Chapter 1 The Truth of the End

The doomsday had already arrived, but the civilization of the ancestors had repeatedly postponed the true ending of the world, by folding the information of the entire world, they turned the world line, which should have been closed with the doomsday, into an open one, thereby avoiding the worst future—the future where the ending of all things became an established history.

So whenever this world was damaged to the limit, at the moment when the power of the Lord of Madness was about to devour all order, this world would restart, replaying everything as if loading a save file. The civilization of the ancestors used this method to refuse to accept the doomsday. To this day, this cycle and postponement has been carried out countless times.

This postponement seems indefinite, but the fact proves that the civilization of the ancestors cannot truly and completely achieve this.

The world is constantly declining, and the inheritors responsible for finding ways to completely defeat the Lord of Madness and rebuild the civilization system after the era restart are also constantly declining. The original complete universe has become increasingly weaker due to repeated restarts, retreating from the sea of stars to the surface of the planet, and the inheritors have also changed from the god-like powerful leaders of the ancestral civilization into generations of muddled mortals.

According to the logs in the God's Heart database, the first inheritors to restart the era had thirteen leaders, but in the successive changes of eras, these leaders declined one by one, and were even completely polluted and devoured by the power of the Lord of Madness. After the world was restarted hundreds of times, most of them had completely disappeared, and even those who persisted to the most recent eras had almost completely forgotten the events of the First Era.

They can only remember the things from a few cycles ago, or even just the last cycle.

His Majesty Berentin and Princess Constance of the Dragon Empire are probably the last inheritors who still retain most of their memories.

The powerful leaders are like this, not to mention the ordinary warriors who followed them.

Therefore, the truth about this constantly postponed doomsday, and the obsession of the ancient ancestral civilization, have completely dissipated in the river of time. Since the Holy King of Helsonja forgot how to read the "God's Heart" database several eras ago, no one has been able to find these ancient knowledge back. Therefore, Constance only knows about the wars that occurred in the real world during the change of eras, but does not know that in the depths of this world, in the stacked and disordered echoes of history, another battlefield will be opened simultaneously.

The so-called change of eras is actually two wars.

"The Guardian Fleet has engaged the enemy, with minor damage, and is constructing a stable spatial channel. Subsequent troops will arrive in fifteen minutes."

"The drone legion has engaged the enemy, with negligible losses, and is constructing forward bunkers and turret arrays. The advance route has been opened."

"Spatial distortions have been scanned, abnormal information fluctuations have been scanned, and the phenomenon of time axis rollback has been scanned... The time axis has been stabilized, confirming that the current space is expanding... The current space-time evolution model is being determined."

The eternal chaotic sky of the Gorgon Abyss gradually twisted. Large groups of dark red clouds were stirred by invisible forces, forming fragmented, parallel interference-like structures. In the upside-down sea of clouds, countless shadows were gradually emerging.

Those are distant continents, broken celestial bodies, starship wreckage, all kinds of ancient echoes from different eras.

"When the change of eras begins, it is not only the real world that changes," Hao Ren said, looking at the changing sky. The drone swarms had already reacted, and fortress-type drones were constructing defensive positions. "The 'worldline fragments' generated after this world has been destroyed countless times are stacked together, forming a deep-level world. The invasion of the Lord of Madness will begin simultaneously in both worlds. In other words, since the inheritors of a certain era forgot about this, the resistance of the ordered civilization has been limited to reality, and in this 'deep-level world', the power of the Lord of Madness will proliferate crazily without interference..."

Vivian took a deep breath: "So from then on, every time they resist, they will collapse faster and faster, and there will never be any hope of victory—because the world is collapsing from the depths, but they are completely unaware of it?!"

"That's right, the Helsonja era was the last time they fought on two battlefields simultaneously, but since the Holy King was transformed into the Tree of Life and forever bound to the end of the era, the inheritance of the next era has had a major deviation, and once a deviation occurs, the future will be doomed," Hao Ren shook his head. "But it doesn't matter, Nolan found this part of the information in the God's Heart database. Let the Lakhryeans guard their real world, and this battle in the deep-level world... We will fight it for them."

A low buzzing sound came from below the sea of clouds, and then a silver-white shadow split the clouds and slowly floated up to the vicinity of the asteroid where Hao Ren and his party were located—the Tortoise Rock Platform approached, and Nolan's voice sounded: "Don't just stand there, hurry up and get on the ship!"

Lily was a little surprised: "Nolan... aren't you doing engineering in the earth's core?"

"The infrastructure is all done, and a stable link has been established. The rest can be handed over to my server, and I can command it remotely," Nolan's triumphant voice came from the spaceship. "As an excellent internet-famous spaceship, how can I miss this opportunity to rush to the front of the fleet and take selfies!"

