novelraw Chapter 9 Visitors from the Planetary World
Chapter 9 Visitors from the Planetary World
Isaac watched as the girl's figure completely disappeared into the golden twilight of the reeds, his gaze turning to the sky.
Looking at the blue crystal clusters in deep space absorbing cosmic radiation, the scene from which they came from is already faintly visible.
"What's new with that 'portal' over there?"
"The structure is still growing steadily, and the frequency of energy flow pulsations has increased by 0.7%."
Preliminary morphological modeling shows that its final configuration closely resembles a... transdimensional base. The AI analysis quickly responded and offered further speculation.
"I'm afraid we'll be able to return to our original universe soon."
By the river, the girl who had just been fishing with Isaac—Telt—was still sitting in the same spot.
Her gaze was fixed on the fishing rod float on the calm water, the last rays of the setting sun having quietly faded away.
She remained seated, staring at the fishing rod, as if time itself had frozen around her.
Until the invisible clock, the hand that symbolizes the flow of mortal life, clicked in the void and gently leaped past the last second.
Death, for a mortal, has brought an end to another day.
Every century, He would carefully choose a day to shed His divine cloak and sink into the rivers of the mortal world to experience the fleeting breaths, heartbeats, expectations, and disappointments.
This time, He deliberately chose this dimension, just so that He could have a chat with Isaac, the soul who had left His side, in this landscape.
For mortals, death is destined to come twice in a lifetime: once in the swaddling clothes when life begins, and once at the final resting place.
This was not Isaac's first meeting with Him, though the soul that had broken free from the wall of origin would not remember the previous encounters.
Now, He is going to begin His work.
The work is always suffocatingly heavy. Countless stars are quietly dying out, and billions of lives are facing their end in fear or tranquility.
He needs to take the hands of too many souls and lead them away.
In that distant future, even death itself will eventually disappear.
However, the trajectory of that inevitable ending hundreds of millions of years later, that cold period, seems to be quietly disturbed by some unknown force.
His figure wandered among the stars. He bent down, picked up the fragments of souls that were lost and adrift among the galaxies, placed them on a small boat in the River Styx, and pushed them into the void.
This process is neither cruel—because it ends pain and fear; nor merciful—because it takes away life and hope.
The Child of Hope also departed, and Death witnessed the connecting channel between the two universes gradually opening.
He casually raised a finger and gently tapped it in the direction of the passage, instantly smoothing out the unstable energy turbulence at the edge of the passage, reinforcing the fragile structure, and making it completely stable.
Of course, no matter which universe this rising star goes to, he will never be far from His sight. Perhaps the next time they meet, He will not feel excited and joyful, but rather frightened.
.........
Meanwhile, on the other side of the universe, on the crimson surface of a barren planet, a massive shadow slowly descends.
A colossal object tore through the thin atmosphere, crashing heavily onto the planet's surface with a deafening roar and a surge of scorching heat.
The smooth and concise lines outline a pure aesthetic of war, with heavy armor covering every inch of the hull, gleaming with a dull metallic gleam.
At the center of the ship, a huge circular emblem is clearly visible—a simple pattern with three straight vertical bars inside, exuding the aesthetic appeal of the Vitrum Empire's warships.
The hatch in the hull of the ship slid open silently, and two figures floated out from it, landing lightly on the scorching sand.
"Signal source confirmed. Although weak and fleeting, the signature matches an early Imperial beacon," Victor reported quickly, the data stream scrolling rapidly through his eyepiece.
General Craig had already designated the vast star field near Earth as the highest priority area for investigation.
In addition to Nolan being secretly dispatched to that blue planet for long-term, low-profile undercover observation.
The Empire’s last twenty Vitrums, led by Anissa and Lucan, swept through almost every suspected planetary outpost in the region like twenty devastating meteors.
They encountered the hastily arriving Planetary Alliance fleet, and a battle of vastly unequal strength broke out almost instantly, only to end in an even shorter time.
The Alliance fleet, like a flock of startled birds, was driven in all directions by the overwhelming power of the Visians, and the Empire achieved an undeniable and overwhelming victory.
However, this minor tactical victory could not dispel the immense gloom and anxiety that hung over the hearts of the Witrum players.
Before learning that the emperor still existed, they were able to rely on ancient inertia and, under the iron-fisted orders of Regent Treig, barely maintain the empire's crumbling territory, like a dilapidated building erected on ruins.
But upon learning of the Emperor's existence, they were all nearly driven mad with anxiety. Even the most eccentric and reclusive "Conqueror" abandoned his game of finding people to play with glue and began frantically wandering and searching the universe.
