"This is the birth of the Shiring Apostles." Ancestor Anthus heaved a sigh of relief. After saying so many things at once, his mouth was a little dry. After all, he was a mortal, and some details were always limited by his body's condition.
The original body was originally designed as a weapon to fight against the Abyss. This was not out of Sandora and my expectations. In fact, in the core memories of the Shiring Apostles, there was a vague impression of this. The first mission of the apostles: to fight against the Abyss. This was almost like a racial instinct that was deeply engraved in the core of their thinking. The life form of the Shiring Apostles also proved this point: their various talents and ways of thinking were all for war. It could be said that they were a species that was specially designed for war, so I was not surprised that the original body was finally designed for this purpose.
However, these mechanical soldiers that were originally used to fight against the Abyss eventually became the successor of the old Schilling people's civilization. Many things must have happened in the past. Anthus casually mentioned the decision to hand over the civilization, but anyone with a discerning eye could see how shocking this decision was. Not only did it require foresight, but it also required the entire race's awareness of the end of the dark path.
Can you imagine under what circumstances the people of Earth would create a type of artificial human that was stronger than the current human beings, and then have the awareness of leaving the stage of civilization with the entire human race, handing over the human civilization to their own creation? That was what the Schilling people did back then.
"This is indeed a difficult decision." Anthus obviously knew what was going on with my and Sandora's expressions. He nodded calmly. "The new government is under a lot of pressure, and so are the people. Everyone knows that it is necessary, but no one is willing to accept this fact. It is easy to understand: we are also human, and we are afraid of death, afraid of being forgotten, afraid of losing everything that we have worked so hard to create. No one can calmly give up the achievements of their entire race, say a few high-sounding words, and then leave. No one, not even the Sage can do this. We created the original bodies, and they performed better than expected: efficient, brave, strong, tenacious, born with the ability to connect with the mind, and improved themselves at an astonishing speed. But when we thought that these new species were going to take over the Schilling civilization, and we, the creators, had to leave … to be honest, many people were conflicted. "
"There was no other choice at that time?" I could not imagine how difficult the exile back then was, so I asked this question.
"Many people said the same thing back then." Anthus laughed silently. "Is there no better choice?" "Can't we coexist with the original?" "The old humans must die. Is there no alternative?" "Is there no other way?" These questions were raised repeatedly for a long time, and the less determined faction in the new government almost wavered. But it was this wavering that made the determined faction more convinced of one thing: Mortals have many flaws, and it is difficult for them to abandon their emotions. The current debate just happened to prove that the weak old humans must leave, or else the Schilling civilization will never be able to defeat the Abyss. "
"Let me give you an example." Anthus saw that I was thinking, and suddenly laughed. "This is a real thing that happened when the original bodies were about to be successfully developed, and it almost caused the Schilling civilization to completely collapse on the way —"
"Actually, after we escaped from our homeworld, we were constantly under the threat of the Abyss. No one knew what was going on, but the power of the Abyss was wreaking havoc in a large area, and the fleet could not stop. We kept encountering world wreckages destroyed by the Abyss, and for hundreds of years, we were never able to escape from the area contaminated by the Abyss."
"It could be that a large-scale gate to the Abyss triggered a resonance in the surrounding worlds, or a few universes were contaminated at the same time." Sandora explained to me through the mental connection, "With the technology of our ancestors back then, traveling in the void should have been very slow."
"Under such dangerous circumstances, the fleet was almost destroyed a few times," Anthus continued. "It was ironic that we announced our revenge, but back then, we had to use all our strength even to escape. The most dangerous time was when the ark fleet's Ark Fourteen was sucked into a collapsing universe wreckage … "
"It was contaminated by the Abyss?" Sandora asked softly.
The little doll finally stopped running around, and she came over to grab my arm. The little girl had been bored listening to the history of her homeworld, but now, she seemed to be attracted by a new story.
"Yes, severe contamination, the most active case of the Abyss contamination. Ark Fourteen almost instantly became a nest of poison, and half of the population turned into monsters in the blink of an eye. The remaining half were faced with a difficult decision." Anthus revealed a bitter expression. "Since you are so advanced, you must know that one of the ways the Abyss contamination spreads is through communication. If the Abyss is active enough, it can spread through any form of communication, be it through voice, words, pictures, or gestures. As long as it is communicating with another individual, there is a possibility of transmission. This communication naturally includes distress signals."
Of course I knew about this kind of contamination. Actually, Sandora's high-level Soul Plague was a skill that only appeared after she was modified by the Abyss. She had borrowed the power of the Abyss to spread.
