Chapter 28: Transgressive Descent
Black tentacles, comparable in length to a great river, swung through the air before crashing down toward the exploration team's position with enough force to shatter a continent.
Even before they struck their target, the mere shockwaves and tidal forces caused violent upheaval across the entire continental surface. A raging hurricane swept across the mountains and plains of World One, shattering metal ore deposits accumulated over millions of years. Vast dust clouds rose from the ground, transforming into new high-temperature vapor clouds. The central continent of World One itself bore a long, deep furrow from this attack that had yet to land.
If killing a chicken with a butcher's knife was wasteful, then this strike from the black mist was far beyond using an anti-aircraft cannon to swat a mosquito—it was akin to using a planet-destroying warship to kill a cockroach. This massive black mist aggregate, in order to exterminate a small team of unknown lifeforms whose origins it did not know, lavishly employed a surface-scouring attack capable of destroying a medieval civilization. Had it actually struck the continent, it would undoubtedly have caused tectonic plate fragmentation.
In response, Priest simply raised the crystal greatshield in his hands.
High-Gravity Barrier—a high-grade mana construct from the Imperial Foreign Exploration Department's exchange center, worth 4,000 points and a C-rank exchange privilege. It possessed the ability to deflect force by generating a gravity field, resisting most physical attacks. This was not an especially rare or precious magical artifact; above it were the Phase Shift Array (worth a B-rank privilege and 7,500 points) and the A-rank Spatial Isolation Barrier, which could place the user within an artificial space, blocking all attacks.
But the greatshield in Priest's hands was different. Though its material was merely ordinary crystal, Priest had personally infused it with a trace of Joshua's power—the Steel Force transformed this mundane mana construct into a vessel for the inheritance the warrior had entrusted to Priest.
In other words, absolute protection.
Back at the Ares Fortress, Priest had begged Joshua for the knowledge called 'guardianship.' He wanted to protect those he wished to protect, to keep them far from all danger and calamity. The warrior had gladly agreed, placing the inheritance's information within a strand of Steel Force and delivering it to Priest, allowing him to comprehend this power through his own practice. Priest naturally understood Joshua's expectations, so he exchanged for a gravity shield that best suited the inheritance, using it as a vessel.
What the warrior gave Priest was an inheritance rooted in 'gravity.' Using the gravity shield as a guide, he would gradually learn to control gravity and deflect attacks. As Priest's strength grew, that ordinary gravity shield would become the most indestructible shield in the world, a true barrier of spacetime. Should Priest one day achieve Legendary status through this path, the shield in his hands would become a barrier between the world and the void, an 'absolute protection' that even an Evil God could not directly tear apart, only indirectly weaken through various means.
But now, he was far from having grown to that level. Facing the black mist's casual strike, Priest raised his shield without hesitation. Using his battle qi, which had already transformed into 'Gravity Battle Qi,' he channeled that trace of Steel Force dwelling within the shield.
Instantly, a brilliant silver light erupted. The translucent crystal shield shattered into countless fine crystal fragments in an instant. A terrifying power, overwhelming in its magnitude, unleashed its full might the moment it lost its vessel. And the consequence of that eruption—
Was contraction.
Beneath the black tentacle pressing down on the continent, spacetime began to visibly warp. Countless crystal fragments seemed frozen in place, suspended in midair. A radiance as brilliant as a galaxy pulsed at the center of the shattered crystal—but each pulse was not an expansion, but a rapid contraction. A tremendous gravitational disturbance abruptly emerged, as if a massive entity from a distant beyond had connected across worlds to this location. At the same time, spatial grooves began to appear, like countless tentacles, frantically absorbing surrounding matter.
The entire Foreign Exploration team's off-road vehicle was enveloped in a strange glow, untouched by the grooves. But the surrounding earth and mountains were not so fortunate. They seemed grasped by an invisible hand, then pulled into that endlessly contracting silver radiance. In mere fractions of a second, the surrounding metal mountains and earth were stripped of most of their matter. A rapidly expanding, giant vortex-like spacetime distortion took shape beneath the black mist's tentacle, leaping up to collide with that black appendage.
