Chapter 91: Vector Control — Universal Repulsion

Chapter 91: Vector Control — Universal Repulsion

“Void Miraculous Stone? What on earth is Kingdou talking about now? Is this some brand-new setting the production team just added out of nowhere?”

“No idea. I don’t think it showed up earlier.”

“What do you mean it didn’t? Didn’t that Starbearer Association HQ envoy say before that the Doctor was holding a key he’d been searching for all along? I’m guessing this so-called Void Miraculous Stone is that key.”

“Do you think this stone has something to do with Kong? I mean, his name literally has the character ‘Void’ in it, and his first Star Core is even called Void Mark. That can’t be a coincidence.”

“Drop the ‘do you think.’ I’m convinced it’s definitely related to Kong. And I’ve got a feeling that his future main storyline is going to revolve around this so-called Miraculous Stone.”

Although this was the first time they had ever heard the term Void Miraculous Stone, thanks to years of accumulated experience watching anime, the dimensional viewers instantly guessed why the production team had chosen to reveal this crucial piece of information through Tendou’s mouth at such a key moment at the end of the first season.

No need to guess—this was obviously a setup for the second season, Stellaris: Glimmer.

In fact, this so-called “Miraculous Stone” was very likely to become the central thread running through the entire Stellaris anime series.

And the viewers guess was spot on.

Because just like every anime protagonist has a clearly defined goal and an inborn mission, Chen Kong, as the officially designated protagonist of Stellaris, naturally had a mission of his own.

That mission was to collect the twelve “Miraculous Stones” scattered across this world.

As for why Chen Kong was capable of doing such a thing, the core reason lay in his first Star Core—Void Mark.

Or rather, in the Void Miraculous Stone that existed within his body.

Because only a Void Miraculous Stone could neutralize the other “Miraculous Stones” and prevent them from repelling one another.

Thus, in Tendou’s view, the so-called “Miraculous Stones” were essentially the equivalent of Marvel’s Infinity Stones, or the Dragon Balls from Dragon Ball.

And Chen Kong, the protagonist, was like a walking “Infinity Gauntlet”—a special container designed specifically to carry the “Miraculous Stones.”

Of course, Tendou himself did not actually know the complete information regarding the twelve Miraculous Stones.

He did not even know what their specific effects were.

All of this was merely information he had inferred from something Tachibana once said to Benjamin in the original work.

As for why he chose to reveal this information at this very moment, there were two reasons.

First, to replace Tachibana and become the strongest mouthpiece for leaking lore on behalf of the Stellaris production team, subtly increasing his own presence within Stellaris without leaving any obvious traces.

Second, he needed to appropriately reduce the number of helpers on Benjamin’s side.

After all, in the original story, the already-injured Tachibana—whose strength had greatly declined—used this very tactic to persuade Benjamin to kill off the remaining Association Starbearers for her.

And just as Tendou had expected, not long after he uttered the words “Miraculous Stone,” Benjamin made his move.

BOOM—BOOM—BOOM—BOOM!

Accompanied by four blinding bursts of explosive light that tore through the dim underground drainage tunnels, four brand-new charred corpses instantly appeared before Tendou’s eyes.

And among these newly appeared corpses was the Association Starbearer who had reacted immediately, but failed to escape in time.

Looking at the looks of unwillingness frozen on their faces, Tendou deliberately let out a regretful sigh.

He then lightly tapped the ground with his toes, leapt onto a nearby elevated platform, and looked down at Benjamin from above.

At this moment, he seemed as though he were standing on the moral high ground, pointing fingers at Benjamin below.

“Ah, I was originally hoping that at least one of them would answer my earlier question about justice and evil.”

“But you—you didn’t even give them a chance to open their mouths. You just killed them outright.”

“That said, you Machina really are utterly inhuman. If I’m not mistaken, you must have undergone surgery to remove human emotions long ago, right? Otherwise, how could you be this cold-blooded?”

Though a playful smile hung on Tendou’s face, his eyes were cold as ice.

Faced with Tendou’s words, Benjamin’s reply was calm to the point of being chilling.

“On the road toward miracles, there will always be people who become sacrifices. There’s nothing strange about that.”

At the same time, there wasn’t the slightest fluctuation in Benjamin’s facial expression as he spoke.

All that could be seen was the distinctive cold sheen of a nanometal coating.

He had indeed long since discarded something as unnecessary as “human emotions.”

Hearing this answer, the smile on Tendou’s face gradually faded.

“To speak of other people’s lives so lightly… as expected—”

Before he could finish his sentence, Tendou’s figure vanished from where he stood.

