Chapter 242 — Close Contact

As the supreme core of the Fortress of Defiance, the entire facility was built within an alternate space. Its energy source, just as Gao Yang had guessed, drew directly upon the corpse of the God of Nature—the Great Stag Amorn—through the "Divine Power Inversion Array." And it was precisely this ceaseless supply of energy from the divine corpse that had kept the fortress running to this very day, utterly isolated from the world.

But this was also what Gao Yang found regrettable. The fortress's exceedingly peculiar energy system and the unique environment in which it stood meant that its internal technology lacked universality and transferability; at the very least, in the short term, the fortress could offer no direct practical value to his territory.

It was advanced, yet far too singular; it was meaningful, yet far too dangerous. With the territory's current level of technology and production, they could neither exploit it nor study it.

The same was true of the divine corpse floating in the alternate space and the "god-slaying weapon." Both were treasures beyond the Cecil Territory's present capacity to digest, and beyond the psychological endurance of its people. The only disposition Gao Yang could conceive was to seal them away here for the time being, and wait until the territory had developed enough to undertake large-scale research and excavation.

To him, compared with this fortress that offered no point of entry, Camille himself was the most valuable prize.

Gao Yang stood before the isolation wall, gazing at the white giant stag from afar. That faintly glowing white stag was the only presence in this dark, chaotic space that gave any sense of warmth and brightness. With the protective barrier in place, mortals could not feel the terror of the stag; they could only feel, from its astonishing corpse, a visceral shock and awe. He was so holy and elegant—even in death, even mutilated, He remained breathtakingly beautiful. Every line, every patch of fur, every thread of sacred radiance carried a beauty beyond mortal imagining.

That was a true mythological being, a creature that could exist only in humanity's most beautiful imaginings, in its most perfect dreams. He made Gao Yang think involuntarily of the "Eternal Dream" created by the cultists of the Long Night—but unlike the Eternal Dream, the Great Stag Amorn truly existed. He lay here, real and undeniable, proof that the Age of Gods had truly been.

"Can the barrier be opened?" Gao Yang turned to look at Camille. "I want to get closer and have a look."

"Absolutely not!" Camille was startled by Gao Yang's words. "Do not be deceived by appearances. Without the protection of the barrier, a mortal who comes into close contact with a god will almost instantly go mad and die! There are no functional protective devices left in the fortress..."

"You may not believe this, but divine pressure has no effect on me," Gao Yang said, glancing at Camille, then raising a hand toward Tyre beside him. "Nor on her."

Camille was plunged into immense astonishment. Frankly, ever since his life form had been transformed and he had endured such long solitude, he had rarely experienced strong emotional fluctuations—yet the emotional turmoil of this single day nearly exceeded the sum of the past several hundred years. His arcane body trembled, and it was some time before he could muster words: "Are you in earnest?"

"Would anyone joke about such a thing?" Gao Yang looked at Camille gravely. "I have come into contact with divine flesh before, and Tyre has... been in close contact with it many times. We are quite confident in this regard."

The arcane radiance around Camille flickered; he seemed to wrestle with himself for a moment, then he floated up, his tone resolved: "I can open an exit in the barrier, but I must go with you."

"You?" Gao Yang raised an eyebrow. "Didn't you say there are no functional protective devices left here?"

"I do not need a protective device," Camille said. "After the transformation of my life form, I have shed many of the weaknesses of mortals—including the weakness of being influenced by a god's will... I can move alongside you."

The ancient man's attitude was firm, and Gao Yang understood his reasoning well: Camille had waited so long for hope of leaving this place, and naturally would not stand by and watch that sole hope recklessly get himself killed. So he nodded: "All right, you come with us. Tyre, you come along too—I've watched you drool over there for quite a while."

"I was not!" Tyre wiped the drool from the corner of her mouth forcefully and fell in behind Gao Yang without hesitation. "I am perfectly composed. Look, I even brought a knife and fork..."

Gao Yang was astonished: why would this seafood carry a knife and fork when going out?! Where had she even produced them from!

Heddy knew of Gao Yang's peculiarities, but still reminded him with concern: "Progenitor, please be careful. This place is truly too bizarre."

"Don't worry, I'll be careful," Gao Yang reassured his eldest granddaughter. "You wait here with the soldiers. I'll be back shortly."

Camille came to an ancient operating console beside the isolation wall. After a series of manipulations, Gao Yang noticed the layer of energy barrier outside the wall quiver slightly, and the magical currents coursing across its surface coalesced into a hazy, translucent shape—clearly the exit.

"Follow me," Camille said, drifting toward the exit first, and warning as he went, "Stay close. I do not know whether you can truly resist a god's will, but as long as you stay near me, even if something does go wrong, I will have time to carry you to safety."

After passing through the semi-transparent protective barrier, Gao Yang was astonished to discover... the environment outside was almost no different from within the barrier.

Seeing that shattered expanse of sky and earth, his first concern was whether there was breathable air outside the barrier, for the environment resembled nothing so much as the lifeless void of space. But once he left the barrier, he found that not only could he breathe freely outside—there was even... gravity.

Though the ground in his sight was made of countless floating boulders, though many fragments of matter drifted in midair as if weightless, as long as one set foot on the larger floating boulders, one felt the same gravity as in the world outside.

Camille offered a warning from beside him: "Do not leave these stones. Once you drift too far, you will lose gravity, and after drifting away, unless you find a new foothold, you will never be able to return."

Gao Yang nodded while various conjectures arose in his mind.

All the facts seemed to indicate that this alternate space was still a reflection of the real world—just like the Shadow Realm, it had bizarre physical laws that nonetheless corresponded to the real world. He looked up at the chaotic depths of space, at the boulders and debris floating high above, and suddenly recalled what Camille had said earlier.

"Is this really the Gloom Realm?"

Hearing Gao Yang's words, Camille nodded: "We spent over a decade confirming this matter, and in the end we determined it to be so. The scholars' conjecture about the layered structure of the world was correct—beneath the Shadow Realm there truly exists a place more disordered, more deranged. Here the land is in a state of fragmentation, and the gravitational environment is scattered and broken by the shattering of the earth. It is the chaotic reflection formed by the real world's secondary projection into the depths... If in the Shadow Realm one can still more or less find outlines corresponding to the real world, then here the image of the real world has been distorted beyond all recognition."

"I found a great hollow in the Dark Mountains of the Shadow Realm," Gao Yang said. "That great hollow was right beside the magic gate. Is it connected to the Gloom Realm?"