The war raged on.

And this time, it was far more brutal than before.

"Report: The number of Zerglings has been reduced to 17.03%"

Maeve's calm voice echoed through the command channels.

"Report: The Zerglings population has been reduced to 16.97%…"

"Report, the Zerglings…"

The overall number of Zerg had finally reached the threshold of annihilation.

For the first time, their population fell to only a few hundred billion.

That was good news, astonishing, even. For the first time since the war began, the churning gray oceans of the Void began to recede, pulling back like a dying tide.

Yet, no one dared to celebrate. Because everyone knew the war between Heavens Mountain and the Zerg was far from over.

Peter's gaze stayed locked on the panel, the flickering data painting his face in cold light as he awaited the next update from Maeve.

As expected, her voice continued. This time, her report shifted to what truly mattered now, the number of legendary-level creatures on the battlefield.

"The total number of hostile creatures exceeding the legendary level was 130 million… correction, 142 million… correction…"

"Correction… correction…"

Maeve's tone remained steady, but the meaning behind her words was like a dagger.

A new generation of Void Zerg had emerged, completely different from the previous ones. These terrifying creatures were nothing like the fragile insects of before.

Each possessed strength equal to or greater than a legend. And they were multiplying fast.

Some bore thick, grotesque armor that allowed them to smash through enemy lines like walking siege engines. Others sprouted clusters of fleshy wings, soaring through the skies faster than starships, darkening the heavens with their numbers. Still others had evolved to spray deadly spores, parasitizing entire squads of enemies in mere seconds.

——————x——————

"That's… terrifying," Cillian murmured.

From deep within the Endless Abyss, he watched the battlefield where the Zerg and the Heavenly Army clashed, his gaze filled with something between awe and disbelief. On the frontlines, a colossal Titan worm swallowed once-mighty Heavenly warriors whole, as if they were candy made of light.

"I never imagined the Zerg could mutate into something like this," he whispered.

As he spoke, memories surfaced, images of "classic Zerg design examples" he had once studied back at Grimstone University. He couldn't help but sigh in awe.

Even the most advanced Zerg blueprints in those old records were nothing compared to this. The best of them barely reached the legendary peak, and even then, they were singular life forms, impossible to reproduce in large numbers. Those designs, while groundbreaking, were more akin to isolated alien beasts than true swarm organisms.

Yet, those early gods who had created them were celebrated. Their designs were taught in classrooms and honored in textbooks.

But what Cillian was witnessing now made all of that look primitive.

These Zerg weren't designed by gods, they were the result of raw, unrestrained evolution.

Nature itself had become the ultimate architect.

"Incredible…" he breathed. "A single lineage capable of creating over five thousand species on its own… this surpasses anything in divine history. The design capacity alone is…"

Before he could finish, the captured brain worm, its massive, pale form pulsing faintly beside Damon, interrupted him.

"Great Lord of the Abyss, you are mistaken!" it blurted out, its gelatinous voice trembling with conviction.

"The design itself is not what matters. What truly matters is how one utilizes the qualities born from that design!"

Cillian's eyes narrowed slightly. "Oh?"

He turned toward the obese brain worm, which was still uploading streams of biological data into Damon's neural network. The moment the worm dared interrupt its master, Damon struck it sharply across the head with one of his hardened spinal limbs.

The brain worm blinked in confusion, unsure why it was being punished. Clearly, it hadn't yet learned what it meant to speak out of turn in the Abyss.

Still, it continued its lecture earnestly, waving its mouth tendrils as though conducting a class.

"You are wrong, my lord. In your eyes, everything must be designed, but that's not true at all! Look closer and you'll see that these Zerg forms were hinted at long ago!"

"Take their armor, for example," it went on, wriggling in excitement. "Those thick chitinous plates you see now, ordinary insect swarms already possessed them! They were merely limited by resource allocation. Their carapaces only formed around their joints because there wasn't enough material to cover more!"

It gestured toward the massive kilometer-long Zerg devouring angels in the distance.

"What you see today is the result of massive resource reallocation! By pouring everything into a single organism during hatching, the swarm created perfection from simplicity!"

"Chitin armor isn't a rare design. The real challenge in biodesign lies in application, to integrate such features into living systems without collapse, and to do so efficiently across billions of organisms!"

It clicked its jaws and leaned closer, as though to emphasize its point.

"You, Great Lord, see patterns where there are none. The true brilliance of evolution is not in invention, it's in optimization. The ability to use what already exists to its fullest potential!"

Cillian didn't interrupt. Instead, he smiled faintly.

He wasn't offended. On the contrary, he respected the brain worm's insight. In terms of biological application and design comprehension, it was superior to most gods he had ever encountered, perhaps even to himself.

"So that's it," he murmured. "It's not the design itself, but how the features are used. These mutated swarms that reached legendary ranks, they're not special beings at all. They're ordinary insects with exponentially increased resource investment."

The brain worm nodded eagerly. "Yes! Exactly! You understand now!"

Cillian's gaze darkened. He leaned forward slightly, his tone lowering.

"Then tell me, Brain Worm…" he said slowly, "how can I achieve perfect fusion between the devils' genetic sequence and the Zerg's?"

In all his previous experiments, the Zerg's genome had crushed that of the devils, consuming it entirely.

Now, he intended to change that.

He wanted to create devils that could stand beside the Zerg, creatures with the same adaptive, evolving strength.

after witnessing the extraordinary life structure of the Zerg, Cillian had conceived a dangerous idea, injecting Zerg gene sequences into the genetic code of demons.

