The Record of Unusual Creatures - Chapter 243

Chapter 243: Incident

 

Staring at Lily who was eating heartily, Hao Ren wanted to taste it too. So, he took a bite, but he instantly frowned. Although the food was not as bad as Lily had claimed, it was not good; the solid food was bland and coarse while the paste tasted fetidly sweet. These were apparently mass-produced using the simplest synthetic formulation. Even though things in the eco-dome were more than sufficient to provide for the needs of Aerym Royalty, they did not take it—it was just their attitude.

Vivian and Y’zaks both tried. The demon had no complaints about the food. However, Vivian and Lily obviously had the same tastebuds; even during her poorest times, Vivian had never eaten such an unpalatable thing. It was so unpalatable that Lily put everything back into the cabinet. She then took a pack of brownish snacks out from her bag and started eating them. While she was at it, she offered some to Hao Ren. “Landlord, I bet the dinner won’t be any better. For now, just eat this. Battie, you can eat if you want.”

While waiting for Hilda to return, Hao Ren, Vivian and Lily sat at the table, wolfing down the snacks. Y’zaks was not interested at all; he found a quiet corner, sat down and started daydreaming as usual.

“There’s always food to be found on your body, eh?” It was not a surprise to Hao Ren. Apart from her unusual strength and shapeshifting ability, she always had a portable supply of food. Her bag of supplies was enough to feed the poor in the mountain. “Oh, this thing’s good. Tastes like beef. Where did you buy it?”

The pellets were crunchy in Lily’s mouth. “They’re dog food…”

Blearghh

Hao Ren and Vivian would have spurted in each other’s faces if not for their quick maneuver. He coughed as he cleaned his mouth. “What the hell, why didn’t you say so earlier?”

“It tastes good,” said Lily as she looked at them, baffled. “What a waste. One pack of this is even more expensive than your breakfast.”

After Vivian was done puking, she licked her lips and said, “Hmm… it doesn’t taste that bad.”

“See, I said so.” Wagging her tail happily, Lily said, “In fact, I’ve never tried this before. Since I bought it, I thought I might as well give it a try. Once I tasted it, I couldn’t stop eating. If the ingredients on the packaging are anything to go by, it’s definitely better than the rice that humans are consuming…”

After clearing the residue in his mouth, Hao Ren raised his head with an incredible look on his face. “Dogs are having a good life nowadays, huh?”

“That’s true. Sometimes humans have less privileges than dogs.” Vivian nodded in total agreement. “Just look at me, I’m a countess to say the least.”

The two pretty maidens—appearance-wise—began to talk in length about the dog food. Hao Ren could not bear to look at them any longer. He turned his head away, pretending to look at the scenery outside while trying to convince himself. They were not humans, so they one could not look at them from a human’s perspective. Feeding them dog food was not animal cruelty. He was extremely confident of the law, in his mind.

Time flew as the two maidens immersed themselves in their noisy chat. Dusk had finally come to an end. A gleam of golden light slowly disappeared quickly in the horizon as the floating island spun on its axis. The Aerymian elves were using the rotation of the floating island to simulate the transition between day and night. They also used the protective shield to create a natural filtered sunlight. Even with those things, it was obvious that the world under the dome was very different from that of a natural planet—the lack of the sky’s depth, the abrupt fall of night, and the harsh sunlight. People who lived at the edge of the floating island could clearly observe the distortion of the sky. He could now truly understand what Hilda meant when she said, “I envy you people, the vast sky and landscape…”

Suddenly, on the horizon where the sun had just set, a flash of faint light appeared.

The flash quickly subsided. Hao Ren thought it was an illusion. Soon, a commotion could be heard down in the city streets. Some bright columns of light appeared at the edge of the city as some flying objects were making their way towards the Royal District. Residents were all out on the streets as though they were expecting the arrival of news from far away. Hao Ren could see everything happening in the city with his biologically enhanced eyesight, including people on the roof of the steeple, who were gazing out at the same direction—the horizon where the light had just appeared.

“Something’s happening,” said Lily as she stuffed a bunch of dog food in her mouth. Her ears stood erect as she came up to Hao Ren. “There’s commotion.”

“There was a flash of light, probably an explosion,” said Hao Ren quickly before he darted to the end of the hall and called a lift. The massive lift had two Royal Guards on standby, and Hao Ren noticed the strange expression on their faces as well. “What happened outside?”

