without adding to this their subpar piloting skills.

Noah meanwhile was one with his Mecha. This went beyond mere piloting as he was using his mind and all his senses to move the machine. The latency time between decision and action was nearly nonexistent.

Ouroboros was a machine created with human-like precision, mixing the weight of a giant with the grace of a fish swimming in the sea. It had its gravitation system to lower the full weight and allow extremely fast movement.

Weapon-wise, Ouroboros was holding an oscillating blade, something that in principle was very similar to the vibro blade. But this was not important for the situation at hand, after all, they were simply getting decimated and were unable to properly respond.

#1 could barely process the flow of this fight. He tried to give an order but the monster was moving too fast for them to properly react.

Like a wolf jumping in a flock of sheep, he was destroying them with such ease that it was almost comical.

One of them was destroyed by a powerful kick to its joints, sending the machine tumbling on the ground before Noah stepped harshly on the cockpit where the pilot was sitting.

The scream of pain as his companion was completely crushed like a bug was frightening. Another one made the mistake of trying to cross-blades with the giant only to be deflected and promptly bisected.

This was not a fight.

At the moment, they were no different from beasts being sent to a butcher.

Crushing, cutting, dismembering.

No means was spared as scraps of metal flew everywhere.

The only thing he could see was the crimson monster finally approaching him with slow and steady steps.

“Hah…”

He opened his mouth, but no words came out. He wanted to beg, he wanted to ask for his life to be spared, to be given a second chance.

But he could do none of that.

The last thing he saw was the blade being swung down at him and as his vision slowly divided in two, he finally realized.

Hah…So this is how I die.

And so ended the life of yet another pirate. Neither his ambitions nor name would ever be recorded in any annals of history.

Born unknown, living a worthless life, and dying pitifully as an extra.

***

Looking at the massacre, Noah once again felt no pity. Only exhilaration beyond comparison.

His body tingled. When using Deep Dive 1, synchronization with Ouroboros was still relatively acceptable. The Dive system allowed Neurolink to go above and beyond in terms of maneuverability and response time. But it was also an extremely cruel system and the higher the dive level, the more dangerous it was.

“Round check.”

New numbers and information were transferred directly to his brain, allowing to understand the extent of the damage Ouroboros received and he thought,

“This is no different from how it was before we entered that strange dimension.”

Noah sighed and leaned back on his chair. He was a little sweaty. After all, piloting a Mecha after so long had been quite exhausting even as it made him more than happy.

—-So we were effectively frozen in time while here?

“Most likely.”

For Noah, while quite traumatizing, that only lasted a few moments. Perhaps an hour at maximum? Or perhaps only for an instant. At least this was what his mind had told him back then.

Now though, he had full certitude that he might have spent far more than just a few minutes in that space.

“It’s a pain to not know exactly how long I spent there but it doesn’t matter in the end. What matters is that we need to go back to Earth, for all we know, perhaps this is not even my Earth anymore. But first, we need to deal with those guys.”

—-Eating them?

“Yes. But not now. I might become drowsy if we eat too much.”

He stopped, “In the first place would you become stronger by eating those pieces of metal?”

—What do you mean?

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Can do something like eventually creating a Mecha or who knows, a spaceship?”

—I…I do not know.

The Queen was filled with doubt herself. After all, the abilities she was showing while loosely similar to the unique skill set of Parasites were extremely different now. Like her ability to open those portals. Parasites had developed their technology to open portals to allow travel through space. But the hyperspace she remembered was different from whatever place they were.

She did not know if this was the so-called Dark Sea.

—Technically, the armor I created is just a shell. I theorized that I should be able to recreate the full system later should I finish analyzing the mind of the scientist. But that is pure speculation.

“You are saying many things but, I do not hear the word impossible.”

—Well. But I need to remind you that my conversion of the mass devoured is not 1:1. Not even 1:100. Otherwise with all the giant monsters we devoured, we should already be able to do something similar.

“Dark Matter then?”

—Most likely.

Dark Matter was proving to be the most essential thing in this world and all he could do was adapt.

“Well. We will have all the time to experiment once we are out of here. Now we need to focus. Still, I want you to try and analyze the internal circuits of those machines. Look at how they interact with the core and how they are supposed to send Dark Matter. I am sure this will be very useful.”

He looked at the panel and frowned,

[Reserve of energy: 30%]

[Warning! Leakage of energy detected. Core severely damaged.]

He had only fought for a few minutes but lost more than 20%. But it was understandable if this Mecha was still in the same state as what it was all those years ago.

Ouroboros needed extensive repair and upgrade.

—What about taking a new Mecha?

“Unless I have no other choice I will not.”

He gently caressed the interior of his Mecha. Ouroboros was a part of him, like an arm or a leg.

But Noah was not blind nor stubborn, he was willing to sacrifice his limbs for victories and if it was necessary, he would change Mechas.

