Chapter 532 The Conspiracy Behind the Destruction (2/2)

Facing such a simple yet hopeless answer, every citizen and highest leader of the Federation fell into silence. They had struggled and survived up to ten thousand years on the floating isles, using up to two millennia to explore the external regions, conquering each other before finally uniting and forming a complete civilization in the Federation, with every race living happily on stable ground. They could have gone even further, but now everything stopped spontaneously.

Without the warmth and cyclones from the sun, the entire civilization in the world of Xillia did not last for months—it was the arrival of the apocalypse when the recycling of water could not be ensured.

In the face of the unprecedented danger, research of the sun went on at an incredible speed. Within days, they learned that the sun was merely not burning as intensely, while the residual heat could probably still last around three thousand years. So, to prolong civilization, the Xillia civilization came up with a plan that was at once mad and bold.

[Rimworlds].

The Federation pushed the island so that the endless isles combined into three monumental 'discs' and orbited the dying sun as close as it could. Within that calculated distance, even the faint sun could provide sufficient warmth necessary for life—as long as the civilization could continue, the world of Xillia would still have a chance. In the meantime, enchanted battleships that could traverse the Void was being built in overtime, and when it was completed a new era would come.

It was nothing more than another Age of Great Development, everyone consoled themselves thus. Everything was the same as it was a thousand years ago the difference only being that Xillia civilization was merely leaving the floating islands before, while this time the civilization did it to leave that world. That fate seemed to be certain somehow, causing the people who navigated the skies unable to live in peace over the land.

Therefore, in the darkening skies, regional stars began to shine and approached the slowly dying sun. Those were innumerable floating islands driven by mana flow, orderly progressing through the trails set by the Federation towards the [Rimworlds], each of which was distinct and neat, and soon the three rings rapidly took shape.

”But they did not succeed.”

Joshua stared at the spectacle—even he could not help feeling moved by such a stalwart civilization. ”The sun extinguished, the floating islands shattered, leaving only the Blood Moon.” He mumbled with a quiet voice that contained slight pity.

And the truth was as he said.

Many issues were exposed in the process of the Rimworlds construction. It was certainly most reasonable for calculations and plans to go wrong, with intermittent incidents of millions of people falling into the sun as the composition of their island crumbled. Even so, the Xillia Federation was already at a position that they could not stop anything—it was the only way to save civilization, and after several such oppressive and nerve-wrecking decades, the Void airship was finally finished. The battleship that carried all hopes of the Xillia civilization hence underwent inspections after inspection of utmost carefulness, after of which a dimensional passageway was opened and it sailed to the world out there.

But when it finally returned, it was already fifty years later.

After those five decades, the Xillia civilization was very much on its last legs. The sovereignty that came from a thousand years of Federation rule has fallen in its entirety. On the three wobbly Rimworlds, the races were independent once more, slaughtering each other to struggle for the dwindling supply of food and water. By then, civilization was already in ruins, leaving just 'individuals' alive—there was nothing more hopeless.

Even then, having seen the enchanted battleship that returned from the Void and laden with scars, every race that was still fighting each other lowered the blades in their hands and looked upon it with a yearning gaze.

It was the final hope.

Everyone rejoiced when they learned from the person who walked out of the battleship, that although they neither found a new world suitable for living nor a way to save the sun, they were provided a way by a profound being in the Void that could help everyone survive. The only thing was that the method was rather unusual.

However, there was nothing unusual for the Xillia people who were now living in desperation. Compared to the laborious survival now they would rather the sun to simply die so that everything ended quickly—living in such a world needed greater courage than to seek death. That was why it did not take long for a mammoth magical ritual to blanket the floating ring around the sun. It flashed in a bizarre yet indescribable light, with every surviving individual on Xillia simply following the instructions of the enchanted battleship crew who returned from an unknown place, puncturing their finger and dripping blood that represented their existence on the runes for the ritual.

”From now on, my kin.”

The elderly captain who presided over all of it stood in the center of ritual and revealed an odd smile in which its mouth parted, splitting at an inhuman arc. ”We shall fuse into a single body, living eternally and never dying.”

And then there was darkness. As the sounds of endless water flow resounded, it was as if every drop of liquid in the whole world assembled…

Thus, the sun died, and the Blood Moon hung at the center of the world.

While the illusion was over, the cascade of light did not stop.

In the center of the Blood Moon, Joshua raised his head and leveled a complicated gaze at the pair of gigantic eyes. He was now aware of their identity.

Just as the black dragon Mandagar had once said… It was the being birthed after every lifeform in a world fused into a single body. Every water, blood, and life of Xillia was condensed within it, forming that single liquid star, while what was born within that star may have been the most ancient and most powerful demon in the Abyss… an Abyssal Will.

It was a being composed entirely of pure positive energy, it was perhaps truly the Abyssal Will of the Bloodmoon Abyss!

An Abyssal Will, or in other words, an extinguished tinder. It was the collective husk of every sentient will and the final destination of innumerable spirits. It longs to burn again, to regain life, which was why in other worlds they would select those powerful demons filled with the will to invade and give them strength, allowing them to invade other worlds to seek the possibility for igniting.

In the Bloodmoon Abyss, however, everything was different. Due to that deviant ritual before its ruin, the spirits of all things had condensed into one—it was no longer a sporadic collective view, but a being that was 'only one'.

”Because of me, huh… The sun was the only obsession of this world, which was why when I triggered the Nuclear Star to detonate, your silent will also hence awakened.”

The warrior spoke softly, sensing the warm, undulating light around his body that was a friendly gesture from that tremendous existence. Joshua removed the helmet formed from his Steel strength and showed his true face, staring solemnly at the other being.

He was the Blood Moon, the Abyss, the child of the world and all things incarnate. He had neither knowledge nor awareness in the first place, but was awakened by the unexpected acts of a human. His body contained shards of the sun, He… may become the second sun of this already-vanquished world.

”It's really… unforeseen.”

Extending his hand to attempt contact with that incarnation of light, the warrior shook his head amidst the laughter that was reminiscent of a wind-chime.

”I'm not your creator…” he said. ”You're born naturally. There's no need to approach me—everything is just an accident.”

But how would newborn will understand such complex words? So, streaks of warm rays kept flowing towards the warrior's body as if to stroke every inch of the warrior. Helpless, Joshua shook his head and allowed Him to do as He pleased since he was aware that it was the friendliest of touch from that being.

However, now was not the time to fool around.

At the thought, Joshua frowned and looked above at the blood sea that was several dozen thousand meters tall. It was the shattered world of Xillia, and was also the boundless Void of the Multiverse.

It was a conspiracy. The warrior thought. His heart a clear mirror, he certainly could see through that unreasonable and freakish act in the final moments of the world of Xillia. Be it the crew that had returned from the Void as if they were changed into a different person entirely, or that ritual in the very last instant where ever life, organic lifeform, water and the world itself assembled.

”Blood Moon… contains titanic energy, an unsullied fused body. Just because little shards from the sun was attained, it now carried the depth of becoming a tinder once more.”

And it would remain a tinder no matter how small it was. Having or not having were completely different concepts.

Toward that, Joshua had two guesses.