Great, I'm surrounded by villains.

Chapter 291 Divine Comedy
Coyote Twelve has been to no less than twenty Death Stars, but he, or the entire company, has never been so deep into a Death Star and faced the root cause of the planet's "cocooning".

So far, all investigations into the Death Star have stopped at the surface. If they go deeper, they will be swallowed up by monsters, viruses or natural disasters, and even Nagaeda Konoe is no exception.

At least when Coyote Twelve was still a candidate for the Longbranch Guards, the company would lose several candidates on the "cocooned" planet every year, and sometimes even full members of the Longbranch Guards would be killed. This made all explorers reach a consensus - human power is not enough to compete with the "cocoon".

However, soon, Coyote Twelve understood more intuitively what Duan Mingyuan meant when he said that the "gods" were unhappy with them.

A loud bang was heard at the end of the forest, and a towering tree climbed up into the sky at a speed visible to the naked eye. The branches of the tree obscured the sky, or rather, became the sky itself.

Almost at the same time, there was a vibration under their feet, and Coyote Twelve could feel that something was approaching them rapidly.

After a moment, he saw the object approaching them.

It was the roots of a giant tree hidden beneath the ground. He drew his gun at the first moment, and the ammunition, which was enough to make a hole in the interstellar flagship, failed to cause any waves. To be more precise, it failed to explode. The moment the ammunition was about to touch the roots, it was assimilated into the plant and turned into nutrients absorbed by the plant.

Then, man-eating plants that broke out of the ground surrounded the two men, and raging fire gushed out from between the flowers. Although Coyote Twelve instinctively dodged to the other side, the shock wave generated by the explosion still threw him several meters away.

A hole was created in the ground by the explosion, and an unrealistic thought came to his mind.

This was clearly the explosive bomb he had just fired.

...These carnivorous plants not only swallowed his bullets, but also turned them into their own weapons?
This discovery made Coyote Twelve feel an unprecedented sense of powerlessness. Not to mention the sacred tree that reached the clouds in the distance, even the man-eating plants derived from the sacred tree were enough to give them a hard time.

He hit the sacred tree?

real or fake?

If these man-eating plants were immune to bullets, he couldn't think of how to deal with these behemoths.

"The missionaries of the Sacred Tree Religion call these man-eating plants the messengers of God. They will carry out the will of the sacred tree and punish those who anger it."

Duan Mingyuan looked up at these magical plants that were revered by the followers of the Shenmu Sect. Although they did not have the ability to speak, he could feel their anger from the flowers' threatening movements.

In the Shenmu religion, there are books that specifically record "divine punishment".

According to the residents of the Sea of ​​Trees, the sacred tree had brought down divine punishment three times, completely wiping out three cities from the planet.

The reason was that revolution broke out in these cities.

Some people have questioned the legitimacy of the Shenmu religion and are no longer willing to serve as puppets of the Shenmu. They call on people to break away from the rule of theology and advocate the use of knowledge and science to seek development.

This phenomenon is not uncommon. Whenever human civilization develops to a certain stage, people will awaken and launch a series of movements called "Enlightenment". These movements usually trigger confrontations between theocracy and the people, and in most cases will evolve into a civil war.

However, the actions of the Archbishop of the Shenmu Sect at that time were much more extreme than any other bishop Duan Mingyuan knew. He prayed to the Shenmu Tree and completely wiped out the three cities from the planet, along with many ordinary citizens.

The archbishop recorded this in the scriptures as the greatest achievement of his life.

"The Archbishop believes that the Apostles of God are invincible. Nothing they know can harm them. Not only that, they will also develop new abilities based on the weapons used by humans."

And just now, Coyote Twelve proved with practical actions that even the firearms that have been ahead of this planet for thousands of years cannot cause any harm to it.

This is indeed in line with the identity of "God's apostle".

Invincible, leaving only despair in people's hearts.

"Thank you, could you please get to the point?"

Coyote Twelve was being chased and jumped up and down. These man-eating plants not only "stole" the lethality of his bullets, but also turned them into a machine gun and fired them out.

Having learned from his previous experience, he no longer dared to shoot at the plants.

"What's the point?"

"For example, what are their weaknesses? How can we completely eliminate these **?"

“No weaknesses.”

"What?"

"That's what the scriptures say. God's apostles are flawless creatures. They are invincible. No matter swords, spears, arrows, wind, fire, thunder or lightning, they cannot hurt them in the slightest."

The people of the three destroyed cities tried every means they could think of, but ultimately they could not escape the fate of being crushed by the apostles.

