The Record of Unusual Creatures

Panda Novel

When the largest clash of divine powers in the history of the universe exploded from the heart of the Dark Abyss, the battle between order and chaos outside the Dark Abyss entered its most bloody phase.

The defensive line was slowly falling apart.

As the Annihilation Engine went into self-destructive overdrive, the power of chaos from the Dark Abyss instantly went berserk too, and the minions of chaos no longer appeared batch by batch from the twisted dimensional structure. Rather, they suddenly flooded the entire sector, covering every inch of area around the Dark Abyss. Countless minions appeared out of thin, swarming and tainting the defensive line of order like a vat of dye being splashed into a pond.

Against the sudden surge of ferocity, it did not take long for breaches to appear across the defensive line anchored upon the Overwatch Bastion. The entire line soon buckled slowly as the breaches widened.

Powerful combined shields were snuffed out by the monsters of chaos. As droid swarms were consumed by the tide of darkness, stars converted into bunkers and fortresses exploded, shattering into pieces. While the droid hives held out a little longer with their concentrated cannon fire, very soon, connections to the hivemind were lost one after another.

Against this relentless assault, the Guardian and Nightwatcher fleet could only retreat toward the second defensive line as they prepared to man and shore up the new defensive line.

Countless denizens and guardians perished while they covered the repositioning of the main fleet.

A series of explosions ripped outward from the central tower across the entire bastion, and aside from the central building cluster, most of the Overwatch Bastion’s buildings had totally shut down. Countless minions of madness had crossed through the already ruined shield generators like ravenous beasts consuming everything in their path, including the dimension itself. The once glorious bastion was disappearing like a sandcastle against the waves.

Within the upper control room of the central control tower, there was one last remaining source of light, and it was coming from several giant terminals. The control room was now empty, and only the AI had remained to maintain whatever operations it could. On one of the terminals, the holographic projection showed the remaining number of operational cannon platforms in the bastion.

That number had fallen below two digits.

Suddenly, a new command appeared, and the bastion’s AI quickly switched its processes. Monitoring processes were all shut down, and there was only one item remaining on the projection: the Annihilation Lance array within the heart of the bastion, which had not been totally destroyed.

“First command: Activate the Annihilation Lance, and fire it toward XX mark.

“Second command: Self destruct.

“Commencing command sequence.”

The light within the control room shone brightly, and very quickly, two of the terminals sank into darkness after a series of sparks. But at the center of the bastion, the unique building-like Annihilation Lance array started to form.

There were four Annihilation Lance projectors, and two had already been totally destroyed. Meanwhile, the other two lit up after they were fed energy. Bright sparks leaped between the crystals and the coils as they gathered at the tip of the array.

A group of minions were attracted by the sudden surge of energy and swarmed forward like sharks that had caught the scent of blood. But the energy had already hit its critical point, and as the firing command was given, two blinding beams tore through the converging darkness. They opened a dimensional rift in the distant space before disappearing within it.

“Launch successful. Entering self-destruct protocol. It was a pleasure to serve you, our current service ends now.”

The various remaining energy furnaces and munitions depots were detonated. A supermassive explosion erupted up in space like a nova was being born within a blazing flame, and that blinding light even temporarily checked the incursion of darkness and chaos, tearing numerous minions of madness into pieces.

At the same time, all across the various nodes on the first defensive line, similar explosions erupted. The chained self-destruction of countless space forts had suppressed the activity of the power of madness for a short while, giving the main forces that had just retreated to the second defensive line valuable breathing room.

Deep within the Dark Abyss, the pale and golden figures once again put a distance between them.

The dimensional structure around them had fully collapsed as uncountable dark and bright ribbons floated about. Any time a floating ruin in space touched them, they would be rendered down to the most basic data unit and disappear into the chaos of time and space.

The goddess of annihilation finally sensed that something was afoot as she stopped her crazy attacks and surveyed the already collapsed battlefield.

Shock appeared on her pale face.

Under Rheia’s conscious control, numerous golden runes had been left on the battlefield, and the randomly set up runes had originally just been floating about. But at that moment, all of them stopped and were glowing brighter with each passing second.

