Surprisingly, there was no feeling on a summer night.

She had expected that activation would be accompanied by excruciating pain. After all, it was a huge amount of energy that was enough to destroy the world, and it shone directly on his head.

However, despite the magnitude of the visual effect, she did not feel any pain...... If I had to say it, it seemed to have a faint itch on my forehead, like a mosquito biting me.

As if seeing Xia Ye's doubts, Xiu Ji explained with a smile: "Even with such a high density of energy, for the head of Lord Xia Ye, it is only just enough to reach the lower limit of activating it, and of course it is impossible to cause any harm to it. Look at your forehead, you haven't even scratched a bit of skin~"

Summer Night shielded himself from the light with his hands, squinted his eyes and looked at his forehead, which was as smooth as a mirror, without a trace of scarring, and most of the energy derived from the spaceship was absorbed by his head, with only a little diffuse reflection, forming a pale blue halo that was close to white.

The whole process went surprisingly smoothly, and Summer Night watched her head being illuminated by a pillar of light for more than twenty minutes almost idly, but fortunately Shuhime had her side to chat, otherwise she would have only been able to admire the star that was turning red little by little in the distance.

“…… That said, it seems that the position is indeed a weakness, and at that time I had my hands full of nectar, but it tasted pretty good......"

"Hee-hee~ That's because it's a summer night adult, I was trying to eat a little at that time, but I fought with it fiercely......"

"Is that so...... Hey? Summer Night abruptly stopped the conversation, "That spaceship of yours doesn't look like it did just now?" ”

"Because for it, more than a billion years have passed. Summer Night, its lifespan is almost at its limit. ”

"Ah......h

Summer Night immediately reacted, the spacecraft that is a Dyson sphere is in the same time flow as the star, and since the star has spent more than a billion years, the spacecraft is of course too.

The strange shell of the pentagonal barrel was much dimmer compared to twenty minutes ago, and the net that encased the stars was even more pronounced, and some of the emerald green dots that had been rapidly circulating before were almost stagnant, like old trains about to be scrapped; The black grid that was the track was no longer complete, and many gaps and fractures could be seen on a summer night with the naked eye.

"No wonder you say you're going to lose a ship......"

"In fact, even if the ship's lifespan is not at its limit, it can no longer be preserved."

"Huh?"

"Because before a star is nearing its lifespan, it explodes into a red giant, and that alone is enough to destroy it."

"That's what I said......"

Summer Night looked at the stars and spaceships that were about to die in the distance, and was silent for a while.

"Summernight-sama shouldn't feel sorry, right? It's just a spaceship, and there's nothing to be reluctant about Xiu Ji...... But it's a bit of a pain, hehe~"

"No, I just sighed a little when I thought that in just twenty minutes, that star and spacecraft had already passed more than a billion years......

For some reason, she suddenly thought of the starship of Tang Yue and the Yumin, although for them, it had not been orbiting the edge of the black hole for too long, but it had actually spanned hundreds of millions of years.

"Yes...... Xiu Ji blinked her emerald green eyes, "Xiu Ji can't understand this feeling, Xiu Ji only feels sad when she is hungry. ”

Hearing this, Xia Ye couldn't help but laugh.

"It should be almost over, right?"

"Yes, Lord Summernight, there are less than three minutes left."

Soon, Summer Night felt a tingling sensation like electricity coming down the silk thread, and then, the face of the head quickly blurred, and when it became clear again, the face was exactly the same as the summer night now.

Part of her guess was confirmed, and she knew that the head had been activated.

Although its eyes were still closed, a blazing glow could be faintly visible in the gap between its eyelids. Just as Summer Night was looking at his head, Xiu Ji's voice came from the side:

"Summernight, your head has been activated, but it can't really be activated until you open your eyes."

This is the same as Summer Night's speculation: "I'm going to go back to Debussota and open my eyes." ”

Xiu Ji nodded: "Then, Lord Summer Night, Xiu Ji's mission has been completed. Shuhime still needs to stay here to take care of some personal matters, and Lord Summer Night can take the first step, and when you return, Shuhime will immediately release your sister. ”

"So...... Thank you, Shuhime. ”

"We'll see you later, Lord Summernight."

Summer Night tightened the thread and dragged the huge planet-like head back, and as it moved away from the star, it quickly shrank in size, and by the time it returned to Summer Night, it was "only" 200 meters in diameter.

Then, she let the big head fly towards the rift, along with the small head next to it, which was only the size of a normal human head.

At the same time as the two heads passed through the rift, Xiu Ji also began to retract her body, and the black semi-fluid gelatin returned from that world and flowed into her body, of course, after all the bodies were withdrawn, the huge crack quickly closed, leaving no trace.

But Xiu Ji didn't look at it the whole time, her eyes kept looking at the stars in the distance. It's almost completely red, and it could explode at any moment and become a red giant. The ship had become even older than it had been, but it was still miraculously barely afloat.

During the conversation, there was a fact that Shuhime did not tell Natsuya - even a spaceship built by the ancients could not still survive a billion years of operation unless there were "people" who were constantly repairing it.

There were "people" on that spaceship, and they were their own doppelgangers.

For Shogues, the doppelganger is also a part of his own body, and does not become self-conscious due to physical separation, except in some special circumstances, such as the little guy who fell next to Lord Summer Night, or those clones who were sent into the ship by themselves and could not maintain contact with the body due to the difference in the flow of time.

Even I don't know how they spent the long billions of years. Shogues are not born symbiotic beings, and after losing contact with their ontology, they will most likely re-separate into an infinite number of individuals. They may have built a new society in that "small" spaceship, and they have had countless wars, countless rise and fall of states, and dynasties......

But none of this matters, what matters is that before sending out these clones, he has implanted two iron rules in the deepest part of their instincts: first, they are not allowed to explore the mysteries of time and space; Second, maintaining and repairing the ship is the highest priority mission for the entire race.

The first prevents them from escaping the cage created by the difference in the flow of time, while the second ensures that the ship will function no matter what happens.

Judging by the results, they are doing a great job. But rightfully so—in the distant past, Shogues were tools used by the ancients to repair their massive machines.

And now, these kindreds who have separated from themselves are dying.

But Shuhime doesn't feel sad about this, as she told Summernight-sama, she only gets sad when she's hungry.

Now, she's hungry.

After all, separating those clones made her lose a lot of matter and energy.

Fortunately, there was something to eat right away......

From the moment of birth, the star that has been burning for tens of billions of years has finally ushered in its own end. Its volume suddenly expanded, reaching tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of times before...... The blood-red flame engulfed the Ancient's ship in an instant, the last cry of a star before it died—

But before it reached the peak of its size, an even greater black shadow obscured the starry sky around it, and it quickly enveloped the red giant star in the explosion, swallowing all rays and rays, light and heavy elements.

In the blink of an eye, the short-lived red giant star disappeared into the starry sky, and Xiu Ji ate it and quickly left, leaving only a cold dead silence.

(End of chapter)