The Record of Unusual Creatures - Chapter 456

Chapter 456: Battlefield: Otherworld

 

As Y’zaks bellow rang across the battlefield, both sides were shaken by what the demon king had proclaimed. General Grigory held his sword tightly, his eyes were cautious. At the same time, he asked his adjutant, “What’s a phone call?”

Serathon had also tightened his grip on his warglaive, and roared at one of the demonic army officers, “Quick, go check what ‘blast your a**es to kingdom come’ means!”

Upon Helcrown’s battlements, Hao Ren and the rest were still in a daze. Each and everyone of them were stunned into silence. It took a while before Vivian managed to come up with a reaction. Her face was rather incredulous. “So… Big Guy, care to share your combat strategy?”

Well, that was proof that even a person like Y’zaks was not immune to Earth’s influence after staying there for half a year. The demon king had already picked up a boat load of words that only Earthlings would understand. On top of that, due to the difference in worldviews, Y’zaks knew the exact meaning of the words, but did not find them offensive. He took the words literally, word for word as they were, and when he bellowed them out, his looked serious…

The Allied Army had increased the pace of its attack as more and more arcane cannons finished charging; their load was being blasted towards Helcrown in a flurry. But, just as the army thought victory was within grasp and the end of the Demon King’s army was nigh, an unknown screech traveled across the sky!

The western skies suddenly lit up in silver as countless white and madder red missiles rained upon them like a sudden storm. Neither the Allied Army nor Demonic Army could react in any capacity, They were thrown into chaos by the sudden attack of this skyborn “phenomenon” and the rear of both encampments was an inferno.

“Mysterious silver objects…” Only then did Grigory realize what the sentries meant after looking at the attacking metal vessels. He now understood why they had ignored the outposts during their initial flight. They only bared their fangs at the battlefield, and with the reappearance of Helcrown, it was obvious that the two were definitely related!

However, Aerym’s attack came in a blitz and it was about as quick as the magical transmission used by the Allied Army. By the time General Grigory got word of it, he did not have time to even assess the situation, or react. He did the only thing he could, and ordered his men into defensive formations. “Deploy barriers! Spread out!”

The Allied Army quickly formed a defensive formation as each race hurriedly deployed barriers and spread out. While the arcane cannons changed their targets to their new airborne threat. Griffon riders and mages took to the air to combat the weird metal monsters.

It was a battle of epic proportions, which no one had ever seen before.

Plasma blasts scorched the earth in blinding rays, and the floating debris above the Broken Plains were blasted into white hot chucks of molten rock. Those demons, who were too slow to react were seared into ash by the superhot plasma blasts. Serathon immediately deployed an army-wide demonic barrier as he commanded the demonic cannons to counter-fire. His eyes were still locked onto Helcrown. Shortly after, something appeared and it was forever seared into the minds of all who were present.

The dimensional gate next to Helcrown had grown into massive proportions, almost like a black wall descending from the heavens. A dimensional rift was visible as the object broke through the gate. At the same time, a few pyramid-shaped aircrafts had earlier bypassed the aerial defences and everyone’s attention. They were now slowly appearing from the dimensional gate. Behind the ships were countless guiding lights, which made it seem like they were towing something out of the gate.

Under the guidance of the light, the object finally showed itself, blocking out the heavens.

It was like a floating mountain range, a city beyond the clouds, or a moving continent above everyone’s head. The old space hulk bore the scars of past battles and disasters. A few miles at a time, the space hulk appeared from the gate as though it was threatening to crush everyone underfoot. The sudden appearance of such a colossal hulk that was riddled with holes and appendages struck fear into every being on the field.

The 100-km-long ancient space hulk floated with the aid of the anti-gravity generators as it lumbered its way out of the gate. The Aerymian spacecrafts were massive objects in the eyes of those who had seen it earlier. But with the space hulk’s appearance, they were nothing but gnats next to the behemoth.

The space hulk blocked out the heavens, bringing premature night upon the entire Broken Plains. Under the teeming darkness, only the flashes of plasma and explosions of heat-seeking missiles reminded everyone that the battle was still ongoing.

One of the micro-missiles flew towards him, and General Grigory easily destroyed the missile with a slash of his sword. The holy light obliterated the missile before it even got close and the fragments as well as aftershock slammed against the magic barrier. But, behind the first micro-missile was a swarm of its kind, racing towards him.

A paladin of his caliber could have easily taken care of a missile, but the advanced firepower that the Aeryms brought smothered the heavens.

The target of the missiles were however, not him. Instead, the targets were the arcane cannons behind him. Hao Ren was right; while the Aerymians indeed had advanced technology, the fight was real, not a simulation. Those cannons were a real threat.

