The Record of Unusual Creatures

Hao Ren was already inured to the truth and falsehood within the Black Forest, as he realized the concept of truth and falsehood is meaningless here.

He knew that L’Haronne had gone through destruction and rebirth, but he could postulate that the planet had not just only encountered that one apocalypse in the past ten thousand years. This was the Umbral Realm, a fragment of the universe, the only surviving piece of the universe that was once destroyed by the Mad Lord and as the only remaining intact celestial body in the Umbral Realm, it had gone through another form of apocalypse.

After going through multiple cycles of destruction and rebirths, everything bizarre would be the norm on this planet, and Hao Ren reckoned that this Black Forest was a ‘distortion node’ left behind after the planet’s end.

In this special place, everything was all piled on each other, and that not only included the old world, but also the possible future of this world, the possible future of the old world, immaterialized history, history that happened but was wiped out by the “god’s dream”, or a piece of history that never happened but appeared in the god’s dream, or even those impossible timelines that had a chance of one in a million.

Everything had piled on here, and created the Black Forest.

And yet, mere mortals would not be able to detect the true face of the Black Forest, their eyes were unable to see a world in multiple spectrums, so they could only enter the ‘surface level’ of the forest, and that was the thick forest filled with beasts, monsters, traps and even ruins-like objects. These surface level objects were sufficient to throw most travelers off and let them believe that they had passed through the forest, but within the deep fog, this forest was not as simple as that.

It was all due to the team having a goddess as a member, and even as a projection allows Hao Ren and the rest to escape the forest’ influence, and directly entered into the real heart of the forest.

What they had saw was probably the the first of the Black Forest’s historical records, or the most basic parts of its form.

And the city weaved between reality and falsehood with a material form before them was the proof.

Rheia’s eyes were sweeping the area, and where she looked, the illusions of yore collapsed and returned to its true shape. Magnificent buildings gave way to collapsed ruins, as charging warriors became a speck of dust in the mud, as many places were simply reduced to a swarm of vines, and the weird vines were like a malicious will that have climbed out of the dark crevices of history as it coiled around the mysterious city.

But Rheia did not totally remove the illusions here, and in fact, she had only cleared a small area in their path, and once the caravans had passed through she will allow the illusions to reform. This was to allow Hao Ren a chance to record more clues from the illusions.

So the three caravans had formed into a tiny ‘real-world matrix’, and outside of the matrix the city still stood strong as it held against the invading enemies from so many eras ago, but around the caravans, it was nothing ruins of the cold hard truth.

Awenna’s eyes were wide as she looked around in shock and nervousness. The glowing, advanced and elegant ancient silver cannons were still firing a second ago, and a moment later it was a mere wreck on the ground, and yet the next moment it reformed into its original state. There were soldiers passing through continuously but their movements were broken as the moment Rheia’s sight turned over the soldiers would disappear, and the moment Rheia looked away, illusion replaced reality.

That was probably the most unforgettable experience for the princess.

“Can you still smell blood?” Hao Ren approached Vivian and asked.

“Yes, and it is getting more and more obvious,” Vivian sniffled, “Now I not only can sense it, I can even smell it proper.”

Lily too sniffed, “Yes, yes yes,! I can smell it too! It’s right ahead…”

An illusion would not have a smell, and that means the blood scent could only come from a real object, who was it that was hiding within this ancient and distorted forest?

Hao Ren did not think it was some sort of monster.

The three caravans stopped.

There was no more road ahead, and while it looked like a wide roadway, and all sorts of battle tanks were trudging through it, but the moment Rheia trained her sights there, the road gave way to a series of ruins and fallen black pines, there were narrow slits that could be accessed but that was limited to humans only, and not the caravans.

While they could blow the wreckage apart, or use the high-tech vehicles to run over it, but that will draw attention, and the blood scent that Vivian had detected were within a thousand meters, and to avoid drawing unnecessary attention, Hao Ren decided to leave the vehicles and headed in to investigate.

“You can stay in the car,” Vivian said as she looked at Awenna and Charlemagne. “The caravan has a shield system, and an emergency SOS system, all of you will be safer here.”

“Will we be a burden?” Charlemagne asked seriously.

