Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The divine barrier that enveloped Collow for tens of millions of years was finally lifted.
Ripples suddenly appeared in a vacuum. The translucent illusory ripples spread from every corner of space as if the void had become an infinite ocean. When these ripples gradually undulated in a synchronized fashion, hidden celestial bodies emerged.
The first thing that appeared was a shining star, then mysterious and complicated patterns and lines around it. These lines wrapped around the sun and glowed in a corona-like color. These patterns and lines were part of the divine power system left by the goddess of creation. A dark-red planet appeared near the sun. On the planet, there were many abandoned ancient structures, which were the remote sensing stations used to monitor planet Collow. Following that, a group of broken celestial objects emerged on the outer orbit.
This group of celestial objects consisted of five individual pieces, each of a different shape. Some had shadows shrouded it, some were eternally frozen, some were green and filled with life, some were shining. Four of the celestial bodies were circling one in the center. A faint glow shrouded the five celestial bodies. There were many symbols and patterns in the light, which were signs of human interference. Supernatural forces ruled these celestial objects, and maintained their ecologies and physical structures, making their existence possible although the structure had defied the law of nature.
In the dark space around the five celestial objects, there was another phantom-like world. The elusive world seemed to be larger than the five celestial bodies but appeared barren and lifeless.
That was the ‘old world.’ It was the physical body of Collow but was turned into a semi-elusive alien dimension during the first escape of Lockmarton. Now hung over the main world of Collow, the elusive space was only accessible through the Realm of Reflections.
A silver light flashed across space, and the patrol frigate Petrachelys emerge. Hao Ren looked at the changes in space in the flight deck. The images were not stable, but their overall outlines were clearly visible. Outside the solar system of Collow, various small celestial bodies and stray celestial objects were observable. In some places, there were also space wrecks that looked like temples and towers, which were likely automatic monitoring stations that the goddess of creation left behind. It was a shame that these structures turned into space junk following the disappearance of the divine power of the goddess.
However, the space junk made valuable research objects. Nolan had sent a group of autonomous robots and drones towards those space structures to carry out a scientific study.
Hao Ren’s eyes were on Collow, which had now become a group of floating islands in space. He was wondering how the civilizations on these floating islands would develop in such a unique environment. About one astronomical unit away from the floating islands, there was the ‘gate.’
Silver-white space orbital cannons and outposts, fortresses, monitoring towers, and other facilities formed a huge three-dimensional structure. The overall appearance of the layers of defense and control systems could only be seen in distant space. In the center of this system was a ‘door’ that was twisted like a vortex. The vortex was bound by a giant silver metal ring. The giant ring seemed to be in an unstable dimension; it sometimes looked elusive and faded to become a part of the vortex. It was how the crystal key looked after its activation. Perhaps, only Raven 12345 could explain this bizarre phenomenon.
The Gate of the Universe possessed a powerful gravity. It kept all celestial bodies around it in their safe orbits so that they would not interfere with the Gate of the Universe. Hao Ren had placed some of the monitoring facilities of the Gate of the Universe on the continent of Ansu and the frozen continent, which essentially tied the two together. The structure resembled the relationship between the planet Inferno with the Gate of the Universe.
Lil Pea jumped onto the console and reached out her hands to touch the rippling space in the hologram. Wagging her tail excitedly, Lil Pea must be thinking that it was water. But very quickly, the ripples disappeared.
“With your proposal and automated factories, things will go on the right track soon,” Vivian said. “But it seems something was still troubling you.”
“How could I not be troubled with that many explosive new findings?” Hao Ren sighed. “The reconstruction of Collow may not be smooth sailing like we expect. This world is unique; the people have dedicated all their energy to fight the Tide of Chaos. Their technology tree, culture, and the concept of survival were more or less odd. Now the Tide of Chaos is gone, I don’t know how these people, grew up in war, could adapt to the new life. I’m also not sure if there would be any problems with those monitoring stations and large computing centers on the continents. After all, Collow is not the same as Inferno; it is much denser population and a higher degree of social development.”
“Those people would not take apart the factories and monitoring stations,” Vivian said with a smile. “Haven’t all the leaders of the kingdoms had pledged that as long as the facilities are used to monitor the space and not affecting the daily life of the people, they would fully support the project. You have saved their lives. At least this generation would be grateful to you. The future generations would probably get used to these ‘alien’ machines by then, just like the people of Inferno.”
Hao Ren nodded and looked into the distant space. He seemed to be looking past the field of stars and space cloud into the silent darkness in deep space.
In the ruins of Fidelinopolis, Sanctum in Collow, Calaxus and his team of cardinals were worshipping and praying to the sacred crystal mountain of Asurmen for the last time.
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The sacred crystal mountain glowed softly. A chime echoed in the heart of every person in the ceremony, as if it was saying goodbye, or a reminder. Upon careful listening, the sound disappeared like an illusion.
