Chapter 922: Chapter 922: Have We Touched a Key Link?
Bellavilla brought us an unbelievable piece of history, unraveling the truth of the last battle of the Destruction Army seven hundred thousand years ago and the secret of the warship wrecks in the Ruins World. No one would have thought it was related to a Fallen Apostle who had already perished, and even more surprisingly, that Fallen Apostle was Ocam!
Ocam, who got taken out with a punch by me in the Holy Hall Library, you really are lingering on relentlessly even after your death.
But despite all the information Bellavilla provided, it didn’t give Sandora and me any sense of clarity. On the contrary, what she told us made things even more confusing.
If what she said is correct, then it was Ocam’s army and Visca’s Destruction Army that battled fiercely seven hundred thousand years ago. That battle led to the complete defeat of the latter, with Visca escaping into the depths of the Void. The former was severely weakened and, after a delay, was assimilated by Bellavilla, who had already turned into a Fallen Apostle. (This might explain why Ocam ultimately had a falling out with Bellavilla, and even that cunning guy took advantage of Bellavilla’s distraction after leaving Azeroth to plot against her — clearly, there were old grudges between the two.) The warship wrecks we snatched from the Ruins World originally belonged to Ocam’s fleet’s scientific research flagship. Although Visca suffered a terrible defeat in that battle, she eventually captured this spaceship (which likely was the scientific research flagship that broke in half under the Destruction Army’s fire) and sealed it in the planet formed by the piling up of warship wrecks, ordering the local natives to guard the Holy Vault before leaving. This part of history is unmistakably clear.
Then, what happened next was truly baffling: The Old Empire crumbled due to the Void experiment spiraling out of control, and Ocam, along with many surviving Xyrin Apostles, succumbed to infection and turned Fallen. Visca, on the other hand, survived by sheer chance since she wasn’t linked to the Empire’s information network, continuing to wander the Void with her remaining warships in madness. Not long after, Visca was discovered and captured by the Fallen Apostles, being transformed into a Fallen Apostle. Ironically, she met Ocam again.
And then... it was as if neither of them recognized each other.
"Visca’s case might be easy to explain," Bellavilla said thoughtfully, "Before your father’s aura healed her, she was a madwoman. She couldn’t even remember what kind of mission to execute each time, let alone the faces of her enemies, acting like a mindless, illogical killing machine. So maybe she forgot about fighting Ocam’s army on the Ruins World the very next day. As for the other guy... Ocam never showed any sign of recognizing Visca. I was present the first time I saw the newly transformed Visca at the base, and if he recognized her as the one who destroyed his scientific achievements, he would have reacted to it back then."
"Did he always pretend not to know, waiting for a chance to take revenge on Visca through another means, only to have Visca outright defect before he could do anything?" I pondered aloud. "Then, before he could implement a Plan B, he got taken out by me..."
Bellavilla gave a strange shake of her head. "If that’s true, then Ocam is truly a pitiable person."
Of course, while saying this, we all knew such things could only be taken as a joke. Ocam couldn’t be that unlucky, and doing so had no purpose anyway. The real mystery remains as to why he never showed any prior recognition towards Visca before she became a Fallen Apostle.
"Or perhaps there’s another possibility," Sandora mused, "Did Visca have her own army after joining the Fallen Apostle ranks?"
Bellavilla immediately shook her head. "Of course not. All High Order Fallen Apostles saw her merely as a powerful weapon. A weapon doesn’t need an army, and her dangerous mental state didn’t allow her to have one. Even for the Fallen Apostles, the wacky Visca back then was a liability. Despite being twisted, they weren’t mad, yet Visca was a complete madwoman."
Bellavilla would often habitually refer to Visca as a madwoman when reminiscing about those years, without malicious intent, even caring about her while she was a Fallen Apostle. It painted a vivid picture of just how crazy Visca must have been.
