The Record of Unusual Creatures

Panda Novel

When they had located the spatial anomaly, Hao Ren had taken Gungnir’s pieces from Kuiper Station with him. Now, he placed the broken fragments of the weapon in the laboratory on the Petrachelys, which was under Nolan’s control.

The upper-level armor of the ship opened slowly as an array of hexagonal pillars that glowed a bright blue emerged from the ship. This was the Petrachelys’ scanning antenna, designed with more specific objectives in mind. While it could not broadcast Gungnir’s frequency as strongly as the massive antenna array on Kuiper Station, but it could still amplify the signal strong enough to open a dimensional pathway. With some modifications, a scanning antenna could also be used as a powerful signal transmitter.

Nolan activated her antenna system and initiated the complementary sequences in the ship’s laboratory, all the while showing Hao Ren the status of these systems on the control panel. Hao Ren noted that Gungnir’s pieces were also placed inside a transparent hexagonal container. As the ship’s antenna array came to life, the insides of the container glowed as well. The metal pieces flashed rhythmically under the electric stimulation it received. As Nolan zoomed in the right frequency spectrum, the metal pieces began to resonate with one another more strongly, which would then help open the door to another dimension.

“Frequency fluctuation is stabilized… Amplifying the signal now… Changes in spatial structure detected. Relaying the resonant frequency to the signal generator now.” Nolan’s holographic image flickered. All traces of emotion left her as she began to move and speak like a typical AI — mechanically and without intonation. Her eyes looked unfocused. Outside the ship, the space between Jupiter and the stars beyond began to distort at a discernible degree. “Entrance to the other dimension is locked on.”

The IDT was also busy on its end. It had plugged itself into the control panel. When Nolan was busy running the spatial devices, it took over the part of ship’s radar system. “Two Earth-based space probes detected. It’s unlikely that they will notice us… but they’ve already diverted away.”

As the distortion in their view of the stars grew even more severe, the entrance to the other dimension stabilized until it became clear for all to see. About one kilometer away in front of Petrachelys, a long rift of darkness began to appear. Beyond it was the land of the Aesir, which had been connected intermittently with the Material Plane for over 2,000 years. Vivian was unsettled by the appearance of the dimensional entrance. She brushed Hao Ren’s elbow instinctively and whispered, “I wonder what Yggdrasil has become… It’s been 2,000 years, the place is probably a wasteland now…”

Hao Ren put his hand on Vivian’s to comfort her. He knew that there were only two Otherworldling families on Earth that she was close to—Zeus’ family in Greece and Odin’s family in Northern Europe. For tens of thousands of years, these two families shared a good relationship with Vivian. They might even be considered great friends. He could understand Vivian’s nervousness and emotional turmoil to have to see the wreckage left behind by her old friends.

Thousands of years of friendship was now reduced to ashes. To any normal human being, it would have been a devastating experience, and Vivian had encountered them time and time again.

“I see something…” Y’zaks pointed at the holographic screen. “In the shadows. They look like the mainland in the dimension.”

The dimensional rift was growing larger and larger, and quickly materializing into the present dimension. The black crease in space was a sharp contrast against the Great Red Spot in the background. This was on a different level from the time when Hao Ren first saw the Olympian ruins in Athens Sanctuary—the Olympian ruins were only a small dimensional fragment that could barely house a castle, but this here was the grand entrance to the Nine Realms! Yggdrasil itself could be accessed through this rift. Even in the Classical Era, this was probably one of the largest “Land of the Gods”!

Nolan’s eyes flashed a bionic blue. “Connection is fully stabilized. Opening the door!”

Petrachelys was instantly enveloped in some murky layer, which then expanded rapidly outwards in all directions. The dimensional rift was stimulated by the signal broadcasted and opened up fully.

Hao Ren saw the shadows in the darkness of the rift began to take form. Suddenly, color began to seep into the shadowy objects. He saw a massive continent floating at a distance away in the alternate dimension, and the glorious rainbows that connected parts of the land. Thick emerald vines grew wildly in throughout the land. When Hao Ren saw those vines, his expression turned focused.

He did not have time to take in more of the alternate dimension—just as the path to the Nine Realms was fully opened, the stable dimension window suddenly writhed fiercely. The edges of the dimensional rift began to collapse like broken glass. Hao Ren saw the surface of the green vines glowing with numerous silver runes when Nolan yelled, “Spatial stability is plummeting! I’m losing the connection… The door is closing!”

“What…” Before Hao Ren could finish, the dimension rift collapsed entirely. The colorful world they saw beyond cracked like stained glass, and then it was gone completely just two seconds later.

An alarm blared on the bridge in Petrachelys as the ship became overwhelmed by the sudden interruption in its massive power output to sustain the dimensional opening just moments ago. Something creaked sharply from deep inside the ship. Nolan promptly shut the system down. Her body flickered for a while before stabilizing in form. “The connection is lost.”

“Are you okay?” Hao Ren watched the ship’s soul anxiously.

Nolan rubbed her belly ruefully. “… There was a power backflow in the reactor. I’m feeling a little bloated, but otherwise it’s fine.”

“…Err…” Hao Ren thought he could not possibly hope to understand a ship’s health issues. “That’s good. What happened just now?”

“We always thought that the other dimension is inanimate, that we can just connect to it whenever we want. However, it is in fact… alive. More precisely speaking, something inside it is alive.” Nolan looked ruffled, unhappy with how she was outsmarted. “A huge power source had forcefully cut off my connection to the alternate dimension. I can’t sense where the entrance is now anymore.”

Hao Ren exchanged a glance with Vivian, who asked hesitantly, “Did you… see those things?”

Hao Ren frowned and nodded. “They look like the Elder’s tentacles.”

Vivian mirrored his look. “It’s different from the ones we have seen before.”

“You’re right. Those runes, the emerald green color, and the leaves on the tentacles — these characteristics are not present in the tentacles we have encountered before.” Hao Ren narrowed his eyes as he tried to recall the terrifying sight of the other dimension. Those flourishing giant plants that took over their surroundings so aggressively reminded him of the First Born, but the minor differences of the tentacles must still be considered. “More importantly… The sudden collapse of the entrance must be triggered by those tentacles. It must be the runes at work.”

Hao Ren had experienced first hand the different capabilities of the tentacles from the First Born in the Plane of Dreams, but he did not recall anything about the Guardians having the ability to control space-time. Of course, the First Born was born with innate magical powers, but they were mostly powers of the mind or of the body. Guardians were also more inclined to simple, brutal magic and the even more simplistic and brutal Lifeblood to deal with their problems.

Those silver runes and the way they were cut off from the alternate dimension did not feel like something typical of the First Born would do.

Y’zaks interrupted his line of thought. “Try expanding the scanning range. Can you locate the spatial anomaly again?”

Nolan shook her head. “I have covered two astronomical units around Jupiter. The signal is gone. It will be futile to further amplify Gungnir’s resonance frequency. Either the thing living inside has blocked the dimension from my radar, or the entire dimension has already left this place.”

Petrachelys was a spacecraft given to instructors for routine traveling and dealing with minor local conflicts. It was more akin to a bicycle, and Hao Ren cannot hope for this “bicycle” to locate the massive alternate dimension in the vast universe outside. He had to accept it — they had just found the Nine Realms… and then lost it.

“Back to Kuiper Station.” Hao Ren gestured with a wave. “Let’s ask the old man for the antenna again, see if we can find the alternate dimension this time.”

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