Chapter 459: The Outside World
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
How big was the whole space bubble zone? So far, no one dared to give an accurate number. Even the great scholar, who successfully "calculated the whole universe" could only assume the theoretical value of the space bubble boundary. The number of space bubbles within this boundary was unknown. People only knew that since the beginning of time, only a small part of the "whole world", in which they lived in had been explored. Even the oldest elves and spirits had never set foot on the desolate rim of the bubble zone. And even among the planes that had been explored, the ones that were habitable were very little. Most space bubbles were discarded right after any exploration. There were no resources, no air, no water, only lethal radiation and poisonous soil... Countless slaves had been sent to explore the planes and they used their own lives to mark the uninhabitable ones. The greatest masters of magic in the world were also unwilling to build their own wizard towers in a place like that, because they could not find anything there. There were a few exceptions like a handful of mad wizards, but let's ignore them.
Mortals were self-centered creatures, just as people on Earth believed themselves to be at the center of the world. Scholars in the human world had also built a superficial model after exploring space bubbles. They put habitable planets they found in the middle of this model, and according to their degree of desolation, the farther away they were from the space bubble, the harder it was to maintain survival. This superficial model had no boundaries, only a label on the outside of a series of borders. It was all wildernesses beyond it.
Considering the disorderly spatial structure of the space bubble zone and how the space bubble itself did not sort the way it would in a three-dimensional space, this superficial model proposed by those in the human world was quite true. Anyway, it did not matter which space bubble was in the middle of the model. The model was still useless, because other than the known habitable planets, people still knew nothing about the desert areas.
Y'zaks' legion were the only intelligent creatures in their world who had tried to visit the desert over tens of thousands of years. Nonetheless, they were not able to reach the real border of the bubble zone.
The fleet was moving through a strange and hostile environment. After crossing the last small human kingdom, there was no life ahead. Outside the teleportation portal, there were endless storms, highly toxic oceans with huge waves, and strong cosmic radiation. They could even rub against some dangerous celestial bodies. If the Petrachelys had not detected the situation opposite the gate in advance, it would have been possible for the Aerymian spacecrafts to break into pieces in the dangerous bubble zone. Back then, Y'zaks dared to explore the place without even having a spacecraft; what a man! He was really lucky to not have his legion entirely annihilated.
In order to better observe the road ahead of them, have a clear picture of the entire route, and more importantly, stop Lily from causing any disturbance, they returned to the bridge in the Petrachelys. From the external monitors, they saw the marvelous spectacle of tempestuous waves and stormy seas in a desolate plane. The world looked all white with endless "snow". Huge, white bubbly waves thousands of meters high rolled up under the traction of a giant celestial body in the sky. Then, they slowly crumbled and turned into snowflakes all over the sky, falling silently.
Lily dragged Y'lisabet along to squat in front of the holographic projector. One after the other, they exclaimed, "Aww, snow!"
"Wow! So beautiful!"
"I wish I could put something around my neck, then go out, drag something along and run..."
The husky's ancestral instinct from the Arctic Circle was stirring.
But, it was not actual snow. The white stuff that blotted out the sky and land was nitrogen, which had frozen at low temperatures. The fleet was passing over a freezing and deadly giant planet. The portal door opened directly into a storm of snow-like solid nitrogen and the ship entered a world of "snow". In the previous plane, they trudged tens of thousands of kilometers in empty space. These were the places that were unsuitable for survival. It was very possible to encounter places that were bad and worse.
The giant wreckage was covered with a layer of white nitrogen snow, but it was all good. The gravity regulators were working well and it seemed like it was only a matter of time before they arrived at the World Gate safely.
With such a big guy in tow, there was no way that the Aerymian fleet would have been able to cross the border in just one day. The speed they were traveling at was now less than one-third of the fleet's maximum speed. The fleet would probably have to trek for two days across a series of strange planes to reach the door of their home. Despite that, everyone was in a good mood. The whole operation went smoother than expected, and there were no big losses for the elves of Aerym. The armies of this world were unprepared for the battle against warships, which caused their planned counter-attack to last only a little while. Anyway, it did not matter.
"You left those words behind before you left.." Hao Ren turned to look at Y'zaks and said, "You do love this world deeply."
"I did it so that they'll at least have a bit of motivation." Y'zaks smiled and said, "Since they're finally holding up together, I should try to make it last longer. Hopefully, the demons will have a long relationship with the human world under this pressure. That way, from generation to generation, a loose coalition will finally become a habit. There will still be wars. After all, war is also a driving force for progress, but the war of internal friction that killing off their opponents blindly as before should not happen again. From now on, they have a common goal."
Hao Ren laughed and said, "Well, their common goal in the future should be to go to the depths of the universe and kill you again. Imagine the faces of those unfortunate kids that after thousands of years, when their descendants finally figure out the epoch of the great universe, follow the ancient prophecies and get ready to fight against the demon king, only to find that the demon king is just teasing them."
Y'zaks shrugged and said, "Who knows? It's also possible that the few words I left them can only bring them together for a while, or it may only be enough to push the world half a step forward. The change of short-lived species is too difficult to speculate. The change from generation to generation makes cultural heritage and historical records less reliable. Perhaps, in the end, no one knows the truth of the prophecy of the demon king, except the elves and the spirits, and perhaps the new generation of 200 years later will take the prophecy of 'the demon king will one day return from the depths of the universe' as a myth. But anyhow, it's better to take a half step than to stay put. At least they'll have a shadow hanging over their heads over a long period of time to make them work hard for a generation."
Then Y'zaks laughed and said, "I've done what I have to do. I'm not God, how can I predict the track of the world after I left? But at least it's better than before. Hey, I think I can retire now."
Vivian looked at Y'zaks with a strange expression. "You are really ... You look like you're not angry or sorry? You've risked for hundreds of years, and in the end only to push the world to step forward half a step, and your name will be on their blacklist forever, don't you feel aggrieved?"
Y'zaks grinned, "That's how demons think. Why should I care? My goal is clear, I want to enter the sea of stars, I want to end the wars between races. Now that my goal has been achieved, what am I dissatisfied with?"
Hao Ren looked at him and asked, "You don't mind even if the whole world hates you?"
"It's none of my business."
Everybody, "…"
So that was his attitude of what everyone in the world thought of him.
The fleet continued to navigate and was finally approaching the destination.
There had been a number of a continuous number of planes are boundless space. The rule of 'teleportation portals were mostly near large celestial bodies', which had previously been caused by some kind of gravitational focus, had become invalid. The spacecraft passed through the portal and entered an increasingly large universe. This was a sign that the space bubble zone was about to end.
Y'zaks came out of the spaceship, sat cross-legged on the upper armor belt of Petrachelys, and watched a wonderful fully reflective sphere enlarge rapidly ahead of the fleet.
That was the last teleportation portal. The structure of the fully reflective spherical surface was very different from the previous teleportation portal, which indicated that the real universe was on the other side of the door.
After crossing the portal, they saw a scene that had never been seen in the space bubble area.
A sea of stars.
Y'zaks relaxed his body, lying on his back on the armor belt, not mind the radiation of cosmic rays. He narrowed his eyes under the starlight, seemed to blend into space and feeling the stars shining in the universe.
Vaguely, a stooped figure reappeared in front of him. His hair was messy, his clothes were shabby, his face was wrinkled, and he stormed and scolded, "You messed up my data!"
"Hey ... Old man. You're right. It's a big world out there."