dmims Page 248
Page 248
[Approaching...the...border...be vigilant...guard...]
Guards? Lin Ye's heart skipped a beat. Besides those inescapable parasites, what else was in this godforsaken place?
“Night Owl!” He immediately connected the communicator, his voice trembling slightly from the cold and tension. “Did you hear that? The fragment whispered about ‘Guardian’! Have your sensors detected anything unusual?”
A crackling sound of electrical interference came through the communication channel, followed by Night Owl's reply, punctuated by noticeable static. Clearly, his situation was also rapidly deteriorating: "Lord Lin Ye... the sensors are experiencing strong, unknown interference... the scanning signal is distorted over a large area, making effective detection impossible! However... the basic gravity readings are abnormal! The spatial folding coefficient ahead is skyrocketing, and the gravitational ripples are chaotic... we may... have already entered the actual gravitational influence range of that light band!"
The moment he finished speaking, the entire escape pod suddenly shuddered without warning! It wasn't a collision with a solid object, but rather like passing through a viscous, invisible film of water, or rather... a boundary of space!
In an instant, the scene outside the observation window underwent a dramatic and breathtaking change!
The pure darkness that had once been dotted with strange starlight vanished, replaced by a murky void, indescribable in any language, resembling a severely cataracted state, filled with countless indistinguishable, fine dust-like particles drifting slowly. In the distance, those colorful bands of light that appeared magnificent yet eerie from the outside revealed their grotesque true nature upon closer inspection—they were not gentle lights at all, but countless twisted, fractured spatial rifts, like glass mirrors shattered by immense force, refracting chaotic and morbid light! They stretched endlessly across the field of vision like a gigantic, living spiderweb, some as large as ugly scars traversing galaxies, others as fine as hair, all slowly writhing and changing, emanating unstable energy fluctuations that sent chills down one's spine and made one's heart pound.
Deeper within these fragmented bands of light, the silhouettes of enormous, unimaginable shadows are faintly visible, like the silent carcasses of colossal beasts. They resemble fragments of shattered planets, or the remains of some colossal structure beyond the scale of cognition, suspended lifelessly in the gaps between the writhing bands of light, exuding an ancient stillness and desolation.
Is this... the true edge of the Void Graveyard?
"We...we're in!" Lin Ye said in a deep voice, feeling his heart pounding uncontrollably in his chest, a mix of shock and fear gripping him. The spatial structure here was extremely unstable; the escape pod's autopilot system had completely malfunctioned, frantically emitting piercing alarms. He had to concentrate fully, gripping the control lever tightly with both hands, relying on the whispers of the fragments and his own reflexes to perform millisecond-level micro-operations in order to narrowly avoid those seemingly still, but actually venomous, small spatial rifts that could collapse or suddenly move at any moment.
"Entering a high-intensity anomalous gravity zone confirmed!" Night Owl's voice rose noticeably, filled with an unprecedented sense of urgency. "All external navigation beacons have been lost! The inertial navigation system's error has increased dramatically and it is no longer reliable! Lord Lin Ye, now we can only rely entirely on your guidance! The energy situation is deteriorating... At the current maximum consumption rate, the thrusters can only sustain... 8 standard hours at full power!"
Eight hours! Lin Ye glanced quickly at the scarlet countdown on the screen next to him, a countdown that looked like a death knell—less than 10 standard hours left! The pressure of time instantly intensified, almost suffocating him!
At that very moment, the whisper in my mind suddenly became exceptionally clear and urgent, carrying an unquestionable commanding tone:
[...Turn 37 degrees to the left...Immediately...Avoid the unstable crack to the right front...]
[...Maintain...go straight for three seconds...then accelerate...there is a brief, stable passage ahead...]
[Warning...The guard...has awakened...]
Almost at the same instant the thought of "Guardian Awakening" came to him, Lin Ye's peripheral vision suddenly caught sight of something to his right front... Behind a shadow as large as a small mountain, whether it was a shipwreck or a fragment of a star, two ghostly green flames, seemingly from the deepest hell, suddenly lit up without warning!