The control of the dimensional structure suddenly changed hands, and now, the right of control was temporarily Rheia’s.

“What do you think you’re doing?!” the goddess of annihilation bellowed.

Rheia did not answer. She simply held her hands wide open as the floating pages reformed into the sacred tome. The divine words floating across the battlefield grew even brighter. From a distance, the runes had formed a very intricate, layered orb, and the goddess of annihilation was right in the middle of it.

Right then, Rheia finally spoke, “By my command, everything shall stop.”

Thus, the entire area covered by the golden runes came to standstill.

It did not just stop any material movement, even time stopped. All information flow disappeared, and the change to the universe paused as well.

The first to come was absolute zero, and following that, endless darkness because the movement of light was stopped too.

Within the darkness, only the countless golden runes shone brightly.

However, that pause only lasted fora very short while. The goddess of annihilation was of the same rank as Rheia, and the power of chaos afforded her sufficient strength to resist Rheia who had mastered many new divine arts. As the power of chaos fought back, the still universe started to move again, and as the darkness faded away, the goddess of annihilation in the middle of the runic matrix raised her head. “Don’t think that this can…”

“I never said that was all of it,” Rheia said flatly as the Petrachelys appeared from the shadows in the space behind her.

The upper deck of the argent frigate opened up, and a special antenna rose from within. While the antenna was activated, many dimensional rifts formed behind her.

The beam of the Annihilation Lance crossed through the dimensions and smashed into the goddess of annihilation.

The storm of high-powered beams lasted almost half a minute, and even Rheia had to squint as she looked at the torrent of light. As the bombardment came to an end, the area around the goddess of annihilation was wiped “clean”.

All of the wreckage and dimensional rifts had been wiped out by the power of the Annihilation Lance.

“Is it over?” the MDT asked nervously.

“It’s not that easy,” Hao Ren replied.

Just as Hao Ren’s words left his mouth, the bombardment ended, and once the flames faded away, a pale figure reappeared in its wake. She was indeed battered, with numerous smoking wounds all over her body. Even half of her face was gone, and only a savage silhouette was left. Yet, she was still alive…

Or rather, she refused to die.

“So that was your trump card?” The goddess of annihilation started to recover at a staggering speed, and even her voice was bereft of any weakness. “Laughable, I—”

Before she could finish, Rheia interrupted her, “But what if I add this!”

The floating divine runes suddenly converged again and formed a spear-like shape next to Rheia. The heavy tome broke into a ton of light orbs in the sky, which quickly flowed toward the tip of the spear. In an instant, the originally ethereal spear became a veritable light-forged weapon.

Rheia held the weapon, which was many times her size, from behind. She became the weapon’s propulsion force and charged like a meteor towards the goddess of annihilation, who was immobile due to her recovering state.

Her voice rang across the entire universe. “And what if I add myself in?!”

The golden spear pierced through the pale figure.

Everything happened in an instant but seemed to have passed through countless passages of time. Hao Ren felt like a century had passed before the two orbs of light, one gold and one pale, split again and again.

The golden spear dissolved into light orbs silently as the black leather tome appeared next to Rheia once more. In contrast to before, the glow of the tome was many times weaker now.

Meanwhile, the pale figure stopped for a few moments before she shattered into many pieces.

Rheia stared hard at the spot where the goddess of annihilation had disappeared, and the excessive use of her powers made her shiver. Strands of golden-red blood seeped out from her wounds, but she had no concern for it.

The next moment, her pupils shrank.

A tiny pale object appeared in space, and following that, many more fragments appeared out of nowhere.

It was as if time had reversed itself, and the goddess of annihilation quickly reformed her body. In the blink of an eye, she reappeared totally unscathed.

“Ah… seeing your expression now is rather satisfying.” The goddess of annihilation looked at her already recovered arm before she set her sights on Rheia. “Interesting… You sure prepared a lot of surprises…”

Rheia was staring the goddess of annihilation in the eye, but her expression of shock had totally disappeared.

In its place was a smile, which she had tried to suppress. “You have not seen the real surprise yet.”

“Wha…”

The goddess of annihilation only managed a syllable before she had to turn and block two Cosmic Shards that slashed at her. She avoided them by mere millimeters.

