Chapter 1 The Beginning

In an endless space filled with radiance, countless symbols and images floated. Beams of light, like bridges in the void, connected between enormous crystal pillars, interweaving into multiple concentric circles. These huge crystal pillars appeared to be made of light themselves, with their almost transparent, light-gold color—the entire space was a world forged from light.

At the center of the multiple concentric circles stood a tall crystal tower. Vivian stood at the top of the crystal tower, her eyes coldly watching the rune list and holographic images before her.

Streams of light extended from her back, one end connected to her spine, the other dissipating into the air, faintly echoing the runes floating in the air. A large number of light streams and runes intertwined, as brilliant and dazzling as wings thousands of meters long.

"Genesis Engine initiated, Red Moon system transferred to secondary processing mode, system synchronization rate ninety-six percent..."

"E-type data stream transferred to the highest command node, control response rate one hundred percent."

"All systems in good condition, engine basic unit limiter released."

"This is Vivian Ansester, Genesis Engine is in position, moonlight blesses everyone."

The cold and blank look faded slightly, and Vivian's eyes regained their agility. She took a breath to calm her somewhat turbulent mental power: Although she had simulated and tested it several times, driving the Red Moon and Genesis Engine systems simultaneously and embedding the two systems together still put a certain computational burden on her. Even with the fairies helping to share the computing tasks, the pressure on her as the "Queen Node" was still enormous.

At this time, she couldn't help but agree with Hao Ren's words: A genius is a genius, and a gifted player is just unreasonable. How could a loli goddess who was amnesiac, had lost her education, and suffered from mental schism design such a complex system? What was her brain made of?

In the streams of light behind Vivian, the little fairies popped their heads out one after another. These chattering little fellows didn't know what tension was. At this moment, they were actually excited in the very center of the dark abyss: "Queen, Queen! The system is starting! The system is starting!" "The Queen is so amazing!" "Queen, do you want to try opening all the limiters? It's so fun!" "Has anyone seen my psionic regulator?"

Vivian waved her hand: "Now is not the time to play. Keep an eye on each system—I'm not familiar enough with them yet. I have to rely on your instincts to control this thing."

The fairies agreed with a bang, and then turned into streams of light and flew towards the light-gold crystal pillars in the distance. In an instant, the rune arrays and charts in front of Vivian also became much simpler and clearer.

She turned her gaze to the holographic projection in front of her, where Leah was spreading her hands, telling the astonished Goddess of Annihilation with a smug look, "The real Genesis Engine needs to be sealed!"

Yes, the Genesis Engine needed to be sealed. Although it looked like a complete product that could operate independently from the blueprint, in fact, those blueprints were only half of the engine.

The other half was the Red Moon, or rather—Vivian.

As Leah had said before, Vivian was the core of all her plans. These plans included the Yggdrasil Ark, the End Network, the Godslayer War, and of course, the Genesis Engine.

After Hao Ren and Vivian's souls were completed with each other, these most critical hidden parts were finally revealed. They were the "key to the plan" that even Leah herself had forgotten, and also the truth of Vivian's ability to "summon the Red Moon."

Her Red Moon was not an offensive skill, nor was it simply a "projection of the Star of Creation." The Red Moon's powerful power was merely an attribute inherent in it as an extraordinary thing, and could not be considered its "essence." The essence of the Red Moon was actually the "container" of the Genesis Engine.

And Vivian was not only the highest node of the End Network, she was also the controller of the Genesis Engine, the source of the engine's commands.

Without this command source, the Genesis Engine could still run relying solely on the Golden Disk (or the Heart of God), but it could only run as an autonomous weapon. Only when Vivian, as the "Queen Node," was connected to the engine's control system could this artifact be considered complete.

In fact, Leah had planned this step when she designed the Genesis Engine—the Genesis Engine would not be destroyed after completing its "mission." It would become Vivian's backup flagship, the "mobile server" of the End Network, and continue to exist. If the End Hub ever had problems, the Genesis Engine would be the new End Hub.

However, these plans were no longer important. What was important was that the complete version of the Genesis Engine had finally been activated, and it had completely suppressed the dark celestial body built by the Goddess of Annihilation almost from the moment it appeared.

"You actually..." The pale evil god glared at the completely descended Red Moon, which was still full of blood, but a wisp of golden light occasionally flowed out of that blood color, giving it a hint of sacredness in addition to its fearfulness. "To create this thing, you actually deceived yourself?!"

Leah said calmly: "Isn't deceiving yourself a normal method to deal with an opponent like you who is good at exploiting the loopholes in people's hearts?"

"Don't think you've won!" The Goddess of Annihilation roared, "I am now one with the Lord of Mad Howls, and its power is my power! It's not just you who can become stronger—here, I am stronger than all of you!"

With the Goddess of Annihilation's rage, the dark celestial body, which had already been suppressed by the Red Moon-Genesis Engine and was beginning to collapse, began to operate again. Chaotic forces from all over the dark abyss poured into this out-of-control disaster star, forcibly breaking free from the control of the Red Moon-Genesis Engine.

