When I woke up from my dream, it was dark in front of me. There was only a dim energy glow in the room. That was the basic lighting that would automatically appear when someone woke up in the room. There was no light outside the window. The slight chill on my body made me realize something. I searched around and found the doll girl who had jumped onto the bed. She had wrapped herself up like a dumpling and was sleeping badly. I pulled the blanket and shook the little girl out. I looked at the scene outside the window and muttered, "It's so dark outside."
"Huh?" Mercury Lamp replied in a daze.
"What do you think about the darkness in front of you?"
"… It's midnight now, idiot!"
I sat up and looked at the thick darkness outside the window.
"There's not even an aurora in the sky. Something is wrong." I grabbed the doll girl who was rolling around and stretching herself. "Let's go out and take a look."
"No, I'm so sleepy." Mercury Lamp hugged my head and hit it twice. Her protest was futile. She didn't sleep in the middle of the night and ended up hanging from a chandelier for two hours before she had to ask for help. She didn't deserve any sympathy.
Jingle was sleeping in a small box at the head of the bed. As I was busy putting on my clothes and combing Mercury Lamp's hair, the little one woke up. She blinked her eyes, not used to the darkness around her at this time. "Ah Jun, why is it so dark? Did Jingle wake up early? "
"No, it's already morning." I checked the standard time in the information link and gave an affirmative answer. "Since you said so, it doesn't seem right. It's pitch black outside. You can't even see the aurora at night in the God Realm. "
"Let there be light." Jingle said. The room was immediately filled with a gentle light. As the eyes adapted to the light, it gradually brightened. However, this light was obviously limited to the room. I purposely went to the window sill to take a look. It was just a layer of window, but there was no light outside the window sill at all. Something more powerful than Jingle's divine power was blocking the light. It seemed that the outdoor area of the God Realm was occupied by pure darkness. Out of curiosity, I took out a flashlight. In the end, the beam of light from the flashlight was directly cut off at the window. The light and darkness were very obvious. It was obviously not formed naturally.
"I don't understand."
The little thing flew over and bounced on the windowsill. "A higher level god is using a large range of dark power outside. Normal light used for illumination is directly rejected."
Although I didn't think that there would be any accidents in the God Realm, I was still quite curious about the strange scene before me. This could possibly be another miraculous natural phenomenon in the God Realm. However, even Jingle seemed to be completely confused, so this possibility was rather suspicious. Thus, I decided to check if the others had woken up.
My room was located on the second floor of the main hall of the obsidian palace. It wasn't far from the front hall where everyone usually gathered. However, in this short walk, the sleepy Mercury Lamp and I encountered many Divine Servants along the corridor. This further confirmed my premonition that it was already morning, and that something must have happened.
The Divine Servants I met along the corridor weren't very clear about what was going on. However, after asking a few of them, I found out that they were busy preparing meals and doing their daily work. I was slightly relieved. It seemed that the only abnormality was the darkness of the day. It wasn't a crisis or anything of the sort.
That's right, this was the God Realm. If a crisis could happen in this place, then the other mortal worlds should have almost all perished.
Because it was dark outside, the obsidian palace was lit up with eternal light. That's right, it was the kind of thing that God said that if there was light, then there would be light in the world. Those who served tea here all knew that sentence. This absolute natural light made the corridor to the front hall brightly lit. If it wasn't for the fact that it was still as dark as ink when I passed by the window, I wouldn't have noticed anything unusual. In the similarly brightly lit front hall of the palace, as expected, I saw Sandora and Big Sister sitting there drinking morning tea.
Of course, there was also Icetis, who would usually be doing radio gymnastics in the front hall at this time.
"Hey, Chen, I didn't think that you would be able to wake up at this time even when there isn't any light." Icetis waved her hand at me, then shrugged at Sandora who was drinking tea. "I saw that teacup just now. Put it on the account!"
"What's going on outside?"
Seeing that Sandora and Icetis were still bickering and exchanging feelings as usual, I knew that there wasn't any major problem. However, I was still confused by the abnormal darkness outside.
"Ahh, this is indeed a rare situation." Icetis walked to the gigantic floor-to-ceiling window and pushed open the crystal window that was a little too wide for a palace. The thick darkness outside seemed to seep in through the open window, causing the hall to seem a little dimmer. "It's the power of the Dark Goddess. One of the four leaders personally made a move. Looks like God Father really places a lot of importance on this matter. Fortunately, you didn't leave yesterday. Otherwise, I would have to call you all back today."
Because we were already done with the matters here, the others and I had intended to leave yesterday afternoon. However, Icetis forcefully urged us to stay. Especially since Shallow Shallow hadn't had enough fun yet, I decided to stay for another day. Based on what Icetis said, does the current darkness still have anything to do with us?
"Big brother, big brother, it's so dark outside." At this moment, Visca also ran into the front hall. Beside him was Pandora, who had an expressionless face. Behind them were Bubble and Little Bubble. One of them was gesticulating, expressing her opinion of the darkness to the air. The other was daydreaming. I didn't dare to imagine that she was currently opening a few alt accounts and spamming the entire human race on Tieba.