"Without an army in the Fallen Apostle camp, Visca was always sent alone to the frontlines to kill enemies, so Ocam didn’t have the opportunity to see her army’s insignia," Sandora nodded and added. "As for the battle, Visca wasn’t actually present — she was busy dismantling Atlantis’ civilization at the time, only returning after the battle on the Ruins World was nearly over. The fight might have already ended by the time she got back, and maybe her absence during the battle was why her Destruction Army got utterly defeated. With this time gap, Ocam probably never knew who the enemy’s main general was that fought him, and he never had another chance to see the enemy insignia. Doesn’t that make sense?"
Though Sandora was speculating, I had to admit, if there had to be a truth, perhaps this was the closest to reality: due to a time gap, Ocam and Visca never figured out each other’s alternative identities, becoming colleagues for countless thousands of years, despite their poor working relationship. Yet, it’s all so dramatic.
"Ah, life is like a play, sometimes bursting with melodrama~~~" Bellavilla sighed while sipping the orange juice and coffee which originally belonged to Sandora and me. (How did she manage to drink these mixed together?)
Already used to the slow and silly Silvia normally, facing Bellavilla’s inner personality felt particularly jarring, especially as she bizarrely combined orange juice and coffee with a whipped cream cake — this is intolerable to anyone with normal taste senses!
However, it was surprising that Sandora showed no reaction, even sharing this strange drink with Bellavilla without blinking. This must be an acknowledgment of the diversity of life forms: it seems the taste buds of Xyrin Apostles are all quite peculiar. I remember when I first bought ice cream for Pandora, and she ate it with the wrapper on.
"Let’s put Ocam’s matters aside for now and talk about the warship wreck," I said, rising to pour myself another cup of coffee and keeping a watchful eye on it, determined not to let Bellavilla waste it. "Have you heard of research ships designed to explore the inside of the Abyss Gate?"
"I’ve heard a bit but don’t know much," Bellavilla shrugged. "In the last era of the Old Empire, a plethora of mad projects emerged. When we were even attempting to create our Void, researching the Abyss Gate wasn’t that odd, especially for scientific zealots like Ocam. He was once the top Chief Scientist of the Old Empire — it’s no surprise that he researched such dangerous things. But the fact that he built an exploratory ship capable of navigating the Abyss Gate, now that’s indeed chilling."
"So, you’re not aware of what results this ship achieved back then, or if it had some significant value?"
"Are you having trouble?" Bellavilla gazed at me serenely, and I couldn’t help but wonder if all queens have this demeanor. Her current detached manner was uncannily identical to Sandora’s at certain times — by certain times, I mean when Sandora’s had her fill.
"The wreck can’t be dismantled, and we can’t access the critical data inside," Sandora said while adding tomato sauce to the strange-looking liquid before her, which had turned a dark green. "Taville found a special Energy System within the wreck that powers all the scientific facilities. Despite the warship’s disintegration, it’s still functioning. Now that all its safety valves have been deactivated, we can’t relieve the pressure from the energy network outside, and without the original blueprint, Taville can’t determine which part of the energy network is safe to disconnect."
We explained the trouble we encountered while attempting to disassemble the warship wreckage to Bellavilla, and after hearing everything, she pondered for a while, picked up the terrifying drink Sandora had just mixed into a purplish-red concoction, then said, "Have you heard of a research vessel built to explore inside the Abyss Gate?"
"I’ve heard about that, but I’m not clear," Bellavilla immediately responded, shaking her head. "But there were countless crazed projects that emerged during the last era of the Old Empire, so when we were even contemplating creating our Void, researching the Abyss Gate wasn’t unusual, especially involving a scientific madman like Ocam. But it’s indeed shocking that he built a scientific research ship capable of navigating inside the Abyss Gate."
"Have you heard of any significant results from the ship back then, or any major value it might have had?"
"Are you in trouble?" Bellavilla looked at me with a leisurely tone and said. I couldn’t help but admit that she looked exactly like Sandora in those moments — and when I say "those moments," I mean when Sandora is full.
"The wrecks can’t be dismantled, and we can’t relieve the pressure from the energy network inside," Sandora said, still adding ketchup to the already purplish-red sparkling liquid in front of her. "Within the wreck, Taville discovered a special Energy System that’s devised to supply energy separately to the Abyss Gate research vessel. Although that flagship is now split in two under the Destruction Army’s cannon fire, and we can’t deduce which part of the energy network is safe to discharge without the original blueprint."
