After the teleportation light faded, Lin Ye, Asteria, and Leo found themselves in a space utterly beyond imagination.
There were no walls or floors made of matter. Beneath their feet were transparent crystallized thoughts, and every step sent ripples of memory through them. The walls were composed of pure concepts, their surfaces flowing with abstract symbols and geometric patterns.
"Is this the inside of the Void Ark?" Leo looked around as the Leo Mark emitted a faint golden glow, trying to illuminate the surroundings.
Asteria frowned as she sensed the unique nature of the space. "The state of balance here is completely chaotic. I can feel thousands of contradictory concepts existing at the same time."
Lin Ye looked down at the transparent ground beneath his feet, where images emerged one after another: streets in bustling cities, ruins on battlefields, discoveries in laboratories, embraces between lovers. These were fragments of civilization memories that had been cleared away by the Void Ark.
"It looks like we need to find a path to the core," Lin Ye said. "But this place has no fixed structure at all."
As soon as he spoke, the surroundings began to change. The walls shifted and reassembled, the original passageways vanished, and new paths extended beneath their feet.
"This place has a consciousness of its own." Asteria realized the crucial issue. "It's deliberately changing its structure to stop us from moving forward."
Just then, a deep roar came from the shadows ahead. A massive figure emerged from the darkness—it was a monster made entirely of despair, its body a sickly gray-black, hollow flames burning in its eyes.
"The Despair Beast." Leo recognized the conceptual entity. "It was formed from the despairing emotions of every civilization that was cleared away."
The Despair Beast opened its enormous maw and let