Xyrin Empire

To be honest, if Alaya hadn't come out, I almost forgot I had such a sleep deity in me—her talent in sleeping has surpassed the standard reached by common sense, almost reaching hibernation level. Initially, she remembered to come out for meals or to sunbathe her wings every day, but ever since Little Qijing started living with us, she seems to have forgotten even that—after all, not eating or drinking is nothing, so the angel sister simply stays in my mind every day to take care of the baby.

That's really a good wife and loving mother character, if you don't delve into the details.

Alaya flapped her wings, although there wasn't a speck of dust on them, and then another small white figure appeared right beside her, a little girl wearing a white dress with complicated lace, white disheveled ponytails, white dress, white cheeks, and a white rose on one of her eyes. Truly a little girl dressed entirely in white, she followed her "mom" from the spirit sea to the real world, first curiously glancing around, realizing she'd arrived in a completely unfamiliar place, and immediately pouted her little mouth in fear like she was about to cry. Thankfully, my reaction was quick, so I just grabbed this paper-white child onto my shoulder—influenced by the Mercury Lamp over the years, I basically developed a professional habit of placing things of similar size on my shoulder when I see them…

Little Qijing, initially distracted by the unfamiliar surroundings, finally focused on me and immediately broke into a smile, grabbing my hair and laughing joyfully, "Daddy's here!"

"Wow, you learned to speak faster than your little sister Bubbles."

I sincerely marveled, as current Little Qijing was born after being brought and "memory cleared" by me, barely one year old by now, while Little Baobao is almost three. So when arranging ranks within our family for the little ones, Little Baobao is counted as her elder sister. Of course, you can't delve too deep into our family's hierarchy. Sandora is my lover, will be my wife, right? But sometimes Mercury Lamp calls her sister, Little Qijing calls Mercury Lamp sister, and both little ones are considered my daughters, hence logically proving that Sandora is my daughter, and I am my son, Little Baobao is my sister, extending further Smoky is my mom. It took me nearly one morning to draw this relationship diagram, and I was ultimately exhausted to the point of almost calling a psychological hotline. Qianqian helped with ideas from the side, using the first-grade binary equation she hadn't figured out since middle school to solve our family's relationship problem, concluding that she is not only my mom but also my daughter—at that time, both Qianqian and I were thoroughly exhausted.

So without a neuron strong enough to face the end of the world with laughter and the broad-mindedness to accept self-annihilation, never try to untangle our family tree because it's simply too tangled…

Although technically we are still positioned on the frontline battered by warfare, I still hugged and lifted Little Qijing high several times. Unlike Mercury Lamp who fiercely protests each time she's lifted high, Little Qijing is forever enthusiastic about this game. She laughed heartily, completely ignoring the war-torn backdrop behind her. She truly deserves to be the Imperial Leader's daughter, her clueless silly smiling amidst a battlefield of thousands fighting fiercely—if captured and hung in the Louvre, it would leave future generations many reflections on war and peace and innocence and childhood, but for now, I couldn't spare the time for contemplation as I turned to Alaya to say, "Do you know what's going on here?"

Alaya, being a leader-level Apostle of the mysterious system, her knowledge system is entirely different from ours. If the control core of this Shadow Space is not a technological creation but a mystical one, it might be explained clearly. Though Sandora has vast knowledge, in cutting-edge issues, there's always an essential difference between an expert and a skilled worker.

"These are ordinary metals, but they have been imbued with strong obsession and meaning," Alaya pointed to the smooth, mirror-like ground beneath her feet. Lucky for her always wearing long skirts, with the ground shining like a mirror, I wouldn't know where to direct my eyes if she wore short skirts. "I sense a very strong obsession coming from beneath, just a few words: Hold the line."

Sandora and I exchanged glances, while Little Qijing started running around us wildly.

"Hold the line? A few words turned our ten planet battleships into toy guns?"

"It's not just a few words," Alaya shook her head, although still using that soft tone, her eyes revealed the look of an expert, appearing very serious, "Lord Brother, I just checked the database, the situation's approximately understood. Here was the place Revenge Army withdrew their souls after retreated into this space, their last obsession left was 'Hold the line,' at the time the entire Empire's survivors shared the exact same thought, moreover the strength of this thought was unprecedented. Coupled with the fact that many mystical side apostles must have participated in the soul division, mystical side apostles excel at directly converting mental power into things affecting the real world. We are always accustomed to maximizing efficiency in any situation, even if it involves same-race corpses and souls, if they could be of service to the Empire, we'd be more than willing to transform them. Therefore, those powerful wills were eventually used to transform this place. Through symbolism, a powerful obsession formed a permanent information refraction layer right in those mirrors underfoot."

