Book 19, Metamorphosis – Chapter 13, Dangerous
“Then let me wish you, Mr. Linley, a successful venture and return for the two of you.” The silver-haired elder, Gellen, laughed calmly. Suddenly, he thought of something and said hurriedly, “Right, Lord Linley, I don’t know if you know or not, but once you participate in the Planar War, you will only be permitted to depart once this Planar War concludes.”
“Eh?” Linley turned to look at him.
“Lord Linley, so you really didn’t know.” The silver-haired elder, Gellen, laughed. “This is a rule. You can choose to enter at any time, but everyone who enters...must wait for the war to conclude before leaving. You are not permitted to leave in the middle, nor is it possible for you to leave in the middle.”
“I have to wait eight centuries?” Linley frowned.
His original plan had been for him and Bebe to seize every available moment to complete their mission early on, then hurry back.
“I’m thinking too highly of myself. How could commanders be easily killed? Eight hundred years...I’ll have to just fight for eight hundred years within then.” Linley now understood why so many Lord Prefects, Tartarus Lords, and others weren’t willing to enter the Planar Wars.
Even if you rendered military merits, you would have to wait until everything concluded, and even if you didn’t attack others, others might attack you.
“Boss, let’s go on in.” Bebe was completely fearless.
Linley nodded, then flew with Bebe towards the interspatial gate.
Five meters wide, ten meters tall, and emanating with that black aura. Linley and Bebe flew through the interspatial gate, and as they did, it was like entering a pool of water. The two disappeared from the wide hall.
“I wonder if they’ll return alive.” Gellen shook his head slightly.
When Linley had been in the Yulan continent, he had passed through an interspatial gate to arrive at the Necropolis of the Gods plane.
But this time, the passage through the interspatial gate was a completely different experience.
“This interspatial door is actually an extremely long corridor.” Linley was rather surprised, while Bebe also stared at their surroundings in surprise.
The five meter wide, ten meter high corridor had walls which were covered with flowing streaks of light. Everything seemed so beautiful and dazzling. Linley and Bebe followed the direction of the interspatial corridor, flying towards the front. Linley was stunned. “This corridor seems to distort space itself.”
While flying, Linley had the sense of space being distorted.
“Boss, tell me, if I were to attack this corridor, would it collapse?” Bebe said.
Linley couldn’t help but feel his heart clench, and he gave Bebe a glare. “Bebe, don’t cause trouble. If this interspatial corridor really collapses, you and I will be trapped within a region of chaotic space. That would be disastrous.” Linley knew very well that even the most powerful of Highgods, upon entering a region of chaotic space, might be finished.
“I’m just saying.” Bebe mumbled.
Suddenly...
Linley noticed that there was a faint glow coming from the front of the tunnel. “Eh? We made it?”
Linley and Bebe immediately exited the tunnel.
“Welcome, milords.” A voice that was neither humble nor loud rang out. Linley and Bebe turned to look towards the voice before even having a chance to inspect the battlefield. The ground in front of them was dark and gloomy, and standing atop the ground was a large group of people. Linley swept them with his gaze. “Hundreds!”
Only, Linley also noticed the aura from their badges as well now.
They were on his side!
Only now did Linley let out a sigh of relief. The person who had just spoken was a red-haired, grim-looking woman. She continued, “Milords, is this your first time in the Planar Battlefield, or have you had previous experiences?”
Linley couldn’t help but frown.
“Milord, please don’t be upset.” The red-haired, grim-looking woman hurriedly smiled. “We are under orders to guard the interspatial gate that leads to the Planar Battlefield from the Netherworld. Our Lord has instructed us that if there is anyone who is new to the Planar Battlefield and isn’t familiar with it, that his Lordship can receive you and also provide you with some information, milords.”
Linley and Bebe exchanged glances.
“Boss, let’s go. What’s there to fear?” Bebe sent mentally.
