Xyrin Empire-Chapter 702: They Have Returned

Under the dual effects of gravity traction and anti-gravity field, the colossal Atlantis City smoothly departed from the Great Barrier of Fantasy Country and ascended at an astonishing speed, rushing toward the high-orbit trajectory.

Dozens of Gs of acceleration acted upon the immense Floating Island, allowing us to quickly see the arc of the horizon, with brilliant sunlight spreading from the other side of the horizon and illuminating the vast ocean surface. A few hours later it would be sunrise in this world, but we had the privilege of witnessing these rays of sun beforehand.

Although the demons accompanying us into the sky essentially all had the ability to fly, not a single one could reach above the stratosphere on their own before this; hence, after seeing this spectacular and magnificent view typically only visible from near-Earth orbit, our surroundings immediately erupted with waves of exclamations. Yukari Yakumo even had to take it upon herself to maintain order, ensuring that these demons, bearing the heavy responsibility of Atlantis’ energy supply, didn’t fail at a critical moment.

"Is this what you call ’outer space’?" The voice of Shime Maru Wen rang out beside me. Turning toward the sound, I met the Tengu girl’s gaze, full of curiosity and a thirst for exploration.

Since her greatest strengths lay in speed and agility rather than mana, this Crow Tengu did not participate in the energy output work (though I have my doubts whether her real aim was to free her hands for collecting material for her news). The girl now spread her black wings and, while following the ascent of Atlantis, clicked away with the camera in her hands, trying to capture every bit of such a majestic moment in space. It was foreseeable that at least two-thirds of the next issue of Wenwen News would be devoted to this historic event—sadly, the remaining third would probably be filled with fabricated stories about Boli Lingmeng’s unfortunate trafficking tale.

"What a magnificent view," I said with a smile, looking at the camera in her hands. The device was clearly different from the technological products devised by humans, although it also followed some technological principle; its lens structure was quite distinct from ordinary photographic equipment. This must be one of the technological products created by the so-called research department of Fantasy Country, "Kappa Heavy Industries." Come to think of it, the Strider-class Transporter we took down here had nearly been stealthily towed away by a group of Kappas for research. "Honestly, these things are more suitable for news material, right? Isn’t it better than those rumors you’ve gathered?"

Up to now, I was still trying to salvage my image, which was on the brink of collapse due to the indiscriminate spread by this rumormonger journalist. Although this effort was mostly doomed to failure: expecting Wenwen News to embark on a path of seeking truth in a harmonious way was less likely than hoping Dingdang would pass her makeup exams with flying colors next time.

"You seem not very satisfied with my news," Shime Maru Wen glanced at me with dissatisfaction. "But usually, the news materials I can collect are just those things. After all, big events can’t happen every day in Fantasy Country."

"Why not record something outside Fantasy Country? Go outside and gather some stories, then share them with everyone back in Fantasy Country."

"Go outside?" The Tengu girl blinked, seemingly catching on but not entirely sure.

I too had suddenly blurted this idea, but after thinking it over for a moment, I really felt it was a good one: "Macro World, you must have heard this term from Ling Meng or Lan, right?"

"Ah, I’ve heard of it. They say it’s something so amazing that even someone like Yukari Yakumo gets scared of it, right? It’s said to be made up of thousands upon thousands of worlds and an enormous system of times and spaces managed by some Administration or other. Even a Big Demon as powerful as Yukari Yakumo could only work as a guide in the Macro World System... Mmm, just thinking about it is incredible!"

"You like collecting news, right? Then go check out other worlds. The Macro World is open to the public. Perhaps you could even run a cross-world newsweekly. Only 998...no, it’s free for you to use the Macro World’s transport permissions. As long as you don’t violate the rules of the Time-Space Administration, you can go wherever you want!"

The Tengu girl’s eyes lit up, "Really? Is there such good news?"

"Of course, it’s true, there’s just one condition... cough cough, maybe you could reconsider that piece of news..."

It was a hard-fought victory. Incredibly, I managed to change the current content of Wenwen News, a feat unprecedented in the entire Fantasy Country. Let those poor souls constantly tormented by this gossipy Crow Tengu be damned! The world belongs to the Imperial News Publishing Bureau!

As time passed, Atlantis finally completed two-thirds of its space journey. Earth had become a crystal clear blue marble within our view, and all that remained in the surrounding vista was the cold, dark vastness of outer space. After their initial fascination, the demons were finally growing weary of such a monotonous and unchanging journey, and the upside was that they could finally dutifully carry out their own tasks. However, this was, after all, a highly exhausting trip, and now some physically weakened demons were starting to fall behind. Continuously outputting their mana at full intensity, even the strongest demons found it hard to endure, and the demon beasts, not known for their mana, were the first to withdraw. They had done their best, but in the end, they could not last until the end of the journey. These exhausted demons would be attended by their clan members who had been prearranged to wait on the side, and these attendants would bring them to the very back of the group to rest. Since the energy transformation device of the Floating Island had been locked, once these demons left their posts, the openings they left couldn’t be filled, and thus the once-abundant energy shield of Atlantis also dimmed noticeably as the energy supply dwindled.