Well, they were at least towards the space hulk, which did not have any barriers. Its armor was also ruined. The structure itself was barely held together by nails and duct tape.

Grigory realized too that Helcrown was not the main character that day; it was the massive iron continent, which appeared from another dimension.

What was that thing?

Grigory, Serathon, Banuklaak and all other commanding officers wondered at the same time. Was this what the demon king would use for his revival? A super weapon of sorts? Or, was it an ancient demonic relic, or the true source of the demon king’s power?

And, were those flying metal boxes summoned by the demon king from another world?

Grigory pointed his sword towards the floating behemoth. “Take that down!”

“That will cause massive casualties, sir!” His adjutant was horrified when Grigory gave the order. The long shadow had covered the entire Broken Plains. It was like a moving continent above everyone’s head, and if it were to crash into the ground with its current trajectory, the casualties would be unimaginable.

Grigory gave his adjutant a cold glare. “Don’t make me repeat myself, officer! Take that down! What happened to your convictions to die in battle?!”

At that very moment, the demonic host came to the same conclusion as the demonic cannons trained their guns towards the space hulk. Countless corrosive green energy pounded the behemoth. In an instant, the belly of the space hulk was lit green. The structure itself was not stable from the outset, and the rattling was even worse now.

Behind the demon cannons, a fusillade of spellflame churned into a fiery net.

Looking down at the battlefield, Y’zaks drew his sword. “Men, follow me! We will destroy those demonic cannons!”

“I’ll take care of the humans’ artilleries,” Vimm’s voice rang out from the communicator. “The space hulk’s structure is worse than expected. The tow ships are accelerating now. Please help to take out those stray missiles.”

The hulking spacecraft creaked as the tow ships accelerated towards the western teleportation gate. Hao Ren inititally thought to show off the Petrachelys for a bit, but he decided otherwise as it went to deploy the gate. It was the only ship in the fleet that was capable of opening a gate big enough for the space hulk to pass through, therefore it had to be at the forefront of the fleet.

The Aerymian spacecrafts started bombarding the Allied Army’s firebase, while the smaller fighter crafts tangled with the griffon riders and mages. They seemed to be winning. Y’zaks and his demonic retinue leaped from the high walls of Helcrown, while more joined in using the city’s teleportation gates. Demons, obsidian golems, and the mighty army rushed headlong towards Serathon and Banuklaak’s forces.

There were plasma blasters that were used to cut up their floating islands; photon cannons that were used to destroy out-of-control coronal stations; and disintegration beams that were used to well.. disintegrate abandoned islands…. Technically speaking, the Aerymian combat crafts were in fact engineering tools, but with their vast gulf in technology, even an ore digger could be a doomsday weapon!

As the griffon riders fought against the advanced aircrafts, arcane cannons bombarded the anti-gravity frigates. The heat of the battle dominated the skies. As mages as well as paladins unleashed their spells and holy light, an unprecedented scene of battle unfolded over the field.

Chapter 457: A Battle to Be Relished

 

The Aerymian fleet was powerful against the natives of this world, but they were not invincible. The races in Y’zaks’ old home were clearly hardened veterans of many wars, and their spells were nothing to scoff at. You could not even come close by comparing it to a conventional warfare. The Aerymian fleet also needed to escort and protect that behemoth of a spacecraft, which was several hundred kilometers in size. The pace in which it was chugging at left the Aerymians with little to no leeway. Thus, Y’zaks and Hao Ren needed to figure out a way to take out their enemies, or at the very least, those annoying cannons.

The firepower of arcane cannons were second to none, but these cannons were slow, lumbering pieces of equipment. Hence, they were only a threat towards the hulking ship. The Aerymian escort fighters had quickly dispatched the cannons. Demonic cannons on the other had, were quick in locking onto their targets and they had an unmatched rate of fire. Those were Y’zaks’ targets.

“Come with me! Charge!” Y’zaks drew his Black Sword as he charged headlong into the demonic host. The five-meter-tall lava demon was the most eye-catching of targets, and under his scorching red glow, the demon king’s army was at its peak. The very sight of Y’zaks sent shudders amongst the demonic host. As he swung his blade, the magic runes on his sword released a shockwave so strong that a ballistic missile would pale in comparison. Before him, all the lesser demons were nothing but floating ashes and dust.

Obsidian colossals marched forward in huge footsteps. They may have looked like lumbering creatures, but their advance was steady. Nothing the enemies unleashed could stop their inexorable march towards their target. Their crimson cyclopean eyes shot out scorching energy rays, annihilating everything in their path in one sweep. Chainsword welding demons in heavy armor followed their king, slaying everything before them in total silence.