Hao Ren helplessly covered his forehead: "Be serious, this battle may not be easy—although your ship can sweep the current Lakhryeans, but going back a few generations, they could cross the sea of stars. Going back to the ancestral civilization... even facing the Guardian Fleet, they could probably fight back and forth. And what we have to face is a corrupted version, which is even harder to deal with."

While armed drones were busy constructing forward fortresses, Hao Ren, Lily, and Vivian stood on the bridge of the Tortoise Rock Platform.

"The main enemy we have to face is the fragments in the annihilation cycle," Nolan's holographic projection stood in mid-air. At Hao Ren's reminder, she had now become serious. "I found the basic process of this 'world reset' system in the God's Heart database and found that it has quite significant flaws, because the ancestral civilization at that time had not yet reached the point where they could control cosmic information. They used the power of the apocalypse to complete their missing technology, so the entire reset process was basically out of control—it would restart the world, but it was impossible to determine what it would be shaped into after the restart, or how much it could restore. Therefore, it left a large number of system errors and 'loopholes' for the Lord of Madness to grow. These loopholes have accumulated here, era after era. Once the power of the Lord of Madness begins to spread, they are the easiest parts to be infected."

"To be honest, this is a very talented civilization," the data terminal sighed. "Researching and trying to control all the information inside the universe is the prerequisite technology for creating a cross-world engine. They were on the right path. As long as they could continue to go on, they could jump out of the universe and become one of the super civilizations that navigate in the void... It's a pity, such a pity."

Hao Ren did not speak, but looked at the data sent by the forward probe.

The data showed that an unprecedentedly huge distorted space-time structure was rapidly forming. It floated up from the bottom layer of the world, gradually changing from illusion to entity, and wrapped the planet Lakhryea in a hyperdimensional way. Its structure was crisscrossed like an anthill. The Gorgon Abyss had become a part of this space-time structure, and at the edge of the Gorgon Abyss, increasingly strong and weak reactions of madness had begun to appear in the expanding space.

"If Constance knew about the existence of this battlefield..." Looking at the increasingly alarming scale of the space-time structure, Lily couldn't help but stick out her tongue. "Landlord, it's not that I'm being cowardly, but normal people would probably have to make a strategic retreat if they knew the truth, right?"

"She is a resolute warrior, but being resolute doesn't mean she won't be distracted. The inheritors have declined to this point. Constance and her Knights are impossible to achieve anything on this battlefield in the deep layers of the world. In that case, it's better to let her not know about this—at least until the war is over," Hao Ren shook his head. "Of course, if the situation requires it, Leah will tell her everything."

Vivian glanced at him: "There is a reason why you insist on letting Constance complete the final battle, right?"

"The inheritance must be completed by the inheritors. Too much help is not help, but charity. They don't need charity," Hao Ren nodded. "Another reason is the setting of that God's Heart. It will detect and record the results of the era-changing battle, and the sign that the war is over is the victory or defeat of the last battle in the real world. I don't know what impact it will have if outsiders complete this process... But according to the basic program of the God's Heart, only the inheritors can end the annihilation cycle."

The broadcast on the bridge sounded: "A large number of entities are detected rising from the space-time boundary. Energy spectrum analysis in progress... Identified as madness pollution. The Guardian Fleet has engaged, the drone legion has engaged, and automatic fortresses of all levels have engaged."

Hao Ren smiled, casually turned on the communicator, and Salamander's figure appeared on the holographic projection.

"Legion Commander Salamander, the flanks are entrusted to you."

Salamander laughed heartily: "Haha, don't worry, Observer. Fighting these kinds of monsters is our Guardian Legion's specialty!"

Hao Ren hung up the communication and looked at Nolan: "Have the drones prepare all those 'experimental products' as well. Before fighting the Lord of Madness head-on, having such a place to test targets is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

…

Dragon Empire, the battlefield between the Northern Six Provinces and the Central Region.

Archduke Owen, who had recovered, stood with Constance on the battlements. The war formation of the Imperial Corps was taking shape in the distance, and the legion-level shields stretched out in patches there, like a sparkling coastline.

Rising from that majestic war formation was a burst of extremely disturbing dark and decaying aura.

Corruption had spread to all the Imperial Corps. Whether they were Black Sword Knights or ordinary soldiers, it would probably be difficult to find a pure living person among them.

To what extent had the situation deteriorated in the central region of the Empire, which was tightly sealed off by the Black Sword Knights?

Constance did not know, she only knew that this war, which had been repeated countless times in countless eras, would continue to be staged today.

Heavy footsteps came from below the city. The giants called "Guardians" began to stride towards the battlefield, surrounded by unprecedentedly powerful energy turbulence that human spellcasters could not imagine.

With them here, perhaps the direction of this war will really be different...