"As long as Ark Fourteen asks for help from other spaceships, the contamination can spread in an instant." Sandora said in a low voice. This was the most fatal situation for a normal civilization. The Shiring Apostles had built a firewall in their mental network and their own psionic environment, so they were highly resistant to this kind of contamination. But for a mortal race that used conventional communication systems, they almost didn't know how to set up a barrier that could filter out the Abyss in their communicators and radios (this was just an example). This kind of barrier involved information manipulation technology and high-level psionic control technology, which was a level higher than the technology of our ancestors back then.
And even if the Shiring Apostles had a network barrier in place, the Old Empire was still destroyed by the contamination that far exceeded the firewall's strength. The danger of this contamination was obvious.
Anthus continued in a low voice, "The situation at that time was extremely dangerous. After the investigation, we realized that our race was almost wiped out again. The power of the Abyss on Ark Fourteen could spread to the entire fleet at any time. You have to know that it's not just the captain who sent a distress signal that would cause the contamination to spread. It doesn't need the captain, it doesn't need the signal tower. As long as a citizen of Ark Fourteen uses their personal communicator to send a farewell message to their friends and family on other spaceships, there's a chance that the entire fleet will be infected! "
I instantly broke out in a cold sweat. Yes, there was no need for the captain to send a distress signal. The Abyss infection would not be picky about "high-grade channels". It was pervasive, and even the lowest-grade communication channel was enough to become a medium of infection. I believed that the Schilling people still had a civilian communication network at that time. It was definitely not difficult for ordinary citizens to call their friends and family on other spaceships.
Even if the captain of Ark Fourteen had the authority to lock all the communication channels of the entire spaceship, what if he didn't have time to do so? What if he was one second late and a citizen had already called his family?
What if the captain himself was in a panic?
Anthus clenched his fists so hard that his knuckles turned white. "Regardless of whether it was out of fear, panic, the desire to live, or any other human emotion, it was easy for one of the millions of citizens to bid farewell to their friends and family." Anthus clenched his fists so hard that his knuckles turned white. "Ark Fourteen was a huge ship with a population of nearly ten million. At that time, there were only 4.23 million people who had the ability to communicate with other arks. Before the captain ordered the destruction of the communication tower, there were 423 ticking time bombs that would have destroyed the entire civilization. Fortunately, the captain of Ark Fourteen was a decisive and ruthless person. He did not even think about it. Before anyone objected, or before anyone could ask for help from other spaceships, he used his ultimate authority to destroy the entire spaceship."
When Anthus finished his story, I realized that my palms were covered in cold sweat. Even Shadora heaved a sigh of relief. Back then, if the captain had reacted one second slower, or if he had been soft-hearted and harbored the slightest bit of wishful thinking, the Xi Ling Empire would not have been able to rise to such a state!
"If we were to go back to that scene," Anthus looked into my eyes, "and hand the fate of the entire race over to 4.23 million mortals who were afraid of death, pain, and lost their minds, or to a group of rational beings who could turn off all emotions and self-destruct without hesitation at the most crucial moment. What would you choose?"
"If we wanted to live on, find a peaceful world to live the rest of our lives, and flee again when the abyss came, we could naturally choose the former. As long as we ran fast enough, we would be fine. But if we wanted revenge and wanted to fight those things to the death like real warriors, we would have to choose the latter. We would have to let the mortals retreat and not be a burden to the original. By then, even if the ones fighting the abyss were no longer the outdated old Schilling people like us, we would at least use our own methods to make space for our children. As parents, at least we wouldn't be useless. "
Anthus mentioned the word "burden". It was a heavy and harsh word, but after fully understanding the thrill of the era of exile, I could only admit that this word was the only suitable one.
Fighting the Abyss required more than just mortal bravery. The ancestors of Xi Ling, who lived on the premise of revenge, fully understood that to defeat a ruthless enemy, they had to be even more ruthless than it. At least, before they could grasp overwhelming technological strength, the only way they could think of was to start with willpower.
"So we treated the original as the inheritors of the civilization and taught them everything we could. After that, the exile fleet was divided into two," Anthus said in a relaxed tone. "We also developed while we were on the run. By collecting materials from the world's wreckage, we created a new batch of spaceships. They were more advanced, faster, and had experimental precision navigation equipment. We handed these spaceships to the original and asked them to find a path that was completely opposite of the current route of the exile fleet. They would never look back. From that day onwards, the Shiring Apostles replaced the old humans. Not a single old human remained on the original spaceships because any mortal could become a weakness for the abyss. The exile fleet continued on its original route, hoping to find a stable world that would not be discovered by the abyss and try to rebuild their civilization. But … you can guess what happened next. You found the ark wreckage, and the fleet couldn't escape from the abyss. The reason for the destruction of the fleet was the weakness of mortals. The panic of the people and the wrong decision of the leader led to the destruction of the fleet. At least, when my spaceship broke apart, there was no echo in the communication channel. So, there were probably no other survivors. "
Anthus finally finished his long history. The lounge fell into a long silence. Even the doll girl, who was always moving around, became quiet. She curled up on my lap and hugged my arm. She turned around and looked at Anthus without blinking. I gently stroked her hair. "You erased a lot of information about the creator from the original bodies' memories, right?"