“Do not worry, the guards are handling the situation. Everything is under control,” said one of the elven warriors, whose eyes were filled with anxiety even though he still behaved professionally as a Royal Guard. “The queen is back from the elder assembly. She will attend to all of you shortly…”

Hao Ren waved his hand, signalling the restless lot behind him. They stormed into the lift by force. “We are here not as guests. Lead us to the exit and tell us what the hell is going on.”

“But, the queen has ordered—”

“There was no explosion when she gave the order!” Hao Ren pressed a lift button. “Just do what I say. I am sure your queen will agree. By the way, why is the door still not closed?”

“That is… that is the open button…”

Hao Ren was embarrassed. “Why does the arrow here mean the opposite? It’s unlike anything on Earth.”

Seeing that the guests were determined, and thinking about the unusual attitude the queen had towards them, the elven warriors gave in. They paged their superior using some kind of communication device. As they got the nod, one of the elven warriors sent the lift down to the exit on the ground floor. “A propulsion system exploded. There is some damage to the surrounding walls. But, they are being sealed… temporarily.”

Hao Ren could feel hid head humming as he thought to himself: he was no scientist, but he at least knew what was outside the floating island—a spaceship with a thin layer of shield. The shield was the only thing between the city and space, and it was punctured!

He wished that the lift would go faster. In his head, he complained about the height of the steeple, where the elves lived (they were probably used to living on trees in the past). One minute felt like a century in the lift and they finally reached the ground after half a minute. They darted out of the lift as soon as the door opened while the elven warriors followed from behind. “Please, wait a minute. I will get you a magic-guided levitating car…”

“That toy is not as fast as we are!”

Hao Ren turned his head around and held on to Vivian’s arm. “Let’s take off.”

As he spoke, the vampire maiden flung her wings open and carried him up into the air. Meanwhile, Lily was howling like a beast as she began to run on her four limbs. Y’zaks was following closely behind like a vicious, humanoid chariot. The earth trembled as he ran. In a blink of an eye, they disappeared into the distance, leaving the two elven warriors or guards behind.

“What a bunch of unusual guests the queen brought back.”

“What if the levitating vehicles collide with the flying one?”

“If we could catch up… err… we would probably not catch up.”

Chapter 244: Earth People in the Otherworld

 

Let us not discuss about how the elven guards were going to explain to Hilda about the guests. In the meantime, Hao Ren and company were already far out and approaching the wall outside the Royal District. Vivian carried Hao Ren in the air and Lily ran on the ground . Y’zaks was also not slow at all; their moving speed was so much faster than the levitating vehicles made by the elves. The flash caused by the explosion at the edge of the floating island was no more. However, there were a few large light columns rising up into the sky near the scene, which they could use as landmarks to navigate. All Hao Ren could hear was the sound of the wind as they moved through the air. He shouted at the top of his lungs, “That’s the wall! Can you fly higher and go around it?”

“The wall’s not a problem, but the shield is. I don’t know if we can go through it,” Vivian also shouted just as loud. “I’ve never seen such barrier.”

Outside the wall of the Royal District was another layer of shield in the air. This magical protective shield, covering the entire city was not just for show. It was difficult to say whether Vivian could penetrate this city-level shield. Hao Ren now realised that he should not have declined the elven warriors’ offer on the flying vehicle out of convenience—or at least, he should have waited a few minutes so that the crew at the wall could be informed, and they would have opened a passage for them before hand. As the semi-transparent membrane lay before them, Vivian began to slow down way before she reached it. She managed to stop right in front of it. Hao Ren reached his hand out and touched the membrane. It was a solid shield just like the Steel Membrane Shield he was wearing.

Of course, it may not have been able to match the Steel Membrane Shield technologically, but, it was not some kind of weak membrane, which one could penetrate by brute force.

Lily was now catching up to them. She looked up and saw the wall but she did not slow down. Instead, she tried to jump over the wall and move towards the spot where Hao Ren and Vivian were hovering at. Hao Ren saw a white shadow sweeping across the air, followed by a loud bang and a whine. Lily hit the shield and slid down good-style.

Now, it was proven that the shield was impenetrable by brute force.

“Maybe, I could blast a hole.” Y’zaks was heard from below. “But, it does not seem very appropriate.”

“Of course it’s not appropriate.” Hao Ren could not have said more about Y’zaks’ meteorite-madness. As if bringing down a meteorite from space was the panacea for all problems. He could not let Y’zaks have his way this time: he was not there to cause more damage. As the floating island of Aerym was already in a dire situation, bringing down a meteorite was going to make it worse. Was Y’zaks here to help or to destroy?

“Is Lily okay?” Hao Ren looked down where Lily fell. He was impressed by her amazing leap; the maiden could jump over a 200-metre city wall without much effort—but, her brain ostensibly did not work as good as her physical talents. “Are you hurt?”

