The Record of Unusual Creatures - Chapter 850

Chapter 850: Battlefield

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

After the Petrachelys’ void engine had administered a powerful ‘shock therapy’ the timeflow of the skewing point at the Solenne Gateway was reset and once again flowed as normal. In actuality, a ‘reset’ was not the accurate terminology, as within the skewing point, the timeflow was normal, just that the surrounding universe was moving much much slower, but these minute details is not important.

The Petrachelys slowly closed into Solenne’s orbit with all early-warning radars and weapon systems online. As on this planet, the god-slaying war had just ended ten hours ago. No one could be sure that the perimeter was safe. Nolan used the ship’s radar to do a rough scan of the energy signatures on the planet’s surface and immediately detected several hundred high-intensity flash points, yet there were no locations that had any danger indicators.

“This is the main gate of the holy land, and the entire planet is turned into a fortress. High-intensity energy signatures are normal, even if the fortress have already been leveled.” Hao Ren said as he commanded the ship to break into the atmosphere. “Woah… that seems bad.”

As the Petrachelys broke through the thick layer of cloud and the planet’s surface that was previously hidden now lay naked before them. Hao Ren saw kilometers upon kilometers of scorched earth and the land was ablaze. The demarcating lines between land and water and all planet life is can no longer be distinguished. The rivers had long dried up, leaving an ugly worm-like gully. The sea was left with nothing but a boiling water pit, and lava flowed freely across the land. A massive ring shaped mountain was visible from orbit, and that was probably the crater made by some powerful orbital weapon.

Hao Ren even saw a deep snaking trench all along the equator that turned his gut. The trench had went through the whole planet’s circumference and an omnious red glow came out of the exposed mantle. The trench had divided Solenne into two. Hao Ren had no idea what sort of weapon that could inflict destruction of such a scale on the planet, but he was sure that, if the prepetrators behind this had enough time or did not faced such resistance, they would have blown the planet into oblivion.

Hao Ren looked at one of the window panels of the communicator. He knew that Muru was looking at the surface. But the giant guardian had not said a word. To break the awkward silent, Hao Ren asked. “Muru.. this place…”

“This was once a grand and beautiful holy land.” Muru spoke slowly. “This was one of the most beautfil gardens Mother had created. Everyday many pilgrims from the nearby star systems would visit here. As the planet could not receive the amount of devotees, many of them were happy that they were able to pay their respects in orbit.”

“And it’s all destroyed now.” Lily sighed. Even the husky would have moments like this. “Are the treacherous children that strong?”

“More than you think. Solenne was a fortress, and while it was open to pilgroms, this planet was meant to serve as a stronghold. There were powerful planetary shields and orbital defense systems. Across the planet there’s around 2,500 holy sanctums, and the power of these sanctums could easily destroy anything in space, yet the planet was taken. Only after did they overcame the defensives did they destroyed the planet. That trench over there is caused by a gravitational tide weaponry. Because the resistance at the gateway was ferocious, normal troops could not stamp out the fighting. So the treacherous children decided to annihilate every planet in the area, but before their plan could be fully enacted, the explosion of the Star of Creation put a halt to it.

“There’s plenty of time to drown in nostalgia. Time is of the essence.” Y’zaks reminded the rest. “Time has started flowing again in this place, and any information left on the battlefield is being engulfed by the inferno.”

Hao Ren immediately ordered the ship to continue its descend as he activated every sensors and detectors to look for sign of life on the planet. He then turned towards Muru, “Can you hear the voice of the other guardians?”

“Not yet. But we are already quite close.” There was confusion in Muru’s voice. “But that distress signal was on-off.”

Y’lisabet hugged her arms as she thought about it, and there was something she did not quite understand. “Wait a minute, if the time in this area was distorted before, then how did the distress signal got out? It would take ages for it to travel out of Solenne to the wider universe, and there could be distortions as well.”

The MDT flashed in blue as it spoke. “There’s indeed this problem, and there is a possiblity of some sort of interruption when the nebula ‘hit’ realspace, causing any data from the planet to go out on the normal timeflow.”

Hao Ren raised his eyebrows. “And?”

“The distress signal that Muru received probably was not real time. It was probably from the main universe ten thousand years ago, or a few hours ago on this planet. It was sent when the fighting was till ongoing. But now, as you can see…”

The MDT did not continue and a screen showing the scene outside popped up.

A desolated land. There was nothing but fire, smoke, shell crates and death. There were no signs of life, no hope of possibly finding anything. Regardless of whoever that sent the signal, they had probably already perished heroically in the flames of war.

Muru did not say anything and simply let out a long sigh. He probably had anticipated this since the beginning, and had maintain his composure, yet his sigh was undoubtedly heavy.

Lily too was slightly disappointed, but she did not gave up and continued monitoring the images from the cameras and probes. As a new set of images came into her sight, she saw something akin to a silhouette of ruined structures and amongst them, a fireball sped past.

“There’s something there!” Lily immediately leapt up from her chair. “I saw a flash! A firefight!”

Hao Ren immediately enlarged the image that Lily was pointing to. “Nolan, set location.”

Nolan swiftly directed some of the more sensitive radars towards the direct. “Energy signature positive… There are signs of logic control, and life signatures. Hostile engagement positive! Increasing speed!”

There was an ongoing battle! Is there anything more astonishing than that?

Hao Ren tried hard to rein in his emotions. He knew deep within that what the ongoing fighting on this planet means. This was something unpredecented, a scene that transcended ten millenais was about to unfold before him, and his fingers was tingling. He activated a console on the captain’s seat. “Nolan, bring the weapon systems online and set it to assault mode.”

