My portable grandfather refreshes every week

"boom!"

The alarm didn't sound; it exploded. The entire structure of the ship wailed, and the shrill screams of twisting metal drowned out all other sounds.

No one could have imagined that they, who were just dreaming about the future and discussing their goals, would face certain death the next second.

This constant threat of danger and impending doom grips everyone's throat, making it impossible for them to breathe, leaving them with no one to even feel fear or resentment towards.

The rear two-thirds of the ship's engine room, power storage, and living quarters—all the remaining power and materials—appeared to have been detonated.

Teammates who were joking around one second are now separated by death the next.

The entire starship was bent and deformed from the middle, like a crooked tree branch.

A terrifying heatwave exploded from back to front, almost engulfing the entire starship and completely swallowing up all the remaining creatures inside.

Whether it's a newly hatched larva, a brilliant agent from the outside world, or a space ghost?

Everyone was completely engulfed and scorched by the intense waves of fire.

Moreover, the leak of magic essence caused everyone's bodies to begin to twist in an extremely bizarre way.

The catfish instantly transformed into a gigantic, ever-growing mass of flesh. One after another, the swarms of insects that had just hatched from their egg cases burst open, and the space necromancer began to grow flesh on its body. This flesh seemed to come alive as it relentlessly attacked the catfish.

Even the ghost, a pure energy life form, seemed to have completely transformed into a jellyfish that was constantly changing and unable to maintain its original form.

"Buzz!" The fire wave struck again, and the temperature in the living area, which had been completely twisted into a pretzel, finally dropped a little.

However, the place was completely occupied by tree roots. The terrifying tree roots burrowed into every corner and even penetrated the already scarred hull, dancing wildly throughout the entire ship's interior like the tentacles of an ancient god.

"boom!"

Another explosion struck, but this time the heat was much less intense, leaving only the hissing sound of flames roasting the protein.

"Catfish, are you still alive? Catfish!" Domini the Tree Man roared.

However, no one responded to him; all that remained was the disgusting smell of burnt meat.

The passageways of the entire living area were filled with extremely twisted clumps of flesh. The clumps of flesh penetrated deep into the metal hull of the ship, merging with the metal hull, and at this time they continued to grow and multiply, attempting to resist the impact of the fire waves and explosions.

It was as if the owner of this giant lump of flesh had completely given up control of his body, turning into a twisted and unpredictable monster.

However, Domini could no longer care about the catfish; he understood that this was the last bit of time the catfish could buy for him.

The tree roots continued to surge, absorbing all the leaked magic energy and converging it onto the main body.

The magic energy corroded the tree roots, but it didn't matter. Domini knew that he was much tougher than animals, and his resistance to magic energy was far greater!

And now, the magic essence has already gathered in his chest into a twisted tree seed.

As he continued to absorb the magic, the amount of magic energy in the air gradually decreased, leaving Domini only with pain and agony.

"Not enough, not enough! This amount of magic power is not enough!" Domini roared, feeling his consciousness gradually fading away.

However, there isn't enough magic energy!

Totally not enough!

"Domini, please respond, Domini!" The seemingly still working microphone came through, revealing Ishan's panting voice after her vigorous run.

"I'm sorry, Ishan..."

"I can't go stargazing with my little niece..."

"boom!"

The shockwave from the explosion caused Ishan to fall while running, and at the same time, she completely lost communication with the living area.

"Domini!" he roared through gritted teeth as he ran backward.

Amidst the flames and magic, a worm-man with only half a body dragged the corpses of a minotaur and a space necromancer, struggling to walk through the flames.

"Captain, eat us, and eat the catfish's corpses too. We should still have a lot of magic essence on us..."

Domini was stunned. He saw the insect king, whose abdomen was completely gone and whose body was charred black, as well as the corpses of his two other teammates.

And finally, there's the catfish blocking the passage, shielding them from the heat.

Their bodies should have been contaminated with lethal amounts of magic energy long ago, but now, this teammate is smiling and saying...

"Eat us!"

"team leader!"

The tree roots grew wildly in an instant, completely piercing through the already crumbling living area. The roots turned into sharp spikes, instantly piercing into the body of the Insect King, the charred corpses of the Minotaur and the Necromancer, and the twisted, proliferating mass of flesh of the Catfish.

