Chapter 1689: Roiling Clouds
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Communication had been established. The goddess of creation was not the only person to receive the news. Hao Ren, who was resting in the Surface World had received it too.
Right after he sent Hessiana home, Hao Ren received the shocking news from the communications network; Asurmen had managed to establish contact with the prison in the Dark Abyss. He quickly grabbed the MDT, opened up a warp gate to the Scarred Nebula, and jumped all the way to CARS. With him were Vivian and Lily.
By the time they got there, Rheia had also arrived from the Basilica of Yggdrasil.
The moment they met, the goddess of creation proudly announced, “I came right after I finished my homework!”
Hao Ren then started to wonder if he had gone overboard with the goddess’ daily homework assignment…
“The timing of the contact could not have been better,” Asurmen’s wind-chime voice traveled across the hall. “The Nightwatchers are still standing, and due to an increase in the Mad Lord’s activities, my brethren had originally planned to fight to the death. If not for that timely transmission, they would have been spent in a pointless battle.”
Cold sweat formed on Hao Ren’s forehead as he heard that before he breathed a sigh of relief: if their timely contact had not been established, and they did not manage to let the Nightwatchers within the Dark Abyss know that the goddess of creation had returned, they would have probably valiantly gone ahead and fought the Mad Lord to the death. While their courage was admirable, that would mean expending a valuable force before the final battle. More importantly, once all of the sentries in the Dark Abyss had fallen, the divine seal within the sector would fail, and that divine seal was an important part of Hao Ren’s counterattack strategy.
Rheia had arrived much earlier than Hao Ren, so she already understood part of the situation. She shook her head gently. “While the sentries are present, the situation at the prison isn’t great. The energy outburst released by the goddess of annihilation has indeed weakened the Mad Lord, but since then, there has been more and more logic, as well as purpose, to his actions. The chaotic energies are coalescing with terrifying efficiency against the seal of the Dark Abyss. After some attrition, the Mad Lord’s counterattacks have grown stronger, and now the interior defense lines are almost overrun while the center levels are also under increased attacks. The Nightwatchers stand on their own there, yet they still need to preserve their strength. Who knows how long they can hold on.”
“…Preservation of their forces is important.” Hao Ren frowned. “They can try to drag things as long as possible and retreat if it is no longer feasible. The interior of the Dark Abyss has already become his playground. Allowing valuable veterans like the Denizens to be expended like that is just too wasteful.”
Rheia agreed with Hao Ren’s assessment, but she did not relax. “The key question is, can we finish our preparations before then?”
Hao Ren then proceeded to explain the progress on his side, “The expansion of the droid swarm has already reached its maximum. The Annihilation Lance has also entered mass production, and the first batch will come off the line in two days. As for the weapons of war, no matter when the battle starts, they will be ready.”
“The guardians are ready as well.” Salaman’s holographic projection appeared next to the platform. “We have been preparing for this battle for 10,000 years. If the Mad Lord ever breaks free, the fleet and Agodal can assume combat position at any time.”
Hao Ren nodded to the screen before he turned to Lemendusa’s projection on the other side of the platform. “How’s the assembly of the Creation’s Engine going?”
Lemendusa bobbed his head in response as a massive golden superspace structure appeared beside his projection. It was the almost-completed frame of the Creation’s Engine. A veritable sea of engineering droids was ceaselessly working around the golden man-made star like swarms of fishes. “The engine core, which was sent for manufacturing a few days ago, has been installed into the frame, and the connection, as well as compatibility tests, have been completed successfully. The installation of the crust and auxiliary attachments can be done within a month, but…”
“Without the Gilded Discs, it is missing a CPU… right?” Hao Ren massaged his temples. “Let’s just put that issue aside. Focus on getting the engine completed and leave the computation core plug-in as it is. If push comes to shove…”
As Hao Ren spoke, he looked down.
CARS’ central server room was right below him, and through the semi-transparent crystal screens, he could see the light that linked the central computer’s “crystal peak” to the station’s central frame, extending toward all corners of the great structure and lining every part of the building with a mysterious calming glow.
“We can cramp CARS’ mainframe in there. We already have the logic engine for the Creation’s Engine, we only need to create a data conversion program. The computing abilities of the ‘crystal peak’ should be able to replace those discs.”
