Ian watched the battle on the holographic screen expressionlessly. The magnificent Divine Kingdom, after being bombarded by hundreds of thousands of Ninth-Tier Planet-Buster Cannons, still remained strangely intact. He had to admit that once these gods were allowed to retreat into their lair, they did possess a perverted defense.
The current battle situation looks like Guznader is fighting against the siege of hundreds of Ninth-Tier Peak strong men at the same time, but it still seems to be able to do so with ease.
"It seems that Empire must put the development of 'Godslayer Weapon specifically for gods' on the agenda as soon as possible." Ian commented coldly.
"Unfortunately, boss, our current research in the field of 'Anti-Divine Power' still has not made any substantial progress." Morgana reported helplessly. Since Empire had not had access to many living gods or high-purity Divine Power samples before, related scientific research projects have been almost at a standstill.
"After we knock down this Divine Kingdom and dissect it thoroughly, we will use the clones as fanatical believers and mass-create a batch of Sixth Tier and above 'False God' in the Empire laboratory. By then, there will be countless white mice for us to slice and study at will."
The source of power of gods is only the faith of believers. Based on this underlying logic, Ian has actually successfully used a large number of clones to create some low-end versions of False God. However, he still lacks key data on some core steps such as [High-Dimensional God Domain Construction], such as how to cast a real Divine Kingdom out of thin air.
"Boss, what you just said, if those fanatics outside heard it, would definitely be the highest level of blasphemy in the universe." Morgana said half-jokingly, trying to ease the somewhat depressed and solemn atmosphere in the command room. But Ian just glanced at her indifferently and did not answer the question at all. House-elf could only smile awkwardly.
"Lift the fire control restrictions and continue to increase the investment amount of Planet-Killer Cannon. I want to see where the limit of this turtle shell is. In addition, keep an eye on any energy changes on the battlefield. Once you find any signs of Guznader jumping over the wall, immediately activate [Tenth-Tier Main Cannon] for the ultimate obliteration!" Ian issued the death order.
"Yes, sir!" Morgana immediately resumed his rigorous work state.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Netheril Floating City's artillery fire network became more dense and violent. Under the terrifying energy wash, the layer of law shield surrounding Guznader Divine Kingdom finally began to tremble violently.
When the number of Ninth-Tier Planet-Buster Cannon soared frantically to a thousand, the surface of the shield finally began to crack with fine cracks, although these cracks still healed instantly with difficulty under the repair of Divine Power.
When the number of cannons exceeded 1,500, the Divine Kingdom shield's Self repair speed finally collapsed completely, and could no longer keep up with the rate of destruction.
'Damn it! What the hell kind of monster is this?!' Guznader cursed desperately in the Divine Kingdom. 'Where on earth did he draw such an outrageous amount of magic power?!'
You know, these are not ordinary conventional artillery. Every bombardment of each Ninth-Tier Planet-Buster Cannon is absolutely no less powerful than a Ninth-Tier Peak magician or god releasing the forbidden spell with all his strength! However, the damn Floating City outside is pouring out this level of terrifying firepower endlessly as if it is free of charge!
Bang!
When the number of salvos fired by Planet-Killer Cannon exceeded the two thousand mark, the absolute barrier protecting Divine Kingdom finally shattered with a shrill wail! The terrifying arcane artillery fire hit Divine Kingdom's body like the Milky Way pouring down.
However, what is surprising is that the actual damage caused by these attacks is very little. Because in the absolute field of the Divine Kingdom, Guznader, as Overlord, its law-suppressing power is still outrageously powerful.
Of course, this arrogant calmness only lasted until Netheril frantically piled up the number of Ninth Tier main guns that fired to [three thousand]!
Under the endless fire of three thousand Ninth Tier forbidden curse-level artillery fire, the souls of those fanatic believers who lived in the Divine Kingdom and thought they had obtained eternal life were instantly wiped out under the crushing force of various violent elements!
The entire Divine Kingdom continent was riddled with holes and the earth was shaken. Faced with this completely unreasonable fire coverage, no matter how Guznader desperately mobilized the underlying laws to repair it, it was of no avail.
"You're going too far!" Guznader let out a shrill and desperate Fury roar.
However, the only response he received was endless artillery fire. Moreover, he soon discovered an even more desperate fact with horror - countless sealing formations emitting blue light had silently filled every corner of the Divine Kingdom!
"This... this is the ultimate seal?!" Guznader's face turned pale instantly, but it was too late when he reacted. He was horrified to find that the connection between himself and Divine Kingdom's original law was abruptly blocked. Cut off! What followed was that the vast Divine Power in his body was completely frozen, his soul perception was forcibly deprived, and finally... even his proud [Death Authority] fell completely into deathly silence!
