The Record of Unusual Creatures

Panda Novel

It was the end of the Underworld.

The crack in Tartarus continued to spread and finally divided Elysium into two. The massive rift ran across the entire earth, cutting the artificial land like an invisible sharp blade. After Elysium fell apart, the crack further ran across the dry Styx and spread to the wilderness at the edge of the Underworld.

Hot magma spurted out from underground. In some smaller fissures, steam columns were as high as hundreds of meters high. The rock layer began to collapse into the endless void while an energy storm rose from underground. The once solid earth of the Underworld became wavy like melted cheese before it wholly sank.

Kronos led the ancient Titans to escape the fast-disappearing world. They clung to the tower of the Underworld, which was also rapidly collapsing, and climbed up to Mount Olympus.

The Titans’ movement seemed to be slow, but they could climb several dozens of meters with each movement of their arms. They were effectively moving faster than the speed of the collapse of the Underworld tower, and before long, they had left the destruction far behind.

Hao Ren took a glace at the situation below. Through his quick observation, he found that their movement in the passage was still faster than the climbing speed of the Titans. The Titans could no longer pose a threat to them. Hao Ren breathed a sigh of relief and asked curiously, “Could they really climb all the way up to Mount Olympus like this?”

Hasse looked up. They were now beginning to pass through the portal at the top of the Underworld. It was an extremely wide crack in the shape of a lightning bolt, the thickness of which spanned a few kilometers. “They could—as long as they maintain their current speed. This passage is essentially a high-speed passage, and the portal generator on Mount Olympus kept the portal open. So even if the tower of the Underworld is down, the portal will still remain open. We can reach the Temple of Hades directly from the inside of the pipeline through the mountain body of Olympus, but those Titans must climb up the mountain walls of Mount Olympus. Anyway, they will still reach Mount Olympus.”

As Hasse spoke, they just crossed the dividing line between the Underworld and Olympus.

Through the ever-changing cracks on the wall of the passage, Hao Ren saw that the scene outside suddenly became a blurry image as if twisted light had formed a vortex around the passage. When these blurry images disappeared, the scene outside the passage returned to normal.

It was an endless sea of white clouds.

But the cloud scenery appeared only momentarily. Hao Ren saw rocky foundations appeared above the clouds and then the scene turned dark again.

In the darkness, there were metal ring flashing in light flying past them. It was as if riding in a train through a tunnel. When Hao Ren saw this, he knew what was going on: they had entered the mountain body of Olympus.

The Titans climbing on the outside of the passage would not be able to follow them. The Titans could only climb from the base of the Olympus floating mountain range. If these mighty Titans could do that and not fall to their death, then they would most likely come up from the Hades Peak.

Hessiana let out a long sigh. “Phew! At last the ugly Titans are out of sight.”

Lily also sighed, “Phew! Is Kronos really the father of Zeus?”

“The answer is a definite yes.” Hasse nodded.

Lily was in disbelief. “Zeus is also eighty meters tall?”

Hasse shook his head. “Zeus is about the same height as Hades. They are both the larger species of the Titan race and could grow up to five meters.”

The husky maiden’s facial expression changed several times as her imagination ran wild. “No wonder that Olympus was so chaotic. Has Zeus never been suspicious of whether Kronos is his paternal father? Wait a minute. Could it be because of family problems that made Zeus lock Knonos up?”

This out-of-the-blue question left Hasse struck dumb. He only began to explain after a dozen seconds later. “According to what we know, Zeus imprisoned Kronos and the other Titans because, for some unknown reason, they had mutated. Their bodies grew larger, they lost their sanity. There were signs that this mutation would spread and pollute Olympus. Under this circumstance, the gods of Olympus had no choice but to lock up their fathers.”

“Mutation? That is to say, the Titans were originally the size of Zeus?”

