Chapter 1346: Another Keystone

“This attack…it’s a Psionic Shockwave! And damn it, it’s the most annoying kind of attack that ignores defence! ”

Sheyan was prepared to use the ‘Gloryheal’, but that would mean that once he encountered the Queen of Blades, he would have one less life-saving measures!

However, the intense burning sensation he anticipated did not arrive. The Psionic Shockwave brushed past his cheek and struck the air behind him… Actually, no, it struck a Dark Templar who was emerging from the back.

The shock on the Dark Templar’s face quickly turned to anger, but right afterwards, an even more violent Psionic Shockwave hit him again. The Dark Templar instantly turned into glowing particles, scattering in the air!

Sheyan exhaled in relief and could not help smiling.

“You’ve just missed your best opportunity to kill me, you know.”

A giant sphere of white light slowly drifted out of the hole in the wall. It was Aldaris in his transformed state. Aldaris sneered.

“I can kill you anytime. I just don’t want you to fall dead without even knowing how you died. Besides, I owe you a debt, and now that I’ve paid it back, I’ll have more fun when I kill you.”

Sheyan laughed as he grabbed a large piece of metal beside him. It probably weighed hundreds of kilograms. He flung the metal piece hard towards the back. Sounds of clanking, as well as screams of anger and agony, rose from behind him.

He then asked Aldaris, “Do you have good stamina?”

“What?” Aldaris was confused.

Sheyan laughed. He turned around and ran away without another word.

“Hey, you’re an MT, aren’t you? Take your pursuers on and finish them all!” rebuked Aldarius after he came back to his senses.

“Nah, I’d rather conserve some energy. If we get dragged down here, we might miss out on something really interesting,” replied Sheyan with a relaxed expression while running in the lead.

“Something really interesting? Like what?” Aldaris immediately asked.

He threw another Psionic Shockwave towards the rear, making the path behind them collapse. Then, he quickly chased after Sheyan.

***

Aldaris informed Sheyan that his main purpose in coming here was to earn enough contribution points to exchange for something very important to him, namely, a shield reinforcement device.

As mentioned before, when Aldaris transformed into an Archon, he would obtain a powerful layer of plasma shield. Unfortunately, the shield had 0 defence.

The shield reinforcement device would let the plasma shield inherit Aldaris’ defence, which would greatly enhance his survivability! Aldaris had managed to earn a lot of contribution points in the last few fights because he had partnered up with Sheyan. He could just spam Psionic Storm from the back without a care for anything else.

Before he left the base this time, he had used up all his contribution points. Interestingly enough, perhaps due to the civil wars that had happened before among the Protoss, the relationships between different Protoss factions were quite strange. Aldaris’ betrayal this time was only deemed a betrayal of Uraki’s faction, so the personal relationships he had built with other Protoss were not affected at all. Aldaris thus betrayed Uraki without feeling any psychological burden.

This sounded like a case of “keeping business and personal matters separate”. It was akin to the relationship between the brothers Zhuge Liang and Zhuge Jin during the Three Kingdoms period. One was a senior minister of Shu Han, while the other was a minister of Eastern Wu. On paper, they were enemies, but they enjoyed an amicable relationship on a private level.

Thanks to Aldaris’ help, and because the commander of the pursuers, Tochego, was not that eager in his pursuit of Sheyan as he was well aware of Sheyan’s might, the pressure on Sheyan from the Protoss side became much lighter. However, the pursuit of the Zerg did not let up at all. This way, the Zerg army was naturally weakened more than the Protoss army.

Don’t forget, the Zerg were also engaged in a battle with the Protoss. The fight was not on a large-scale; they were mainly relying on the continuous production of reinforcement troops to maintain their strength level. As soon as the Protoss slackened in their pursuit of Sheyan, the growth in their forces and the decline in that of the Zerg immediately resulted in an obvious disparity between the two sides.

The Queen of Blades cursed the Protoss’ treachery and could only follow suit in reducing the intensity of the Zerg’s pursuit. If she did not, the forces guarding her would keep getting thinner, and the Protoss would definitely not miss the opportunity to assassinate the infamous Queen of Blades!

