Chapter 1277: Chapter 1276: "Imaginary Entity

The muddled, hazy sky shrouded the dead, vast city. There was no sun or stars in the sky, only a layer of uniform pale yellow sky glow. The city was magnificent and grand, yet eerily silent and deserted—a dead divine realm presenting its "dead" appearance, while in this empty and desolate place, it was currently welcoming a group of new visitors.

Amber widened her eyes, nervously observing the surroundings. Only after confirming that nothing was lurking around to suddenly jump out and give her a beating did she slightly relax. Her gaze then swept over the high walls and palace silhouettes in the distance, muttering thoughtfully: "This place looks so different from around Lady Night’s throne... I thought the War God’s divine realm would also be an open and vast area."

"Different divine realms certainly aren’t the same," Gawain glanced at Amber, speaking offhandedly, "They present the forms believers sketched out based on mythological stories. Different churches would spare no effort to depict a ’heavenly landscape’ different from others—in some sense, this is also an important means for them to attract their followers."

"Then I’d definitely prefer the divine realm of the Three Goddesses of Fertility or the God of Trade," Amber’s eyes instantly brightened, and she laughed heartily, "It’s said that in the garden of the Three Goddesses of Fertility, beer and honey flow everywhere, the trees are laden with fruits that never spoil, and the long table in the center of the garden is filled with feasts that can feed countless people. In the God of Trade’s divine realm, wealth is everywhere, and people build houses with gold and gems..."

Modir, who was curiously looking around at the surrounding scenery, couldn’t help but glance at the "Imperial Minister of Intelligence": "If the world were full of gold, gold would be worth as much as stones..."

"Let the God of Trade worry about the devaluation of gold himself," Amber waved her hand indifferently, fully displaying her attitude in the field of the gods, "I just like shiny, glittery things, can’t I?"

Gawain couldn’t help but sigh as he listened: "If I didn’t know your background, sometimes I’d really suspect you were raised by dragons..."

Melita and Noretta rolled their eyes simultaneously by the side, yet Amber’s line of thinking had already progressed further. This alliance’s perennial disgrace, with her peculiar logic, had apparently uncovered something from her mind, and suddenly, as if discovering a new world, she exclaimed excitedly: "I seem to have thought of an idea... Look, we can now come to the War God’s divine realm without being tainted. Then, if our technology in the divine field continues to develop, do you think it might someday enable us to freely enter and exit other divine realms without engaging in battles of the gods? By then, we could directly rush into the God of Trade’s divine realm to grab money, or seek out the Three Goddesses of Fertility..."

These words left not just Gawain and Modir but even the diligently performing White Knights in a strange, stunned silence. Melita and Noretta, the two dragonkin, exchanged puzzled glances, while Amber grew more and more excited the more she thought: "And not just that! If we successfully grasp the patterns of thought trends, we could even use them to create things, then sneak into the corresponding divine realm to steal—I mean, take..."

Gawain stared dumbfounded at the suddenly thought-racing Amber, taking two seconds to react: "Well, you’re really trying to exploit a bug here?"

"Bug? What does that mean?" Amber asked, puzzled, while Windsor Maple, who had been listening for quite a while beside her, after contemplating seriously for some time, suddenly shook her head: "I’m afraid the scenario you described, Miss Amber... would probably be difficult to realize."

"Ah?" Amber blinked, looking somewhat surprised at the legendary mage from the Typhon Empire.

"Based on our research of the divine realm, in this space supported by ’thought trends,’ everything is not ’stably existent,’" Windsor Maple explained very seriously, "Just like the high walls and swords adorning the palaces you see now. Here they are solid entities, but once we bring some samples to the outside, real world, they quickly degrade and disappear, even showing bizarre changes in nature. Iron turns into loose, brittle sand, stones evaporate into the air, tapestries gradually become transparent and disintegrate... Aside from the ’remains’ of the War God himself, almost all things cannot remain stable for long once separated from the divine realm environment.

"We suspect this is related to the War God’s own demise, and the deeper cause should stem from the cessation of the War God thought trends. Currently, the War God faith is shrinking worldwide, and due to the revelation of the Hidden War’s truth, many initially devout believers are beginning to question their faith. This change is evidently reflected in the ’thought trend constructs’ like divine realm.