Lily was only heard from below after a few seconds of lag. She sounded as if she was still confused. “I guess, yeah… just a little dizzy. My head hurts and it’s swollen.”

Hao Ren wanted to open the shield, but he was clueless as to where the control centre of the wall was. Who was in-charge? Plus, he did not know how to contact Hilda. He realised he had been too hasty. Anyway, he and Vivian soon discovered something: there was a slight flash of light on the shield not far from where they were. They could see all levitating vehicles passing through the shield speedily at the flashing spot.

“Could it be the mouth of the traffic?” Hao Ren said as he pointed at the light spot.

Vivian flew towards it immediately. “Let’s see.”

True enough, it was a traffic portal. It seemed that Aerymian shield technology had its limitations. They still could not let their own vessels pass through at any point of the shield just by using identification signals—while Kuiper Station had a shield, all spacecrafts were able to enter or exit the space station with ease. So because of this, the Aerymians could only have a fixed opening as a traffic portal. A floating circle of bright runes around the traffic portal functioned like a controlling device, whereby during an emergency, the portal could be closed. Vivian reached out and the portal felt like a soft water-film. She then flew out through the film. Lily followed them and called out to Hao Ren. “I’m coming straight towards the portal—ouch…”

A whine ensued and Hao Ren looked down. “What’s wrong again?”

“I hit the roof of a building. I’m back down again.”

Vivian was trying to shake off the cold sweat on her forehead—her hands were tied up, carrying Hao Ren. “I admire her physical strength. Nothing can stand in her way.”

“Don’t. She gained her body strength at the expense of her brain.”

Y’zaks had more sense than Lily as he summoned a pair of flaming devil wings and flew through the traffic portal with ease. However, he was not a flying demon, so after flying for a short distance, he was back down running on foot again. Meanwhile, the four of them had caught the attention of the elves—Y’zaks was the main culprit as the lighting effect of his flaming wings was blinding. A bulky guy like him flying in-style up in the air was basically a challenge to their aesthetic senses. Lights lit up on both sides of the wall, and windows as well as rooftops were full of curious onlookers. Embarrassed by the stares, Hao Ren gave a little pull on Vivian’s clothes. “Keep going, keep going… Watch out! Traffic!”

The two of them were still near the traffic portal, and traffic at night was just as heavy. Before Hao Ren’s voice trailed off, a levitating vehicle brushed past them. The vampire maiden was drenched in cold sweat. She quickly lowered her altitude—she could be the first creature from Earth who got into a mid-air traffic accident.

Soon, they came to the edge of the city. Beyond that, they could no longer use the light columns as navigation aid. The light columns were warning lights on the outside of the hoop circling the floating island. So, when one was looking from the inside out, the guiding effect was blurry and it was difficult to pinpoint the exact location of the explosion. As the streets were full of people, Hao Ren asked Vivian to descend. They met up with Lily and Y’zaks on the ground. They then planned to ask around.

The city streets in Aerym were not as busy as those on Earth. There were no night markets or entertainment outlets. Although they had enough power to light up the city at night, it was set up just to meet the bare minimum needed. The explosion of the propulsion components had drawn people out to the streets. The appearance of four aliens, clad in strange costumes certainly attracted their eyes as well.

Y’zaks was already a head-turner. Now Lily had appeared with her glowing eyes and silver hair while Hao Ren as well as Vivian were descending from heaven. That combination was only eye-catching while they were shapeshifted form.

“Excuse me, may I know the route to the site of the explosion?” Hao Ren stopped a random handsome elf—everyone there was handsome. The elf was visibly frightened by the four weird strangers, but he still pointed towards a direction. “There.”

“Thank you.” Hao Ren nodded in appreciation and when he was about to leave, an elf among the crowd called out, “Y’all are the aliens brought back by our queen?”

That attracted even more curious stares from the crowd. Hao Ren quickly retreated from the crowd as he said, “Don’t worry about us. Can we get on our way please. Your queen will be calling for a press conference tomorrow…”

As he shoved himself through the crowd towards the explosion site, an elf called out again. “Don’t go there! It’s dangerous!”

“That’s exactly what I’m going for!” As Hao Ren’s voice trailed off, he vanished at the end of the street.

