Countdown: 59 hours and 5 minutes.
Sky Island, above the White-White Sea.
However, the concept of " Sky Island " itself is becoming increasingly ambiguous.
Angel Yan and her squad of Super Soldier Company Company hovered in the clouds, facing an incomprehensible sight: the sea of clouds was no longer pure white and soft, but rather a sickly grayish-white turbidity, like contaminated milk. Floating in the sea of clouds were fragments of Sky Island architecture—but not physical fragments, but fragments of memories.
A semi-transparent Golden Bell -like phantom floated on a cloud, its chimes faint and intermittent.
On another cloud, the afterimages of the Shandora warriors in battle appeared, their shouts silent.
Further away, the houses of the Sky Island inhabitants resemble pencil sketches with their edges erased, their outlines blurred and details missing.
"Reality stability: 47%, continuously declining." Ge Xiaolun read the data from the Void Engine system, his voice grave. "This isn't physical destruction, it's an erosion at the level of existence. That thing is devouring the very concept of ' the Sky Island ever existed'."
Rena raised her hand, and a miniature star condensed in her palm. "Then blast it out!"
"No," Yan stopped her. " The Void Domain absorbs all energy attacks. Any attack we launch will only fuel its decay."
She pointed into the depths of the sea of clouds. "Look there."
In the center of the murky sea of clouds, a massive shadow slowly drifted. Its outline resembled a whale, but it had no solid form, only the approximate shape formed by constantly shifting grayish-white mist. With each breath it took, it would draw a piece of color, a sound, or a fragment of memory from the surrounding sea of clouds.
The Forgetter, "The Giant Whale Devouring the Clouds," is feeding.
And its food is history.
"32% of Shandora's history has already been swallowed up." Ge Xiaolun pulled up the scan results. "At this rate, within 72 hours, all traces of the Sky Island civilization will be completely wiped out. By then, even if we defeat Ithaqua, the Sky Island will become a place that 'never existed'—no history, no legends, no memories."
Liu Chuang gripped his axe tightly. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's charge in and take it down!"
"The problem is, how do we get in?" Qilin set up her sniper rifle and aimed at the shadowy figure. "It has no physical form; my god-slaying bullets are ineffective against it."
Zhao Xin tried to approach at supersonic speed, but suddenly stopped when he was still a hundred meters away from the shadow. "No! The closer I get, the weaker my 'presence' becomes! I'm even starting to forget why I'm here!"
Everyone's expression changed.
Even memories can be swallowed up?
"All team members, activate the ' Existence Anchoring Protocol '," Yan ordered. "Use sacred coding to strengthen self-awareness and resist the erosion of Void."
Golden runes lit up on the bodies of each Super Soldier Company Soldier, temporarily stabilizing their presence. But the cost was the rapid depletion of their energy.
"It can only last thirty minutes," Rena calculated. "Within thirty minutes, we must enter the giant whale's body, find and destroy its core, or extract the fragments."
"But where is the core?" Ge Xiaolun scanned the entire shadow. "Its energy readings are evenly distributed, with no obvious weaknesses."
Just when everyone was at a loss --
The clouds were suddenly torn apart.
It wasn't attacked, but purified.
A fleet rose from beneath the clouds, its hulls shimmering with a platinum-gold light of order. The fleet's design was distinctly Triangle Bodies, but the dark purple Chaos patterns were gone, replaced by silver-white geometric lines.
On the lead warship stood a figure similar to the Star Speaker but younger—his silver-white eyes were brighter, and the lines on his skin were as intricate as a circuit board.
" Star Speaker No. 2, commander of the Ordered Triangle Bodies Fleet, has come to provide support on the orders of the Ancient One and Star Speaker No. 1." His voice entered everyone's minds directly, his tone steady but slightly mechanical.
"Can you fight against Void?" Yan asked.
"We can't fight it, but we can anchor ourselves to it." Star Speaker No. 2 pointed to the shadow of the giant whale. "The essence of Void is the 'denial of existence.' To fight it, we need a sufficiently strong 'affirmation of existence.'"
He spread his arms, and all the ordered Triangle Bodies warships simultaneously released light. The light intertwined in the air, forming a huge network—a network of collective consciousness.
"We will network the 'existence awareness' of all fleets to form a powerful reality anchor. Within the anchor's range, the erosion of Void will be greatly reduced, allowing you to safely approach the giant whale."