"Thus, Master Kamel and I, along with my mentor, have given a name to those things in the divine realm that cannot subsist stably in the real world. We call them ’imaginary entities.’

"In summary, Miss Amber’s concept is based on the assumption that things in the divine realm can subsist stably, which requires a stable belief trend in the mortal world, a notion that runs counter to what we are currently undertaking..."

This Typhon Mage Association president explained rigorously the special properties of "imaginary entities" within the divine realm, analyzing Amber’s whimsically outlandish idea—perhaps she was also the only scholar thus far to actually take Amber’s outburst of ideas seriously, a fact that made Amber immediately feel awkward. She scratched her head and looked at Gawain: "I feel kind of embarrassed..."

Upon hearing this, Windsor looked seriously at Gawain: "It seems my explanation has caused Miss Amber a bit of distress?"

"Uh... no, don’t mind it," Gawain immediately waved his hand, "Your explanation is highly meaningful to me. We really need these professional explanations about the divine realm’s mysteries..."

He couldn’t very well say in front of a foreign scholar that his intelligence minister was a jokester, though usually, Cecil’s scholars wouldn’t bother with Amber’s ideas...

But come to think of it, although Amber did indeed come up with a bad idea just now, Windsor Maple’s explanation of "imaginary entities" about the divine realm she led into had still provoked some thought in Gawain’s mind. Looking at the ancient and grand temples and cities before him, Gawain couldn’t help but have some questions—the fact that "imaginary entities" without the support of thought trends would dissolve in reality was true, but in this area known as "the deep-sea," these unsupported entities could stably exist for an extended period; what was the principle behind that? And the fact that the remains of the gods could last longer than the divine realm; what was the reason?

In this "deep-sea," the boundary between matter and thought seemed particularly blurred. The things people see and touch here are essentially massive amounts of "information" imagined by mortal minds... For some reason, contemplating this point brought Gawain to the "discovery" mentioned by the Goddess of Magic, Milmina, in her report—

At the very bottom of the world, both matter and magic show similar properties. The distinction between the corporeal and the non-corporeal is not clear-cut... but a gradual transition.

Gawain shook his head, temporarily putting these uncontrollable thoughts aside—although he could come up with countless conjectures, at this moment, conjectures could only remain conjectures, serving no practical purpose. He still remembered his initial purpose for coming here.

"Take us to the ’border.’" He looked at Kamel and said solemnly.

Under the guidance of Kamel and Lady Windsor, Gawain and his group passed the quiet Pathway of Cheering Ones and the arena area, traversed the desolate palace and outer city, and finally arrived at the "Border of the Divine Kingdom," which continuously showed signs of disintegration and dispersion.

A vast and magnificent sandstorm cloud sea surged into everyone’s view. Amber couldn’t help but hold her breath when faced with the boundless undulating mist and the "Outer Realm Space" of distant dark chaos. In the depths of the cloud sea, a large-scale vortex featuring unsettling space rifts and the blue light stream flowing deep within it caught Gawain’s attention.

Following Melita and Nuoletta were two young dragons that immediately became restless, flapping and shouting excitedly yet anxiously towards the direction of the vortex.

Melita immediately bent down to soothe her two daughters. The gentle touch of a mother calmed the little ones a bit, while Nuoletta raised her head, looked at the rift in the sandstorm vortex, and said worriedly, "It seems correct... These rifts are the same kind we found at the Tower of the Inversion Tide... They’re all tears of the Deep Blue Webway, or rather... they might actually be the same ’flow,’ connected together."

Amber instinctively swallowed nervously, "So that thing in the tower just slipped through the rift all the way here, and now it’s also in Lady Night’s Divine Kingdom..."

"...The rift is located outside the War God’s Divine Realm—though it seems close now, it’s due to the uncontrolled ’drifting’ of the War God’s Divine Realm," Gawain said while carefully observing the situation of the distant cloud sea, analyzing as he observed, "I don’t see any traces left by the Inversion Tide’s corrosion around the rift... It might be that the special environment in the deep sea erased those traces, or perhaps the ’Inversion Tide’ relocated quickly after escaping the rift without staying."

