Chapter 411 - 395: Star Realm Shuttle

Chapter 411: Chapter 395: Star Realm Shuttle

"Galvis? Galvis?"

Deep within the earth’s veins, Roland sensed the sudden severing of his connection through the Destiny Red String. He tried calling out a few more times, but there was still no response.

’This is trouble...’

he muttered to himself, his brow slowly furrowing.

"Hey! Rudolph!"

Duraga’s rough voice boomed from the side.

The Gray Dwarf leader strode to his side, a curious look on his battle-scarred face.

"What are you mumbling about over there by yourself? Get on the ship! I finished all the ’Magma Blood’ I brought. We need to get back to the surface and find some proper ale to wet our throats."

"Coming."

Roland nodded, temporarily suppressing his anxiety, and followed Duraga up the stairs, which glowed with a faint bioluminescence.

"Is everyone here?"

Duraga scanned the area, his booming voice echoing through the cavern.

After confirming that none of his kin were left behind, he nodded in satisfaction and began to chant a series of obscure syllables in a low voice.

As he chanted, the recently extended stairs slowly retracted, merging seamlessly back into the ship’s hull as if they had never been there.

"You lot, keep watch on deck."

Duraga issued the command to the Gray Dwarves at his side, then turned to Roland, a slightly boastful smile spreading across his rugged face.

"Come on, Rudolph. I’ll show you the ’masterpiece’ of those Otherworld bastards."

With that, the Gray Dwarf leader led Roland through an entrance that pulsed like a biological chamber, and they entered the interior of the Shell Ship.

The scene inside the ship was beyond Roland’s imagination.

The walls were not cold metal but a warm, faintly pulsating organic material with a texture that was a cross between muscle and carapace.

A dim blue bioluminescence flowed slowly along neural network-like patterns on the walls, providing illumination.

The air was filled with a strange scent—a mixture of ozone and some kind of sweet glandular secretion.

The corridors twisted and turned, and at times they had to walk over a gently undulating floor that felt like living tissue.

Duraga was clearly familiar with the place. His massive body moved nimbly through the intricate passageways. Occasionally, he would reach out and slap a section of the "wall," causing the bioluminescence in that area to flicker rapidly.

"These corridors change on their own."

Duraga explained without turning his head, his tone a complex mix of emotions tinged with disgust.

"The brains of those squid-heads are as twisted as these tunnels, but we figured out their patterns long ago."

After several forks in the path and passing through a doorway made of dangling tentacles that automatically coiled up as Duraga approached, they finally reached their destination.

The space before them suddenly opened up, revealing a spherical hall.

The light here was brighter, with countless tiny points of light drifting slowly across the dome above, like an inverted river of stars.

In the center of the hall, a huge, pillar-like structure formed from the Entanglement of thick nerve bundles and glowing Crystal Clusters stretched from floor to ceiling. It throbbed slowly, emitting powerful waves of Spiritual Energy.

"This is it."

Duraga stopped and looked up at the pulsating core, his voice gruff.

"This ugly thing is the heart and brain of this ship."

The Gray Dwarf leader strode toward the pulsating control core, reached out with his right hand clad in its Iron Glove, and placed it firmly on the thickest nerve bundle.

As he chanted a low, ancient Spell, the core’s pulsations gradually synchronized with his breathing, and the dim blue light flickered in rhythm.

He turned his head to look at Roland, who stood to the side. For a moment, a rare, complex expression appeared on his rugged face.

"Once I get you to Aiselon, old friend..."

His voice sounded somewhat deep, illuminated by the glow of the Spiritual Energy.

"My kinsmen and I will take this ship, tear open a rift, and search for the legendary ’Forging Fire Realm,’ a place where eternal Magma is said to flow."

He paused, his gaze sweeping across the central hall, filled with the features of Otherworld creations.

"A journey across planes... the road ahead is unknown. After we part ways, it’s unlikely we two old-timers will ever meet again."

At the end of his words, there was a faint, almost imperceptible sigh, the kind befitting a warrior.

For the Gray Dwarves, who valued camaraderie, parting with a friend who had fought by their side was always a somber affair.