Now though,

“How do I fight that dude?”

Could he win with just 30% energy against a powerful Mecha pilot who could use Dark Matter?

Noah did not know Omid’s piloting skill, but he would not make the mistake of underestimating him. Even if Omid's skills were inferior to himself, he might be disadvantaged because of the difference in tech.

—-You think all that but you are smiling.

“I…”

Noah lifted his hand and touched the corner of his lips, realizing that they were pulled in a large smile.

He let out a chuckle filled with happiness.

“I guess I was excited.”

His heart was beating fiercely in his chest at the thought of the incoming fight. He wished for nothing more than to rush to the fight now.

But doing so would be reckless. He needed to clean the rest of the trash that fled earlier to make sure he didn’t lose in both tech and number.

“Say…Do you think I should use it now?”

Noah held out the core in his hand as he opened his cockpit. The air rushed against his face made him breathe deeply. The airing system in his Mecha also had a few problems.

The spinal cord attached to him detached, causing Noah to twitch a little as his wounds healed. Whoever created this system was a true bastard. A genius but a bastard nonetheless. He couldn’t even count the number of times he bled in this Mecha.

Laughing, he stretched a little and jumped out of the Mecha. In his hand, was a golden ball. It was the Ouroboros core reward he obtained from his trial.

If he was not wrong, this reward should be extremely compatible with his Mecha. But he did not know how long the updating and adaptation would take. If it took too long, he would have to fight Omid without a Mecha or by stealing the Mecha of those bastards and using it against them.

—I believe this is the optimal way. Even if those small Mecha are weaker, they are certainly better than the current Ouroboros. Once you get the handle of it, the results will be outstanding.

“You are right.”

—....You won’t do it.

“If this was war. If it was a fight where the lives of people were in my hands, I would certainly take the most optimal and logical path to victory. But…This isn’t the case.”

This was truly the first time he thought about it. All his life, he had only been using Ouroboros for the sole goal of fighting for humanity.

He couldn’t play around, because one mistake from him would mean hundreds or thousands of deaths on the battlefield;

But right here, right now…He was fighting only for himself and the only life he had to account for was his. Well…theirs.

“Heheh…”

—What have I done to be imprisoned with such a hot head?

“I mean. Trying to exterminate an entire civilization. Just saying. If Karma exists, yours is pretty great. The injustice is how someone like me is stuck with someone like you.”

—And I am sure Humanity was a gentle and peace-loving race with no sins and no history of massacre.

Noah laughed out loud at the sarcastic remark. At the same time, he felt his reserve of energy drop as a space ripple appeared in front of him and swallowed the Ouroboros core, leaving him completely alone in the clearing.

Noah whistled quietly at the impressive display. If he wasn’t scared he would somehow spend hundreds of years frozen in one go, he would enter that dimension again to see what this was about.

Note to self. I really need to find a better name than something vague like that place.

“I must be the only one who can use an alternate dimension as a storage. Damn. I am the best.”

— This is my ability.

“Yours, mine, whatever, it’s all the same.”

He shrugged and started walking away.

“Let’s kill the rest first. Heh, I don’t know what that dude Omid is doing but I wonder what he will think when he realizes all his partners are dead?”

This would be undoubtedly worth watching.

***

Omid was meditating inside his Frame.

Not all Mecha were created the same and while some were nothing more than standard machines, a few were extremely customized to suit the needs of the pilot.

The Scorched was something in between. It was a special Mecha he had been bestowed by the royal families when he was younger and still a royal knight.

How proud he had been then when everything was working well and he could say that he was a true knight fighting for the greater good of his species. Fighting through the Sea of Stars, conquering more planets, making sure they were growing well toward eventually becoming a stronger civilization.

Becoming a Type III was nearly impossible as they would have to fight the Empire for that but growing quietly was not bad.

Back then he was happy.

Back then, he was proud.

For nearly 300 years, he lived as a Knight, watching generations of Kings and Queens come and go, all more stellar than the previous one. All more worthy of respect and admiration and his loyalties.

At least this was the case until Sultan Shahryar and Queen Scheherazade.

His concentration was disturbed as pictures of a forgotten past filled his mind. The sea of white flames surrounded him. The suffocation he felt as he was being looked down upon as even less than an insect by someone who stood so much above him.

—Leave, never come back.

He shuddered as the voice of the very person he swore to serve and protect sounded in his ears. Years may have gone by but this was a voice he could never forget. One he would always recognize as it had once filled all his nights with nightmares he could not escape from.

“Why reminisce about a terrible past,” Omid slowly opened his eyes as he muttered those words and pushed down the growing useless feeling of rage and fear that were usually hidden deep inside of him. Whether this was out of helplessness or a simple desire to forget once again, he did not know. The loyal Knight was dead long ago and all that was left was nothing but a scum pirate with the blood of many innocents on his hands.