That wasn't reflected light! That was definitely the eye of some enormous creature! Cold, indifferent, and filled with a pure desire for destruction!
"Right side! Something! Big!" Lin Ye practically roared, simultaneously unleashing all his strength in his arms as he followed the whispered instructions and slammed the control stick all the way to the left!
The Night Owl's escape pod reacted extremely quickly, making a sharp turn to avoid the danger almost simultaneously.
Less than half a second after the two escape pods veered off course, a ghastly green tentacle, composed entirely of highly condensed unknown energy and resembling a giant whip, silently and swiftly emerged from behind the shadow of the massive wreckage. With a hissing sound that corroded space, it swept precisely across their former location! Wherever the tentacle passed, even the murky background of the void rippled unnaturally, as if space itself was being eroded and dissolved by the terrifying power it contained!
The thing... slowly "swam" out from behind the wreckage, revealing its despairing full form.
Its size was breathtaking, comparable to a small frigate! Its shape defied description, as if countless twisted metals of different materials and eras, bizarre rocks, and some kind of eerie, greenish-glowing substance resembling living meridians had been forcibly and chaotically blended together in a malicious and chaotic manner—a...super python? Its surface was covered with countless flickering, shifting, eerie green runes. Its two enormous, ghostly eyes, like highly efficient scanners, instantly locked onto the two pitifully small escape pods several kilometers away. Its slightly open maw, filled with vortexes of energy, seemed like a gateway to destruction.
"What the hell is this thing?!" Lin Ye felt a primal fear, originating from the deepest recesses of his being, instantly engulf his entire body, cold sweat soaking through his already chilled undershirt. The pure, overwhelming energy and mental pressure emanating from this thing far surpassed the mainframe derivative he had encountered on the "Pioneer"! It was on a completely different level!
"Unknown creature! Energy level...unable to measure accurately, exceeding sensor limits! Structure...unanalyzable, does not conform to any known biological or mechanical principles!" Night Owl's voice carried a rare, almost shocking, fluctuation. "It seems...to be a 'cleaner' that spontaneously arose in this shattered space, or was attracted here?! Specifically designed to eliminate 'foreign objects' like us!"
The terrifying monster, which Lin Ye temporarily named "Void Stalker," did not immediately launch a deadly pursuit. It simply locked onto them with its emotionless, eerie green eyes, its enormous, despair-inducing body slowly twisting against the backdrop of the broken, writhing band of light behind it, as if calmly assessing the value of these two unexpected "snacks," and... how to enjoy them.
“Whispering that it’s ‘Guardian’…” Lin Ye felt his throat go dry and his voice hoarse, “Can… we find a way to get around it?”
[...deny...must...break through...the target channel...located...behind its protection...] The whisper in his mind immediately gave a cold and desperate answer, severing his last shred of hope.
Breakthrough? With just these two dilapidated escape pods, their energy nearly depleted and utterly defenseless except to flee? To break through this monster comparable to a warship? That's utterly a pipe dream!
As if things weren't going to go wrong, just as Lin Ye was reeling from this despairing reality, the radar behind him sounded another extremely high-level alarm! Those moth-like parasitic creatures, like a persistent leech, had actually broken through the spatial membrane and chased them into the edge of this graveyard! They seemed completely unaffected by the chaotic spatial structure and terrifying gravity here; the buzzing noise from their high-frequency wingbeats even penetrated the bulkheads, and their speed was astonishing, like a flock of vultures that had spotted carrion, swooping down on the two escape pods!
Ahead lies the indifferent "Voidwalker," a formidable barrier, while behind are relentlessly pursuing, incredibly fast parasites!
A truly hopeless situation with no chance of survival! An utterly hopeless predicament!
"Damn it!" Lin Ye couldn't help but curse fiercely, veins bulging on his forehead. Adrenaline surged at an unprecedented rate under the stimulation of extreme despair, washing over his cold body and bringing a near-mad calm. He stared intently at the mountain-like monster in front of him, then glanced out of the corner of his eye at the red dots on the radar screen that were almost connected and rapidly approaching.
