The Ring.
Wyatt returned to the Free Will without a word. He looked drained – so much so that everyone could tell the negotiation had gone badly. Under their worried stares, he uploaded the entire encounter to the common channel.
After the tour of the temple, Miller had sensed Wyatt still doubted what he could do, so he took him to a different sector.
It was a patch of space not far from the asteroid. From the outside it looked like nothing at all – until they passed through a strange, shimmering membrane. On the other side, Wyatt froze.
A monster army stretched beyond the limits of his sight. The shapes were endlessly varied: crablike things, jellyfishlike things, even whale-shaped horrors. Luofu wasn’t even the biggest among them. And the Spear Squids he’d seen before were uncountable. All together, the swarm had to be tens of millions.
Every last one of them was packed into a spherical Hidden Domain two thousand kilometers across. For context, Lansen’s diameter was only thirteen thousand kilometers.
Miller seemed pleased with Wyatt’s stunned silence. He told Wyatt he had more than a dozen Hidden Domains like this. If he gathered them over Lansen, he could block out the sun itself.
‘Right now, I only need a single command,’ Miller said, ‘and my monsters will pour onto Lansen and tear apart everything on the surface that can move.’
Then Miller offered Wyatt two choices: join him, or stay far away and stop interfering in his business with the false god.
He planned to attack in one week.
Wyatt was shaken to the core – and, finally, convinced. Even if Julian and Phantom Forge pooled their machine legions, even if you multiplied them by ten, it still wouldn’t be enough to withstand something on this scale.
There seemed to be only one way to keep Julian and humanity from being wiped out: Wyatt would have to carry out another ‘decapitation.’ While Miller was still in the temple finishing its final decorations. While Miller still trusted him.
If Miller disappeared, these creatures – smart only in the way animals were smart, and unable even to reproduce – would become a leaderless mob of sand.
But it was a brutal choice. Wyatt didn’t want to do it. And yet if he didn’t do it now, there might never be another chance.
Everyone sat in silence at their stations, waiting for Wyatt to decide…
Wyatt agonized for a long time before sending Julian a message to ask what to do.
Four hours later, Julian’s reply arrived. It contained only a single sentence:
‘Launch the Starbreaker. Eliminate Miller immediately.’
***
Wyatt still didn’t speak. He stared blankly at the purple-red planet hanging ahead of them.
At last, Big Blue asked, ‘Wyatt… should we do it?’
Wyatt nodded slowly and issued the order. ‘Disengage the Starbreaker’s safeties. Begin launch procedures. Target: the pyramid temple on the asteroid ahead.’
The bridge speakers immediately filled with Veil’s rapid confirmations.
‘Captain’s order confirmed: Starbreaker safeties disengaged… missile bay opening… locking target… lock complete… warhead armed, awaiting launch authorization…’
A brief, heavy silence.
Wyatt said, ‘Launch.’
Veil replied, ‘Captain’s order confirmed: initiating countdown… nine… eight… seven…’
‘Four… three… two…’
‘Wait – stop!’ Wyatt suddenly shouted.
Veil: ‘Captain’s order confirmed: launch sequence aborted…’
‘What is it, Lord Wyatt?’ Dorian asked, baffled. Everyone else looked to him as well.
‘This is wrong,’ Wyatt said, shaking his head. ‘I can’t do it like this. Not as a backstab – especially when the other side still trusts you. If we fight, we fight after we’ve said what needs to be said.’
He turned to the bridge crew. ‘Next, I’m taking the Free Will down onto the asteroid. There’s a chance this is a one-way trip. If you’re afraid, you can take a transport ship back to Lansen right now.’
Dorian blurted, ‘No. Of course not. Wherever you go, I go.’
Big Blue said, ‘Me too.’
Danser spread his hands. ‘Just give the order. No one’s leaving.’
Wyatt nodded. ‘Then… thank you. Veil, set us down beside the temple.’
Veil: ‘Aye, Captain.’
***
A little more than ten minutes later, the Free Will settled onto a flat stretch of ground beside the pyramid temple. Once the ship stabilized, the hatch opened.
Wyatt climbed down holding a holographic helmet. He faced the entrance and shouted, ‘Miller!’
This time, Miller appeared quickly. He stared at Wyatt in confusion. ‘Iron man didn’t leave? Is iron man joining Miller?’
‘There’s something I forgot to say,’ Wyatt replied, stepping forward and offering the helmet. ‘Put this on. Iron man wants Miller to see something.’
Miller didn’t take it. Disgust flickered across his face. ‘See what? Miller doesn’t like the false god’s things.’
‘It has nothing to do with the false god,’ Wyatt said. ‘I only want Miller to understand how iron man thinks about gods – and the worlds they claim to make.’
Miller studied him for a long ten seconds. In the end, perhaps Wyatt’s sincerity won out. Miller finally placed the helmet over his head.
