Chapter 1142: Marybelle’s Decision
Everything was relative.
Rhode swore that he had never imagined the Door of Akasha to be related to Chaos. But come to think of it, it did make sense. The Door of Akasha wasn’t a product of Order to begin with. Back then, the five Creator Dragons stole it from the core of Chaos in order to start a new world, so it was impossible to treat it as an ally who swore allegiance to Order. It was merely a tool, just like antivirus software. Its job was to remove viruses and it didn’t need to care if it would accidentally wipe out one’s important doc.u.ments, causing one to wipe off tears while reformatting the computer. This just wasn’t in its range of work, after all.
In fact, this was indeed an oversight by the Creator Dragons, including the Void Dragon. Back then, they sealed their powers in the Door of Akasha and only valued how they should operate it, ignoring its essence. It was neither an ally nor enemy of Order and Chaos. Just like as the younger sister mentioned, Order and Chaos on Earth wasn’t as clear cut as they were on the Dragon Soul Continent. They were less active and be it Order or Chaos, they had no way of bringing about self-will.
Judging from this aspect, the ‘civilization’ of the Dragon Soul Continent was more advanced than Earth. In this case, after the Dragon Soul Continent arrived in this world, it would have been effortless for them to grasp the place. It was like well-trained soldiers with heavy firearms occupying the territory of a group of club-wielding and unevolved monkeys who had just learned to use tools.
However, everything was relative.
Martians had technologies that were a dozen times more advanced than Earth. They were invincible on Earth, but fell apart to a little cold. The British brought rabbits to Australia. In the end, the rabbits who had lost their natural predator became Australia’s largest ecological disaster after they reproduced ma.s.sively. This proved that the relations.h.i.+p between foreign species and natives might likely cause disasters. Rhode remembered playing a sci-fi game. The story narrated how humans boarded s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps and headed to Mars. Back then, Mars had a verdant, exuberant, and uniquely beautiful ecosphere. Humans were fascinated by it. They resided in Mars and began building their second haven. But shortly after, disaster struck. Humans brought harmless bacteria that didn’t exist on Mars. The bacteria quickly spread on Mars and broke the balance of the ecosphere. Lush forest withered. Green plains all over the surface dried up. Animals died after losing their source of food. The land fissured. After the ecosphere lost its balance, Mars’s atmosphere became thin and fragile. Eventually after several years, the ebullient planet turned into a lifeless one.
Of course, Rhode was certain that the five Creators didn’t play this game or watch similar movies. But even if they did, it wouldn’t matter too much. After all, every invasion of alien species was followed by the process of human colonization. And now, the five Creator Dragons tried all ways to escape from the infiltration of Chaos. As for what ecological hazard foreign species had on the natives… they would be dead if they didn’t escape. Who would still be in the mood to care about that?!
But now, it seemed like they had no choice but to care about it.
Rhode began to treat the issue seriously. In fact, he wasn’t sure if what his younger sister said was correct. Of course, he had to admit that there was this possibility because Chaos in the Dragon Soul Continent had self-awareness. The activation of the channel would first pa.s.s through the Chaos barrier surrounding the Dragon Soul Continent before opening up to teleportation channels connecting to other worlds. And now, in order to use the Door of Akasha to open up a channel connected to the Dragon Soul Continent, it would also need to pa.s.s through the dense Chaos barrier. In this situation, it wouldn’t be surprising if Chaos seized the opportunity and invaded.
This could also explain why no one was able to get the point. They didn’t expect themselves to come to a new world but still have to deal with their ‘old friend’.
Fortunately, this battle could be considered to have uncovered the enemy’s true ident.i.ty, which a.s.sured Rhode to a certain extent. That was how battles were. One wasn’t afraid of how powerful the other party was. One was only terrified of not knowing who the other party was. Rhode reached perfection with this method of his. In the Dragon Soul Continent when he dealt with enemies in the early stages, he tried to conceal himself as much as possible, not allowing the enemies to know his moves. Then, he would attack at the crucial moment and eliminate them completely. Due to this reason, Rhode was most concerned about not grasping information about the enemies. And now, no matter how powerful the enemies were, he felt a.s.sured after learning their true ident.i.ty and origin—at least they weren’t new foreign species and didn’t come from some underground civilization.