In the end, the once arrogant Necromancer Emperor hung humiliatingly in the broken sky of the Divine Kingdom like a frozen ice sculpture, and even moving a little finger became a luxury.
Ian then calmly stepped into this devastated God Domain.
"Is this the legendary and aloof Divine Kingdom? It does look a bit impressive." Ian looked around coldly. According to the scanning data of Floating City, the area of this independent dimension is astonishingly large, at least equal to the breadth of thirty standard galaxies, and it once housed countless believer souls.
"The round of artillery fire just now wasted so much of the best Soul Energy." Looking at the soul remains everywhere, Ian felt a heartache in his heart.
"In fact, it's not too wasteful," Morgana's virtual projection analyzed on the side. "These souls have been completely brainwashed and contaminated by fanatical beliefs. If you want to peel off those poison-like Faith Power bit by bit, the cost is simply ridiculously high. It is better to treat them as ready-made advanced experimental materials for in-depth analysis of [Law of Faith]."
"It makes sense." Ian nodded, and then fixed his gaze firmly on Guznader in mid-air, "Pack up the loot and prepare to return."
Netheril Floating City opened a large Void net domineeringly, swallowing up the entire huge Divine Kingdom in one gulp, and forcibly compressed it into a strong extra-dimensional pocket. Then, Ian set off to return to Earth.
His powerful triumph, as well as the shocking video of "Three thousand main guns smashing Divine Kingdom into pieces" that can be called a violent aesthetic, were simultaneously broadcast live on the entire network at the same time, instantly detonating the entire Milky Way Galaxy!
In the end, under the enthusiastic gaze of hundreds of millions of the Empire citizens, Ian personally used the most vicious law chains to nail Guznader's immobile god's body to the huge Crystal Memorial Monument to Victims!
He coldly announced in public that Bleach, who caused the tragic deaths of three million civilians, will kneel here in the most humiliating posture to atone for his crimes for three full years!
Today's Judgment has been forever engraved in the history of the Arcane Empire. Many historians of later generations have keenly pointed out that it was Ian's extremely symbolic and stunning move that completely shattered the last trace of awe and fantasy in the hearts of all Arcanists about the existence of "gods".
Of course, this move also directly spawned a large number of extreme radicals, who began to fanatically advocate the need to launch a thorough uprising [God-Extermination Holy War] throughout the universe.
After dealing with Guznader in a high-profile manner, Ian had to immediately devote all his energy to post-war recovery work and the control of the newly annexed huge territory of Milky Way Galaxy.
Fortunately, in preparation for this day, Think Tank, the senior executive of the Empire, has already conducted decades of sand table deductions and detailed planning.
Therefore, Empire, this terrifying state machine, only needs to activate the plans according to the script, and then make some minor adjustments according to the actual situation, and everything will run smoothly.
After two weeks of continuous high-intensity work, Ian finally had a rare respite. Unfortunately, during this period, although Luna led the entire Prophecy Department to frantically conduct countless high-level Divination and causal deductions, they still failed to capture even a single clue about [Sage Clan].
Ian was sitting relaxedly on the chair in his top-secret laboratory, holding a glass of specially prepared iced magic drink in his hand. He secretly connected his consciousness to Akashic Records and began to search for a special high-dimensional item.
"Why don't these Vampires just go grab it?!" When he saw the dizzying long string of zeros on the exchange interface, Ian couldn't help but yell.
Although the technology he wanted to redeem did represent the pinnacle of current cosmic technology, and even with his current magical attainments, he might not be able to achieve it without spending several years of hard work, but he still felt that the price was simply crazy and outrageous.
After weighing the pros and cons, Ian decisively gave up the plan of directly exchanging the finished product. He settled for the next best thing and bought the high-dimensional coordinates of the target world at a very small price, planning to find time to go there and "purchase it for zero yuan" in person.
"We'll talk about the business later, relax first." Ian murmured to himself, casually taking out the strange disk seized from Guznader and the dazzling magic orb from the void.
"Ancient Magekind's ultimate technology... let me see what hidden secrets you have." Ian sneered.
Morgana immediately activated the highest level of scanning rays to analyze the material composition of these two ancient cultural relics in detail.
"Pure Mithril is used as the underlying base. Not only that, but dozens of rare magic ores are also smelted in it frantically. Five of them are even unknown substances that are not even recorded in our huge database of the Empire!" Seeing the analysis results, Ian muttered in shock, "These lunatics have simply squeezed the physical and magical properties of every material to the limit of the universe."
