Epic of Caterpillar
chapter-2411

.

•

I heard in silence what Flora was talking with Eduard and Michaella.

"So? Flora asked. "Will you try to explain to me what happened to humanity since you all left?" asked Flora. "I could also give you a brief explanation of what happened on Earth, and what happened to the very last humans that remained like me."

"We would love to know..." said Michaela. "And what happened to humanity is... well, something that has span for hundreds of thousands of years by now."

"However, we could give you a brief resume," said Eduard. "Once our ancestors departed from Earth, there was the Great Era of Exploration, where humanity divided into twelve different colonies that explored each a part of the Universe."

"Twelve?!" asked Flora.

"Yes, out of the twelve, eight didn't make it to a safe planet," nodded Michaella. "Either unable to ever find a suitable planet and dying off due to eventual lack of resources or because of alien lifeforms attacks."

"Indeed, that's where one of humanity's first problems appeared, the world beyond our planet was actually full of life," explained Eduard. "Back then humanity always wondered if we were truly alone in the universe. The answer came abruptly when three of these missing colonies were attacked by these alien beings."

"The Three Calamities that the ancient humans had to surpass to prosper in space," said Michaella. "First, the Crimson Emperor. A gigantic alien lifeform made completely out of red crystals that feed on the radiation of stars. It expanded endlessly into billions of red colored drones, and it constantly attacked any other lifeform that drew closer to its "territory" any star it had deemed as a source of food."

"Second, the Endless Swarm. A huge swarm of monstrous tentacled aberrations that consumed all lifeform they saw and assimilated it... They were the scariest as they could infiltrate spaceships or smaller, divided colonies and completely ruin them," explained Eduard. "Originally their home world had become their queen, a massive planet-sized alien entity."

"And lastly, the third calamity, the Agonizing White Wings," explained Michaella. "The first contact we ever had with Angels was a terrifying one accord to history. This entity would simply destroy anything that it saw regarding our civilization. We called them Agonizing White Wings because this enormous angelic being made of white light had their body covered on large crimson and black spears, while fighting us, it was constantly bleeding and screaming in agony, crying."

"T-That's terrifying..." Flora muttered. "I can't believe... I guess that's right, the universe outside must have more life than I had imagined. With so many worlds thriving with living beings. I've even heard of Vampires, Dragons, and even Elven races that live in outer space, completely unrelated to the ones from Genesis that even then look a lot alike."

"That is part of a theory the ancient humans had," said Michaella. "It is the Theory of Records. It is said that in the universe and even parallel planes there's a Record that covers it all. They call this the Universal Records and it records all things and accordingly it reproduces them constantly based in such records. Dragons, Elves, Vampires, and more. Even when their origins were completely different, they might appear identical in various things. Although we've barely made much contact with some of the larger and more hostile families, we have good relationships with various alien species we've assimilated into our empire... though this is where the separation also started."

"Separation?" Flora asked.

"Yes, because the surviving colonies ended dividing into even more colonies later we continued spreading through many planets. Some outright conquered already inhabited planets, making a huge mess," explained Eduard. "Then in the future these colonies gained independence and became their own planet countries. Then when they wanted to do a unification it became difficult, and this is where the first wars between the descendants of humanity's survivors began. Several factions were born, but the two that remain even now were those that aimed for forceful unification and expansion and those that aimed for the independence of all colonies and for a peaceful set of alliances and bonds, while also pursuing peaceful negotiations with alien races and to not conquer them."

"It has gone terribly, right?" asked Flora.

"Yes indeed," nodded Eduard. "We are the latter faction. The one currently invading Genesis are the Unifiers as they call themselves. After we finally managed to find the coordinates for our original planet, an ongoing project that has lasted for hundreds of years now and we finally got here, seeing how much the planet has changed and how it was full of even more boundless resources than before, they immediately decided to reconquer Earth."

"How bold, even with Gods and other Supernatural Beings living in Earth now?" asked Flora. "I might not be there right now but there are still several powerful Supreme Gods in that world without even considering Genesis herself... what gives them so much confidence they can win? No technology could ever..."

"Well, our technology could probably do it now," said Michaella. "We've advanced beyond previous technology to completely new levels. After humanity managed to absorb the plasma of stars and fuel powerful weapons of mass destruction with them, we were able to destroy the Crimson Emperor and shatter their Soul Core into pieces. From there, we used his materials to create even stronger technology."

"Then the swarm's home planet was pulverized, completely destroyed," said Eduard. "It was still an arduous fight, but the machines we built upon the Crimson Emperor's materials plus the plasma of stars was strong enough to go against them as well!"

"And lastly, the Angel was also ultimately slain," said Michaella. "Over ten thousand years ago by a powerful pilot that carries your family name, Flora. He piloted a giant machine of white and silver color powered by a hundred crystalized planetoid cores, ten-star cores, and a miniature black hole. The greatest machine humanity has ever built. The Great Star Guardian, Eternus."

"A-A miniature black hole?!" asked Flora. "You made such ridiculous impossible technology? I... I guess after hundreds of thousands- no, perhaps millions of years. Something like this could eventually be achieved... yet despite that humanity never was able to empower their own bodies?"

"No, it was always easier to just create machines to solve our problems," Eduard shrugged with his machine's shoulders.

"Ah... Yeah, that's definitely how humans work." Flora smiled bitterly.

She's not wrong.

.