He was different from Cassim or Alibaba. He did not dream of justice or revolution. His heart had long since cooled down as he realized the reality they were living in and that he was nothing but an insignificant cog in the great machine.

He was tired of fighting for the sake of others. Tired of upholding a code while knowing full well that others managed to get ahead farther in their lives simply by acting as they wished.

This was why, on that day, he swore to fight only for himself. Only him and no one else. Only by doing so could he reach higher in life. Justice was nothing but an illusion and only strength reigned supreme. This might be an exaggeration for many but this was nothing but a simple reality he learned after becoming a pirate.

[Attunement: 2%]

Looking down at the numbers showing, Omid felt no surprise. He knew very well that this was a process that could be completed quickly. Some Mecha were specially created to support the cores of the previous and forgotten Universal empire but as one could expect, The Scorched was not such a Mecha. If it was, the attunement would have been nearly instantaneous and the change would have been immediate.

Even so, he could feel that his body was slowly changing as he attuned himself to the core. His ability to feel and absorb Dark Matter from the exterior was increased and his interior reserve had grown, albeit barely. But the true winner in this case, was his Mecha. It was also a little overloaded currently as the hardware was simply not powerful enough to contain and accept this core. But the future would be positively marvelous.

“I am growing stronger.”

This was nothing but a hint of progress but for him who had stayed stagnant for so long, this simple progress was no different from the most beautiful gift he could receive. This was the absolute proof that he was right in gambling and entering the Gate no matter how dangerous it seemed and the proof that once he came out of this place, he would be great.

He clenched his fist and scoffed as he remembered a few words he once heard when he was still friendly with Alibaba, “I told you there was no such thing as having a Blazing Heart.”

Just remembering that happy-go-lucky bastard made his blood boil.

He would become known through the galaxy, he would step on anyone no matter who they were, and never again would he be humiliated.

“I will become strong.”

He was Omid of the Scorched Earth. He was a noble Djinn, a Yellow Flame and now he had the power from the all-powerful and vanished Empire that once controlled the entire universe.

This was his story, this was his time to shine. Becoming one of the strong would be nothing but a given for him. But for that to happen, he had to accomplish something first.

He brought his hand forward and re-activated the communication.

“#1 give me your situation.”

He waited a few seconds but received no answer, causing him to frown,

“#1.”

Once no answer came back, an ominous feeling washed over him,

“#2.”

He continued the call of order but realized that he was still unable to get an answer. Something flashed in his mind and he spoke in the air.

“I ask for permission to see the number of candidates remaining.”

[Permission accorded]

[Mission type: One vs Many]

[Initial number of participants: 20]

[Updating the number of remaining participants.]

Omid waited, hoping that he would be wrong, that this was nothing more than a bad dream.

But the reality was often disappointing.

[Number of participants updated.]

.

.

.

.

[Number of survivors remaining: 3]

He widened his eyes, but he was not even allowed to properly register this information when an alarm sounded everywhere and a new screen appeared.

[Number of participants remaining: 2]

Omid grunted and it was then that his com sounded. Since only two people were remaining, he understood well who it was and he decided to open the communication.

A picture appeared in front of him, showing a young man sitting in the cockpit of a Mecha. Everywhere, blood and flesh could be observed as if a great massacre had occurred.

But for Omid, the most shocking thing was undoubtedly the face of the young man sitting there. Though he was older looking, this was undoubtedly…

“You…”

[Hi! This is your friend, Noah, here. I just wanted to tell you two things.]

The young man, or rather Noah, laughed while playing around with a ball in his hand and Omid realized that it was the head of one of his subordinates. The eyes of the dead were filled with terror as if they had witnessed some great horrors.

[Firstly, thank you for the meal. It was delicious.]

As he spoke those words, the young man crushed the head into meat paste between his hands, his smile not even flinching as brain matter, blood and skull pieces splattered everywhere on him.

[Secondly, you are next. Soon, I will find you, and then…We will eat you.]

***

Once the communication ended, Noah wiped away the blood from his hands. His expression lost all the emotions he had been showing and he seriously started to ponder his next course of action.

The hunt for the remaining stragglers had been far easier than he would have imagined as they were simply too weak and not united in any way for them to pose any danger to him.

—Do You think this will be useful?

“Depends. I doubt it will be more than a little useful but it will certainly slow him down and cause him to make some mistakes.”

In a fight between equally skilled pilots, the difference in mentality could be the difference between life and death. Noah did not think he was worse than anyone when it came to piloting skills but the tech of his Mecha was certainly old.

“We will have to fight together.”

—We have been doing this for some time now..

“Hahah. You are right.”

He chuckled while still observing the interior of the Mecha. There were many things he wanted to test and thanks to the translation ability the Queen shared, he was able to glean far more information than he would have been otherwise able to.

