Chapter 13: Prophecy from Afar
"What exactly is happening in the Mycroft World? How should we respond to this situation?"
In the Lost Star River, the few remaining civilizations that had survived the final war were all pondering the same question.
In fact, those contemplating this issue were not limited to the civilizations within this single star river alone.
Prophecy—this matter, in the vast majority of cases, must be divided into scientific prophecy and unscientific prophecy.
Scientific prophecy involves deducing and judging future scenarios based on existing knowledge and circumstances. While such prophecies cannot be one hundred percent accurate, they at least have substance. If there are no unexpected incidents like invasions from otherworldly civilizations, their accuracy is very high.
As for unscientific prophecy, in common terms, it generally refers to the ramblings of charlatans and witches, casually fabricated and alarmist futures. This type of prophecy is overwhelmingly abundant, yet its accuracy is astonishingly low. Even if one or two happen to be correct, it's like a blind cat catching a dead mouse—after all, if seven or eight prophecies all predict the same thing, then regardless of whether the outcome is good, bad, or indifferent, one of them will be correct.
However, there remains a small category where prophecy is neither scientific yet still incredibly accurate.
That is to directly use transcendent power, burning inspiration, to deduce in an instant the 'future' that, based on the original circumstances, even the prophet themselves does not understand and could not possibly know.
The Takur Annihilation Order excels at this very art.
When the massive yellow sun stood at the zenith of the sky, and when the enormous 'Guidance' formation was completed, a grand-scale prophecy ritual intended to foresee a distant star river began high in the air.
Ignite the flames of arcane power, perform spatial-temporal positioning, play the music of Aether, blur the boundaries of the void, command the elements to dance, allow the elements of the two realms to interpenetrate, use psionic energy to communicate with all things, and gather all intelligence.
To other void civilizations outside, the Takur Annihilation Order, as an exclusionary religious organization, appeared only adept at destroying everything, not at gathering intelligence.
But in reality, this was not the case. Using powerful and accurate prophecy spells to collect information that others believed to be secret was the Order's most skilled specialty.
The Third Prophet of Takur stood at the very center of the altar, using its enormous single eye to gaze at the faint starlight in the distance. The sun's brilliance dimmed the light of all stars within the world, but the Takur people, extremely sensitive to light perception, could distinguish starlight even at the brightest noon. This race, resembling cyclopean giants, possessed robust physiques and keen eyesight, making them naturally the best observers.
In the distance, the legendary Lost Star River could now be predicted using prophecy spells... In the past thousands, even tens of thousands of years, it had been wrapped in a coat of red light, impossible to detect, impossible to predict, and even impossible to confirm its existence.
For things that could not be utilized, the Order never invested a shred of attention. A world star river undoubtedly represented infinite wealth, but if it was unreachable, it was as good as non-existent. However, not long ago, with that flash of light visible across the entire multiverse, everyone—including the Takur people and their eternal enemies—was astonished to discover that the Lost Star River, originally isolated outside the multiverse, had reappeared in the world, now observable and predictable.
The ten-thousand-year war with their ancient foes had plunged the Order's development into a long stagnation. All available forces were deployed to fill the endless void battlefields of the front lines, and all conquerable world star domains had already been seized. When this new star river appeared, the only thought in the Takur people's minds was that the time had come.
As long as they could acquire more resources from this star river, they might be able to overwhelm their eternal enemy and win this epochal war.
Thus, they began to use their most powerful transcendent formation to conduct a comprehensive prophecy targeting that world star river.
Although it was called a prophecy, those who understood the principles of this spell knew that the so-called 'Guidance' formation was actually one of the most advanced detection formations in this multiverse.
By employing profound space-time sorcery, they opened small spatial-temporal fissures, using Aether as the formation's foundation to exchange the six elements on both sides of time and space. Finally, through psionic energy, they temporarily activated these gathered otherworldly elements into 'spirits'. By questioning (or torturing) those distant, native 'elemental spirits', they obtained local intelligence.
How vast is the scope of elemental flow? They drift along temporal rifts, brushing past one world after another in the void. Questioning these elemental spirits undoubtedly yields a wealth of information, which is then used to deduce the 'prophecy'—this is the truth behind prophecy.
Behind the seemingly mystical formation lies the most profound technology.
