The Record of Unusual Creatures

Chapter 1666: The Battle of the Doppelgangers

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Following Nolan’s broadcast of the navigation marker to the material world, the droid swarm fleet and the guardian fleet, which had been standing by for so long at the Core, immediately activated their warp engines. Countless dimensional rifts were torn open and the space at the edge of the world collapsed into a pathway as the starships and droids entered the broken kingdom of the Umbral Realm.

Seeing the glittering light in the dark void as starships and armed droids quickly materialized, Hao Ren smirked. Now, this was more like it. It’s not like you could see that sky-piercing arrow on L’Haronne every day.

Even the goddess of annihilation was startled at the sudden change of fortune. Looking up at the fleet that was appearing in droves, her voice was that of surprise. “What is this? The guardians? Ah... so these naughty children did not totally die off... That’s fine, I could use a work out now that I’m awake...”

That same moment, another voice rang out from the ground and broke the goddess of annihilation’s murmurs. “Taking me as invisible just because I’ve been quiet?”

The silver-haired, red-eyed goddess looked up. Even though she had not recovered from her 10,000-year-long slumber, her presence was still commanding. Once she finished, she nodded at Hao Ren, thanking him for blocking the first blow. She then looked at the two swords in his hand. “If you don’t mind, can I borrow one? I’m probably better than you in using it.”

“Of course. I can give them both to you. They were yours anyway,” Hao Ren said as he was about to throw both swords over and switch to his inspector pistol, but the goddess of creation waved him off and took only the silent Worldbreaker blade. “This one is enough.”

Hao Ren was stunned, and he wanted to ask if the latter felt that the Godslayer was just too talkative...

It may seem like a lengthy exchange, but this happened in barely a few seconds. The goddess of annihilation did not seem to think much of her foes, and she did not bother about making the first strike. The goddess of creation, on the other hand, grabbed on to the weapon she had used many years ago. The ripples in the universe continued until finally, a big majestic black starship materialized and a bright voice rang in everyone’s ears.

“The guardians have arrived. This is... Mother?! You’re...”

It seemed like the commander of the guardians sensed a very familiar aura, and his voice immediately shuddered.

“Let’s reminisce later,” the goddess of creation interrupted the commander directly as she raised her sword towards the white silhouette in standing in the void. With her gaze sharpened, she commanded, “Maximum firepower! Destroy her!”

With that, she swung her as a crescent light that could cut through the entire Umbral Realm shot out from the tip of her blade, charging towards the pale evil goddess in a destructive force.

The command of the goddess of creation was the truth that all guardians followed without question, and even being apart from their mother for 10,000 years, this golden rule never changed. Even if they were still shocked, elated, excited or confused, Salaman and his guardians reflexively responded to the goddess’ command, and as the destructive light blade was shot out, the entire guardian fleet fired their guns!

Hao Ren too quickly gave out his orders. “All units, maximum output. Fire at will!”

In an instant, thousands of starship cannons roared as the droid swarm rained lasers. All combat units from the material universe disengaged their firepower limitation protocols and unleashed the maximum possible firepower towards that foreboding area. This scene was almost comical, as the goddess of annihilation was but like a tiny ant before the massive starships, and even the Aiur’s sub-cannons were larger than the evil goddess...

But everyone knew, there was nothing funny about it.

Before such a bombardment, personal martial ability seemed almost pointless and even Y’zaks meteor storm was like mere ripples in the pond. Aside from Lily’s miniature Doggoblast here and there, Hao Ren and the rest quickly gave up the idea of throwing fireballs and lightning bolts towards that area. Truth be told, forget about attacking, the energy ripples caused by the bombardment of countless of starships had surged forth and the energy storm had crashed against the continent they were standing on, with lethal temperature and shock wave came crashing from above. It not for Y’zaks presence of mind in deploying a fel barrier swiftly, standing still would have been a problem in itself.

Only Noobie was bravely shooting at the sky...

The goddess of creation did not take any further actions after the attack and only looked on grimly at the burning and blinding light orb in the center of the void. That was the fusion of energy forming after the guardian’s convergence cannon fire. At the core of that energy orb, the basic laws of the universe had collapsed, but she still bore a tense expression.

Hao Ren shielded Lil Pea as he retreated to the goddess’ side. He had not noticed the latter’s expression as his focus was on the explosion in the middle of the void. “With this level of attack, it should be enough...”

“No, not enough, not at all enough.” Hao Ren was interrupted by the goddess before he could even finish, “She will not be destroyed so easily. If a fleet’s combined broadside was enough to solve this, I would not need to be so troubled back then...”

Before she could finish, the light orb in the middle of the void shuddered as the light was suddenly shrunk. The few-kilometer long light orb had shrunk into the size of barely a few meters.

