The Record of Unusual Creatures

The appearance of the guardian army had caused an unexpected shock in Snowfrost City.

Even when Duke Owen had done some preparation in anticipation for it, even when the Northerners were said to have nerves of steel, even when those living on the lands had fought against all sorts of inconceivable ancient relics, the guardian giants and their starships were still more than enough to shatter the local’s ability to accept things.

Some of the civilians on the city walls were scared out of their wits as the starship landed, causing a small scale ruckus.

In the end, however, all the ruckus was pacified effectively. With Duke Owen’s precise coordination and the Army of the North’s strong ability to execute their orders, the city quickly calmed down and awaited their next order.

The unique population and discipline brought on by their societal structure worked wonders at that very moment.

As for Constance and Duke Owen, Hao Ren did not need to explain to them what the guards were all about. Perhaps due to the broken legacies and distorted histories caused by so many Turns of the Eras, different heritors mean there were different civilizations, and two separate heritor groups could mean either having planetary level power or an interstellar one. And Constance, who knew that very well, did not ask too many questions.

Hao Ren also thought that he should find a proper time to tell the princess the entire truth, including their true identities, but after seeing Nolan’s emergency report, he realized that the situation of this world was much more precarious than it looked, and to avoid affecting the last shred of hope of this world, he needed to do his best to prevent Constance’s will from being shaken.

“The guardians power will be enough to help you to regain the advantage in a head-on battle, they are extremely adept at fighting the mutated minions,” Hao Ren looked at at the guardians from them the walls of Snowfrost as he said to Constance, “They don’t need you to provide them anything, supplies, encampment and what not. They are self-sufficient and can stay live inside their transports. This army will follow you all the way to the imperial capital, and they will support you until you step onto the walls.”

Constance could tell there was something else hidden in Hao Ren’s sentence. “You are not coming along?”

“No, we have another thing to do.” Hao Ren turned his sights away from the plain and to Gorgon’s Abyss. “But don’t you worry, Rheia will join you and your army. She is the best fighter in our team, and with her around, you and your knights will practically cruise your way through to the imperial capital.”

“And what you said earlier… Rheia and her guardians will support us until the imperial capital only?” Constance frowned as she did not understand the meaning of that, “Why?”

“Because the final battle would need to be fought by you and your knights.” Hao Ren looked at Constance. “Your father’s reign needs to be ended by your own hands, and we are much suited to handle the matters here. Plus I believe you have the ability, don’t you?”

“I stepped on to the battlefield even without knowing at first I had an army of giants as reinforcements,” Constance broke into a wide smile, and did not question if Hao Ren’s arrangements had any other motives, “The guardian army is yours, and you have the right to determine this. And if me and my knights can reach the walls of the imperial capital… that is more than enough for me. You are right, the final battle would need to be fought by ourselves.”

Vivian stood beside Hao Ren but did not join in on Hao Ren and Constance’s conversation. She instead looked at Charlemagne and Awenna, “You know, have you made up your minds? Your mission is technically completed, and we can send you home to Izzo. With that, you can at least spend the next two years in peace before the Turn of the Eras.”

“If we were totally ignorant of the truth, then that would have been the best. But after knowing the truth, trying to fool ourselves into ignorance is meaningless,” Charlemagne said, “Even if this world is fated to only have two years left, we are willing to fight for these two years. Leave the opportunity of a sound dream to those who have yet to know the truth.”

Awenna, too, smiled faintly. “Ignorance is the biggest bliss. There is a price in knowing the truth.”

“Even if your inheritance had already vanished, but both of you are still worthy of respect,” Constance’s expression was much more serious this time around as she looked at the royal siblings, “Even though you know that the world is destined to end in two years time, and even if you fight to the end you will still inevitably suffer the fate of being wiped out by the world, most people would choose to blinker themselves, to desensitize themselves, but you two chose two live your last two years in the battlefield… even if it is pointless for you both…”

“It is not pointless,” Charlemagne said, “We know that most of the seven hundred and seventy thousand Knights of the Ebon Blade that fell in the final battlefield of the last era were normal persons, and even if only a small fragment of their souls were left, but that counts as surviving the Turn no? My sister and I are probably normal people now… and we have that tiny little selfish wish, perhaps we can survive the Turn by luck, and have a new life in the new era?”

Constance silently looked at Charlemagne for a moment before smiling, “Alright, if I do see your souls when I open my eyes in the new era, I will try my best to realize the Ebon Blade’s soul infusion technique.”

