The Record of Unusual Creatures

Panda Novel

The otherworldly battle in the air was only ephemeral, but the grand and terrifying madness was deeply imprinted in Constance’s mind. She continued to look up into the air, and even the skies were once again covered in clouds again, the fire and lightning within the burning distorted dimension still played in her eyes.

Finally, she retracted her gaze as she looked around in a daze. She noticed the soldiers around her were busying about, and no one looked up, and neither anyone panicked or were at a loss. It was as if no one had heard the thunder, nor did they saw the scene after the skies ripped open.

Could they not see the scene earlier?

Constance suddenly understood what happened, and shifted her gaze towards Rheia, the latter was playing with her fingers slightly nervously.

“What was that?” Constance asked. “That thing in the sky…”

“Just a hallucination,” Rheia looked up and replied to a serious look.

Constance blinked hard, “But I did see…”

“It’s a hallucination.” Rheia’s face stiffened as she tried to look even more serious.

Constance paused for a moment.

“All right, it was not.” Rheia pondered for a bit before deciding against to use the Word of God to twist reality, “What you saw was something that is currently happening in another layer of this world.”

“So it is…” Constance frowned hard as all sorts of emotions overwhelmed her. ” I know…I’ve seen that dimension before, even from a distance, I know that is Gorgon’s Abyss… but there were no such battles in the abyss in my memory…”

Rheia then turned back to the armband that she had tossed onto the ground earlier, and a gentle flash went through the band as she looked at it. She picked the armband up and wore it, and this time, there was no bizarre scenery in the sky. “We actually did not want to let you on too much into this… because Hao Ren was afraid that your will may be shaken, and affect the outcome of the final battle. You may very well… be the last of the heritors to end the Cycle of Annihilation, and your battle will be the final hope of this world.”

Constance was very smart, and even if she was not, the experience and trials that she had faced from the previous cycles would have made her wise up. She sighed gently, “So… Hao Ren and the rest are at Gorgon’s Abyss now, right? What I saw, was them… What is it? Another battlefield that is happening at the same time in this world?”

“Just as you said, the heritors had gone through countless cycles, and every cycle will cause part of your memories to be wiped, so you naturally won’t know about the existence of the other battlefield… That is not just Gorgon’s Abyss… it is the back of the world.” Rheia shook her head. “Come, I’ll tell you the truth in detail.”

…

“The second echelon starships are heavily damaged. Withdrawing for repairs. Third echelon, entering firing position.

“The droid swarm have released the Pulse Mist, confirmed drop in enemy fleet movement. Annihilation Lance entering standby mode!”

“Detecting high energy signature, all ships brace for impact—3, 2, 1, impact!”

A violent rocking came from beneath as the monitors outside were blinded by a white flash. The Petrachelys’ shields shuddered as a high powered laser beam crashed against it, but it soon recovered.

Hao Ren held the armchair to keep himself stable as he looked at the various images sent back from the probes. “Nolan, damage report.”

“The shields have not been penetrated. Light damage to me.” Nolan’s voice rang across the bridge, “Also, the dimensional structure is still expanding, and the probes can no longer cover everything. The expansion had exceeded the probe’s recharge and deployment speed.”

“That’s normal, we won’t be able to scan the entire structure,” Hao Ren was not surprised, “This dimensional structure is recreated from the countless of annihilation and rebirth of this universe. It comprises the fragments and will of every universe that had been annihilated… Our probes can scan through the battlefield, but it will not be able to scan the entire change of the universe.”

Vivian looked at the giant holographic projection at the center of the bridge as she frowned, “Something different is appearing from the Gorgon ships.”

At the edge of the chaotic battlefield, the dimension had shown signs of extreme chaos, as clouds were torn apart by the barrage of cannon fire as countless dark red lines formed into a terrifying spiderweb-like structure, and within the dark lines were glowing ancient stars and chaotic shadows, which slowly appeared.

The shadows quickly materialized and their true form appeared: It was a starship that looked like a pyramid turned upside down, and the surface of every ship was lined with a sea of crystals and runic arrays, and around the ships were countless of floating bits, and nondescript spires.

The newly appeared phantoms of the past rapidly changed after materializing, as their argent armor were instantly covered by a dark shadow as countless of mutated tendrils extended out from the ship as they writhed about in a horrific motion. As the ships’ armor deployed, countless of warp-capable carrier-based spacecraft and heavy warp missiles swarmed out like bees protecting their hive and charged towards the guardian starships and the combat droids across the battlefield.

