Swift Action

"You really killed every last one of them..."

Looking at the corpse-strewn City Hall, the elf scout was utterly speechless. Her original plan had been for Duanmu Huai to draw the enemy's attention head-on while she took the opportunity to rescue the people through the Underground Sewers. Then they would figure out a way to coordinate with Duanmu Huai and get him out. She had not expected this Black Knight to be so ruthless that he would simply slaughter every Ratman and Evil God Believer in City Hall.

"If I can kill them all, why leave any alive?"

Duanmu Huai remained perfectly calm. The Ratmen were, on average, below level ten. To him, this had practically been mowing down mobs with ease. Of course, it had felt great fighting them, but the drawback was that the Experience Points were pitifully low—after all, there was a ten-level gap between them, so Duanmu Huai only got one base Experience Point for each Ratman he killed.

Well, at this rate, if he killed Ratmen for three hundred years, he might just reach LV99...

"Still, this is good. We've just obtained some intelligence."

As she said this, the elf scout lowered her voice.

"These Ratmen didn't attack Silver City because they had nothing better to do. They came here to search for a Holy Relic. They intend to corrupt it and plunge this land into plague and decay."

"Oh... That isn't surprising."

Duanmu Huai remained calm at the elf scout's report. The followers of the four Chaos Gods behaved differently, but there were always patterns to follow.

The God of Tyranny's followers loved war, blood, and death. That was how they pleased their god.

The God of Filth's followers spread plague and disease wherever they went, displaying the "fatherly love" of their god.

The God of Deceit's followers loved schemes and tricks, stabbing people in the back. Manipulating conspiracies was their greatest pleasure.

The God of Desire's followers focused more on indulging in all manner of perverse, twisted desires and pleasures.

According to the elf scout, the Holy Relic they had targeted this time was called Water God's Gift. Its greatest function was purifying water sources—and for a human settlement, that alone was immensely valuable.

The Evil God Believers had attacked Silver City to obtain Water God's Gift, then use the power of the God of Filth to turn it into a biological weapon capable of contaminating water. At that point, all they had to do was toss the Holy Relic into a water source, and every living thing up and down the river would get to experience the God of Filth's "mountain-like fatherly love."

"A Holy Relic like that should be heavily guarded, right?"

"That's right."

The elf scout nodded.

"The Empire dispatched High-level Mages to cast layer upon layer of protection around the Holy Relic. No one except members of the royal family can touch it. But no one knows whether the foul fiend's power is strong enough to break through those defenses..."

"So what we need to do is retake the temple and protect the Holy Relic?"

"Yes. I've already sent someone to inform Lord Kado."

Hearing the elf scout's answer, Duanmu Huai frowned and thought for a moment.

"I've been meaning to ask. Where are the reinforcements? Do we have any?"

"...Hard to say."

"What do you mean, hard to say? Silver City is Imperial territory, isn't it? Evil God Believers and barbarians invaded, the lord was killed. Isn't it only natural to ask the Empire for aid?"

"That is true, but humans have plenty of their own ugly problems as well."

There was clear dissatisfaction in the elf scout's voice. Duanmu Huai could guess that it probably had something to do with power struggles... but this was not the time to waste discussing such matters.

"Then let's move. We'll retake the temple and secure the Holy Relic as soon as possible. As for those troublesome matters, we can discuss them afterward."

To Duanmu Huai, however, an Empire's political infighting had nothing to do with him. His main purpose in coming to this planet was to find the Order Relic lost in this world and bring it back to the Core Cabin. He could handle other matters as he saw fit, but he would not involve himself too deeply.

After all, Duanmu Huai's goal was the stars and the sea. A civilization still stuck in the Middle Ages was not worth him investing too much effort in.

"Just you alone?"

"And her."

Duanmu Huai pointed at Okegis, who stood behind him. During the previous battle, Okegis had remained hidden at the side and had not acted. It was the same now. She was Duanmu Huai's final safeguard, one he would not use unless absolutely necessary.

"You really act with lightning speed..."

Hearing Duanmu Huai's reply, the elf scout sighed. Then she made up her mind.

"I'll go with you as well. At least I know this city very well. I can guide the two of you."

"Then we'll be relying on you."

In the elf scout's eyes, Duanmu Huai's actions were somewhat rash and aggressive. But Duanmu Huai knew that all he was doing was ensuring his own survival in the face of the coming crisis.

And to explain that, one had to start with the history of Star Sea Online.

Once upon a time, long, long ago, humanity built a great Empire. It ruled the entire Milky Way Galaxy, drove out every alien barbarian race, and its people lived amid prosperity, peace, and glorious splendor. That era was known as the Golden Age.

But after that, events took a sharp turn for the worse.