"Let me try your swordsmanship first. If it were you, you might be able to cut them down!"

Coyote Twelve yelled.

"It should be useless. No tangible weapon can cause damage to them."

Duan Mingyuan watched the apostles' "cat and mouse game" from the side. He was very sure that these man-eating plants did have independent consciousness. They enjoyed the process of chasing Coyote Twelve up and down. After the initial "anger", he felt the emotion of "excitement".

It's like a hunter playing with his prey that is cornered.

This was also the reason why the apostles did not attack him immediately. They seemed to be planning to use the miserable appearance of Coyote Twelve to torture his heart.

In fact, Duan Mingyuan did not know whether the First King's sword-wielding technique could work against the carnivorous plants from another world, but seeing that the Archbishop of the Divine Tree Religion had vowed in the scriptures to praise the apostles' invincibility, thus demonstrating the omnipotence of the Divine Tree, Duan Mingyuan respected the "settings" of the apostles.

"Where is your momentum just now? Didn't you say you were going to kill gods?" Coyote Twelve shouted. He admitted that he was also greatly encouraged just now.

Fighting unknown gods on a death star is definitely in keeping with the romance of Cowboy Bebop.

"That's what you said."

Duan Mingyuan corrected him, saying that he had never made such aggressive remarks, and that as long as conditions permitted, he would try to achieve his goal through peaceful means.

For example, in an ideal situation, he could make an appointment with Shenmu to visit the Gear Hotel's cafe in the afternoon, buy him a cup of coffee, and listen carefully to why it changed from the consciousness of a planet to an accomplice of the family.

There must be many wonderful stories here.

As he spoke, a flower slowly moved in front of Duan Mingyuan, hanging down in a very human-like manner, looking down at him.

The open flower was filled with scorching, blinding light, but it did not immediately direct its destructive force at him.

This behavior reminded Duan Mingyuan of the scene where criminals, thinking they had won the battle, would fiddle with guns in front of unarmed civilians.

Aim the black muzzle of the gun at the crowd and enjoy their panicked expressions.

"No matter what you said or what I said, I can't bear it any longer! You better think of a solution!"

For Coyote Twelve, this battle was too frustrating. He had never experienced such a battle where he could only take a beating and had no chance to fight back.

“The solution is actually very simple.”

Duan Mingyuan said, "The Archbishop said that all tangible means of attack within the scope of cognition will not work, so we just need to use means beyond cognition."

Coyote Twelve's shouting stopped.

He originally wanted to say something, but what happened the next moment forced him to open his eyes wide.

But no matter what, he couldn't understand the scene before him.

The man-eating plant in front of Duan Mingyuan suddenly disappeared. There was no battle, and no scene of juice flying everywhere. It was like a piece of a painting was suddenly cut off, leaving only a blank space at the damaged place.

Also disappearing were the apostles who had been chasing him all the way. Behind him was nothingness, and those man-eating plants several meters high seemed as if they had never existed.

When Coyote Twelve looked further away, he was even more speechless.

The parts of the painting that were "carved out" were not only those around them, but also a part of the sacred tree in the distance was missing.

“This is the inevitable result of reconfiguring the space.”

Duan Mingyuan explained.

This was another method he had thought of when he was dragged into the "cocoon" space of the Mechanical Star. It was only used when the problem could not be resolved through peaceful means.

This is completely in line with the method of "beyond cognition" attack. Even he cannot know what will happen when the space collapses, nor does he know where the things that disappear during the collapse are sent.

God's apostles receded like the tide, and the tree roots retreated back under the sacred tree.

After "anger" and "excitement", Duan Mingyuan felt a third emotion from these plants.

Fear made them flee back to where they came from.

“Reconstructing space.”

Coyote Twelve muttered to himself, stood still, and straightened his clothes which had become messy due to escape.

These were words that he could not understand at all, let alone figure out the principles behind them.

But after spending some time with Duan Mingyuan, he has gradually found the feeling.

Just like now.

Now is not the time to be amazed or to ask questions.

After tidying up his clothes, he smoothed his hair, freezing his hairstyle in the most stylish state, then took out a cigar and lit it with the lighter of his finger.

Next came the cowboy hat, holding the brim with his left hand, and with his right hand he turned the revolver once before putting it back into the holster at his waist.

These actions are as smooth as flowing water, just like the best settlement scene after the game.

For Cowboy Bebop, every cigar means something different.

Now this cigar is a celebration of victory.

"Together, we fought off the apostles of God."

Coyote Twelve said in a weathered and resolute tone, "Now, it's the turn of that **god."

(End of this chapter)