novelraw Chapter 435: The Final Reincarnation
Chapter 435: The Final Reincarnation
Following Starforger Altreus, Jie Ming stepped out of the spatial rift and returned once again to this core timeline branch world.
The scene before him was completely different from when he had left.
The enormous mechanical sphere still hovered above the temple altar, but the wildly flickering energy conduits on its surface had now calmed, flowing smoothly once more.
The entire sphere radiated a somewhat dull yet exceptionally stable blue-white glow.
The oppressive sense of will that had once filled the space was completely gone, leaving behind only the deep, low hum characteristic of vast machinery in operation.
Altreus stood before the sphere, his gray robe swaying slightly. Without turning his head, he spoke to Jie Ming: “The ‘noise’ inside has been completely cleaned out. The strongly biased aggregate of chaotic consciousness has been erased. Only the underlying logical protocols required to maintain the core functions of the time paradox generator remain.”
His tone was flat, as though he had merely dealt with some trivial annoyance.
Yet Jie Ming could imagine what that “erasure” truly entailed, the final, desperate echoes of an entire civilization being thoroughly formatted.
“Next,” Altreus’s gaze fell upon the sphere, yet seemed to pierce through it, looking toward even deeper temporal structures, “I will initiate a time reversal while simultaneously peeling this entire ‘time-rift world’ that contains the sphere off from the main timeline as a whole. I will allow this sphere, the core control unit, carrying all its complete functions, to once again ‘fall’ back into the real main plane.”
He turned toward Jie Ming and instructed: “You must return first and inform Frost to prepare for what will be the final reincarnation. When the sphere returns, the entire time paradox generator will, for the first time, operate in its ‘complete form’ on the main plane. Although its aggressive will has been stripped away, its basic functions will still operate according to preset rules. In this reincarnation, we must achieve full takeover of the entire system, conduct testing, and begin preliminary sealing.” Jie Ming nodded, understanding completely.
From the information he had obtained earlier, he already knew that this plane had originally been designed as a “superweapon,” meant to function as an integrated whole with tight coordination between the “core control unit” (the sphere) and the “external execution units” (the Sickle-Skull race and the plane environment).
But that fearful will, in the name of “safety,” had forcibly pulled the core unit into an independent temporal interlayer, causing the weapon system to remain in a long-term semi-paralyzed state of “core offline.”
It could only run inefficiently on basic instincts and limited preset protocols.
Now, with the core about to return, this long-sealed, or rather never truly fully activated, spacetime weapon would finally reveal its originally designed appearance for the first time.
“I understand, my lord,” Jie Ming replied in a deep voice.
Altreus said no more. With a light sweep of his hand, a spatial rift quietly opened, leading directly to the wizard encampment on the main plane.
Jie Ming gave one last look at the smoothly operating mechanical sphere, then stepped through the rift.
Although Jie Ming had not been gone long, the chaos within the encampment had already been largely quelled.
After losing follow-up command and support, the raiding army of Sickle-Skulls had been swiftly cleaned up and exterminated by the wizards who regained their footing.
At this moment, large numbers of wizards were advancing deep underground, clearing out remaining burrowing units and repairing the damaged leyline structures.
Jie Ming quickly located Frost, who was at a temporary command node issuing assignments, and conveyed Starforger Altreus’s orders.
After listening, a sharp glint flashed in Frost’s eyes. Without a single wasted word, he immediately issued the highest-level combat readiness directive across the entire army through the magic network.
[All units, attention. Enter ‘Endgame Protocol’ readiness state. I repeat — Endgame Protocol readiness state. All units, upon completion of current combat objectives, immediately contract toward the main encampment. Establish the final defensive perimeter and await further orders.]
The command was short, yet carried the weight of a thousand mountains.
Every wizard who received the order, whether they were in the midst of fierce combat or resting, instantly became solemn beyond measure.
They all understood: once the Endgame Protocol was triggered, it meant that this long, bizarre, and grueling cycle of reincarnation warfare was finally approaching its decisive moment.
Jie Ming returned to the central research area of the encampment and began methodically organizing and encapsulating all the core research data and recording crystals accumulated over the past fifteen cycles.
Not long after the order was issued, without any warning, that familiar pulling sensation originating from the root of the world once again swept across the entire plane.
The sixteenth reincarnation had begun.
But this time, both the process and the sensation of reincarnation were completely different from before.
Previous reincarnations had been like the precise zeroing of a mechanical clock — stable and emotionless.
This time, however, Jie Ming could vaguely “feel” that within the flood of reversing time, there was a slight drag, a trace of disharmony.
As though something massive and immensely heavy was being forcibly dragged down from a higher dimension and embedded into this world’s inherent temporal structure.
When the dizziness passed and Jie Ming “reappeared” once more at the familiar edge of the encampment, he immediately noticed the eerie change in battlefield atmosphere.
In the distance, the black tide of Sickle-Skulls was still gathering, but their formations were unprecedentedly chaotic.
There was none of the previous clear hierarchy or division of labor in their advance — instead, they resembled headless flies, crowding together and emitting a cacophony of disordered hisses.
Even more astonishing were the high-ranking Sickle-Skull leaders hovering in the sky above the insect tide, sixth, seventh, even eighth level still radiating powerful pressure and commanding presence.
Yet these high-tier beings were now like puppets with their strings cut, completely motionless.