The pooled water beneath his feet suddenly exploded into a perfectly circular splash, caused by the violent shockwave generated when he kicked off the ground at extreme speed.

And when Tendou reappeared, he was already right beside Benjamin.

A leg strike accompanied by a piercing whistle through the air shot straight toward Benjamin’s head.

“—you people really do deserve to die.”

In response to Tendou’s sudden assault, torrents of green data flashed wildly through the pupils of Benjamin’s nanomechanical eyes.

In the next instant, he raised his right arm, blocking Tendou’s attack with pinpoint precision.

Boom!

The moment Tendou’s right leg struck Benjamin, the nanometallic skin on Benjamin’s arm suddenly broke apart into hundreds of tiny metallic particles—which then detonated in an instant, within a time frame far too short for ordinary humans to react.

An orange-red fireball rapidly expanded between the two of them.

The powerful shockwave that followed blasted both of them backward at the same time.

Tendou elegantly twisted his body in midair, slid a short distance upon landing, and then completely stabilized himself.

Throughout this process, the vector force field surrounding his body twisted away all the flames produced by the metallic explosion, sealing them completely outside his body—fully negating the damage from Benjamin’s explosion.

On the other side, while still airborne, several openings suddenly split open along Benjamin’s back, revealing multiple miniature thrusters within.

These thrusters detonated large quantities of pre-calculated nanometal, allowing Benjamin to forcibly halt his backward momentum through this special form of explosive propulsion.

But whether it was Benjamin or Tendou, the two shared an unspoken understanding—neither of them lingered in place for even a moment.

They immediately charged silently toward each other once more.

At this point, their speed had already reached the level where, on an anime screen, only blurred afterimages could be left behind.

In this exchange, Benjamin perfectly demonstrated the terrifying “rationality” of a Machina.

His combat style was nearly flawless—every fragment of nanometal was under the precise control of his “ultra-high computational power.”

At times, it transformed into sharp blades; at others, it broke apart to detonate.

On some occasions, he could even fire metallic spikes from his elbows mid-block, attempting to catch Tendou off guard with sudden counterattacks.

Yet for some reason, despite being nothing more than flesh and blood, Tendou showed not the slightest concern about being injured by Benjamin.

Every exchange was carried out in a reckless, “life-for-life” manner.

And yet, Benjamin truly found himself helpless against it.

Because every one of his attacks would eerily stop at a distance of exactly nine millimeters from Tendou’s body, utterly incapable of dealing any real damage to him.

Although it was only a brief series of clashes, the fight was not only visually stunning, but the production team had clearly gone all out to emphasize its spectacle.

Whether it was the sound design, the visual fidelity, or any other aspect, everything had been pushed to the absolute limit—leaving the dimensional viewers thoroughly exhilarated, while also making Benjamin’s primary combat style clear to them.

As a nano-modified Machina, Benjamin’s entire body was constructed from extremely expensive, special-purpose nanometal.

This not only granted his body a level of strength far beyond that of ordinary second-order Starbearers, but also allowed him to maximize the effectiveness of his Metallic Detonation Star Origin.

Because whenever he wished, he could suddenly separate a small portion of his own nanometal and trigger a terrifying explosion.

After all, the power of Metallic Detonation depended not only on the size of the metal involved, but also on the material itself.

Among all metallic materials, nanometal was truly top-tier.

At the same volume and mass, the explosive power produced by nanometal was several times greater than that of ordinary metals.

And because his entire body was forged from nanometal, Benjamin’s strength, defense, and offensive power all vastly surpassed those of other Starbearers of the same rank.

When all of that was combined with the “ultra-high computational power” and “information gathering” unique to a Machina, even though Tendou had already demonstrated terrifying strength far beyond that of a typical second-order Starbearer—and was completely unfazed by Benjamin’s attacks—he was still, on rare occasions, being suppressed.

Bang!

Accompanied by Benjamin’s expressionless punch slamming into Tendou’s chest, a violent burst of explosive firelight instantly swallowed Tendou whole.

The astonishing shockwaves produced by the blast directly caused the entire underground drainage complex to shudder.

As the concrete ceiling reached its limits and cracked open in countless places, large chunks broke loose and fell like rain into the pooled water below, sending splash after splash skyward.

However, although Tendou’s figure was blasted away amidst the explosion’s firelight, he merely flipped once in midair and landed steadily on the ground.

Staring at Tendou, who had already regained his footing not far away, Benjamin’s visual sensors suddenly detected an anomaly.