The emotionless combat assistant AI once again started broadcasting, “Detected unknown units materializing. Hostile intent detected, formulating engagement tactics. Basic combat tactics set, heavy combat droids units 1 to 195 moving in to intercept, zonal warp interference generator deployed.”

“Another echo of the past era has materialized,” Hao Ren placed his hand on the control dais as he said grimly, “This is the rule of the parallel battlefield, if order is not destroyed, the power of madness will continuously draw out the echos of the past and send them into battle. And the dimensional structure will keep expanding because of this. So, as long as we stand firm, there will be even more ancient and powerful civilizations of the past appearing. We’ve only just faced Haersonca’s low-tech combat satellites, but now that this has appeared…. it means they are far more powerful than Gorgon’s starships.”

Lily’s eyes widened. “Won’t this get more and more difficult? It’s hopeless right?!”

“There is a ‘highest’ difficulty.” Hao Ren sniggered. “And it is the civilization of the first era.”

Lily pondered for a bit, before almost darting out of her seat. “Plus, you said the civilization of the first era could go toe to toe with the guardians!”

“So our mission here is to hold fast and withstand as many waves as possible until Constance completes the Turn of the Era,” Hao Ren said plainly. “As she approaches the capital, the final battlefield, the enemy we face here will evolve even faster too. The parallel battlefield will interfere with one another, and while one advances, the other will accelerate as well, and while one is on the verge of defeat, the other will go in a downward spiral as well. If both battlefields fall at the same time, that is when the order of the world collapses and the era is restarted.”

“And the countless of cycles in the past, the Turn of the Eras, happened because both battlefields fell, causing a total collapse right?” Vivian said, “And once this civilization totally loses the defense of the World’s Depth, they will lose the way to turn things around normally, and no matter how hard they try, they can never achieve true victory.”

“So an inspector’s job is to remedy this,” Hao Ren guffawed, “This civilization has potential, resilience, courage, and faith, they only lacked an opportunity, and now, we are giving them that opportunity.”

And just as he finished, Rheia’s voice rang in his head, “Hao Ren, I have a bit of a situation here.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Constance saw the view at your end, but only she and I saw it?”

“Ah?” Hao Ren was shocked, “How did that come about? What happened?”

“Seems like my out-of-control divine powers a few thousand years ago that split L’Haronne into two did not just leave the World Scar on it,” Rheia sounded rather helpless, “We had found some divine relic near the imperial capital, and it’s from the Basilica of Creation, my own personal item.”

Rheia’s voice did not just ring in Hao Ren’s mind, and at the same time, all three looked at each other.

“My divine powers had recreated the worth, and it is inevitable that a mark will be left behind, but I never thought it would be so strong as to materialize,” Rheia continued, “Both me and Constance touched the thing, and accidentally lifted the screen between the world’s surface and it’s depths for a short while. And this is probably caused by the resonance of divine power ripping through the dimension. So all in all, Constance had seen your battle, so I told her everything.”

Hao Ren went silent for a moment, “Then… what was her reaction?”

“She decided to continue the advance to the imperial capital just as planned and end the battle once and for all. I don’t think she’s shaken in any way at all.”

“… And the truth about herself? Did you tell her? She had no reaction at all?”

“No, and that surprised me most.”

“That’s… good.” Hao Ren heaved a soft breath, “She had chosen her path, let her continue on it. Rheia, hand me the data when you had activated the divine power resonance, I have a plan.”

“Alright, I’ll pass the thing we found to you as well. I can probably guess what you’re up to, but be careful, the power of a god is not that easy to control.”

“Don’t worry, at this stage at least, I’m more well-read than you.”

“Uh…”

Rheia’s power left Hao Ren’s mind, and at the same time, a glow appeared on top of the control dais of the bridge, and as it faded away, a petite armband appeared before Hao Ren.

And the moment this armband was sent into the ‘Battlefield of the World’s Depth’, Hao Ren felt a slight dissonance, and this feeling was very difficult to describe. It had exceeded human senses and thought, and if Hao Ren had to describe it, at that moment, he felt everything outside the Petrachelys turned into nothingness, and everything aside from the guardian starships and the droid swarm lost their physical bodies, and a split moment later, that feeling disappeared.

It was this sensation that allowed him to confirm something. His guess was right on the mark.

The shock wave that split L’Haronne into two so many thousands of years ago…. had yet to fully subside.

And it had enough power for another wave.