"As expected of a family. Even the time you wake up is quite synchronized." Icetis waved for everyone to take a seat in the hall. Then, she turned her gaze to Visca. "Don't worry about whether it's dark or not. There's no such thing as a blackout in the Realm of Gods. It just so happens that Visca is here too. This matter has something to do with you. Everyone, let me first announce a piece of good news. The first batch of Protoss's advance party returned last night. They brought back something very important: something related to Schilling's Legacy. "
Icetis's words successfully attracted everyone's attention. Even Sandora and Big Sister put down their teacups. Obviously, although they had arrived at the hall earlier, Icetis kept them in suspense and didn't tell them in advance.
"By the way, you should have collected most of the fragments of the Star Ring, right?"
Icetis didn't say it directly. Instead, she suddenly mentioned something else.
Visca was the most concerned about this matter. He immediately raised his hand and replied, "I know, I know. Including the ones excavated by the expeditionary forces of various worlds, the ones found in the Macro World, and the ones we found in the previous incidents, we have collected a total of 123 fragments. All of them are fragments of the Inner Ring. It basically accounts for 80% of the entire Inner Ring."
"You found the rest of the fragments?!"
I suddenly understood something. I looked at Icetis in surprise.
"Ah, this is the bad news after the good news. We did find a fragment. It's super huge." Icetis gestured exaggeratedly with her hands and drew a huge arc in the air. "A World Management God found out that a fragment of the Star Ring had intruded into his world. He reported it to the police. The advance party that was on their way back collected it. That thing actually had combat power. The advance party almost died."
"Uh, the last Ring Fragment is indeed the strongest part of the Armament. I didn't expect it to still be active." Visca scratched his head awkwardly. The corner of my mouth twitched slightly. Just as Icetis said, this was actually not good news.
Of course, discovering a new Empire's inheritance was something to be happy about. However, the Star Ring Fragment was a special case. Many facts indicated that the Fallen Apostles were the ones who created the Star Ring. They destroyed Visca's out-of-control Star Ring and used the power of the Abyss to heavily pollute it, transforming it into an extremely dangerous Void Lightning. Currently, almost a hundred worlds had been attacked by these Void Lightning. More than a dozen of them had even been destroyed. By the time the Empire's expeditionary forces arrived, those worlds were only left with a small fragment of the star after the interstellar explosion. Current intelligence indicated that these Void Lightning did not have a clear target. It was highly likely that the Fallen Apostles had created these things purely to destroy the world and not to use them as official weapons. Thus, after the transformation was completed, the Fallen Apostles left them alone. However, these fragments still had a rather fixed pattern of appearance. They were all in non-sovereign planes far away from the Protoss's territory.
The hundreds of Star Ring Fragments that we discovered were all like this. Those worlds were not under the Protoss's territory. Even before they were discovered by the expeditionary forces, they were not within the Empire's territory. They were all idle worlds. According to Belavilla, the Fallen Apostles had a serious tendency to destroy because of the power of the Abyss. They needed to enjoy the destruction of their worlds to vent this urge. However, they did not want to cause too much of a commotion and be discovered by the Protoss. Thus, unless they were carrying out that "great undertaking" with an unknown purpose, the Fallen Apostles would only attack idle worlds that no one cared for or loved … I had always believed that there were no exceptions to this rule.
However, the Protoss's advance team discovered the fragment attack in the Protoss's territory.
"The Fallen Apostles shouldn't have gone crazy, right?" Big Sis frowned. "They attacked the Protoss's territory so openly. It is very likely that they will give themselves away. Could it be that they have something to rely on?"
"Who knows?" Icetis shrugged. "The Fallen Apostles definitely did not have enough power to start a full-scale war with the Protoss. Therefore, the sudden appearance of this Star Ring Fragment in the Protoss's territory is very puzzling. Now, the Dark Goddess is gradually controlling the Abyss energy on that giant fragment, trying to reverse engineer the source of this fragment. She might be able to find a lair through it. Different situations call for different actions. It is impossible to guess what the Fallen Apostles are planning. "
What troublesome news. I originally thought that I would be able to relax for a while, but I did not expect that the Fallen Apostles would start to stir again. Furthermore, this time, they were directly stirring up trouble in the Protoss's territory. Their actions were always so incomprehensible. By the time I finally understood them, they had already caused a great deal of trouble.
The darkness outside was caused by the power of the Dark Goddess. It did not envelop the entire God Realm as I had initially imagined, but it only permeated a small area near the garden. It just so happened that the Obsidian Temple materialized in this area, and we were enveloped in it as well. Before the highest Dark Goddess retracted her power, we would probably not be able to get out. I did not really understand the form of power of the Gods, but according to Icetis, the power of the Dark Goddess would change the Abyss energy on the fragment, causing it to "solidify," which would make it convenient and safe to conduct research. It could be said that this was an even more brilliant method to deal with the Abyss inertia than Schilling's psionic suppression forcefield. Furthermore, it was far more efficient than our method of dealing with a fragment that required a few days to conduct contact research on it. After a mere two hours, the darkness dissipated.