Chapter 245: It Does Not Look Good

 

When the Aerymian elves first built the floating island, it was with proper long-term planning in mind; the city’s zoning was symmetrical and its streets were straight. You would not find yourself unable to find direction, like getting lost in a dark alley. With help from the locals, Hao Ren was able to quickly find the accident scene. He was certain that he was going in the right direction, because as he went forward, the streets had less and less people. He occasionally bumped into a few elves but they were travelling in the opposite direction with shock in their faces. That meant the location of the explosion was not far ahead.

“What can we do? There’s just a few of us.” Running happily beside Hao Ren, Lily finally came to her senses. Hao Ren did not look at her. He said loudly, “With your strength, Vivian’s magic, Y’zaks and myself, we should be able to do something. Firstly, we have to be there to see what we can do.”

As they ran farther towards the scene, the streets began to become deserted, with only dim street lamps lighting up the area. It was not just the street that was deserted. Buildings along the street seemed to be lifeless and vacant just as Vivian had observed. It was obvious that the residents in this area had been evacuated. It was not the first time Aerymian elves encountered such an incident. They already knew the drill before disaster struck. Meanwhile, Lily frowned as she sniffed around. She could smell the stench of ionised air.

A loud noise coupled with whistling sounds could be heard from afar while a few light beams swept across the sky. The city guards were probably rushing to the scene at this point.

“There. Ahead!” Lily ran ahead of the team like she was doing ground reconnaissance. She gestured to the team happily at one of the street corners. Hao Ren, Vivian and Y’zaks moved quickly ahead as they could also see the light of fire behind the buildings far away.

As they got to the corner, they felt a sense of weightlessness. Before Hao Ren could figure out what was happening, he found himself a few metres up in the air. Then, he came back down slowly. “What happened?”

“It seems like the artificial gravity in this area has failed,” the MDT sneaked out and said, “I think the elves have a bigger problem than this. Look up!”

Everyone raised their heads. At the edge of the floating island, the protective shield was low enough to reach by hand when one stood on the top of a steeple. But now, the protective shield facing the hoop side was glowing abnormally. A large amount of static-like noise like those snow screens on a CRT TV was spreading rapidly across the shield of life reminiscent of deadly hoar frost.

“It’s an energy vortex. The shield’s simply built using a large number of shield generators. Some of the shield generators went offline all of a sudden and caused the energy vortex. It could quickly ‘pollute’ and tear the entire dome down,” said the MDT as it flew forward. “Follow me. Maybe I can do something.”

Hao Ren and Vivian followed the MDT closely, “space-walking”. “It’s not as easy as you described it to be! The gravity in this place is virtually gone!”

As his voice trailed off, he felt someone grabbing him from behind. Vivian was flying and carrying them in the air. The vampire maiden could still adapt to the microgravity environment, which did not affect her flying ability. Meanwhile, Y’zaks, the ferocious demon never ran out of resources; first, he made sure that the ground was solid, then a violent gas was expelled out of his butt—Flameburst—which launched him up into the air. He was now flying a lot faster than Vivian.

They came to the site of the explosion. It was bright. The atmosphere was in total contrast with the quiet city streets.

The hoop at the edge of the island and city area was separated by a one-kilometre-wide open land. The area was strewn with various maintenance passages and operation rooms for installations on the island. The explosion had occurred at one of the maintenance points. A large number of personnel, who looked like city guards and magic-guidance scholars, were already on-site when Hao Ren arrived. The centre of the explosion looked horrible and particularly eye-catching: it was at the seam between the hoop and the foundation. The hole caused by the blast was 100 metres wide and several hundred metres high. The grey ground and wall were torn open by the blast, leaving behind a terrifying hole of jagged edges as well as energy sparks, which indicated that some important power lines had been damaged.

No less than 10 elves, clad in white robes were seen around the breached area, trying frantically to seal the leaks. They were floating in the air, carrying a strange, disc-shaped magical device. A powerful energy could be observed surging under their skin. The light shining through from within their bodies made them look like terrifying humanoid torches. These elven magic casters had formed a layer of a milky-white transparent shield that shrouded the breach. It barely prevented any air form escaping.

Clearly, they had no way to stop the affected installations from deteriorating.

This was just the damage directly caused by the explosion at the hole. Surrounding equipment were also affected. Pipes rising up from the hoop were smoldering, some small buildings that looked like operation rooms were still on fire, and cracks were visible on a few stretches of wall near the breach. These cracks may not have been until the core, but as a precaution, there was an elven mage standing near each crack. They were ready to use their magic shield to stop any leaks.

The arrival of Hao Ren and his team had caused a scene. In fact, it was Y’zaks who stole the limelight as a series of Flamebursts were particularly eye-grabbing. Therefore, the elves at the scene had quickly noticed the presence of the uninvited guests. Under the effects of the microgravity environment, an elf in short robes ran laboriously towards Y’zaks. “Who are you—”

Without waiting for the elf to finish, Hao Ren interrupted him. “What’s the situation? We’re here to help!”

