Chapter 1576: Deep Within the Stars

In the deepest parts of Star Cluster X—sealed by layers upon layers of divine power and warped almost to the point where many dimensions overlapped each other—the war had been going on for thousands of years.

The entire dimensional structure was shattered, and the laws of the universe were shaken. Shattered celestial bodies and massive pieces of wreckage floated about in space as if the restless dead were wandering about. The massive firepower of the belligerents and the following long war of attrition had changed the entire system. Unprotected stars and primordial planets were long reduced to dust, and even starships and star forts, armed to the teeth during their heyday could not escape the fate of being torn apart. Even then, the war did not stop.

As both sides of the war did not have a reason to stop, until the last enemy falls, neither will take a step back, or give any quarter.

A planet enveloped by a faint light was at the heart of the battle, it had massive continents with oceans dotted amongst it, aside from the coastal area, the entire planet was covered with plants, and the interior areas were vast plains without much life, the blue crystal prisms grew wildly on the dark plain as if to take over the role of the plants in the arid environment. Lightning arcs leap between the prisms as lightning struck ceaseless in the atmosphere. The clouds were seemingly endless, much like a layer of glowing blanket covering the planet, and hid the planet’s true identity away.

The thousand-year war was waged around this planet, countless armies of darkness surrounded it and sent a withering amount of fire towards the planet’s surface like a swarm of dark insects trying to chew through a shining fruit. The armies of darkness were in all kinds of bizarre shapes and forms. They looked like they had climbed out directly from a horror comic that was drawn randomly at the urging of the editor. Some of them were floating bloated flesh in space, some of them were rotten giants and beasts, while some were beings made out of twisted metal. These chaotic and blasphemous creatures formed a big army that had no semblance of uniformity or similarity.

There was even more vast darkness lurking behind this army, and they were the black starships that had lost their original form. Their outer hull was writhing with life, and dark fog was let out from every crevice of the ship, creating a lingering fog in space. These starships all bore marks and scars of battle, and monstrous appendages, half-flesh half metal writhed out from the wounds as these hideous tentacles licked the surface of the hull or flailing wildly in the void. They would even grab on to nearby allies as the wailing victims were dragged into the deep scars of the starships and fed upon.

Facing these hideous monsters was a clearly numerically disadvantaged black fleet. This fleet formed a line on the planet’s atmosphere at the same time using energy beams and force weapons to bombard the foes in space. Their main target was not the monstrous creatures, but the black, half-flesh half-metal starships in the midst of them.

Compared to the mortal monsters, the massive, powerful and durable starships were clearly the bigger threat.

A thick-bearded giant stood on the orbital defense platform’s observatory, the platform was constantly shuddering due to gravitational disruptions, but this shaking did not seem to affect the giant as he looked up towards the battlefield, his gaze piercing through the layers of armor and barriers towards the hideous creatures in high orbit.

“These blasphemous monsters…” A young giant walked into the observatory, his voice seething with rage, “They don’t know when to give up.”

“So do we,” The thick-bearded giant looked at his younger kinsmen. “This war will only end when one side totally perishes.”

The younger giant clenched his teeth but did not add further. He only held his arms out as he looked at the sky as bright leaping lines appeared in his hands, these lines soon became a stable screen. On the screen was a series of garbled images, countless numbers and wavelengths blazing across the screen. “The dimensional rifts have increased, and after this battle, the stability near the core area will drop by 0.003 percent… The situation is not favorable to us.”

The thick-bearded giant nodded, indicating that he already knew before asking, “How long more before Agodal’s Apocalypse Torrent finishes charging?”

“Another three minutes, my brother.” the younger giant looked down slightly, hesitating for a moment before continuing, “But… using the Apocalypse Torrent is not a viable long term plane, the dimensional stability and the order around the core area had been decreasing on end, the overuse of Agodal’s powers is one of them, and if this goes on we will be consumed by Agodal.”

The thick-bearded giant pointed at the exploding flashes in space. “Then we shall drag these monsters to annihilation in the dimensional storm. Regardless, Mother’s last remaining relic can not fall into the hands of these monsters. That is a fate more terrifying than our deaths.”

The younger giant did not speak any further, and after a courteous nod left the observatory.

