Chapter 1640 - This Place Isnt Dark at All (1/2)
The energy flux from the forced dimensional warp had finally died down as the Petrachelys’ sensors came back online and started to monitor the situation outside. Soon, images of the scene outside the ship appeared before everyone.
Hao Ren commanded Nolan to switch into scenery mode, and half of the bridge’s walls were covered by the live feed. This turned the ship almost transparent all of a sudden, and on the live feed, everyone saw a clear azure sky as well as a sea of clouds in the distance.
The starship seemed to be floating high in the sky.
Nolan adjusted the monitor’s angles and the situation beneath the ship was also displayed. Hao Ren looked down and saw mountain ranges stretching across the land. Between two snow-capped mountains was a long, narrow plain, which was dotted with rivers and lakes. Some cities and village-like structures were also scattered across it like jewels upon a green velvet blanket.
“This is an unexpected ‘Umbral Realm’…” Everyone was silent as they witnessed the verdant and peaceful world (at least on the surface). In the end, Vivian was the one who broke the silence. “Sure we are in the right place?”
That same question too was going rounds in Hao Ren’s head. Did Raven 12345 mess up the coordinates and give him a random one just to get by? How could that possibly be the Umbral Realm?!
What was the Umbral Realm? The result of the goddess’ kingdom catastrophically exploding! The entire Star of Creation and the goddess’ entire reservoir of power were compressed then blasted out, it tore the entire fabric of the universe and smashed an entire system out of the world order into the gap between universes and the void. That was how the Umbral Realm was created. For such an apocalyptic birth how could a nirvana-like world be left behind? And frankly, with that level of shock, even planets would have been torn into shreds, much less an ecosystem. So Hao Ren thought that the best of scenarios would be a broken dimension with lots of floating debris in space, and between the debris were dangerous rifts and energy currents. A place where even a pilot like Nolan would need to struggle to get a proper docking spot, that was what the Umbral Realm should have bloody been!
Yet the data did not lie, and Nolan soon finished her analysis of the marker. “There’s no mistake. This is the Umbral Realm. We are at the edge of the Plane of Dream’s zone of order, and our current location is the chaotic zone between the World Barrier and the void. The barrier’s remaining power is preventing the area from being consumed by the void, but we can still detect very powerful void signals. This signal will not be wrong.”
“F*ck me, this is not dark at all…” Hao Ren mumbled. “So much for me preparing an arsenal of firepower.”
Lily too chimed in. “I too thought I could use my battle gear.”
“Oh stop with your violent penchant. We still have two armies waiting for our signal.” Nolan said resignedly. “Should we broadcast the signal? The plan earlier was to broadcast the signal once we find a safe area. This… This place is beyond safe.”
Hao Ren frowned as he looked at the view outside. His instincts were telling him that there was something off with the lively place. As he heard Nolan, he gently shook his head. “No, don’t broadcast yet… The situation is way different than what we had expected, and we need to collect more intelligence before we can proceed further. Nolan, go up higher, lets see what’s outside this planet. And also run a scan on the entire planet beneath us. Maybe we can find any ruins or traces when the kingdom fell.”
Nolan nodded. “Nolan understood. Commencing ascend. Target, the space beyond the planet.”
The Petrachelys’ usual thrusters were roused to life, and the ship started to slowly gain altitude, moving towards the outer atmospheric layer. Yet after climbing for a while, Nolan suddenly stalled.
“Unable to climb further.” the shipgirl was confused. “Seems like we’ve been stopped by some supernatural phenomenon… Weird, I’ve already increased the output but our altitude remains the same… We are still within the atmosphere!
“We’re unable to leave the planet?” Hao Ren’s eyes widened and something immediately crossed his mind. Just as he thought, there was something weird with this world!
Nolan quickly activated her various sensors. “Running a comprehensive environmental scan… Weird, the sensors are returning normal readings, and there are no dimensional overlaps. There are no gravitational disruption or any fake signals. There’s nothing weird at all, but we are still unable to leave the atmosphere, and after hitting a certain ‘altitude’, the value seems to be locked dead!”
This unusual situation woke everyone from their temporary comfort, and realized that there was something odd with this place. Everyone turned serious and Y’zaks popped the key question. “Can the warp engine be used.”