I made a point of going over to the top of Atlantis for a look. After the energy shield dimmed, the situation was almost entirely visible. The space city covered in a semi-transparent energy shield was filled with ominous clouds, with purple-black lightning streaking through the clouds. Only a sparse third of the city streets still glimmered with light, and at the edges of these bright areas, there were occasional bursts of energy of various colors – these were random skirmishes between the sentries of Atlantis and the monsters drifting around the perimeter.

Although I was eager to help, seeing the murky, mud-like black aura pervasive within Atlantis City, I suppressed the urge: at least until we reached the high orbital path and secured Earth’s safety.

Cui Xiang, Youyouzi, Lan and others who were still in good condition began to cheer and encourage the demons around them. Even those who normally squabbled were now rarely unified in spirit. Shortly after the news of people dropping out of formation reached the mother ship, some bright silver dots emerged against the dark backdrop of space and quickly approached us. They caused a slight commotion at first, but the demons soon recognized that these were the same type of transporters that Sandora and I had ridden in before: these were Faith-class mother ship’s Strider transporters sent to pick up the exhausted demons and bring them back to the mother ship ahead of time.

"Everyone is very tired," Yukari Yakumo suddenly appeared beside me and Sandora. This powerful golden-haired girl had a rare look of fatigue on her face, "I didn’t expect the pressure to be so great. More and more are falling out, and it’s getting tougher for those remaining. This city seems to drain our strength. Haven’t we arrived yet?"

"Just ten more minutes. The mother ship has created a Ghost Energy Field in a high orbit to suppress the Abyss Power on the Floating Island. Once Atlantis enters the field, we’ll have reached our destination."

"Hurry up, although Lingmeng and I will do our best, the others are not soldiers."

With that, Yukari disappeared as silently as she had come.

Her implication was clear. The demons of Fantasy Country were not like the Imperial Soldiers who would fight to the death following orders to complete a mission. Faced with a difficult task, their potential for a burst of strength was limited.

I made my way to the top of the city and saw that the Floating Island which left Earth with a bright and dense shield was now flickering, like an incandescent bulb with inadequate voltage, ready to go out at any moment. The energy shield of Atlantis was now just a thin layer, appearing like a transparent soap bubble that might burst at any moment. Purple-black lightning, mixed with clouds, constantly rolled and struck the dome of the city, as if the thoughtless Abyss Energy had also noticed that their day of freedom was near, and began to hit those ancient defense devices that were teetering more frequently. The only consolation now was that the Floating Island’s defense system was the EN3 series energy shield designed specifically for colonization ships. Regardless of what the number meant, it was enough to know that such a shield would maintain basic defensive capabilities until entirely extinguished.

But, from just a moment ago, the drop in demons’ physical strength, frequent collapses of ancient energy ducts, and the near-complete shutdown of the energy conversion device started exploding all at once as if by common agreement. I even noticed faint black patterns starting to emerge on the edges of the Floating Island. These patterns, with no thickness, indicated just one thing in these circumstances: the Abyss had begun contaminating the surface of the Floating Island.

I immediately reminded Yukari Yakumo to have the demons keep their distance, and from now on, make sure not to touch the Floating Islands, even if it would make their work several times easier.

Although it was a bit nerve-wracking, the light-filled Faith-class Mother Ship finally appeared above us, accompanied by a faint blue mist entering our field of vision. Suddenly, I felt a thick surge of Ghost Energy Waves: the upper part of Atlantis began entering the cage we had prepared.

"This is the Mother Ship, Atlantis has begun to decelerate, and the Gravity Field power is fully activated. No signs of Abyssal Infection Bodies erupting in advance have been detected."

"Get Vega to sharpen her knives and send more Transporters; there are a few thousand demons here who are so exhausted they’re about to vomit their spirits out."

Although the following short period of time wasn’t long, it felt extremely slow. Under the influence of various balancing force fields, Atlantis and the large group of demons trailing behind it decelerated with astonishing G-forces. As the space environment within tens of thousands of kilometers around was replaced by a high-intensity Ghost Energy Radiation Field, the alliance finally fell completely into the encirclement.

"Retreat to the east as planned!"

Boli Lingmeng immediately ordered through the temporary spiritual network we had helped establish for the demons. The network was instantly invigorated, with thousands of demons simultaneously asking, "Which way is east!?"

I bumped my forehead against Sandora: "I knew it was a mistake to let that guy take full charge of space command!"

Ling Meng also realized there was no concept of "east" in outer space. Not sure if she blushed, but she quickly corrected herself, "Retreat towards the direction of the Sun, as a group!"

The demons looked... The Sun was on the other side of Atlantis, which would be too perilous to fly over.

It seemed that certain Red and White’s promises to Sandora before departure, confidently guaranteeing a contingency retreat plan, amounted to this?

I couldn’t help it anymore and directly cut off this space navigation ignoramus’s chaotic commands: "Enough, enough, just retreat, that’s all! The farther from this unlucky Floating Island, the better! Our Transporters will pick each of you up!"

