Chapter 68: Wisdom Endures, Order Eternal
“This is the Knowledge Seizer, command hub of the First Collection Fleet. We represent all our kin, here to exchange information with the Starfall People.”
“This is Starfall Mycroft, envoy delegation of the Joint Fleet. We too come for exchange, and hope this cooperation proceeds smoothly.”
No superfluous pleasantries were exchanged.
Neither the Knowledge Seizers, who had drifted through the void for seven hundred thousand years, nor the Mycroft People, who thirsted desperately for the ‘truth,’ wished to waste time on trivial matters.
Beneath the radiance of a bright Type-A star, the two void warships slowly drew close together, beginning their transfer of information.
Due to the unique communication methods of the Knowledge Seizers, the information storage crystals offered by the Mycroft side were specially crafted products translated through magical means. Yet even so, no one could guarantee that differences in linguistic logic would not cause ambiguity, for the language systems of the two sides were fundamentally distinct. Similarly, the Knowledge Seizers faced the same trouble—the information cassettes they sent had also undergone translation.
This was precisely why the eight legendary powerhouses and the high-ranking Knowledge Seizers had come in person. Both sides needed to clarify the truth behind the information through mutual questioning, or even the simplest method of direct mental connection.
A screen of light materialized before Joshua. As the Knowledge Seizers’ information cassette opened, a flood of text, images, and even pure mental impacts and illusions appeared before the warrior’s eyes—this was the Knowledge Seizers’ script. Their emotional shifts, their tone, even the sincerity of their attitude, were transmitted directly through these fluctuations.
Joshua suppressed his own overly powerful will as gently as possible, receiving these concretized ‘tones’ and ‘emotions,’ absorbing the information within.
Then, he seemed to hear a voice.
[In the distant past, before the Great Calamity of Extinction invaded our star river, we roamed within the borders of our homeland, peacefully developing our civilization. Due to the uniqueness of our life form, we placed little value on individual life. As long as the information and knowledge that once existed were preserved, the dead would achieve immortality in the memory banks of the living.]
[The 2984th cycle ended, and our leisurely time came to a close. Seven hundred and seventy thousand years ago, the swarm of World Devourers invaded our star river. Civilizations fell one after another. Races that had taken hundreds of thousands, millions, or even tens of millions of years to evolve from unenlightened life into intelligent beings were mowed down like grass. We fought desperately against the enemy, defeating several World Devourers, but in the end, we failed. We saved no one—not even our closest allies—and could only flee in disgrace.]
[Just as we prepared to escape our home star river but were caught by the World Devourers, trapped in a hopeless situation, a strange spacecraft found us, backed by an immense fleet. They said they saw our potential. They had witnessed our customs from beginning to end. They knew that our reverence for knowledge and memory was etched into the very foundation of our bloodline, inscribed into the memes of our civilization. They believed that we, who had fought the World Devourers and survived, would continue to oppose chaos in the distant future and remember this history.]
[They were the ‘Teachings First Masters.’ They saw us as their successors. They passed on their most essential knowledge and information to us, elevating us into the hall of vast truth. They made us realize our own former insignificance, made us understand how little we, who were confined to our star river, knew of the grandeur of the multiverse and the sacred necessity of the great mission.]
[“Do not be surprised. Our civilization has reached its limit. Our mode of thought cannot achieve decisive progress before the next ‘Great Cycle.’ So we entrust the ‘possibilities of the future’ to you, and we will buy you time for that future.” So they spoke, then advanced as a whole race, blocking the assault of the World Devourer swarm, giving us the chance to flee to other star rivers.]
[Before departing, the Teachings First Masters left us a single command—that we should use all our strength, including our civilization, the life of our entire race, to protect the knowledge we had inherited. We were to defend this legacy passed down through countless generations, preventing the multiverse from losing this precious truth.]
[The ‘Order Pioneers,’ the ‘Nameless Creator Gods,’ the ‘Teachings First Masters’ all accomplished this. Naturally, we are no exception.]
[Starfall Mycroft People, we have decided to share with you our treasured knowledge and legacy. After seven hundred and seventy thousand years, we have finally found another worthy recipient of this knowledge. Let us begin now. All the data on the World Devourers we have encountered, all the data on chaos, all the history of the predecessors, and the ‘Message of the Sage of Demons’—we entrust it all to you.]
[Transmission, beginning.]
The illusion ended.
Then came a torrential flood of information.
First, there was the information on a staggering thirty-four evil gods—‘Hatred,’ ‘Unfathomable,’ ‘Contagion,’ ‘Bizarre,’ ‘Guilt,’ ‘Indifference,’ ‘Fear of Death,’ ‘Frenzy,’ ‘Tolerance’… names of chaos that were not recorded even in the Unified Grand Database of the Radiant Civilization, completely different from the evil gods the Mycroft Civilization had encountered. Alongside these emerged specific details on these evil gods: their combat methods, special abilities, and absolute energy levels.
Although none among them possessed the inconceivable power of Plenty and Death, the energy intensity of ‘Tolerance’ and ‘Unfathomable’ had reached an extremely terrifying level.
Next came the endless histories of the vast majority of inheritors—the ‘Order Pioneers,’ who piloted octopus-like eight-tentacled spacecraft, busily lighting the flame of civilization across one star river after another, elevating primitive life; the ‘Nameless Creator Gods,’ born as nebular consciousness entities, awakened by the Order Pioneers, who created one living world after another; the ‘Teachings First Masters,’ created by the Nameless Creator Gods, whose spacecraft were as wondrous and beautiful as crescent moons, yet whose actions were filled with heroic spirit, holding back the invasion of dozens of evil gods with the strength of a single race… All these glorious inheritors were not forgotten. They were firmly recorded in the database, enduring alongside all knowledge.
Finally, Joshua saw—or rather, he sensed.
A profound, fragmented magical thought.
[I have found traces of It… The Axis… were wrong. The First Flame is not ‘contracting,’ but ‘retreating.’ It… must be stopped. The radiance after burning means the darkness after extinguishing. Even if the swarm of World Devourers is annihilated, the star river will inevitably… we must take the initiative.]
[I have discerned Its core essence… Its name is ‘Eternity’… It seems to be seeking a great ‘change’… Not pursuing power, nor pursuing authority, this ancient great existence, born and appearing at an unknown time, is completely cha… The mind cannot comprehend it, no matter what.]
[Successors, remember. World Devourers will only attack civilizations below the Gadamer Classification… For civilizations below Level 2, they will at most face invasion by their minion races. World Devourers holding the power of ‘Eternity’ can only see transcendent powerhouses and civilizations qualified to achieve ‘Eternity’… So, if truly left with no other path, one can self-erase one’s civilization’s technology, allowing one’s civilization to fall to the level of a Gadamer Level 2 civilization. This way, one can be spared…]
[The Great Cycle is about to begin. Our generation of civilization will be destroyed, and I will journey to the distant Axis, seeking a possibility to break the deadlock. But even so, even if everything is extinguished in darkness, there is some information that must never be forgotten.]
[I am an explorer of the unknown, a traveler in the mist. I am the shelter of civilization and knowledge, the guardian of history and the future. When other civilizations collapse, I will stand firm. When other civilizations forget their glory, I will teach them to return to the right path.]