Chapter 784 Prison of a Captive God (1/2)
Priest felt himself falling into a profound but unbelievable dreamland.
As Hub Accrafa converted more than six thousand years of data into unending information flow that typical Gold champions could never withstand and surged rapidly upon Priest, the young warrior was already prepared for despite his panicking appearance.
In the end, it was a mere spiritual blast. As a leader of an Otherworld exploration party, would Priest not have prepared the right countermeasures after encountering a spiritual voice? Still, despite his readiness, he did not imagine that the blast of information would arrive so rapidly, so suddenly, and so profoundly.
Light and shadow depicting time sufficient for the rise and fall of a civilization crisscrossed past his eyes, the illumination where brightness alternated combined with infinite images and recordings flowing like a river. Alone, Priest held on bitterly against the historical surge that could blast humans into dullards.
”Not as strong… as mentor's presence!”
In reality, countless specks of blood burst within Priest's brain, just as substantial capillaries broke and the brain constitution was destroyed by near-manifested spiritual blast. However, because the Restoration Beam was there, he would recover completely in the very next second no matter how grave his injuries.
Objects of miracles that could revive the dead were simply so unreasonable.
Vaguely, Priest could see the memories that slowly rewound from the recent past to ancient times.
The sun overhead rose from the west and set in the east, dragging an orange arc trail as time was studied in units of centuries like a raging river. However, Priest's soul that was sturdier than most Gold could paddle against its flow, charging toward the past.
He saw the rising and setting of the sun and moons, clouds dispersing and winds churning.
He saw a flying car suddenly flying past the sky, triggering the automated sequences of the dormant Hub.
He saw the time of hundreds of years passing in a flash amidst a stagnated environment, and the Hub's once thick stone layer gradually thinned while the forests outside became sparse and the moons over the skies became smaller.
Priest even discovered in shock that Hub Acrrafa was not mountain-shaped centuries ago like it was now. Its silver outer layer had been covered in stone, but still emanated dazzlingly bright radiance.
That had been how it was… until as if alive, the stones rumbled and risen, shrouding every part of the Hub over the land, adding a mountain to the flat world.
Priest could also see who had sealed the many Hubs and transfigured into grand mountains—he saw, in this unknown world, the ancients who have been its last civilizations.
***
Civilization was not human. As a collective of intelligent beings, civilizations were more enduring than any singular body. Most of the time, it would maintain its youthful and lively form, progressing without stopping, brighter and more glorious than the first glimmers of dawn.
But if civilization could truly be eternal and unchanging, perpetually maintaining that lively, glimmering form?
The answer was certainly no.
Civilizations, too, age and wither, weakening from its peak. Just as suns would extinguish and dawn would become dusk, civilizations of vigor would rot and turned deathly under most circumstances, the individuals who once was filled with desire to explore becoming obsessed in enjoyment and excesses, gnawing at the foundations of civilization like vermins.
Most importantly, civilizations ultimately require humans to keep it standing. If the fundamental population was insufficient, regression and decline were an unavoidable truth regardless of how people tried to embellish it.
Just like what Priest was seeing from the thousand-year illusions.
In front of Hub Accrafa and below the shine of bright magical radiance, a small band of humans who barely had any clothes covering their bodies, as well as a band of elves stood by the foot of the artificial silver mountain chain, staring at the colossal building before them with a complicated gaze.
”We've lost eighty percent of our legacy memories… the rotting of texts and the invasion of Chaos into our bloodline essence left no legacy above Supreme.”
The human standing at the fore, who was wearing some rather modern clothes spoke with a hoarse voice. ”I am probably the last Supreme in this world—and I've already forgotten how I've ascended all those years ago.”
”Books could crumble, memories confused. Even carving an entire mountain as a stone mountain would not record one percent of my Legacy. We barely maintained the existence of a collective through the knowledge stored in the Mother Tree, but that's simply the same as drinking poison to quench our thirsts… If the day comes that the Mother Tree is corrupted as well, us elves would never recover.”
On the other side, the elven leader Priest found resembling Sol and the antler-crowned elf nodded slightly. ”However, our survival is unimportant,” he replied somberly, ”The Lifeseed and 'Project Revival' stored in Hub Accrafa does not permit any inch of mistake!”
”We can't see Mycroft… Our home may have been long gone, and us the last lucky survivors of Glorious Era in this galaxy.”
”That is precisely why…”
At those words, all surviving humans looked up and stared at Hub Accrafa as their Supreme-tier leader spoke with a deep voice, ”we must shelter ourselves in Hub Accrafa or other dimensional hubs no longer.”
The elves were silent, while the human maintained his monologue.
”If it was not for the Hub's boundary of Order delaying the invasion of Chaos, we might well have been wiped out by the remaining Chaos forces here. This, however, consumes too much energy from the Hub… the conversion of 'That Being' takes millennia, and if the Hub's suppression module runs out of energy and goes down halfway through, 'That Being' could resurrect in turn.”
”If it did, it's all over. The sacrifice of the nine leaders and the reason we've held on until now would all become a joke, just as the future of all Mycroft races would fall unto darkness… but if 'Project Revival' proved a success, the conversion of 'That Being' would give us a flawless world akin to paradise… When that time comes, the stores of living bloodlines in the Hub would be replicated without end and be freed into this world. They are our successors and the Hub will protect them, instruct them and have them inherit our all, becoming a new 'Glorious civilization!”
