Chapter 345: Artificial God and Artificial Apostle
Upon learning that the Supreme Apostle was preparing to activate the secret art of 【Artificial God】, the newly appointed Inquisitorial Chief immediately commanded everyone in the formation to contract their lines. Using the Cathedral God-Image-class Mothership as the heart, the higher-grade battleships as arteries, and the Creed-class battleships as branching veins, they constructed an incomparably majestic interstellar fortress of defense.
This unusual maneuver aroused the doubts of Demitri and the others.
But at this point, retreat was no longer an option. They could only concentrate all their strength together, like a clenched fist, and smash it heavily against the “turtle shell” fortress the Apostolic Holy City had erected.
“Break for me!”
Within the fleet, the roars of countless commanders merged into a terrifying might powerful enough to shake the galaxy itself.
Beneath the dark-red starlight curtain, the surging energies collided against the united shield generated by tens of thousands of motherships, shaking the dark-energy corridors built upon secondary-grade battleships. They swayed like strips of paper fluttering in the wind, as though they might snap at any moment.
Yet, in the end, they did not break.
“Again! This time, apply for an over-limit strike using Light of World’s End!”
Demitri, refusing to give in, immediately requested support from the frontline command.
The Light of World’s End was the most powerful weapon the Rebirth Empire had constructed to date. When energy condensed to its extreme, its instantaneous destructive power was such that even a transcendent being that had undergone three evolutions would struggle to withstand it.
Naturally, a weapon of such devastating might carried many restrictions.
For instance, each over-limit strike required a cooldown period. This flaw could theoretically be circumvented by building more of them.
However, the problem now was that the Rebirth Empire simply did not have the time to construct additional Light of World’s End cannons. A vast amount of their effort was already diverted into developing new void weapons and psionic/dark-energy weapons based on the knowledge Bai Fu had procured.
“We have two chances. If we fail to pierce the defenses of the Apostolic Holy City after two strikes, then this raid may devolve into a war of attrition.”
Demitri’s expression turned grim.
In truth, even if it became a war of attrition, their side still held the advantage.
But that conclusion only held if they ignored the fact that reinforcements for the Apostolic Holy City could more easily arrive.
One minute later.
The Light of World’s End over-limit strike Demitri had requested finally arrived.
Across a distance of seventeen million light-years, a star-annihilating brilliance erupted from a twisted wormhole fissure. Space-time folds tore apart in massive swaths. That light converged into a silver-gray spear, stabbing viciously into the defensive layer constructed by the Apostolic Holy City.
The dark-energy corridors that had withstood the impacts of tens of thousands of warships were now infused with energy exceeding their upper limits. Three seconds later, with the appearance of the first fracture, the entire “turtle shell” began to peel away piece by piece.
A breach—appeared!
“A great opportunity!”
Demitri and the others were overjoyed.
They immediately called for a full assault, but before the fleet could form up, an unexpected mutation erupted.
From the Cathedral God-Image-class Mothership at the core of Formation Eight, a dense black light burst forth like a nuclear shockwave, sweeping rapidly outward.
Buzz—buzz—buzz.
Everyone in the three universal civilizations was horrified to discover that the shields of their ships were trembling. Ion sparks leapt wildly across energy circuits, even causing malfunctions in their onboard electronic systems.
“What’s going on?”
Someone quickly looked out the porthole.
To their shock, the drifting metal wreckage in space had frozen in place. Faintly, they could sense the arrival of something that transcended the critical limits of physical law!
“Synchronization rate, 91.6%!”
“Synchronization rate, 93.8%!”
“Synchronization rate—”
Countless light-years away, a deep voice flowed from the mouth of the Supreme Apostle.
That voice carried not the slightest ripple of emotion.
But the dark-energy core beneath his staff was already vibrating with a suppressed hum.
Ever higher, ever louder.
When the synchronization rate breached 98%, the tremor from the staff striking the core finally pierced the dimensional membrane.
In that instant, every member of the Apostolic Holy City who had been channeling the massive secret art felt themselves falling into a void world.
And there—they saw the shadow of a god!
It had come.
It had descended!
Boom!
At the center of the battlefield, silver clouds boiled up from the breach carved open by the Light of World’s End. Countless crystal-like tendrils, formed of condensed psionic and dark energy, surged forth from the clouds, multiplying without end.