The Third Prophet concentrated intently on maintaining the formation's operation. As one of the Order's five prophets, it specialized in prophecy and divination, predicting the outcomes of wars. It skillfully guided the power of millions of transcendent believers, shaping a super-formation in the sky vast enough to cover the earth's surface. One could see the power of millions of transcendent beings converge into a single, hazy mass of light. Like a reverse-falling meteor, it shot straight into the sky, effortlessly activating the Guidance formation.
The energy consumed in that instant was enough to level the surface of a world to the ground.
And at the center of the formation, the Third Prophet, engaged in the prophecy, saw three massive 'spirits', temporarily activated by immense psionic energy.
"Tell me, if we were to march into that star river, what is the greatest danger we might encounter?"
The Third Prophet raised its right hand, its powerful binding divine magic distorting even the light itself, as it questioned these temporarily existing, powerful lifeforms.
Granted life by the ritual but also bound by it, the three immensely powerful elemental spirits, seemingly omniscient, circled the Third Prophet. In an instant, they understood their mission through the ritual and revealed three visions to the Third Prophet.
The gray elemental spirit showed the first vision.
Metal, crystal, and a silver mist. The mournful sound of war horns intertwined with the sharp noise of steel grinding, echoing within a vast, empty world.
One could see the ground covered with sturdy steel-crystal obelisks. At the base of these obelisks, bright soul-lights flickered.
In the distance, high in the sky, a silver sun was shining. An unparalleled pressure, carrying a chilling, trembling aura of destruction, surged forth, radiating a light that terrified all things in all directions.
The cyan elemental spirit showed the second vision.
Ruins. One after another.
In a dark void domain, a small, shattered galaxy was gradually dissipating. The mother entity that had once been the galaxy's center was now sealed. And the cage that imprisoned it—a prison seemingly capable of suppressing everything—lay not far from the galaxy.
The mother entity of the black mist had fallen into slumber.
Within a surging void great maelstrom, a world slowly moved at its center. Inside, a Steel Serpent guided puppets and lifeforms to coexist and labor in this newborn world. And at the center of this world, gradually recovering from desolation, a grave holding a small crystal endured the howling of the wind.
The Time Dominator had long since passed away.
On the periphery of a silver world, the number and scale of void observation posts and fortresses were steadily expanding. These void fortresses, built at the most advanced speed, possessed defensive power sufficient to withstand any attack and offensive power capable of breaching any defense. They could obliterate an attacker into unthinking nothingness while the attacker was still pondering the question, 'Is the gun stronger, or the shield?'
The awakened evil god had just been annihilated.
Finally, the red elemental spirit showed the last vision.
It was a strange world, a plane composed entirely of the four elements: fire, water, earth, and air. This world was beautiful and scenic, inhabited by countless small, high-energy lifeforms. But within this world, two beings with distinctly different styles were walking along its edge.
One was an old man, and the other was a black-haired man.
And just as the elemental spirit displayed this scene, both of them simultaneously looked up, staring into the void.
From the Third Prophet's perspective, it was as if two terrifying existences, their entire bodies burning with unimaginable spiritual light, were staring directly back at it.
"Who is it?"
"Who dares to spy on us?"
A deep voice seemed to cross worlds. In that instant, the Third Prophet felt itself pierced by infinite light, then sliced into pieces by blades. An icy, bone-piercing chill seemed to freeze its shell, but the killing intent did not stop. Instead, it continued along the Guidance formation, spreading towards the other side of time and space.
In that moment, the Third Prophet seemed to see a towering mountain of iron, so massive it was almost unbelievable. On one side of the mountain, a dazzling blaze of fire flickered. But as the mountain shifted, a great wind and snowstorm swept across the world, and it realized that the iron mountain was merely the finger of a titan god.
And it was right in the palm of that titan's hand. The fire and the titan both stared at it, as if trying to see through everything.
The ritual ended.
The massive Guidance formation began to slowly dissipate. The three elemental spirits returned to their original forms—a collection of drifting void elements.
But the Third Prophet remained dazed, floating high in the air by instinctive psionic reaction.
"What's wrong?"
A voice sounded in the Third Prophet's ear. Another powerful existence asked its companion in confusion: "Strange, what did you see that made you freeze like that?"
"High Patriarch..."
After a long while, the Third Prophet finally snapped out of it under the urging of the Order's supreme leader. It rubbed its single eye, swallowed its saliva, and spoke cautiously and carefully: "Please forgive my negligence and weakness... but indeed."
"That world star river... it's better not to go there."