The elder giant turned away from the space and looked further into the distance. He could clearly see the dome-shaped atmosphere of the planet beneath the defense platform, and the energy barrier encompassing the atmosphere beneath it. And in truth, the defense platform he was on too was within the barrier. This barrier was so thick as if the entire planet was sealed within a crystal ball.

If not for this barrier, the holy planet would not have held out until this day. The numerically inferior core guards could not face these twisted monsters head-on, while the doomsday weapon on the planetary fortress was overwhelmingly powerful, it had a long cooldown and recharge phase. Before the Apocalypse Torrent could fire again, the guardians could only depend on themselves to fight the enemy.

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Yet this barrier was not indestructible, far above the atmosphere demarcation line, there was a very obvious crack, and the planetary forcefield was showing signs of stacking and twisting, while the atmosphere below the barrier was a storm that had yet to cease till now, a massive arc lightning even blasted out of the storm directly into space, and looking from above, this scene was spectacular.

That was a remnant of a battle three thousand years ago when Planetary Fortress Naqdal fell apart after its eternal reactor was destroyed, and the out-of-control doomsday weapon’s collapse brushed through the core and even broke through the sector’s planetary forcefield, and while the barrier had since been mended, a series of crystal matrix array on the planet’s surface was annihilated in the bombardment.

And till today, that point was still the weakest point in the planet’s defense.

The thick-headed giant recollected himself as he calculated the time accurately. It was time for the Apocalypse Torrent to be activated.

A massive white beam pierced the darkness of the void, it came from where the sun rose and swept across the space like a vengeful holy sword.

The army of twisted monsters and corrupted ships faltered before the beam and most normal monsters, bereft of any resistance were immediately turned to dust by the torrent, while the starships, despite their thick hull and shields, only bought them extra seconds for they buckled.

The Apocalypse Torrent slowly swept across the space as if cleaning the entire planetary barrier of dust and mites, and before this overwhelming power, the monstrous army realized that this was the extent of their attack this time and scattered like a swarm of insects towards the dark of the void.

The sweep by the Apocalypse Torrent persisted for a good while, and even after the enemy had retreated it was still firing, as the light beam faded away, the battlefield was a scene of absolute carnage.

The dimension had twisted and buckled, and there were many dimensional rifts around the area as distant stars roiled under the effect of the gravity flux forming a shimmering and fatal abnormal dimensional structure.

And the chaotic scene only faded after a few hours later…

The echoes of the war in the deep were isolated by the divine power lockdown and could not reach the other sectors within Star Cluster X, as the crystal core averted another crisis, Hao Ren had just made his way back to the Executor’s homeworld.

“This is what we found there. ” Hao Ren let the MDT display the gathering information before everyone. “That is indeed a dormant Denizen starship, but we are not able to rouse them. The ship’s consciousness and energy are missing and based on the logs, the missing energy had probably been transferred to a battlefield deep within the system.”

“Battlefield? Nangong Wuyue shrunk as she heard the word. “There’s still fighting elsewhere here?”

“Not just that, the scale of it will probably be terrifying as well.” Hao Ren nodded. “We are still unable to determine where the battlefield is, but by just basing on the number of ships and the amount of energy the ship can transfer we can figure out the scale of the battle.”

Vivian then continued, “And compared to this mysterious battlefield, the war between the Executor and the Devourer is like a street brawl.”

Y’zaks pondered for a bit before popping an idea. “Can we use the trace of the energy transfer to pinpoint the battlefield’s location?”

“I’m afraid that is not possible.” the one answering him was Asurmen’s crystal. “The last transference was several thousand years ago, and the starships had already entered dormancy. Even if there were any traces left in the void back then, they are probably all gone after a few thousand years. And this system has a disruptive element in the divine power lockdown, any energies on the lower levels will dissipate faster than any other universe.”

Hao Ren added, “Based on the logs, the war started very suddenly, and most of the Denizen’s starship fleets in Star Cluster X could not respond in time, and they had transferred all the energy there in a short time.”

Nangong Sanba looked at Hao Ren as thoughts ran through his mind. “You think that the key to shutting down the lockdown lies in that battlefield?”

Hao Ren shrugged. “Well, it’s not like we have any other leads.”