Xyrin Empire

Taville opened a holographic projection in the air, watching the dizzying sequence of images and data refresh rapidly. In a tone that wasn't very optimistic, he said: "These conclusions are derived from multiple tests. Milia's information throughput isn't limitless. The information from the Abyss Space of the Revenge Army plus the real world amounts to the information of two worlds. Milia has to coordinate the correspondence of every minute and second of information in these two worlds, to prevent the collapse of the channel. In this state, her designed lifespan is only forty-eight hours. Beyond this time limit, her information flow will terminate. There are two reasons for the termination: the first is the limitation of her inherent functions, which might be buffered by networking her with Bubbles. The second is a command based on the most basic script, left when Milia was initially placed into the container. It limits the lifespan of that girl, and we've exhausted all means yet can't delete this command. In fact, one could say Milia's existence is based on this command, and it's irrevocable."

Sandora knitted her brows as if pondering something, while I asked frantically: "What do you mean? Did the Revenge Army create Milia all those years ago just to make her a consumable that can only be on duty for forty-eight hours?!"

"Ah Jun, let Taville finish," Sandora gently nudged me and softly reminded.

Taville nodded: "I'm afraid so, Your Majesty. This aligns with the Old Empire's way of thinking. We never waste anything, nor would we leave an opportunity for the enemy. If the previous speculations hold, Milia is actually the key left by the Revenge Army for their Queen. In other words, under normal circumstances, Milia should think in the way of a Xyrin Apostle. She would unwaveringly execute her preset commands, even if it meant becoming a consumable. But due to various accidents, Milia was left with only core data and was raised as a normal human for over a decade, which is why we find it hard to accept. If everything had proceeded according to the original plan, she wouldn't have consciousness, nor should she appear in the form of a human. Milia scanned the genetic structure of Zaku and Biluna out of instinct when she came out of the container early and then simulated a human form for the sake of a preservation plan. By now, this has become her fixed form. This conclusion has been drawn after repeatedly scanning some of her deep memories."

"In other words, if no one had activated that relic back then, and Milia's container hadn't been damaged in the war, she would actually have been preserved as a string of data until I returned to this world, and then I should have used this data to open a teleportation gate lasting two days to bring the warriors out?" Sandora sorted through a series of events, forming a vague speculation about the Revenge Army's last plan. "Ah Jun, I recalled the example on Earth, Schrodinger's cat. The difference is that before opening the box, it was the cat's life or death being determined, while Milia's life form was determined when the box was opened..."

I sighed deeply: "Remember Zaku once said they also found a mouse in the ruins? Thank goodness Biluna scared that mouse to death early. Otherwise, Milia might not even be walking upright now..."

This joke was probably very cold because neither Taville nor Sandora laughed.

"Why is it forty-eight hours?"

I ultimately focused on this vexing question, puzzled why Milia's identity was the Heart of the World, yet she only had a lifespan of forty-eight hours once she started working. Did that mean it would be Doomsday afterward? But I figured out this mystery myself. The Heart of the World can transfer. It is an entangled information entity. Only when attached to a physical existence is it called the Heart of the World. If Milia perishes, the Heart of the World would immediately transfer to something else in this world. But by then, it would have nothing to do with Milia.

"For safety," Sandora had figured out many things, "because they weren't sure if their Queen would return or if the first to return to this Universe would be the Queen's army or the enemies. If the enemies manage to obtain the key, the Shadow Space would be wide open—so the key's effective time must be short. Forty-eight hours, just enough for the Imperial Army to pour out of the Shadow Space fully, and also enough for them to hold out until the key disintegrates and the space closes again when under attack."

"After the Old Empire collapsed, the Revenge Army must have suffered an Abyss attack, or they wouldn't have locked themselves this way." Taville nodded in agreement.

Sandora agreed but suggested keeping reservations: "These are all speculations. Before entering the Shadow Space, any assertion is meaningless."

I anxiously responded: "We have a more pertinent issue to consider, don't we: Can we really watch Milia open a teleportation gate for us and lose her life?"

After being in contact with Xyrin Apostles for so long, I have a solid understanding of numerous unusual life forms. I clearly know what information flow cessation means for an information-based life form like Milia. It's more thorough than human death—she will leave nothing behind. The body disintegrates, and the soul ceases to exist, for information-based life forms have no distinction between body and soul.

"Actually, if we act fast enough, Milia doesn't have to sacrifice herself."

Taville suddenly remarked.

I was startled: "Hmm? What do you mean?"

"Milia's designed lifespan is indeed forty-eight hours, but that doesn't mean we have to use up all forty-eight hours at once," Taville said slowly. "If we can withdraw from the Shadow Space within forty-seven hours and fifty-nine minutes, Milia doesn't have to die."

Sandora and I exchanged a glance, and she said to Taville in a strange tone, "So you're saying Milia can actually be 'turned off'?"

Taville nodded.