“Watch out!” The goddess of creation yelled a warning as she saw that happen. At the same time, she raised her hand as an argent barrier formed around the continent Hao Ren and the rest were standing on. With her sword arm, she sent another much more powerful shock wave towards the light orbs.

The light orbs broke apart without a sound, and following that, an extremely powerful energy storm engulfed the entire dimension.

All the energy within the area seemed to be compressed and released all at once as rampaging light beams immediately smashed against everything within the universe. That included the broken continent, islands, and temple complexes. Also caught within the blast were a droid swarm and guardian starships closest to the battlefield. They could not evade in time and were torn by the attack into a stream of fireballs.

But this was not the end, as the energy feedback blasted out, Hao Ren heard a very clear voice ringing in his mind:

“I... am the shadow within all of you...”

As the words fleeted way, Hao Ren saw a slash forming from the light beams, and it was similar to the one that the goddess of creation had launched earlier. It was even following the same trajectory back. The goddess of creation immediately reacted to it as she parried the light with her sword, but she was still thrown backward for her efforts.

But to be honest, compared the things that happened after that, “Vivian’s mum being blasted away’ was nothing but a sideshow.

Hao Ren saw that within the menacing light, countless objects were slowly materializing from the void.

Those guardian starships... and the innumerable droid swarm!

For every guardian starship on the battlefield, a doppelganger was formed from the chaos, and for every combat droid, another one would appear like a ghost as dimensional ripples were torn open across the entire space; one by one the shadowy doppelganger fleet entered the battlefield. If not for the doppelgangers having a nondescript black mist around them, Hao Ren would have taken them for another wave of his reinforcements.

Yet, they were created by the evil goddess.

As the ‘doppelgangers’ appeared, the guardian starships and the droid swarm immediately locked on to the new enemies as their cannons roared. The doppelgangers reacted just as quickly and in a split second, two identical barrages landed upon each other.

The originally one-sided bombardment soon became an equal exchange of barrages as the entire ruins of the heavenly kingdom was consumed by an endless stream of explosion and lasers. And within the ongoing madness, Hao Ren could clearly see the pale evil goddess reappearing where she once stood.

Unharmed.

The goddess of creation reinforced the divine shield on the continent to defend against any incoming shells from space against this sole unscathed ground. Lily had transformed into her armored doggie mode, and the thick layer of armor gave her some degree of comfort and safety. Looking at the chaotic battlefield, she howled, “Mr. Landlord! This thing isn’t your ordinary boss! We might not be able to beat her!”

As Lily finished, the pale goddess had retrained her focus on the small group of enemies on the ground. Letting out a sinister smile, she pointed towards them. “Ah... I almost forgot about you lot.”

With that, doppelgangers started appearing around Hao Ren and this team!

Another heavily armed and armored wolf, another demon engulfed in flames and lava, and another curled up siren!

Aside from the black mist surrounding them, they were identical to their originals and soon they were all attacking their respective ‘originals’.

“F*ck! When with the goddess’ barrier...” Nangong Sanba had shivers down his spine as he saw a totally identical opposite was training his crossbow at him. But he was not a slouch either. Before the doppelganger could attack, he had already activated the protection rune in his hand, and the next second, a silver bolt crashed against the shield he held up at the very last minute. “Bloody... Eh? He isn’t all that strong?”

Y’zaks, on the other hand, exchanged fists with his doppelganger and a direct hook sent the latter backward. He let out a bold laugh, “Hah! This one’s strong as hell. This is going to be fun!”

The chaotic scene in space made discerning things difficult, but upon looking about Hao Ren noticed the unique trait of the doppelgangers: They were a complete carbon copy product of the original’s data. No matter the combat style, or combat prowess, it is identical to the original, and that resulted in a very different scenario for everyone facing their own doppelganger!

Nangong Sanba’s offense was always lackluster but he could always defend himself, so facing his doppelganger he could simply just stay on the defensive, while Y’zaks was fighting to hell and return with his doppelganger.

Two lightning-charged bat swarm clashed against each other as Vivian and her doppelganger fought. Slightly further away, two Doggoblasts collided against each other and dissipated away, that was Lily and her doppelganger blasting at each other.

Behind Hao Ren, Nangong Wuyue that also begun combat against her doppelganger: The two balls of snakes were coiled up and stabbing each other with the tip of their tails. But neither could harm the other, as they were at least twenty meters apart...

Even Noobie met her doppelganger, and the battle between the two was probably the safest, quietest occurrence on the battlefield. Seeing the two going at each other, Hao Ren felt that even the BGM had changed.

The two tiny tots stood about a meter apart. As Noobie went “biubiu!”, so did her doppelganger. But no one was being hit.