Chapter 1750: The Borderland
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
All of the sealing measures within the Prison of the Dark Abyss were rapidly failing. This prison, powered by the strength of a true god had finally reached the end of its life after 10,000 years of service. The overstretched runic array, divine power nodes, and monitoring stars were snuffed out one-by-one by the taint of darkness as if a shadow was materializing from the depths of the universe, and swallowed every shining body in the sky bit by bit.
And the nodes had let out a warning before they were destroyed, and once the alert was broadcast to the entire universe, a series of countermeasures rapidly went into effect.
The massive droid swarm started gathering at the heart of the universe in droves, as the hives and factories, already working at full efficiency some time ago had also been sending their productions into thousand upon thousands of preset rally points around the Dark Abyss. The guardians, who had spent the past few months recuperating too had left Star Cluster X and arrived at points near the prison in batches.
No matter the rally points for the droid swarm or the guardians, all had countless of floating cannon platforms, combat satellite, defensive barriers, and all-purpose star fortresses.
And these rally points were all linked, and the defensive line was called the ‘Borderland’
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This was to demarcate the boundary between the normal universe and one tainted by madness.
While the Mad Lord had not fully broken out yet, there were skirmishes already happening in certain areas.
The Borderland had almost no celestial bodies around it, but it was ‘almost’, and in this vast space, it was unavoidable that there were some dark and ancient planets even when the goddess of creation had consciousness cleansed this area of space, but as following the operation of the celestial stars, some stars would inevitably fall within the Dark Abyss’ radiation zone.
These physical objects would be the vanguard in the process of the Mad Lord’s breakout. Meanwhile, the radiation from the Dark Abyss would disintegrate and reform as the monsters from the nightmares warped out of thin air, and by instinct, they would move toward every place in the universe with an intelligent response.
Allowing these precursors of madness to run wild is undoubtedly a fatal mistake, as they will greatly increase the ability for the Mad Lord to break out and to infect this world. So every sentry post along the Borderland was in operation while droid and guardian patrols scoured the entire line as they hunted the ‘cretins’, using it as a warm-up for the upcoming war.
A distorted light screen appeared in the dark void, and as it faded away, the Petrachelys arrived at the jump point under the cover of a large escort of heavy combat droids.
Hao Ren stood on the upper observation deck as he looked at the universe. Closest to the frigate was a dark star beneath the shop. It was a planet that was bizarre and hideous to the point of bone-chilling. It was like a rotting tumor floating in space with its surface lined with dark red lines and eye-like structures. And for the side facing the ship, the lines and eyes even formed a human face, a face that was writhing in pain.
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Practically all of the stars near the Dark Abyss were all terrifying, and even without any life on them, those inanimate rocks would still be warped by the power of the Mad Lord into that form.
Close to the planet was countless of light spots, as the combat droids and guardian starships started bombarding the planet. Based on the scan results, a large signature of the taint of madness had appeared on the planet, and the ‘purification teams’ were now cleansing the planet.
“Will this level of cleansing work?”Vivian too joined Hao Ren looking at that revolting planet, “It seemed like it is totally corrupted. There’s probably something more sinister than just the monsters on the surface.”
“The number of Annihilation Lance is limited, and we need to focus it on the Dark Abyss line. Don’t need to waste a superweapon on just a tainted planet.” Hao Ren replied. “Plus, we need to collect samples to determine the extent of the Mad Lord’s taint.
Lily looked down for a moment as her tail started to puff up slightly, “This planet is just way too fugly... It makes me feel like nuking it from orbit when I see it.”
“Don’t look at me,” Hao Ren looked innocently at Vivian, “I never taught her that... God knows why her thoughts are getting closer in line with mine.”
Vivian pursed her lips as she looked in the distance, “Say... that’s the Dark Abyss?”
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It was a starless sector.
The universe seemed to have clear demarcation in this line, on one side it was bright and teeming with life, while another was totally engulfed in darkness, where all light had been consumed. And in the endless darkness, shapeless black fog writhed slowly as it grew and perished, but at the same time expanding continuously.