The elf looked at Hao Ren in surprise. Several other guards nearby were on alert. Clearly, not all Aerymians knew what the guests their queen brought back looked like—some did not even know such guests existed. After all, Hilda had just been back for half a day.

Hao Ren had no time to explain. He saw that many people were lying on the ground, injured. These people had been badly hurt by the explosion, and some of the injured were suffering from severe burns on their bodies. Seeing that, Vivian frowned. “It would be handy if Nangong Wuyue was here. She could treat burns.”

At that moment, an elven guard, who looked a little like a mage stepped out from the group. He asked loudly, “May I know who is Hao Ren?”

“Me.”

“The queen has instructed us to cooperate with you.” Although the elves were confused, they obeyed the decree of the queen to the letter. “If you can do something, please hurry up. We are running out of time.”

“You’ve got to let us know about the situation first,” said Hao Ren. He clasped the MDT in one hand while he pointed the other hand at the crack on the wall. “Also, please brief us about the structure of this thing. I’ll find a way to restore the shield.”

The elves were manually containing the cracks on the wall, but the real danger was over their heads—the dome was cracking open. Once this thing gave way, the city would be gone, and then it would be too late!

Meanwhile, the snow screen on the dome had spread several kilometres across and it was still rapidly spreading to other parts of the dome. The elven mages looked up in fear before saying, “Once the crack opens, there will be nothing between it and the space outside. Beneath the crack was where the propulsion unit sat, but it was blown away by the explosion. There’s probably no way to fix it now. The upper part of the crack has a broken power line, which links up to a shield generator. We’re still finding a way to re-route it to a back-up energy storage. However, the back-up energy storage doesn’t have enough capacity and it can’t be activated. At the same time, the crack has severed a few underground air-flow ducts, so from there, the air is leaking out of the city…”

“The ducts have been sealed!” An elf whose face was completely covered in ashes and dirt suddenly emerged—or rather floated out—from the crowd. “All gates in Section 22 have been closed. A gate in one of the air-flow ducts malfunctioned. Master Mha Buno has sealed it by melting the surrounding foundation using a scorching ray.”

“Leakage is less of a problem for now.” The elven mage breathed a sigh of relief. “But, the severed power lines…”

Hao Ren shook the MDT. “Why are you keeping quiet at such a critical time?”

The MDT suddenly lit up brightly. “Bring your plug to me! I can supply the energy! I was downloading the energy conversion plug-in just now.”

Chapter 246: That Does Not Look Good

 

Hao Ren raised an eyebrow at the MDT. “You can supply power to that? You sure?”

Looking at the palm-sized device, Hao Ren was incredulous. He was under the impression that the MDT was much more like a smart phone. While Hao Ren had never seen the island’s shield generator proper, he figured that it probably needed a whole tonne of nuclear reactors in Earthling terms to power it. (With that said, Aerym’s most basic power plants were probably still more advanced than Earth’s) To use this tiny device to power a city-wide shield seemed almost like using a AAA battery to power up a space elevator…

The MDT wiggled smugly in the air. “Nah, you’re just being an ignorant pleb. As small as I am, I’m still psionically-powered. To generate that level of power is just child’s play. Quickly, get me a power terminal. I’m going to save the world.”

The Elven mage beside them could only look in awe at the wondrous “magitech” device that was almost human. Seeing that the MDT was confident, Hao Ren approached the crew on the scene. “I suppose you guys can pull out one of the power conduits… can you?”

The crew at hand quickly went about preparing for the job and the Elven mage who was in charge looked awkwardly at the MDT. “Pulling out a power conduit is not an issue… but… what sort of terminal does it use? We-we have not seen this sort of device before.”

Hao Ren then went to prod the MDT. “So… how do we solve this connection compatibility issue? You support USB3.0, yes?”

“And you suppose these bunch of elves have USB?” The MDT snorted as it made a quick spin on the floor, leaving a ring-like marking. “Bring the power conductor equipment and place them around the circle. I’ll be inside it. Forget the conversion works. Once I get started, please stay far, far away. There may be some mild psionic radiation that will be lethal.

