Chapter 5898 Trust in Faith

Chapter 5898 Trust in Faith

The decoys generated by the mirror beast had lost their ability to mingle with the actual humans serving on the Dominion of Man.

The absence of a white corona implied two different possibilities.

The most obvious reason why the individual in question failed to earn Caramond's recognition was because he or she was never truly human in the first place.

The less obvious reason was because the suspicious subject was truly human, yet did not believe in the cause that practically everyone living in human society learned in their first days at school.

That last part held troubling implications.

It was incredibly difficult for people to grow up in any part of human civilization without developing a massive sense of pride and confidence in their own species.

From the lowliest of third-rate states to the most powerful first-rate superstates, each of them had fallen into the grip of a culture centered around the inherent superiority of the human race.

The people who grew up in the spaceborn clan had especially been indoctrinated in these beliefs. It should have been impossible for any fleeter to develop a lack of faith in the human race.

This meant that there was something very wrong with the few real humans on the Dominion of Man who failed to connect with Caramond.

They may have given up on red humanity already. Perhaps all of the odds stacked against them had caused these fleeters to develop a fatalistic mindset.

There were also those who augmented their bodies so much that they lost too much of their humanity. The Red Fleet had always favored cybernetic implants over other forms of augmentation, and there were those who took it far enough to lose much of their emotion and their irrational human tendencies.

The most depressing possibility of all was that the fleeters who failed Caramond's test actively opposed the very concept of human superiority. They developed a much more sympathetic outlook towards alien races and did not believe their current enemies deserved to get killed just because they were different.

In other words, there was a realistic possibility that the Dominion of Man had been infiltrated by cosmopolitans!

There was no time to get to the bottom of it all. Dread Captain Argile was well aware that not everyone who lacked a white corona was hostile or disloyal.

Unfortunately, the continued threat posed by the mirror beast forced the captain to make a harsh but necessary judgment call.

"Eliminate every human on our ship who lacks Caramond's blessing."

The deaths happened quickly and brutally.

While a lot of decoys suddenly gained a huge amount of strength to the point where they were able to crack the azure energy shields that limited their movement space, the dreadnought was simply too strong for them to sow any further chaos and destruction.

As the ship-wide purge continued, Dread Captain Argile forced himself to monitor the changing statistics.

For every 10 decoys that got exposed and eliminated through ruthless means, there was 1 actual human who fell victim to the purge.

The captain silently mourned each of these regrettable 'accidents', yet he could not allow his doubts and guilt to stand in the way of his duty.

The decisive removal of all of the suspicious humans on the ship had restored a lot of morale. People no longer jumped at shadows or fell into a pit of indecision when they received any order.

The ship was already starting to regain her effectiveness. The chain of command became trustworthy yet again and few people harbored any doubts to their fellow fleeters.

"I see what you mean, professor." Dread Captain Argile looked contemplative. "You are theorizing that the only instances where we know with a high degree of confidence that we are looking at the actual mirror beast is when we are in a position to launch a probing attack at the monster."

"Yes. Now, the problem is that the probing attacks are unable to exceed that annoying reflection ability, but that just means that we must rely on additional measures to take it out. Is the Rubicon capable of teleporting antimatter bombs and so on to the mirror beast?"

"It is possible, but difficult. The haze is making it harder to deliver objects at precise coordinates. Before you get your hopes up, I must warn you that we have already tried this tactic with more conventional explosives. The mirror beast's body always turned out to be a barely substantial illusion. Even if we have timed our teleportation attacks so that the warheads explode 50 to 200 milliseconds after reaching their destinations, our enemy has already managed to move far away. We do not expect to attain better results with more destructive superweapons."

Not even the Rubicon could deal with the mirror beast!

Either the god beast's predicted the teleportation attacks in advance, or its reaction speed was so damn fast that it was able to move out of the explosion radius before the warheads actually detonated.

Everyone's frustrations grew as they understood that they were still unable to track down their hated foe!

"I really wish the Huntsman was here." Ves muttered. "He should be able to track down and impale this demonic tribulation manifestation in a matter of seconds."

"Forget about god pilots, professor. The Dominion of Man is a warship. We must overcome this challenge by relying on our own means. I believe that is why tribulations exist. It filters the worthy from the unworthy."

"Ah, you're right, captain. Let's brainstorm a bit further."

Many officers tried their best to come up with an inventive and effective solution to their problem.

There were so many smart people among the fleeters that one of them ultimately managed to come up with a surprisingly creative suggestion!

"Opposites!" A senior naval engineer suggested. "If this mirror beast is a savage god that thrives off lies and falsehoods, then we must embrace the opposite! If Caramond and Furia are able to weaponize truth and honesty, then they may be able to detect the source of all of the deception that afflicts our ship!"

It was a rather fanciful suggestion, but it was enough to earn Ves' approval!

"I think we should go for it." Ves said. "I am not too knowledgeable about True Gods, but I think that fights involving cultivators of this rank involve more than physical combat. I am becoming increasingly more convinced that our only means of counterattacking more effectively is if we challenge the god beast's domain."

While Ves and the fleeters were able to contribute to this fight in a small way, they ultimately had to rely on the two True Gods to do the heavy lifting.

Only Caramond and Furia possessed domains that were barely powerful enough to challenge the elusive god beast's domain.

Several minutes went by as Ves and the others waited for further developments.

Ves was able to sense that Caramond and Furia chose to work together, but he wasn't able to figure out what exactly they were doing.

Eventually, Caramond released a powerful pulse that launched out of the hull and swept aside much of the surrounding haze!

"It's working!"

"We have regained full visibility in our immediate space!"

"Contact! We have detected a signature that matches the mirror beast at a range of 106 kilometers!"

"Open fire at the identified target!"

"With pleasure!"