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Sheyan retreated as he fought, continuously moving towards the centre of the city where a magnificent building could be seen. The building was supported by three completely straight pillars distributed in a triangular pattern, and on top of each pillar was a large hand that was spread open.

The tip of all three hands pointed upwards, and above them was a giant crystal more than 30 meters tall. The colour of the crystal was an astonishingly deep blue, like the colour of the sea. Around it were various delicate decorative patterns that looked like plants. The architectural motif was sharp and streamlined as usual, but it also gave off an indescribable glorious feeling, the kind which made anyone who laid eyes upon it to kneel in worship.

According to the information had Sheyan obtained from checking the records in the Lost Temple, the three hands represent the three branches of the Protoss Council, similar to the legislative, executive and judicial branches among the humans. This was a system where power was separated into three branches, and the aristocrats closely related to the branches live within the system. Meanwhile, the crystal held up by the three big hands was considered to be a sacred place, the place where the gods lived!

Seeing this magnificent view, Sheyan could not help thinking how grand and powerful it must feel to look down on the whole city from the giant crystal! It would feel like a king looking over his land!

“Hey, what’s the interesting thing you don’t want to miss that you were talking about?” Aldaris suddenly asked.

Sheyan grinned. “You should know about the Lost Temple that exists on this planet, right?”

“Of course. It’s a Protoss secret. I also know that there are seven recorded Lost Temples in the universe, but in the past three thousand years, only four have been confirmed to still show signs of life,” replied Aldaris.

Sheyan continued, “You should know that the strength of these Lost Temples are not worth mentioning at all compared to that of the current main factions of the Protoss, but do you know why these insignificant forces can negotiate with the main factions, and even hold themselves in the same regard?”

Aldaris’ face became serious. “I don’t. I’ve only heard that there are great secrets hidden among these forgotten clans. Some say the secrets are powerful lost technologies.”

“Well, technically speaking, they’re right…” Sheyan said contemplatively while rubbing his chin, “You can call it a kind of technology; it’d just be a technology that’s way ahead of its time.”

Aldaris’ face paled. “What is it?” he asked in a low voice.

Sheyan stared at him and smiled mysteriously. “Do you really not know why this vibrant planet became like this? Do you really not know the cause of the terrible storm that swept across the planet the other day?”

“So you know about the Keystone,” said Aldaris.

“Of course,” Sheyan easily admitted. “It should be the reason why these forgotten clans can hold their own against the main factions.”

“But why are you mentioning this now?” asked Aldaris.

Sheyan gazed at the huge blue crystal in the distance, his expression grave.

“This magnificent city was suddenly frozen in time, becoming static for thousands of years. All the lives in it had evaporated in an instant, not leaving any corpses behind. Don’t you see the connection?”

Aldaris was stupefied. Sometimes, realisation was merely hidden behind a paper-thin layer. Once the layer was pierced through, everything would become clear.

“All lives evaporated in an instant… A terrifying power that can freeze time… No, no way!!”

“There’s another Keystone in this city, and its power is probably related to time! This particular Keystone is powerful enough to seal a whole city for tens of thousands, perhaps even hundreds of thousands of years – of course, at the price of the life of every living creature in the city!!” said Sheyan.

Aldaris mouth opened and closed again. He wanted to refute Sheyan, but when the refuting words came to his mouth, he could not utter it! He found Sheyan’s deduction extremely bold, but after careful consideration, also very likely.

“If I can figure that out, the Queen of Blades and the current Protoss leader certainly can as well,” explained Sheyan. “And the Keystone must be located somewhere very obvious, most likely in that blue crystal.”

“I’m definitely NOT taking part in this melee. I’m simply not strong enough yet,” he added.

“But,” Sheyan’s words suddenly took an abrupt turn, “do you see the symbols on the three giant palms? The triangle most likely represents the Legislative Council, the circle represents the Executive Council, and the pentagram represents the Judicial Council. The most powerful weapons are usually held in the hands of the Judicial Council. So that building, I’m very interested in.”

“You think there’s something powerful inside?” asked Aldaris.

“I’m just speculating. But I think if there’s really something as crazy as the Colossus here, it’s going to be in that building.”