The artificial intelligences that had served the Golden Age rebelled under the influence of a mysterious electronic virus, nearly destroying the entire Golden Age. Although the Machine Crisis was eventually brought to an end, humanity was left severely weakened. Worse still, a terrible Warp Space Storm emerged at that time, crippling humanity's ability to travel and communicate across the cosmos.

This was a fatal blow to human society. After all, transportation routes were indispensable to any civilization. During the Golden Age, humanity had used Warp Space passages to cross countless light-years and reach other planets in the Milky Way Galaxy, while also using Warp Space to stay in contact with them.

Put simply, it was like a vast network of railways between planets, serving both transportation and communication.

However, after the Warp Space Storm erupted, it was as if all those railway networks had been completely destroyed. Humanity lost the ability to contact other planets and could no longer travel through Warp Space aboard warships. Their ships would become lost in the Warp Space Storm for unknown reasons and vanish without a trace. Because of this, human civilization had been hanging by a thread, even reaching the brink of Destruction.

At that time, a mysterious being stepped forward. He led humanity through its final crisis and guided it toward glory once more. He came to be known as humanity's leader—the Emperor.

After leading the human civilization of the Solar System to consolidate its power, the Emperor seized the opportunity when the Warp Space Storm subsided and led his fleet on a Great Expedition. Its purpose was to reclaim the planetary colonies throughout the Milky Way Galaxy that had lost contact with humanity's homeworld during the Warp Space Storm.

The Great Expedition went fairly smoothly at first. Humanity successfully reclaimed most of its colonies. However... good times did not last. Just as the Great Expedition was nearing its end, another Warp Space Storm suddenly appeared. Once again, as though history were repeating itself, the expeditionary fleets were split apart. Within the Warp Space Storm, they could neither contact their homeworld nor return to the Emperor's side.

Yet the Warp Space Storm was only the beginning. After that came a Great Rebellion—the Warmaster, who had led the expeditionary forces in the Emperor's stead, launched a rebellion.

Just like the Machine Crisis during the Golden Age, humanity suffered betrayal once more. Although the Horus Heresy was eventually suppressed, the Human Empire was left severely weakened, and the Emperor himself vanished without a trace.

Afterward, the Human Empire endured repeated fragmentation, war, and chaos, as well as attacks from alien races. Humanity won again and again, only to fail once more. Then, after an unknown number of tens of thousands of years, someone finally proposed an astonishing plan.

The Black Hole Project.

In the eyes of those people, every threat facing the Human Empire was the work of the Evil Gods of Warp Space.

However, destroying the Evil Gods of Warp Space was almost impossible. As mentioned before, Warp Space was the realm where the souls and emotions of all living things were reflected. In other words, unless every living being in the entire world perished, even defeated Evil Gods of Warp Space would revive again.

But Warp Space was not invincible. All things restrained one another. Warp Space gave rise to beings such as Psykers, yet Psykers also had a natural enemy.

They were beings known as Untouchables.

No one currently knew why such beings came into existence. But one thing was certain: Untouchables were the only beings with no reflection in Warp Space. They were like black holes within Warp Space. Moreover, when Untouchables appeared near Psykers, they could weaken or even sever the connection and power between Psykers and Warp Space.

Naturally, Untouchables were therefore hated by the living. They were like soulless beings; their very existence provoked revulsion and hostility in other lifeforms.

Yet the Black Hole Project drew its inspiration from Untouchables.

Simply put, these people intended to create a sufficiently vast "void" within Warp Space and completely disrupt the balance of its power.

By doing so, even if they could not kill the Chaos Gods, they could still deal them a devastating blow.

It was like a nation on Earth, facing the fate of imminent collapse, deciding to use nuclear weapons on the entire planet.

If we die, everyone dies together. If I'm doomed, don't expect to get off easy either.

Even killing eight hundred enemies at the cost of a thousand of their own would count as a bloody profit.

What these people did was equivalent to purging the entire universe clean. Then... whatever came next could only be left to humanity's survivors in the future.

The Black Hole Project was a tremendous success. Warp Space nearly collapsed, and after suffering that blow, all the Evil Gods fell into slumber. Without the protection of their gods, the other alien races were likewise severely weakened. In the end, the Human Empire had essentially used an indiscriminate attack to knock every cosmic civilization back into the Stone Age, forcing everything to begin anew.

But the Evil Gods were naturally unwilling to fall into eternal sleep. So they continued using every possible method to beguile their followers, making them work twice as hard so they could awaken sooner—at the very least, sooner than the others.

The players awakened during this Dark Age. What they had to do was disrupt the Evil Gods' plans as much as possible, delay their awakening, and strengthen themselves as much as they could to face the Evil Gods' return—or even eliminate the threat permanently. Otherwise, once the Evil Gods recovered and returned, all that awaited them would be despair and death.

What he needed to do now was destroy the God of Filth's plan!