They were Y’zaks’ last remaining troops, the loyalists who stood guard over Helcrown even as the demon king’s army crumbled years ago. The demonic veterans had scars all over their body, and the flames of war had fully anointed them, leaving them almost unrecognizable from their original form. But being the veterans that they were, even though scarred throughout, they fought like true demons. With their chainswords hewing and roaring, they reaped a bloody toll across the ranks of the demonic host!

The demon king’s army, the fearsome primal force that ruled the world for hundreds of years; even if they were to go out, they would go out standing victorious in combat!

Wave after wasve of Serathon’s personal guards charged towards Y’zaks, determined to protect the demonic cannons with whatever courage they had. But as they went in one after the other, all were reduced to nothing but ash. Y’zaks was like a flaming giant, stepping on gnats as he advanced. He grabbed one of the stronger demons and smashed it into the ground, the latter crumpling into a ball. “You deem yourself worthy to stop me?!”

The demon king’s roar shook the battlefield, and a score of demon guards froze before shattering into molten rocks.

Trudging steps suddenly came from the side and Y’zaks instinctively parried the blow with his Black Sword. The land around him immediately shattered and left a deep crater about 20-m wide. Serathon’s warglaive grinded against the Black Sword’s blade and sparks flew all over the place. “You old fool, your time is over!”

The Black Sword’s runes glowed green in sequence as Y’zaks pushed the glaive aside. “It’s not your time either!”

*Boom! Boom!*

A thunderous clash followed as the two demons exchaged blows. The immediate area around them shook violently as dust and smoke gathered. It was almost as if a dimensional sphere had formed around them, and it was being shaken to its core. Their attacks were simple yet brutal, a slash here, and a thrust there, almost elementary. But with each blow, the entire place was closer to falling apart. Most of the guards of the demonic host had fled the area, and slower ones were instantly turned into dust by the shockwave. The lesser demons further away simply burned up as they heard the roar of combat. The demon lords were reaping the life energies of the lesser demons around them, and the inexperienced fodders all turned into fuel to power the massives attacks of the Black Sword and the warglaive.

The Allied Army that was scattered under the aerial bombardment of the Aerymian fleet had noticed the massive quakes as well. One of the cavalry groups had wandered off too close to the demonic encampment after dodging streams of plasma blasts and they were enthralled by the combat. A few of the younger soldiers turned towards Y’zaks and Serathon, and as they breathed, they breathed their last, falling limply from their horses. Their skin was ashen, their bodies shrivelled and petrified.

“Don’t look!” a veteran cavalryman yelled as he struggled against the enthrallment. “Your souls will be consumed!”

And once more, their massive weapons collided as Y’zaks and Serathon’s silhouette parted. The area around them were showing signs of a dimensional distortion. Mirror-like glitter started appearing in the air, the hallmark of a oncoming dimensional rift.

“Old man, you’re weak!” Fire surrounded Serathon as he breathed. Flames burst out from his armor, yet nary a scar. “I can feel it… Your drive to rule the world has disappeared. You have lost your motivation…. You are just an old fool struggling to survive… You are no match for me….”

Y’zaks looked down, and nonchalantly lifted his sword again. “You’re wrong… I still have a motivation….”

As he finished, the giant lava demon disappeared.

Serathon suddenly felt his muscles shudder, and his instincts told him that danger was imminent. However, his massive frame reacted too slowly. A thunderclap later, the giant salamander demon was thrown a few hundred meters away, his lower body slowly turning into molten ash. Y’zaks’ Black Sword had been driven deep into his waist, and it almost cleaved the demon in two.

“…To bring my daughter home.”

Serathon struggled, but it was futile. He could not restore his body, which was slowly turning into volcanic ash. The demon lord was too confident, and he had to pay the price now. Y’zaks pulled the sword out of the dying demon, and took his head off in one fell stroke.

“…You’re in the way.”

Serathon’s demise threw the demonic host into confusion. Without needing to look, Y’zaks knew that the battle was already won. He swatted the ash off his blade and looked into the distance. A crimson-skinned demon was standing before him. The burning demonic blood all over him was testament of the brutal battle he had as he made his way there. The crimson demon was much bigger than before, but the scar on his face was immediately recognizable.

Y’zaks nodded. “Lamadenor, I thought you’d give this a pass.”

The demonic general, whom all thought had left long ago reappeared on the battlefield. He gave Y’zaks a courteous nod. “One last battle.”

“Are you sure about not following me?”

“The place you mentioned sounds great, but it’s not for me.” Lamadenor turned and left.

One the other side of the battlefield, Hao Ren was facing a giant bug the size of a hill.