What Rhode wished to see the most was how Marybelle resolved this tough challenge.
The cheap tricks of Chaos here weren’t too different from their tricks in the Dragon Soul Continent. Chaos contaminated other creatures, turning them into their lackeys. But this time, only a small part of them were contaminated and they weren’t able to shake off the chaotic way of thinking of Chaos. If not, they wouldn’t have attacked and stirred trouble after gaining just some powers. Such a chaotic way of thinking really suited Chaos Beings.
But there was still a difference. Rhode discovered that the creation of Chaos seemed to become more intelligent, just like the black snake. If it were just an ordinary Chaos Being, it would basically be a fired arrow that couldn’t be recovered. Similar to devils, they charged ahead at the start of the battle and didn’t turn back after hitting the wall. They continued to crash the wall until either they were dead or the wall collapsed. As for ‘battle strategies’ like a strategic roundabout or dodging of attacks, it was totally meaningless to them.
But this time, they actually learned to escape during their fight against Marybelle?
Not only that, but Rhode also realized that this time only a small portion of Chaos clashed against Marybelle. This meant that there were still more of them to come.
So what would become of Chaos? Rhode didn’t know. But he vaguely detected the evolution of Chaos. That’s right, just like bacteria or how most foreign species died from not acclimatizing to a new world. However, perhaps a small portion of them might survive, continue to evolve, and adapt to the new environment. That was why Rhode felt somewhat anxious despite this not being something he was experiencing right now, but was the past instead. All he could do now was to watch on helplessly.
Another question was why the undead creatures annihilated so quickly. That didn’t make sense at all. Even in the face of the insane attacks from the Chaos Beings, Marybelle and the battle angel manage to resist them and the latter merely broke an arm. On the other hand, the undead creatures were completely annihilated. That was an absolutely strange incident.
But shortly after, Rhode got his answer.
Three days after Chaos Beings attacked the sacred palace, the Dark Dragon’s representative led his remaining defeated troops and finally reunited with the major forces. That’s right, the remaining defeated troops. When they reached the sacred palace, only a number of them from hundreds of elite undead creatures were left! Besides, this group with less than 10 undead creatures was the most elite force this time. But even so, judging from their miserable and powerless look, it was obvious that they had a rough time.
As for the other undead creatures? A complete wipeout!
This news stunned Marybelle and the other three representatives. Fortunately, they finally knew how the undead creatures went missing. In fact, the process wasn’t all that complicated. It happened during a rainy night. The death knight who decided to go on a patrol with his elite troops was suddenly surrounded and attacked by the undead creatures in their camp. The ambush bewildered them. Even though the death knight was powerful as the representative of the Dark Dragon, its troops were all elites, after all. It was impossible for the death knight to take on a group of them like Marybelle. However, the death knight and its trusted aides relied on their strength, barely broke through the encirclement, and made it out alive. Thereafter, for safety, they didn’t contact Marybelle immediately as they were afraid that the other areas also went into rebellion. That was why they waited for a few days and after ensuring that nothing went wrong inside the palace, they hurried over.
Marybelle and Rhode felt almost delusional to hear what the undead creatures had done. Undead Creatures betraying their own people? Oh, Lord. They were almost similar to robots, so how in the world would they do that? But shortly after, Marybelle and Rhode learned from the death knight what happened. The death knight had also conducted an investigation later on and discovered a problem.
The undead creatures that rebelled didn’t have the thoughts of rebelling at all. On the contrary, there was a mysterious energy that entered from the outside, took control over their bodies, and infiltrated their souls. In this case, the restrained undead creatures were like robots attacked and controlled by viruses. This was the biggest difference between undead creatures and living creatures. The soul and flesh of undead creatures could be separated completely. They could rely on the power of death spells to remain in the dead body. On the other hand, the soul and flesh of living creatures were combined.