The light in their compound eyes had dimmed. Although their auras remained formidable, they had lost all spiritual “will” and “vitality”!
With the will inside the sphere erased, they had lost consciousness, leaving only their powerful bodies and energy instinctively maintaining levitation.
“What… what happened to the leaders?!”
“Hurry! Go wake the leaders!”
Among the low-tier Sickle-Skulls, a few individuals with slightly more intelligence issued anxious signals.
They attempted to approach their high-tier kin, who now hovered like exquisite motionless sculptures.
However, given the enormous disparity in strength, such actions were undoubtedly fatal.
Deprived of active conscious control, the bodies of the high-tier Sickle-Skulls now operated purely on instinctual neural reflexes and preset energy defense mechanisms.
Any unauthorized approach was automatically judged as a “threat.”
Puff! Sizzle! Boom!!
Those who tried to touch them were blasted to powder by the automatic energy shields on the high-tier bodies; some were sliced into several pieces by unconscious swings of razor-sharp limbs.
Some even triggered aggressive reflexive attacks and were directly vaporized by an instinctively released energy beam!
In an instant, the low-tier Sickle-Skulls fell into even greater panic and chaos.
They could not comprehend what had happened — they only knew that the supreme command hierarchy they had always relied upon had suddenly turned into untouchable statues of death!
Just as the chaos reached its peak…
The sky suddenly darkened.
Not the darkness of clouds, but a deeper, more profound darkness — as though the very starlit sky itself had been pressed low.
An indescribably vast will, gentle yet utterly irresistible, swept across the entire battlefield.
It was Starforger Altreus.
His true form seemed to be overlooking and interfering with this plane from a higher level.
Immediately afterward, under the shocked gazes of all the wizards and Sickle-Skulls, the unconscious high-tier Sickle-Skull husks were as if pulled by invisible threads — all of them flew simultaneously toward the wizard encampment at blinding speed, then vanished one after another behind a faintly rippling patch of space in the center of the camp.
They had been “reclaimed.”
At this moment, the Sickle-Skulls’ chaos completely turned into despairing collapse.
Some of the more intelligent individuals instantly understood something and let out shrill, unwilling howls.
They collapsed to the ground, the light in their compound eyes completely extinguished.
They had read the signal clearly.
The highest command had been wiped out in one fell swoop, even their husks had been taken away.
This war… was over.
They had been utterly abandoned — or rather, treated by a higher existence as “spoils of war” awaiting processing.
Within the wizard encampment, after a brief silence came an irrepressible commotion.
Altreus’s figure did not directly appear, yet his voice rang clearly in the soul of every wizard — calm and majestic:
“All the ‘husks’ of high-tier Sickle-Skulls that have been reclaimed will be distributed as additional spoils of this plane conquest campaign. Commander Frost will formulate the distribution plan based on the military merit contributions recorded by all of you over the past cycles.”
As soon as these words were spoken, the sound of countless sharp intakes of breath rang out across the camp, followed by innumerable pairs of eyes burning with sudden heat!
These were high-tier Sickle-Skull husks, each at minimum sixth level!
Even without consciousness, their bodies were still extremely valuable research materials and powerful biological weapon bases.
And the Starforger’s next command made the atmosphere boil over completely:
“Additionally, a long-term war mission is now issued: All combat wizards, while ensuring personal safety, are to capture and bring back as many living Sickle-Skull individuals as possible, regardless of rank. During the mission period, I will offer unlimited exchange of low-level military merits for living specimens.”
The command was clear and concise.
Anyone with eyes could see that this mission meant Starforger Altreus intended to turn these Sickle-Skulls into a servant race.
That was hardly surprising. Though this reincarnation plane was a “failed” weapon, it was still a strategic-grade weapon with immense potential for continued modification and strengthening.
And the Sickle-Skulls, being an integral part of this weapon, naturally had to be collected as thoroughly as possible.
Almost before the echoes of the command had faded, countless figures shot out from every direction of the camp like arrows loosed from a bow.
Once this order was given, the countless Sickle-Skulls scattered across the mountains and plains, now leaderless and thrown into chaos, had instantly become walking certificates of military merit!
The combat wizards’ eyes glowed with greed. Like starving wolves descending upon a flock of sheep, they rushed eagerly toward that black ocean of despair and disorder!
The light of spells, the roars of summoned beasts, the excited war cries — in an instant, they replaced the previous murderous atmosphere. The battlefield had transformed into a bustling site of frantic “harvesting.”
Jie Ming did not rush out with the crowd.
Like the other logistics-system wizards, he remained in place, yet his gaze along with theirs turned in unison toward the Starforger in the center of the camp, filled with undisguised anticipation.
Sure enough, Altreus’s voice sounded once more, this time directed specifically at all wizards of the logistics and research sequences:
“Highest-priority research mission issued: Form the ‘Time Paradox Generator Analysis and Control Project Team.’ Conduct comprehensive research, analysis, testing, and preliminary control of the recovered ‘time paradox generator’ core unit and the soon-to-be fully intact plane system. This mission has no fixed military merit reward.”
As the words fell, the breathing of the logistics wizards grew noticeably heavier, and their eyes erupted with a radiance even more blazing than that of the combat wizards seeing military merits!
Though the mission appeared to offer no rewards, everyone understood that the true reward was the knowledge produced during the process itself.
The research authority over a complete spacetime weapon for logistics-system wizards was already the greatest reward imaginable!