Shanuya was silent.
All of the Void Hunter's tentacles opened up like petals before gently closing together like a flower bud, protecting the girl inside.
Even though the girl was only a very, very small creature on its body, it could sense the burning soul of the girl, as well as the grief and hope hidden in the depths of her soul.
"Got it."
Shanuya said, "If you insist, let's go!"
Pep took a deep breath and nodded heavily.
Right then, rustling sounds echoed from the broken escape capsule, and the communication channel was activated again.
His father and brother saw the change in Shanuya's skin color, and they also sensed the ripples in space, like a rising tide, gradually surging up.
They all understood what it meant exactly.
Shanuya was about to perform a space jump — with Pep.
"Pep!"
Greatly shocked, the brother bellowed in the communication channel, "What are you doing? What did Shanuya do exactly?"
"… It's the only solution, brother."
Pep wiped the tears at the corner of her eyes and said with a smile, "I'm too stupid to come up with a second solution. This is the only way to stop you from hurting each other, even if it's only for a few hundred years or even a few decades."
"You — where are you going exactly?"
The brother roared in panic. "Shanuya is heavily wounded. He is destined to lose his way in the four-dimensional space. The crazy storms will blow you to a random corner at the end of the universe. You may not find your way home for the rest of your life. You will never see us again!"
"Yes, but at least I know that my home is still there. You and dad must still exist somewhere in the universe."
Pep said, "That's enough."
"Why?"
The brother sounded like he was about to cry. "Why didn't you tell me just now?"
"You certainly wouldn't have agreed if I told you just now," Pep said apologetically.
"I'm sorry, brother. I'm sorry that you're going to be scolded again. I'm sorry."
"Silly sister, is this a matter of whether you're going to be scolded or not?"
The brother roared. "Come back. Come back to me. Let's figure out another solution together. Figure out a solution that satisfies both parties!"
"There's no other way, at least for now."
Pep smiled again. "However, there are so many smart people in the fleet, as well as so many kind, innocent children who believe in fairy tales and justice. I believe that if you are given decades, centuries, or even millennia, you will definitely be able to come up with a solution.
"One day, Shanuya will return from the edge of the cosmos. Perhaps even stronger alien species will run into human beings. I hope that by then, we will have figured out a way to live in harmony without hurting each other.
"Big Brother, help me tell Dad … I'm sorry. I still remember the first fairy tale he told me. I especially like to be in his arms and listen to him tell me those fairy tales of justice defeating evil. I just, I just hope that fairy tales are not just fairy tales."
"No! No! No! "
The elder brother roared hysterically.
"Goodbye, Big Brother. Goodbye, Daddy. Goodbye, Beibei, Anqi, Xiaotao, and everyone. Goodbye …"
Pepe's eyelashes, hands, and voice were all trembling. She used all her strength to cut off the communication.
The space armor and the starships far away were glittering like the lights of thousands of homes, warm and brilliant.
"Let's go."
The girl wiped the tears from her eyes and patted the behemoth below her feet softly, releasing the most determined brainwaves. "Let's go, my prince. Embark on the journey that belongs only to us!"
…
Everybody in the fleet saw the scene.
Whether they were on the starships through the portholes, the 3D light beams, or in the space armor, there was nothing they could do when they were so close.
The behemoth that looked like a mountain opened all its tentacles again like a blossoming flower. It began to revolve gracefully in a posture that did not match its body size at all.
At that moment, a lot of people had hallucinations in their heads. They seemed to see a beautiful girl in a long dress dancing merrily and giggling.
The dress or the tentacles turned into sails, and the 3D universe was separated into two sides like a black ocean. A golden path leading to the four-dimensional space extended below the girl's feet all the way to the infinite distance. The girl stepped on it with a smile. The tears at the corner of her eyes turned into crystal drops. It was the last trace that she left in this space.
Before the space armor and the fatal rays of death arrived, the Void Hunter and the girl disappeared together.
…
Looking at the space ripples that were slowly spreading out, the people in the fleet were silent and could not come back to themselves for a long time.
The elder brother, who was covered in wounds, was controlled or supported by his father. He looked at everything in a daze and could not help but burst into tears.
"Dad, I was wrong. I was really wrong!"
The elder brother choked with sobs.
"Yes, you were wrong."
His father said coldly.
"Then why didn't you stop me? Your strength is clearly more than this. You could have easily destroyed my space armor and caught up with Pep. Why didn't you do that? "
The elder brother growled.
"… I don't know."
His father said.
"And the commander, he could have attacked Pep's escape capsule and destroyed it directly. Why didn't he do that and stop Pep?"
The elder brother continued to throw out questions.
"I still don't know."
His father said.
The elder brother was silent. He stared at the empty space. His sister had escaped to the distant part of the vast sea of stars, on an unknown star.
"We did something stupid, didn't we?"
He asked his father.
"Yes, but it doesn't matter. There are always people who do stupid things. It's not you, it's me, it's not us, it's someone else. There are always people who do stupid things."
His father heaved a long sigh and said gloomily, "Because that's us — stupid human beings!"
…
A long time later, at the edge of the Primitive Civilization's expansion, at the many mining sites and colonization bases in the Southern Cross Space Zone, an ancient and mysterious legend was passed among the children.
According to the legend, in the depths of the Southern Cross Space Zone, there lived a fairy named 'Sister Octopus'. She had the ability to control dreams. Every night, she would enter the children's dreams and tell them stories. She would tell them the innocent, kind, beautiful, bright, and happy fairy tales.
In the stories of Sister Octopus, justice always triumphed over evil, good people always defeated bad people, kind people always received great luck and the help of everyone, and princes and princesses always overcame all difficulties and lived happily together.
Life in the Southern Cross Space Zone was difficult and dangerous. The adults were either frowning or gnashing their teeth, and the children's toys were either swords, guns, or mining machines. Only the stories of Sister Octopus were their only consolation.
Sister Octopus told the children that what she told them was not a story. Ali Baba, Sinbad, the Happy Prince, Snow White … everything was real. Even if it had never happened in the past, one day in the future, their dreams would definitely come true.
As long as the children never forgot her stories, as long as they firmly believed that everything in the fairy tales was not a lie, as long as they always remembered the persistence of their childhood, one day, the world would become as beautiful as the fairy tales. All the princesses and princes, or even every ordinary boy and girl on every star, would be able to live happily and carefreely together forever.
In short, as long as everyone believed in the fairy tales, the fairy tales would come true.
Wasn't it?
[The fourth part of the story, Octopus Girl, is over.]
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