Banuklaak’s appendages skittered around, and a series of grating clacks came from behind his carapace. It sounded almost like laughter. Hao Ren stood on top of Lily’s head. The werehusky had turned into her beast form and Hao Ren like he was starting to get used to this odd-ball fighting style.

Hao Ren was nothing but a gnat before Banuklaak and it was only after Lily’s transformation that he was able to match him size for size.

His alloy spear flickered, but it seemed as though the weapon was not effective against the giant bug demon. Lily let out a threatening growl before hissing slightly. The werehusky had tried to take a bite out of the demon earlier, and her fangs were aching at the moment.

“Don’t just simply bite into something.” Hao Ren tapped his spear on the tip of Lily’s snout. The latter replied with an growl. Hao Ren then looked up into the air and saw a streak of blue light approaching.

“Buggie”—Hao Ren laughed at Banuklaak—”let me show you something nice.”

A second later, Banuklaak was assaulted by a sudden daze.

“Let’s have some fun in space.”

Chapter 458: Welp! That Was a Rather Eventful Ride!

 

Banuklaak clattered in horror as he found himself in a totally unknown situation with no place to stand, and nothing to hang on. He was floating in the void, yet an untold amount of primal energy was rushing into his body. He started to gasp for air, but that was apparently the least of his problems. The real threat was an unbelievably bright ray of light. It was searing hot and it contained an unknown form of energy. The demon then realized that he was dying with every passing second.

His chitin carapace as well as demonic barrier had failed, and his body was quickly being reduced into nothing but mush.

Banuklaak struggled as the searing light threatened to engulf him, nonetheless it was futile. Thrashing about, he tried to get a good look of the light, but in real space, this was useless. He tried to use spells to escape the area, but then realized that he was being held by something even stronger. It was a gravity well so strong that he was being dragged right into the light. This prevented him from using any dimensional magic.

Sensing that his life was quickly fading away, the ancient demon finally felt fear. He noticed that the weird man who sent him there was right in front of him and he struggled to speak, “Stop… Stop! PIease, I don’t want to fight you! I was bewitched by by Serathon! I can swear my loyalty to the crazed demon king once more… or to you! Please, stop!!! Get me…”

His voice was swallowed by the vacuum, and aside from his trembling carapace, there was no other sound.

Hao Ren was “standing” not far away from Banuklaak. His shield rippled as it protected him against the cosmic radiation and other harmful particles. He looked almost like an incarnation of the sun god as a sphere around him was ablaze. He looked at the giant bug demon slowly descending into the light and he wanted to know what the latter was saying. But sadly, he could not hear a thing. Shrugging his shoulders, he mumbled to himself, “These are the stars that you guys previously ignored.”

Banuklaak was a sly and opportunistic ancient demon, whose career spanned across multiple allegiances, betrayals, and misdirections. The demon rose from a lowly hell maggot to a demon lord. Countless other allies and demon lords had been waylaid by the scheming demon, and through his cunning, he had lived longer than any other demon. However, all of it came to an end that day as he drowned in the blaze of cosmic fire.

This proved that no matter how cunning, or how well planned one was, it was nothing in the face of brute, primal force. Banuklaak perished by the power of nature, and he died a crisp.

Hao Ren eyed his shield gauge and turned back with heroic swag. “Let’s go.”

A real man did not turn back to see a crispy, roasted giant bug.

The battlefield was a sea of chaos, for the Allied army and the demonic host at least. An unknown enemy had thrown even the most experienced of generals into confusion, while most soldiers could only scatter and run for their lives under the intense bombardment. Their ability to resist was almost taken out in short order. Both the Aerymian fleet and the demon king’s army had noticed the turn of the tide and they did not bother taking on the now demoralized soldiers. Their primary targets were still the arcane and demonic cannons. They never intended to harvest a sea of their enemy’s blood. It was only to protect the retreating spacecraft. Neither the Allied Army nor the demonic host was on their target list.

“Destroy the cannons! Leave the men!” Y’zaks swung his blade as he roared his orders, which were partly for the benefit of the enemy. “Our mission is to protect!”

The Allied Army and demonic host soon realized that they were no longer the targets of the flying metal boxes and chainswords. Their sense of preservation trumped their will to fight, and the soldiers manning the firebase ran for their lives. Not even General Grigory could stem the retreat.

Hao Ren suddenly reappeared on Lily’s head. A giant piece of pork rib was stuck to his spear. Pointing it in Y’zaks’ direction, he ordered. “Let’s regroup!”