I immediately banged my head against the table with a thud, then looked at Taville wildly, "Then why did you talk so heroically?!"

"Did I?" Taville looked puzzled, pointing to himself, "I was merely stating facts. It's a scientist's foundational cultivation to state facts."

I exhaled a sigh of relief, "Scared me to death. I thought someone was finally planning to go down the path of depression... So, when we enter the Shadow Space, let Milia open the door, and then let her rest, then signal her to open the door to let us out after we've finished causing trouble in the Shadow Space, right?"

Taville returned to his not-so-optimistic demeanor, "I'm afraid not—again, Milia is a one-time use. In the design, she has only one chance to switch on and off. From opening the door to completing our mission in the Shadow Space and her ending operations, the time is exactly forty-eight hours, with no interruptions in between. There's no pause button. Theoretically, it is... Well, that's just the way it is."

"Come on!" I was almost driven to nervous breakdown by the devious designs of the Revenge Army years ago, "Did they have to be so cautious?!"

"We should be thankful, though. Although there's no pause button, Milia at least has a shutdown. Otherwise, if those forty-eight hours had to be used all at once, wouldn't you be even more frantic?" Sandora glanced at me meaningfully, "Now, what we need to consider is the next matter: forty-eight hours, that's basically two days. What do we manage to do in that time?"

I was stunned, my expression becoming subtle.

Two days, enough for what? If you want to do a small thing, it's more than enough. For the impatient, these two days might be enough to meet and get married. But what are we planning to do?

We are planning to destroy a world—in forty-eight hours.

Anyone who's watched movies knows that the most powerful aliens in films take several days to destroy one Washington, and in the end, they almost always get thwarted by some dauntless youngster. This youngster could be a high school sophomore with a female classmate who gets kidnapped by aliens at least once or twice as a romantic interest. Or it could be a middle-aged man with a failing career and a wife constantly neglected for work reasons, who is called out of bed by a phone call just as the opening credits finish. Obviously, we digressed again.

What I wanted to say is that destroying a Universe within two days is challenging. It involves a profound philosophical question of "what is destruction," and let's use Washington as an example since the Americans don't mind. In the average person's mind, Washington bombed into ruins equals destruction, as it means the human-made home loses all functional value. But from Earth's perspective, Washington is just a coordinate of latitude and longitude. Blow it into bits, and 38.913611 degrees north latitude, 77.013222 degrees west longitude still exists, with only the altitude changed: that's not destruction. And escalating the concept to a universal level makes it even trickier. Theoretically, as long as a space exists, and as long as the laws within it remain, it hasn't been destroyed. Every entity in existence, including planets, are just temporary tenants placed at specific spatial coordinates. They have relatively long tenure, but no one will compensate them when demolition occurs because, in the world's view, the place still exists.

To destroy Shadow Space is not merely about blowing up the celestial bodies and Revenge Army bases there.

The Xyrin Apostle is one of the ancestors in space technology, and also a veteran in Law technology. They excel at hiding their bases in any layer of space, and can live comfortably even if the entire universe is reverted to a primordial soup. If we want to solve the Revenge Army problem once and for all, the Shadow Space must completely disappear, including its space, time, laws, and concepts.

The last time we did this was in the Kepulu Star Zone, using a hot restart to bring it to the state before the Big Bang, and then rebuilding Genesis. That level of the apocalypse clearly meets our current requirements. However, I remember one thing: before the hot restart, Pandora and her team took a month to prepare for the world's arbitration.

From a variety of perspectives, the current Revenge Army won't give us a month's time to prepare a big move, and then watch three Glory Starships enter their Shadow Space.

"Can we delete a universe within forty-eight hours right now? I mean starting from scratch, not from those few minutes of hot restart."

"We used to," Sandora replied with a slightly awkward expression.

Oh, that was during the Old Empire Era, Sandora meant now we don't.

I wanted to say the Divine Race surely has this capability, but seeing Sandora's face, I thought it best not to.

At this juncture, even needing someone else's help for burying my old soldiers is hard to accept for both Sandora and me.

I started to think about what I could achieve with my own power within forty-eight hours. I found myself truly impressive. During this period, I might use the Void Domain to devour an entire Constant Star System range, provided I don't overextend myself and get eliminated. I could also open a Void Rift to gradually erode the Shadow Space, but the Revenge Army might find a way to plug it themselves. After considering several plans, none came to fruition. My only significant victory related to forty-eight hours in memory was during the second year of junior high. I completed all my homework in the last two days of winter vacation, one of the two major experiences I considered most memorable before I turned eighteen. The other was when I was in the fifth grade and Big Sister took me to play in the countryside. I went with Li Xiaopang to steal Old Qian's fruit, and then we both got caught. What was to be proud of was that I outran Li Xiaopang, but unfortunately, neither of us outran the dog guarding the yard...