The MDT subconciously asked. “Pardner, you sure about using those guys within the planet’s atmosphere?”

Hao Ren pointed to the desolated earth outside. “You think the Planetary Preservation Accords is applicable here?”

“Ugh… you have a point.”

“Lets stay alert, we may run into the remnants of the treacherous children’s army.” Hao Ren said as he inspected the weapons’s status. “Those guys won’t be push-overs. They dared to go fighting face to to face with a real god.”

The Petrachelys descended to a lower altitude, and used the thick smog and extreme heat to mask her approach towards the combat zone. It did not take long for them to reach the flashpoint as the flashes of combat raged.

Once great structures once stood on the battleground were nothing but bombed out ruins, while it was still quite some distance away, one could tell from the silhouettes that the building was enormous. There were pillars of smokes coming out of the building that streaked to the sky, within it were the occasional flashes. Hao Ren turned to Muru to enquire about the place. “You know what once stood there?”

“Ahead of us is possibly a holy sanctum.” Muru’s voice came from the communicator. “The city is a sub-part of the sanctum. There were many lightstreams flowing towards the sanctum to provide it energy. Seems like the power system had already been destroyed. Beware of the places with the green light, they are crystals formed from the collapse of the lightstream. Once one explodes it’ll cause a chain reaction.”

Under Muru’s guidance Hao Ren saw a belt of eerie green trail on the scorched grounds. They were as wide as rivers, coming from all directions. All of the streams converged upon the building, and the crystals were probably the condensed form of energy, and best to just leave them be.

At that very moment, the Petrachelys picked up a few active energy signals from the middle of the city ruins. “Warning. Unknown entity detected. Warning. Unknown entity detected…”

The images from the sensors outside immediately appeared on the holographic projector. Hao Ren saw three streamlined objects the shape of a lobster appearing amongst the ruins.

Muru’s voice rumbled. “It’s those treacherous children!”

Hatred seethed through his clenched jaw.

---

Chapter 851: The Black Holy City

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: Yuan Tong

 

Muru was composed when the group arrived on the planet, at least on the surface. Ten millenia away from his homeland had changed it into a distant memory. Even when Solenne was bathed in nuclear fire, the giant was still calm. But yet, this calm was finally shattered as he saw the bizzarely curved insect-like aircrafts as his furious voice roared through the communicator.

“No worries, I’ll take them down.” Hao Ren immediately set the three crafts as hostile targets and activated the twin auxiliary cannons on both sides of the Petrachelys.

At the same time, the three aircrafts have noticed the presence of the Petrachelys, the pilots were probably in confusion on how an unknown third party spacecraft had popped out of nowhere, but to them, anything not them is an enemy, and the three immediately scrambled as a line of alloys on the wings started glowing omniously.

As the glow on the wings expanded, the Petrachelys’ weapons lost its lock. Seems like those light were some sort of countermeasure and that led Hao Ren to respect their technology even more. But it did not tgake long for Nolan to quickly recalibrate her aim and fired the auxilliary cannons.

Two streaks of sapphire-coloured lances blasted out of the underside of the Petrachelys and struck two of the aircrafts in the distance. One of them seemed to have suffered critical damage and its shields petered out after a brief struggle, and violent explosions wrecked havoc across its frame and the machine was reduced into nothing but a rain of molten metal falling into a corner of the city. Another machine was much more successful in blocking the attack, the barriers seemed to have strengthed at the very critical moment and after a moment, the attack petered out. It did not waste any time in sending two cannon shots in the Petrachelys’ direction.

A few of the chaotic light orbs appeared out of thin air as they struck the Petrachelys’ shields. The corruption orbs let out a greyish mist that corrodes all materials across the shield and it was continuously consuming the shield’s energy. Nolan immediately barked a warning. “Shields level going down!”

The Petrachelys had survived Io’s planetary scale assault, and her shields’ strength was almost indestructible to the mortal races, but yet there it was taking damage, and while it was minimal, it was a clear as day that the treacherous children’s weapons were beyond mortal capabilities.

This was the difference with their ‘core’, and this means that the traitors had indeed stolen the Goddess’ powers.

Hao Ren was not only focusing on destroying the lobster-like aircrafts and he was also getting the MDT to quickly collect all usable data, like the weapons and shields systems of the aircrafts. He was rather interested in the corruptive light orbs. “What’s that? Some sort of energy weapon?”

“It somewhat fits the energy weapon bill, but it also have effect against divinity.” the MDT’s tone of voice too suggested that it was intrigued. “The Petrachelys have some sort of divinity to it and any mortal attacks will be reduced by a certain percentile, but yet this orbs have managed to breach this limit… Interesting. While there are other civilisations in the void that can do that, for a civilisation trapped within this universe to do so, that’s extraordinary.”

Muru’s voice rang from the communicatior. “Simple, their knowledge about divinity were all stolen.”

“No matter how they researched that…” Hao Ren collected the required data before placing his hands on the weapons control panel. “They’re all dead now. The spirits from ten millenais ago, let it be ashes to ashes, dust to dust.”

The weapons systems roared to life again and signature blue lance of the psionic cannons tore through the air. The space between Petrachelys and the two aircrafts turned into a light stream as the psionic came into contact with the corruptive eneriges. And like a shattered glass, the shield finally unravelled and the two lobster-shaped spacecraft turned by the explosions into two raging inferno as they plummeted to the ground raining molten metal.