In a flash, a crazy and resolute idea took shape in his mind—this was the only way to get the information out!
"Night Owl!" Lin Ye's voice was hoarse and distorted with extreme tension and determination, almost cracking. "Listen! There's no time to argue! It's pointless for the two of us to die here together! I'll rush over there and do everything I can to attract the attention of that big guy and most of the parasites! You seize that moment, don't worry about anything, follow the latest coordinates I shared with you, which are being corrected in real time by Whisper, and drive straight there with your thrusters at full throttle! Do you understand? Don't look back! Absolutely no looking back!"
"No! Absolutely not! Lord Lin Ye! That would be..." Night Owl immediately objected vehemently, his electronic voice distorted.
"This is an order!!!" Lin Ye roared, interrupting him with all his might, his voice filled with an undeniable, almost cruel resolve. "One of us must bring the information back! The 'Observer's' warning! The secret of 'Eden'! And the truth about this Void Graveyard! This is more important than any of our lives! Remember your mission! Remember why Vegeta and Trunks stayed behind!"
He took a deep breath of the icy, piercing air, his eyes instantly hardening with unwavering resolve. He said, word by word, "I will find a way to create an opportunity, and then... I will try my best to catch up with you! If... if I ultimately fail to catch up..." His voice lowered, trembling almost imperceptibly, yet remaining exceptionally clear, "...tell my brother Lin Tian, tell everyone in the Seventh Shelter... I, Lin Ye, have done my best!"
Before he could finish speaking, giving Night Owl no time to object again, Lin Ye slammed the already overloaded thruster power output lever past the red warning zone that represented the limit, directly entering the theoretical "overload destruction" mode!
“Buzz——!!!”
The tail of his escape pod spewed out an unprecedentedly violent tail flame that almost tore through space. The entire pod emitted a terrifying wail as if it were on the verge of disintegration. Like a silver meteor that had burned its entire life and future, it no longer tried to avoid anything and charged straight and resolutely toward the huge "Void Stalker" that was like the embodiment of a nightmare!
"Come on! You monster! Look this way! Look at me!" Lin Ye roared in his heart, unleashing all the energy in his body, along with the power of the fragment of the Key of Creation in his palm, forming a faint yet pure "order" aura around the escape pod!
As expected, sensing this power fluctuation representing "order" and "origin" that was out of place in the surrounding chaotic void, the "Void Stalker," which had previously been merely observing indifferently, suddenly unleashed an unprecedented, greedy, and violent light in its eerie green eyes, like a torch doused with fuel! It seemed to be utterly enraged, or as if it had discovered a long-awaited delicacy, letting out a terrifying roar that, though silent, directly affected the soul and was enough to shatter the mind. Its enormous body stirred the surrounding space, creating visible ripples of distortion, and like a collapsing mountain, it crushed towards Lin Ye's tiny escape pod!
Behind them, the parasitic creatures, having lost their primary target, instantly focused all their aggression on Lin Ye, who was radiating an "alluring" aura of order. They let out sharp screechs, and like a torrent of death, they changed direction and swarmed towards the airspace where Lin Ye was!
"Now! Night Owl! Go! Go now!!!" Lin Ye roared one last time, almost tearing his hair out, into the communication channel. At the same time, he maneuvered the overloaded escape pod into a near-suicidal maneuver that pushed the limits of physics, narrowly missing the "Void Stalker's" energy tentacles, which could easily shatter a small warship! The scorching energy turbulence even turned the pod's outer shell instantly red-hot!
At this moment, he successfully attracted the attention of most of the "Voidwalkers" and the surging army of parasites!
Night Owl's visual sensors clearly recorded the image of Lin Ye's escape pod, trailing a tragic plume of flame, resolutely charging towards the destructive behemoth. A massive stream of data surged and collided wildly within his core processor. He made no further sound, nor hesitated in the slightest, concentrating all his computing power and all his operational commands on a single objective—to execute Lord Lin Ye's final command!