The so called magical technicians had managed to wrench out an additional conduit from a nearby maintanence hatch, pulling out a wriggly, almost plastic-like piping towards the circle. Hao Ren realised that the elves’ magitech equipment used a system akin to blood circulation in order to power itself. Within the “blood vessels” was some sort of thin liquid that was infused with magic and some kind of consumable substances in it. The liquid was a glittery green, almost like what you would see inside a plant. The elven technicians dragged a couple of thick conduit tubes towards the MDT and fitted a circulation pump on them. At the same time, they also placed an absorbtion conduit on the tubes before welding the entire equipment onto the ground. (In low gravity situations the tubes would be floating all over the place if not welded.) After that, they created a magic amplification circle using some silver-coloured, liquid metal, with the MDT at the centre of the circle.

Hao Ren could only look on in amazement at this “high-tech magic”. Anything was possible in this vast void. Indeed, the development of a magical civilisation was not about who could cast the biggest fireball. They too can fabricate spacecrafts and other intricate items. Or rather, there was almost no difference between a magical civilisation and a scientific one. The difference was only on the surface layer, and it all boiled down to “technique”.

Who could says an Earth-made circuit board would not look like a magical circle in the eyes of another alien race? It seemed like mysterious runes to the Aerymian elves, were nothing but simple and elegant circuit diagrams.

Once all the needed equipment were in place, the MDT signalled for all present to stay back as it muttered, “Thank goodness I’m one of the newest models, and part of my case is made from energised alloys. Or else, this form of conversion would have been beyond me… I’m starting up!”

A faint, blue light expanded outwards from the MDT as the magical circle lit into life with a silver glow. With it, all of the charging equipment came back online.

Hao Ren took a deep breath. “It’s working.”

The elves beside him also nodded in agreement. “It’s working…”

A soft hum rang out from the hoops at the top of the dome. The shield generator that had been offline for almost an hour was reactivated once more and it automatically synchronised itself with the other shield generators at a rapid speed. As the shields reformed, the snow screen that had spread for miles on end faded away. The dome was now secured.

The elves around Hao Ren gave a roaring cheer. Even the grim-faced elven mage smiled after taking a deep breath. “Now what’s left is to plug the hole, and figure out how to fix the propulsion system. This is however, a secondary concern. The propulsion system is usually dormant and is only activated if there is a need to adjust the floating isles’ position or move it elsewhere—”

Boom!!!

A thundering crack cut the mage’s speech short. Chills ran down the spine of everyone present as vertigo struck. It appeared that the artificial gravity had been restored but it was not aligned to the surface. Hao Ren looked up in confusion and only realised that there was an unusual flash of light, almost blinding, outside the dome hoops. It almost seemed like there was a giant pillar of fire rampaging outside the walls.

The aftershocks were getting more violent after every passing second. It spread throughout the isle before it suddenly skewed sideways!

Lily’s natural senses towards danger were triggered as she looked upwards, her tail bristling. “The stars are flying!”

It was not the stars that were flying, it was the whole space turning upside down!

The stars rapidly faded from the sights of everyone onboard the station, as if the whole world was spinning about wildly. It was the very land that they stood on that was spiralling out of control. It did not take long for the elven mage to register what was going on and quickly ordered two of his personnel to go up to the dome hoop to see what was going on. (The cameras outside the wall had been destroyed by the explosion.) The two personnel quickly flew up to the top of the dome, and with quavering fear they reported.

“Part of the propulsion system is still intact! It’s now activated! It’s pushing the Dawnbreak Island away from the sun!”

“The island is rolling! All the other propulsion units are out of control!”

“It’s heading towards the Isle of Radiant Light!”

At the same time, the snow screen or static started forming over the shield that was close to completion, and it was growing rampantly. It seemed that something in the dome’s energy distribution system had gone wrong and the energies from the shield generator were being drained and diverted to the ruined propulsion systems!

“Inform the command tower,” the elven mage quickly ordered. “Turn on the propulsion on the opposite side! Decelerate the island! Set the artificial gravitation system to automatic. That will ease the tremors! And, we will need to figure out how to shut down that damned propulsion unit!”

“Command has responded!” the communications officer yelled. “Where to?”

The island, under its one-way propulsion, was quickly rolling away from the island chain. At this point, the propulsion unit had yet to reach its maximum output, and if they did not stabilise the island now, there was a risk of the island being overcome by massive earthquakes and disintegrating altogether.

The propulsion units on the other side of the island could potentially stave off the acceleration, but if the units were to accelerate in the same direction, there was a risk of it crashing against neighbouring islands. Conversely, pushing them in the opposite direction would make too strong, which may result in the artificial gravitation system overloading and tearing the island apart. This was the conundrum that the elven mage was in, either option would result in massive destruction and carnage.

He could not make the call.