Nolan had already noticed the weakspots of the aircrafts the first time around and she had recalibrated the shot that the second round was a confirmed kill.

As the two remaining ships destroyed, the light orbs sticking onto the Petrachelys’ shields unravelled and its damaging effects to the shields ended.

“Light damage, nothing to be concerned of.” Nolan reported. “Huh… it’s sure terrifying, your maiden battle. Facing this in a first person view is not good for my heart.”

Hao Ren quipped. “You have a heart?”

“I have three types of engines, two energy furance and a mainframe core and you’re asking me if I have a heart?” Nolan glared at Hao Ren like he was a silly muppet. “I can just pick anyone of those to act as my heart.”

“…”

The combat ended faster than Hao Ren had thought. It only took barely a few minutes from the first exchange of gire to the destruction of the enemy aircrafts. As Hao Ren had only used the auxilliary cannons this time around, the damage to the surrounding was light.The biggest damage was caused by the trans-dimesion disintegration when the psionic lances shot out and the shock waves scarred the already ruined earth. As the laws of reality weakened just for that fraction of a moment, some of the items on the ground were disintegrated, but given how battle-scarred the land was, a couple extra craters was not a problem.

Up in the air, the spatial tear caused by the psionic cannons started to heal. Hao Ren commandeered the ship around the dangerous scar and continued the low-altitude cruise towards the city ruins. Lily quipped on a whim. “This was much easier than I thought. I was imagining how powerful they might be.”

Muru immediately grunted as he heared what Lily said, intending to correct her for understanding her opponents. “That is their most basic weaponry meant for atmospheric combat. Their battleships and the ‘Gate of Corruption’ is something to behold. I’m afraid your ship is no match for those.”

“What are the chances of us running into those two here?” Hao Ren asked.

“…Not likely, those are massive galatical weapons.”

“Then we are pretty safe down here.” Hao Ren let out a sigh of relief. “The Petrachelys is capable of facing those aircrafts, but if they were to come in a swarm… that attack is sure disgusting, it’s like eating up a shield. If there’s a whole load of them…”

Before Hao Ren could finish, Y’lisabet leapt up and used her little fist to jam Hao Ren’s mouth. The little demon rumbled as she hung on midair. “Stop it stop it! Papa said that you’ve a big mouth, so please don’t say that!”

Hao Ren looked at Y’lisabet speechlessly before glaring at Y’zaks. The latter coughed drying before bending down to lace his shoes, even though his shoes had no lace to begin with.

“Seems like there’s no more hostile signatures.” Nolan opened her eyes – the series of sensors and cameras on the hull. “No similar energy signatures like those lobsters earlier and there’s no other signatures from the city as well.”

“There was a firefight down here.” Hao Ren frowned. “If there was fighting, then there should’ve been resistance… or have the defenders perished?” No one could answer his question, and thus Nolan could only bring the ship into the city quarters, and what greeted them was a sorrowful scene of devastation.

This was the city created by the guardian giants. Even when they were totally destroyed, once could still the the scale and grandeur of the place.

Especially the scale of it.

Muru’s kin had an affinity for black constructs, the city was pretty much doused in black. Multiple gigantic pyramid-shaped structure stood in the middle of the city. Their outer lines were visible yet orderly and eachn structure was at least a few hundred meters into the air. These black abodes were made using a material made out of metal and rock and their surface was encrusted with a green crystal. The crystal shone brightly as if it was imbued with life, and even when the city was devastated. At areas that were more lightly damaged, pipings and drawbridges supports made out of crystals and metal were still standing. They formed a complex yet orderly airborne structure, and they were probably used for transportation of goods prior to their destruction.

And all of these structures, were massive.

“So where to next?” Nolan asked for Hao Ren’s opinion.

Hao Ren pondered .”What direction did that three aircraft came from?”

Nolan used a laser mark on the holographic map projection, pointing towards a point in the city. “From the vicinity of that gigantic building.

Chapter 852: The Spear and Shield of the Treacherous Children

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

Ten thousand years ago, there were pilgrims who had used these very words to record the scenery of Solenne. A holy and majestic land where the giants, children of the Goddess had built their great cities as a testament and record of their mother’s glory and greatness. They had brought from the deep space remants of stars and planets and had turned these materials on the planet’s core into the black, obsidian bricks. These bricks were stronger than any metal, yet was light as feather. Thousands upon thousands of them stood upon the earth, and amonst them glew a neverending light. The giants had also encrusted crystals of supernovas and the top of their great sanctums. These crystals beamed with energy, and on holiest of planets on the Solenne Gateway, serve as a lighthouse, bringing light to all mortals.

Even as the planet now lay in complete ruin, Hao Ren could imagine the glorious days of yore from the ruins.

In the middle of the city centre was the most massive and magnificent of buildings. It was formed by an inordinate about of black stone pillars, tower complexes and pyramidial monuments. Many bizzare shapes were carved out of a massive rock and the main complex had multiple pyramidial points that formed layer upon layer. Most of the moving parts had a faint light green glow to it. On the massive temple-like structure, the light green crystals were all over the building, and at the most concetrated point where the crystals were encrusted was a bridge-like structure that jutted into the air. Hao Ren reckoned that these structures were the lightstreams and during the better days, a dozen of these lightstreams supplied energy to the temple and allowed it to exudes a godly strength.

This building was no mere pilgrimage temple, it was a powerful weapon as well. It bore the responsibility of blasting any hostile beings in space with a powerful destructive laser. But seemed like the treacherous children had used divine weapons stolen to breakthrough the planet’s shields and destroyed the defensive structures from space.

