False Alarm

The sudden change before me left me momentarily at a loss.

Sandora, who had been eroded by the power of the Abyss, had now risen into the air, looking down at me from above. Black energy flames continuously surged outwards, as if desperately trying to break free from some restraint. Even with my dull perception of various energies, I could feel a crazy, tyrannical will from these flames. But in stark contrast to all this, Sandora still maintained a warm and happy smile, as if completely unaware of the huge changes happening to her body.

Perhaps no one would have thought that Sandora, who had led the warriors to fight against the power of the Abyss for so many years, had actually been eroded by the Abyss long ago and had become one of them.

I tried to contact Pandora, and as expected, all my connections to the outside world were cut off.

It seems I'm going to meet my end here today. A battle between an Earthling who can only perform the most basic Shilin long-range attacks and a Shilin Emperor eroded by the power of the Abyss. I'm afraid even the most passionate novel wouldn't dare to go against the heavens with such a plot. What a pity, this book is ending just like this...

For some reason, my heart was surprisingly calm at this moment. Could it be that I had already prepared myself mentally for something like this?

Qian Qian, Sis, and Pandora, I'm sorry, it seems I have to say goodbye to you all...

"Hey! Wake up! Why are you spacing out?"

Just as I was saying goodbye to my friends and family one by one in my heart, a voice with a low echo but somewhat familiar suddenly sounded. I snapped back to reality and saw Sandora, still in her blackened state, carefully pinching my collar with her mutated giant black claw and shaking me back and forth. The flames of the Abyss's power were almost burning my face.

"Phew—you finally noticed me," Sandora said happily when she saw me come back to my senses. "You're really something. You can ignore me looking so imposing and still dare to space out."

...I was scared stiff, okay!

Wait, the current situation seems a bit off, doesn't it?

I carefully observed Sandora's expression, and I couldn't see any intention of harming me. If I ignored the terrifying form of her right half, Sandora's appearance now was completely like a child showing off her new toy...

I felt my mouth twitching. After all this, Sandora just wanted to show off her Abyss form to me? She treated this Abyssal transformation as her new toy?

"Isn't it interesting?" Sandora raised her claw. "Although I was eroded by the Abyss and even became half an Abyssal creature, I didn't lose my sanity. Instead, I gained a new life. Can you help me research what's going on?"

Research... What I want to research most right now is what the heck is going on in your head! Are you really a Shilin Emperor? Should this kind of personality really appear on you, who is full of big sister attributes and queen status? If you were a little Loli like Pandora, I could barely accept it...

"Sandora," I carefully dodged her "claw," "You didn't specifically send everyone else away and bring me here just to tell me this, did you?"

"That's right," Sandora said with a look of course. "Only you can communicate with me here, right?"

"Huh?!" I was confused by Sandora's words. "There are so many people here, why can only you and I communicate?"

Sandora looked at me strangely and said, "Their authority isn't enough. Only you and I are Shilin Emperors here, so only you can communicate with me. The relationship between low authority and high authority is issuing and receiving commands, that's not called communication... Ah, right, to put it in an easy-to-understand way, it's complete information sharing."

I finally understood why Sandora seemed so strange in my eyes, completely inconsistent with the identity of a Shilin Emperor.

The hierarchical authority system was far more stringent than I had imagined. Although their connections were as close as family, on the other hand, their sense of hierarchy was so strong that in Sandora's eyes, individuals with lower authority were completely another species that could not be communicated with on equal terms. Of course, the "communication" here is not the same concept as the communication we usually talk about, but should be more accurately described as information sharing. It is obvious that a high-authority individual cannot disclose all of their information to a low-authority individual. It is precisely because of this that Sandora is a high and mighty, ambitious Shilin Empress in front of others, but in front of me, who has the same authority, she completely becomes a mischievous, cute, and seriously off-the-wall girl next door...

Understanding this, I felt relieved. After all that, it was just a false alarm. Sandora showing me her Abyss form was just information sharing between Shilin Emperors. Well, to put it in terms commonly used by Earthlings, it was showing off a new toy...

"Heaven knows what's going on with you." How could I possibly know how Sandora's state was formed? So far, my understanding of the Abyss is still at the stage of a fantasy story. I just know that there is such a dangerous thing in the universe, and I can't analyze anything for Sandora.

Hearing my answer, Sandora nodded somewhat dejectedly and said, "Is that so? Without the necessary information, you can't analyze anything either."

In fact, even if I had enough information, I wouldn't be able to analyze anything...

At this moment, I suddenly remembered something, so I asked, "Sandora, do you have any missing soldiers or anything?"

"Missing soldiers?" Sandora tilted her head. "All members of the Shilin Legion are under my mental connection control. Theoretically, there shouldn't be any soldiers unaccounted for... Ah, right, there was one!"

"Are you sure? About how many years ago was that?"

"One thousand two hundred and thirty-five years ago, a Heavy Assault Striker Armor was damaged by a Dragon using spatial magic, and the pilot inside was unaccounted for. How did you know we had a missing soldier?"

"In fact..." At that moment, I recounted the matter of the ruins to Sandora, especially emphasizing the Null Beacon that brought us to this world.

"A Null Beacon, and a tomb site with a Shilin defense system set up..." Sandora pondered. "It seems our missing soldier came to your world due to the effects of the space-time turbulence. Since the Null Beacon was damaged, he couldn't return smoothly, but he must have set the return coordinates of the beacon to this world. Therefore, when Pandora's Null Beacon resonated with that warrior's Null Beacon, you were teleported to this world—thus, that warrior has truly made a great contribution. After arriving in your world, I will first go to that ruin to take a look... Wait, Chen Jun, Earth should be ruled by Carbon-Based Lifeforms, right?"

I nodded and said, "Of course."

"Their individual strength shouldn't be very good, right? At least from the fact that I could seriously injure you before, it can be seen that your fellow race's physique is quite fragile."

I replied somewhat awkwardly, "Human physical fitness is indeed not very good. Even on Earth, humans are a relatively fragile species, but because we have mastered technology, we are still at the apex of Earth species."

"Then, is it possible for humans from one thousand two hundred and thirty-five years ago to kill a Shilin Warrior?" Sandora suddenly asked.

"Impossible!" I answered without hesitation. Not to mention over thirteen hundred years ago, even with current human technology, killing a Shilin Warrior would require at least a medium-sized regular army. As for Shilin Commanders or Shilin Apostles of Pandora's level, I'm afraid no human army could deal with them.

"Then, how did that Shilin soldier who accidentally arrived on Earth die?"

Sandora's words immediately reminded me. Yes, as half-energy, half-material life forms, Shilin Apostles have almost infinite lifespans, and their individual strength was an invincible existence like a god on Earth over a thousand years ago. So the tomb we saw is very problematic.

Just then, I saw a beam of light like an aurora suddenly rise from the base not far away: the Legion Teleporter was ready.

"Let's put this question aside for now," I waved my hand and said, "Now let's leave this unlucky place first."

Sandora nodded and said, "It's time to say goodbye to this place too. As agreed, you go back first, and I'll meet up with you in a few days."