"This… this isn't scientific," I stared complicatedly at the mirror-like ground beneath me, understanding Alaya's words but feeling the explanation was too casual, and more importantly, that so many planet battleships could be nullified by obsession, can obsession be that potent?

"Information refraction and manifestation of apostolic laws," Alaya nodded naturally, "just like Star Domain Divine Race possesses law-like nature, therefore their words in divine form directly alter world structure, powerful Xyrin Apostles also have similar powers. The universe is made of information, the definition, flow, and transformation of which forms all things in the world. Xyrin Apostle souls can affect this flow of information and, when a sufficient number of Xyrin Souls converge and explode, they create a disruption of information. At the end of the day, 'attack causing damage' is just one piece of information, and if sufficient powerful information disturbances block it, no matter what firepower we use, it's impossible to breach this defense."

The more I listened, the more surprised I became, ultimately exclaiming frantically: "Isn't this too unfair?"

"Not unfair," Alaya pondered seriously before speaking to me and Sandora, "Ultimately it's just a special kind of defense technique, leaning more towards mysterious side powers, requiring appropriate methods to crack. It's not that it's more powerful than Lord Brother's planet battleship, rather you took the wrong approach—any attack capable of causing damage is useless against such a barrier."

"One's obsession ironically becoming the cage imprisoning oneself," Sandora muttered under her breath, then looked at Alaya's eyes, "You must know how, to open it."

"One person's power can't compare with Old Empire's entire Sky Zone apostles' death thoughts," Alaya spoke softly, looking dazed making one doubt her reliability level, but she still offered a solution, "But using mental polarization, I should be able to open a small passage, allowing Lord Brother and you in, but it'll only be for spiritual bodies, not physical bodies."

Alaya specifically emphasized this point.

Sandora and I exchanged glances again, clearly seeing an obvious expression in each other's eyes: We've already come this far, there's no turning back, right?

Of course, more importantly: Spiritual bodies, not to mention, both Sandora and I are master-level individuals in spiritual power, Sandora's Soul Taker identity goes without saying, and I am a Void Creature. According to Father God, my body is actually a "birthtime bonus," my real self is spiritual power—where there is spiritual power and soul, there can be Void Form, and that's our true form… alright, speaking of this I was once again speechless, why is it when Father God's Void Form remains such a stunning old but handsome man, when I transform the face isn't even retained? Finally made myself a nose that's four-sixths the face…

Unexpectedly, Alaya's going to play such a crucial role at the final moment, this girl's every action seems a bit unexpected, from haphazardly rushing to Earth, getting lost while out for a walk to ending on the moon, to suddenly startling people with a thump bowing profoundly, and now to appearing all woozy to turn the tide here. If Qianqian's thinking type is hard to grasp, Alaya belongs to entirely action-oriented category, making them both just like quantum, going blindly along the path of unpredictability—my thoughts started to diverge again.

"Then it's up to you, also, keep an eye on the child."

I gently rubbed my Angel Sister's sleek and shiny silver hair while placing the slightly dazed Little Qijing into her arms. As we needed to enter in a spiritual body, it meant my Spirit Sea was untethered from its physical constraints. Alaya often slipped out of my mind when drowsy, and Little Qijing was even more likely to meander outside: the situation in the control core was unclear, and I couldn't let this child take such a risk.

Alaya nodded, then instructed Sandora and me to stand within a halo she casually drew. All Imperial Agents and Atlantis Artificial Gods were on alert from a distance, not allowed to approach (mainly to avoid collateral damage; both Sandora and I have spiritual powers inclined towards attack, and even a slight slip could mean saying goodbye to arithmetic for anyone hit). Then she unfolded her massive wings, and pure white light immediately filled Sandora's and my view.

In that instant of blurred consciousness, the celestial Angel song instantly eased my mood completely. The next second, I found myself in a dark space.

I tried to acclimate to the surrounding darkness, but after waiting a few minutes, darkness remained darkness. Suddenly, I realized that a pure spiritual body state doesn't have eyes. This place is less of a space and more like a storage area. The darkness in front of me is probably a mental symbol representing exclusion and closure—how poetic is that?

Sandora's presence is nearby. Yes, that's the feeling. I don't even know if distance matters here. I followed that familiar presence and released a spiritual connection. Sandora immediately responded: "Ah Jun, are you okay there?"

"No real feeling, just can't see anything."