As the Petrachelys made her slow approach towards the temple, Hao Ren saw a horrifying hole on the side of the building that had collapsing inwards. Seems like this was the hit that took the temple offline.

The frigate reduced her speed gradually before passing through a few stone pillars and found a continuous platform. Hao Ren noticed something on the platform. “Wait up? What are those? AA cannons?”

There was a number of trident-like weaponry lining the platform. The weapons were set on a circular base and most of them were pointing towards the air, and many more were destroyed. Yet a faint halo lingered in the air. These weapons were probably ineffective against spaceborne targets and were meant for atmospheric defense.

Nolan gave the ‘tridents’ a scan. “Based on the energy signatures, these weapons were still in use.. There’s a body there.”

“Lets go have a look.” Hao Ren got out of his seat and called upon Muru. “Muru, follow us. Lily, Y’zaks, with me. Y’lisabet, you stay and look after the ship.”

The little demon would have normally protested, she after all did not want to miss the chance of an adventure. She somehow realised the gravity of the situation and did not say anything and nodded. But what was going on in that diablolic mind of hers is anyone’s guess.

Y’zaks gave his daughter a pat on the head before looking at Nolan’s holographic projection. “If she dares pull out her screwdriver, feel free to slam her into the cargo hold.

“Takes a father to know his daughter!” Everyone exclaimed.

Muru finally do not need to coop up in the hangar any longer and he followed Hao Ren and the rest out of the Petrachelys. Finally stepping into his homeland again after ten thousand years, yet what greeted the guardian was scene of devastation, ruined cities and scorched earth. The landscape was nothing but a wasteland now and toxic gas permeated across the land. Lily had to put on her lifehoop to filter out the poisnous gas as her tail wagged about in the scorching air. “Feels like the place is about to go ablaze..”

“The place had already been burnt. Didn’t you see the rivers and seas have all dried up?” Hao Ren frowned as he stepped on holy grounds ( this was not considered stepping into the Goddess’ domain officially). His first impression was the place was on the rather poor side. This was a burning inferno, and nothing on this hell on earth was particularly pleasing. Hao Ren quickened his steps towards the giant and noted that the giant was wearing a black uniform, and it was as female giant.

The giant sat couched on the AA cannon seat, her massive frame was limp and there were a few fatal puncture holes on her body while her hand was still on the controller of the trident. As Hao Ren went forward to have a look at the body, her hand slipped lifelessly and the control panel was activated, and the shriek later, a blinding lightning beam shot towards the sky.

Lily was scared silly.

“She’s dead.” Muru went on a knee beside his kin and made a simple gesture to convey his respects. “She died in glory, and fought till the very end. Mother will be proud of this warrior.”

Hao Ren touched the dead warrior with his hand and felt a surge of warmth at the tip of his fingers. The warrior was only just killed not too long ago. Ten minutes ago, she was probably still alive. The fighting that were detected by the Petrachelys from afar happened here. This AA base was only manned by the solitary soldier, her enemies were the treacherous children’s fighter squadron, and with the gulf of power, she was fighting a lost cause.

Only that he witnessed the warrior that could have been alive ten minutes ago that Hao Ren understood what sort of place he was in now. Ground zero of a god-slaying war.

Hao Ren had theorised that the planet was still frozen in time for ten thousand years, when the Petrachelys thad shot down the three aircraft, or when he saw the still burning ruins in the air, none of that gave him the same revelation as the contact he had with dead warrior before him. From the touch, he felt that a timeflow in flux correcting itself, and a war happened ten thousand years ago had incredibly stepped through time, and landed right smack in his face.

A scorching sensation followed by the sound of creaking lava came from beside, Y’zaks had slowly transformed into his demonic form to guard against any danger. He looked around the perimeter before stepping into a corner of the platform, his voice a rolling thunder. “There’s something here!”

There was a smoking crater about a hundred meters away from the AA base and sparks still danced about the crater. Hao Ren and the rest quickly followed Y’zaks steps as they came to the side of the crater, eyes widened.

There was a ten-meter long, lobster-like fighter craft laying in the crater. There was a gaping hole on it, but the structure was still intact.

A wreckage of the treacherous children.

Muru turned to the AA base. “That warrior managed to take one down before she died.”

This discovery surprised Hao Ren. He was rather regretful that when he totally annihilated the three ‘lobster fighters’ earlier. The Petrachelys’ firepower was just too overwhelming, and even the lowest output was enough to turn the target into dust. As he was unable to recover any samples from the earlier engagement, Hao Ren was pleasantly surprised that an intact one had appeared before him. He grabbed the MDT to give the wreckage a scan. “This thingmajig here won’t explode, right?”

The MDT let out a blue glow as it scanned the wreckage before reassuring the rest. “It’s safe. The energy core seems to have been punctured and there’s almost nothing left in the ship.

Hao Ren and Lily immediately leapt into the crater and started investigating the wreckage.

The oddly shaped aircraft was different from any other ships and combat crafts. Its curved outline does not have an obvious cockpit. But Lily managed to locate the entry just by using her nose. She waved her Flame-effing-Joy about as she cut a hole on the hull of the aircraft, sparks flying about. As the latter had already lost is energy store, Lily had managed to quickly cut a hole big enough to fit her before slipping into the machine.

Hao Ren picked up the plate that was cut open by Lily and noticed the inner part of the plat had many intricate patterns. These patterns were clearly not for display, but they did not look like there were electrical circuits either.