Linley, too, felt that given how they were completely unfamiliar with this Planar Battlefield, it was best to get a better understanding of it.
“Fine, then. You lead the way.” Linley said.
“Please follow me.” The red-haired woman said, then immediately led Linley outwards.
Linley and Bebe, when advancing, carefully applied his senses to his surroundings. When he did, he sighed in astonishment. “The gravity in this battlefield is actually even greater than that of the Netherworld and the Infernal Realm! This is the plane with the greatest gravity I have ever seen. In addition, divine sense is restricted to an incredible extent as well.
Linley realized that his divine sense was now constrained to a range of just a hundred meters or so.
“My two Lords, according to the legends, this battlefield was created jointly by the four Overgods.” The red-haired woman laughed as she spoke. “Even the Higher Realms, such as the Netherworld or the Celestial Realm, were created by the four Overgods separately. This battlefield, in terms of stability, is far more stable than even the Higher Realms. In this place, it is hard for even commanders to be able to tear open space.”
Linley couldn’t help but feel secretly surprised.
The more stable a plane was, the more powerful gravity generally was in it, as well as the restrictive, binding force.
Linley glanced at the air.
In the air above this plane, there were no stars. Extremely high in the sky, there were some wild, chaotic, multi-colored regions of chaotic space. The entire plane was covered in darkness, and only those multi-colored patches of chaotic space were able to provide some illumination. This caused the battlefield to always seem dark and gloomy.
“Hey, what’s going on up there?” Bebe spoke out.
The red-haired woman laughed. “The space above the Planar Battlefield is very dangerous. As you fly upwards, once you reach a certain height, you will occasionally encounter spatial tears. If you go up even farther, the spatial tears will become more dense...until you enter the region of chaotic space. Thus, when battling, be careful not to let yourself fall into the chaotic space.
Linley and Bebe glanced at each other.
It seemed as though the environment in this damnable place was quite vile as well.
“The battles of the Planar Wars have one proscription; one cannot fly too high, or too deep into the ground! The red-haired woman said with a calm laugh. “If you dig deep into the ground, if you go a bit too deep, you will very possibly encounter more spatial tears. The deeper you go, the more numerous the spatial tears will be.”
Linley nodded slightly.
“How troublesome.” Bebe mumbled.
While chatting, Linley noticed that the surrounding soldiers were growing more and more numerous. Clearly, they had arrived at a headquarters. The red-haired woman, in a very familiar manner, led Linley to an ordinary tent, then instructed Linley and Bebe, “My two Lords, please wait here for now.”
Linley and Bebe were rather puzzled. They couldn’t even go close to the tent? But they didn’t ask.
The red-haired woman said respectfully towards the tent, “Your Lordship, just now, two Lords have arrived from the Netherworld. I brought them over.”
“Oh?” A figure strode over from within the tent.
This was a muscular bald youth, dressed in a thick black robe. His forehead had a red spot on it. He gave Linley and Bebe a glance, then said, rather puzzled, “I don’t seem to have met you two before.”
“My Boss is the new Redcliff Lord.” Bebe said directly.
“Oh.” The black-robed, bald youth glanced sideways at Linley, not fully convinced. He said calmly, “Since you have come over, it would appear that this is your first time. I have a map of this Planar Battlefield here, with descriptions of various areas. You can take a look.” As he spoke, he waved his hand, tossing a very thin piece of parchment with black seals atop it.
Linley laughed calmly while accepting it. “Thank you!”
“Boss, this baldy seems to be on guard against us.” Bebe said. “In fact, he even maintains some distance from us and doesn’t invite us in. We just arrived from the Netherworld and are on his side. Why is he so guarded against us? I don’t get it”.
“He is indeed guarded, but let’s not worry about that. We’ll leave soon.”
Linley, as well, had noticed that this black-robed, bald youth was wary of the two of them. Although he didn’t understand why, he still said, “The two of us have some other matters to take care of. We won’t tarry here. We’re leaving now.”
