Chapter 1313: The Old World

Evening twilight covered the entire landscape. The stars were blotted out by the power of Chaos as well as the endless shroud of dark clouds and dusk. The plant-life were dead and twisted, the mountains torn, and the land desolate. Even the eternal fortress created by the goddess could not stand the corruption after it lost its blessings. It was nothing but ruins.

Many years ago, a survivor of the Eternal Battlefield had penned down the scene of the old world in his memoirs.

Under the guidance of the Lord of Mountains, Hao Ren and the rest came to the surface. This was supposed to be a great door to the sacred repository at the base of Mount Asurmen. A massive white marble door should have stood there, with pristine statues lining the wide, paved main road, and after it was the grand cathedral area. But yet what they saw was a dark, upward facing cavern. After climbing out of the cave, they only saw an endless stretch of barren land, and a dreary eventide skyline with dark clouds roiling over the horizon. Eerie wind wails could be heard all across the barren land.

This was the first thing Hao Ren saw the moment he got out of the cave. And this scene was familiar to him. He recalled seeing the same image in the illusion and immediately turned back towards Asurmen’s direction.

Many turned back as he did, and the cacophony of gasps was audible.

Mount Asurmen was gone, and in its place stood a massive mirror-like pillar. This sky-scrapping pillar looked like it was made out of pure silver to reflect light. It stretched from the ground all the way into the sky. Its surface was smooth without any dents, and from its glossy mirror surface, what was reflected was not the desolate land around them, but the valleys and rivers of another dimension.

Hao Rem immediately recognized the scene: Collow.

This is the Realm of Reflections, or what it appears in a three-dimensional space.” Geddon’s voice thundered. “The mirror tower is the precursor before the dream. Many years ago, we used this tower while in our dreams to determine our location within the nightmare realm, but now that the nightmare had reached the final defense perimeter, the tower lost its purpose.”

As he said, Geddon pointed towards a dark shadow on the barren land. “That is the Eventide Citadel. At least two thousand years ago, it was a well-equipped fortress with full-sized regiments as it basked in the light and blessing of the Mother. Our weapons of war and puppet armies filled the armories. Day and night, the warden’s army would fight alongside the brave souls from the ‘real world’ against the minions of Lockmarton. Oh, that was the time where the corruption had not spread to this point. There were still cycles of night and day, unlike the eternal dusk now.”

Hao Ren looked at the ‘Eventide Citadel’ that Geddon spoke of and found much difficulty in imagining its former glorious form. It was now a desolate land with charred rocks and twisted towers. The wind wailed from all around and there was no life within the broken walls.

Hao Ren opened his Dimensional Pocket and deployed about half of his probes and all of his droids out and set them on a wide-range scanning mode to scout the lay of the land. With the MDT back at his side, the high-speed data processing network was restored and his exploratory gadgets in his pocket could now function normally. Otherwise, the high tech probes could only operate on a basic setup and supply him information based on his mental capacity, thus limiting its capabilities.

“So this is the Forgotten Abyss…” Calaxus spoke softly. His earlier injury had been fully healed by Wuyue’s series of restorative spells and could move as normal. “I never though that it was such a vast place…”

“Looks very familiar don’t they?” Geddon pointed towards the mountain range in the distance. “The horizon there, those mountains, seen them before right?”

“That’s….” A church knight exclaimed. “The geography is the same as the Sanctum?!”

“But just the Sanctum, but the entirety of Collow,” Geddon said as he went forward with great strides. As he woke he continued, “While there are quite a few disjoints in the area, but for every matching area, the Forgotten Abyss is a copy of the Collow you know… or vice versa.”

Hao Ren was wondering what Geddon meant with that gibberish before he heard Wuyue’s yelping behind him and almost running him over in her rolled-up form. Only by sidestepping did he managed to avoid falling flat on his face. As he was about to turn around to berate the happy-go-lucky siren, he saw a scene that sent a chill down his spine.

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Beyond the thick roiling clouds came a massive silhouette that slowly peaked out of the clouds. It was a giant, floating island, an almost continental size one at that!

And this massive floating island did not stop after exiting the clouds, and it was tilted in a very horrifying angle as it descended slowly but surely towards the ground!

Clamor and panic ran across almost everyone present except for the wardens who were totally calm. Seeing that, Hao Ren too regained his composure, but it was rather difficult to not being nervous at the sight of a massive continent size island making landfall.

