Three thousand years later, the space-time channel outside the Bronze Gate lit up once more.
This time, the area around the channel was no longer occupied solely by the temporary experimental array Saine had set up back then.
A massive war base had already taken shape around the outer perimeter of the Bronze Gate.
Mechanical Civilization's Rule Anchor Points were driven into the edge of the Dimensional Ascension Channel like enormous metal pillars.
The Final Silence Gray Mark Array floated above the base, radiating ring after ring of tranquil gray halos.
The Destruction Divine Kingdom Legion was stationed farther out.
They did not charge in immediately.
Yet that oppressive Aura of Destruction had already made the entire channel seem heavy.
Locke personally held the line outside the Bronze Gate.
He did not enter.
Simply standing there, he provoked the Aura of Destruction behind the Bronze Gate, causing waves of dark-gold crystal tide to surge out from time to time.
Saine likewise did not send his true body inside.
His Mechanical God Rule True Body remained on standby. The Skynet observation system, the Final Silence Gray Mark suppression array, and the cross-dimensional retrieval channel were all under his personal control.
On the inner side of the Bronze Gate, twelve small Final Silence Gray Marks were deployed first.
These Gray Marks were not meant to remain for long.
Their purpose was to briefly suppress the activity of the outermost layer of the Destruction Crystal Tide in the entrance area before the first group of Level-12 Strong Practitioners entered.
The instant the Gray Marks passed through the gap in the gate, three of them were swallowed by the crystal tide.
Under Saine's control, the remaining nine barely managed to embed themselves along several edges of the Shattered Black Continent.
Gray halos spread outward.