Calaxus looked up at the sky. The Gate of the Universe in the distant space appeared so grand that its silver lines and swirls were visible.
He lowered his eyes and looked at the sacred crystal mountain.
“Sacred mountain and Guardians, thank you for your protection of the world for the past thousands of years,” the new pope whispered. “I wish you well. Please bring along our prayers to complete the will of the goddess. Like a baby bird that will eventually grow up, we the mortals will continue to survive in this world and live up to the grace of the goddess of creation.”
The sacred crystal mountain seemed to have heard the prayers; it glowed even brighter. The earth shook, and Asurmen hummed and rose gradually, leaving the surface and accelerate toward the sky. Soon, it faded into a bright light and disappeared before the eyes of everyone.
The Petrachelys had been waiting for a few hours in space when Asurmen finally appeared in the agreed location.
The sacred crystal mountain had re-emerged as a spaceship and quietly come before the Petrachelys like a small asteroid. Asurmen was almost 10 times the size of the Petrachelys. The stacked crystal body reflected the images of Nolan and the space stations behind it.
When the communication was connected, Asurmen appeared on a hologram in front of Hao Ren. “I apologize for the delay as I have to bid farewell to the humans.”
“That’s all right,” Hao Ren nodded in understanding. “After all, they have been living with you for a long time.”
The image of the Lord of Lords, Loken, also appeared in a hologram. Loken and the rest of the wardens were onboard Asurmen. “The wardens have gathered here. What’s your plan?”
The goddess of creation had fallen. Even if there was a possibility of resurrection, it would be a matter of the future. Now, the wardens were headless. So Hao Ren, the pope and spokesperson of the foreign god, naturally became the person-in-charge. Muru had told Loken about Hao Ren’s efforts in finding the goddess of creation and the long-term recovery plan of the goddess’ system. Both the wardens and Asurmen agreed to join forces with Hao Ren for the time being.
“I want to hear the condition of the Mad Lord,” Hao Ren said while looking at Asurmen. “How long do you think the prison can hold up?”
“The Mad Lord is located in the dark abyss of deep space, where there are extreme silence, darkness, and nothingness. Except for the sentinels of the Denizens of the Stars, there is no life there. The goddess of creation left behind a divine barrier that’s a hundred times more powerful than the one in Collow. No one except the goddess herself can open it or cross it. Even my people who are stationed in the dark abyss can only rely on the fixed sentinels to move around,” Asurmen relayed what it knew about the situation. But since it was assigned to Collow to guard Lockmarton since the beginning, its understanding of the dark abyss was limited. “There is no leakage of the power of the Mad Lord for now judging from the state of the stars in space. Its interference in the deicidal war is probably its limit of influence. After the fall of the goddess of creation, I think the Mad Lord grabbed the opportunity to escape, but it will take a long time before it can get away.”
Hao Ren thought for a moment before he dismissed his idea of finding the Abyssal Dungeon and blowing it up Starbreaker Cannon. It was an idealistic plan, but Hao Ren was not impulsive. After fighting Lockmarton, he knew it was not a good time to challenge the Mad Lord. His power in the Plane of Dreams was lacking, and his understanding of the supernatural forces here was insufficient. Hao Ren knew he was not ready. The actions of the goddess of creation before her death had aroused many questions and suspicions. All these had prevented him from acting rashly.
Hao Ren was going to the Abyssal Dungeon but not now.
The wardens and Asurmen must have known it too. So they never hurried Hao Ren to seek revenge for the goddess.
“We must first find the whereabouts of the goddess of creation. Whether it is the goddess in sleep or her body fragments and thoughts, we can only open the Abyssal Dungeon when we find her. It would be great if the goddess could be resurrected; we would have a much higher chance of success to defeat the Mad Lord.” Hao Ren spoke his mind. “I’m assembling the Creation Engine according to the blueprint that the goddess has left behind. A search for the divine realm of the goddess, restoration efforts on ecology, and excavation of ruins are all ongoing at the same time. I hope that you all can follow Muru to planet Tannagost. There, you will see my work. I hope that you can cooperate in my research; I need to analyze the divine characteristics of the goddess of creation in the wardens. The research findings will help the drone clusters works of exploration of the universe. I hope that Asurmen could contact your people, especially those who are guarding the Abyssal Dungeon. We urgently need to know the inside condition of the prison. Besides that, we will also need your help in the research of relics such as the crystal discs.”
Muru and other Guardian Giants possessed the divine characteristics of the goddess of creation, but they were all mass-produced from the lifeblood factory on the Star of Creation, unlike the Lord of Lords, Loken, and other wardens, each of whom was “handcrafted” by the goddess of creation. So the wardens were obviously more suitable candidates as the “source code” when searching for the divine realm.
It was a reasonable and well-thought-out arrangement. Naturally, Asurmen and the prison wardens had no objections.