“These are holy inscriptions.” Muru squatted beside Hao Ren as he tried to restrain his disgust as he explained the secrets of the inscriptions to the latter. “They had stolen the truth of the world from Mother’s language, and have inscribed them on their armor. This allowed their army to be immune to all sorts of supernatural powers, and were resistant against the guardian’s spells and mental attacks. They even inscribed the same runes onto their soldier’s skull, and this allow their soldiers to have the same resistance. If their anti-divinity corruptive weapons are their spear. These holy inscriptions acts as their shield. It’s through this two items that they had managed to fight toe-to-toe with a god.”

Chapter 853: The Battle Next to The Temple

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

Hao Ren threw the inscribed armor piece back to the wreckage of the ‘lobster fighter’. He was planning to salvage the entire wreckage to find out more about this thingmajing’s structure. He clamebered towards the big hole which Lily had cut through and poked his head in to look. Amongst the twisted metal was a flash of silver fur, Lily was still busy inside. “Need any help? Found anything?”

“Yep! I’m trying to drag this bugger out.” Lily yelled back. “Mr Landlord, stay outside, this place is just too cramped… Move away, I’ll get out just about now!”

Lily seemed to have found the pilot and Hao Ren immediately made way for the werehusky to make her exit. A moment later, a corpse with a sky-blue uniform came out of the hole, as Lily’s head popped out underneath. “Give me a hand, I’m a little off-balance.”

Before Hao Ren could even move, a massive hand came from above. Muru grabbed the corpse like picknig a bug before throwing it on the ground. Hatred seethed through his thunderous voice. “Serve you right!”

Hao Ren walked towards the corpse as he waved at Muru. “I understand how you feel, but don’t you go spitting on this guy. I still need to run an autopsy.”

Lily was already squatting beside the corpse as she and Hao Ren curiously inspected the corpse. This was the first time they have ever seen a ‘treacherous child’.

Hao Ren had never imagined that he would meet one under such circumstances, the cause of all troubles in the Plane of Dreams, the arrogant race that dared to slay a god. The timeflux had given him this unique opportunity to see a corpse of a treacherous children soldier that was dead no longer than ten minutes ago.

He had imagined what the race would have looked like, he thought that they would probably be as strong and mighty as the guardian giants, and have a demonic demeanour like Y’zaks, or heck as a race that stole a god’s power, they would have at least a wee bit of divine presence, but his imaginations were quickly undone by what he had saw. A humanoid being not unlike humans, with a pale gold skin and long limbs. They were not particular tall or big either.

Yet the soldier had a very unique characteristic. His features were well proportioned, and his limbs strong, there were no deformities. His facial features looked like as if it came out of a factory without any blemish. Every line on the face was gentle and perfect while his pale gold skin and slightly curled golden hair seemed like to emphasis on this very fact. Even though he was a mere foot soldier, this ‘treacherous child’ was as pretty as a god of war from a painting is. From apperance alone, he seemed ‘perfect’, at least in the eyes of humans.

Hao Ren could not help but mumble. “Already that handsome and you’re still looking for a fight? Just go sell your looks throughout the universe and you’d be golden.”

Lily poked the face of the corpse. “Looks okay, but too thin and looks like it has no meat. I like meaty ones.”

This werehusky’s choice of words were brutal and direct. Hao Ren dared not wonder if the ‘meaty’ referred to her physical perference or appetite…

“They wanted to be gods, and their ardor was such that their way of life had changed.” Muru kneeled down as he spoke with a sarcastic tone. “They have modified their bodies, changed their genes, set up all sorts of weird etiquette, all to fit their image of a ‘perfect man’ in their culture. This made them feel that they are a step closer to the gods. But this initial actions did not rouse the suspisions of the guardians, all of us felt that they were just being foolish… The guardians and most Second Born have a very different world view, and we did not realise this treacherous actions had any deeper meaning to it.”

“You guys were really slow on the uptake.” Hao Ren shook his head as he sighed. “A few hundred years ago on Earth, if someone were to paint his house yellow, he’ll probably see his head roll, don’t even mention about changing one’s looks to be like the gods.”

Lily lookede at Hao Ren quizzically. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“When someone ambitious starts to mimic the lifestyle of something beyond him, that means he’s about to rebel.” Hao Ren smirked before playing the MDT on the treacherous child’s chest. “Do a biological scan.”

The MDT let out a wavy blue light as it scanned the body. “A branch of the standard humanoid template. Level of evolution is high, and there are many traces of genetic engineering. There are many implants and strengthening inserts as well, the body is extremely strong because of that. Seems like he could go toe-to-toe with a werewolf. Based on the energy traces in the body, this being probably have a very powerful energy manipulation ability, and is possibly skilled with techniques that manipulates supernatural energies.”

“How about divinity?”

“Of course there’s none. They have only stolen divine knowledge, but that did not mean that they have found the right path to be a real god.” The MDT returned to Hao Ren’s shoulder. “They only had its power without actually being in contact with the source. All in all, they are just a strong barbaric race.”

“A shame that such a barbaric race almost destroyed the order of this universe.” Y’zaks sighed as he rained embers beside Hao Ren.

Hao Ren took the corpse and the wreckage and stored them into his Dimensional Pocket. “Well, we’ll run the detailed analysis once we send these things back to CARS, then we’ll head…Hmm? What’s wrong, Muru?

“My kin’s aura is present over there.” Muru said as he ran towards the rear gate of the temple. “My kin is alive!”