It was as if the heart of the universe was a black hole.
The Dark Abyss was not totally without light, the runic array left by the goddess of creation and the monitoring ‘lone star’s were all sources of light, but as the barrier system of the prison was still functioning, these light could never reach the world outside. The Prison of the Dark Abyss was covered by a screen-like layer, and communication can only be done through a limited number of ‘safe routes’.
And not long ago a Nightwatcher from the prison had sent up a crystal pylon near the Borderland, and that widened the communication routes significantly, and Hao Ren and the rest could directly communicate with the Nightwatchers in the prison, but the visual barrier over the Borderland still existed.
“I’ve seen enough. Let’s go back to the bridge,” As he took one last look at the Dark Abyss, Hao Ren suppressed the unease in his heart and turned towards the door, “I need to speak to Rheia.”
A moment later, on the bridge of the Petrachelys, Rheia had just completed reading Salaman’s report.
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“At the moment, the spread of the taint is focused on sector X-32, and that is the area we are currently monitoring. As expected, there is a weak point here, and the Mad Lord will first break out from there. This place will become the main passageway once the fighting starts.” Rheia looked up Hao Ren and the rest, “Based on the Nightwatchers’ report, the dissonance deep within the Dark Abyss had disappeared, and all of the power of madness has now stabilized. That means my evil half is about to complete her final adaptation and will be totally fused with the power of madness.”
“That sounds bad,” Y’zaks said as he rubbed his chin, “I thought we could strike while she was still weak...”
“That’s not all bad news,” Rheia shook her head, “She has become one with the Mad Lord, on one hand, she has indeed become stronger, but on the other hand, the Mad Lord now has a weak point that can be eradicated. The biggest problem I had when I faced off with the Mad Lord the last time was that I could not totally destroy him. He does not have a physical form, or any permanent shape or weakness. When I went to war with him at that time, I was literally fighting the whole universe itself, because the dimension, the material, the energy, the perimeters were all part of the Mad Lord. It was like trying to slice a mist apart. So that’s why I chose to lock that part of space up... Because I simply could not find a way to totally eliminate the Mad Lord.”
Hao Ren nodded, “And now that it has a body, that means it can be eradicated now.”
Lily nodded as well, “When you described that it sounded like you were blasting air, and after you found out that you can’t win you had used admin rights to lock the map up...”
Vivian sighed as she murmured, “I guess this is the feeling of ‘this person has a weird but on-point way of saying things but I still want to smash her face in’...”
Rheia too felt a little awkward, but as a true god, her psyche was stronger than most, and she ignored Lily as she continued speaking, “Based on the newest changes of the Mad Lord, and the general structure of our fighting force, I had deduced the general situation after the fighting starts, and the battlefield will undoubtedly be split into two.”
“We will be facing two enemies. The first is the power of the taint spreading out from the Mad Lord. This power does not just include the taint, but also the monsters that are warped from the taint. They were the cannon fodders, and the only units available to the enemy, with numbers that are innumerable.
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“The first part of the battle is against them, and the general area of conflict is the outer area of the Dark Abyss. The droid swarm and the guardians will be in charge of intercepting and annihilating them. This battlefield is imported because every wave of the taint escaping means that the world is slowly tilting toward madness and destruction, and the tainted universe will, in turn, reinforce the Mad Lord’s strength. The larger the tainted zone is, the more our battlefield will shrink, and if we lose this battlefield, the army will be crushed by a snowballing force and be destroyed.
“And the second part is the Mad Lord himself, and his new nexus, my evil half. I believe that this half has already created a corrupted version of the Creation’s Engine, so we are facing not only an evil god but also a divine superweapon, reinforced by the powers of the Mad Lord. This second battlefield will be the key to victory. If we cannot win here, winning elsewhere wouldn’t even matter at all. And the best possible result is to once again seal the area up and let the things, which have happened 10,000 years ago repeat itself.”
As she said that, she shook her head. “But letting history repeat itself is not why we are here.”
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