“Then be careful on your journey.” Only now did the black-robed, bald youth reveal a hint of a smile on his face. “Neana [Ne’an’na], you represent me in escorting these two away.”
“Yes, your Lordship.” The red-haired woman bowed.
And then, under her guidance, Linley and Bebe left the headquarters. At the borders of the headquarters, the red-haired woman bade farewell to Linley and Bebe. She watched as the two left. “How strange. His Lordship should have invited them over for the purpose of allying with them! But...his Lordship actually didn’t recognize them. What a pity, what a pity!”
For them to enter the Netherworld on their own meant that one of the two definitely had to be someone on the Tartarus Lord or Lord Prefect level.
The black-robed bald youth had wanted to show them some hospitality, but unfortunately, he didn’t know Linley at all, nor did he offer to work together.
Atop the vast earth, Linley and Bebe were currently seated shoulder-to-shoulder, in the valley of a mountain, flipping through some information which gave a basic introduction to the Planar Battlefield.
“This Planar Battlefield really is small, with a circumference of just a million kilometers. However...it is separated by the ‘Stellar River’ and divided into two parts. Our Divine Darkness Plane is on this side of the Stellar River, while the Divine Light Plane’s armies are on the other side.” Linley, after reading, learned many things.
Bebe sighed in amazement, “Boss, so the most dangerous places aren’t the skies; the most dangerous places are deep underground. And the Stellar River!”
“Right.” Linley nodded as well.
In midair, one could still fly to a certain height. Only after flying even higher than that safe height would one occasionally begin to encounter some spatial tears, with the higher regions growing increasingly dangerous. Because there was an orderly increase in the danger, everyone was prepared, and they would be careful not to exceed the safe height.
But the Stellar River was different.
There were very few ‘safe zones’ in the Stellar River. The vast majority of it was extremely dangerous.
“This Planar Battlefield seems like two smaller planes that were joined together. This Stellear River is the line at which the juncture was made. Some ‘juncture points’ are safe, but the areas around most juncture points are wild, chaotic space.” Linley shook his head. The description given by this book seemed to be rather frightening. But Linley and Bebe had never before seen the place, and so weren’t able to tell for now how dangerous the Stellar River really was.
“We’re going to go kill commanders. It seems we have to go past the Stellar River.” Bebe murmured.
“No.” Linley shook his head. “Just like us, there must be many commanders who have come to help out. Perhaps there are many who are moving independently as well. They want to kill our people, and so they too will cross the Stellar Side and arrive here on our side. There’s no need for us to go there for now. We’ll run into them here.”
Bebe, hearing this, couldn’t help but nod.
“Boss, these Planar Wars have been going on for a hundred years now.” Bebe suddenly said.
“Right, thus, the enemy leaders have sent probably quite a few who have come to this place.” Linley looked around himself vigilantly. “Now that we are in an unfamiliar place, we need to constantly be on guard. This is a battlefield, after all, not an arena for challenges. They won’t necessary act openly and honestly.”
“What is there to fear? I want to run into them.” Bebe was completely confident.
“Then let’s head out for now.”
Linley and Bebe immediately stood up. There were no stars in this Planar Battlefield. If one wanted to differentiate between the directions, the only way was to use some tall mountains and rivers as landmarks.
“Then let’s head that way.” Linley saw a squad mountain in the distance, and immediately spoke out.
Linley and Bebe both carefully made their way through the Planar Battlefield. Aside from some army camps which seemed quite active, the other places were all extremely quiet. What they didn’t know...was if that behind the quiet silence, there was a hidden expert commander or not. Or perhaps an expert on the level of Beirut.
“Eh?” Bebe suddenly turned his head and looked towards the distance. “Boss, there’s someone there!”
Linley stooped down, carefully relying on the grass to block his presence as he stared from afar. Roughly a thousand meters away, a blurred, black-light suddenly appeared and was advancing straight for them.