Desolate Era

“Where did this thing come from?” Ji Ning stared at the titanic sphere located at the very center of that giant silver vortex. At his level, he was able to see at a glance that this terrifying celestial object was the source of the threat to the entire Chaosverse.

Everything within the Chaosverse, be it the emptiness of space, the endless Great Dark, or the countless living beings, were all part of the Chaosverse. In life and in death, they remained parts of the Chaosverse. Their deaths would not weaken the Chaosverse.

However… if their energies were somehow swallowed away, this would in fact harm the prime essences! The Sithe, for example, wanted to kill as many Autarchs and Hegemons as possible, then draw away their truesoul fragments and cause the prime essences to weaken. After the Chaosverse was weakened to a sufficient extent, the Sithe would have a chance at binding and controlling the entire Chaosverse.

All things were part of the Chaosverse. Destroying and devouring the souls of ordinary mortals would also weaken the Chaosverse, but doing this would be too slow and inefficient! The Sithe soul-eater technique could only be used to swallow truesouls that had been destroyed in extremely close proximity. It would probably take the Sithe tens of millions of chaos cycles to slowly do this to the countless living beings in a single realmverse!

This was why they had chosen to act against the Autarchs and the Hegemons instead. And now? This hole-riddled, realmverse-sized sphere was swallowing away even the darkness of the Great Dark! It was somehow devouring the darkness in a way that completely destroyed it, causing the Chaosverse to forever lose its energy.

This wasn’t an issue in the short term, but given enough time it would cause the Chaosverse to suffer grave injuries, and possibly even weaken the prime essences enough for the Sithe to bind them.

“Where the hell did this terrifying celestial object come from? Who made it?” Ning was puzzled.

……

Eventually, the other Autarchs began to arrive as well. All of them stared at the behemoth sphere for a long period of time.

“Its enormous and riddled with holes, almost like a beehive,” Autarch Titanos said. “Its powerful aura reminds me of the aura of the Sithe heartlands! It was that very aura of danger which made us hesitate to go inside and instead opt to seal it away. This thing reminds me of it.”

“Yes, but there are some differences between it and the Sithe heartlands,” Autarch Stonerule said. “The Sithe heartlands hold an energy generator which powers many of their Daoguard Towers. This mysterious hive, however, is continuously swallowing and destroying the energy of the surrounding area! The more it swallows, the more our Chaosverse loses and the weaker our Chaosverse becomes.”

“Why did it suddenly appear here? There’s no way our Chaosverse would’ve naturally given birth to such a terrifying thing,” Autarch Skyfeeder said.

“This is a Sithe trump card,” Autarch Titanos said.

“The Sithe?” Ning and the others all turned to look at Autarch Titanos.

“Are you absolutely certain?” Ning asked. “Can it possibly be from another civilization?”

“It is Sithe,” Autarch Titanos said with absolute certainty. “I’ve spent countless aeons analyzing Sithe weaponry. As soon as I took a close look at it, I could tell that this behemoth hive is actually a single vast weapon! It was created for the express purpose of devouring and destroying the energy of the Chaosverse, which would cause the Chaosverse to weaken.”

“How can anyone create such a gigantic, powerful weapon?” Autarch Bolin asked.

“It is overwhelming. I can feel that it is on a completely different level from Exalt-class Daoguard Towers. Not even the strongest Sithe weapons we faced during the Dawn War could even come close to comparing with this thing.” Autarch Mogg found it just as hard to believe that this realmverse-sized object was a manufactured weapon.

“The Sithe heartlands contain an energy generator which powers their Daoguard Towers,” Autarch Titanos said solemnly, “While this titanic, terrifying weapon also holds an energy generator within it, which is what allows it to function and forcibly tear away energy from the Chaosverse and devour it. That’s why I said it reminded me of the Sithe heartlands.”

Ning and the others were all rather shocked. The Sithe heartlands had been created at incredible cost. This thing before them was apparently on the same level of power?

“The Sithe have been biding their time for countless aeons. We should’ve expected their first move to be an extraordinary one,” Autarch Bolin said with a grim smile.

“We’ve been making preparations ever since the last war concluded. It seems the Sithe have kept themselves busy as well,” Autarch Stonerule agreed.

“Let them come. We’ll handle anything they can dish out.” A murderous look flickered through Autarch Mogg’s eyes. The danger which had just manifested before them had stirred all of the Autarchs, awakening their combative instincts which had lain dormant for so long.

The final war against the Sithe had yet to truly begin, but the Sithe had already made an absolutely terrifying opening gambit!