Lily’s eyes turned to Y’zaks, and after letting out a bone-shattering howl, she sped towards Helcrown. Vivian reappeared from a mist of blood as well. All the combatants were regrouping, and after Y’zaks scouted the area, he was pleased find that all the demonic cannons were wrecked. Nodding hard, he said, “There’s nothing left here. Let’s go.”

Hao Ren and the rest of the demon king’s army retreated under the protection of the Obsidian Colossals. There were only a few remaining members of the demonic host left. The death of Serathon and Banuklaak had shattered their morale, and they were in no mood to fight.

Most demons were that way. Aside from Y’zaks’ odd bunch of loyalists, the loyalty of most demons were dubious at best. Besides, their foe was the demon king, who had been toying with them for hundreds of years. Seeing Y’zaks’ vicious face coming after them, most of the demons ran faster than Lily. The retreat was a bloodless one.

All of them had gone back to Helcrown and Vimm’s voice rang through the communicator, “All anti-air defenses have been neutralized. They don’t seem keen on fighting any further.”

Hao Ren wiped the sweat off his forehead, laughing. “In that case, let’s hit the gas pedal. We’re leaving!”

The Aerymian fleet escorted the behemoth of a spacecraft, and Helcrown followed closely. Every ship in the fleet burned their thrusters, and under the fearful gaze of the surviving soldiers below, they sped towards the western skies. The spacecraft was still hundreds of kilometers in size, and it took a while before it passed through the skies of the Broken Plains entirely. It basically looked like a passing stormcloud. As it reached the end of the horizon, a blinding flash blasted forth, and it disappeared.

The next phase of their journey could be described as rather eventful.

The fleet was only disrupted in the early phase of the conflict by determined attacks from both camps. In order to get the massive dilapidated carcass of a spaceship into acceleration, the Aerymian tow ships had to bust their engines to finally get the job done. At the same time, they had to endure whatever the Allied Army and demonic host threw at them. But as the fleet gained speed, and left the world’s strongest armies in the dust, no one could stop them from their home run out of the world.

The Petrachelys was the lead ship, but no one was on the bridge. Even the MDT got out of the control dock and skipped work to join the rest. That however, did not affect operations. There was no need for minute combat calculations and no need to decipher lightspeed travel data. All the fleet had to do was follow the original course back. Autopilot would suffice.

One by one, the natural dimension gates were transformed into wide dimensional rifts by the powerful hyperdimension module in the Petrachelys. They were hundres of kilometers wide. It was a miraculous supernatural phenomenon as each and every dimensional bubble grew. Hao Ren led the fleet in a trail of blaze and the gates that they were about to crash into were almost a meaningless fixture. If the demonic host and the Allied Army could not do anything to them, what could a few sentries at the dimensional gates do?

Most of the sentries had yet to perform the change of guard, and they were the first witnesses of the sky-shattering, flying metal boxes. The confused soldiers looked up again, wondering why these clowns appeared again. Was this air show a multi-series run?

A few sentries had received word from the main camp and the order was to stop the demon king as well as his otherworldly army. Many of the soldiers simply groaned, even as their officers barked the orders. Talk was easy, but how were they supposed to take that bloody thing down?

“The next realm is the last of the inhabited realms,” the MDT’s voice came from Hao Ren’s pocket. “Y’zaks, got any last words?”

Y’zaks pondered for a bit and he had something to say, “Let me prepare.”

They finally approached the last human sentry post, and just as the Aeryianm fleet passed through the last dimensional gate, the panicking soldiers heard the crazy demon king’s voice.

“I shall reassemble my army in deep space. One day, mark my words, I will return! Apocalypse shall come!”

The dimensional gate expanded into a radiant light screen, and the entire fleet disappeared before the sentries’ very eyes.

Y’zaks turned to face Hao Ren with a mischievous grin. “That’s my last good deed for this world.”

Chapter 459: The Outside World

 

How big was the whole space bubble zone? So far, no one dared to give an accurate number. Even the great scholar, who successfully “calculated the whole universe” could only assume the theoretical value of the space bubble boundary. The number of space bubbles within this boundary was unknown. People only knew that since the beginning of time, only a small part of the “whole world”, in which they lived in had been explored. Even the oldest elves and spirits had never set foot on the desolate rim of the bubble zone. And even among the planes that had been explored, the ones that were habitable were very little. Most space bubbles were discarded right after any exploration. There were no resources, no air, no water, only lethal radiation and poisonous soil… Countless slaves had been sent to explore the planes and they used their own lives to mark the uninhabitable ones. The greatest masters of magic in the world were also unwilling to build their own wizard towers in a place like that, because they could not find anything there. There were a few exceptions like a handful of mad wizards, but let’s ignore them.