Hao Ren held the Godslayer and the Worldbreaker tightly as Raven 12345’s blessing cast a divine veil of light around him, protecting him from the chaotic powers of the goddess of annihilation. He used all his might as he pressed the swords downward. “The real show is just about to start!”

“Is this the surprise you were talking about?” The goddess of annihilation deployed a pale screen before her, and the Godslayer’s blade bit into the screen, sending sparks flying everywhere. But it could not penetrate further. “You really think I haven’t noticed the human who has been roaming the field since the start of the battle without doing anything…”

As she spoke, she even yawned. “So your surprise was this? To let a weak human ‘sneak attack’ me? For such a weak attack… what will it achieve even if it’s successful?”

Hao Ren grinned as he amplified his power. “You really don’t recognize the blade before you?!”

“The blade?” Only then did the goddess of annihilation realize the uniqueness of the weapons in Hao Ren’s hands, and she noticed a familiar aura from one of the swords. “This… This was the one last time…”

“The blade that ‘killed’ the goddess of creation once…” As he endured increasing pressure, Hao Ren’s expression grew more and more menacing, but his eyes did not waver. “How is it? Have a feeling of deja vu?”

The two blades pressed down again, and a layer of blood appeared on the Godslayer’s starry surface. When the blood stained the barrier, tiny cracks began to appear on it.

“We’ve… put in… so much effort… to create a weapon that can finally slay a god!”

The starry surface of the Godslayer fully turned blood-red, and the pale shield shattered away. However, right before the blade was about to bite into the goddess of annihilation, the latter stuck her hands out and grabbed both blades.

“Create a weapon that could slay a god?” the goddess of annihilation said as she gripped the blades of the Godslayer and Worldbreaker hard. The dimension-slicing blades seemingly lost their power and could not even sink into the flesh of her hand. “Ah, so this is how it is. I finally understand what you lot were thinking… but still… so disappointing…”

The goddess of annihilation smiled, but her smile was vile and frenzied. “You actually placed your hopes in a sword! You really think I didn’t know? That I never actually guarded myself against that weird sword? Ten thousand years ago, when the sword wounded me, I knew that the goddess of creation had done something to it!”

She then tightened her grip, and the starlight on the surface of the twin blades flickered wildly. They were about to buckle when the goddess of annihilation’s voice rang in Hao Ren’s mind. “This sword cannot kill me!”

Hao Ren stared the goddess of annihilation in the eye, and behind him, the Crimson Moon completed its suppression of the dark star’s operation. A strand of moonlight soon diverged from the moon’s surface and fell onto Hao Ren.

Within the gentle moonlight, Vivian’s chant-like whispers could be heard.

The next moment, golden and crimson light appeared from the moon and flowed into Hao Ren’s limbs like liquid. The light rapidly formed a crimson-gold armor as the limiter in his soul was lifted. His face even changed ever so slightly.

Seeing the familiar armor and Hao Ren’s changing visage, the goddess of annihilation finally realized what was happening.

Hao Ren’s voice rang in her mind.

“Whoever told you… that the weapon we made was a sword!”

Seeing the Godslayer before her, the goddess of annihilation finally realized what the weapon really was.

Then, the twin blades slashed down.

Whether it was the Godslayer or the Worldbreaker, neither two had any differences. But when they were held in the hands of a godslayer, they were the Godslayers.

Soon, the blades ran through the target without any resistance, and the pale figure shattered like a piece of thin glass.

In spite of it all, Hao Ren knew very well that the strike did not come easy.

If Rheia had not fought so hard against the goddess of annihilation, forcing the latter to focus all of her energies into one point and giving him the opportunity to totally wipe everything out;

If Vivian had not used the Creation’s Engine to collect the various battlefield data and reset the goddess of annihilation’s unique code, even when he released the limiter, it would not have dealt fatal damage to the goddess of annihilation;

If he were to count the time from that stab 10,000 years ago during the Godslaying War, this strike, would have been prepared for 10,000 years.

The pale fragments scattered all across space, and within Hao Ren’s special field of vision, he could see that the dark “material” floating across space was also quickly fading away.