“We have to destroy it, and we need to move fast,” the golden-robed Ning said. “But… how? I can vaguely sense that this behemoth hive is filled with tremendous danger. Even if all seven of us go, we still wouldn’t necessarily be able to successfully deal with it.”

“The behemoth hive is definitely dangerous.” Autarch Titanos glanced at the other six. “And what if the Sithe suddenly launch the war after our avatars go inside and then are somehow trapped? Only half of our total combat power would be available to fight in the war, and we could very well be defeated.”

“Right.”

“We can’t all go inside! We need to be ready for the war to breakout.”

“How many of us should go inside?” The Autarchs and Ning began to discuss this matter.

Adding in their avatars, they had a total of fourteen Autarch-class combatants! Based on their previous experiences, they had to have at least ten Autarch-class combatants in order to keep a handle on the situation and not be caught flat-footed. However, given how long the Sithe had been biding their time, it was entirely possible that they would unleash something completely unexpected. Even ten Autarch-class combatants wouldn’t necessarily be enough.

“Let’s send in two to take a look,” Autarch titanos said. “That way, we can still be at close to peak power if the war breaks out.”

“Who should go inside?”

“I’ll go inside!” Ning was the first to volunteer.

“You, Darknorth?” Autarch, Titanos, Bolin, and the others all looked towards Ning.

Ning stared at the enormous silver vortex and the behemoth hive at its heart. “We don’t know anything about what this thing holds or what dangers might be present. We’ll probably have to destroy the entire thing in order to stop it! Of the seven of us, I am the most well-rounded and am the best at dealing with unknown dangers. I have some skill in every single Dao.”

Titanos and the others all nodded in agreement. Ning was very well-rounded and was quite skilled in every Dao. He had mastered even the Karma Sword Dao and the Numerancy Sword Dao. He was indeed the best of them in dealing with unexpected dangers.

“Very well.” They all nodded in agreement. Without question, Darknorth was going to be one of the two to go inside. He would be given the primary responsibilities for destroying this behemoth hive.

“I’ll go as well.” Autarch Mogg smiled. “I’m the master of the Space Daobirth Essence and have the keenest understanding of how space works. I’m the best at scouting out nearby dangers.”

None of the other five Autarchs disputed this. They all agreed once more. Everyone knew where their respective skills lay and who would be most effective in dealing with this behemoth hive.

“The other Autarchs should all return to their respective stations and prepare for war to break out at any time,” Autarch Titanos said. “Darknorth and Mogg, send in your avatars! I’ll stay here to stand guard and keep a watch on things, to prevent anything unexpected from happening.”

“Very well.”

“It is settled.”

……

Ning and Mogg had both sent their avatars to this place, and so all they had to do was make some minor preparations before flying together towards that silver vortex. As for the other five Autarchs, they watched from afar as Ning and Mogg flew off into the distance. The five only departed after seeing the two safely enter the vortex.

“I hope they can destroy that thing,” Bolin said.

“Even if they cannot, they have to stop it from functioning,” Autarch Titanos chuckled. “I’m confident in Darknorth’s skills. Even if he fails, he should be able to get a clear sense of what lies within that behemoth hive and how it operates.”

“Right.” Ekong, Skyfeeder, and Stonerule all nodded. They could all vaguely sense that after 6 million chaos cycles of training, Darknorth was now most likely the strongest of them all… and he was also the most well-rounded!

……

Space twisted around the golden-robed Ning and the tall, thin, azure-robed, scale-faced Mogg as they continued to fly forwards through a dimensional tunnel that led into the silver vortex.

The gigantic silver vortex was filled with apocalyptic power. Only Exalt-class beings would be able to just barely be capable of surviving this place. However, Mogg’s dimensional tunnel was quite stable and it brushed aside all the power which clashed against it.

“Almost there.” They continued to fly through the silver vortex, the behemoth hive slowly growing in size as they moved closer and closer towards it.

The countless tunnels covering the hive were dark and unfathomably deep. All forms of energy which entered those tunnels vanished without a trace, never to be seen again within this Chaosverse.

Whoosh. Whoosh. Ning and Mogg both descended towards the surface of the behemoth hive. The hive was protected by layers of frenzied, semi-translucent energy which furiously assaulted the two of them, but they were brushed away before they even got close. Ning and Mogg landed on the icy surface simultaneously.

This enormous weapon, the size of an entire realmverse, was so vast that ordinary Hegemons and Emperors couldn’t even see it in its entirety. Ning’s gaze transcended spacetime, and so he was able to see it clearly.