“That’s right. The gods on Mount Olympus have only two body types: the larger type of over three meters, and the smaller type of the size of the human. Titan, like Kronos, is obviously a mutant. We have known more through our investigation that the smaller body type similar to human height should also be also a product of mutation. They were the result of genetic degradation when the purebred gods of Olympus bred on Earth. The original Olympian gods are at least three meters tall. The smaller type like Hesperides is their descendants on Earth. Compared to the severe mutation of the Titans, miniaturization did not have any sequelae, and so Zeus still regarded the genetically degraded Olympian gods as their own and but subject them to discrimination.”

Hao Ren frowned, and he had his own thought. “These changes probably have something to do with the crossing of the world barrier.”

After all, the earth was not the home of the otherworldlings.

For the otherworldling refugees from the Plane of Dreams, riding on Yggdrasil through the world barrier was a dangerous journey. Over half of the races died due to environmental changes when they arrived on Earth. The rest was facing enormous challenges, and those who eventually adapted to the earth’s environment was only 10%. But those survived had also undergone mutations, offspring gene degradation, alien diseases, and Earth’s native toxins. These things have been like clouds over their heads for the first millennium after their arrival and resulted in the rise of many myths and legends of ancient monsters among the later generations of humans.

Except for some of the ancient monsters, which were already ugly when they were in the Plane of Dreams, the others only mutated and turned hideous after arriving on Earth.

Such as the father of Zeus, Kronos, who was leading his brothers and sisters climbing up Mount Olympus, was such a victim.

The arrival of the otherworldlings was already a problem in itself.

After walking in the mountain body of Olympus for some time, Hao Ren finally noticed the scene outside the passage had changed.

The luminous rings that glided downwards had turned into continuous light tubes. The wall flew past them rapidly began to slow down, and the gravity pull had weakened. All these signs only indicated one thing: they were about to reach the destination.

“Get ready your weapons!”

Hasse whispered.

The demon hunters had cleaned the Temple of Hades, killed all those who resisted, and radiation had spread across the entire Mount Olympus, so it was unlikely that the demon hunters would still remain in Hades Peak. But it was always good to take precautions.

Hao Ren took out a pair of swords of cosmic fragments from his dimensional pocket. One of the swords, the Godslayer, immediately muttered, “Oh, hi! Partner, long time no see. Do you still fight? I can sense the murderous air here.”

“Shut up.”

“Okay.”

Just when everyone was on guard, the inverted gravity in the passage suddenly disappeared, and the normal gravity took over.

As their bodies were falling, metal fragments flew from all directions and quickly formed a solid floor under their feet.

The running black components before Hao Ren’s eyes retreated, revealing a door. Outside the door was a dark palace.

“Keep your eyes open,” Hao Ren said in a low voice. He led the team in front while Lily was following closely behind with her alloy swords.

The palace looked empty.

It should be a ‘transmission hall’ primarily used to connect with the Underworld. As a place for transferring materials and assembling people, it was spacious and tall. The hall, made of ferrous metal, was cylindrical in shape and had a vault on top with artwork depicting war and death scenes. There were dozens of exquisite metal sculptures around the hall.

Each of these beautiful sculptures was of Hade—the one being nailed on the Sighing Wall.

“That guy was pretty narcissistic,” Lily commented.

Hasse’s voice came from behind. “Every guy who claims to be a god is narcissistic. Ahem, I did not mean that one God we know.”

“Bah, Raven 12345 is indeed narcissistic. Not only narcissism but also likes to brag.” Hao Ren said. “But character-wise, the goddess is much better than these fake gods.”

Just as everyone came out into the hall and Little Hessiana was about to emerge, there was a sudden burst of mechanical friction coming from the passage.

Sparks burst out of the rotating passage outlet, and the fast-moving metal parts rapidly slowed down.

The collapse in the lower half of the tower of the Underworld had affected the operation of the entire passage.

The passage seemed to be barely holding up, but a total shut down was inevitable. Lily could not help but shake her head. “I wonder where Kronos and the other Titans are now.”

Hao Ren grinned and said, “I would hope they could make it.”

Lily was baffled. “What?”

“I don’t care if they are after the demon hunters or the gods of Olympus, they can surely create huge chaos, and that is what we exactly need.”