But Duraga’s undisguised melancholy didn’t stir many ripples in Roland’s heart.

He knew clearly that the old friend this Gray Dwarf leader knew and cherished was the man named "Rudolph," not "Roland."

’At least for now, I can’t fully step into that role.’

So, he simply nodded calmly and changed the subject.

"This Shell Ship—can it travel to any destination we choose?"

Duraga’s hand, still pressed against the nerve bundle, shifted slightly, and the light of the control core flowed in response.

"As long as you have a clear planar anchor and precise coordinates in the Star Realm, it can tear through the barrier of reality and traverse the astral channels."

"Even to other planes, as long as the coordinates are correct, it’s not difficult."

’Anchors and coordinates...’

Roland’s heart sank.

He had no idea of the Eternal Song Forest’s exact location.

Duraga seemed to read something in his subtle expression and laughed heartily. His tone carried the characteristic bravado of a Gray Dwarf facing the unknown.

"Don’t you worry, old friend! Although I’ve never set foot on the Aiselon Continent, legend says that land is so vast you can’t see its end. Even without a precise anchor, we can find a suitable landing spot on its periphery."

"Travel in the Star Realm is an adventure in itself. Being off by a hair’s breadth happens all the time, but as long as you’re headed in the right direction, you’ll reach your destination eventually!"

Roland shook his head and said in a low voice,

"There’s been a change of plans, Duraga. I need to get to the Eternal Song Forest, the home of the Elf Race, immediately."

Hearing this, Duraga’s thick eyebrows knitted together.

"The Elves’ territory? I don’t know its exact location. According to the memories of this body’s original owner, those long-eared, high-and-mighty folk moved away from their homeland long ago."

His tone shifted, and a knowing smile appeared on his bearded face.

"However... while I don’t know where those arrogant sods built their new home, I know the exact locations of the lairs of their ’kin.’"

"The destiny of those two races is a twisted Entanglement, like that of light and shadow. So wherever you find them, you’re bound to find traces of the Elves."

"’Kin’? You mean the Zor Elves?"

"Exactly."

Duraga confirmed, then waved his hand dismissively.

"But we can talk about those details later."

He slammed his palm down on the control core, and a more powerful wave of Spiritual Energy instantly swept through the entire ship, causing it to resonate with a low hum.

"First, let’s get out of this godforsaken place! Who knows if those Bottom-dwelling Demon Fish will come back."

Under his control, the Shell Ship’s massive body shuddered slightly, and the dim blue light flowing around it suddenly became blinding.

The space in front of the ship’s bow began to twist and fold, as if a pair of giant, invisible hands were tearing at the fabric of reality.

A rift shimmering with countless silver specks was forcibly torn open. Beyond it was not Darkness, but an endless sea of Void, flowing with a silver luminescence.

The Shell Ship let out a long hum, like the call of some ancient creature, and its enormous hull slowly floated upward, sliding precisely into the rift.

As the Shell Ship completely submerged into the tear in reality, an indescribable feeling of weightlessness instantly seized Roland.

It wasn’t a feeling of falling. It was as if he himself, and indeed the entire ship, had lost the very concept of "weight" and become pure existence.

He looked out through a translucent biological membrane on the ship’s hull, and his breath caught in his throat.

Everything from the material world had vanished.

In its place was a boundless expanse of emptiness, flowing with a soft, silvery glow.

There was no up or down, no left or right, no sky or earth—only an endlessly stretching silver background, as if submerged in the depths of an ocean made of liquid moonlight.

In the distance, countless tiny points of light shimmered quietly, like dust-covered diamonds.

Those were not stars, but the twisted, multicolored halos cast by distant planes, wavering like reflections in water.

Closer by, indescribable, abstract geometric shapes, like thoughts themselves, drifted slowly past. They had no physical form but emanated an ancient and mysterious aura.

Absolute quiet enveloped everything; it was a Silence in which sound itself was unmade.

The sense of passing time also became ambiguous, as if the boundary between a second and an hour had ceased to exist here.

Only his own heartbeat and the low, heart-like pulse of Spiritual Energy from within the Shell Ship proved he had not yet been lost in this eternal Void.