When I came to my senses, I found Sandora staring at me, jaw-dropped. Apparently, she and Taville had been calling me several times. I awkwardly scratched my head, realizing suddenly why Qianqian, that carefree girl, would fall for me—this is like meeting one's own kind!

"Ahem, have you reached a conclusion?"

I asked, scratching my head in embarrassment.

With a serious expression, Sandora nodded, "We have a method, but the loss could be significant. However, it's currently the only viable option given our current strength."

Taville continued, "Your Majesty, every Shadow Space has a control core because it is a world formed purely by relying on information distortion. It exists on the foundation of 'non-existence', thus requiring a powerful central control system to ensure the massive information doesn't cancel out due to paradoxes. Our Shadow City, for instance, is such a control core. The Revenge Army's Shadow Space is extremely vast, even to the point that the real world cannot accommodate it, so its control system should also be enormous... Perhaps after entering the Shadow Space, the first thing we scan and lock onto would be this control core. At that scale, it can hardly hide; the massive tide of information would render any concealment methods ineffective."

"You mean, directly destroy this core and let the Shadow Space collapse?" I tapped the table. This plan is quite straightforward, a child might think of it, but in reality, it's not very reliable. "Have you forgotten how many the Revenge Army is? Their mother ship group alone, currently gathered in Deep Space, already triples our conventional fleet. If we want to assault their control core, the number of troops we'll face far exceeds this number: we need to win against an enemy several times our own in forty-eight hours, and then conveniently eliminate that control core, whose sturdiness could be unimaginable. Even the Celestial System Fleet wouldn't accomplish this, right?"

"No, it should be feasible. We have the Ghost Energy Death Star," Sandora shook her head, "Its special structure can withstand enormous damage, and Taville is confident in letting us approach that core as close as twenty light years after entering the Shadow Space. This is based on analyzing Milia's recorded coordinate system to determine the Shadow Space zone distribution, with a confidence level of one hundred percent. If we go all in..."

I found Sandora unusually hesitant on a topic, so I urged her, and her response made me bang my head on the table: "Ah Jun, if the Ghost Energy Death Star crashes directly, no matter how sturdy the target is, even if it has Law-level defense, it will turn to ashes. Ninety-eight percent of the main structure of the Ghost Energy Death Star is high-density Ghost Energy, already nearing the strength of Ascension to Void Energy, enough to destroy Law-level defenses."

I broke out in a cold sweat, looking at the two terrifying women before me: "So you've been planning all this while only to crash the whole Constant Star Fortress into it?!"

I had to admit this is the craziest attack plan I've ever heard, and the power is certainly potent. Pandora and Visca's brutal aesthetic really doesn't compare in front of this queen who started carving out territories tens of millions of years ago. Look at this terrible idea Sandora came up with!

I calculated on my fingers and realized two key points are required to implement this plan: First, our Ghost Energy Death Star must withstand the interception fire along the way. I don't believe the Revenge Army will watch as a Constant Star Fortress smashes their base. During the twenty-light-year charge, the Ghost Energy Death Star would have to endure firepower likely equivalent to both sides' combined Galaxy Main Guns since the war began. Second, after destroying the Shadow Space's control core, the Dead Star Fortress must still be operational—it's going to hit the core fortress of the entire universe, fundamentally different from a kid smashing glass marbles.

Eventually, I concluded this is a whimsical idea filled with war romanticism.

But frustratingly, Sandora had already unilaterally agreed...

"Don't forget the Celestial System Fleet has the second system for backup," Sandora reassured me while heading to the Command Center after leaving the research center, "If the fortress cannot withstand, we have one chance for emergency suspension, then..."

"Then what?"

I gazed into Sandora's bright eyes, trying to find a bit of madness within them, which would give me a reason to persuade her to calm down again, but her gaze remained forever calm and determined.

"I've discussed this with Bingdisi, whose Divine Position possesses the Authority to destroy a universe—you remember when we first met she nearly used Cosmic Collapse against you, right?"

I shivered, intensely recalling that hooligan's combat power when she was hysterical.

"The strongest aspect of the Divine Race isn't their combat power but the Authority they innately possess in any world. In this respect, Bingdisi is particularly adept. Her Light Goddess power isn't keen on destruction (?), but her Authority can achieve those. It's just... once such Authority is used, Bingdisi's actions no longer count as her individual actions; it equates to the gods officially intervening in this war."

Sandora sighed at this point: "If possible, I really wish to personally hold this funeral for them. But due to circumstances, we have only forty-eight hours—having my best friends involved is already my bottom line."

I stood silent for a few seconds, wrapping my arm around Sandora's shoulder: "Well, anyway, I'm behind you—though let's still try to protect that Dead Star Fortress; our finances are tight at home right now..."

(Who said I'm going down the Old Xu route—besides, seeking monthly tickets... forgot yesterday.) (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, welcome to vote for recommendation tickets and monthly tickets on Qidian (qidian.com), your support is my greatest motivation.)