"Trapped by the Tower of the Inversion Tide for so many years, even a ’Chaos Evil God’ driven by pure instinct would choose to get away from this thing first chance it gets," Melita’s hand rubbed the smooth scales on the heads of the two young dragons as she spoke with ease, "It’s a shame that if no traces were left here, the clues are cut off... We now only have the capability to access the War God’s Divine Realm and know nothing of the deep sea’s mysteries, nor where Lady Night’s Divine Kingdom is located..."

"The clue from this rift is cut off, but another matter may not be," Gawain said in a deep voice, slowly gazing towards the endless cloud sea’s far side—this place should have been shrouded in darkness, yet a bright light ball hovered above the cloud sea, left by Milmina’s "Illumination spell," sustained by the power of the past Goddess of Magic, still lighting up this place for a long time to come, "Kamel, you mentioned that the ’Steel Ground’ appears cyclically, right? How long till it appears again?"

"It approaches the divine kingdom border every two days—since we first explored here, it has appeared twice on schedule, with a stable pattern," Kamel responded immediately, his voice buzzing, "You’re here just in time, today’s the day it appears again—though we’ll have to wait for a while."

Gawain nodded, then asked, "I heard you’ve carried out reconnaissance on that ’Steel Ground’? How did you scout it? What were the results?"

"We figured out a way to send an autonomous magic puppet up there," Kamel nodded and said, "The puppet executed several hours of exploration inside the target, then shut down to rest, and upon the target’s approach to the divine kingdom border, it reactivated and transmitted the collected data back—based on the collected information, we confirmed that after leaving the divine kingdom area, the Steel Ground ’dives’ into a dark chaotic space, and during its ’journey,’ it approached certain objects floating in the darkness several times, but for some reason, the puppet’s recording device couldn’t capture clear images."

"But one thing is certain, humans can survive and operate on that ’Steel Ground,’ the puppet didn’t detect any toxic or harmful substances or energy radiation, and the ’Steel Ground’ itself has a layer of unidentified protective energy shield, maintaining a mild and safe environment inside. Considering the uncertainty of such a mysterious object, Lady Windsor and I still recommend thorough precautions and carrying ample supplies when exploring the target area."

"Where’s the puppet now?" Amber asked curiously from the side.

"It’s still deep within that ’Steel Ground,’ and after the last data transmission, it returned to a dormant state," Kamel said, "Not solely to keep conserving energy—post its departure from the War God’s Divine Realm, the puppet can recharge from the environment, but its autonomous operation capability is limited, the complex structure in the Steel Ground’s depths goes beyond the puppet’s cognitive ability, we worried it might encounter accidents while exploring deeper, hence issued the dormancy command during the last communication."

"Still up there..." Gawain nodded slightly, and just then, he caught sight of ripples seemingly emanating from the depths of the far-away dark chaos corner through the corner of his eye.

A beam of hazy chaotic light extended from the dark ripples, gradually emerging, inching closer bit by bit.

It reminded him of a "submarine" surfacing from the deep ocean, or... a deep-sea creature with luminous organs.

The "Steel Ground" mentioned by Kamel appeared, following a strict timetable, traversing an unfathomable extensive voyage, returning to the continually disintegrating divine kingdom border once more.

"Kamel, Victoria, as well as Amber and Modir, you will accompany me to explore the situation," Gawain immediately turned around and said, "Melita will fly us over. The rest will stay here to support."

In the distance, the majestic steel structure already had a third of its form protruding from the dark chaos boundary, the sandstorm at the cloud sea’s fringe churned by the Steel Ground, raising impressive dust vortexes, while lights of various sizes flickered along the colossal edges, outlining its wall-like broad contour.

"Your Majesty Gawain, I wish to accompany you," Lady Windsor Maple, tasked with staying behind for support, couldn’t help but step forward, "Please permit."

Gawain turned to look at the figures around him.

He felt he couldn’t exclude the Typhon people from this operation—they needed inclusion from a political standpoint, academic collaboration, and considering the contributions from all parties in the "Door" project. The exploration of the ’Steel Ground’ should certainly include the Typhon people’s presence.

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