Chapter 1772: Shocked?

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

In the endless space filled with light floated countless of runes and pictures as light beams connected to massive crystal pillars and forming a structure of concentric circles, and the crystal pillars had a golden hue to it as if they were forged by light, and the universe, was a light forged universe.

In the center of the concentric circles stood a tall crystal tower, and Vivian was standing on the top of the tower, her cold eyes focusing on the runic array and holographic projection before her.

Streams of light extended from behind her, one end was connected to her spine, while another is released into the air, and the floating runes faintly responded to it. As the light stream and runes intertwined, it formed a thousand-meter-long wing of light.

“The Creation’s Engine has been activated, the Crimson Moon system entering secondary processing mode. System synchronization at 96%…”

“E-type data stream entering the highest command node. Control response rate at 100%.”

“All systems green. Releasing limiter for the Engine’s Core Unit.”

“This is Vivian Ancestor, the Creation’s Engine has arrived. The moonlight blesses everyone.”

The cold and ethereal sight had faded away, and Vivian’s own eyes started moving again. She took a deep breath and calmed her the unrest in her mind. Even when she had gone through a couple of simulations, activating both the Crimson Moon and the Creation’s Engine systems and to synchronize them together demanded a hefty computation load, and even with the sprites helping her with the computation, the load that she needs to bear as a ‘Queen Node’ was still enormous.

It was then that she had to agree with what Hao Ren said earlier. “An ace student is what it is, there’s no reasoning with super talented people. A loli goddess who’s missed out on school, lost her memory, and a literal personality split could actually design such a complex system like this… What is her brain made of?”

In the light steam behind Vivian, the sprites popped their heads out one by one, and the excitable little ones did not know what ‘tension’ was. Now at the heart of the Dark Abyss, they actually got excited. “Mistress, Mistress! The system’s activated! The system’s activated!”

“Mistress is so great!”

“Mistress, don’t you want to try releasing all the limiters? It’ll be fun!”

“Anyone saw my psionic calibrator?”

Vivian waved her hand. “This is not the time for fun and games. Focus on the systems. I’m still not used to them, and I need your help to properly control this thing.”

The sprites immediately concurred and turned into streams of light towards the glowing crystal pillars, and in an instant, the runic array and holographic projections before Vivian became much clearer.

She looked at the projection, and over there, Rheia held her arms open as she smugly told the stunned goddess of annihilation, “The real Creation’s Engine comes in a bundle!”

Yes, the Creation’s Engine was actually a bundle, and even from the blueprint it may look like an independently operational product, but the blueprint was only one-half of the engine.

The other half was the Crimson Moon or strictly speaking, Vivian.

Just as Rheia had said before, Vivian was the core of her plans, and that plan involved the Ark of Yggdrasil, the Weave of Destiny, the Godslaying War, and of course, the Creation’s Engine.

After Hao Ren and Vivian’s spirit had filled the gap in each other, only did this hidden part was revealed, the key part of the plan that even Rheia had forgotten herself, and it was the truth of Vivian’s ability to summon the Crimson Moon.

Her Crimson Moon did not have much offensive capability, and it was not just a mere projection of the Star of Creation, the power of the Crimson Moon was simply its nature as a supernatural object, and was not its ‘true nature’. It’s true nature, was the ‘vessel’ for the Creation’s Engine.

Vivian was not just the highest node in the Weave of Destiny, she was also the controller of the Creation’s Engine, the source of command of the engine.

Without the command source, the Creation’s Engine could still operate with the Gilded Disc (or the Heart of God), but it was just an automated weapon system. Only when Vivian took over the control system as part of the “Queen Node”, was the divine artifact considered complete.

In fact, Rheia had planned all of it out when she designed the Creation’s Engine, and Creation’s Engine was not be destroyed after completing its “mission”. It would become Vivian’s own vessel, and the moving server of the Weaves of Destiny’s existence would continue. In the event that the Heart of Destiny ran into issues in the future, the Creation’s Engine would be the new Heart of Destiny.

However, all those plans were not important now, and the most important thing was that the complete version of the Creation’s Engine had activated, and it outright suppressed the dark star the Goddess of Annihilation had created the moment it appeared.

“You…” The pale evil goddess glared furiously at the Crimson Moon. While the latter was crimson, there were golden hues appearing from time to time, giving its already imposing nature a divine presence. “You lied to yourself to create this?!”

Rheia was nonchalant. “Facing a foe like you who likes to invade the minds of others, lying to yourself would be natural.”

“Don’t think you had won just yet!” the goddess of annihilation roared. “Now that I have merged with the Mad Lord, its powers are mine! It’s not only you who got stronger, and here, I’m stronger than anyone of you!”