We explained all the troubles we encountered while dismantling the warship wreckage to Bellavilla. After listening, she pondered for a moment before raising the terrifying drink that Sandora had just mixed into a purple-red concoction to her lips.
"What?" I choked, almost sending coffee down my windpipe.
"The blueprint, duh," said Bellavilla, throwing up her hands. "Did you forget that Ocam and I were colleagues for many years? Although I didn’t particularly like that guy, there was some mutual information exchange because we worked together. Of course, don’t get too excited too soon. The blueprint I have is not complete, in fact, I only have half of it."
Sandora and I exchanged glances, both seeing disbelief and joy in each other’s eyes: a problem we thought would be extremely troublesome to solve now seemed to be resolved by accident. Such situations always give people an unreal feeling. However, the fact was right in front of us: Bellavilla had the design blueprints for that ancient warship!
Of course, the blueprints weren’t stored in any device but directly existed in Bellavilla’s memory. Hence, extracting them took quite some effort. After all, Bellavilla’s soul still hadn’t recovered to its full state. She had to rely on Silvia’s spiritual power to manifest her personality. Under these circumstances, it was challenging for her to accurately extract something from her memory — It was fortunate that the Xyrin Apostle’s special racial talent existed. Every memory of a Xyrin Apostle was stored with database-like accuracy, and when necessary, their memory core could be read and restored like a hard drive. Right now, Bellavilla had a broken hard drive, but her reading head was damaged...
Luckily, we had a Soul Taker named Sandora. As long as Bellavilla allowed permission, Sandora could act as the reading head — speaking of which, how come I feel this sounds so weird?
"Ah, if only my original personal space was still there," Bellavilla sighed, swaying as Sandora used her ability to delve into Bellavilla’s soul to extract data, "After the soul shattered, the personal space connected to the original spiritual power would detach. After some time, it would uncontrollably evaporate... There were quite a few good things in there, it’s a pity Sylvia can’t link with that space; even a reactivation would have been good."
"You expect Silvia to help you look after things?"
I glanced at Bellavilla, her face now seemed very astute, though most of the time she was fuzzy-headed. Silvia was a complete airhead, the type to forget where she’s going while walking. Back then, when we took her away, she was predominantly guided by Silvia’s personality, and the silly girl boarded without anything, borrowing Sandora’s clothes the next day... An idiot like her, never mind discovering she had a personal space, she often forgot to bring her own keys!
"The data has been extracted."
Sandora let out a sigh of relief, the golden glow between her strands of hair slowly dimming, "The basic structure matches the scan map, should be correct. But I’m curious, how did you get this thing?"
"Because Ocam has been trying to reconstruct that Abyss Deep Diving Ship," Bellavilla answered, then suddenly her face changed slightly, "Wait! I think I understand now!"
It was the first time Sandora and I saw the usually calm Bellavilla show such a serious expression, and we couldn’t help but feel nervous too, "What did you think of?!"
"Those guys... I should have connected these two matters earlier, being in the same body with Silvia for too long has made my brain sluggish..." Bellavilla quickly tapped out a bunch of holographic projections into the air, then quickly closed several of the chaotic ones. In the end, what was presented to us were models of several warships, "Look at this!"
"They look very similar to that wreck we brought back."
Sandora only took a glance and concluded, "The main structure is similar, none have weapon systems, and the tonnage seems the same."
"That’s right, these ships are replicas of that Abyss Deep Diving Ship!" Bellavilla forcefully knocked on the table twice, "Before I left the Fallen Apostle camp, they were always trying to create such things. Ocam was one of the main leaders of this plan... His personal reason was to reconstruct the most powerful scientific research vessel he had lost, but I know another reason Fallen Apostles replicated these deep diving ships was related to ’Da Ye’..."
"Da Ye?"
