Ten thousand years ago, there were pilgrims who had used these very words to record the scenery of Solenne. A holy and majestic land where the giants, children of the Goddess had built their great cities as a testament and record of their mother's glory and greatness. They had brought from the deep space remants of stars and planets and had turned these materials on the planet's core into the black, obsidian bricks. These bricks were stronger than any metal, yet was light as feather. Thousands upon thousands of them stood upon the earth, and amonst them glew a neverending light. The giants had also encrusted crystals of supernovas and the top of their great sanctums. These crystals beamed with energy, and on holiest of planets on the Solenne Gateway, serve as a lighthouse, bringing light to all mortals.
Even as the planet now lay in complete ruin, Hao Ren could imagine the glorious days of yore from the ruins.
In the middle of the city centre was the most massive and magnificent of buildings. It was formed by an inordinate about of black stone pillars, tower complexes and pyramidial monuments. Many bizzare shapes were carved out of a massive rock and the main complex had multiple pyramidial points that formed layer upon layer. Most of the moving parts had a faint light green glow to it. On the massive temple-like structure, the light green crystals were all over the building, and at the most concetrated point where the crystals were encrusted was a bridge-like structure that jutted into the air. Hao Ren reckoned that these structures were the lightstreams and during the better days, a dozen of these lightstreams supplied energy to the temple and allowed it to exudes a godly strength.
This building was no mere pilgrimage temple, it was a powerful weapon as well. It bore the responsibility of blasting any hostile beings in space with a powerful destructive laser. But seemed like the treacherous children had used divine weapons stolen to breakthrough the planet's shields and destroyed the defensive structures from space.
As the Petrachelys made her slow approach towards the temple, Hao Ren saw a horrifying hole on the side of the building that had collapsing inwards. Seems like this was the hit that took the temple offline.
The frigate reduced her speed gradually before passing through a few stone pillars and found a continuous platform. Hao Ren noticed something on the platform. "Wait up? What are those? AA cannons?"
There was a number of trident-like weaponry lining the platform. The weapons were set on a circular base and most of them were pointing towards the air, and many more were destroyed. Yet a faint halo lingered in the air. These weapons were probably ineffective against spaceborne targets and were meant for atmospheric defense.
Nolan gave the 'tridents' a scan. "Based on the energy signatures, these weapons were still in use.. There's a body there."
"Lets go have a look." Hao Ren got out of his seat and called upon Muru. "Muru, follow us. Lily, Y'zaks, with me. Y'lisabet, you stay and look after the ship."
The little demon would have normally protested, she after all did not want to miss the chance of an adventure. She somehow realised the gravity of the situation and did not say anything and nodded. But what was going on in that diablolic mind of hers is anyone's guess.
Y'zaks gave his daughter a pat on the head before looking at Nolan's holographic projection. "If she dares pull out her screwdriver, feel free to slam her into the cargo hold.
"Takes a father to know his daughter!" Everyone exclaimed.
Muru finally do not need to coop up in the hangar any longer and he followed Hao Ren and the rest out of the Petrachelys. Finally stepping into his homeland again after ten thousand years, yet what greeted the guardian was scene of devastation, ruined cities and scorched earth. The landscape was nothing but a wasteland now and toxic gas permeated across the land. Lily had to put on her lifehoop to filter out the poisnous gas as her tail wagged about in the scorching air. "Feels like the place is about to go ablaze.."
"The place had already been burnt. Didn't you see the rivers and seas have all dried up?" Hao Ren frowned as he stepped on holy grounds ( this was not considered stepping into the Goddess' domain officially). His first impression was the place was on the rather poor side. This was a burning inferno, and nothing on this hell on earth was particularly pleasing. Hao Ren quickened his steps towards the giant and noted that the giant was wearing a black uniform, and it was as female giant.
The giant sat couched on the AA cannon seat, her massive frame was limp and there were a few fatal puncture holes on her body while her hand was still on the controller of the trident. As Hao Ren went forward to have a look at the body, her hand slipped lifelessly and the control panel was activated, and the shriek later, a blinding lightning beam shot towards the sky.
Lily was scared silly.
"She's dead." Muru went on a knee beside his kin and made a simple gesture to convey his respects. "She died in glory, and fought till the very end. Mother will be proud of this warrior."
Hao Ren touched the dead warrior with his hand and felt a surge of warmth at the tip of his fingers. The warrior was only just killed not too long ago. Ten minutes ago, she was probably still alive. The fighting that were detected by the Petrachelys from afar happened here. This AA base was only manned by the solitary soldier, her enemies were the treacherous children's fighter squadron, and with the gulf of power, she was fighting a lost cause.
Only that he witnessed the warrior that could have been alive ten minutes ago that Hao Ren understood what sort of place he was in now. Ground zero of a god-slaying war.
Hao Ren had theorised that the planet was still frozen in time for ten thousand years, when the Petrachelys thad shot down the three aircraft, or when he saw the still burning ruins in the air, none of that gave him the same revelation as the contact he had with dead warrior before him. From the touch, he felt that a timeflow in flux correcting itself, and a war happened ten thousand years ago had incredibly stepped through time, and landed right smack in his face.
A scorching sensation followed by the sound of creaking lava came from beside, Y'zaks had slowly transformed into his demonic form to guard against any danger. He looked around the perimeter before stepping into a corner of the platform, his voice a rolling thunder. "There's something here!"
There was a smoking crater about a hundred meters away from the AA base and sparks still danced about the crater. Hao Ren and the rest quickly followed Y'zaks steps as they came to the side of the crater, eyes widened.
There was a ten-meter long, lobster-like fighter craft laying in the crater. There was a gaping hole on it, but the structure was still intact.
A wreckage of the treacherous children.
Muru turned to the AA base. "That warrior managed to take one down before she died."
This discovery surprised Hao Ren. He was rather regretful that when he totally annihilated the three 'lobster fighters' earlier. The Petrachelys' firepower was just too overwhelming, and even the lowest output was enough to turn the target into dust. As he was unable to recover any samples from the earlier engagement, Hao Ren was pleasantly surprised that an intact one had appeared before him. He grabbed the MDT to give the wreckage a scan. "This thingmajig here won't explode, right?"
The MDT let out a blue glow as it scanned the wreckage before reassuring the rest. "It's safe. The energy core seems to have been punctured and there's almost nothing left in the ship.
Hao Ren and Lily immediately leapt into the crater and started investigating the wreckage.
The oddly shaped aircraft was different from any other ships and combat crafts. Its curved outline does not have an obvious cockpit. But Lily managed to locate the entry just by using her nose. She waved her Flame-effing-Joy about as she cut a hole on the hull of the aircraft, sparks flying about. As the latter had already lost is energy store, Lily had managed to quickly cut a hole big enough to fit her before slipping into the machine.
Hao Ren picked up the plate that was cut open by Lily and noticed the inner part of the plat had many intricate patterns. These patterns were clearly not for display, but they did not look like there were electrical circuits either.
"These are holy inscriptions." Muru squatted beside Hao Ren as he tried to restrain his disgust as he explained the secrets of the inscriptions to the latter. "They had stolen the truth of the world from Mother's language, and have inscribed them on their armor. This allowed their army to be immune to all sorts of supernatural powers, and were resistant against the guardian's spells and mental attacks. They even inscribed the same runes onto their soldier's skull, and this allow their soldiers to have the same resistance. If their anti-divinity corruptive weapons are their spear. These holy inscriptions acts as their shield. It's through this two items that they had managed to fight toe-to-toe with a god."