“Not really,” Hao Ren shrugged, he was not comforting the latter, but he knew what the siblings were capable of, and they could definitely hold their own when it comes to self-defense, and even if the Black Forest is teeming with all sorts of supernatural danger, Hao Ren and this team could easily cover all bases, and don’t have to worry about the siblings holding them back.

“That will do,” Charlemagne adjusted his scabbard, “We too are curious as to what is in there.”

“Everyone get off the caravan then,” Hao Ren nodded, “But stay low, and look after yourself, don’t ever go solo away from the team.”

The team left the caravans behind and with Vivian as the guide went deeper into the ruins. Hao Ren and his crew left the way while Awenna and Charlemagne followed as their personal guards covered both flanks, adding additional pairs of eyes to look out for things.

These soldiers may be mere fodders when compared to Hao Ren, but in this situation, having extra pairs of eyes on the lookout is always welcomed.

They had gone through the collapsed ruins and came before a plaza, and in the center of the plaza was a pyramid-like building.

The building was partially standing, while its other half was already in ruins, and on the still intact parts, the magnificent adornments were still visible.

Rheia closed her eyes.

And the entire plaza, pyramid and the surrounding scene was restored to its past form.

The plaza was lined by soldiers clad in argent armor, as they formed a line of human wall facing outwards, and their energy shields were interlocked, forming layers upon layers of protective barrier, and behind the human wall were rows upon rows of plasma colliders, this was the temporary name Hao Ren had given to these plasma cannons.

And even further behind were the armed civilians.

The pyramid stood in the middle of the sea of bodies as it radiated a sun-like radiance, an energy stream flowed on the tip of the pyramid, as a surge of energy – life energy – emanated from the pyramid.

The enemy had broken into the city.

The various defensive cannons in the city roared but could not hold back the tide of enemies from all over (and from low orbit), the mutated monsters had destroyed the outer walls, and tore through layers of defensive parameters as the buildings around the plaza collapsed like sandcastles against the wave, and soon the monsters shrouded in smoke and dust finally appeared before the defenders.

The final battle had begun.

Laser beams and plasmablasts tore through the air and landed within the black tide, and following that were the brutal clash of photon blades and claws.

The corrosive powers weakened the shield system as the energy screen flicked and died out. Monsters poured into the gaps like a mudslide into the plaza and the defenders were quickly being consumed by the monstrous tide.

Yet, the life energy from the pyramid quickly healed those wounded soldiers and allowed them to stand up time and time again to combat their foes.

And every time they stood up, their bodies were even more broken, and their armor rent.

Finally, a gap was torn in the lines, and the next to be destroyed was the plasma colliders.

And now it was the turn of the armed civilians.

The life energies coming from the pyramid was getting stronger… almost to the point of madness.

Hao Ren could even hear the almost maddened guards yelling almost like a lunatic as their yells were soon garbled and meaningless, but yet Hao Ren could still catch onto some proper sentences.

“Protect the sanctum!”

“Protect the Holy King!”

“We need to buy more time! It’s almost there! Almost there!”

“We need to hold for another thirty minutes! Thirty minutes!”

Awenna was scared by the brutal and maddening scene, her face was pale and her lips trembling as she followed Charlemagne closely behind. She could not understand, how did these people push themselves to this state, and what were the enemies they were facing?

She could not help but be reminded of her mission, and that drove her lips even paler.

Rheia closed her eyes as she walked at the head of the team, but she could clearly see what happened around her, and as she passed through the fallen guards, she sighed, “The power of… mortals huh…”

The team walked through the phantoms of the past and the main gate of the pyramid was now before them. A group of soldiers held their weapons, bracing against the enemy that is to come.

Hao Ren walked passed the human wall, and just before he entered the great hall, he turned back.

He saw at the edge of the plaza, the soldiers that had previously fallen were standing up again, and their body was so broken that they were no longer human, and their armor had fused into their flesh, they felt their hands out as the withered and broken limbs were twisted like burnt wood.

The life energy from the pyramid were infused into their body continuously, allowing their already broken bodies to stand up and fight on, and the warriors maintain that posture, as their bodies stood up straight with their arms extended out and their long beards and hair fluttered in the air and became layers upon layers of branches. Their legs soon rooted into the ground as their skin folded into barks, and covered their entire body.

They had become a sea of black pines.