Mortals were self-centered creatures, just as people on Earth believed themselves to be at the center of the world. Scholars in the human world had also built a superficial model after exploring space bubbles. They put habitable planets they found in the middle of this model, and according to their degree of desolation, the farther away they were from the space bubble, the harder it was to maintain survival. This superficial model had no boundaries, only a label on the outside of a series of borders. It was all wildernesses beyond it.

Considering the disorderly spatial structure of the space bubble zone and how the space bubble itself did not sort the way it would in a three-dimensional space, this superficial model proposed by those in the human world was quite true. Anyway, it did not matter which space bubble was in the middle of the model. The model was still useless, because other than the known habitable planets, people still knew nothing about the desert areas.

Y’zaks’ legion were the only intelligent creatures in their world who had tried to visit the desert over tens of thousands of years. Nonetheless, they were not able to reach the real border of the bubble zone.

The fleet was moving through a strange and hostile environment. After crossing the last small human kingdom, there was no life ahead. Outside the teleportation portal, there were endless storms, highly toxic oceans with huge waves, and strong cosmic radiation. They could even rub against some dangerous celestial bodies. If the Petrachelys had not detected the situation opposite the gate in advance, it would have been possible for the Aerymian spacecrafts to break into pieces in the dangerous bubble zone. Back then, Y’zaks dared to explore the place without even having a spacecraft; what a man! He was really lucky to not have his legion entirely annihilated.

In order to better observe the road ahead of them, have a clear picture of the entire route, and more importantly, stop Lily from causing any disturbance, they returned to the bridge in the Petrachelys. From the external monitors, they saw the marvelous spectacle of tempestuous waves and stormy seas in a desolate plane. The world looked all white with endless “snow”. Huge, white bubbly waves thousands of meters high rolled up under the traction of a giant celestial body in the sky. Then, they slowly crumbled and turned into snowflakes all over the sky, falling silently.

Lily dragged Y’lisabet along to squat in front of the holographic projector. One after the other, they exclaimed, “Aww, snow!”

“Wow! So beautiful!”

“I wish I could put something around my neck, then go out, drag something along and run…”

The husky’s ancestral instinct from the Arctic Circle was stirring.

But, it was not actual snow. The white stuff that blotted out the sky and land was nitrogen, which had frozen at low temperatures. The fleet was passing over a freezing and deadly giant planet. The portal door opened directly into a storm of snow-like solid nitrogen and the ship entered a world of “snow”. In the previous plane, they trudged tens of thousands of kilometers in empty space. These were the places that were unsuitable for survival. It was very possible to encounter places that were bad and worse.

The giant wreckage was covered with a layer of white nitrogen snow, but it was all good. The gravity regulators were working well and it seemed like it was only a matter of time before they arrived at the World Gate safely.

With such a big guy in tow, there was no way that the Aerymian fleet would have been able to cross the border in just one day. The speed they were traveling at was now less than one-third of the fleet’s maximum speed. The fleet would probably have to trek for two days across a series of strange planes to reach the door of their home. Despite that, everyone was in a good mood. The whole operation went smoother than expected, and there were no big losses for the elves of Aerym. The armies of this world were unprepared for the battle against warships, which caused their planned counter-attack to last only a little while. Anyway, it did not matter.

“You left those words behind before you left..” Hao Ren turned to look at Y’zaks and said, “You do love this world deeply.”

“I did it so that they’ll at least have a bit of motivation.” Y’zaks smiled and said, “Since they’re finally holding up together, I should try to make it last longer. Hopefully, the demons will have a long relationship with the human world under this pressure. That way, from generation to generation, a loose coalition will finally become a habit. There will still be wars. After all, war is also a driving force for progress. But, internal friction and killing off their opponents blindly should not happen again. From now on, they have a common goal.”

Hao Ren laughed and said, “Well, their common goal in the future should be to go to the depths of the universe and kill you again. Imagine the faces of those unfortunate kids when after thousands of years, their descendants finally figure out the epoch of the great universe, follow the ancient prophecies and get ready to fight against the demon king, only to find that the demon king was just teasing them.”

Y’zaks shrugged and said, “Who knows? It’s also possible that the few words I left them can only bring them together for a while. But, it may just be enough to push the world half a step forward. The change of a short-lived species was too difficult to speculate. The change from generation to generation made cultural heritage and historical records less reliable. Perhaps, in the end, no one would know the truth of the demon king’s prophecy, except the elves and the spirits. Perhaps, the new generation 200 years later would take the prophecy of “the demon king returning one day from the depths of the universe” as a myth. But anyhow, it was better to take half a step forward than stay put. At least, they would have a shadow hanging over their heads over a long period of time to make them work hard for this generation.”