“Her Majesty’s orders!” a communications offer suddenly yelled, “no harm is to come to other islands. Let the Dawnbreak Island roll in place!”

“But, this will result it its’ rapid disintegration!” The mage exclaimed.

“Her Majesty’s instructions! All gates into the Royal District have been opened. All elves are to evacuate to the Royal District! Even if the island comes apart the Royal District will survive! It has it’s own indepedent walls and shielding. It will be able to hold out until other islands come to the rescue. All emergency support teams are to only stay for 24 hours! After 24 hours, if the propulsion system cannot be shut down, or if it comes apart, all teams are to abandon post and evacuate!”

“We are abandoning Dawnbreak Island?!”

“This is Her Majesty’s orders! At least, we can preserve our lives and not affect other islands!”

The mage gritted his teeth as he looked at the raging inferno outside the walls. “This is the home of my ancestors… It can’t be helped! We need to shut down the propulsion system at all cost or our home will be done for!”

“The control system is offline! We are using the backup power source! If that gets cut, the whole dome will shutdown!”

“Then blow that bloody thing till kingdom come!” There were veins popping in the magister’s eyes. “What about our corvettes?! Bomb the bloody thing with a salvo or two! At most, we will have a damn crater to deal with, which is better than the whole island coming apart!”

Chapter 247: The Risk of Disintegration

 

The out of control propulsion system was increasing its output by the moment. The situation became more and more unpredictable with the way things were going. Due to an initial design flaw, the propulsion unit had several smaller stabiliser engines around it. As the engines were controlled by the propulsion unit’s AI, the moment the system went out of control, so did the stabiliser engines.

This resulted in the whole island quaking under the enormous and unstable propulsion. Even though the artificial gravitational system strained itself to regulate the force of gravity, to lessen the impact caused by the quakes, many areas still did not escape unscathed. A few old structures had collapsed altogether whereas some places had sinkholes and cracks. The island was under such pressure, which exceeded its designed capacity that the island was slowly breaking apart. It was fortuitious that the hoop was very resilient and somehow managed to hold the island together, if barely.

The rolling had returned the gravitational field in the area. Hao Ren was back to “normal”, but things were still jittery and shakey. It took a lot of effort trying to stay upright. As the sky spinned above them, they awaited news from the team that went forward to destroy the propulsion unit.

A squadron from the nearby spaceport, armed with missiles had since departed and if things went according to schedule, they were probably already in the inferno zone. Yet, no news came. Hao Ren looked up towards the other side of the island and he could see a faint light of dawn from the far end. It was however, getting brighter and brighter at a very fast pace. This was indeed the first, most drastic break of dawn in the Dawnbreak Island. If their efforts failed, this would be the last break of dawn the island would see.

After a while, the corvette squadron brought news, but it was not good news: The thrusters were in full blast at this point, and they could not even get close. Even the missiles exploded prematurely from the blistering heat. They were now requesting for an even bigger battleship, but time was running out.

Hao Ren cracked his head, wondering what could be done to help. He spoke to the MDT telephatically, “Doesn’t the Petrachelys have a macrocannon or something? Can we take a shot—”

“That will blow the whole island up. I think we should also install some other weapons of smaller calibres next time,” the MDT answered as it strained to supply power to the dome. “This thing sure has a way of going haywire… almost half of my energy has been taken up by the propulsion system!”

At that moment, Y’zaks suddenly stood up and asked with his booming voice, “We just need to take that propulsion system out, right?”

“Yes…” One of the elf raised an eyebrow at the giant. “But, we have no way of getting close to it.”

“I can probably make it there. Make an exit for me.” Y’zaks pointed towards the wall. “Tell me, how does the propulsion thing look like?”

The elf turned pale immediately. “That’s suicide! It’s the void out there! We don’t even have spacesuits that you can use!”

Y’zaks simply shrugged. “Not a problem. I can live in space. Besides, the wider space gives me extra berth.”

Hao Ren stared at the daredevil with his jaw dropped. Lily could not just sit still too, and she bounced towards Hao Ren. “Can we do anything to help? Let’s go wreck some—”

The MDT had to yell at the top of its voice. “No! It’s a no go for you. You have not been enhanced for deep space enviroment. Even if you can survive in deep space for a period of time, don’t count on yourself being of any help. Hao Ren on the other hand, can go. That hunk of muscle can be put to good use afterall, with him not being affected by deep space.”

Hao Ren pointed at himself in shock. “Me? Going into deep space?”

