"What is this relic that you've mentioned?" Ace asked through the automaton. He already has a guess but he wanted to hear it from the captain.

The Arian who just introduced himself as Shreguc was stunned for a moment before answering. He thought that the Xeno Collective was already aware of it considering that he mentions how it was affecting the Federation and the Empire.

"The relic? It's the ancient device made by an unknown civilization... It was said that it possesses the power to destroy and create things... Possessing it would basically allow its wielder to become a god... No one should be allowed to possess such a dangerous thing."

Ace shakes his head after hearing this. Anyway, he wanted to clarify that it was indeed the Cube of Paradox.

"What does it look like?"

As he asked this question, Shreguc remained silent as he didn't seem to know what to say. Ace didn't expect he wouldn't be able to answer that question. After all, they were looking for it!

"You haven't seen it yet?" Ace asked again. He already realized the meaning of this person's silence.

"Well... Of course, we haven't! Even the Empire and the Federation were still looking for it. They only managed to find some clues about the possible locations of the relic. However, I'm sure that it is real! There were ancient texts found about its existence. There were many unexplainable events in the history that would be answered if that relic truly exists..."

The captain reasoned to Ace as he explains his own belief about the matter. He was also not fully aware of the information that the Empire and Federation kept from them but some of the information they had was definitely reliable.

As he explains this detail to Ace, he made sure that all the things he mentioned were only related to the relic.

Anyway, even though it was true that he has a selfless ambition like investing for the future generation, he didn't tell everything to Ace about their mission on this voyage.

But it didn't matter for the young man. After all, Avalon and Veda were already doing their jobs.

'Ho~ It seems that the information about the Ancient Relic was still classified... The information they know was limited.'

Ace thought after listening to Shreguc.

In the meantime, Avalon had also fully analyzed the database of this spacecraft and found some information that would interest Ace.

Although they could no longer connect to the Dark Net, Avalon still managed to view the memory of the A.I. controlling this spacecraft. It was a bit difficult process as it wasn't just forcefully taking over the A.I.'s control to the spaceship's system but it was fully scanning the whole Artificial Intelligence...

[ Information about the Zymeth Spaceship has been found. ]

Avalon reported.

'Great!'

Ace was delighted by this sudden news but he immediately tried to calm down and reminded himself that he has to deal with the Arians first.

The information wouldn't go anywhere else and he can check it any time as it wouldn't change anyway. His emotions may affect his judgment toward the mixed breed Arians if there was some sudden bad news about his father.

Anyway, he would ask some questions about their purpose and other stuff to the captain at this time. After that, he will cross-check it with the information that Avalon has collected. If they have evil intentions, Ace had to eliminate them as quickly as possible.

"Very well... Answer me. Why are you taking this direction?"

"Our path? It was just one of the many points that were leaked by the Empire. This route was one of the 500 possible locations of the relic. We're just unlucky that we've been found by your Collective instead of finding the relic... Anyway, this system was already extremely far from the other races' territory... Are you claiming this as your--"

"It's none of your business... Just answer my questions. Are you telling me that there were a lot of organizations taking chance to find the relic in that 500 locations?"

"Yes... We're just one of the many groups... But we are different, the others were seeking it to gain power and only a small part of the group was trying to find and destroy it to attain peace."

"I see... So you're only being used by the Empire or the Federation, huh..."

Ace muttered after thinking for a moment...

"Avalon... How did they get here? I remember that I was only transported near the Earth's solar system because of the Last Cycle Protocol that used the power of the Cube..."

[ The Omen IV had crossed three wormholes to arrive at this destination. ]

Avalon swiftly answered.

"Three? It's impressive that such a large spacecraft managed to cross it without getting too damaged."

The young man continued his questions to the captain. He had to get as much information he can.

"Right... What's with the continuous release of the space mines in the past few days?"

"Eh? You were aware? Uhmm... We had to do it as the space mines were no longer reliable. Err... But it's not that simple."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, these space mines were made using the technology of our ancestors. It uses a unique stone called Mind Stone as a base. These stones can only be found on our planet so you can say that it was something unique to us, Arians. However, after crossing the last wormhole... We were assaulted by unknown energy we couldn't identify."

"Mhmm... Continue..."

"Those with good physique managed to withstand the pressure but the weaker ones were all about to perish. Even the doctors were affected so we couldn't do anything..."

Ace already had an idea about what happened next.

The space mines that they stored within the spacecraft played a major role...

"The energy that assaulted us suddenly vanished. We thought that the tragedy already passed and we managed to survive... But after just a couple of days, we discovered that the space mines were already shrouded with the same unknown energy... It seems like it actually consumed the energy that was killing my men..."

Shreguc continued his story. They decided to remove the space mines that accumulated a large amount of that energy.

After all, it felt that it was like a ticking bomb. Although it probably saved them, they couldn't change the fact that the mines were already dangerous.

They retained those not so affected mines while throwing away the mines that have a thick cover of that energy. Unfortunately, after only a few hours or days, those mines that are not too affected would also experience some changes.

Ace squinted his eyes after hearing this... It seems that this mission wouldn't be so easy.