“Your body?”
Rhode twitched his brow and asked curiously. Alice nodded slightly and explained.
“Yes, Your Majesty. Back then when Chaos wreaked havoc, I moved the library to the Tinder Origin and barely survived the corrosion. But I wasn’t sure if the tinder would be able to defend against Chaos’s attack, so in order to ensure that my powers wouldn’t be devoured, I separated my spirit from my body and stored my body in the interval of history. Right now, this spirit of me that you’re seeing only contains a small part of my complete power. This was the only way I still had a chance of survival even if the Tinder Origin crumpled to Chaos…”
Alice paused.
“… But due to uncertain factors, I consumed too much power which weakened the link between my spirit and body. Even if I want to return to my body now, it won’t be that quick. Besides, Your Majesty, history is a process of accumulation and my body has already been buried deep down in accumulated history. I can’t search for my body within a short period of time by myself.”
“What can I do for you?”
Rhode asked. He understood what she meant. For example, Alice’s body was as though an important password which she had written on a newspaper and hid it inside a pile of newspapers to prevent anyone from discovering. But as time went by, more piles of newspapers filled up the entire room and she couldn’t find that particular newspaper. However… Rhode didn’t think that he could be of help.
“You’re the Void Dragon, Your Majesty, and we can sense that as your subjects. For that, I want to borrow your strength and re-enter the interval of history in search of my body. I don’t have any battle strength in me, so I will need to seek your powers.”
“Sure.”
Rhode nodded firmly. He wasn’t dubious of her words. Since this was necessary, there was no reason for him to hesitate anymore. This request from Alice, who was one of the six Deity Wardens, seemed no different to a mission. As a player, how could he ignore this mission? Yes, he might face trouble in the process, but he was always pragmatic.
“Alright, what do I need to do?”
Alice was surprised that Rhode agreed so quickly. She widened her eyes and blinked in disbelief. Shortly after, she returned to her usual self.
“It’s simple, Your Majesty.”
Alice extended her hand.
“I will find the approximate period of history while you will have to sense my spiritual undulation and search for my body. Then, my spirit and body will fuse and awaken. Thereafter, I will restore all my strength.”
Rhode nodded and held her hand.
“Also, Your Majesty, history is made up of situations that existed and happened. We may peep and hide ourselves within but we can never change it. No matter how tragic it is, it is all decided and shaped by countless pasts that make up the present…”
In the next moment, everything before Rhode’s eyes turned in complete confusion. The library around him disappeared in the blink of an eye and was replaced by boundless darkness and layer upon layer of floating screens that resembled images that had their brightness overdone. Not only that, but he could also vaguely see a moving human figure on the screens. At this moment, countless screens flit by him like meteors as though the scenery behind the window of a high-speed rail. Shortly after, the surrounding light spots linked up and formed a dazzling white radiance. Then, the scenery suddenly transformed.
The air reeked of blood.
Rhode stood above the steel city wall, and before him was a vast, charred land with groups of panicky, fleeing humans. The sky in the distance appeared turbid and twisted, and at the same time, a series of loud explosions boomed.
Rhode looked up and witnessed an array of beams blasting from the city walls behind him. The colorful light beams streaked across the sky and aimed at the distorted and disturbing sky. Shortly after, they struck and exploded a massive and dazzling white radiance that permeated throughout the sky, as though colors splashing on this gray world. In an instant, Rhode was blinded as everything turned into complete whiteness despite it just being an illusion. The blinding whiteness vanished after a few seconds and the twisted sky seemed to have taken a huge hit as it slowly retreated. At the same time, he heard a familiar voice.
“Hurry! We can’t delay the evacuation of the people anymore!”
“Celia?”
Rhode looked at the sky curiously and indeed, it was her. She clutched her glistening sword, stared ahead vigilantly, and commanded the soldiers to evacuate the people. In the near distance, he also witnessed groups of people bolting toward the city behind him while the pitch-black and turbid mud-like presence slowly and steadily approached them. In the sky was a presence like a tattered plastic film that was twisting disturbingly.
This was the battle between Chaos and the Void Territory?
Rhode widened his eyes in bewilderment. In fact, he had a lot of doubts about this particular battle, such as how powerful Chaos was. According to his experience in the game, not even the Chaos in the hundreds of underground floors posed a threat to his guild, not to mention the Deity Wardens. But even so, the Deity Wardens were either dead or gravely injured in this battle, which made him realize that his expectations of Chaos were wrong. Now he finally had the chance to personally witness their strength.
But it was a pity that it was too late.
Rhode shook his head at the sight of the escapees. Even though Chaos appeared to be approaching them slowly, it was in fact tens of meters high and had almost enveloped half the sky. Under such a circumstance, the escapees were only putting up a meaningless struggle.
“There’s no more time. Withdraw the suspension bridge!”
Celia seemed to understand it too. She hurriedly brandished her sword and ordered. Almost simultaneously, white steam spurted from the steel suspension bridge as it slowly rose from the surface. The escapees became increasingly frightened. They sobbed and dashed toward the bridge. Mothers carried their children while elders dragged their grandchildren, struggling to get up on the bridge before it was too late. But even so, the bridge continued to rise and at the same time, the city that was already suspended above the ground rose higher. The escapees who failed to enter the city on time held on tightly to the bridge with their dear lives. But even so, some lost their grip and fell to their deaths from the sky while the ones who couldn’t make it in time watched in despair as Chaos crashed into them like a tsunami from behind.
“13th zone crumpled completely. Activate second sets of plans!”
Celia commanded swiftly without taking a final look at the thousands of innocent people who died to Chaos. She knew that she had no time to waste. The steel city walls trembled as a three-floor-tall iron magic cannon appeared, aiming at Chaos below.
“Fire!”
Once again, ear-deafening explosions and blinding radiance tore through the entire world before Rhode’s eyes.
That’s Chaos?
Everything that happened seconds ago vanished completely and Rhode returned to the empty darkness. However, he hadn’t returned to his senses yet. Instead, he puckered his brows, comparing the Chaos that he witnessed with the Chaos he knew. This Chaos was no different from the Chaos that he saw in the game. But for some unknown reason, the moment he saw the mass of darkness, he felt really uncomfortable. As soon as he saw it, he felt as though his body had been corrupted by it. This was a sensation he didn’t feel in the game. In the game, the presence of Chaos didn’t make him feel sick or stimulate his senses through their disturbing visuals. But now, he felt an impulse from deep inside his heart, urging him to retaliate.
Besides, even though both Chaos were disastrous, he felt as though the Chaos’s attack in the game was on the devastation level of a tsunami, where there was still a possibility of surviving against it. If players were to run up the mountains fast enough, they might be able to survive. On the other hand, the Chaos that he just witnessed was as though a black hole devouring and destroying the entire planet. It was the scariest disaster, one where no matter how hard a person tried to escape, they just couldn’t avoid death.
As he pondered this, the view before him changed once again.
