All across the Milky Way Galaxy, the Naraku Scout Fleets, and their subordinate Insectoid slaves had all begun to be wiped out. A war was being waged, not just by the Major Galactic Powers, but by all of their vassals as well.

The entire military force of the galaxy had been mobilized in a crusade with a single purpose. The complete and total elimination of all intelligent insectoid life within the galaxy. It was perhaps the first time in galactic history that such a united front had been fought, and while it was happening, the Naraku Empress within the Andromeda Galaxy was going absolutely insane.

The origins of the Naraku were mysterious, so much so that the Naraku Empress was not entirely sure how they had begun or how far their people stretched across the universe. While she did not originate from Andromeda, and was instead birthed in a galaxy further away with the intent of leading the conquest of Andromeda, she herself knew from her own mother’s remarks that they did not originate in that galaxy, either.

Normally, a Naraku Empress was born to lead the invasion force of another galaxy. And once she had done so, she was largely independent of her sisters. So much so that the hive mind only existed within what she controlled. Including those scout forces who had been dispatched to the Milky Way millions of years ago.

It had taken a very, very long time for the Naraku to conquer, devour, and rebuild Andromeda. But during this time, they had been keeping an eye on their next target. Naturally the Hive Queens in the Milky Way were the Empress’s daughters and were the arbiters of her will.

By extension, this also meant they were the primary contact between her and those Naraku within the Milky Way as they had a direct link to the Empress’s mind. When a Naraku Hive Queen beneath her control perished, it had a serious effect on the Empress’s mind. An almost debilitating effect.

To lose two Hive Queens at almost precisely the same time, followed by another two Hive Queens shortly after. Well, one could say that the Hive Queen was once more suffering from an incomprehensible state. To the point where her mindless minions had once more begun to turn on themselves. As when she entered this stupefied state, so too did the Hive Queens closest to her.

Andromeda was once more sent into a state of turmoil, as the Naraku hives closest to the Empress began to turn on one another and eat each other. It took several months for the Empress to recover from her state of what one can only consider being mentally paralyzed. And by that time, she had lost all contact with the Naraku within the Milky Way Galaxy.

Never before had the denizens of the Milky Way banded together to fight her forces. In fact, the Naraku had been a manipulating force to keep the galaxy divided and stagnant since the end of the Primeval Era a million years ago.

They had used their own agents of chaos, and the galaxy’s own ignorance towards the Naraku to sabotage any attempts at unification or significant technological progress. And thankfully, the Ghimderi had also been a major influence in hindering these two things that were critical to the Milky Way’s potential success in fending off a Naraku invasion. Albeit unwittingly so. Their natural greed was a weapon that the Naraku never even needed to wield directly.

But the Ghimderi were gone, destroyed by their own hubris, and with Erich’s actions, the galaxy had more or less been temporarily united in an attempt to defend themselves from the Naraku who they knew were coming, or at least their leaders did.

This was the worst case scenario for the Naraku Empress. She was now completely blind in the Milky Way. She had no idea what her enemies were up to, what preparations they were making, or, worst of all, what the current political situation was.

For the first time, in perhaps the history of the Naraku, there was a potential that her forces would be facing a galaxy united against them. One with unknown technological capabilities.

And that was a harrowing thought. To spend a million years covertly manipulating the neighboring galaxy so that it was ripe for conquest, and in the last few decades before the Naraku were finally ready to invade all of that work would be undone. It was truly maddening.

Because of this, the Empress had no choice but to hold off on invading the Milky Way, partially because they had dealt a significant blow to the buildup of her forces, but also because she was now completely blind to what the Milky Way was doing.

If she were to invade the Milky Way, she would need a new form of agent, one that could be a member of the hive mind, and yet appear to not be one. She, of course, already had the means to do this. She would need to have a non-naraku join the hivemind.

The problem was, the Naraku Empress had lost contact with all the Joiners she had embedded in the Milky Way Galaxy, in addition to the Hive Fleets they were a part of. Leading her to believe that they were all stationed on board the hive fleets when they were unfortunately destroyed.

After all, the idea never even crossed her mind the Milky Way had developed countermeasures to detect joiners, and eliminate them before they could flee the galaxy. But this was the reality. As the moment Tia learned about Joiners in the previous timeline, she began developing a means to not only detect them, but cure them.

After all, she had an unwitting test subject. One who mostly still had his mind intact. And that was the real reason that Tia had never actually cured Erich from the suffering he endured in that life. Her desire to learn more about the Naraku, and their capabilities had caused her to probe Erich’s connection to the hive mind, and his changed body without him even realizing it.

Although Erich didn’t realize it, his suffering in that timeline had allowed Tia to develop many many countermeasures against the Naraku and their Joiners across the galaxy. Which she had been secretly employing in the decades since the timeline was reset.

Of course, the Naraku Empress could not possibly know this, because the only being in the universe who did was Tia, and she would never admit to it. To do so would cause her master to distrust her, even if her intentions were good. The man was still prone to emotional outbursts like any other biological lifeform. And Tia’s biggest fear was losing her master’s love.

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