Not only that, but Marybelle also sharply detected a problem. It was raining heavily when the undead creatures attacked.
Previously, it was also pouring when the guards defending the Door of Akasha lost contact.
Then, rain also came las.h.i.+ng down when the Chaos Beings attacked the palace.
According to the death knight, they were also experiencing a rainstorm during the ambush.
Moreover, the black snake escaped to the clouds after being ambushed… Marybelle seemed to come to an understanding of something.
What she needed to do now was to make a decision.
“We know what Chaos is trying to do now.”
Marybelle stood by the table, gazing sternly at the people around her who showed complicated emotions on their faces. Even though it was great news that they learned the enemies’ ident.i.ties, it was equally a challenging test for them because they knew what Chaos was trying to do.
Although the Chaos that was seeping out of the Door of Akasha was affecting and attempting to merge with the Chaos that existed on Earth, due to the seal of the five Creator Dragons, only a small portion of Chaos managed to be leaked. There was also not much to choose from between both sides because Marybelle was one of the representatives of the Order rules and had merged with the Order on Earth. In this case, it was temporarily a draw between the fight of Chaos and Order.
Both sides needed reinforcements.
But from where?
The answer was clear cut. The Door of Akasha.
It was previously mentioned that the Door of Akasha wasn’t an ally of Order. Neither did it care about who was making use of it, nor whether Order or Chaos had the upper hand. It was an ultimate creation artifact that existed before Order and Chaos had taken shape fully. There was no reason for it to be mindful of such a small matter.
And now, as Chaos was closing in, Marybelle only had to do one thing: open the Door of Akasha and allow the five Creator Dragons to bring their people over. But… There was a serious problem involved. When the channel behind the Door of Akasha was opened, it would need to pa.s.s through the Chaos barrier first. In other words, Chaos that detected some abnormalities would be ready to cause trouble. When that happened, it would once again reach out to the Chaos on Earth and dominate or even corrode the Door of Akasha as its own. What should they do if that happened?
Previously, Marybelle and the others didn’t face this problem when they first arrived. One of the biggest reasons for that was that Chaos and Order harmonized with each other on Earth and didn’t take shape and possess self-awareness. But it was different now. Chaos had occupied a place in this world.
But if they didn’t open the Door of Akasha, the situation wouldn’t get any better… which was why Marybelle had to make a decision now.
“We need to activate the Door of Akasha.”
She stared at everyone and emphasized each word. The group revealed ashen expressions. They weren’t fools. They knew how tough it was to do it, especially under such circ.u.mstances. Besides, there also wasn’t much time left for them.
The scenery started switching quickly.
In an instant, the scenes before Rhode’s eyes changed yet again. He found himself at the location of the Door of Akasha. Around the door were fully-armored soldiers, elves, angels, and Marybelle’s subordinates. The representatives of the five Creator Dragons had gathered and stood in front of the Door of Akasha. At that moment, they were chanting incantations under their breaths. Shortly after, strings of runes appeared out of thin air and circular layers upon layers of defensive barrier emerged over the Door of Akasha. Then, Marybelle stared at the door with a solemn gaze, extended her hand into her pocket, and retrieved the key.
For some unknown reason, Rhode felt like the instant Marybelle retrieved the key, she gazed toward the direction of the death knight subtly. But shortly after, Marybelle s.h.i.+fted her gaze ahead, stretching out her hand and slotting the key into the Door of Akasha.
“Please hear my pleas, o’ mighty creation artifact! Please open thy door and show us the faraway destination alongside the path of the soul!”
As Marybelle shouted, a deep rumble sounded, followed by a series of dazzling radiance erupting from the Door of Akasha. Then, the heavy stone door in front of everyone opened gradually.