At this command, the demons knew what to do and scattered in all directions like birds and beasts at the blow of a whistle. Just moments ago, I thought they had no energy left after watching them exhaust themselves to the point of retching their spirits, but now they burst with vitality?

Thousands of demons swarmed away from the conical space Floating Island, scattering like startled birds. Following the instruction to get as far away as possible, in almost the blink of an eye, they were at least a few kilometers away. The Transporter squadrons that had been waiting for a while also moved out, patrolling the safe distance from Atlantis, using a series of light signals to indicate the general direction for the demons buzzing like headless flies in space. They then shuttled back and forth, picking them up one by one. Thanks to the close-range space absorption function, each demon scattered outside merely needed to get within a kilometer of the Transporters to be directly teleported into the vessel. This made the "search and rescue" operation go smoother than expected, but no matter how you put it... Thanks to Boli Lingmeng’s earlier haphazard retreat plan, the scene was a mess: Tengu crashing into Kappas, the mighty Ghost Clan dispersing ghosts, Chiruno trampled over by a crowd. Besides crying for their parents and showing off various adrenaline-fueled antics, only Xyrin’s top-quality Imperial Transporters could withstand such a chaotic task. Talking about the demons, they really played by the book; when I said scatter at will, not a single group thought to retreat together. Do you guys think it’s cheap every time a transporter takes off, damn it!

With the last group of demons cutting off the power output to Atlantis’s bottom energy pipelines, this ancient colonization ship finally entered its most critical phase; all the energy systems were red-lining, with warning flashes blinking on every monitoring terminal still in operation. During the final communication with the special agent before the assault, I could clearly hear the piercing, ultimate alarm sounding from afar. The ancient ship’s navigation computer, due to a system error, kept broadcasting a brief message to the entire city: "Energy Core has collapsed, all personnel abandon ship and escape! Energy Core has collapsed, all personnel abandon ship and escape!"

"Your Majesty, this is the special operations group, the city defense system has switched to the last energy reserve, energy levels just have three minutes, please hurry...zzzz...interference is severe, Abyss concentration near the impact point has reached alert threshold, we will evacuate according to plan to...zzzz...continue fighting...zzzz..."

The communication was cut off.

"Quick, quick, quick, time is urgent!" I commanded directly through the spiritual connection, "Transporter formation, lift the Space Jump prohibition! Atlantis has three minutes left!"

As soon as I finished speaking, the holographic scene beneath Atlantis changed from red and green to a line of blood-red digits that struck the eye—2:59.

...I knew it, it must have been an unfortunate Atlantian who fell onto Earth during a time-cross and, after being modified by the natives, was named Prototype, right?

With half a minute remaining on the countdown, all the scattered demons were finally picked up by the transporter formation, and after that, these adrenaline-filled flying devices vanished into outer space through ripples of spatial jumps, heading straight back to Gnaku. Then, swathes of silver-white shuttle-shaped lights burst from beneath the transport mothership that was now operating above Atlantis, cutting into the city’s gradually collapsing Shield with brilliant, bright blue, energy trails, like piranhas about to frenziedly snatch their prey.

Reports from another world also chirped through the spiritual connection, "Hey, boss, I’m now at Leaving World Garden. Artemis has isolated your Earth over there into a stasis of causality—a complete exclusion enveloping the entire planet. So go wild—just don’t destroy the Solar System."

"Well done."

I sincerely complimented the other party before turning my gaze to the Floating Island, which was now nearly five-sixths overtaken by blackness.

The first batch of landing troops had penetrated its Dome. Now, after tens of thousands of years, the Empire’s blades were once again reflecting a cold light on the soil of this ancient civilization—although I was currently being dragged around by Sandora in a horizontal flight, I felt that I truly was a poetic soul.

Normally, such a battlefield wouldn’t require Sandora and me to engage in combat personally. The combined force of the three heroic soldier types would have been more than enough to destroy any city completely occupied by the Abyss, yet even a slacker like me seemed to have ignited a passion to fight for these Atlantians, who had wandered for hundreds of thousands of years.

The silver-white Assault Ships tore through the city’s dim Barrier and with them, the Energy Shield that had shone for hundreds of thousands of years was finally permitted to extinguish completely. Although the still-operational city Gravity System could ensure that the atmosphere and other ecological environments wouldn’t collapse due to the loss of the Barrier, the complete cessation of the Ghost Energy Barrier that had always been suppressing the city’s Abyss Energy allowed the exceedingly dangerous Source of Destruction to activate fully. Infected monsters, though lacking sentience, seemed to sense this false moment of victory and launched a fierce assault on the unyielded clean zones. However, the exhausted Atlantis Warriors stubbornly held the final defense line. Watching the glorious Warships streaking across the sky and swift silhouettes dropping from them, a thunderous shout built up over a few seconds and suddenly roared, sweeping through every inch of air in Atlantis:

"They’re back!!!" (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for it on Qidian.com with recommendation votes and monthly tickets, your support is my greatest motivation.)

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