Space began to shake once again, and at the same time, Hao Ren also received emergency information forwarded by the Data Terminal:

"All defense lines are in critical condition! The activity of the Power of Mad Howls is beginning to increase dramatically—Watch Fortress has fallen, S-4 defense line has fallen, and unmanned aerial vehicle Legion squadrons 172 to 268 have been annihilated!

"The Guardian Fleet is retreating to the second fortress cluster to rebuild the defense line.

"Valkyrie sends a message that all ecological planets have intrusion points, and the largest-scale invasion has begun!"

Leah opened her hands, guiding the light of the Red Moon to focus around the dark celestial body, trying to suppress the runaway corrupted artifact: "If you keep doing this, your 'Annihilation Engine' will self-destruct in a few hours!"

"But before the engine self-destructs, I can spread the power of chaos throughout the entire universe... You will ultimately fail to protect this world that you cherish..." The pale figure rushed towards Leah, "And before that, I will get rid of you first!"

The two gods once again began a grand confrontation. Pale chaotic power and light-gold divine runes constantly constructed fortresses in the universe, and then collided and annihilated each other in an instant. In just a few minutes, the entire space seemed to have experienced countless cosmic rebirths and destructions.

Matter was created and then returned to nothingness. Order was established and then destroyed by chaos. Space and time rose and fell, intertwined, almost crushing all the ancient wreckage floating in this space.

Even Nolan, who was hiding in the wreckage, had to start moving around to avoid the escaping chaotic power.

And Hao Ren... he was just gripping the two longswords in his hands, paying attention to the progress of the battle, but had no intention of participating in the battle.

Under the collision of the two gods' great power, the only things that could still exert their power on the battlefield were the two artifacts: the Dark Celestial Body-Annihilation Engine and the Red Moon-Genesis Engine, but these two artificial celestial bodies were also mutually restraining each other, and had no spare power to support either side.

Under the traction and tearing of powerful forces, the crust of the dark celestial body was cracking with countless huge wounds. Those swollen flesh tissues and metals flowed out of the cracks as if they were melting, but the Red Moon was not unscathed either. Waves of blood-colored waves were surging on its surface, and the originally still "Sea of Origin Blood" was surging wildly as if it were boiling, and between the rising and falling waves, one could see light-gold, semi-illusory objects flashing from time to time.

Those light-gold phantoms were the Genesis Engine. Whenever the synchronization rate between the Red Moon and the engine decreased, the fusion between the two would weaken, and the Genesis Engine would be revealed. The more golden phantoms appeared, the more unstable the state of the Red Moon became.

Although the complete Genesis Engine was powerful, Vivian was not proficient in controlling it, and the Goddess of Annihilation forcibly "catalyzed" the dark engine with the power of mad howls, which directly led to an extremely difficult confrontation between the two.

"The synchronization rate has dropped to seventy percent! Queen, Queen, think of a way!"

"The amount of data is too large! I'm going to pass out!"

The fairies' voices echoed in the mental connection, constantly reporting all kinds of bad news. Vivian tried her best to appease them and told them that the dark celestial body would collapse faster than the Red Moon, and that it would definitely be the first to give way.

The fairies calmed down a little because of this, but Vivian didn't feel relaxed at all, because she knew that what would ultimately determine the fate of this universe was not just the duel between the Genesis Engine and the Annihilation Engine.

She couldn't help but turn her gaze to the side, where there was an independent holographic image, and the image showed Hao Ren's figure.

An inconspicuous progress bar was slowly advancing below this projection.

In space, as a large number of golden divine runes shattered, the figures of Leah and the Goddess of Annihilation became solid once again.

They suddenly separated and faced each other from a distance. The pages and divine runes floating around Leah were much fewer than before, and wisps of golden-red blood floated near her; the Goddess of Annihilation's body also had large and small wounds, but what flowed out of those wounds was not blood, but clusters of black smoke and mist.

Leah's voice suddenly sounded in Hao Ren's mind: "Damn, this guy is more difficult than I imagined."

Hao Ren immediately asked, "Can you trap her temporarily?"

"Yes, but what's your plan?"

"The first line of defense controlled by Watch Fortress is collapsing completely, and all unmanned aerial vehicles and Guardian Fleets are retreating to the second line of defense—so I'm going to let the remaining Annihilation Spears in the first line of defense play a role."

"So far away, will it work?"

"Anyway, it's the last launch, why not release all the limiters?"

"...Okay, that's your style, let's do it!"

Divine power surged around Leah again, preparing for the next round of attack, while Hao Ren was calling Nolan in the mental connection: "Nolan—can the beacon system still be used?"

"What blew up on this ship was the kidneys, not the brain—of course it can be used!"

"Very good, you guide the launch of the Annihilation Spear later—I'm going to have a super-long-range firepower projection."