That anomaly was this—despite being struck head-on by multiple metallic explosions, Tendou didn’t even have a single corner of his clothing scorched.

With that thought, Benjamin immediately began observing more closely.

And it didn’t take long for him to discover the reason.

At a distance of exactly nine millimeters from Tendou’s body, a layer of barely perceptible vector-field ripples was flowing and circulating.

It was precisely by relying on this vector force field—known as “Universal Repulsion”—that Tendou had flawlessly negated every single attack from Benjamin without taking any damage.

【Vector Control · Universal Repulsion】

【Effect: When activated, a vector filtering net is established around the user’s body based on a specific computational formula.

This net classifies incoming vectors as “harmful” or “harmless,” reflecting all dangerous substances outward, while allowing only essential elements—such as gravity, air pressure, light, oxygen, heat, and sound wavelengths—to pass through.】

Judging purely from its visual presentation, the “Universal Repulsion” Tendou was using now looked extremely similar to the “Great Aegis” he had previously deployed in Deep Blue Metropolis.

Both techniques were capable of completely blocking all incoming enemy attacks without taking any damage.

But in reality, there was a vast difference between the two.

“Universal Repulsion” was based on precise, rational calculations, using the minimum amount of star energy to neutralize—at the greatest possible efficiency—any attack that could pose a threat to Tendou.

“Great Aegis,” on the other hand, was essentially just a directional protective barrier draped over Tendou’s body.

Regardless of how strong or weak the enemy’s attack was, it consumed a massive amount of his star energy simply to maintain.

It could be said that in terms of star energy efficiency, Universal Repulsion far outclassed Great Aegis.

As such, Universal Repulsion could be regarded as an advanced version of Great Aegis.

However, to actually deploy Universal Repulsion, Tendou not only needed the Star-Eclipse Eye’s Future Sight and star energy observation capabilities, but also had to possess Overclocked Computation, a Machina-type exclusive talent.

After all, deciding when to reflect an attack, and how much star energy to expend during the reflection to ensure maximum personal safety, were calculations that only Overclocked Computation could complete in an instant.

And this was precisely why Tendou had been willing to spend 500,000 popularity points to exchange for the Portable Quantum Core.

For his current self, the boost this equipment provided was simply enormous.

If he didn’t have this piece of gear, Tendou would only be able to rely on Great Aegis to fight Benjamin.

And in that case, Benjamin wouldn’t even need to think about how to break through Great Aegis. He would only need to consider how to drain Tendou’s star energy dry.

After all, in terms of base star energy reserves, that was the greatest advantage a second-order Starbearer like him had over Tendou.

A Machina would never fail to see such a point—nor would it ever let such an opportunity slip by.

“By relying on auxiliary equipment to achieve Overclocked Computation, you’ve obtained a highly efficient vector-field defense.”

“I have to admit, the way you’ve developed Vector Control to this extent has indeed presented me with quite a difficult problem.”

“Because according to my calculations, if we continue fighting at this level of intensity…”

“The first one to run out of star energy would actually be me—a second-order Starbearer.”

Gazing at Tendou, who stood in the pooled water not far away, Benjamin calmly stated his conclusion.

In response, Tendou showed no trace of smug satisfaction. Instead, he replied just as calmly:

“But you’ve also noticed the flaw in this technique, haven’t you?”

Faced with Tendou’s question, Benjamin nodded, indicating that he had indeed already found a way to counter Universal Repulsion.

And that method was, in fact, quite simple.

Vision.

Because for Tendou—who had yet to fully complete the Star-Eclipse Eye—although his eyes already possessed various special abilities, they still lacked the one capability most crucial to Universal Repulsion:

Full-coverage vision.

In other words, as long as an attack could be launched from a blind spot in Tendou’s field of view, his Universal Repulsion would very likely be unable to react in time.

And this was currently the only weakness of Tendou’s Universal Repulsion.

“Astonishing—truly astonishing. For a mere first-order Starbearer, you’ve already reached such an outrageous level.”

“You should know that before you, even the Grand President himself—hailed as the strongest Starbearer of this era—was incapable of possessing power as terrifying as yours while still at the first order.”

“I can’t say whether this is because your compatibility with Vector Control is exceptionally high, or because your personal talent has already surpassed what ordinary people can even imagine.”

“But no matter which it is, none of that matters anymore.”

“Because you—who stand in my way today—must die here.”

As his words fell, Benjamin’s body began to undergo an obvious transformation.

His nanometal body started to compress inward, releasing harsh, teeth-grinding metallic screeches.