More than a decade has passed, and there are still no clues. Admiral Craig has further expanded the search area and begun to investigate various planets for traces of Witrum Technology.
Manpower! That's the biggest obstacle! Anissa gritted her teeth.
Maintaining even a minimum level of stability across the empire requires at least thirty Witrumans, each with their designated roles. But now, they have only twenty!
The most powerful regent, Treig, must be stationed on the homeworld of Vi, the last foundation of the empire, which must not be lost.
If time could turn back to before that terrifying "catastrophe virus" outbreak... if the Empire still possessed those hundreds of millions of brave and powerful Vikings who looked down upon the world...
They've long since dismantled this damned universe into pieces, and they'll dig three thousand feet into the ground to find His Majesty the Emperor!
The good news is that compared to their lifespan, a dozen years is too short, just a blink of an eye.
Moreover, based on the understanding of the nature of Witrum's life, even when His Majesty the Emperor was still an infant, there were very few things in the universe that could truly threaten his life.
The probability of him surviving is still very high.
Admiral Craig leans towards two possibilities: either His Majesty is still asleep in the specially made eco-ship that urgently transported him away from Planet VI, and has not yet awakened; or the ship has been discovered by some unknown force.
For some purpose (perhaps coveting the spaceship's technology, or perhaps for protection), the young emperor was hidden away.
Unfortunately, the harsh reality is that the technological tree that the planet was so proud of has been broken in too many places during the millennia of turmoil and decline.
We can barely use our existing stockpile; we have very few technological tools to detect lost spaceships, and many have been damaged over the millennia.
Anissa maintained an astonishing speed of ten times the speed of sound (Mach 10), like a silver-gray lightning bolt, skimming along the surface of the planet at high speed, catching a glimpse of a metallic luster out of the corner of her eye, unlike the reflection of rocks.
Without any hesitation, her powerful body control brought her to an instantaneous stop! The shockwave generated by the high-speed movement exploded behind her, creating a ring of air.
There, lying quietly, was a small aircraft. Its shape was sleek and simple, bearing a clear resemblance to Wittrum's early design style.
When Anissa's gaze fell upon the clearly defined circular logo with three vertical bars inside on the aircraft's hull, she felt her heart skip a beat.
Lieutenant Victor noticed Anissa's unusual pause and quickly flew closer: "Anissa? What did you find?"
"Victor, we may have found it. The Empire has almost never built a spaceship with this kind of pure ecological maintenance function."
"Except when it was time to send away the emperor when he was still an infant." Anissa raised her hand and touched the metal casing.
With a click, the hatch opened.
Vido followed closely behind. He quickly activated the portable scanner on his wrist, and the blue beam swept across the control console, hibernation pods, and somewhat cramped living quarters inside the spaceship.
"This spaceship once carried an AI, but the core model has now disappeared. Its purpose was education, assistance, and guidance. Its database also contains technological data from the Empire's heyday." Victor pushed up his glasses.
Anissa walked past the hibernation pod, where traces of life were still visible, and she crouched down to examine it.
"The Emperor has left, Vidor. Retrieve the data stored on the spaceship; we need his whereabouts."
Based on cross-analysis of the last remaining data from the spacecraft, Vidor concluded that the target's life signals and movement trajectory after leaving the spacecraft ultimately pointed to the entrance to a massive underground cave on this planet!
"Victor!" Anissa's voice was firm and decisive. "Immediately send back the highest priority encrypted message to the Vitus homeworld!"
Report the coordinates, spaceship location, database information, and... His Majesty's possible whereabouts! I'll go ahead!
Before she finished speaking, Anissa's figure had already transformed into a silver-gray streak of light, plunging headfirst into the bottomless blue cave without the slightest hesitation.
A soft yet profound blue light suddenly appeared below. The light grew stronger and stronger, instantly engulfing her!
A strong sense of spatial displacement washes over me, as if my body is being decomposed and then reassembled.
When Anissa suddenly opened her eyes, the scene before her had completely changed.
She found herself in a completely unfamiliar star system!
Before she could even steady herself and adjust to the sudden change in environment, a figure appeared in front of her.
"Who are you?" Isaac frowned, scanning the woman in the white and gray uniform in front of him. The familiar logo and the uniform he had seen in the documents made him hesitate, but he remained vigilant.
Seeing the face identical to the one in the spaceship's data, and the imposing red and white robes, Anissa was overjoyed and knelt on one knee: "Your Majesty Karl!"