The only sad thing was that because of the difference in height and mass, Noah was unable to use the scavenged weapons he got from the battlefield.

This was very disheartening as with a few better weapons, he could have drastically increased his chances of success. Thankfully, he wasn’t short of ideas and some of them would give him some opportunities in the upcoming battle.

“As for taking those Mecha. Seems like it’s impossible without the access code. It’s possible to do more basic things; such as messaging and threatening the boss.” He shook his head. Noah had never been one to fixate on one solution. If the Mecha had been usable, he would have switched immediately.

He chuckled and walked out of the Mecha while holding the core in his hand. All in all, he had managed to collect nearly all twenty cores of the Mechas that appeared in this place. Outside of the two he already absorbed, he had eighteen in his hands.

Currently, Noah had four options.

He could keep the cores for later or consume them now. This was the most straightforward increase in power.

Secondly, he could keep them to sell later once he acquired the means necessary to do so. This was a great solution overall. Noah knew he would have money once he sold the planet with the ruins.He doubted they would give him the rights he asked for.

High chance they would simply dispose of him. Noah would never underestimate how corrupt a government could be, much less one that spanned an entire galaxy. With such things in mind, having the equivalent of twenty new Mecha was certainly very appreciated. He didn’t know how much it was worth. But it certainly wouldn’t be cheap.

As for the fourth option… Noah took out the one core he was holding.

Ouroboros.

This core, which shared the same name as his Mecha, was deemed as a growth type and was supposedly able to absorb the energy from other cores.

But how did it happen? How many cores were necessary? How much energy did it have to absorb?

—-You wouldn’t have to think so much if you just gave them to me.

Noah ignored the words of the Queen. He felt like he was some father who had to feed a very needy child.

Thankfully, the core in his hand was not sentient.

“Very well. I guess it’s time to test.”

He jumped away and started running deeper into the forest. He knew that Omid might come after him at any time but Noah was not truly worried. In the worst-case scenario, he could simply flee by entering the dimension.

Even if he came out and hundreds of years had passed, he did not care. It wasn’t like there was anyone left still waiting for him now.

Clenching his fist, he gazed down at the core.

“Now what do I do?”

He twirled the core a little in consideration when a new screen appeared in front of his eyes.

But this one was different from the previous blue screen even if the color was very similar.

“Huh…”

[Registering Biodata. Please provide the date necessary]

Noah tilted his head for a second. This was nothing new per se. After all, even his Mecha needed to register his biodata as a password of such.

“Should I lick it?”

Noah considered acting mischievous. He wondered if saliva or even something like piss would register. After all, they represented biodaata as well.

In the end though and for his own sake, he decided against it. It would feel like insulting himself in a way if he did.

“Then… good old blood?”

A small black scalpel formed between his fingers and he cut his skin. Compared to the kind of pain he generally went through, this was absolutely nothing.

Once the blood splashed on the core, something seemed to change as the blood itself was absorbed extremely fast.

Unlike when he filled it with his Dark Matter, there was no flash of information. But something different happened.

Something that he could not explain. It was then —-

[Synchronization Starting]

[Synchronization rate: 10%]

[Status:

Designation: Perpetual Core Ouroboros

Type: Unique/Growth

Growth: Egg.

Level: 0/10]

[Would you like to feed it?]

[Y/N?]

Noah, more curious than anything, clicked on the yes and the result was immediate. A flash of light nearly blinded him as the core in his hand started melting and being sucked in.

It only lasted for a few seconds but when Noah took another look, he realized that while the previous cores were all destroyed and crushed, as if they had been hollowed out, the Perpetual Core showed no particular change.

Only…

[Level: 5/10]

Was that it?

He didn’t know what he had expected but this…This was pretty underwhelming all things considered.

—I told you you should have just given them to me.

“Shut up.”

Noah gritted his teeth.

He sighed and shook the disappointment away, focusing on the positive. The core could grow, and this growth was done in stages. This was good. He simply had to live long enough to ensure that future.

“Once we go to the ship I will blow it up and take its core as well.”

Surely this would be enough to bring it to level ten at least, right?

‘I wonder if I am playing some pet-raising game nowadays.’

He had a feeling that this core was an even bigger glutton than the Queen.

He thought quietly while putting back the core and stretching. He could feel the Dark Matter in his body circulate faster as he focused.

—Noah!

“I know.”

Whoosh!

Space rippled as a large mechanical arm appeared out of nowhere and blocked an incoming attack.

He looked up and behold, he could see a large Frame coming at him from afar. The speed was already at a different level from the other Mechas he had fought and Noah could feel it in his bones.

This fight was going to be as hard as the one he had against the Queen.

He would have to bet everything this time once again to clinch victory.

Golden Light shone in his eyes.