It was not a plan he cooked up on the fly, but rather, something he came up with after days of long deliberation. While Rheia was previously confident that once she graduated from primary school, she could figure out a way to create the Gilded Discs in a short period of time, after he went to look for Rheia again, the latter admitted that it was not a surefire thing. Even if she could rush the discs out, how much power they could unleash was another question. The discs were the engine’s core, and unlike the outer shell, which could just be slapped on, if the core’s efficiency was not up to par, the massive divine weapon would not even have the output of an Annihilation Lance firing squad.
Hao Ren clearly did not want that.
So, he thought hard and fast on where he could find a replacement for the Gilded Discs…
And the result of that was CARS’ mainframe. It was the most potent, most effective data processing core he could find in the Plane of Dreams. Of course, he still had Yggdrasil, and that thing would be many times more powerful than the “crystal peak”, but Yggdrasil was already tasked with maintaining the order of the Plane of Dreams. Its powers would be needed to mend the world after the Mad Lord was vanquished, so that was out of the question.
Despite that, the main reason was Yggdrasil just being too high-tech of a toy for Hao Ren and Rheia. Both being amateurs, they had no idea how to even take it apart…
“Putting the crystal peak into the core of the Creation’s Engine?” This was a rather shocking topic, and the first to jump was Lily. “Won’t that result in CARS going offline? Isn’t this our main base?”
“CARS still has several secondary mainframes and redundancy systems. Even without the primary mainframe, it can still function at a lower capacity. It won’t totally shut down.” Hao Ren wiggled his hand. “Once the fighting starts, the value of the Creation’s Engine as a superweapon will supersede CARS. This space station is, after all, a multi-purpose civilian station. Its most powerful weapon has already been massed produced, so in combat, its value is very limited.”
Using good iron for weapons was a concept that Lily could understand, and with Hao Ren’s explanation, the werehusky had no other questions.
“That leaves… our trump card,” Hao Ren said as he turned his sight on the goddess of creation. “How are your preparations?”
“Based on what I’ve learned about utilizing my divine powers, I have fully recovered from the weakness of my 10,000-year wounds and slumber. I am much stronger than before.” Rheia gently tightened her fist. “But time is running short, or else I would be able to gain more powers from the study materials. You cannot imagine how useful all that knowledge and experience is to me… Aih…”
Vivian could not help but murmur, “It feels weird that her power level has shot up so rapidly just from studying some primary school materials. Doesn’t feel all that epic.”
Lily rolled her eyes. “Just think of the primary school books as some legendary tomes and you’ll be fine.”
Vivian thought for a bit and felt that the doggo was speaking some sense for once.
“But… So, we can only wait outside?” Hao Ren could not help but ask. “The Nightwatchers are fighting all alone in the prison. That’s going to be hellish. If we could help them, even just a little bit, it would lighten their burden, right?”
“Unfortunately… we are of no help.” Rheia shook her head. “The seal of the Dark Abyss is very unique, and it is based on ‘information severance’ as a basis. Various methods are utilized to prevent the transmission of information in and out of the seal, wiping out all observable effects to keep the Mad Lord in place. This sealing method was purposely designed to work against the Mad Lord’s contamination of information. To put it differently, any transfer of information in and out of the Dark Abyss will weaken the seal, leading to him breaking out early.”
Rheia noticed how everyone fell into deep thought, and she sighed again. “Now that Asurmen has established contact with the Nightwatchers, that contact itself is a breach on the seal. With part of the seal already damaged by the Mad Lord, the damage caused by this exchange is negligible. Sadly, the sentries will probably no longer send out any further information.”
Upon hearing that, Vivian sighed. “What a great sacrifice… Those sentries who stayed behind at the seal all those years ago…”
Asurmen’s voice then rang from the crystal, “The time of the ancients has passed. We have survived until today for a cause. There is nothing great about that.”
Shortly after, Rheia brought something up. “Oh, if you’d like to do something now, there is one thing that we could start on right away.”
Hao Ren looked on curiously.
“A stable gateway to the Umbral Realm has already been created,” Rheia said. “It’s time to pay… L’Haronne a visit.”
A smile formed on Hao Ren’s lips. Some good news at last.