Y’zaks then laughed and said, “I’ve done what I’m supposed to do. I’m not God, how can I predict the track of the world after I leave? But at the very least, it’s better than before. Hey, I think I can retire now.”

Vivian looked at Y’zaks with a strange expression. “You’re really … Aren’t you angry or sorry? You’ve risked your life for hundreds of years, and in the end, it only pushed the world half a step forward. Plus, your name will be on their blacklist forever, don’t you feel any grief?”

Y’zaks grinned. “That’s just how demons think. Why should I care? My goal is clear, I wanted to enter the sea of stars, I wanted to end the wars between races. Now that my goals have been achieved, what is there to be dissatisfied for?”

Hao Ren looked at him and asked, “You don’t mind even if the whole world hates you?”

“It’s none of my business.”

Everybody was speechless.

So, that was his attitude towards what everyone in the world thought of him.

The fleet continued to navigate and finally approached their destination.

There had been a continuous number of planes in the boundless space. The rule was, “teleportation portals were mostly near large celestial bodies”, which had previously been caused by some kind of gravitational focus. This however, had become invalid. The spacecraft passed through the portal and entered an increasingly large universe. This was a sign that the space bubble zone was about to end.

Y’zaks came out of the spaceship, sat cross-legged on the upper armor belt of the Petrachelys, and watched a wonderful fully reflective sphere enlarge rapidly ahead of the fleet.

It was the last teleportation portal. The structure of the fully reflective spherical surface was very different from the previous teleportation portal, which indicated that the real universe was on the other side of the door.

After crossing the portal, they saw a scene that they never saw in the space bubble area.

A sea of stars.

Y’zaks relaxed his body as he lay on his back atop the armor belt. He did not mind the radiation of cosmic rays around him. He narrowed his eyes under the starlight, seemingly blending into space and feeling the stars shining in the universe.

A stooped figure reappeared vaguely before him. His hair was messy, his clothes were shabby and his face was wrinkled. He stormed towards Y’zaks and scolded, “You messed up my data!”

“Hey old man… you were right. It is a big world out there.”

Chapter 460: Settle Down

 

The planet of the Aerymian elves was beyond the World Gate.

The brilliant light film rippled and the first thing that flew out of the gate was the Petrachelys. It was followed by Vimm’s fleet and then the Helcrown, which had been escorted by the fleet. At the very end of the line was the gigantic wreckage.

A space fortress, similar to the size of Aerym’s floating island slowly floated out of the World Gate under the towing barge. The mottled hull was covered with remnants of huge tentacles. Scars, dents and radioactive perforations caused by explosions could be seen everywhere on the deck. A fleet of Aerymian elves who were waiting near the space station already knew that a huge wreckage would be parked on their tracks, but they did not expect the size of the wreckage to be so daunting. Although they had the experience of transforming huge floating islands, the transformation was carried out on the base of the rock layer. The ships they actually built were not that gigantic.

Nonetheless, they reacted quickly. After Vimm issued the order, a group of piloted spacecrafts began to flash bright lights and flew past the towing barge, leading the gigantic wreckage to the predetermined area to dock.

The “port” for the wreckage had been built about 1,000 km away from the space station. Dozens of silvery-gray spires were floating there, and the spires were connected by beams of light. There was also a small space station, whch acted as the “port’s” control center. These were the things that the elves of Aerym used to fix their floating islands that went out of control in the “death land”. The spires could be anchored in space and the small space station functioned as a surveillance facility. Now that the floating islands were gone, these devices lost their purpose. They were originally prepared to be recycled, but they were now useful again.

Although Aerym’s technical expertise was not the greatest in the entire cosmic civilization, it was at least good enough to help Hao Ren.

“The wreckage will be parked in the new planet of Aerym from now on. There is no extra space in Kuiper Station. Raven 12345 has clearly given me the right to dispose of this wreckage.” Hao Ren looked at the scene and turned to the communicator next to him. He could see Vimm’s image floating above it. “Just make sure the boat doesn’t drift into space.”

Vimm nodded and said, “Rest assured, that will be easy.”

The spacecraft wreckage from the Otherworld had special research value. Its main value lay in the First Born that traversed the void. After Hao Ren reported to Raven 12345, she said that she only needed a small number of its tissue fragments to carry out research. The wreckage itself was useless to her, so naturally, it became Hao Ren’s big toy. Hao Ren wondered what he could do with it. Turn it into a sea view room? He could not find such a big beach. Turn it into an apartment building? Nobody would rent it. Turn it into a battleship? It was not as sturdy as the Petrachelys. And honestly, he felt that even if he tried to sell it as scrap metal, nobody would want it. Hence, he decided to leave it on the new Aerym planet as a great treasure.