A massive surge of magical energy swept over them, flowing into the wooden tumors on their bodies. The corpses of their teammates hung from the branches, as if in silent mourning.

At this moment, the magic power is finally sufficient!
However, Domini couldn't hold on any longer either.

“Ishan…take it with you…”

“Take this tree seed with you…”

It was as if all life force had converged into this tree seed, and the tree-man Domini's body began to wither and decay rapidly.

The flames swept over the catfish's drained corpse, over countless rotting tree roots, and set them ablaze.

The tree roots could no longer withstand the flames and instead became fuel for the fire, burning continuously.

In this fiery and hellish space, finally, the ghost who was the doctor came to the tree seed, picked the seed from it, and ran forward as if it were the last leg of a relay race.

Her body was undergoing rapid changes. As an energy life form, she could no longer maintain her original form, yet she still clung tightly to the tree seed, as if protecting the most precious treasure in the world.

"Domini!" Upon reaching the fracture site, Ishan felt the heat and toxic fumes, as well as the sound of air leaking into the vacuum due to the starship breaking apart.

The hatch here was completely twisted and melted, as if it had merged with the rest of the place.

Ishan kept pressing the door open button while wielding a crowbar to try and pry open the hatch.

However, the hatch could only be opened slightly before it could not be opened any further.

The intense heat seeped out from the cracks, scorching Ishan's hair and clothes and burning his skin, but he didn't care and desperately tried to pry open the crowbar.

"Whoosh!" A figure flashed out from the flames.

"Domini, is that you, Domini!" Ishan's shout came.

He and Domini grew up together. He knew that Domini, as a tree-man, was tens of thousands of times stronger than him, a spirit. As long as the tree roots entered the gap, they could pry open the alloy hatch in a very short time.

However, he did not see the tree-man, but rather an amorphous, twisted energy dragging a tree seed.

The distorted energy body pried open the hatch with power far exceeding that of Ishan, but this time there was no wave of fire; instead, it seemed to have blocked all the fire waves outside the door.

A tree seed was thrown into the cabin. Ishan was stunned. However, the next moment, the energy body gradually closed the door, leaving her outside.

“Ghost, is that you, Ghost! Where’s Domini?” Ishan shouted.

The ghost remained silent; she seemed dead, like a wound-up toy, only able to execute her final programmed steps. The hatch slowly closed, and Ishan roared, "What happened! What happened over there?!"

“Take away…the beacon…”

Ishan was stunned and looked at the tree seed in her hand.

"Dawn... is approaching..."

"Buzz!" The hatch closed completely.

Not only that, another layer of isolation wall in front of Ishan also closed, and then the navigator's voice came from the broadcast: "Vice Captain, the hull can no longer hold up. I am forcibly maneuvering the bow to detach from the main body and move forward on its own!"

"Executing the separation procedure, splitting in progress..."

"5, 4, 3, 2, 1!"

"boom--!"

A silent, deafening roar reverberated through everyone's bones.

"boom!"

The starship's explosion swelled behind the detached bow.

There was no fire spreading in the vacuum, only the ultimate brilliance of matter being transformed into energy: a pure, blindingly bright white torrent burst forth from the stern of the ship, not spreading, but exquisitely confined into a violent, reverse pulse.

The bow of the ship, like an ark carrying its final mission, was propelled by this suicidal thrust, like a projectile struck by a giant hammer, suddenly breaking free from the clutches of evil, tumbling and tumbling out of control as it fled towards the beacon planet of the Tenth Expedition.

The starship was propelled by its own explosion, but at the same time it was pulled inward by an even stronger gravitational force. In the struggle between the two forces, the entire ship was like a ball of tin foil squeezed by an invisible giant hand, elegantly and cruelly collapsing, folding, and breaking inward.

Light burst forth from the crack, only to be quickly swallowed by darkness.

In an instant, it seemed as if all sound had been lost.

All that remained in her ears was deathly silence. Clutching the tree seed in her hands, Ishan stared blankly at the distant starship, now reduced to mere flames, and at her friends, teammates, and everything else that belonged to them.

