Chapter 1562: Seeking the Source

The land was scorched and mountains and hills reduced to flatlands as a massive fire quickly consumed the jungles around the edge. And at the epicenter of the damage, it was like Armageddon; molten rocks had turned into a lava stream, flowing wildly across the surface. Thick smoke rose from the countless bomb craters and painted the sky black. Bits and pieces of the husk of the massive fortress were everywhere on that “disaster plain”, pointing angrily towards the sky like some steel jungle.

The giant rift was in the middle of this apocalyptic scene and the zigzagging edges of the rift lay many burnt-out tentacle husks as rocks and earth fell continuously into the deep chasm. Two streams of magma lay by the cliff face and looked almost akin to the sea of brimstone that connected hell and the living. At the bottom of the rift, a shrouded eerie crimson glow could be seen.

That was the First Born’s nerve points glowing in the dark.

The droids have already set up a temporary forward base by the rift. Some of the bigger equipment meant space engineering was launched directly from orbit onto the ground and after being reassembled they became those giant laser cutters that were hanging off the cliff face, staring deep into the dark abyss. There were now three operational disintegrator beam generators and they used a powerful laser beam to cut through everything along the way and cleared the deeper recess of the rift of any obstructions.

A part of the engineering droids was flying around busily along with the big equipment while many more of the other types had already gone into the rift itself and were spearheading the exploration and pioneering tasks. At times, a bright glow will flash past from the rift, and that’s the combat droids performing hypnosis by force, agonizing anesthesia, material removal…

The likes.

The Petrachelys descended slowly and quietly into the rift. As she went deeper, the light from above became a distant and blurry ray. There were only the disintegrator beams lighting the place up, and the busy droids as company.

Hao Ren looked on at the disintegrator beam, deep in thought. “A mining tool is actually the strongest anti-armor weapon…”

“Tch, it’s only good at burning rocks anyway. If it were to meet something more advanced it’s a far cry from my cannon.” Nolan quipped, slightly unsatisfied. “What’s there to be awed about a rock cutter.”

Nangong Sanba gave the ship girl a weird look. “Why are you comparing yourself to a mining beam?”

Nangong Wuyue poked her brother on the shoulder with her tail. “Brother, don’t provoke her. Nolan went through great pains to fix the cannon and did not even get the chance to fire it. She’s all angsty now.”

Hao Ren did not mind his ship throwing a little tantrum as he was focusing on monitoring the droid swarm’s excavation works and the situation of this massive rift.

This was a different ‘infiltration’ job from before; previously he had also entered a First Born’s cortex area but the one on Holletta was a youngling, Zorm on the other hand, was a good boy, and even the most dangerous time was on Purgatory, he led his team into the body of a living First Born. Moving through that tentacle-infested forest left a lasting impression on him, but the First Born in Purgatory had already been sealed by the demonic Vivian and was practically harmless before the seal was broken.

But this time, things were different: the First Born on the current planet was not only alive, but its tentacles could also move around freely. Even when its consciousness was fading, its body did not suffer the same disruption and for a destructive mythological creature like this, a subconsciously moving body was reason enough for the coming of the apocalypse.

It was no wonder why Hao Ren would prepare such a force this time around, and to have his droid swarms serving guard.

“How is the lullaby sequence working?” Hao Ren knocked on the control dais in front of him and broke Nolan from her mumbling spell.

“The vanguard droids have already brought the lullaby equipment into the recess within the rift. We have found many nerve points emitting powerful nerve impulses. Those nerve points have since been hypnotized.” Nolan said as she projected the situation at the bottom of the rift. On the screen was a sea of dark red. Both sides of the canyon were almost a flat canyon wall while the bottom of the canyon was slightly retracted. An enormous amount of tentacles and glowing nerve system grew all over the wall and were firmly bound to the bottom of the valley, blocking out any cracks.. Between the intricate weave were many glowing red cysts, these were the nerve points.

The engineering droids were busy around these points and they had set up metal scaffolding on the cliff wall and a few more stable tentacles and placed the Lullaby projector near these points. The flickering of the cysts was getting stabler by the moment and had clearly fallen into a deep sleep.

Given that they were now sleeping so soundly, they probably would not even notice if three disintegrator beams boring a hole in their heads…

Hao Ren caught a glimpse of the disintegrator beams incinerating everything at the blockage in a downward arc and reminded Nolan. “Make sure that the Lullaby generators are stable and every area has at least two of them operating at the same time. Sh*t will hit the fan if that thing wakes up.”