"Yes." Anthus nodded with a smile. "I participated in the proposal and received the support of most of the people. Because everyone knew that although the original bodies were indifferent to emotions, they would eventually develop a complete emotional module. If they had too much information about the creator in their memories, I was worried that they would come looking for their 'parents' too early. At that time, we weren't sure what the threshold was for the emotional and rational modules to switch. So, we could only erase the information about the creator to reduce the risk."
"That's why we couldn't remember what our creator looked like after so many years," Sandora said softly, as if she was talking to herself. "To make such a decision, even by the standards of the Shiring Apostles, they were extremely brave."
"But the bravery of mortals is always temporary. Do you know how many people impulsively turned around and chased after the original bodies when the fleet was about to be destroyed, hoping that the children would protect them?" Anthus revealed a meaningful smile. "There were many brave warriors among those people. If they were facing other enemies, they would never show weakness. However, the abyss happens to affect people's minds. The willpower of mortals could easily be softened by the abyss, causing them to lose their minds."
Sandora and I didn't speak.
"Tell me about the situation of the abyss that erupted in our homeworld." Sandora licked her lips and asked a question that many people were concerned about. "According to your description, it was a huge explosion. Even in my memory, it was rare to see an abyss disaster that spread across multiple worlds. It first appeared in the form of a 'door'? How big was it at that time? "
"A door?" Anthus obviously didn't have the knowledge of the Shiring Apostles. His era probably didn't have a clear concept of the Gate of the Abyss. "Is that what you said later? I think so. I remember that it was more than five light-years in size, and it happened to span the 46th colonial star system, splitting the sun and the colony in half … "
"What?!" Before Anthus could finish, Sandora interrupted him in surprise. "How big did you say the Gate of the Abyss was?!"
"… Five light-years." Anthus was surprised. "Is there a problem?"
"It's impossible for the Gate of the Abyss to be that big." Sandora almost jumped up. It wasn't easy for Her Majesty to show such a reaction. I remembered that the last time she was this panicked was when I advised her to go on a diet. "Its nature causes the larger the Gate of the Abyss, the faster it will self-destruct. There is a critical point. Below the critical point, the Gate of the Abyss will self-destruct after the world is destroyed. Above the critical point, the Gate of the Abyss will self-destruct before it can contaminate the world. Also, the lifespan of the Gate of the Abyss will decrease exponentially as its size increases. A Gate of the Abyss that is five light-years …"
"It may self-destruct as soon as it appears." I could easily understand these concepts now. "It may cut away a large piece of space before it collapses. But such a huge Gate of the Abyss won't be able to cause any harm in time."
Sandora bit her lip. "Not only will it not be able to cause harm in time, but in theory, the Gate of the Abyss can't reach such a level. It doesn't make sense mathematically. The way to cause large-scale pollution isn't a huge 'gate,' but several Gates of the Abyss stacked together. At least, there is an example of the latter. Wait, Anthus, you just said that the Gate of the Abyss and the colonial planet … split into two? "
"Ah, yes. It's like a huge scar that cuts through the universe. It directly tore through Colony No. 46."
I realized something was wrong.
The Gate of the Abyss — I had seen that thing before. It couldn't "cut" any target. This was determined by its geometric shape. The Gate of the Abyss looked like an absolutely flat circle. No matter how you looked at it, it was a flat circle. So, how could a circle with a diameter of five light-years cut a galaxy?
In the eyes of an observer, it would be like a black hole, swallowing the galaxy because it would never create a "narrow wound" in the observer's eyes.
"Let me confirm. The shape of the Gate of the Abyss, is it a circular hole?" Sandora looked into Anthus' eyes and asked.
"A hole? No, it's a very neat rift. It's like a narrowed eye, a huge eye that spans five light-years. "Anthus drew a line with his hand." The two ends are closed, and the widest part in the middle is 0.3 light-years wide. It cuts everything in its path vertically. The celestial bodies around that eye are the first to be polluted. "
Sandora and I looked at each other in shock.
"That's not the Gate of the Abyss!" Sandora said to me through the mental connection. "It's a phenomenon from the Abyss that we've never seen before!"
"Is there a problem?" Anthus finally realized that the situation might be complicated. He immediately asked curiously.
"No, Ancestor, please rest first." Sandora didn't care about how Anthus addressed her. She used the "dead name" that made Anthus feel uncomfortable. Then, she grabbed my hand and prepared to leave. "We need to find an expert to study it. The information you provided is very useful."
"Oh, that's good." Anthus nodded hesitantly and waved at us. "As long as it's useful … Go ahead."
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