Sandora and I exchanged another glance, here it was again, this grand plan that seemed to drive all the Fallen Apostles, but was ambiguous, even to the Fallen Apostles themselves. So, does this mean... we have finally touched a part of this grand plan!?
"Control the Void, ascend to the pinnacle, make the Empire the ultimate in the absolute sense... Da Ye is basically such a plan from a macro perspective. For this grand goal, Fallen Apostles are undertaking multiple actions simultaneously, including destroying worlds, collecting certain items, researching the Void, and manufacturing these Abyss Deep Diving Ships," Bellavilla said in a deep tone, "However, the Fallen Apostles do not completely share information. After the collapse of the Old Empire, our spiritual network fell under the control of a behind-the-scenes ruler. He controlled the spiritual network, making it impossible for the Fallen Apostles to exchange information with each other as before, hence many plans are conducted independently. For tasks that did not belong to me, the most I could ever do was overhear them. But I was very clear about their attempts to replicate the Abyss Deep Diving Ship, this was information disclosed by Ocam... But at the time, I did not pay attention to these matters, thinking it was just another scientific research activity. But now it looks like, Harlan paid such a huge price just to seize the prototype of the deep diving ship, their motives for creating replicas aren’t as simple."
"The fact that they’re so aggressively seizing the prototype of the deep diving ship now, implies that they never managed to create a successful replica?" Sandora keenly caught a point of doubt in this issue, "Did Ocam fail to rebuild the ship until his death?"
"That’s right," Bellavilla nodded, "As far as I know, the prototype ship of the Abyss Deep Diving Ship was not built by Ocam alone. There was also a top-notch chief scientist who collaborated with him to complete this extremely special starship. However, that scientist died in battle when the Holy Hall Library was closed, so Ocam always had only half of the data on the prototype ship. The Fallen Apostles used this half of the data and Ocam’s own research results to replicate ships, but they always had defects, which is why they urgently wanted the prototype ship to conduct some crazy attempt... perhaps to directly enter the core area of the Abyss Domain."
"The Fallen Apostles themselves have Abyss Power, do they also need to rely on the deep diving ship to go to places filled with Abyss Power?"
I felt somewhat puzzled, so I couldn’t help asking.
Bellavilla spread her hands: "Humans need to drink water, right? But if you throw them to the bottom of the sea, don’t they still end up dead? We are only Abyssalized, not becoming the Abyss itself. Excessive Abyss Infection can still destroy us, as after all, once that thing reaches the peak of madness, it destroys even itself. As its host, Fallen Apostles can be no exception. So they need the deep diving ship."
"Then why haven’t they taken action before?" I wondered, "If the prototype ship is needed to replicate it, what had Ocam been doing earlier? The Ruins World has been there all along, the Holy Vault guarded by just a group of ignorant natives and a few hundred broken-down Old Empire Era warships. Why did they have to wait until the Imperial Army went over to loot the opportunity — and in the end, even lost their lives."
"Because they couldn’t find that world, and Ocam didn’t even know the wreckage of the prototype ship had survived. He thought the wreckage had evaporated into the Void along with Doomsday," Bellavilla opened another holographic projection, depicting the continuous snowflake-like membrane structure we initially scanned outside the Ruins World, "Based on your description, I redrew this ’World Barrier’, then compared it with the Abyss Deep Diving Ship data Ocam once demonstrated to me, and finally determined that this thing should be the special shield of the latter. Although Visca was insane back then, she wasn’t a fool. She felt she didn’t have the capacity to safely retrieve the wreckage at that time, so she prepared a foolproof hiding spot for it. The Holy Vault and Ruins Planet of the Ruins World were just wooden boxes to place the gemstone in, the real safe was this layer of membrane — she enlarged the ship’s shield generator to the size of an entire Solar System!"
"Holy X!" I almost choked on my coffee again, "That’s too brutal, is the shield that savage or is Visca that savage?"
"So that ship is an almost impossible miracle to replicate out of the blue," Bellavilla looked at me, suddenly furrowing her brows, "Let me see the blueprint of the Ruins World structure." (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, you are welcome to visit Qidian () to recommend and vote on it. Your support is my biggest motivation.)