"—Zzzt?!"
Sensing the anomaly and feeling immense threat, the black mist began frantically adjusting the power and form of its tentacle. But it was too late. By now, this mass of black mist had completely lost control over that part of its body. It could only watch helplessly as that spacetime distortion rose like a reverse meteor, effortlessly shattering its river-like black tentacle and drawing it into its own gravitational perturbation.
What is called protection is blocking all the energy released by the enemy. This distorted gravitational nova swallowed all the terrifying power of the black mist's tentacle—enough to shatter a continent—into itself, like a bottomless abyss. When this abyss reached its absorption limit and rose to its highest altitude, it immediately self-destructed, producing an unparalleled explosion!
—Boom!
In the dark void of space, a point of light brighter than a star appeared. Countless materials previously drawn into the gravitational vortex, not yet fully transformed, were violently ejected back outward. Instantly, a circular nebula of stardust and mist spread across the high heavens of World One, carried by a shockwave that swept half the planet. Within it, immense energy and fine dust, accompanied by dazzling light and heat, temporarily illuminated this world that had lost its star.
On the other side, the black mist, having lost one tentacle, was frantically fleeing into the dark void of space—it felt a genuine fear from this inexplicable attack.
As a micro-runic construct cluster, the black mist possessed nearly immortal survivability. If the attack did not reach the microscopic level, no matter how terrifying, it could not kill it. But that spacetime distortion earlier had effortlessly severed its connection to part of its body, then annihilated it into the most basic elementary particles, even pure energy. Under such an attack, there was no 'immortality' or 'eternity.' Even an ancient eternal being, if struck, would be erased.
How similar this was to itself.
Before fleeing, the black mist seemed to pause for an instant in the direction of the 'hidden rainbow.' The next moment, it vanished into the vast darkness, its whereabouts unknown.
At the same time, the entire elite exploration team, along with their hovercar, plummeted rapidly toward the ground in a daze.
Amid a piercing screech of metal, the sturdy hovercar crashed into the earth. It carved a long furrow across the surface before stopping against a pile of metal debris. The lower half of the off-road vehicle was completely destroyed by the intense friction; even the adamantite alloy body could not withstand such wear.
But the occupants were not all dead—before the impact, everyone had made appropriate preparations. They used magic, battle qi, holy light, and even alchemical glue to secure themselves in place, then deployed shields to withstand the shock. These actions indeed saved their lives.
However, surviving did not mean being unscathed. When Priest awoke from his dazed stupor, he found that both his hands, along with the mana armor that had covered them, were completely gone. Fortunately, the robust physique of a Silver-rank warrior instinctively contracted muscles to stop the bleeding; otherwise, he would certainly have bled to death during his unconsciousness.
Before Priest could feel joy at his decisive action successfully blocking a Legendary-rank otherworldly being's attack and saving himself and the entire team, he looked around and realized the situation was truly dire in the most literal sense.
Because the entire team was now severely injured, nearly unable to move.
The knight at the front had borne the brunt of the impact. He lay sprawled over a slowly deflating airbag, his body showing no sign of movement. The clergy member on the other side had half his head crushed by the impact. If not for faint traces of holy light still flickering over his body, proving he barely maintained his will through his high spiritual cultivation, anyone would think he was thoroughly dead.
The mage who had sustained the shield still had a sliver of consciousness, but he was now vomiting large mouthfuls of bright red blood, clearly suffering from mana backlash due to the shield's collapse, with severe internal organ damage. At the rear, Priest and the alchemist—one due to a warrior's tough constitution and less impact, the other due to multiple magical creature modifications giving him a non-human physique—were in relatively better condition.
Thick black smoke rose from the bottom of the hovercar. The completely stalled mana engine was utterly destroyed, so there was no need to worry about an explosion. Before Priest could give orders, the alchemist, the only one still in decent shape, stood up on his own and hurried to the front to check on the other two.