Wyatt shut down his optical sensors and linked his consciousness to the helmet.
At first, Miller found himself in total darkness. Up, down, left, right – no light anywhere. As he wondered what he was seeing, a bolt of lightning split the void. An ocean appeared, churning endlessly beneath a storm.
‘Where is this?!’ Miller demanded.
‘Where life began,’ Wyatt’s voice said from nowhere. ‘Watch closely. I’ll render it as specifically as I can.’
Under violent rain and thunder, a volcanic island on the ocean’s surface erupted. Lava blasted into the upper atmosphere, then fell back into the sea, mixing energy and rich chemical elements into the waters. In the vast deep below, a miracle began to brew.
‘The water was filled with chemicals – amino acids, nucleic acids, and other organic compounds,’ Wyatt narrated. ‘Lightning, ultraviolet radiation, and other sources triggered unexpected reactions. Molecules joined, broke, and joined again – slowly becoming more complex.’
As Wyatt spoke, the miracle formed before Miller’s eyes. In a flicker of time, one special molecule – RNA – met the spark of life. It gained the ability to replicate itself. Once it existed, it spread like an endless wave. The ocean’s first single-celled organism.
It moved – tiny, like a ship, sweeping a flagellum like an oar as it searched for nutrients. One became two, then four, then eight… Primitive and simple, yet possessed of a stubborn resilience. Mutation after mutation, selection after selection, pushed it toward more complex forms.
Gradually, single-celled life learned cooperation. Dependence. Another miracle: multicellular organisms. Cells specialized, taking different roles, forming tissues and organs. Sensation. Motion. The seafloor blossomed with shapes and colors.
‘Sponges,’ Wyatt said. ‘The earliest animals. They may be simple, but their existence is one of evolution’s miracles. They prove life’s toughness and longevity.’
A breeze rippled across the sea. Multicellular life tasted freedom and hungered for a broader stage. Evolution rolled forward. Organs grew more complex – digestive systems, circulation, respiration. Sensory organs emerged, allowing creatures to perceive the world in finer detail.
Wyatt seeded the ocean with representative forms – jellyfish, corals, and more.
Then vertebrates appeared, quietly and astonishingly: spines and internal skeletons that could support and protect a body.
Fish began to rule the sea, fins slicing through water with effortless grace. Amphibians became the first to crawl onto land, trading gills for lungs. Reptiles followed, climbing mountains and carving out new worlds.
The scene widened without losing detail. Mountains, valleys, lakes, grasslands, forests appeared. Wyatt pushed his computation to the limit – his mind running hot – yet he didn’t care. He wanted every inherited detail from Hector to be rendered without error.
Ages passed. Evolution’s road blossomed into countless forms. Animals filled treetops, grasslands, and oceans – clever, agile, alive with energy.
Birds danced and soared, wings painting the sky.
In a forest, a mother monkey stroked her baby and taught it how to climb and forage. Their understanding needed no words – only instinct and trust.
On the open savanna, elephants formed a slow, majestic line, placing their smallest calves in the center. Elder elephants, when their time came, left on their own – giving resources to the next generation.
In the sky, migratory birds demonstrated flawless navigation, flying south to warmer lands. They traveled in groups, communicating with wingbeats and bright calls.
In the water, dolphins – famous for their intelligence – cared for one another with fierce loyalty.
Lions on grasslands, polar bears on snowfields, wolves in forests, monkeys in rainforests – everywhere, living creatures learned, adapted, and protected their own.
‘These animals survive and evolve in their own ways,’ Wyatt said. ‘They can think, learn, and adapt. They can also care, help, and protect.’
The viewpoint pulled back, revealing a greater region. The land was a lush green, the oceans a deep blue; white capped mountain peaks, and rivers curled through valleys like ribbons.
‘This is the planet before humans arrived,’ Wyatt said. ‘These are the animals as I understand them. Their relationship with plants is pure symbiosis.’
Then Wyatt spoke bluntly. ‘Iron man respects every life. But the species Miller created… they aren’t animals. They’re monsters. They’re Miller’s puppets – born only for slaughter. Ugly. Mindless. No different from the false god’s puppets.’
‘No!’ Miller roared. ‘I… I created life too!’
‘Real life reproduces, inherits, evolves, and thinks,’ Wyatt shot back. ‘It doesn’t just bask in sunlight – or siphon an energy source like an iron golem and call that living.’
‘The world Miller just saw may be virtual,’ Wyatt said, ‘but it’s real nature. It’s what this world was before humans arrived.’
With every sentence, Miller’s fury grew.
‘This is the natural way,’ Wyatt said. ‘This is the world blessed by the true god. And you, Miller…’
‘You can’t become a god.’
Miller hissed. He tore the helmet from his head and crushed it to dust.
‘No! I am the true god! Iron man – you die!’ He lunged at Wyatt, tail arched. It snapped forward like a whip…