Xyrin Empire

I sat side by side with Sandora, and in front of us was Visca, clutching her head and twisting around restlessly. Pandora, sitting not far away, wore a blank expression, having closed her eyes and entered standby mode, with only an occasional "beep" to indicate that this little girl wasn't asleep yet.

Dingdang looked drowsy as she lay in my shirt pocket, rubbing her eyes before wriggling back inside, muttering as she did so: "Ah Jun, goodnight... don't button it up."

She has completely made this pocket her second home.

"How do you feel now?" I asked concernedly, running my hand through Visca's hair, which she had tousled herself into a mess, "Are you dizzy?"

"I'm fine now," Visca's cat-like pupils were gradually swirling like mosquito coils, and the little girl yawned long and deeply, "Brother, brother, I want to sleep."

Visca's biological clock, adjusted by Big Sister, made her a very obedient child who went to bed at the hour. But unfortunately, tonight Visca may not be able to sleep early.

Though it's a ridiculous and messed-up logical relationship, I have reasons to make this connection: Earlier, three Imperial Starship wreckages, powerful enough to fry and cook Earth, exploded over Visca Barrier Star without any obstruction from the Starship Shield and interception mechanisms, directly impacting the Barrier Star itself. And strictly speaking, Visca Barrier Star is exactly this cat-eyed little sister in front of me, meaning she had at least three main cannon attacks happen over her head. Even though the incredible defensive power of the Barrier Star merely wrecked the furniture in front, I am very worried if the little girl might have any aftereffects—as we know, her brain isn't all that normal to begin with.

"If there is a malfunction, it would be the Barrier Star malfunctioning, not me. I just got a little dizzy for a moment," Visca continued to clutch her head and twist around as if trying to screw it off. Although the impacts mysteriously struck the Moon, Visca had a completely synchronous reaction, which was incredibly curious, and Sandora also expressed some inability to explain this phenomenon. But what I'm concerned about now is whether to send this reluctant little girl for a check-up.

"Why not go for a health check-up in Shadow City, it won't take much time anyway."

I reached out and pinched the cheek of the cat-eyed girl, asking with concern.

"Ugh, it's troublesome," Visca rubbed against my hand, then snuggled over and curled up beside me in a small ball, "I can check myself—Brother, don't worry, there's really no problem!"

Seeing how determined Visca was, I didn't feel right forcing it, though of course, I couldn't help but worry. Perhaps my expression was too obvious, Pandora suddenly stood up, stood silently beside her sister, and under my puzzled gaze, tugged on the latter's collar: "Get up, check."

Pandora's signature concise speech, Visca unusually did not protest against her sister this time, but instead, pouted and stood up, closing her eyes.

Pandora extended her right hand, and to my surprise, her index finger had somehow turned into a fifteen-centimeter-long needle sparking with blue light. She marked the position on Visca's neck twice with this needle before decisively stabbing it in, the aggressive scene made one involuntarily shudder. Even knowing it's probably harmless, I couldn't help but shrink my neck: these two little girls are quite peculiar from all angles.

After inserting the ambiguously functional and questionable-looking needle into Visca's neck, Pandora's eyes switched to an ice-blue hue indicative of high-speed calculation, continuously beeping "beep beep" from within her, making one want to joke about whether this girl needs a battery change, and Visca awkwardly moved her neck, promptly silenced by Pandora's karate chop.

With the final sizzling energy turbulence, Pandora's eyes reverted to their gray and hazy look. She withdrew her right hand, her index finger returning to normal from the needle, then nodded to me and Sandora: "Brain's broken, everything else is normal."

My mouth twitched twice, wondering when Pandora also became so sharp-tongued, while Visca instantly became furious, jumping up to battle her sister. The two little girls just started a ruckus in the living room without self-awareness, this time, the somewhat rash Visca subdued the impeccably trained by Big Sister and thus extra obedient at night Pandora, slightly taking the upper hand. Visca succeeded in pinning Pandora onto the carpet, giggling foolishly as she extended her right hand, her index finger mimicking her sister, transforming into a needle with body scan capability, swiftly launched into Pandora's neck: "Hehe, idiot, this time it's my turn to check you!"

Pandora, of course, wasn't willing to be outdone, and while Visca was busy analyzing data, she sneakily raised her hand, then with a "zizz," inserted the electric-sparked needle into the back of Visca's head, causing them both to simultaneously shiver.