”…So?”
The elven leader asked quietly.
”We must destroy ourselves as soon as possible and turn off the Hub's automated defenses, keeping only the suppression module, observation system and information collection modules working.”
The human spoke with aplomb. ”Don't look at me that way. I am not withering from corruption—this is the most rational idea. Right now, our very existence only wastes the precious resources of the Hub, and we are no longer even a civilization. All that we are is wretched bugs isolated at the edge of the galaxy by dimensional anomaly, that is why our death is trivial… the 'future' is most important!”
”If we died, we won't have a present, much less a future.”
The elf shot back, but after a brief silence, he shook his head feebly. ”…Fine. I admit that you're right, even if I believe that there are choices other than killing ourselves.”Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click visiting.
***
Priest did his best to keep the entire course of the discussion in his mind, but he could not. Only one thirds of the surge of six-thousand years' worth of history had been completed at present, and he could not remember more even if his brain burst with blood.
Time flowed rapidly once again, but there were no other detailed records.
Priest saw a powerful magical force reverberating through heaven and earth. The stone layer over the continent was pulled out amidst the thunderous rumble, covering silver buildings after silver buildings. He saw the dazzlingly bright light vanished one by one—it was not suicide, but a sacrifice made for the lasting future.
Time rewound like a dream. The elves, declining to the point that they only covered themselves in leaves began to revert to their steel armor-wearing selves, even carrying magical equipment. Furthermore, wrecks were restored as if a reversed recording, becoming sturdy towns and houses once more.
Priest found that, millennia ago, this world that was so peaceful to the point that one would vomit over it was still filled with inexhaustible dangers. Human, elven and even dwarven cities repelled Chaos assault descending from the skies, slaughtering each other in primitive forests and launch pursuits in barren grasslands. The races, having retained most of their legacies then did battle against the many aberrations in the sky, on the ground and beneath it, purifying them into harmless, wafting ash.
Everything was so immeasurably bizarre. As history rewound without stopping, eras aged although human, elves and other races became more advanced in equipment and civilization. Aberrations that appeared from above and below were stronger too—there were mountainous worms that dives deep underground to devour the world's core, Chaos Star Moths that transcend atmosphere and Void while their wings stirred typhoons, just as many other terrible beings that made Priest inhaled sharply appeared as if flashes of light.
And all those monsters died to Void warships and the suppression of various Hubs.
Until the very end—the last part of history, sixty-seven hundred years ago.
Time appeared to froze there.
***
For a split second, Priest felt as if he saw nothing. Everything around him was dark, for there were neither sun, moon, stars or any source of light. All there was were vague darkness rolling amidst the Void, and dense mist that seemed to never disperse… In that very instant, Priest's mind was suddenly empty—he could not think of anything as if he never remembered anything, and had always been so ignorant.
He also remembered something familiar in that instant.
That sensation of forgetting was the same as how he had dreamt and forgotten what he dreamt at all in the last few days.
”Something… is invading my memory…” As he gathered a little consciousness from the dark mist, Priest's gaze suddenly became blank before he could catch what he had actually forgotten.
”Wait. Who am I?”
However, just as Priest was about to be utterly devoured by the mist of Hub Accrafa's historical data, the silver star suddenly shone in the darkness.
In the very next moment, the silver star burst sharply, turning into an incandescent beam that shone through heaven and earth, tearing apart the darkness like a keen blade and clearing the mist.
Priest's mind quickly recovered too, his scattered and blank gaze at once refocused and his memories clearly returning—but before the young warrior could become fearful about the abnormal mist before him, he quickly realized that he was now in the Void, and behind him was an obscure, indescribable and unnamable silver-black star of Chaos.
Silver and black radiance flashed at the same time, the sacred yet terrifying star ceaselessly emanating warped mist. Priest could see it bursting out with thousands energy arcs, whipping the Void and distorting the dimensions, each comparable to mountains and capable of sinking continents.
However, nine searing silver beams crossed together into a gigantic net, completely subjugating the star. The terrible arcs were completely held back and cut off with ease, turning into dissipating silver specks.
Priest looked on in shock. It was a sight that he, a young Gold-tier had never seen—he was not even as astonished now by this unusual battle than when he witnessed the battle between his mentor and the Black Fog.
Gulping, Priest turned toward the source of the beam, and froze at once.
He saw nine huge Void warships forged entirely of silver metal.
In truth, such a sight would not have shocked Priest. Unlike how he had never seen a star of Chaos, he had already seen much more shocking civilization creations than Void warships, or the forms of champions… What really left him speechless was the figure of one of the warship's bow.
There were three arches, shapes identical to Hub Accrafa.
”Got you.”
A spiritual voice that was at once familiar and unfamiliar echoed in the Void—her voice was cold and strict, as if an Empress who stood above all. Priest could easily tell that it was the original form of Hub Accrafa's voice.
And that voice seemingly seethed every word.
”Evil God of Wither!”
***
Back in reality.
Clusters of black air abruptly billowed out of Priest's head—although that description was rather loose. Compared to simple mist, it was more resembling of misshapen rays of light, an aberrative force that weakened and dulled its spectra.
As soon as that force appeared, it appeared intent on spreading towards every other place from Priest's brain… but its movement had descended into a rather awkward situation at the very start.