Hao Ren realised that he had no way to seek clarification and immediately led the rest in a frantic sprint behind Muru. And yet, Muru was a giant tens of meters tall and his speed at full sprint was nothing to be laughed at. Y’zaks did not seem to have a problem catching up but Hao Ren and Lily’s tiny legs could only carry them that far. Lily after a coupe of steps before letting out a furious howl, and after strong gale later, she had turned into her husky form. Her paws rattling mountains as she dashed forward.

Just as Lily completed her transformation, Hao Ren had managed to deftly grab a hold of her tail, and after being tossed about he had managed to climb on to the husky’s back. “F*ck me… Can you say something before transforming? I was nearly squashed under your paw!”

“Awoo? Woof!”

Lets just pretend that she understood that.

The grand temple really fits its moniker, and even a normal path was kilometeres in width, but such was the creation of the giants. Hao Ren and the rest circled through the front entrance to the back, dashing ahead at lightning spped. As they went forth, a series of explosions came from the back of the temple, while a blinding flash flared.

A couple more flashes and explosions soon followed and it was like a thunder storm going on at the back of the temple. Y’zaks yelled. “Combat!”

They finally made their way through the last corridor and saw the scene at the back of the temple.

The sky wreathed with a powerful storm as countless of thunderbolts and white lightning orbs clashed and disintegrated midair. There were about ten red armored ‘humans’ attacking the entrance of the temple. These attackers were brightly dressed, and their morale high. On the surfance they looked like they were all skilled combatants. Their armor had a crimson base that is affixed with golden inlays as halo floated just above the armor. These made the fighters looked as dashing as the gods from a Greek sculpture.

As the battlecry and thunderbolts rattled the area, these flying attackers used powerful magics to unleash powerful thunderous lances towards the temple.

And guarding the temple as a sole, furious guardian.

The guardian’s robes were in tatters, and his black wardress had visible burn marks. He was wielding staff that flickered with thunderbolts. The very same weapon that Muru had used, that is both a spear and a ranged weapon that is capable of unleashing plasma pulse. The guardian was fighting ferociously agains the storm of magic and gunfire, not giving a step back. It was clear however, that he was at a disadvantage.

A sole treacherous child may not defeat a guardian, but the numbers disadvantage is now one to ten.

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Chapter 854: Fighting Against the Treacherous Children

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: Yuan Tong

 

Just as Muru had explained, the treacherous children used myriad of ways to try to attain godhood, this unholy ardor had caused them to keep changing their actions to mimic the image of ‘god’ in their minds. For mortals, the image of ‘god’ is often the perfect being, the being personified, without flaws, yet similar to their origins. This pursuit had led them to tinker with their genetic code to change their appearance, while donning expensive and ritualistic armor, yet the change in outer appearance did nothing to change their core. They were merely a mortal race that had immense power, yet they were more barbaric than most mortal races.

They attacked the guardian’s temple without reservation. With a posture akin to the gods they struck the place, but their motives were selfish. A dozen crimson robed traitors were flying in the air, using magic and weaponry to conjure thunderbolts to assault the guardian before the gate. The leading warrior even yelled. “Give up your futile struggle! This place has fallen. Give the thing to us, and we will spare both your lives.”

The guardian giant raised his battle staff as he flung a lightning whip towards the foe, as his grey hair rose into the air, he roared defiantly. “I refuse!”

Two of the traitor soldiers deployed a magical barrier to block the lightning whip while the rest charged forward for the kill. They had never expected the stubborn guardian to take a step back, they were simply looking for an opportunity to press the attack.

With the disadvantage in numbers, the massive giant was like being swarmed with a swarm of wasp with a killing intent, and could only just barely fend them off. He deployed a large medical barrier in his attempt to protect the temple, but this results in weakening his own defense. The traitor soldiers thought this was an opening and ran headlong towards the giant’s arms and his less protected underarm. A traitor using a cackling twin-headed spear was leading the pack as he tried to pierce the guardian’s heart with a malicious thrust, but just as he raised his spear, a blue-white beam blasted out from the side, and the traitor could not react in time and was struck dead on. A squirm later he disintegrated into a cloud of crystal dust.

Both sides were stunned by this turn of events and all turn towards the source of the attack. They only saw a gigantic white beast charging out from a corner of the temple, while a little ‘human’ stood on its head wielding a spear and a pistol. Following right behind was a ferocious demon clad in molten lava, and another guardian giant.

“Brother, stand strong!” Muru shouted towards the guardian before the temple as he raised his staff and launched a plasma bolt towards the airborne enemy. “For Mother!”

The sudden appearance of a third force thrown both the defending guardian and the traitors into confusion. When Hao Ren and Lily first appeared, all of them thought that they were reinforcements of the enemy, but as Muru showed up the situation had changed, the guardian before the temple rallied while the traitor soldiers were shaken. Hao Ren took the chance and blasted out two more psionic bolt!

A “BLAM!” rang out and a traitor soldier could not avoid the shot was hit. Even it was just a mere graze, he was immediately turned into a cloud of dust by the psionic corrosion. Another soldier had already witnessed the power of the beam and before Hao Ren could aim he had already darted to the side, and the psionic bolt hit a minaret some distance away, turning it into a pile of collapsing rock.

The leader of the squad quickly recovered from the initial shock and after determining the number of attacks, he immediately called for his men to counter attack. “Do not fret! We have the advantage in numbers! They are nothing but fodder!”

Under the command of the leader, a few of the traitors continued their assault on the guardian while the rest turned towards Hao Ren in mad rush. They rapidly changed position midair, and even using teleportation abilities to hide. This was to avoid getting hit by the fatal blue bolt, and this was proving effective because Hao Ren could not even aim properly.