In the end, those tendrils entwined to form a gigantic body with ten faces. The divine body was etched with razor-sharp ridgelines, each line seemingly rewriting the fundamental laws of psionic and dark energy.
Rules—this was the most primal violence of the universe!
“—!”
Demitri’s body froze completely.
Reflected in his pupils was the Artificial God birthed from the clouds, while his ears were filled with screams and shouts transmitted from the other ships.
He did not actually know what kind of Artificial God the Apostolic Holy City had summoned.
But he could feel, with utter clarity, the gulf between himself and this Artificial God.
A disparity as vast as comparing the bright moon in the heavens to a firefly in rotting grass!
So the Apostolic Holy City had hidden such a trump card—damn it, damn it all!
His fingers trembled uncontrollably, veins beneath his pale skin coursing with oil-like colors.
“What should we do?”
Demitri faced a choice.
The ones asking were his subordinates, the Metal Lord of Titan Industries, the Martial Saint Lorand of the Supernova Warband, and of course, himself.
In truth, the answer was not hard.
At this point—did he even have a choice?
Before such a transcendent existence, whether to flee or to fight was equally perilous. Since that was the case, the only option left was to fight.
“Activate the second Light of World’s End over-limit strike!”
“I will use the power of annihilation to crush into dust the thorns barring the Empire’s path!”
No hysterical roar, no blood-boiling speech—Demitri expressed his resolve simply by leading the charge.
But before formally striking, he first informed the frontline command of the events that had transpired.
“Annihilation—stop!”
Bualo shouted in the military channel.
But his cry could not halt Demitri.
Demitri led his forces forward.
Though the path ahead was perilous, it was not without hope. Artificial God or not, who said mankind could not slay a god?
Billions of warships transformed into a rain of meteors streaking upward.
This assault was a hundred times fiercer than before. Every engine output was pushed to maximum, blue cones of light burning behind the ships, dragging distorted ripples in space-time, as though the universe itself were seared with billions of bleeding scars.
Yet the Artificial God stood unafraid.
It slowly raised its spiral spear, forged of condensed dark energy. From its tip dripped black condensed particles of the Void Realm. Any ship they touched dissolved into trembling collapse, dimensionally reduced again and again. But this did not stop those behind. Using the flattened wreckage of their companions, they flung themselves forward like moths to flame, ramming into the ten ridgelines of the Artificial God.
Boom—boom—boom!
Explosions erupted in succession.
The surging dust swallowed everything.
Red clouds roiled; from afar, it looked as if the star sea itself were aflame.
Even the spiral arm of the distant galaxy quivered under the force of the blasts, resonating like the strings of some colossal instrument.
……
“It’s over!”
Amid the urgency, Élisée, staring at the virtual screen before her, was the first to speak.
Like Demitri, she could not recognize the Artificial God.
But she recognized the Void Particles at a glance.
That was something beyond psionic and dark energy—something close to true divinity.
Though Demitri and the others were powerful, to face Void Particles head-on without the slightest understanding of them…
The odds were grim!
Élisée dared not delay. She immediately conveyed her concerns to Bai Fu.
“What—you mean the Apostolic Holy City has also mastered the method of synthesizing Void Particles?”
Bai Fu was greatly shocked.
This was bad.
If Demitri and the others were to die, the already constrained combat strength of the three universal civilizations would plummet even further, making it even harder to stop the advance of the Apostolic Holy City.
But in truth, the key problem did not lie there.
The real question was: did everyone in the Apostolic Holy City possess this ability, or only a select few, or was it that only the Fourth Apostle possessed this ability?
“Must figure this out. If everyone has mastered this ability, then perhaps I can seize the opportunity to learn its principles and complete the task 【Path of Fusion】!”
Bai Fu’s eyes lit up.
Once she mastered the method to fuse psionic and dark energy, her strength would surely soar to another level. At that time, she could join forces with Lufas to deal with the leader of the Original Pact, obtain the True Spirit Marrow, and complete her third evolution.
Bai Fu immediately tried to contact Sui Xi and Shadow Fu, asking them to investigate.
The message reached Shadow Fu quickly, but there was no response from Sui Xi for a long while.
“What’s going on? Could it be that Sui Xi was exposed?”
Bai Fu’s expression changed slightly.
She waited a full five minutes before finally receiving Sui Xi’s reply.
【Apostle Bai Fu, I am terribly sorry. I was just intercepted by the Fourth Apostle hidden within the Apostolic Holy City and could not get away.】
Intercepted by an Apostle?
