After ending the divine connection, Rheia jumped down from the altar, and as she played with a strand of her hair, she muttered to Hao Ren, "Say … do you think it would be better if I gave them a more solemn portrait?"
Hao Ren thought about the "standard portrait" that Rheia had taken a long time to decide on, and commented from the bottom of his heart, "Honestly, I can't even imagine what you were thinking back then. Was it because Raven 12345 had averaged the SAN value the last time you met her?"
Rheia suddenly looked worried. "Then … should I give them a classic version? I had a classic promotional photo back then, holding a silly staff, standing on a shell, and there were a few circles of holy light behind my head. While I always thought it was silly, it was very popular back then. "
As she said that, she muttered again, "I just thought that after a long sleep and rebirth, there needs to be something new, and now that the Plane of Dreams has many things to do, everyone might need a more energetic goddess to boost morale or something …"
Hao Ren slapped himself on the forehead. "Aren't you afraid that a few extreme fanatics will lose their morale after seeing that friendly image of yours?"
Rheia was devastated. "Then I should change back."
But at that moment, Vivian suddenly spoke, "Actually, I think it's fine if you don't change, you can choose to go the idol route. What's the saying again? In order to save the world, who and who decided to stand up and become an idol … "
"That's not even close, and it's an old meme," Lily interrupted Vivian. "But I don't think there's a need to change, the friendly image is good. And if you change your picture with the pope, it'll just ruin your image even more … "
Hao Ren waved his hand to stop them from dragging the topic further away. "These are all minor issues, let's get down to business. By the way, that was the last wave of divine broadcast, right? "
Rheia sighed. "There are not many survivors, and there are only a few planets that can broadcast. The natives on the other planets can't even walk upright. Holletta is the last one."
The Disciples of Glory in Holletta is very influential, and they can also maintain order. Although the reconstruction process in Io is still slow, they only have the population of one refugee ark, which has just expanded to the size of a few cities. Coupled with the armed satellite array above Io, it will be easy to take care of them. Lastly, the Executors … they have even less to worry about. They are almost a fully militarized race, and they have a networked mind. They are probably the most stable out of all of them. "Hao Ren scratched his chin as he counted." The remaining few primitive planets will be protected by the armed satellite array.
"Let the mortals fight for their own world." Rheia let out a sigh. "Whether they make it through or not, it's up to them."
A series of heavy footsteps came from not far away as the majestic gates of the Basilica of the World Tree opened to both sides, and the Lord of the Lords, Loken's rock-like body appeared at the gates. "Mother, the last message from the Dark Abyss. The Mad Lord has completely broken through the middle blockade, and the Nightwatchers will abandon all outposts and retreat from the prison as planned."
Rheia nodded and turned to Hao Ren. "Let's go to the Overwatch Bastion."
In the dark and deep space, a gigantic space fortress floated quietly among the stars.
It had a clear style of a drone hive. It was built with a floating celestial body as the foundation, and the metal walls and connecting frames that extended out from the celestial body slowly formed various functional facilities and hives, and between the large hives was a thick fortress connecting wall, and on the surface of the connecting wall were neatly arranged droid cannons and enhanced fortress shield generators. Countless droids and motherships of various sizes shuttled back and forth between these facilities, busy and silent.
But the scale of this fortress was much larger than any normal drone hive. It had built facilities that far exceeded the standard of a hive, and compared to the drone hives that were geared towards multiplication and expansion, it was clearly geared towards defense. The countless shield generators and fixed cannons gave a strong impression, and one could not help but think that it was a solid nail, and once it was nailed into the base, it would be able to stop any storm.
This was the Overwatch Bastion, the military facility closest to the Dark Abyss. It was already extremely close to the prison's' horizon ', to the point that one could see an ink-like darkness surging in front of them from the Overwatch Bastion's observation deck, bringing with it an oppressive and suffocating feeling that seemed to swallow them whole.
That was how the Overwatch Bastion got its name.
And behind the Overwatch Bastion, there were countless similar bastions anchored deep in space, and mass-produced Annihilation Lances and countless droid cannons were all pointed in the same direction, quietly waiting for the moment the 'prisoner' would escape.
The Petrachelys left the warp space and landed beside the first control tower of the Overwatch Bastion, and through the bridge that extended from the control tower, Rheia and Hao Ren and the rest climbed up to the observation deck at the top of the control tower.