"Cough—how are they?"
Priest focused his mind, using battle qi to forcibly seal the nerve sensations in his arm wounds. He gritted his teeth and asked, "Still alive?"
"...The knight is dead."
At the front, after checking the knight's heartbeat and brain activity, the alchemist showed an indescribably sorrowful expression. He said in a low voice, "The clergy is still alive—but not far from death. Honestly, he died long ago, a few minutes before the knight. He only held on a bit longer thanks to the 'Last Words' divine spell."
The five members of the exploration team had trained together for over a year. They had survived on deserted islands, undergone inhumane hellish training, ventured into countless desperate situations, and successfully completed all practical missions. Their bond seemed ordinary, but in truth, any one of them could unhesitatingly entrust their back to the others. Just as Priest's words alone had made the entire team follow him into a desperate gamble without hesitation.
As he spoke, though the alchemist's tone was low, he did not linger beside the comrade confirmed dead. He quickly moved to the center of the vehicle, beside the still-living mage, and swiftly pulled out several healing potions from his person, injecting them into the mage's body. The timely infusion of life force momentarily flushed the pale, seemingly dying spellcaster's face, and then he rolled his eyes back, falling into a relieved shock.
If not for the mage erecting the final anti-impact shield, even if Priest's triggered inheritance power had blocked the black mist tentacle's strike, everyone would have died in the high-speed collision between the hovercar and the ground. In a sense, he too was a hero who saved everyone.
The alchemist seemed about to return to the rear to treat his captain's horrific arm wounds, but suddenly, Priest remembered something. He shook his head forcefully, refusing the help. Priest said in a deep voice, "Don't waste time—did you forget about the Restorative Pillar and the 'Soul Abyss Orbs'?! Get them out!"
Hearing this, the alchemist, who had already pulled out a tube of pale green recovery potion and was about to inject Priest, was momentarily stunned. Then his expression shifted rapidly, as if grasping at a last straw with joy. He immediately retrieved several small spheres with silver bases and black-red patterns from the storage compartment behind his mana armor, then rushed to the knight's side at the front. Using his own mana, he activated these ordinary-looking 'Soul Abyss Orbs.'
Once activated, the metal spheres with black-red '?' symbols suddenly turned translucent. Visible streams of light emerged from the knight's body, forming a translucent misty humanoid shape. As if responding to a summons, they sank into the Soul Abyss Orb. After all the light forming the humanoid had fully entered the orb, it reverted to its original metallic form, but its silver base had turned blood-red.
At that moment, the clergy member also took his final breath. The alchemist quickly activated another Soul Abyss Orb. The metal sphere similarly absorbed the light-formed entity—that is, the visualized soul—into itself, but this time, the base color changed to pale gold.
After collecting his comrades' souls, the alchemist, his hands still trembling, came to Priest's side. He had little strength left to speak, so he could only turn his head to indicate that Priest should retrieve the silver cylindrical Restorative Pillar from his own storage compartment. Fortunately, the alchemist's physique was better than the clergy's and the mage's; due to his magical beast organ modifications, he hadn't been severely injured in the impact, so he could still lift the terrifying cylinder weighing several tons. Otherwise, if he dropped it, the exploration team might gain another severely wounded member.
"Wisdom never dies, order endures!"
Shouting the password loudly, the alchemist nervously looked around before placing the Restorative Pillar on level ground. Priest sat in his seat, patiently waiting for its activation countdown... The three minutes, which would normally pass in an instant, now seemed stretched infinitely. The only two conscious members of the exploration team remained on guard, scanning their surroundings, praying no enemies would appear.
But some scholars had once summarized a theorem: in this damned multiverse, no matter how bad something is, if it can happen, it will.
"Zzzzt..."
Accompanied by a faint electromagnetic hum, Priest and the alchemist simultaneously noticed rustling sounds coming from all directions. Soon, countless bizarre mechanical entities, seemingly cobbled together from several geometric shapes, appeared before them.