【What happened?】
Bai Fu inquired.
Sui Xi explained.
It all began just a few minutes ago.
At that time, Sui Xi was studying the psionic knowledge left to her by the Supreme Apostle within her own residence, when suddenly, she felt the sky tremble violently.
She hurriedly asked the guards of the Holy Land what had happened, but the guards only looked at her with puzzled expressions.
“Ah? Did something happen? Isn’t everything normal?”
Sui Xi was certain she had not hallucinated, yet no matter how many guards she asked, their answers were all the same—nothing had happened.
Helpless, she could only go investigate on her own.
Then she saw it: a black scar shooting out from deep within the Holy Land, embedding itself into the fissures in the sky above.
Strangely, she was the only one who could see this sight!
Following the path of the black scar, Sui Xi passed through corridor after corridor of the Holy Land, until at last she arrived before a small statue. The scar originated from within the statue.
She had actually been to this place more than once before, but never once discovered anything unusual.
“What a clever hiding place.”
To conceal it so deeply—what could it be? Could it be the third fragment of the True Spirit Remnant that Apostle Bai Fu needed?
The thought struck her like lightning.
Now that the Supreme Apostle and the others were not around, this was the perfect chance to explore.
If she really found the True Spirit Remnant fragment, she would no longer need to remain in the Apostolic Holy City undercover.
However, just as she was about to act, she was blocked.
And the one blocking her was none other than the Fourth Apostle, long rumored to reside in the Apostolic Holy City but never once seen before!
“What are you doing here?”
A terrifying pressure emanated from the crystalline decahedral prism that stood before her.
Sui Xi did not doubt for a moment that if she uttered even a single wrong word, she would be ground to dust.
The situation could not have been worse.
Fortunately, her reaction was swift. At the very moment she opened her mouth, she fabricated an excuse.
“I was just studying the knowledge my teacher passed down to me, but I encountered some problems. So I thought to check the archives for information. This path happens to be a shorter route to the archives, so…”
The Fourth Apostle stared at her for a long while, then finally said nothing and let her go.
Sui Xi quickly slipped into the archives. Only after panting for some time did she finally calm down enough to report to Bai Fu what had happened.
【You have triggered the hidden quest [The Secret of the Fourth Apostle and the Supreme Apostle]】
【Quest Description: ……】
【Quest Objective: Discover the truth of the cooperation between the Fourth Apostle and the Supreme Apostle!】
【Reward: 50 billion XP, 5 Blank Skill Cards】
After reading Sui Xi’s message, Bai Fu received a new quest.
“The Fourth Apostle, huh?”
She mulled over the name.
After a quick comparison, she realized that the time of the anomaly in the Holy Land of the Apostolic Holy City coincided exactly with the time Demitri and the others suffered their accident.
Clearly, the two events were connected!
“If I act now, perhaps I still have a chance to save Demitri and his men.”
“Most importantly, I might uncover the details of the Fourth Apostle and the Supreme Apostle, to see just what level of BOSS they truly are.”
“If the Fourth Apostle isn’t as strong as imagined, then I could eliminate her myself and obtain the True Spirit Marrow, without needing to cooperate with Lufas.”
With so many advantages in sight, Bai Fu could no longer sit still.
She immediately dispatched Shadow Fu, who was operating near the Holy Land Star, to move there at once.
Shadow Fu wasted no time, heading to the Holy Land Star at top speed. Once on the outskirts, she used a Summoning Card.
The next moment, Bai Fu activated her Apostle’s Body talent, descending upon the True Spirit Summon conjured by the Summoning Card used by Shadow Fu.
“To penetrate the enemy’s base itself… the opponent we are about to face is the Fourth Apostle, ranked among the foremost of the eleven. Shadow Fu, are you afraid?”
Shadow Fu shook her head: “Wherever elder sister goes, I go. As long as elder sister is here, I will never feel fear.”
“Good.”
Bai Fu smiled.
The Fourth Apostle sounded terrifying.
But she was no weaker. Now she was the officially recognized reserve Twelfth Apostle. With just one more True Spirit Marrow, she could ascend to a true Apostle.
“Fourth Apostle, let me see what fruits you’ve been hiding all these years in the Apostolic Holy City!”
Black and white beams of light crashed down upon the Holy Land Star like falling meteors, stirring up a tidal wave.