Charlemagne broke into a hearty laugh. “Then you need to try really hard. You may very well be reduced to using a hammer and forge to craft weapons in the next era!”

Lily, upon looking at the time, smiled widely before slapping Charlemagne’s shoulder. “Don’t go all Braveheart now. Mr. Landlord is super powerful. Step onto the battlefield with ease, the fate of the world will be different this time!”

A few minutes later, Rheia healed Charlemagne’s shattered shoulder, while Hao Ren led Lily and Vivian into the teleportation beam.

They had arrived at Gorgon’s Abyss.

An endless crimson and chaotic mist-filled their entire vision, as countless of giant rocks and broken ruins floated around the vast distorted dimension. Ancient wrecks of starships big and small lay silently like tombs in the sea of clouds as a low howl echoed in the air. Within the howl were countless of murmurs and chant, but when one listened in, it sounded as if it was just the roiling and friction between the clouds.

Gorgon’s Abyss should have been totally quiet as this was a battlefield wreck in space, and space could of course not transmit sound, yet the distortion had allowed clouds and atmosphere to form here, and in this illogical setting, an endless distorted howls of wind and murmurs echoed, as if it was a cry of pain.

The three landed on a tiny broken planet, and the remaining factories on the planet were actually still functioning as there were slight vibrations coming beneath the ground, and further into the sea of clouds, there was a silhouette of a massive starship, and that was the Revelation that Hao Ren had scouted with the probes.

“Gorgon’s Abyss…” Vivian looked at the view afar, “You were saying that another battlefield is here? What did Nolan find?”

“The truth about the Cycle of Annihilation and the Turn of the Eras,” Hao Ren said as countless of dimensional rifts opened in the dark skies above with massive guardian starships and countless of combat droids appeared. “Nolan had unlocked the encrypted system in the planet’s core, and had managed to establish contact with an ancient data vault in there, and that data vault belongs to an even more massive, more intricate super facility.”

“A super facility?” Lily’s eyes widened. “What for?”

“It is called ‘the Heart of God’, and is created using the heart of the supreme leader of the first era’s civilization.” Hao Ren explained. “Based on the records, the first era’s supreme leader had taken his heart out, while the rest of the powerful leaders used their lives in exchange to modify the heart and turn into a divine artifact. As for what the Heart of God is for…it is when the universe is totally corrupted by the power of the Annihilation, and when every defense line is about to be lost… it will reset everything in the universe.”

“Wait…” Lily’s jaw dropped. “That is to say, the continuous cycle… is actually set up by the ancient civilization of the first era?!”

“Yes, it is set up by themselves,” Hao Ren nodded. “Constance and the rest of the heritors had seen the Turn of the Eras and the Cycle of Annihilation as the world’s greatest curse, and even the Kingdom of Izzo had that outlandish tale of the twelve curses, but this cycle is actually the only remaining relic left by the first era… it is a shred of hope that they had left this world after paying an inconceivable price.”

The combat droids entered the battlefield by the legions as starships the size of mountains arrayed into formation in this chaotic dimension. And the ‘demons’ lurking in the abyss had finally sensed the presence of uninvited guests and started swarming towards that area.

“Indeed, the apocalypse had come, but it had never ended.” Hao Ren said as he looked at the surging Gorgon ships. “The ancient civilization had used a very ingenious way to push this apocalypse back indefinitely.”

“And just as the apocalypse comes, the order of the world will be in its weakest state, as every barrier of time and space are opened, and the wheels of time can be easily manipulated, and even a world line will become something that can be manipulated by men,” the MDT took over from Hao Ren, “We had actually thought of this before, that the fragments of history that were stacked upon the base data of L’Haronne could be due to the distortion of the wheels of time and the world line. But we never thought of the possibility that this distortion and piling up was not natural, and was actually induced by man.”

Hao Ren nodded, “Using the power of the apocalypse, they had completed the ultimate breakthrough in technology, and just before all timelines closed, and history was set in stone, they had folded their own world in.”

The berserk Gorgonian Demons in the distance started exchanging fire with the guardian’s starship, as a storm of bright flames once again lit up this silent battlefield.

“So the apocalypse had actually been ongoing, and so an observer from the Tumen Empire could see our coming, so this apocalyptic war would not end and there is only one reason. The wheel of time and the trails of history had never closed for L’Haronne, and until today, it is an open system.”

Hao Ren recalled the first words that Nolan had retrieved from the Heart of God: The apocalypse may have started, but until the day where everything is saved, we will not allow it to end!