These were the semi-automatic machines the black mist had hastily created while fleeing, used to monitor this dangerous planet. And now, they had encountered the exploration team, the highest-priority target for elimination.
"Zzt, wzzzt!"
One strange geometric shape let out a piercing screech. It aimed a probing beam of light at the two, whose faces showed resolute determination to fight to the death. The next instant, countless geometric machines surged toward Priest and the alchemist, following the beam's guidance.
Thousands of bizarre machines raced toward the exploration team, like a silver-gray metallic tide. They surrounded them from all directions, cutting off any possibility of escape. No matter how they tried to break out, they would inevitably be blocked.
"It seems a fight is unavoidable."
Priest forced himself to stand. Though he had lost both hands, he still had both feet. Without fists, he could still kick—even if both legs were severed, leaving only his head and teeth, Priest would not give up. He sneered at these low-level derivative machines, or rather, the black mist's initial minions: "All of them, holding nothing back—just like that black mist."
On the other side, the alchemist said in a low voice, "Captain, you take the mage and run. I'll hold them off."
As he spoke, he pulled several bottles of potions from his belt, each a different color but all with violently surging mana fluctuations. Without any hesitation, the alchemist flipped up the translucent visor on his helmet, shoved all the potions, tubes and all, into his mouth, and bit down. The sharp glass could not cut the tough mouth of a Transcendent Being. The potions, mixing and reacting with each other, were swallowed into his stomach.
These potions were useless to Priest and the others. In essence, they were a catalyst that could activate all the magical beast organs transplanted into the alchemist's body at full power, granting him strength far beyond his rank. But the cost was that his flesh would be completely transformed and devoured by the beast organs, and even his soul would be shattered by the chaotic mana flow, turning him into a mindless humanoid beast.
This was his final trump card, the greatest sacrifice he could make.
Before them, countless geometric machines surged forward. In just a few minutes, they had become a vast tide, enough to cover the entire plain. Beyond the sky of World One, in the depths of dark space, a cautious and cold will watched the entire exploration team. It did not know what had unleashed that terrifying power, completely eroding its theoretically indestructible tentacle. So it preferred to hide in the darkness, waiting for the right moment.
And it was under such desperate circumstances, even though the three-minute activation countdown had not yet finished—
The slowly unlocking silver pillar suddenly shot into the air. It rapidly revived mid-flight, even though such revival would cause irreversible damage to the pillar itself. But it accelerated its activation regardless, then emitted a voice that shocked Priest and the alchemist.
"Restorative Pillar internal system self-activating, initiating emergency protocol verification... Detecting exploration team member life signals. Two confirmed dead, souls preserved intact—verification passed, meeting 'Extreme Crisis' danger criteria. Initiating crisis trusteeship protocol."
"Allowing material absorption system online. Allowing unrestricted self-replication and repair. Allowing activation of gravity manipulation weapon system. Allowing loading of stellar furnace—"
As the emotionless voice echoed through the atmosphere, the silver pillar, most of which had self-destructed due to the emergency activation, completely restored itself as if a recording were playing in reverse. The next instant, it split into thousands upon thousands of tiny light beams, darting into the countless geometric machines. The alchemist, who was about to charge into battle and was already somewhat delirious, suddenly felt a heavy punch to his abdomen. An invisible force swept through his body, suppressing all the activated beast organs back to their original state. With a 'wah,' he vomited out all the mixed potions.
Then, accompanied by a rushing sound like a tidal wave, in a single instant, all the mechanical bodies before Priest and the alchemist were completely eroded by silver radiance. Even the ground beneath them was not spared. They seemed to lose gravity, all merging together and floating into the air. In just a few seconds, they combined into a single, magnificent, colossal silver hand, as grand as a mountain range.
"Searching for hostile targets... Search successful."
The icy voice echoed through the atmosphere. The giant hand aimed from afar at the black mist hiding in the vacuum of space. Then, as the other entity watched in 'shocked' stillness, it clenched into a fist. The next instant, the originally emotionless mechanical voice suddenly shifted into a low, cold male tone.
"Combat begins."