In the process, his physique visibly shrank at a rapid pace, eventually stabilizing at a height of only around one and a half meters.

At the same time, dark-red, magma-like patterns appeared across his silver-gray metallic skin.

The “power engine” embedded in his chest roared continuously, emitting crimson light and scorching heat so intense that even nanometal could not fully conceal it—instantly vaporizing the water clinging to his body and the ground beneath his feet into billowing white steam.

The cause of all these phenomena lay in the special Machina-type technique he wielded—

Overlimit.

In response, Tendou was equally unstinting in offering his praise.

“Compressing the body in exchange for greater strength and energy-transmission efficiency.”

“Sacrificing part of the nanometal to reduce overall mass, while simultaneously using it as fuel for the power engine—and under the effects of Metallic Detonation, pushing the energy release of that nanometal to its absolute limit.”

“I have to say, although you Machina Type Starbearers are utterly devoid of humanity, when it comes to your attitude and methods for solving problems, you always manage to find the optimal solution.”

“But…”

Tendou looked at the expressionless Benjamin, his body covered in dark-red patterns, and suddenly broke into a smile.

“You who place excessive faith in data, who always choose only the most rational and ‘correct’ option—how could you ever grasp that fleeting tail-flame of a miracle?”

“Miracles… will never descend upon cold, unfeeling machines.”

As he spoke, Tendou pulled out a special syringe filled with pale blue liquid from within his clothes, and without the slightest hesitation, plunged it into his neck.

Under the stimulation of the pale blue fluid, Tendou’s blue Star-Eclipse Eye shone ever more brilliantly, and the star path patterns flowing within it became visibly more complex.

Seeing this, Benjamin remarked with some surprise:

“Exchanging lifespan and permanent blindness for a brief period of physical overlimit.”

“Indeed, human emotions are something we Machina will never truly understand.”

“Because so often, humans clearly know what the most correct choice is—and yet they still insist on making decisions that are incomprehensible, just like what you’re doing right now.”

“To sacrifice yourself for others… in my view, that kind of decision is simply too foolish.”

As Benjamin spoke, he steadily began adapting to his post-Overlimit body, making the necessary preparations for the battle to come.

At the same time, in the distance, Tendou was also adjusting to his forcibly awakened Star-Eclipse Eye.

During this brief lull between clashes, Tendou replied with a smile, “Foolish? I don’t think so.”

“After all, you people who believe only in cold, hard data—how could you possibly understand that the greatest difference between humans and you lies in—”

Tendou tossed aside the syringe that had contained the Heaven’s Eye Beast Serum, raised his head to look at Benjamin, who had likewise finished adapting to his Overlimit state, and said with a smile:

“—believing that a miracle will happen is itself already a miracle.”

“Is that so?”

In an instant, Benjamin appeared behind Tendou, his voice calm as he threw a punch.

“Then let me see whether the miracle you speak of will truly descend upon you.”

Without turning around—despite Benjamin clearly being in his visual blind spot—Tendou reacted as if forewarned, spinning around and lashing out with a whip-like kick.

As Tendou’s leg strike collided with Benjamin’s iron fist, every falling droplet of water within a ten-meter radius suddenly froze in midair, then simultaneously exploded into a beautiful mist.

Before long, the two—having staked everything—once again crashed into an intense battle.

The concrete ground beneath their feet, unable to withstand the terrifying shockwaves of their clash, collapsed across a wide area.

At the same time, vast amounts of pooled water burst from the shattered surrounding walls like fountains, causing the water level in the entire underground drainage complex to rise at a shocking speed.

Neither Benjamin nor Tendou paid this any mind.

Their two figures flashed and collided again and again.

Each exchange between them was like pressing a pause button on the surroundings, locking the spraying droplets into bizarre geometric patterns.

Yet as this continued, warning signals akin to overload alarms rang out incessantly from the power core in Benjamin’s chest, while the nanometal skin covering his body began to crack visibly.

Tendou, standing opposite him, was in no better condition.

Bloodshot veins spread across his blue eyes, and two terrifying streams of blood-tears flowed from the corners of his eyes, sliding down his cheeks and dripping onto the ground.

It was obvious that in this earth-shaking gamble—one where both men had wagered everything—they were both nearing their respective limits.

Yet despite the perilous state they were in, neither Tendou nor Benjamin paid the slightest attention to their own condition.

Because what they were gambling on was that the other would collapse first.

And both of them firmly believed that the one who would break first—would be the other.

On this point, neither of them harbored the slightest doubt.

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