A blinding white brilliance emerged from behind the door. At a glance, Rhode witnessed an endless darkness but at the same time, a path of light extended forward swiftly, reaching all the way into the boundless void of darkness. Looking at this scene, everyone couldn’t help but heave a sigh of relief. But before they were fully a.s.sured, they heard a thunderous boom.
Boom!
Here it comes!
Rhode’s heart sank upon hearing the ear-deafening roar of thunder. He turned around and witnessed the clear sky being concealed by dark clouds at lightning speed! The dense ma.s.s of dark clouds rolled, growled, and rushed ahead, concealing the entire sky in the blink of an eye. At the same time, several purple thunderbolts clapped one after another!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
In an instant, the Earth trembled, where even with the protection of the defensive enchanted field and s.h.i.+eld, they couldn’t face this terrifying disaster. However, the worst catastrophe had yet to come!
Boom!
A purple thunderbolt struck the ground, leaving a pit on the surface. Shortly after, the soil in the pit began to loosen. An arm burst out from the softened soil and shortly after, a human-shaped creature exuding a black mist crawled out of it!
He was Marybelle’s subordinate who went missing from the core region earlier!
“We’re under attack!”
In just a few seconds, they were surrounded by almost 100 powerful Chaos Beings from all directions. Apart from the missing people, there were also undead creatures that were corroded by Chaos. Not only that, but as bellows filled the sky, the surrounding forest also began to sway. Rhode witnessed the Chaos Beings that escaped previously showing up in front of them again!
In an instant, fierce roars of battle resounded in the air.
Dazzling blade rays, spiritual and magical radiances intertwined and tore apart the dusky land. At that moment, if Marybelle could free up her hands, she would instantly wipe out all the trouble. But the problem was that she was maintaining the channel with the other four representatives. The channel relied on their powers, as well as the sealed powers of the Creator Dragons in order to pa.s.s through the Chaos barrier and link up with the Dragon Soul Continent!
The path of light continued to extend forward. At that moment, soldiers and Chaos Beings clashed. But overall, the soldiers weren’t looking great as the ones who were first contaminated by Chaos were the strongest among them. Moreover, the threats from the Chaos Beings shook the entire defensive line. The representatives of the five Creator Dragons couldn’t get their hands free to give support!
The path of light continued to spread and everything seemed to be going well. But at that moment, the death knight that stood beside Marybelle and was also maintaining the channel suddenly let out a snarl. Then, its scarlet eyes instantly turned into a deep green shade. It gave up its duty, unsheathed the sword, and slashed at Marybelle with all its might!
Facing this ambush, Marybelle wasn’t fl.u.s.tered at all. She swung her arm to the side and a s.h.i.+eld appeared immediately, stopping the death knight’s attack. Even though she successfully resisted its attack, the channel that had lost two sources of power began to falter. Rhode witnessed the path of light in the distance cras.h.i.+ng to the lack of strength. Not only that, but a turbid, raging wave also erupted from within and surged along the path!
“We can’t maintain the channel!”
Looking at this scene, the two bewildered elves shrieked. Upon hearing their remarks, Marybelle swept a glance at the Door of Akasha and extended her magic wand, tapping it on the door with force.
Boom!
Along with this movement, the Door of Akasha cracked abruptly and restored into its state of the original five slates quickly. The spatial channel that they finally opened up shut down entirely. At the same time, Rhode felt his vision blinded by a flash. Then, a ma.s.sive explosion and dazzling glare enfolded the world.
Rhode’s world turned into a murky darkness.
After an unknown period of time, the darkness faded away. Rhode lifted his head and couldn’t help but take in a breath of cold air. The Door of Akasha erected before him earlier had vanished entirely, only to be replaced by a gigantic pit spanning over several hundreds of kilometers long. Not only that, but everything was also destroyed by that explosion. Only Marybelle stood on the same spot, gazing at the floating slates before her with an extremely calm expression.
“Seems like we’ve failed…”
Then, Rhode heard Marybelle’s voice by his ear.