But the expected destruction did not come, the falling continent was but a phantom, and as it made contact against the ground it sunk silently underneath. While most of the length of the falling continent was still behind the clouds, the forward area had already pierced the surface, like a tilted sundial as it was slowly consumed by the earth. This harrowing ‘fall’ lasted a good five minutes, it was not until the last of the continent vanished that everyone could breathe normally again.

“That was the ‘disjoint’ I spoke of,” Geddon said. “That is a fragment of Collow crumbling down from real space. The whole planet was fragmented and only five continents survived. The rest ended up like that, being dragged into the wrong dimension and wandering like lost souls in an orbit. While orbiting they would pierce through the real world, and as you can see, it can seem very terrifying. Though in reality, it is pretty harmless…”

As the words left his mouth, Geddon stopped, before shrugging. “All right, it can be harmful. When these phantom continents pass through the real world, they cause irregular disappearances and energy loss. There have been times when the phantoms stayed around. But all this is without any logic. You understand?”

Most shook their heads. But Hao Ren, Vivian, and Y’zaks were deep in thought. Oh, Lily too. She was a four-time graduate after all.

“You mean to say that these phantom continents are actually fragments of planet Collow.” Hao Ren nodded slightly. “But why can’t we see it in the real world? Is it possible that this Forgotten Abyss is actually a much more complete version than the real world?”

“Just as you said.” Geddon’s reply shocked everyone. “It’s amazing, isn’t it? The truth is usually much more shocking. For us ancient beings, the real Collow is the one in the nightmare realm!”

Hao Ren looked up at the massive frame of the Lord of Mountains as he waits for the latter to further explain.

“Collow, it was once a proper celestial body, this you may have heard in the legends of yore, but what you did not hear is that Collow was not split into the real world and the nightmare realm. It was a complete unit on its own.” Geddon explained slowly as he gazed to the yonder, nostalgia and lamentation apparent in his voice. “At first, Mother had locked Lockmarton away deep within the planet. It was just a normal prison and reconfiguration facility. No one knew things would have turned out this way. Lockmarton’s madness grew by the day and it had warped into a monster that lives between reality and the illusory and the growing power of nightmare pushed the prison’s systems to the brink and on one fateful day, it broke. Ten thousand years ago, in that catastrophic event, Collow was torn apart. The entire planet and the space nearby were thrown into the void. Lockmarton’s powers only grew exponentially under those circumstances, and he almost broke out. To avoid the worst case scenario, we activated one of Asurmen’s emergency protocols, and this protocol was an extension of the Ark’s engine. It used part of the engine’s capabilities, and as a result, Collow was ripped out of the material universe and locked within a dimensional bubble, undergoing a total reversal…”

Geddon’s explanation got more difficult to understand by the minute as it contained many of knowledge and theories that were beyond arcane. It was clear that this was not mean for Calaxus and his people as they were in total confusion by now. Only Hao Ren and his crew, who had exposure to such cases were able to grasp the explanation.

“After the reversal, the torn part of Collow became the Forgotten Abyss. The fragments from the material world and the rift of the void shredded the entire place, and Lockmarton’s power smashed against the sealed prison and turning the place into a living nightmare. To control the nightmarish void, we allowed Asurmen to open a rift at the Peak of the World, or where the Sanctum is and from the rift to use data reflection to create a new Collow. To stop Lockmarton from using the rift to escape, Asurmen went over too and stayed on in new Collow in the form of a crystal mountain to block the passage. As for the surviving ecosystem after the destruction of Collow… we moved it to the new world.”

Geddon paused for a good while after that to allow them to digest the newfound information.

Hao Ren let out a deep sigh. “So simply put, Lockmarton tore the old world part, and you guys sealed the old world, turn it into the Forgotten Abyss, and created a new world using the old world’s base. So the real world is now the new world, where everyone lives, and this… is the original Collow?!”

Geddon smiled as he turned, and his hands were wide open. “So, once again, welcome to the old world within the nightmare, the real Collow.”

Behind the Lord of Mountains, the clouds rolled again as another continent fell from the sky. Great cities and fortress were still visible on the continent’s surface. It passed through slowly across the skyline, and like snow lost within the dream, it slowly sunk into the ground, with nary a ripple.