Translator: Atlas Studios
Editor: Atlas Studios
I stared back at Sandora as she looked at me expectantly. Suddenly, I understood what was happening. Even though she was the famous ‘Warsong Princess’, she had already been through sixty thousand years of battle. She must have been feeling exhausted.
I groaned a little and replied, “I can bring you out of here, but where are you going to go once we leave? Pandora has already told you that the Xyrin Empire… still exists in name but has practically fallen. I’m not even sure that the land you once ruled over still exists.”
Without thinking, Sandora immediately replied, “Of course, I’m going with you. We’ll go to the planet of carbon-based civilizations—the planet called Earth.”
“Ah?” I was stunned.
Sandora wanted to return to Earth with me? Who even thought of this plot? Was there really going to be another army rushing into Nanfu Street after the Heavily-Armed Pandora Corps, trying to act as alien laborers?
“Sandora, you’re kidding, aren’t you? There are so many of you…” I tried to change Sandora’s mind. One Heavily-Armed Pandora Corps had already replaced one-third of the community around me. If Sandora’s Army joined in as well, I could forget about ever meeting people from Earth again.
Although Sandora’s Army was similar to the other armies of the empire and the middle and lower band of its soldiers could be stored in the unit without intelligence in alternative space, there would still be a significant number of commanders left behind. Just the thought of sending so many people back to Earth to sell pirated discs… keke, I must have been driven crazy by Sicaro.
“Are you worried about my identity as a Xyrin Emperor? Don’t worry, I’m only staying at your place temporarily. I will not interfere with your authority. I can swear on the name of the Empire!”
…I was not worried about that at all. I was worried that if another group of pirated-disc-sellers like Sicaro appeared on earth, the first real Star Wars would occur between the Empire’s Armies and the city management.
However, seeing Sandora’s pitiful expression, I could not bear to turn her down. After all, she really had nowhere else to go.
What’s more, was this really how an empire’s sovereign would behave? Had Sandora become slightly abnormal after fighting for sixty thousand years?
At last, I gave in. “Alright, you can come back with me, but you must accede to one request.”
“Yeah!” Sandora shouted and then stood up, took two steps backward, and ran toward me.
Crack! The sound was loud and clear. “Ah!” I screamed in pain.
Broken… it’s all broken again…
…
After being cured once again…
I guess it was true that Sandora had already strengthened my body. At the very least, I could recover much quicker this time.
Today was already the third day since I arrived at this planet ruled by magic beasts. In Sandora’s base, I finally understood every detail about her and her army’s experiences.
As it turned out, about sixty thousand years ago, Sandora led an anabasis to Helenda Galaxy and emerged victorious. On her way back, she discovered this planet by chance. At the time, Sandora had only intended to play on this planet for a couple of days. Thus, she led a few of her own personal bodyguards to leave the main army and come here. Unfortunately, the day after they arrived on this planet, they lost connection with the outer world (the Empire had gone into a deep sleep).
Not only that, but the various equipment brought with them also started malfunctioning for no reason. Apart from being unable to leave this planet, their ordinary battle skills were also greatly compromised. As a result, they were engaged in up to sixty thousand years of battle with the magic beasts on this planet. Although the battle skills of each individual magic beast were not comparable to any soldier of the Xyrin Empire, there were far too many of them; and they multiplied rapidly.
What confused Sandora and her commanders even more was that they could not seem to kill all the magic beasts. Nobody knew where they came from. All they knew was every once in a while, there would be a crazy number of magic beasts charging at them from all directions. After leaving behind a bunch of corpses, they would retreat. Since Sandora had only brought a few of her personal guards with her, it was exhausting enough to reach a tie with these magic beasts. Nobody had extra resources to find out where these magic beasts were coming from.
Throughout these sixty thousand years, the only thing they understood about the enemy was that they seemed to be influenced by something called the energy of the ‘Abyss’. That explained why they became so violent.
“The Abyss is the most dangerous thing in the entire universe,” Sandora said, looking uncharacteristically serious. “It is nothing like energy or matter as we know it. To be precise, it represents a strong will, filled with pure desire for destruction and annihilation. Energy like this flows throughout the universe non-stop. Every time it stops, its will would influence everything around it. Be it carbon-based beings, silicon-based beings, or energy-based beings… even half-energy and half-structured beings like us would be influenced by the Abyss.