The bow of the ship was quiet; there were no explosions, no impacts, only the steady, rhythmic starting of the engines, the heavy, trembling breathing, and the monotonous low hum of the instruments, proving that they were still alive.

The bow of the ship, fueled by the starship's own existence, ignited the last propulsion flames, and before the starship completely returned to nothing, traced a perfect arc in this distorted space with its wreckage.

Stumbling and staggering, Ishan brought back the last beacon in her hand, which was the seed of the Domini tree.

The bow of the ship was mostly intact. Navigator Avril was treating Strange Eye. Apart from that, the only surviving orc was quietly repairing any equipment that might be malfunctioning.

The entire bow of the ship was completely silent. The giant pupil of the strange eye had completely rotted away, and he had even torn it apart himself. No one knew what he had seen in the great void in the end.

Ishan approached the navigator like a rusty doll and asked, "How is Strange Eye...?"

The navigator remained silent and shook his head quietly.

She also asked, "How are the captain and the others?"

Ishan was speechless. He just silently held the tree seed in his hands, unable to utter a single word.

The air fell into a deathly silence, broken only by the sounds of the orc engineers fiddling with their instruments.

“This is a beacon.” Ishan spoke with difficulty, slightly raising the tree seed in her hand. “Now it’s just us left, just us left…”

They stared silently in the direction of the great void, the tree seed in their hands like the sharpest blade, repeatedly cutting into his soul, the immense guilt and despair almost consuming him.

……

The wreckage of Expedition 10, the Pantheon.

If in the past they found the remains of the fallen heroes only to retrieve their logs while resting, now they must search for embers of revolution within those remains.

Ishan found the wreckage of the Pantheon, and also its logbook.

At this moment, however, he didn't even have the mood to read the log; despair and guilt engulfed him like a tidal wave.

In a deserted corner, he drew his sidearm, the cold muzzle pressed against his chin.

"dad……"

Suddenly, a hallucinatory voice seemed to ring in his ears, and Ishan shuddered. He looked at the gun in his hand, and then at the logs left by the martyrs.

"Expedition Team 10, Pantheon Logbook..."

"We've lost half our fuel, which isn't enough to get us back, but we still have three unburned embers."

"Those who come after us, if you run out of fuel, take our embers. Inside the fuel chamber, this may be our last act of assistance."

He went to the fuel room and, sure enough, found an unlit ember.

The engineering vehicle brought the fire back to the bow of the ship, which prompted the orc engineer to immediately give Ishan a hug.

"Well done, Ishan. Without these sparks, we might have frozen to death on this planet." The orc engineer seemed to have recovered from the loss of his teammates.

Orcs seem to have such big hearts; they don't dwell on the past, but look to the future.

However, Ishan only gave a very awkward smile. His mission was temporarily completed, and he could go back and rest for a while.

He put away his gun and walked back to the command room. All the wavering in his eyes had been extinguished. Looking at the tree seeds left by Domini, there was only a calm that was almost like the calm after burning out completely.

"Only the last step remains..."

The embers left behind by the predecessors were successfully fitted and ignited in the fuel tank at the bow of the ship.

The final bow of the Fireseed sailed toward the unknown final area where the probes had completely failed. Ishan walked at the front, risking her life to probe the stability of every inch of space.

The entire front of the large cavity was completely silent, devoid of hope and light, so silent that there was nothing except the sound of the fuel tanks.

Ishan held the amulet in her hand.

"I'm sorry, Dad has to break his promise."

Dawn is approaching.

However, the dawn here is quiet, without light or sound.

……

Fug leaned on the windowsill, looking towards the direction of the large void.

Tomorrow is Holy Day, and she's having trouble sleeping tonight.

Will Dad and the uncles and aunts come back tomorrow?
Will they come back to attend their own parent-teacher conference?

She tossed and turned, unable to sleep, like a primary school student going on a field trip the next day. In her drowsy state, she seemed to have just fallen asleep when she woke up and looked out the window at the approaching dawn.

Tomorrow is coming soon, which is the day of Sacramento.

This spot was surprisingly quiet, with the air filled with the fresh scent of dew.

Dawns here are quiet, too. (End of Chapter)