The Record of Unusual Creatures

pαndα`noνɐ1~сoМ

Panda Novel

They did not need to cross all nine worlds to reach Midgard. In fact, after Heimdallr was killed, Midgard was fixed on the seventh layer of the nine worlds. Behind this solidified space chain were Niflheim and Niebelungen. It was said that the situation in those two worlds was worse than in other worlds, but Hao Ren was not going there yet.

They arrived at their destination: the Twilight Capital of Midgard.

Midgard was the “atrium” of the nine worlds in the prosperous age of the Norse gods. It is said that Odin led the gods to open up various worlds on the branches of Yggdrasil and made the atrium a place where human beings lived. In Vivian’s memory, this continent was actually a human experimental base and observation test site for the Norse gods. But no matter what it used to look like here, now it was almost the same as other worlds.

The sky of Midgard was reddish gray and the extremely dim sky looked almost like midnight. The muddy thick clouds covered the dry, twisted earth as if it was about to collapse. Under the sky, the charred land was beyond recognition. Thick smoke and poison gas kept pouring out of the gullies. The Firstborn’s tentacles were winding out of some of the biggest crevices, forming a ridge-like protrusion on the land after the disaster. Midgard used to have rivers flowing through the continent and green mountains, but now the rivers had dried up and the mountains had become bare. Between the scorched mountains lay the last fire of this ‘world’: the Twilight Capital.

The spherical spacecraft glided quietly in the dark. As it approached the energy source ahead, the situation of Twilight Capital was presented to everyone through the holographic projection.

It was a city of unprecedented scale, but it was also a chaotic, old and crumbling city. Hao Ren saw a dim barrier shrouding between the mountains. The barrier was translucent and irregular like someone had struggled to expand it into what it was today. Inside the barrier, they could faintly see lots of bizarre buildings, which piled up in layers, filling every inch of space within the barrier like some kind of mutated tissues that proliferated, just as Wendell described it.

The spherical spacecraft stopped some distance from the Twilight Capital. “Where is the entrance?” Anthony asked.

Wendell was standing on the edge of the platform. He took some time to figure out where the city was, and pointed to the corner near the edge of the barrier near the mountains and said, “That’s one of the gates.”

“Do you need any formalities for entry?” Hao Ren asked casually.

Wendell just shrugged silently. “What for?”

Hao Ren quickly understood what it meant:

Inside the barrier was the only remaining refuge for humans. Outside the barrier was the endless darkness. This was almost seen as a one-way passage between the living and the dead. Who dares to go out, except for the Lightseekers? And who will come in from outside in this endless dark night?

Perhaps there were checkpoints at the gates of the Twilight Capital thousands of years ago, but it is not necessary now.

“I’m afraid we’ll have to deal with the Steam Assembly when we get in,” Wendell said. “They run the city.”

The old man had a somewhat complicated expression on his face when he mentioned the ‘Steam Assembly’. There was a trace of dissatisfaction in respect. He respected the city’s managers, but this ‘Steam Assembly’ was not very supportive of the cause of the Lightseekers. In fact, as a pragmatic governing group, it was the Steam Assembly that was constantly reducing the size of the Lightseeker team, and not long ago, an announcement was issued that Lightseekers would no longer be dispatched.

This complicated Wendell’s feelings about the Steam Assembly.

“Steam Assembly? We don’t have much interest in it.” Vivian shook her head. “We want to see your ancient saint first. Is he still sheltering the Twilight Capital?”

Vivian was greatly interested in the ancient saint that emerged two thousand years ago and has been sheltering the human race of Midgard to this day. She had roughly guessed the identity of the ancient saint, which was the main reason why she came here.

Wendell looked at Vivian in surprise. “The ancient saint, of course, is still sheltering us… But I’m afraid it’s not so easy for you to see him.”

Hao Ren raised an eyebrow and asked, “He doesn’t want to see anyone?”

Wendell shook his head and said, “The ancient saint has not appeared for many years. Now, only the guardians in the lower ground can see him. Lots of people in the twilight capital want to meet the ancient saint, but ordinary people are not qualified at all.”

Vivian smiled and said, “We’re from another world. I think this identity is enough to interest the ancient saint.”

Wendell’s expression changed instantly, apparently, he agreed with Vivian. He murmured, “Well, it makes sense. The ancient saint would be very happy to hear from you. I can send you a message through the Lightseeker’s organization. Our relationship with the guardian there is quite okay. But in any case, the Steam Assembly will surely focus on you guys. They run the whole city, and nothing happens inside the barrier can be concealed from them. To be honest, I try not to provoke the Steam Assembly, they’re… very conservative. I’m afraid they’ll stop you from meeting the ancient saint.”

Hao Ren waved his hand to indicate that it did not matter, and then Anthony controlled the spherical spacecraft to approach the gate of Twilight Capital.

The spacecraft slowly descended when it was still a long way from the barrier and landed directly in the desert outside the city. In order not to cause too much disturbance, they could not fly in such a large space shuttle.

Hao Ren saw the situation outside the light curtain before arriving at the barrier entrance.

Outside the barrier was a dry, twisted piece of land. The land had also been eroded by magic storms. Everything on the earth showed signs of severe weathering, and in the heavily weathered landscape, there were lots of old buildings: they were probably the remains of the city more than 2000 years ago.

The remains clung to the Twilight Shroud, and some parts of the wreckage were even split in two by the barrier!

“That’s the ancient city of Kremhllen.” Wendell stood beside Hao Ren and explained while curiously fiddling with the life-support collar around his neck: this little device was much more advanced than his own magic charm. It allowed him to walk in the magic radiation without feeling anything.

Hao Ren certainly knew what it meant when he looked at the ruins of buildings split by the light curtain. “Life and death, a wall apart,” he said.

“When the barrier rose, the city was just on the edge of it, so the whole city was divided into two parts. Half of the city survived, and now it’s a block of the Twilight Capital, and the part outside the barrier turned into this,” Wendell said, shaking his head with a bitter smile. “At that time, there was no gate here, so the people who remained outside were dead.”

Lily stood on a big stone and looked into the distance. Suddenly, she noticed that there were glimmers of light in the dark wilderness outside the light curtain. “Are there people moving outside the barrier?” She asked in surprise.

“They’re the collectors,” Wendell nodded and explained. “The resources in Twilight Capital are always limited. We have to risk our life to mine ore in the dark outside. Scholars have studied various methods so that we can have three mines near the Twilight Capital. It’s a pity that we can’t go further. Come with me. I know a way after we enter the gate. If we go from there, we can try to avoid trouble.”

They approached the magnificent soft yellow light curtain in the darkness.

The Twilight Capital, like its name, served as the last beacon of civilization on the Midgard continent, which was shrouded in the endless night.

It took them half an hour to cross the ruins of the city outside the barrier. After crossing a large area of weathered and collapsed building debris, a halo appeared in front of everyone. This halo was inlaid on the Twilight Shroud. The light curtain inside the halo was obviously thinner than outside, and this was the gate.

“What is this?” Hao Ren looked at the things outside the gate in surprise.

Outside the gate of the Twilight Capital was a land that had been artificially leveled. There were hundreds of sculptures, men, women, and children with different expressions. Some of these vivid portraits were crying with their heads in their arms, some were helping each other, some were struggling to climb forward, and the most striking one was an old man sitting on the ground. His legs had shrunk and deformed, but he just sat there quietly, facing the door, waving and smiling.

It was as if he was waving and smiling at the Twilight Capital. Or it could be someone standing behind the light curtain, and the old man was waving goodbye to him.

“Half the city remained outside when the barrier rose,” said Wendell.

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