So he gave up on that and immediately pulled out a crate of graviton grenades and started lobbing it in their general direction.

With the piercing shriek of the dimensional collapse when the graviton grenades went critical, the battle reached its climax.

Bright blue thunderbolts criss-crossed the air and left the scorch marks everywhere. The wannabe-gods swung their weapons midair as they started their assault. Magical bombardment and weapon fire followed soon after. A massive traitor with a red-hot battle axe charged towards the most-bizzare looking combatant, Y’zaks as he roared. “I shall…”

Y’zaks opened his arms as if to wlecome the attack, but just as the axe was about to land the demon struck. This veteran demon easily picked off the axe from the enemy with a flick of his finger as he used the other hand to grab the enemy into his chest. As the puny traitor struggled in his arms, the demon let out a bone-chilling laugh as molten lava and demonic flame gushed out of his chest. The traitor soldier was caught right smack in the middle of a walking inferno and as the demon flames corroded his shield. Before long, molten lava and demon flame consumed the poor sod in a feast of fire and brimstone.

The demon then released his hand, before charred humanoid corpse fell onto the ground. He spat a ball of fire at the burnt corpse. “And you think to judge me under WHOSE name?”

The pathetic end of one of their comrades and the unorthodox fighting style rattled the rest of the traitors, and they immediately turned their attention towards Hao Ren and Lily. This time around, Hao Ren did not need to yell “F*ckface!” to draw aggro. He then raised his spear to brace for the attack. After a few fights together, Hao Ren was now in sync with Lily’s giant husky form and did not need any words to unleash the hound knight’s full ability. Lily darted menacingly towards the approaching enemy as Hao Ren let out a few shots to those pesky flying enemies. With both ranges covered, this combination was perfect.

A traitor wielding twin blades thought he had found this weird knight’s weak spot. As his comrades drew Hao Ren’s attention he had snuck his way to the back to attack the two from the rear. This was both Hao Ren and Lily’s blind spot, and even if it was not, they would be hard pressed to defend against a rear attack with them already so pre-occupied.

The twin-bladed soldier had lightning cackling all over him as he struck downwards like a meteor, his blades pointed towards the back of Hao Ren’s neck. A smirk curled upon his lips as he felt that his sneak attack would be successful.

Just as he was about to strike, a blue light shot out of Lily’s thick fur, and within the blue light was a shiny silvery solid object that smashed into the attacker’s face as it screeched. “F*ckface! I was waiting for you within the dog’s fur for a good part of the day!”

The twin-bladed attacker felt like his head was smashed by a cannonball and dropped out of midair. Hao Ren immediately turned back and gave the poor sod a back kick for his efforts. “Lily, turn around!”

As the attack was send flying he quickly tried to readjust his balance. And just as he thought he was out of danger, a massive blood-thirsty jaw appeared before him. Everything immediately turned black before finding himself in a dark, and warm place before rows upon rows of sharp teeth started chewing on him voraciously.

Lily subconciously chomped on the enemy that was sent flying with Hao Ren’s kick. And while she was not man-eating, after understanding what she had bitten, the husky starting gnawing. It had that wonderful sensation of teeth grinding. The fully armored soldier was a tough nut to crack, so Lily was chewing on rather labourously, her face tightened as she used her jaw strength to keep chewing, and the sound of metal tearing and screams of fear could be heard from her mouth.

The treacherous children does indeed come equipped with overwhelming powers, but their god-slaying prowess were all down to dirty schemes and specialised weapons. Thus their weapons had little to no effect against Hao Ren and his crew, and under this situation, their numbers were quickly reduced.

The commander had earlier proclaimed that they had the numbers advantage with confidence, but that confidence quickly went away as he realised his men were being slaughtered one by one. Y’zaks nonchalantly threw a charred corpse before him. “This was your numbers advantage.”

Seems like only the commander was left, and Hao Ren immediately dropped an order via the communicator. “Take him alive.”

The commander reacted rather panicky but there was no fear in his face, after confirming that all his men were dead. He raised his weapon up high and roared. “The promised land shall come!”

Thereafter his body was engulfed with a blinding white light.

Chapter 855: The Temple Guardian

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: Yuan Tong

 

Hao Ren felt that he had gained an incredible innate ability. The ability that his target will self-destruct fifty percenty of the time when he wants them taken alive. It was not only the escaped brain monster, but this commander as well. Just as he ordered that the commander be taken alive, the god-of-war-like commander suddenly started chanting something with his sword raised before a blinding light shot out of his body, leaving no one any time to react. A powerful heatwave soon followed the shockwave of the explosion.

“Watch out!” Hao Ren could only yell out a short warning before grabbing a handful of her fur to pull her aside. Lily was still busying chomping the metal tincat in her mouth and reacted a tad bit slowly, and was sent flying by the shockwave a dozen of so meters away before smashing against the temple wall. Thankfully she was more physically robust and a mere heatwave would not do any damag against her, but that did scared her silly.

The one injured was Hao Ren. He was still clinging on to Lily’s fur around the scapula and when the husky smashed against the wall, Hao Ren was caught in the middle. Even when his steel membrane shield had taken out most of the impact, he was still in a daze..

Lily slowly slid down the temple wall and with a shake of her head she regained her balance. Hao Ren clambered up her neck in a sorry state. As he shake his head he grumbled. “Whose foot did I bloody stepped on… F*ck, he really went to blow himself up. That hardcore?”