The two little girls, barely a metre and twenty, rolled into a heap on the carpet as they play-fought, pulling each other's hair and biting each other's ears, now adding a new game—transforming their fingers into long whatevers to check their sibling's body. Apart from the noise of the little ones fighting, cascading energy flows sizzled, or the self-checking reboot system's "beep beep," sounding rather lively, and due to the central system continuously being scanned and interrupted, they fought while inadvertently twitching a couple of times. After watching for two minutes, the things I imagined could write over two million words worth, the entire living room was a lovely garden of lilies, adding to my aesthetic delight.

But just as Sandora couldn't take it anymore and intended to pull up the two little ones currently forgetting their duty, Pandora and Visca suddenly trembled once, laying there immobile.

I was alarmed, and Sandora stepped forward to check them, only to shrug with a wry smile: "Both have crashed... messing around with the final core like that, crashing is expected. This way, I forced them into sleep mode, at least until eight o'clock tomorrow morning."

After sending the two little girls, who messed around and crashed, to their rooms, I returned to the living room and nodded to Sandora: "Alright, you wanted to say something just now?"

"Mental communication, you feel Visca's state is normal?" Sandora smiled warmly.

I paused: "You're saying the Moon Base's warning system is offline?"

"That's right, all along, the Moon Base defense circle's warning tasks have been entirely handled by the Barrier Star's own defense platforms. The various radars we've added within the base are attached to secondary-level equipment chains. If they fail, it inevitably means the Moon Base's warning radars are down, but that's impossible. Before the impacts, all radars displayed everything was normal with no attack signals."

"You mean..." I furrowed my brow, looking at Sandora, starting to get a bit concerned.

"Visca having the Glory Starship itself is something I'm unable to understand even now. You should know, the Glory Starship is a 'Heart Image Information' projected when a Xyrin Apostle individual reaches peak strength, which demands the projection source possesses very strong Spiritual Energy and Soul Strength. But seventy thousand years ago, Visca's personality wasn't even complete; she could hardly think coherently. In such a state, unfolding an extremely complex Planet Battleship is unbelievable."

I didn't interrupt, waiting for Sandora to continue her speculation.

"For now, we're unable to explain why Visca can create a Glory Starship while being unclear-minded. We can temporarily considered it as a pile-up of incredibly low-probability coincidences. But it is now evident that this Starship is flawed; its synchronizing link with Visca seems overly strong and cannot be actively closed, this is quite a troublesome risk—if a meteor shower explodes, Visca may indeed need to switch to vibration mode."

Me: "..."

"Of course, the key issue is its warning mechanism—three enormous starship wreckages, how did they not elicit any response."

This should be the main issue! Throw that vibration mode as a one-time joke away, please!

"Will we have to ask Visca herself about these things later?" Seeing Sandora silent for a moment, I tentatively asked.

"I'm worried she might get emotionally unstable again," Sandora frowned, "From the beginning, she's been most concerned about being seen as an alien or as a subpar replica of Pandora. That's why she tries to win at everything; whatever Pandora does, she has to do equally well."

"She's even more adept at causing trouble than Pandora, which is what makes her stronger than her sister," I said, nodding.

Sandora pinched me: "Stop interrupting. I'm saying, if Visca finds out that her most proud Glory Starship is actually a malfunctioning piece of junk, wouldn't she go crazy again?"

Looking at the troubled expression on the young girl in front of me, I suddenly laughed.

"What's so funny?" The golden-haired girl shot me a sideways glance in irritation, "Laugh again and I'll eat you!"

I shivered: "Ahem, I didn't expect you to have such a meticulous side. At first, you seemed so carefree."

Sandora bared her teeth: "I'm a girl too, you know! Being careful is normal! And I've been with you for so long, I've caught your habit of overthinking things."

Smiling, I ruffled Sandora's golden hair; her adorably feisty demeanor hardly ever surfaces in front of me—now her tooth-baring is just for attention. Regarding her concern for Visca, I've felt similarly, but recently realized something: "I think I can handle discussing it now—the kid is softer than you expect."

"Confident in your big brother halo?"

"Not just that. More importantly, have you noticed the extraordinary closeness between Visca and Pandora now?" I pinched Sandora's nose, "What were they doing while playing around just now? They were poking each other's final core with Needles! It's true High Order Apostles can resurrect, but would they let anyone mess with their final core? Tyson isn't afraid of a beating, but to randomly pummel him, you'd need to have relations greater than his father... Overall, Visca has stopped caring about being a clone of Pandora or being seen as a burden by anyone. She simply loves being with her sister, despite always playing and fighting. But I'm sure if either of them suffered on the battlefield, the other would rally forty group armies for revenge in two seconds."

"Alright, I understand," Sandora punched me, "But can't you ever stop steering the conversation off course after three sentences?"