“What is more unbelievable is that not only can it affect intelligent life… but even things without sentience. Once the ‘Abyss’ arrives, planets would deviate from orbit, stars will burn wildly, gravitation will be abnormal, various constants will be thrown out of order, and everything will move towards destruction. One can say that the Abyss is the embodiment of destruction itself.”
When I went to ask Pandora about the Abyss, the little girl looked extremely somber. She said, “Although the remaining information I have is incomplete, I can confirm that the energy that Emperor Sandora mentioned does exist. In addition, according to the information I have on hand, the Abyss has always been the greatest enemy of the Empire.”
…I did not think that the Xyrin Empire had such a glorious history of protecting the universe.
“That’s good.” On a cliff near the base, Sandora looked out into the distance at a group of smoky mountains. As she did this, she said, “It can finally come to an end. I can finally leave this damned place.”
“It’s hard to believe that you guys could hang on for so long.” I could not help but exclaim. “If it were me, I would have gone crazy a long time ago.”
“I’m already crazy.” Sandora turned to me and smiled sweetly. Her long, curly hair started to glow golden. “Do you know what? As the emotional support of all of these warriors, I faced the greatest pressure out of everyone here. Even a Xyrin Emperor’s mind would not be able to remain clear after such a long time under such circumstances.
“Thus, after fifty thousand years of battle, I had a mental breakdown. At the time, I even planned to gather the entire army and self-destruct, so that we could perish together with this planet…”
I stared at Sandora in astonishment. She was smiling warmly, but in her eyes, I could see that she was not joking.
“Luckily, at the very last moment, I regained a sliver of clarity,” Sandora said as the smile on her face widened. “At the time, I thought that if I continued to live, I would bring huge calamity unto my warriors. They took my orders too seriously; even if I went crazy and asked them to collectively kill themselves, they would do so without any question. That was why I decided to just kill myself.
“I entered the Abyss…”
“The Abyss?” I was becoming more shocked by the second. “You mean the force that causes trouble for everyone in the universe?”
On hearing my question, Sandora could not help but laugh. “Keke, hearing you describe such a terrifying thing as a ‘force that creates trouble for everyone’ is very interesting; you’re right, it was that thing. Although under most circumstances, the Abyss would be an untouchable and invisible force, it still has its own nest. When the Abyss’ energy congealed into a physical being, an entrance would appear.
“As a Xyrin Emperor, I naturally had special abilities which I could use to locate these entrances to the Abyss. When I found one, I immediately rushed in. Even though I knew I would die, I wanted the Abyss to suffer!
“In the Abyss, I saw all sorts of things that you would never see in your lifetime. There were also evil forces that are beyond your imagination. I did not know how many enemies I killed or when I would die. I just kept fighting, day after day.
“I thought that my already-crumbling mental state would soon collapse while I was in the Abyss. Then, I would either become a battle-crazed beast without any capability of thought or be ripped to pieces by the strange enemies in the Abyss. However… do you want to guess what happened next?”
I gulped and looked nervously at the still-smiling Sandora. From her brash appearance earlier to her telling me this entire story in whispers, I felt like something was amiss. This Xyrin Emperor looked out of her mind. Perhaps her last sense of reason had already been destroyed completely while she was in the Abyss. Was she now just a puppet who was being controlled by the Abyss? Otherwise, was she just a lunatic who looked normal in every other sense?
On the spot, I did not know how to answer Sandora. Yet, she did not seem to mind. As if talking to herself, she continued, “Then… I was really consumed by the Abyss…”
Once she said that, Sandora suddenly turned back to me, smiling subtly. Then, she raised her right hand. Immediately, energy in the form of what looked like black flames flowed out of the tips of her fingers. The flames soon surrounded the entire right side of her body. A few seconds later, Sandora’s entire right side was covered in these black flames.
These strange, black flames were raging! I could no longer see Sandora’s human body. Instead, the right hand that she raised up continued to emit flames as it stretched out into a terrifying claw, measuring about half a meter long.