Despite this, from a material point of view, these two pieces of Divine Artifact do not seem to show anything extraordinary enough to subvert the perception. But Ian is very clear that this is definitely just the tip of the iceberg.
His silver eyes instantly transformed into a deep purple, which is a high-dimensional vision that is enough to see through the origin of all things. His gaze was like a scalpel, roughly piercing through the surface disguise of the disk and reaching its core underlying structure.
There, he was shocked to see a mysterious rune with a complex structure and an aura of perfection that made his soul tremble.
"Is this... a real [Primordial Rune]?!"
In the early days of the founding of the Empire, when Ian had just begun to brutally transform the earth's environment and forcibly inject Aether magic into the atmosphere, countless humans accidentally awakened their innate magical talents. In the research on those Awakened Ones, Empire had already recorded some rare Primordial Rune fragments.
"But this rune... is fundamentally different from the ones recorded in our Empire database!" Ian pointed out the key point keenly. The difference he mentioned did not refer to the difference in the form of the rune, but to the deepest level of [the nature of the law]!
"The Primordial Rune that we Empire collected feel like poor rubbings, or low-dimensional projections of some kind of high-dimensional existence. At their core, they seem to be missing some crucial 'spirituality'."
Ian frowned tightly, and his brain began to make crazy deductions. Without any hesitation, he directly turned on [Magic Sage Mode], and complex arcane incantations quickly covered his stern face like living vines. In this state, his perception was forcibly elevated to an almost divine level.
"This rune... is actually alive!" Ian took a breath, with extreme shock in his voice, "It is not a lifeless energy circuit at all, but a living creature with the most primitive vital signs!"
In the cutting-edge academic discussions on the Arcane Empire, crazy theoretical assumptions like "Living Rune" have long been proposed. However, the current limit of what Empire can achieve is to construct Three-Dimensional Runes with an internal self-circulation mechanism at a microscopic level. But in essence, that thing is more like a sophisticated AI program than a real life form.
"Is this the real ultimate mystery of Primordial Rune? They are actually some kind of special high-dimensional life form?!"
According to the most authoritative magic origin theory Empire, Primordial Rune is considered to be the first magical language that appeared in the entire universe. It is the source of all known magic systems and spells.
Some radical scholars even believe that it is not only the origin of magic, but also the first language that appeared at the birth of the universe, transcending the boundaries of magic and matter.
The reason why Ian has always had a strong awe of Primordial Rune is because there is a strange legend in the Nordic mythology of the previous life: All-Father Odin did not hesitate to hang himself upside down on World Tree in order to gain endless knowledge. For nine days and nine nights, he even cruelly sacrificed one of his own eyes, and finally realized the ultimate Truth that appeared in the form of [Rune]. Ian has always suspected that this is not a simple myth, but some kind of secret metaphor of the law.
Therefore, he had boldly made a conjecture before: Any universe with the underlying laws of magic will inevitably breed their own unique version of Primordial Rune.
It is precisely based on this arrogant conjecture that he firmly believes that as long as he can collect and analyze enough Primordial Rune from parallel universes, he can reversely deduce the ultimate Truth language that overrides all universes - [Void Rune]!
'My theory is most likely correct.' Ian's mind flashed with a flash of light like a super Nova explosion. '[Void Rune] is the one who controls the entire Omniverse The absolute source of all magical languages! And they are in different parallel universes, because they have been assimilated and refracted by the original laws of their respective universes, and finally manifested into various forms of [Primordial Rune]!'
His eyes were frighteningly bright, and countless fragments of previously obscure laws were perfectly put together at this moment.
"Because they are homologous in underlying logic, there will never be much difference in their core essence between Primordial Runes in different universes. As long as I can thoroughly understand and perfectly manifest this real Primordial Rune in this universe, then in the future, when I conquer other parallel universes, analyzing their underlying laws will be as simple as picking something out of a bag!"
Ian's eyes narrowed slightly, and his eyes became extremely deep.
"This is probably the real reason why Ancient Magekind was able to rise so powerfully and even forcibly imprint their bloodline into the endless sea of stars! After these madmen completely mastered the core secrets of Primordial Rune in the <Harry Potter> universe, they greedily embarked on a journey to conquer Omniverse, frantically plundering and analyzing Primordial Rune from other universes!"
"Even... just like my arrogant ambitions now, it is very likely that they also tried to forcibly reverse the deduction and create the real [Void Rune] back then!"
Ian exhaled a long breath with restraint, sealing these shocking new deductions about the ultimate Truth in the deepest part of his mind. Then, he quickly stopped all distracting thoughts and focused all his energy on the anatomy and research of the Living Rune in front of him.