Yan keenly sensed the problem. "What's the price?"
"Once the network is contaminated by Void, the consciousness of all network users will be assimilated, becoming part of Void," Star Speaker No. 2 said calmly. "This is a necessary risk."
"You will die."
"We were once part of Chaos, and the Threshold Bearer gave us new life." Star Speaker No. 2 looked at the giant whale. "Now, it's our turn to choose our own fate."
Without waiting for Yan's reply, he immediately started the network.
Buzz--
A platinum-gold net of light enveloped the entire airspace. The giant whale's erosion of Void had indeed been suppressed! The turbid sea of clouds began to clear, and the scattered fragments of memory stabilized again.
"Go!" Yan didn't hesitate any longer and led the team to charge towards the giant whale.
The moment they passed through the net of light, they felt a warm force enveloping their entire bodies—the collective will of hundreds of ordered Triangle Bodies consciousnesses, protecting them from the Void.
The giant whale seemed to sense the threat and made its first sound:
The sound was indescribable, like silence itself screaming. The instant they heard it, a single thought simultaneously flashed through everyone's minds, "I do not exist."
"Stand firm to your principles!" Yan shouted, Flame Sword erupted with holy flames, dispelling the whispers of Void.
The team finally rushed into the giant whale's body.
The scene inside was even more eerie than the outside.
There are no organs, no flesh and blood, only an infinitely extending grayish-white space. Countless translucent cubes float within this space, each cube containing a sealed fragment of memory:
--A scene of a Shandora warrior saying goodbye to his wife.
--The moment the Golden Bell was rung.
--The surprise of the ancient Skypieans discovering the Poneglyph.
--Even including... the Straw Hat Pirates's adventure when they first landed on Sky Island.
But these cubes are being eroded by gray-white, starting from the edges, the colors of memory gradually fading, turning into a monotonous gray-white, and finally disappearing completely.
"It's digesting history..." Qilin murmured.
"Locate the fragment!" Yan spread her wings and flew at high speed to scan.
Ge Xiaolun's Void Engine system was operating at full capacity. "High concentration of order- Chaos mixed fluctuations detected... 3,000 meters below!"
The squad swooped down.
The deeper she went, the denser the grayish-white became, and the stronger the erosion from the Void. Even with the protection of the collective consciousness network, Yan began to feel her memories slipping away—she forgot what she had for dinner yesterday, forgot what year it was when she last returned to the Merlot Heavenly Court, and even began to forget Queen Kaisa's face.
"Sister Yan!" Rena grabbed her hand, "Stay awake!"
"I'm trying..." Yan gritted her teeth, "But Void is attacking our most cherished memories... it's making us 'forget why we're fighting'..."
Just then, they reached the bottom.
Floating here is a gigantic cube, a hundred times larger than the others. Inside the cube lies the core history of the entire Sky Island:
--A complete view of the ancient city of Shandora.
--The light of Lamp of Shandora.
--The four-hundred-year war and reconciliation between the Skypieans and the Shandora.
--And, at the very center of the cube, floats a platinum crystal.
The third Balance Field Fragment.
But around the fragments, there were grayish-white chains that were even more complex than those around Fish-Man Island and Zou. These chains not only connected the fragments, but also the entire cube, and all the floating memories.
"If we forcibly take the fragments..." Ge Xiaolun analyzed, "All the history that was swallowed will be instantly annihilated. The Sky Island will completely disappear from the universe, and even the concept of 'having ever existed' will disappear."
"Then what should we do?" Liu Chuang asked, "Should we just not take it?"
"If we don't take it, the fragment will be completely corrupted by the Void." Yan stared at the chains. "Then Ithaqua will obtain a ' Void Fragment' to accelerate the universe's reset."
dilemma.
Just then, Robin's voice came through the fragment network—faint, but clear:
[Miss Yan... I saw it...]
That giant whale... wasn't a living creature... it was Ithaqua's 'experimental subject'...
[It's testing the efficiency of 'completely wiping out a civilization'... preparing for a cosmic reset...]
[The fragments are bait... and also a trap...]
[But there's a loophole...]
[ Void denies all existence... but it cannot deny 'contradiction'...]
Yan was stunned. "A contradiction?"
[For example... 'This cube does not exist'...]
[If you believe it doesn't exist... it will really start to disappear...]
[But if you simultaneously believe 'it exists'... then Void falls into a logical paradox...]