If powerful, ever-evolving demons could inherit the Zerg's ability to perfectly shape and reconstruct their bodies, they would become truly unstoppable. They would surpass every other lifeform in this world and stand as the ultimate specie.

At first, however, it was merely a concept. Because the moment Cillian began his early trials, he discovered the Zerg's genetic sequence was far more dominant than that of the demons. No matter how strong an abyssal creature was, even the greatest of the demons, once Zerg genes were introduced into their cells, the result was always the same.

The infected organism would be consumed in an irreversible mutation process, its original structure erased, its mind lost.

In the most extreme of his experiments, Cillian had implanted a single incomplete strand of Zerg DNA into the cell of a Demon. Within a single day, the Demons form broke apart and twisted into that of a mindless insectoid husk.

These results made the truth painfully clear: the Zerg's genetic sequence stood at the beyond the current demonic design. Their genetic material was domineering, like wolves unleashed among sheep.

And so, after countless failed trials, Cillian reluctantly abandoned the idea of direct fusion. He feared that if even a fragment of Zerg DNA escaped control, the Endless Abyss could become a breeding ground for the swarm. Should that happen, there would be only one solution, to burn the infected plane to ash and erase it completely.

But now, with the brain worm in his grasp, the idea returned.

Because the brain worm was not just intelligent, it was capable of designing creatures that imitated demons in form and function. It could create semi-perfect hybrids, something even divine biologists could never achieve.

While Damon was still extracting its biological design data, Cillian knew in his heart that neither of them could match the brain worm's natural instinct for creation. The creature was born to design life. To it, the work of the gods was mere arithmetic.

That was why Cillian made his request. He hoped the brain worm could help him analyze the Zerg's genes directly, decode their essence and then find a way to apply that essence to the devils of the Abyss.

But to his surprise, the brain worm refused.

Or more accurately, it denied that such a goal could ever be achieved.

"Great Lord of the Abyss," the brain worm said solemnly, "your question describes a dream that cannot exist. The genes of the two races can never be integrated, let alone perfectly fused."

Cillian's expression remained calm. "Oh? Why do you say that?"

The brain worm scratched the growing shell along its head and answered slowly, its tone serious and ancient.

"Because I am Zerg, and I know the truth of our sequence. The genetic code of the Void Swarm has never changed since the dawn of existence. From the moment our kind was born, from the creation of the old world until now."

"Any attempt to alter it will fail. We can infect and convert other carbon-based organisms, but that is consumption, not fusion. No matter how powerful our hosts are, our sequences cannot merge. You may use your divine fire, your higher-order power, to destroy our genes temporarily, but that only burns the surface. As long as the Swarm's will exists, the genes will regenerate, repairing themselves to their original form."

"Our code cannot be altered, cannot be copied, and cannot be merged."

The creature paused, its expression darkening with something that almost resembled sorrow.

"Even an independent Zerg like me, severed from the Swarm's will, has lost the right to hatch the true lineage. If my genetic sequence is damaged, I can no longer restore it. To build a swarm again, I would have to imitate the Zerg genome crudely and craft a new, incomplete imitation. The original pattern is locked."

"A lock?" Cillian asked softly.

"Yes," the brain worm nodded, its tendrils trembling. "A lock that prevents us from deviation. One that stops us from falling into corruption or becoming something else. It was woven into us long ago, to preserve what we are."

Cillian fell silent, his mind processing every word.

It seemed the brain worm had lost access to the genetic authority of the swarm.

It was like a device that once had access to an infinite network, now permanently disconnected. Even if the connection flickered, the firewall would always reject it.

"I see," Cillian murmured at last. "I understand now."

He wasn't disappointed, if anything, he was impressed. The Zerg stood at a level of life far above that of Demons or gods. Their genome was not just advanced, it was divine in its own right.

It add sense, if gods could freely alter their genetic sequence, the Zerg would have been wiped out long ago..

Still, something in the worm's words drew Cillian's attention. When it had spoken of their origin, it had said something interesting.

He narrowed his eyes. "Wait. You said your swarm has existed since the beginning of time. But this multiverse is only a prototype. How can you predate it?"

The brain worm hesitated. Then, with a faint tremor in its voice, it spoke.

"The world we inhabit is a prototype, yes. But we…" it paused, its expression distant,, "we were not born here. The Void Swarm came from the cycle before this one, from a multiverse that shattered long ago. We are merely what survived its collapse."

"Just survivors," it whispered.

——————x——————

"How goes it, Maeve?"

Peter's voice cut through the static as he returned from the battlefield, his golden armor drenched in blood. He tossed the head of an insect the size of a mountain into his treasure vault before summoning attendants to clean the filth from his body.

Moments later, standing refreshed once more, he faced Maeve.

"The statistics are being compiled, brother Peter," she replied, her voice cold but steady. Her electronic eyes shifted from red to blue, then finally to green.

"The situation has improved significantly. Thanks to you and the angelic legions, the number of Zerg above the legendary level has been greatly reduced."

"Good." Peter nodded with satisfaction.

Though he hadn't faced true mortal danger in the recent battles, the experience was still draining. The very sight, and stench, of the insects' blood repulsed him. Even a drop felt like contamination.

But Maeve's next report made his expression tighten.

"However, not all worlds have been accounted for. Many remain under siege. If those worlds fall, the Zerg will have enough resources to restore their numbers completely."

As she spoke, several projections appeared before them, holographic maps of the besieged realms.

Among them, one world stood out. It pulsed like a vortex of black and red, swirling omnimously.

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