Sandora and I led Pandora and her sister to the Glorious Palace once again. This time, we headed directly to the palace of the highest Dark Goddess: the Eternal Night Palace. It was an inconspicuous but solemn black palace.
God Father was already waiting for us in the palace. Along with him were a few other high-level Gods that we had met before, including the highest Life Goddess Gaga and the highest Light God Sauvalet. Together with the master of the palace, Solaphil, it meant that three out of the four leaders of the Protoss had come at once. However, the powerful Dragon God did not appear this time. Based on the subtle smile on God Father's face when I mentioned that name, I believed that the Dragon God had already sacrificed himself for the sake of building a harmonious society in the God Realm and had gone to the isolation room to count the ants.
"Icetis should have already told you about the situation." God Father led the way and led us deeper into the Eternal Night Palace. "This is really surprising. The Fallen would actually be so careless … Yes, careless."
"Are you saying that this is an accident?"
Sandora asked in an appropriate official tone. When the fragment of the star ring appeared in the Protoss's territory, the entire matter had developed in a serious direction. Of course, it did not affect the trust between the New Empire and the Protoss, but it was basically equivalent to a stage where they were preparing for war together.
"My intuition tells me that the Fallen should also be panicking right now." God Father smiled faintly, as indifferent as usual, as though the serious and dangerous provocation of the Fallen Apostle was just a passing cloud to him. "They won't recklessly start a war with the gods directly because their 'great cause' has obviously not been achieved yet. The appearance of this star ring fragment is very strange. I don't think it was released by the Fallen, and I even think that it did not appear in the world governed by the Protoss to be used as a weapon. However, you still need to see the specific situation for yourself to understand, and also to answer our doubts. After all, the Protoss still has some headaches when it comes to your technology. "
As we spoke, we had already arrived at a large hall in the lower level of the Eternal Night Palace. It was a very spacious hall, and the floor was covered with something like obsidian that was as smooth as a mirror. However, there were no decorations around the hall or the interior space, not even a pillar. Icetis, who had accompanied us, told us in a low voice that this place was called the Hall of Mirrors, and it was the entrance to another space.
"The fragment is very large, and the intensity of the Abyss is almost as strong as the Gate of the Abyss, so Feir could only put it in another space to deal with it," God Father said as he made a gesture in the air. The obsidian floor under everyone's feet immediately rippled, and it turned out that the portal to the other space was actually the ground here. "It was not difficult to purify the power of the Abyss on it, but it took some time to turn it into a safe specimen. I hope that the few hours of darkness did not affect you."
The other space where the Dark Goddess dealt with dangerous items was a place similar to the void of the shadow space. There was no gravity or direction, but it had a unique anti-physical property that allowed one to easily see things in the absence of light. The huge star ring fragment quietly floated in the endless space like a withered tree branch.
This was not the first time I had seen a star ring fragment, but this one was slightly larger than the ones I had seen before, and it looked more complete. Its superalloy shell was torn at both ends due to the explosion, forming jagged gaps, but there were not many other injuries. We could even clearly see the weapon slots and the ejection hatch that was not fully closed on its surface. The huge machine that had lost the last of its energy during the battle with the Protoss's vanguard team now looked dim and no longer glorious. However, the image of this quietly floating in the air gave off a desolate feeling. Looking at this scene, I could not help but want to write a poem — but I did not.
"Because it was on the verge of exploding into a Gate of the Abyss, we took the initiative to deal with it, but we did not change its structure." Father God led everyone closer to the star ring fragment that was floating in midair, until it turned into a mountain in front of everyone. We landed on what seemed to be a landing pad in the middle of the arc. I noticed that the metal beneath my feet still had black two-dimensional patterns floating on it, but I didn't feel the disgusting twisting sensation of the power of the abyss.
Compared to the Empire's suppressive force field, the power of the highest Dark Goddess was indeed much more profound. I believed that Tawil would be very excited about this new toy.
Visca looked around in silence. She pursed her lips and did not say a word until a red light flashed in her eyes. She seemed to have discovered something and ran to an open armor plate a few hundred meters away. She kicked away the armor plate that had not been repaired for a long time. Then, she turned her finger into a needle that emitted dark sparks and pierced it into the exposed mechanical structure under the armor plate.
Dark red energy spread from where the needle pierced and quickly swept across the metal armor plate under everyone's feet. A low buzzing sound echoed in our ears. Like a mummy that was rapidly recovering its vitality, the star ring fragment started to operate again. The weapon covers and the ejection hatches were finally fully closed after receiving energy again. Visca made a reassuring gesture to us. A few minutes later, a heavily distorted synthesized voice came from a nearby broadcast tower. "… Highest command set detected … Existing mission terminated. Weapon system locked … System self-check error. No servo device or starship signal found. Warning, system status is abnormal. Requesting a higher level AI system to make tactical decision … Cut … Cut …"
The last few characters were like an old-fashioned tape recorder that was running out of power as they gradually faded away. Weska also stopped the operation of the fragment of the star ring. She ran back with an overjoyed expression on her face. "Brother! Brother! Brother! Brother! The auxiliary system of this fragment is indeed not broken! Fix it! Tawil can fix it! You can even use the backup data to restore the inner belt! "
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