The dark star that had totally ceased to function under the glow of the Crimson Moon finally came apart too, and the savage scars on its surface turned into deep crevices, which were enough to rip a planet apart. Massive fragments started to fall due to its internal pressure, and following a chain of explosions, the dark red light within the star’s interior died off.

The twisted dark structure in the distant space disintegrated, and as the chaos faded away, normal starlight was finally able to enter the ancient place.

Rheia stared intently at the spot where the goddess of annihilation had disappeared again. She did not dare to relax so soon since the unkillable nature of the Mad Lord had caused her problems for so many years. She did not dare to slip-up and give the enemy a chance to make a comeback.

She stared intently for a good while until she saw strands of golden light in the air. Once the faint light coalesced, forming into an orb of blurry unstable “gas”, she heaved a sigh of relief.

The strand of divine power was the one that had left her and was the goddess of annihilation’s “true form”. With its reappearance and purification, it meant that the power of madness was totally and truly gone.

“Is it over?” Hao Ren looked tensely at Rheia’s reaction, and seeing the latter speechless for a good while, he felt that he had to ask.

As his godslayer powers faded away, he returned to his original form.

Rheia summoned the faint golden orb over and carefully placed it in her hands. With a smile, she nodded. “It’s over.”

She then looked up to the vast stars in the universe.

“My children, it is over!”

Over in Tannagost, Io, Holletta, Collow… and on every planet with life, the twisted monsters of chaos from the nightmare fell one by one.

Smoke was spat out from their bodies, and the monsters quickly disappeared like they were evaporated. The tired warriors on the battlefield looked slightly bewildered, as though they could not process what was happening.

Ophra swung the stains off her blade, and before she could complete the motion the stains disappeared. She looked up and saw the ominous clouds fading away as a ray of light broke through the thick clouds formed by the power of chaos. It shone upon all the people there.

And as the light shone brightly, an elated and loving voice echoed, “My children, it is over!”

A moment later, a deafening cheer thundered around her.

…

After getting Rheia’s confirmation, Hao Ren could finally relax. He spread himself open and lay in space like a salted fish.

The MDT spun about his head. “Hey… partner, you have the image of an Imperial to uphold!”

“Whatever… I want to float about now, so just let me be…”

The Petrachelys was also patrolling nearby. “Boss, I won’t stop you if you want to float about, but you better remember to claim workplace injury damages for me! I plan to get an even higher-efficiency waist when we get back…”

“Right, right, right, we’ll change your waist alright… Bloody hell, can’t a shipgirl act all proper?”

Lily’s voice rang in Hao Ren’s mind via the MDT too. “Mr. Landlord, Mr. Landlord! We’ve won! We’ve won! When can we go back and eat?”

Next was Wuyue’s voice. “Mr. Landlord! I didn’t shirk this time around! I’ll send the battle footage to you later…”

Then it was Y’zaks. “I also have footage here, but I need to send Lanina back first…”

Mixed in with Y’zaks’ voice was Y’lisabet’s faint yammering.

Hearing the voices of his friends making a riot in his mind, Hao Ren squinted and smiled as he listened on.

A ray of moonlight appeared next to him and Vivian walked out of it. She still had the golden wing-like runic stream behind her. That was because the connection between her and the Crimson Moon… Creation’s Engine had yet to be disconnected. And beside her was a few excited sprites. The tiny ones were yammering about the celebration party.

“You sure look cool in that.” Hao Ren looked at Vivian with a smile.

Vivian responded with a smile and adjusted herself to “lay” next to Hao Ren in space, bathing in the starlight.

“So, if I say it now, there won’t be any flags, right?”

“I don’t think so.”

“So… when we go home, marry me?”

Vivian pondered a bit. “While I’m rather happy about it… I feel that… Well, shouldn’t there be something to come along with the marriage proposal? It’s such an important thing after all…”

Hao Ren laughed. “So what do you want?”

Vivian put a finger on her chin. “Considering you’re such a capable person, you’d probably get me whatever I want… so… how about giving me a star?”

Hao Ren tilted his head in thought for a bit before he raised his hand toward Rheia, who was also floating about like a salted fish in space. “Rheia! Come over here, I have some handicraft homework for you!”