“Nolan understood.”

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“Any changes in the signal from the depth?”

“No changes detected,” Nolan replied. “The signal from the core shows that the First Born brain is still offline. The droids have found two primary nerves and have confirmed that this is extended directly from the cortex. We do not have any readings from those two primary nerves.”

Hao Ren nodded and did not say a word.

The Petrachelys continued her descend and passed through the blockage zone: The blockage had already been torn a new hole by the disintegrator beams, and beneath it was an event larger, and deeper chasm.

During the process of the First Born’s infestation of the planet’s core, the material structure of the planet will inevitably undergo a massive change, and some normally impossible planetary structures were thus formed.

For a planet infested by a First Born, the most common structure seen was the continuous series of tunnels and broken layers. This was the mark left behind by the First Born’s growth. After these powerful creatures were born from the Seed of Origin, it would start to create the ecosystem on the crust as it tunneled deep into the planet. As a youngling, it would normally live near the crust. In order to take care of the fragile ecosystem, it would move constantly, leaving a massive amount of tunnels and caverns in the process. As it grew from a youngling to an adult First Born, it would slowly move towards the mantle of the planet and soak part of its body in the magma to absorb energies while another part struck out of the surface to continue monitoring the ecosystem. This left behind many penetrative “air pillars” within the rock formations. Once it reached adulthood, the First Born’s reach would extend throughout the planet and its core organ structure would move towards the planet’s core, taking over its functions (like maintaining the planet’s magnetic field) as its outer tentacles proliferate throughout the planet.

In this series of movement, growth and regrowth, many tunnels and faults were left behind in the planet’s internal structure. A normal planet would have collapsed upon itself under such circumstances, but as the First Born’s tentacles replaced the rock pillars, the entire planetary structure conversely became even stronger.

And the Petrachelys was weaving through these series of tunnels and cavities as she forged ahead.

The drilling and excavation equipment set up by the droids were turned off after drilling through the crust and part of the mantle as the ‘underworld’ after that was wide enough for Nolan to navigate without the need to blast a new hole in the place. Even if they ran into any narrower pass, the escort droids could easily widen the pass as needed.

Nangong Wuyue lay lazily by the holographic projection as she looked on in awe at the images from outside. “Wow… it’s really amazing.”

The Petrachelys had just flown pass a level of rock dome and were now above a lake of scorching lava. Amongst the red glowing lava, a few massive tentacles could be seen penetrating the entire fault. The tentacles grew from the lava pool and were supporting the rock formations above, and amongst the tentacles were ‘branches’ and these branches would glow from time to time, like a fire spirit living in it.

Nolan decelerated as she weaved carefully through the massive tentacles and as they passed through one of the tentacles, the camera transmitted an unbelievable scene:

The lava lake had disappeared and was replaced by a lush green forest, following that, the forest was consumed by sand, and ancient stone buildings could be seen among the sand dune, a few seconds later, the sand gave way to a field of white snow, and a troop of ancient knights was trudging along the deep snow…

Lily immediately perked up as she saw the snowfield, and swallowed hard as she forced the urge to howl back down her throat.

“There’s a massive nerve center here.” Nolan’s voice woke everyone one. “The nerve center’s ‘sleep talk’ had twisted the reality within the cavern and have created those.”

Hao Ren added in to remind everyone. “Don’t take this as truth, it is only a temporary truth and there is no saying when the dream will end, and these forest, snowfield, desert will suddenly return to be a lava lake.”

“Incredible…” N-6 mumbled. “To think that the Devourer has such powers…”

“That is not the extent of its powers.” Hao Ren looked at the android. “It too was not the harbinger of destruction you see it as. After this is all over, I’ll leave you with a file of information, you’ll know the truth then.”

N-6 nodded appreciatively as the MDT, floating by the side spoke. “This is a giant nerve center that is able to create illusions, means that we are close to one of the putamen.”

Just as the MDT finished, Nolan quipped in a rush, “Boss, I think I’ve found something. Look over there!”

In the image that Nolan had marked, Hao Ren saw the rock formation was showing signs of fragmentation. Among the massive clear crystals mixed within the broken rocks, several massive black tentacles crept out from the cliff face, and the tentacles were the central nerves linked to the brain.

They had found it.