After all, this planet was also his property, right?

Despite that, Hao Ren had a feeling that such a huge space fortress would eventually come in handy. It was such a high-tech object that the average person could not have even imagined it. After transferring the remains of the First Born, someone could probably think of a way to use it…

Hao Ren sent out dozens of autonomous robots from the Petrachelys and allowed those little guys to go into the wreckage and cut each part of the First Born’s structure. He would bring those samples back to Raven 12345. He let those autonomous robots stayed there for the time being to clean up the remains of the First Born and preferably, dig up the wreckage in relatively good condition. He also expected them pile it up and put the pieces on a nearby natural satellite. The new Aerymian planet had a medium-sized moon, where they could build an engineering station on. Though he had no idea what the use of keeping it was, Lily said something that everyone deeply agreed with: “It did not matter if it was useful or not, just bring it back and keep it. It may just come in handy someday!”

Although the husky was a little dumb, sometimes she was still very insightful.

Cleaning up the wreckage, which spanned hundreds of kilometers was not an easy project. However, autonomous robots were highly efficient, and each of them came with small space containers (used to store their vast array of kits and materials), so it probably would not take long. Hao Ren was not in a hurry anyway, so those little ones did not have to worry.

After he had arranged the long-term projects in space, the Helcrown began to descend slowly, ready to enter the atmosphere to greet their new neighbors.

As the team’s “only highly educated girl”, Lily helped Y’zaks with writing a bulletin about their circumstances. It was sent to everyone in the city when Helcrown departed. Now everyone in Helcrown knew that they had come to another world and they were about to secure a dream home. But to be honest, they were all muddled up. Anyone who had a normal mind may not have been able to react to it properly at that point. Plus, they could not believe that such a good thing would happen to them. It was an incredible stroke of luck like pennies from heaven!

Regardless, the people of Helcrown were very faithful to Y’zaks. These people had a kind of blind faith towards the demon king and they worshipped him. As long as Y’zaks patted his chest and ensured them that it was all safe, no one in the city would doubt it.

This was how the MDT evaluated the people in the city: as long as Y’zaks declared the Earth to be square, these people would run to the ends of the earth to create an edge on it… This was called loyalty.

Anyway, with Y’zaks’ reputation, everyone in Helcrown had accepted and believed this incredible fact. Countless people were looking at the magical scene outside the city’s shield: It was that of the splendid Milky Way, and endless stars.

Those who were born in space bubbles had never seen the cosmic stars. The sight of countless stars shining in the sky had only appeared in the papers of that unpopular old scholar. Y’zaks and Lanina were the only people in the entire city who had seen such stars. Now the splendid stars of the universe were shining above the city. People walked out of their houses, astonished and uneasy, but full of interest.

They got their first glimpse of the stars on the other end of the World Gate once the fleet rushed through the gate. After that, the people could finally immerse themselves in the starlight…

Until the whole city sank into the atmosphere and ushered in the sun as it slowly descended along an arc.

Under the fleet’s guidance, Helcrown slowly approached the south of the main continent. An uneven coastline appeared in the thin morning light and they saw lights flashing on the coastline. It was the elves, who came to greet them in advance.

Helcrown was now in a state where it could not land directly on land (after all, it was hard for the elves to dig a pit of suitable size), so the most suitable place to land was the offshore sea. According to the size of Helcrown’s base, the elves found a landing point that would allow the bottom of the floating city to reach the continental shelf. After the city was docked, experts would come to help connect the base of Helcrown with the continental shelf, making it a secure island. The tall walls of Helcrown were not afraid of storms, and landing not too far from the coastline made it very convenient for the mages to build roads that connected to the mainland. So, the Helcrown was now considered to have settled down safely.

The elves were experienced in this field since they had helped settle a dozen floating islands before.

Hao Ren led a group of Helcrown representatives to the coast and was surprised to find that Hilda was also standing amongst the welcoming team.

“Your Majesty, you actually came in person?” Hao Ren greeted Hilda cheerfully. “Not busy today?”

Hilda smiled and looked at the most eye-catching bald head in the crowd and said, “My old friends are here. I had to come and greet you all.”

Y’zaks scratched his bald head a little awkwardly while Y’lisabet sat and wriggled atop his shoulder. The little one looked at the distant Helcrown, which was slowly landing on the sea. She had joy written all over her face. It was basically the reaction of a child when moving to a new home.

“The last time, I helped you move house, and this time you helped me.”

“Don’t mention it,” Hilda said as she smiled and looked at Hao Ren. “We’re all renting anyway…”

As the landlord, Hao Ren was suddenly filled with a gentle feeling of affection.