I Am The Swarm-Chapter 751: Explosion

A surge of energy erupted from within the star. Though insignificant compared to the star itself, it acted like ice water dropped into hot oil, rapidly triggering a chain reaction.

A star is essentially a massive plasma ball held together by its own gravity. However, this energy briefly disrupted its gravitational balance. The outward push of gravity and radiation pressure caused the star to visibly expand at an alarming rate. Its range quickly engulfed its first planet, then the second.

“Accelerate forward!” The rapidly expanding star, though visually spectacular, posed a deadly threat. It was not something to be observed up close.

The Swarm seemed to notice the star’s anomaly, but once changes in stellar bodies occur, even civilizations as advanced as the Swarm or the Ji race could do little to intervene.

The Swarm fleet, which had been entangled with the Ji unmanned fighter drones, dispatched a small contingent toward the anomalous star, likely attempting to determine what the Ji race had done.

Seeing that this group wasn’t pursuing their fleet, the Ji race didn’t interfere. Even if the entire Swarm fleet—or ten times, a hundred times its size—had been sent, it wouldn’t stand a chance against the star, let alone prevent anything.

The star’s expansion accelerated further. The Swarm’s dispatched squad hadn’t traveled far before being enveloped by the expanding star. Seconds later, the star swallowed the battlefield where the Swarm fleet and Ji unmanned fighter drones clashed.

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However, perhaps due to the rapid expansion dispersing energy, the outer edge of the expanding star reached only 3,000 to 5,000 degrees Celsius. This temperature was negligible for the Swarm’s Primordial Bodies. As for the Ji unmanned fighter drones, while some internal components couldn’t withstand such heat, their excellent sealing and heat insulation allowed them to endure temporarily.

But soon, the expanding star engulfed the life-bearing planet used for the signing ceremony. The planet’s atmosphere heated rapidly, boiling away. Its oceans boiled and evaporated, and its vegetation and forests ignited in fierce flames.

Compared to space-based organisms or warships, the resilience of planetary life was far weaker. Whether native animals, Swarm ground forces, or the abandoned Ji landing troops, their fates were sealed—their differences merely a matter of time.

The star’s expansion continued accelerating, eventually catching up with the long-departed Ji fleet. However, temperatures of just a few thousand degrees couldn’t harm even the unmanned fighter drones, let alone the Ji warships.

“Activate deflection fields and continue accelerating!” With the fields activated, minor obstacles were no longer a concern. The fleet’s speed increased again, finally breaking free from the expanding star’s reach.

Watching the massive celestial body still relentlessly pursuing them, the Ji commanders’ expressions darkened.

“Was this really the right thing to do?” one commander suddenly broke the silence.

The others knew what he meant. The Swarm Empress had dared to risk herself in this conspiracy, not only because this was Swarm territory—despite their relatively recent occupation—but also because they had hostages.

Trillions of captives from over half the Confederation races served as bargaining chips. With these hostages, the Swarm never believed the Ji race would dare risk universal condemnation.

But the Swarm had vastly overestimated the Ji race’s integrity. Not only did they strike, but they also sought to eliminate this potential threat entirely.

“What’s wrong with it? Such a rare opportunity—during the signing ceremony, the Swarm launched an attack, even destroying the star to kill our elders. Countless Ji soldiers, elders, and those captives perished in the explosion.”

“This explanation is full of holes—they won’t believe it.”

“It doesn’t matter. We’ve given them an explanation; whether they believe it or not is up to them. Besides, even if they don’t believe it, what can they do? What can those lower-tier civilizations from the Outer and Mid-Ring achieve?”

“But we have many members from those alien races within our ranks. What if they raise objections?”

“All the better. It’s a perfect chance to weed out disloyal double agents.”

“But they have elders too.”

“Don’t you see? So what if they have elders? Elders aren’t immortal. Just three days ago, over a dozen elders died. Their role was simply to make the Swarm let down their guard.”

“Sigh… ” The questioning commander sighed inwardly. The Ji race had changed so much that it no longer resembled the Ji race he once knew. But he couldn’t say this outright, lest he be labeled disloyal.

Though high-ranking, he was still several tiers below the Ji elders. Now, with over a dozen elders dead, he was nothing more than a speck in front of such power. He dared not speak out of turn.

After expanding to a certain scale, the star finally slowed its expansion and gradually came to a halt. But in an instant, the expanded star suddenly contracted inward at near-light speed, leaving everyone stunned.

While the expansion took tens of minutes, the contraction took mere seconds. The sudden compression temporarily raised the star’s temperature to hundreds of billions of degrees. The collapse occurred in an extremely short time, causing the star’s outer layers to fall inward and collide with the collapsing core. All the accumulated pressure released in that moment.

The explosion tore the star into fragments, releasing a powerful shockwave. The energy unleashed was staggering—ten times the energy the star normally emitted over ten billion years was released in just one second.

The resulting shockwave’s power was unimaginable. Planets that survived the star’s expansion lasted less than a second before being obliterated into their elemental components.

However, the star’s explosion didn’t end there. Over the next several years, even centuries, this energy would sweep across the entire region, affecting a range of nearly a thousand light-years.

This meant all of the Swarm’s territories in this galaxy would be engulfed by the explosion. Nearby star systems would be directly destroyed. Even with the Swarm’s incredible adaptability and resilience, these star systems would become forbidden zones.

As for those farther away, their life-bearing planets would likely lose the ability to nurture life. Unless relocated, the Swarm’s native gene-based armies would face inevitable extinction.