Ge Xiaolun's eyes lit up. "It's like a computer encountering an instruction that says 'yes/no' simultaneously, it will crash!"
"But how can we believe two contradictory things at the same time?" Rena asked.
Yan looked at the enormous cube, at the history sealed within it.
She remembered what Queen Kaisa had said:
"Yan, do you know why Order of Justice can exist?"
"Not because it is absolutely correct, but because—we choose to believe it."
"Belief itself is a form of power."
She closed her eyes.
Then, in consciousness, two beliefs are constructed simultaneously:
First belief: This cube does not exist. The history of the Sky Island has been swallowed up; what we see is merely a remnant.
Second belief: This cube exists. The history of the Sky Island will always exist; no matter how it is erased, someone will always remember it.
Two contradictory beliefs were simultaneously true in her consciousness.
Divine codes were running rampant within her! As the Queen of Angels, her beliefs themselves possessed the power to influence reality.
The Void began to tremble.
The gray-white chains began to disintegrate—not broken, but logically collapsed.
Because they cannot handle the state where "existence/non-existence are both true".
The cube began to flicker, sometimes transparent, sometimes solid.
The historical fragments sealed within began to overflow, like birds breaking free of their cages, flying in all directions.
The giant whale let out a painful scream! Its body began to become unstable, and the grayish-white mist surged violently.
"Now!" Yan rushed towards the center of the cube.
Her hand passed through the shimmering barrier and grasped the platinum fragment.
In the instant she touched it, she saw—
--Allen's figure, behind the Gate of the Void, is weaving an "anchor of existence" against Void with Sparks.
His face was paler than before, but his eyes were even more determined.
He nodded in Yan's direction.
It's as if it's saying: I saw it. Well done.
Then the screen disappeared.
The fragments pulsated warmly in her palm.
The third Key is obtained.
But the crisis is not over yet.
The collapse of the whale triggered a chain reaction. The entire realm of Void began to collapse inward, dragging everything into eternal Void.
"Retreat!" Yan shouted.
The squad rushed out at full speed.
But the gravity of Void was too strong, and their speed slowed down more and more.
"Sister Yan! You all need to get out of here!" Rena suddenly stopped, turning to face the pursuing Void Tide. "I'll blast a path with Solar Flare!"
"Are you crazy! Void will devour all energy!" Ge Xiaolun tried to pull her back.
But Rena has already begun.
Stellar energy gathers, compresses, and compresses again within her body.
"I am the Light of the Sun!"
She transformed into a blazing sun, crashing into the Void Tide!
Light collides with Void.
There was no explosion, only mutual annihilation.
The Light of the Sun is annihilating Void, Void is also annihilating the Light of the Sun.
A narrow passage was forcibly opened!
"Go!" Rena's voice came from the light, growing weaker and weaker, "Tell Pan Zhen... this time... I wasn't being willful..."
" Rena--!" Yan tried to rush over, but was forcibly dragged away by Ge Xiaolun and Liu Chuang.
They rushed through the passage, burst out of the giant whale's body, and surged back above the sea of clouds.
Behind them, the giant whale completely collapsed, turning into countless gray-white specks of light, which then disappeared as if they had never existed.
Along with it, the sun that Rena had transformed into also vanished.
The Sky Island has been restored.
The sea of clouds turned white again, the buildings became clear again, and history became complete again.
But one person is missing.
Yan knelt on the cloud, clutching the shards in her hand, her tears mingling with the rain.
Pan Zhen's voice came through the communicator—distant, hoarse, and filled with suppressed grief:
" The Light of the Sun... has fallen..."
"But she... lit the way..."
"Keep moving forward... children..."
"Don't... let her die in vain..."
Yan raised her head and wiped away her tears.
Her gaze was colder and more intense than ever before.
In the name of the Angel King Yan--
She faced the sky, towards the direction where Void disappeared, towards any place where Ithaqua might exist:
"--I swear."
" Ithaqua will pay the price."
"Let Rena's sacrifice be the starting point to end all of this."
The fragments in her hand seemed to sense her will, bursting forth with unprecedented light.
Within that light, a line of text faintly appeared:
[Fourth Stop: Wano Country, Deep Within the Earth's Core, Pillar of Matter ]
[Guardian: The Blooming Demon Flower]
[WARNING: This site is dangerous - lethal]
Countdown update: 52 hours and 40 minutes.
Three stops completed, two stops successful.