“Your bio-enhancement included deep space travel in it. Inspectors do need to be able to work in space after all. This is a basic ability. Your body has some nanobots that will automatically regulate your dermal and respiratory system, giving you enough energy, heat and air pressure. Your Steel Membrane Shield can filter cosmic rays and some space organisms too. But, don’t stay out there too long, humans are not meant to be space creatures.”

“Since when did I have this ability? Was it during the last bio-enhancement? Why didn’t anyone tell me about it?”

“Welp, Madam Raven didn’t even give you a user’s manual, and besides, have you actually met a situation like this before?” The MDT said as it urged Hao Ren to get moving. “Quickly, I don’t think this place can hold on much longer. Oh, don’t stray too far from the floating islands. Your movement in space is based on a simplified coordination conversion system, pretty new tech. It’s something similar to your cells and has very limited capacity. It will also cause direct mental stress. A human’s mental system is unable to adapt to the stress caused by this high intensity conversion. Basically, if you fly too far out, you won’t have the strength to get back.”

Hao Ren tried his best to remember everything the MDT said. He did feel that the information should have been given to him eons ago, in order for him to digest the ability, which already exceeded a normal human’s sensory limits. He never knew of this ability until now, and he reckoned that this would take ages to even get used to it. Nonetheless, Hao Ren did not hold a grudge or anything. He knew very well that this was an unforseen situation. Even Raven 12345 would not have counted on him running into this sort of trouble so quickly.

Truly, trouble does come knocking, usually at the least opportune of times.

“You two, stay here to help out with the evacuation.” Hao Ren patted Lily on her shoulder. “I’ll be back in a jiffy.”

The elves realised that these bunch of weirdos were not joking, and after knowing them for a short period of time, they came to realise that these people were indeed capable. They were guests brought home by Her Majesty after all. They also came to believe that there were beings in their universe that were beyond their comprehension. An elven military officer approached them and gave a crisp salute. “I’ll lead you two to the nearest maintenance pipeline. This area is just too vulnerable to open up the barrier.”

There was a maintenance entryway near the blast area, which led into the propulsion system room. Inside, there was a slanted corridor, lit with dim yellow light. The officer that led the way reminded Hao Ren and Y’zaks before they went into the entryway. “There are two bulkheads in front of you. They have been sealed to prevent lost of air pressure. I’ll be opening the first bulkhead in a short while. After 10 seconds, I will close the first bulkhead and open the second one, which will be held open until your return. After the second bulkhead, it will probably be vacuum space as the whole propulsion sytem area has already been breached. After the second bulkhead, there will be no air. Are you sure you want to go ahead?”

Hao Ren nodded without a word and walked with Y’zaks into the corridor. The reinforced steel gate slowly closed behind them as they went forth.

The first bulkhead was upon them; a heavy, greyish alloy gate. Hao Ren noticed that by the gate, there was a button to signal those outside. As he pressed the button, he saw a row of Aerymic letters carved into the wall. “Hold until the second day.”

It made no sense without context, but it was perhaps just an Aerymian idiom of sorts.

With a loud hiss, the first bulkhead opened, and a small airtight compartment appeared in front of them. Hao Ren and Y’zaks stepped into the compartment and after a rather long 10-second wait, the first bulkhead closed behind them. The moment the bulkhead sealed shut, the air in the compartment was sucked out as the second bulkhead slowly opened.

As the air was sucked out, Hao Ren’s heart rate shot up automatically. The initial sensation was rather unpleasant, but he soon realised that his body managed to somehow adapt to being in a vacuum. He was not able to breathe, but his lung activity had been somewhat curtailed, and the breathlessness quickly went away. Even his skin started to tighten. Evidently, the nanomachines within his body were quickly adapting for him to survive in space. At the same time, he felt some weird tingly sensation on his eyes and ears before they went slightly numb.

Hao Ren tried to speak but realised that there was no sound coming out from his mouth. He could not hear anything.

Y’zaks noticed Hao Ren’s predicament. His eyes lit up in an eerie, green glow and Hao Ren soon heard a thunderous voice in his head. “Speak to me telepathically.”

“You can use telepathy too?” Hao Ren was surprised.

“An old demon trick.” Y’zaks smiled as he led the way. “Us demons used to love utilising telepathy to project our will into humans, using the promise of power or forbidden knowledge to cause their downfall. It used to be a popular trick to obtain followers as well. However, as human religious circles started publishing guides to avoid a demon’s whisper, it fell out of use. I never did so of course, but I’m a demon after all.”

The two walked silently along the corridor and after a few corners they reached a location that was utterly wrecked.

It was the rear part of the propulsion system’s control centre. It had been blown to smithereens when the explosion occurred.