novelODS Chapter 1161 804: Void Fodder
Chapter 1161 804: Void Fodder
Blood War Fortress.Upper levels.
Eye of the Vortex Conference Hall.
In this vast circular hall, built of broken stone pillars and Abyss crystals that never fully solidify, a heavy and mighty aura lingered.
A circle of seats, fashioned from indestructible Obsidian, star-flecked meteoric iron, and gnarled, living ancient roots, enclosed the chamber.
Seated upon them were the Leaders of several core Defense nodes of the Blood War Fortress, along with those of large mercenary Legions.
They were effectively the principal personnel for this Blood Battle Battlefield; most of the warfare and all major operations had to be discussed by them.
Presiding was a Snake-man Elder whose entire body was sheathed in shadow-like flowing Scale Armor, with cold, vertical pupils, and who leaned upon a long-handled Magic Staff—"Star Watch" Seronath.
This was not a Snake-man from Kana's world, but a Snake-man of the Star Realm. In fact, even in appearance there were considerable differences, to say nothing of how they wielded Power.
Suspended before her was a light screen composed of Arcane Runes, upon which a compilation of intelligence from the front lines of the "Blood Pit Fortress" was being displayed.
No one could be indifferent to this new neighbor; one might say that everyone in the Blood War Fortress was paying attention, from top to bottom, inside and out—save only those in sealed quarters at rest.
"'Blood Silver Savior' Kana..."
A low voice, bearing the echo of grinding stone, resounded.
The speaker sat upon a rocky throne like a small mountain range—the colossal stone-born giant, "Mountain Bastion" Torgman.
His face, like a slab of carved granite, was utterly expressionless; only the amber Soul Fire flickering in his eye sockets showed that his mind was at work.
"In our brief prior contact, I only felt that His Divine Power was restrained—young, humble, and rich in abundant humanity… I never imagined the background would be like this." His weighty syllables rolled through the hall.
They were all people who had met Kana when He first came to the Blood War Fortress.
Compared to the outside world, they understood Kana a little better.
"Elder Seronath, this intelligence… is it confirmed?"
A tall, slender High Elf Priestess with waist-length Silver hair—"Moon Scar" Elendra—her voice was like a clear spring striking cold ice, bearing a tremor she could not quite conceal.
Her elegant fingers lightly traced a line of text on the light screen: "...Confirmed to belong to a 'Void Food' plane? Or is it currently in a state of being corroded?"
"Beyond all doubt, Lady Elendra."
Elder Seronath's vertical pupils flashed with a strange gleam; her voice carried an unprecedented solemnity.
"Tracing the plane coordinates, the anchor data comes from a collection in the [Eternal Library]—a revised supplement to the Star Sea Fall Atlas. And it is the latest edition; note that this new edition was updated only a hundred years ago, making it highly reliable.
His Excellency Kana's world lies upon a newly marked Void advance route in the Atlas… that star which has already been probed and touched by Void tendrils, its radiance dimmed. And He is the one who, amid this apocalyptic crisis, Ignited Divine Fire and ascended to the station of redemption."
The conference hall fell into a brief, stunned silence.
The Void.
No one present was unfamiliar with that thing.
It was an existence that no one in the entire Star Realm could afford to ignore.
It was the manifestation of the Rule of destruction for the whole Star Realm; one might call it the incinerator of the Star Realm—except that what it burned was not refuse, but worlds, whether fresh and living or ancient and decayed.
The Void would travel a very long distance through the Star Realm before changing direction. And it had been but a few thousand years since its last turning.
The worlds lying in its path of advance were collectively referred to by other external forces as Void Food.
The name alone told you what that entailed; it was to be taken in its most literal sense.
These were worlds almost universally deemed doomed, awaiting their end.
And the world in which Kana dwelled was, in fact, a world currently being eroded by the Void.
To merely lie on its route of advance was wretched enough; to now be in the stage of being touched and gnawed upon, of active corrosion—that meant annihilation looming right before one's eyes.
In less than a few decades, this world would vanish from the Star Realm, leaving behind only a useless empty shell.
"To take a broken world as the foundation of one's divine throne… to face the Void's gaze head-on…" Torgman's Soul Fire flared violently. "Savior…" he repeated the word, and even his stone-hewn chest seemed to grow heavier.
"Such a title… in ordinary worlds, it is already a crown; yet to raise this banner in a realm doomed beyond reprieve… is to use a god's body to plug that never-ceasing maw of the Void. The weight of this… sinks deeper than the Abyss."
"No wonder! No wonder the Warriors under His command are so… steadfast!" An old gnome Wise Man in a shabby, ancient robe patched all over with little stars—"Keen Eye" Chip—leapt excitedly from his creaking chair of scholarly living vines, nearly dropping the enormous brass magnifying glass in his hand.
"Their will to fight, their unflinching disregard for pain, that efficient, ruthless style! This is the root!"
"What they guard is not merely a fortress, not a single nation! They are winning, for their God, a chance to wrest… an entire world back from the maw of nothingness! How absolute, how tragic and magnificent a resolve that is!"
There was a shimmer of tears in his clouded eyes.
It was obvious he was extremely sentimental; he was already nearly in tears.
"No wonder, either, that the Night Watcher's strategy appears so 'radical'." Elendra's voice had regained its calm, but deep within her Silver eyes, a complex light flickered.
"To squander resources like dirt? To open the forge in the Abyss to 'collect debts'? For a force bearing the countdown to the destruction of its entire world, resources are only a means; time is the true currency."