"Perfectly normal, we should be in the storage area of the control core," Sandora's voice resonated through the spiritual connection with a peculiar metallic tremor. "So it's structured like this inside. There's no empty space; it's essentially all storage structure besides the control systems for the shadow space. The souls of the Revenge Army are stored here. Everything is communicated directly here, no need for light or even sound."

"It's like we've crawled inside a hard disk?" I found the situation amusing. There was nothing perceptible in the conventional sense around, except myself, as if the whole world ceased to exist. Yet there was no discordance in perception, as if I was born to live in a world where everything is void—though in reality, this sense is an illusion caused by a change in my existential state. I tried releasing spiritual power in all directions to attract the attention of the Revenge Army's souls, which had an immediate positive effect: a familiar voice promptly echoed in my mind.

It's PL-15, the Great Governor.

"Your Majesty, you have finally returned!"

It was evident they were greeting Sandora. Despite the monotonous intonation, there was a palpable excitement in their voice. Even with just one sentence, I felt deeply moved: these isolated souls, waiting in this dark space for countless years, have at last welcomed the Queen's return. Were it not for being stored in a special state, even the Xyrin Apostle's mentality could have collapsed here.

"PL-15," Sandora's voice also carried complex emotions yet maintained a good calm. She must be very excited and puzzled right now. In this place where nothing is visible, one can only judge the atmosphere by the sounds of conversation. It seemed now like I, the "stranger Majesty," was being ignored, while Sandora's voice continued, "How many people survived?"

"Severe losses, Your Majesty," PL-15 immediately replied. "The number of responding souls has dwindled to less than a hundred thousand. When we closed the shadow space, we had millions of souls, but over time, our power constantly depleted. When it became clear that continued depletion would lead to the extinction of the entire group, we began to merge. Severe depletion led some Apostles to abandon their Self, merging with others to extend the group."

Sandora paused briefly, finally posing the question that troubled us the most: "What exactly happened? Why did you create such a shadow space and seal yourselves? More importantly—why did the bodies you abandoned suddenly go rogue and start attacking the Imperial Fleet, treating me as the Invading Army?"

Though the discussion was intense, I knew Sandora had no intention of rebuking. She just had too much pressure to release, and more importantly, she desperately wanted to know what happened back then. Although we inferred quite a bit, it was, at best, speculation.

"The Empire was attacked," this time the voice was unfamiliar, a woman's. "I hope you believe: we were attacked by His Majesty Emperor Asain and His Majesty Emperor Caesar, who led their entire military forces to invade your territory. Moreover, they all displayed unexpectedly strong Abyss reactions. A few minutes after the invasion began, the garrison near the border also mutinied, many warriors were controlled by the Abyss, until we severed the spiritual network."

"Lu'en?" Sandora wasn't surprised by the attack mentioned by the other party, thus she didn't inquire further but instead called out their name, "I'm glad to hear you're still alive. What about Samar?"

This response came from a man's voice: "Your Majesty, I'm here. Originally, among the Four Governors, only we three remain. Gulandov died on the front line."

"Your Majesty, you seem unsurprised by the disaster," PL-15's voice sounded, and I realized I was being observed by over a hundred thousand souls, instinctively wanting to shiver—but with no body, there was no shivering.

"The Empire has collapsed," Sandora spoke without a moment's hesitation, "A large-scale Abyss eruption destroyed the Empire. The attack you suffered was an aftershock of that disaster. It's now the era of the New Empire, Year 3 of the Recovery Era. Everything is starting anew. He and I are the only two Emperors of the Empire."

Sandora must have been referring to me. I then felt a wave-like fluctuation in the spiritual connection—it seemed to be the other souls expressing loyalty or something, though I didn't have the time to parse through the information it contained. Because now, I was worried if Sandora's straightforward disclosure would cause any issue—the information was too impactful.

But unexpectedly, no chaos ensued. Though I could sense intense emotional turbulence from the spiritual connection, absolute silence was maintained without anyone uttering an unnecessary word. Moments after Sandora's statement, PL-15 calmly stated, "Understood, this explains the reason for the garrison's rebellion. Now we must preserve our lives for the Empire's bigger interests. But there's not much some souls can achieve; conceptually, we've lost our bodies and can never create vessels to enable our own actions."

"Now should be time to answer my questions," Sandora's voice resonated, "I understand now you've been attacked, but why did it ultimately turn into this? What is the shadow space about? And what about separating souls? And most importantly: what happened to your bodies?" (To be continued. If you like this work, please visit Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)