"Whoosh...!"
Night Owl's escape pod also boosted its thrusters to their theoretical limits, ignoring even the structural damage alarms. It transformed into a dazzling streak of light that almost tore through the murky void, traversing the fleeting, tiny gap created by Lin Ye's sacrifice, and hurtling towards the relatively stable and most intensely colored band of light behind the "Void Stalker." It accelerated to its absolute limit, resolutely speeding away! In an instant, it left that chaotic and deadly battlefield far behind!
Out of the corner of his eye, Lin Ye clearly saw Night Owl's escape pod successfully turn into specks of light and disappear into the depths of the light trail ahead. The tension in his heart finally eased a little.
That's enough... That's fine...
However, that momentary lapse in concentration is the difference between life and death.
The next instant, an endless dark shadow, accompanied by destructive energy fluctuations, descended with the weight of the entire universe, completely engulfing him and his escape pod, which had already reached its limit!
"Boom! B ...
A muffled, deafening roar, like the explosion of a planet's core, penetrated the bulkhead and struck Lin Ye's eardrums and internal organs directly!
He felt an indescribable, overwhelming force slamming into the entire escape pod!
Chapter 525 Shattered Shell and Devouring
"boom...!!!"
The deafening roar didn't come from the propagation of sound, but from a pure energy shockwave that directly shook the structure of the escape pod, like an invisible giant hammer slamming into Lin Ye's chest. His vision went black, a sweet taste rose in his throat, and a hot, metallic liquid uncontrollably surged into his mouth, which he forcibly swallowed back. His internal organs felt displaced, and intense pain instantly swept through his entire body.
After a final, desperate groan, the overloaded thrusters shut down completely, leaving only a few sparks dancing at the damaged nozzles. The entire escape pod was grazed by the edge of the "Void Stalker's" energy tentacles, and like a beetle carelessly swatted away by a mischievous child, it tumbled and crashed uncontrollably into a huge, floating wreckage that resembled a piece of the moon.
"Warning! Structural integrity severely compromised! Hull fractured! Life support system malfunctioned! Propulsion system offline!" The piercing mechanical alarm echoed wildly inside the cabin, and the icons representing various systems on the screen flashed, turned red, and finally went out one after another.
The frigid vacuum, like a greedy demon, instantly seeped in through the cracks in the bulkhead, emitting a sharp hiss. The remaining, already thin air inside the cabin was instantly sucked out, and the temperature plummeted towards absolute zero at an alarming rate. Lin Ye could even feel the ice crystals instantly forming on his exposed skin, and the burning pain and spasms in his lungs caused by oxygen deprivation.
He gripped the twisted and deformed control lever tightly, relying on his last instincts and willpower to forcibly adjust the tumbling posture of the escape pod, attempting to mitigate the impact before crashing into the wreckage.
"boom!!!"
Another violent impact sent the escape pod crashing onto the cold, rugged surface of the wreckage. The immense inertia caused it to bounce and slide like a skipping stone, carving a deep trench in the cratered ground and broken metal fragments before finally getting stuck between several twisted, giant metal pipes and coming to a complete stop.
The cabin was deathly silent, with only the faint red light from the emergency power supply barely illuminating the crumbling "metal coffin." The observation window was covered with spiderweb-like cracks, and outside lay a desolate, murky void, and in the distance, a spatial fissure slowly crawling and radiating an ominous glow.
Lin Ye slumped in the severely deformed chair, gasping for breath. Each breath was accompanied by a stinging pain in his lungs and a grating sensation like ice shards rubbing against them. He was drawing upon his nearly depleted energy to struggle against the extreme cold and vacuum. Had he not possessed a constitution far exceeding that of ordinary people, he would have perished from the impact and the sudden loss of pressure.
He struggled to lift his head and look at the radar screen—it was completely black. The only sounds on the communication channel were deathly silence and crackling static.