Following her apoplectic rage, the collapsing dark star that was suppressed by the Crimson Moon-Creation’s Engine operated once again, and the chaotic energies from all over the Dark Abyss surged into this already out-of-control star of disaster, forcibly wrenching itself out of the control of the Crimson Moon-Creation’s Engine.

The dimension shook once again, and at the same time, Hao Ren received an emergency report from the MDT.

“Emergencies across all fronts! The power of madness’ activities is increasing exponentially. The Overwatch Bastion is lost, and sector S-4 overrun. The droid echelon 172 to 268 has been wiped out!

“The guardian fleet is pulling back to the second line of fortress clusters and reforming the defensive line.”

“There’s a report from Valkyrie… Breaches reported across all ecosystems, the largest incursion has begun!”

Rheia still held her hands open as she guided the light of the Crimson Moon around the dark star, trying to suppress the frenzied corrupted divine artifact. “Your Annihilation Engine won’t last more than a few hours if you push it like this!”

“But before it comes apart, I can flood the entire universe with the power of chaos… and the universe that you cherish so much, you will be powerless to protect it…” The pale figure then charged at Rheia. “And here, I shall end you!”

The two goddesses started their apocalyptic battle once again as the pale power of chaos, and the golden divine words created multiple matrixes across the universe before disintegrating as they collided. In the span of a few seconds, the entire sector experienced innumerable rebirths and destruction.

Objects were created, then returned to the void, order was established before being destroyed by chaos, time and space fluctuated, intertwined, and crushed every last ancient ruin floating in the area.

Even Nolan who was hiding in the ruins had to reposition to avoid the spreading power of chaos.

Meanwhile, Hao Ren… He simply held the twin Cosmic Shards in his hand and monitored the progress of the battle without any intention of joining in.

As the force of both goddesses clashed, and the only thing available for combat were the two divine artifacts, the Dark Star- Annihilation Engine, and the Crimson Moon – Creation’s Engine, but as these two man-made stars were pinning each other down, neither had any capacity to support their side.

With the powerful energies tearing at it, the crust of the dark star was rent open with countless of wounds as the fetid, bloated flesh and metal flowed out like blood, while the Crimson-Moon too was not unscathed, as a massive waves roiled on its surprise, and the originally calm ‘Ocean of Lifeblood’ waxed and waned violently as if it was boiling. And between the waves, there was a faint golden, almost ethereal object appearing.

That faint golden shadow was the Creation’s Engine, and as the synchronization between the Crimson-Moon and the Creation’s Engine dropped, the fusion between the two would weaken, and the Creation’s Engine would instead appear, and as more of the golden shadow appears, it meant that the Crimson Moon was getting more and more unstable.

While the completed Creation’s Engine was powerful, Vivian was not well-versed in controlling it, and now that the goddess of annihilation had sent the Annihilation Engine into overdrive with the power of chaos, that made the face-off all the more difficult.

“The synchronization has fallen to 70%! Mistress, mistress, think of something!”

“The amount of data is too big! I’m gonna faint!”

The voices of the sprites echoed through the mental link as they reported all sorts of bad news. Vivian tried to calm them down and told them that the dark star was disintegrating faster than the Crimson Moon, and it would be the first to falter.

The sprites then calmed down, but Vivian was not, she knew the fate of the universe would be decided not just by the duel between the Creation’s Engine and the Annihilation Engine.

Her vision then moved to the side, where there was an independent projection, and on it was Hao Ren’s figure.

A tiny loading bar was slowly moving under the projection.

And in space, as a large number of divine words shattered, Rheia and the goddess of annihilation materialized again.

They had pulled a distance between them and were staring each other down. The pages and divine words around Rheia was significantly lesser than before, as strands of golden red blood floated around her. The goddess of annihilation did not fare any better as countless wounds marked her body, but blood did not flow out of the wounds, blobs of black mist did.

Rheia’s voice then rang in Hao Ren’s mind. “Damnation, that b*tch is tougher than I thought.”

Hao Ren immediately asked, “Can you hold her down for a moment?”

“I can, what’s your plan?”

“The first defensive line controlled by the Overwatch Bastion is fully collapsing, and all of the droid swarm and guardian fleet are retreating to the second line, so I plan to put the remaining Annihilation Lances on the first line to good use.”

“That’s quite the distance, can it work?”

“It’s the final shot anyway, what’s the use of limiters now?”

“…Right, that’s your style after all. Let’s do it!”

Divine power surged around Rheia once again as she prepared for the next round of attack. At the same time, Hao Ren summoned Nolan via the mental link. “Nolan, is the marker system still functioning?”

“What I lost was my waist, not my brains. Of course, it’s functioning!”

“Very good, you’ll be guiding the next Annihilation Lance salvo. I’m pulling ultra-long-range fire support.”