"Ahem, anyway, I think it's good to talk to Visca about it. You see, her Glory Starship's defense malfunctioned, but she had no idea. Had she never used her Glory Form before? How did she handle such situations in the past? Or did this 'malfunction' only appear recently? Only she can clarify these things."

"But that requires time, and Visca won't like recalling those things."

"Certainly," I sighed, "If possible, no one would want Visca to revisit those days. But my real worry is leaving this issue unresolved—what if a meteor shower really happens one day? Visca would be shaken the whole day! And the Glory Starship doesn't automatically defend itself. I'm saying if, if someone were to attack our Capital World, wouldn't the moon then be a sitting target?"

"Indeed a concern. I'm still puzzled about how those three impacts bypassed countless layers of the moon base's defense systems, the starship's radar warning, starship shield, deflection field, and even the simplest mass sensors—the sensors were blind before the impacts, no report... Previously unaware, Visca Barrier Star has such exaggerated defects, yet it performed normally in all tests!"

"The Defense Department will figure it out," I stood before the still faintly glowing holographic projection in the living room center. On display was the first impact site, where a twisted large metal stood upright at the circular mountain base, constantly emitting blue flashes, with flowing Ghost Energy leaking through the cracks on the crystallized mountain walls—slightly duller than before, indicating the Ghost Energy carried by the impact had dissipated in the explosion and now entered decay, "What about the other two aliens?"

"After sending those kids back to their room, other reconnaissance soldiers reported— all three fragments have similar characteristics," Sandora joined me at the holographic projection, "The second fragment is the same size as the first, although distorted beyond recognition, it appears to be the same model module. The third fragment's size equals the other two combined—a super giant—not only pierced through the moon soil, its follow-up explosion evaporated hundreds of kilometers of moon shell, look."

Sandora switched the screen to reveal a startling large plain in front of me.

Circular mountain? Perhaps overall shape does resemble such an object, but now the "circular mountain" base was no longer the black crystallized moon soil. The intense impact had evaporated the mountain's interior rock and soil, exposing large silver-white armor plates underneath, scarred with burn marks. I spotted a blood-red triangular emblem—that's Visca's logo, commonly seen on the Barrier Star. The first impact still embedded in the molten alloy ground center, smoking, sparking, encircled by black radial impact scars.

"It might be an energy buffer unit from a large starship, filled with Ghost Energy when the impact happened. The piece, undamaged, was at least three kilometers long, though we can't find its interface part—impossible to determine which spaceship it came from."

"Can't an expert like you tell? Such a large thing must have a special purpose, right?"

"Even experts can't tell," Sandora sighed, "I've mentioned, a common module—Empire's large starships have many modules that are interchangeable—one module can be used in over twenty different ships, only differentiated by the interface adapter—yet adapters are typically easiest to damage—currently, the sole assessment is these three fragments might originate from one ship, which suggests the ship's size was ten kilometers level or more—at least Expedition Class, at most Eternal Level—anyway, an Imperial Battleship disassembled in distant space, with its wreckage falling into our Universe, bypassing our early warning, leading to a major explosion directly on the moon base shell—the fortunate aspect being Visca Barrier Star excels in defense, causing mere lunar tremors rather than penetrating ordinary Planet Battleship main armor array, and indirectly destroying our coffee table and sofa—Ah Jun, can I eat them as a midnight snack? Didn't satisfy my hunger tonight..."

I've noticed one thing, Sandora's actions seem directly influenced by hunger! The only thing affecting Queen's judgment left is meal time!

Sandora quickly dispatched the living room wreckage, a process distressing to watch—I truly can't fathom how that tiny mouth could crunch through a pile of wood chips and marble cleanly—then she even leaned over to kiss my nose: "Smell, no odor—you can't dislike me for it..."

I knocked her head lightly and checked the time—Anwina had already gone to the kitchen for nighttime cleaning, it was already eleven-thirty.

Mercury Lamp surely asleep by now; she'd habitually stay awake waiting when I'm out, but at home, she rests easily, promptly at bedtime, not leaving the door open—returning to my room now would probably wake the little one and ruin the night's peace.

"Sandora, let's go to your room tonight."

Grinning cheekily, I leaned down swiftly to kiss Sandora's ear, "It's been several days since we've been alone..."

Sandora's cheeks flushed slightly, even the iron-blooded Queen has moments of shy tenderness, then she snickered, pointing at my pocket: "First try handling this little thing—I guarantee once you undress, she'll wake and wedge between us, asking thousands of questions—you'll spend all night explaining the thousand reasons why not..."

Me: "..."

That's not fair! Never letting Dingdang nest in the pocket past ten again next time! (To be continued. If you liked this work, visit Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)