"Night Owl..." he murmured to himself, hoping that the loyal AI had successfully escaped. This was the only thing that gave him a sliver of comfort at that moment.
However, the crisis is far from over.
He endured the excruciating pain, trying to move his body and check his injuries. Several ribs were likely broken, and a piercing pain shot through his left arm, most likely a fracture. But these weren't the most fatal injuries.
Most fatally, he sensed that the colossal, nightmarish "Void Stalker" hadn't given up despite a casual strike. Its enormous, ghostly green eyes, like will-o'-the-wisps, were piercing through the gaps in the wreckage, coldly locking onto the area. Its massive body, composed of chaotic matter, was stirring the void, slowly "swimming" towards them.
At the same time, the moth-like parasitic creatures, resembling locusts, emitted sharp, disturbing hissing sounds. They gathered into a dark green tide, bypassing the massive wreckage, and rushed towards the crash site of Lin Ye's escape pod from different directions!
A desperate situation, with wolves in front and tigers behind!
The escape pod was destroyed, and he lost all mobility, becoming a sitting duck.
"Damn it... Am I really going to die here?" A surge of intense resentment and anger welled up inside him. Was the opportunity that Vegeta and Trunks had sacrificed themselves for, the hope that Night Owl had risked his life to deliver the message, really going to be destroyed because of him?
No! no way!
He suddenly looked at his tightly clenched right hand, where the fragment of the Key of Creation was radiating an unprecedented heat! As if responding to his strong will to survive, the whisper that had been lingering in his mind suddenly became high-pitched, rapid, and even carried a hint of... anxiety?
[...core...connection...wreckage...deep within...energy source...]
[...attract...them...prevent...from approaching...the core...]
Core? Energy source?
Lin Ye's heart skipped a beat, and his gaze immediately swept around. He was now inside a huge space, the interior of which he couldn't tell if it was starship wreckage or space station debris. Twisted metal structures and broken pipes stretched all around him into deep darkness.
Was the fragment guiding him deeper into the wreckage? Was there something there that attracted the monsters, or something that the monsters wanted to prevent him from getting closer?
There's no time to hesitate!
"Snap!" He forcefully ripped open the deformed seatbelt, enduring the sharp pain in his left arm, and with his still-mobile right hand, slammed it hard against a seemingly loose inner wall panel beside him. After several heavy blows, the panel twisted and fell off, revealing a narrow maintenance passage behind it, filled with cables and pipes.
This was his only way to survive!
He glanced back out the observation window; the shadow of the "Void Stalker" had almost completely filled his field of vision, and a ghostly green light shone through the cracks, casting a ghastly green glow inside the cabin. The buzzing of the parasite's wings grew closer, as if right next to his ear.
Without further hesitation, he gritted his teeth, curled up, and struggled to squeeze into the dark, cramped maintenance passage.
The very next second after his body was completely submerged in the passage!
“Sizzle——!!!”
A ghastly green beam of energy, like the scythe of death, struck the already riddled escape pod with pinpoint accuracy! Under the terrifying impact of this energy, the sturdy alloy shell instantly vaporized and dissolved like paper, along with its internal structure, transforming into a rapidly expanding fireball that then vanished just as quickly!
The massive shockwave from the explosion swept along the maintenance tunnel, shoving Lin Ye, who had just climbed a few meters away, forward and slamming him heavily against the cold metal wall.
He groaned, barely managing to stay conscious. Looking back, he saw that the entrance to the passage had been completely sealed off by twisted and melted metal, and the scorching heat had even distorted the surrounding air (if there was any).
The escape pod is completely destroyed.
He was now truly trapped among the corpses of death floating on the edge of the graveyard, with nowhere to retreat.
Ahead lies unknown darkness, and the "core"—guided by the fragments—that may hold the only chance of survival, or perhaps even greater danger.
The whispers in his mind continued, growing clearer, as if guiding him:
[...Turn left...down...energy fluctuations...increase...]
[...guard...angry...approaching...increasing...speed...]