The 'horizon' of the Dark Abyss that cut off any flow of information surged before their eyes, and even though it was still millions of kilometers away, it still felt very close.
The metal gate above the observation deck opened silently, and a blob of liquid metal slowly descended and squirmed into the interface of the droid swarm consciousness. The ever-changing face looked towards Hao Ren's direction, and an inorganic voice came from deep within the blob of liquid metal. "It has been thirty minutes since the last signal from the Nightwatchers, and there are still no new signals."
"The Nightwatchers destroyed all information nodes before their retreat, and they will shut down all their interaction functions," Rheia explained. "They want to control their information exchange with the outside world as much as possible to reduce the pressure on the 'boundary'."
"Every exchange of information, and even every thought will become a carrier for the Mad Lord." Loken's voice came from above, rumbling like thunder. "So the Nightwatchers will not send any messages during their retreat."
"But even so, the Mad Lord's' boundary instinct 'will still track them down, and will pursue them the moment they cross the outer perimeter." Rheia looked at Hao Ren. "So we need to be prepared …"
"When the Nightwatchers retreat, deal with the leaked minions … right?" Hao Ren nodded. "Don't worry, the droids are always on standby, and all the cannons in the bastion are ready to fire."
Vivian asked curiously, "When will they be able to retreat?"
Rheia closed her eyes, and said softly after a while, "Fifteen minutes … If they don't come out by then, they will never come out."
Hao Ren glanced at the consciousness of the droids, and the latter automatically activated the response without any orders. "The Longsong Cannons are ready, and the Annihilation Lances are charging."
The massive war machines of the Overwatch Bastion began to operate, and the shield generators were switched from their maintained state to active state, and a water curtain-like energy barrier rose along the edge of the bastion cluster, shrouding the entire area within it. And on the surface of the towering alloy walls and connection towers, the cannons were lifted from their bases, and their muzzles were slightly adjusted towards the direction of the Dark Abyss.
As the energy veins lit up one by one, the cannons of all sizes began to glow with lethal light.
And in the center of the bastion cluster, four special 'buildings' slowly rose with the help of the thrusters, and their rectangular shells' collapsed 'like building blocks, and quickly assembled into a shiny energy gathering array, and the surging energy pulsed between the metal and crystal, forming a few kilometers long, spear-like structure.
And that was the final mass-produced Annihilation Lances. After being tested in L 'Haronne, these powerful super lances had been proven to be up to design standards, and after further optimization of the energy conduit and programming, they were installed in every bastion around the Dark Abyss. There were four in the Overwatch Bastion, and at the back of the line of defense, there were thousands of Annihilation Lances ready to fire.
The 'event boundary' (or 'horizon') of the Dark Abyss quietly surged, and that inky black 'membrane' locked everything on the other side in a black box of information, and after the Nightwatchers destroyed all the information nodes, the allied forces on the perimeter had no way of knowing what was happening in the prison, and could only rely on the understanding and deduction of the various facilities that the goddess of creation had left behind.
A black starship from the Nightwatchers patrolled the perimeter of the Overwatch Bastion, and this starship that was specifically used to monitor the Dark Abyss was continuously transmitting data and reports back to the control tower.
"There are three minutes to go before the 'horizon' opens. No phenomena or information fluctuations have been observed."
"Slight infiltration of the Mad Lord, infiltration has not reached the warning level."
"Two minutes until the 'horizon' opens, the infiltration of the Mad Lord's corruption is intensifying … no signal from the Nightwatchers yet."
"I will activate the enhanced antenna, all monitoring personnel please be prepared to defend against the mental corruption."
Hao Ren frowned as he looked at the curtain of darkness in the distance, while Lily mumbled to herself beside him, "Shutting off all senses and communication, and passing through the entire outer perimeter of the Dark Abyss … sob … it's like a blind and deaf kid challenging a grand escape … just thinking about it is scary …"
"The Denizens of the Stars can do it," Rheia said softly, "After so many years in the Dark Abyss, they are used to this' silence '."
Vivian sighed softly, "They traded their silence for tens of millions of years of life in this universe …"
A transmission from the Sentinel interrupted her sigh, "Fifteen seconds until the 'horizon' opens … Information fluctuations observed! It's the signal from the Nightwatchers! Beware, the corruption of the Mad Lord is seeping out! Minions observed! Visible to the naked eye! "
On the surface of the pitch black 'horizon', a glorious sea of light was slowly rising.
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