He looked up at where the traitor commander once stood and there was nothing but a crater and molten metal and rocks flowed freely in the crater while a cackling thunderbolt darted about was slowly weakening. Y’zaks looked at crater before speaking resignedly. “Nothing but liquid now.”

“F*ck, that was a rare chance to capture one alive!” Hao Ren sled down from Lily’s forelimb. As the fighting early was so brutal with each side not giving other any quarter, lets not even mention sparing anyone, there was not even an intact corpse left. Hao Ren too noted the fact and sighed. “Forget it, I have sent out the probes from the ship, maybe there are enemy units that have not retreated…Hmm.. Lily what are you chomping on?”

He had only realised that Lily was still chewing on something as the sound of grating metal came from her mouth. As the latter heard Hao Ren’s question she let out a puzzled “Awoo?” before spitting the thing in her mouth out.

It was a traitor soldier in a torn armor and wounds all over.

The soldier was in a state so sorry it was beyond imagining. He had became Lily’s tooth grinder for a good ten odd minutes and his armor was pretty much given a total makeover with only bits and pieces of metal and cloth hanging on his body. The wounds and gnashes all over his body did not need to be further described, but yet, he was still alive, and looked perfectly intact. Even the gory wounds were nothing more than flesh wound.

The treacherous children had remade their body to be as tough as a werelwolf, and they have an even stronger set of magic and armor for protection, plus a whole set of bizzare trinkets that no one could identify it is was scientific or magical in nature. As the soldier had suffered the indignity of being chewing in a giant dog’s mouth for a good while, he was still in a daze after being spat out and struggled to stand. No one knew if the physical or the psychological wounds were more severe.

Yet Hao Ren did not care about this, he was elated and the first thing he did was to let the MDT smash into the poor sod’s head again to take him out. If Hao Ren was not wrong this was the second time the fellow was hit by the MDT in the head. As expected, the soldier grunted before falling unconcious, never finding out what actually knocked him out.

Hao Ren pulled out a droid and a bunch of restricting equipments before tying the traitor soldier like a ball of yarn. As an additionap precaution, Hao Ren had stuffed the poor sod into an crystal capsule meant for dangerous samples to prevent the soldier from self-destructing after regaining conciousness. Only then, did he patted Lily’s paws (the latter was just too massive, and with Hao Ren’s height, her paws was what he could manage.) “Good job!”

Lily grunted with a nod in acceptance of the praise before spitting out another item to the side. A ruined metallic boot.

Hao Ren saw many metallic bits and pieces still hanging between the giant husky’s teeth and reminded her. “Don’t change back yet, there’s a whole load of stuff stuck in your teeth. I’ll get the droids to give your teeth a brush later.”

Lily happily nudged Hao Ren with her snout before licking the latter half way into the air before turning heroically towards the temple complex. Muru was looking after his wounded comrade. The latter had been fighting the treacherous children for a good while now and there were no part of his body that was not somehow wounded. Luckily, he was still alive, and with the guardians powerful vitality, recovery does not seem to be difficult. He used the temple gate to support himself, confusing in his eyes as he looked at Muru. “I never thought that reinforcements would come… Which temple you’re from?”

“It’s complicated.” Muru did not know where to start before pointing towards Hao Ren. “These are our new allies, they brought me here.”

The guardian had not noticed a puny creature like Hao Ren earlier and there were many hostile traitor aura disrupting his senses and he did not pick up Hao Ren and Lily’s unique aura. Only when he was reminded by Muru that he realised something, and his first reaction was to reach for his weapons, exclaiming. “This aura… They are the treach…”

“Stop! Stop! Calm down!” Hao Ren had expected such a reaction and did not go close. As the guardian was about to attack him he too yelled back. “I’m not a treacherous child! We are not related!”

“Calm down my brother.” Muru too had stretched his arms out to hold on to the guardian’s arms and with some force managed to disarm the guardian. As the latter was already weakened, he did not resist. “I’ve mentioned, things are complicated. They are not the treacherous children, only having the same, or similar bloodline.”

The temple guardian’s eyes shifted between Hao Ren and Muru, not comprehending the situation before him. “What is the meaning of this? My brother, I trust that your will can never be bent, but these people…”

Muru immediately interjected. “Did you know that the Solenne Gateway was thrown into a timeflux?”

“A timeflux?” The temple guardian obviously knew what the term means, but did not immediately relate it to the present situation. “The timeflow here is distorted?”

“It was slowed down. While I don’t know the cause, but the Solenne Gateway was thrown into a bizzare dimension and had loss all contact with the universe beyond. I have searched for many years to return.” Muru’s voice was deep. “The time here was slowed down to a crawl, and when we first arrived here, we found out that there was a vast different in timeflow between the planet and the main universe, so…”

The Guardians are a very knowledgeable race and the temple guardian immediately understood Muru. “How… many years have it been?”

Muru opened his mouth, but words failed him on how to describe the present situation. Y’zaks then stepped forward. “The fall of Solenne was ten thousand years ago.”

Muru nodded in affirmation.

The Guardians would not lie to their own kin, this was the ironclad rule that the Goddess had set when designing their soul. The temple guardian’s facial expression stiffened, he probably had a hard time digesting what was going on. After pondering for a moment, he looked up, pointing towards Hao Ren and Lily, “So they are…”

“Probably the blood descendents of the treacherous children, or just having similar aura.” Muru looked at Hao Ren before nodding. “They have been apart from their ancestors for ten thousand years, and they even came from a different universe altogether. As you can see, they are on our side.”

While Muru too was cautious towards Hao Ren, but after spending time together and knowing the truth of things, the guardian had let go of his prejudice.