With William's soul lost to an unknown dimension—or perhaps another timeline—the surviving members of his team carried on.
Before leaving the facility through the unstable portal, Yu Yao was entrusted with one final task.
She carried a small canister filled with a murky purple liquid known as Liquid Diffusion.
William had predicted that their activities inside the facility would awaken the Seed mentioned throughout the research logs. Once disturbed, it would inevitably attempt to escape the prison buried beneath the ruins.
According to the records, the Seed had remained dormant ever since the world became silent and devoid of life. The facility that imprisoned it had been built to withstand even its monstrous strength, making escape impossible through brute force.
Instead, it adapted.
Unable to break free, the Seed divided a single cell into microscopic fragments capable of slipping through the smallest imperfections in its containment.
Those tiny cells infected living organisms.
Every infected creature became another limb, another eye, another mouth—extensions of the Seed itself, feeding until every trace of life was consumed.
After exhausting the planet, it entered another long slumber.
Now, countless ages later, the facility had grown old. Rust consumed its walls, and time had weakened its foundations.
Soon...
Its prison would no longer be enough.
William believed that, if left unchecked, the Seed would eventually break free and continue expanding beyond the planet itself.
That was why he and Yu Yao recovered the two canisters of Liquid Diffusion.
From the surviving documents, the liquid appeared to be an exceptionally potent toxin against plant-based organisms.
William had intended to deploy one of the canisters himself.
Instead, he vanished into the unstable portal before he had the chance.
The canisters were never meant to destroy the Seed outright.
That would have been impossible.
Their true purpose was to provide researchers aboard the Seed Ship with a sample, allowing them to mass-produce the toxin in preparation for a future encounter.
Meanwhile, the situation outside rapidly spiraled out of control.
The mysterious force that had kept the Mimics at bay suddenly disappeared alongside the facility's lockdown system.
The suppression field had only affected large machinery, which explained why William's team had been able to enter the ruins using personal equipment without issue.
Now that both the suppression field and the defensive barriers had vanished...
Nothing stood between the Mimics and the surface.
Fortunately, the expeditionary force had already established fortified defensive positions.
All they needed to do was hold.
With electronic interference gone, the Seed Ship Ceta immediately dispatched heavy reinforcements.
Massive war machines descended onto the battlefield alongside hundreds of transport craft. Some evacuated wounded soldiers while others delivered fresh troops, ammunition, and supplies to the front lines.
The steel titans entered combat.
Armed with explosive railguns and twenty-five autonomous heavy turrets each, they carved through the Mimic hordes with overwhelming firepower.
Taking advantage of the reinforcements, Yu Yao and the surviving expedition members boarded one of the transport craft and returned to the Seed Ship.
Upon arriving aboard Ceta, Yu Yao was immediately escorted to the command center.
The vast chamber was dominated by a circular table surrounded by the fleet's highest-ranking officers.
Among them sat the captain himself.
It was obvious they had been waiting for the expedition's return.
Without hesitation, Yu Yao handed over the recovered flash drive.
She also explained William's proposal—to mass-produce the Liquid Diffusion and use it to eradicate the Mimics at their source.
The room erupted into debate.
Military officers argued that they had already suffered devastating casualties and could no longer afford a prolonged campaign.
Researchers and scientists strongly opposed abandoning the ruins, believing the ancient facility contained technologies that could advance humanity by centuries.
Neither side was willing to compromise.
Eventually, the captain made the final decision.
They would extract the entire underground facility and leave the planet immediately.
According to the recovered maps, the structure was buried relatively close to the surface, making excavation possible.
Remaining within the system posed too great a risk.
Everyone remembered what had happened when the fleet first entered orbit.
The Mimics had once merged into a colossal organic bombardment organism capable of attacking ships in space.
Only after the ground invasion began had they divided into countless smaller forms.
There was no guarantee they would not merge again.
Although many still favored exterminating the infestation with Liquid Diffusion, the captain ordered the toxin to be reserved as a final safeguard.
If something emerged during excavation...
They would use it then.
The operation succeeded.
As the facility was lifted from the earth, an enormous creature erupted from the exposed depths.
Even a single drop of the purple liquid severely injured the monstrosity, halting its advance long enough for the remaining war titans to withdraw.
It wasn't enough to kill it.
But it bought them the time they needed.
Once every surviving titan had returned, the fleet abandoned the planet without delay.
The Mimics launched one final assault, transforming into monstrous biological artillery, but the ships escaped with only superficial damage to their armor.
The mission had ended.
Their journey continued.
Like every other Seed Ship, Ceta shared a single purpose:
To find a new Earth where humanity could begin again.
...
Extra
....
The First Expeditionary Force — Beta-165
As Beta-165 boarded their transport craft, a minor navigational malfunction occurred moments before launch.
The engineers managed a quick repair, believing the problem insignificant.
They were wrong.
The craft departed...
But its destination drifted far from the intended coordinates.
"Stay sharp, everyone," the captain ordered.
Moments later, alarms blared throughout the cockpit.
"Captain! The navigation system is off course!"
"What?"
Before anyone could respond, the engines began failing one after another.
The flight systems spiraled out of control.
They had unknowingly entered a region they were never meant to reach.
The pilots fought desperately to stabilize the craft.
Then something even stranger happened.
The enemy detection system remained fully operational...
Yet every direction registered as hostile.
The entire ocean...
...was one enormous enemy.
Before the crew could comprehend what they were seeing, a colossal fleshy tentacle erupted from the sea.
It wrapped around the transport craft.
With a deafening crack...
Half the vessel was crushed apart.
The captain was thrown into the dark water below.
As he sank, he caught one final glimpse beneath the surface.
No words could describe the horror.
Thirty feet below him stretched an endless mass of intertwined flesh, roots, and pulsating tendrils woven together until they completely covered the ocean floor.
Towering tentacles swayed like underwater forests, disappearing into the darkness above.
There was no beginning.
There was no end.
Only an endless sea of living flesh.
That was the last thing he ever saw.
Then...
He became part of it.