Chapter 1 When Mortal Kingdoms Rise and Fall in Chaos

As mortal kingdoms rose and fell in chaos, and the entire continent was gradually swallowed by an ever-deepening vortex of darkness, the lands beyond the main continent could hardly remain peaceful forever. Every landmass floating in the void was affected by the dark side of Carnos. Twisted laws and negative magic were spreading from the depths of this world, layer by layer, contaminating the material realm. The world's distortion was happening far faster than any Chaos Tide recorded in history. The changes occurring in Coro were so obvious that even rural villagers could sense them, let alone the scholars of the Holy See, who had been monitoring the borders of chaos for thousands of years, committed to safeguarding the realm of order.

A group of investigators from the Theocracy set out several days ago. They were now crossing the dark chaotic realm, and the scenery of the southern end of the Ansu Continent was gradually reflected in the eyes of High Monk Kalaxius.

The Ansu Continent and the Eternal Winter Kingdom faced each other across the void. Between these two landmasses floating in the void, besides darkness and chaos, there were only broken islands attached to the main continent, drifting in all directions. Since ancient times, there have been only two modes of transportation connecting the various floating continents: one is the expensive teleportation array, efficient and safe, but costly and not always available. In cases where chaotic interference is severe, the teleportation array must be closed. The second is various flying vehicles – wind boats made by elves or magic-guided ships made by humans, as well as tamed Azure Devil Whales trained by orcs and trolls. These modes of transportation are the crystallization of thousands of years of wisdom accumulated by the people of Coro. Although navigation in the Carnos Sea is extremely dangerous, with the constant threat of chaos attacks, these modes of transportation are still indispensable. Without them tightly connecting Coro's fragmented continents, the mortals of this world would probably have been swallowed by darkness millennia ago, trapped in a situation of fighting their own battles.

Kalaxius stood on the high forecastle deck of the "Hammer of Order," watching the clouds on both sides being constantly blown away by the energy flow ejected from the magic-guided warship. In his mind, he was pondering questions about continental connections, the progress of civilization, and the survival of technology. The cold wind blew across the High Monk's cheek, raising his gray curly hair, and the white, gold-edged monk's robe billowed in the wind, making a rustling sound behind him.

However, Kalaxius didn't notice any of this. He was immersed in his thoughts, and the gradually clearing continental cliffs only formed a blurry shadow in his unfocused gray eyes. The High Monk enjoyed this state of complete contemplation – even in the Theocracy, few people could understand his strange ideas. Even the most brilliant scholars only focused on dealing with the immediate crisis or rigidly memorizing ancient texts, and few would seriously think about the future of this world or worry about the ever-declining state of Coro's civilization.

This often made him feel that the dark clouds shrouding the world were growing thicker every minute.

A jolt came from beneath his feet. The "Hammer of Divinity" began to slow down gradually. The great warship creaked and groaned internally, and layers of magic runes appeared around its white, streamlined hull. The magic-conducting panels, like wings, installed on both sides of the ship slowly opened to improve the efficiency of capturing free-floating magic in the air. In the rear half of the ship, two parallel magic-powered furnaces released a large amount of waste heat, leaving two dark red trails in the clouds. When magic-guided warships travel at high speed in the Carnos Sea, they can capture a large amount of free-floating magic. However, once they slow down, the efficiency of the ship's magic energy system plummets to its lowest point. This is the moment of greatest test for a ship.

Kalaxius looked back and saw that the furnace device installed in the center of the ship had begun to operate: the power of chaos on the Ansu Continent was raging everywhere, and the ship had to deploy the Light of Order before approaching the continent.

The High Monk sighed deeply.

"My lord, why do you sigh?" Beside Kalaxius, an attendant in a white robe with blue edges asked softly, his tone extremely respectful.

"This ship is the most powerful magic-guided warship in the Holy See and even the entire world of Coro," Kalaxius said abruptly.

"Yes, it is the pride of the Holy See," the attendant said with a proud look on his face. "It surpasses the top combat power of the entire Coro."

Kalaxius said faintly, "Two hundred years ago, this ship was also the most powerful magic-guided warship. Three hundred years ago, it was too. Five hundred years ago – the 'Hammer of Divinity' was not yet completed, but the most powerful warship at that time was still at the same level as it. Going back to a thousand years ago, the previous era, Coro's most powerful mortal weapon was the sky fortress built by the Violet Tower Council, a fortress that could accommodate six 'Hammers of Divinity.'"

The attendant looked blank, unsure how to answer in a manner that would seem sufficiently respectful. Finally, he lowered his head: "Your knowledge is extensive."

The High Monk looked at the attendant's humble posture. He knew that this was just a shallow-minded servant, and he couldn't expect him to understand his words. But he still sighed, then turned his head and continued to look at the scenery.

The bow of the Hammer of Divinity began to rise: ahead lay the floating island groups of the southern Ansu Continent. Stone blocks of all sizes floated in the air, and flying magic beasts from the floating islands often emerged from the clouds, so the ship had to avoid this altitude to reduce unnecessary risks.

Kalaxius glanced down casually as the bow of the ship broke through the clouds. At that moment, some unusual colors suddenly caught his attention: "Oh?"

The Hammer of Divinity was flying over a huge floating island. This floating island had vast, dense jungles and large areas of mountains and hills. Its scale could almost be described as a small kingdom. However, the size of the floating island itself was not surprising. What surprised the High Monk was a large open space on the island that had obviously been cut out – a semicircular gap had appeared on the edge of the island's largest forest, a result of recent logging. In this large open space, many crude building facilities could be seen: wooden scaffolding, rows of thatched sheds, earthen and stone furnaces, and some large pits. Next to those large pits, several shaky blue ovals could be seen. The shapes of these ovals were like eggs, gleaming in the sunlight, with a grid-like pattern formed by bundles on the surface. These ovals were arranged in pairs, and some thick ropes were stretched between the spheres.

"When did those floating islands… become inhabited?" Kalaxius asked, pointing to the scene below the clouds.

The attendant poked his head out and took a look, a puzzled expression on his face. "I haven't heard of it. Just now, I heard some Ansu crew members on the ship talking about the magic beast herds on the floating islands. There should only be magic beasts up there."

Kalaxius frowned. He also saw that the facilities on the floating island were quite crude and simple. Even human remnants exiled to the island wouldn't build a camp like that. As he thought, he was suddenly startled, thinking of the intelligent behavior of magic beast herds, but he quickly shook his head, not quite believing his guess.

Just then, something even more surprising happened:

The blue spheres gradually began to expand. The spheres, which had been somewhat collapsed, quickly swelled up as large as the backs of the bladderfish, a specialty of the Glimmering Continent. Underneath the spheres, many ropes and hooks were thrown aside – only then did he see that there were some short figures moving around these large spheres, seemingly the native humanoid magic beasts of the floating island.

The blue spheres grew larger and larger, and soon, Kalaxius realized that these spheres were not just expanding: another important reason for their increasing size was that these things were rising!

These primitive, crude things… were actually flying devices!

Kalaxius was not the only one who noticed the activity on the floating island. The observers of the Hammer of Divinity quickly discovered the rising air balloons below the ship. The well-trained military personnel immediately took action. Driven by their professional instincts, they regarded the balloons as unstable threats, and rushed to their posts one after another. But they did not act rashly, because the order to attack had not yet been issued.

A soldier of the Theocracy, wearing mithril light armor, ran up from the lower deck, all the way to Kalaxius: "Sir! May I ask if we should attack those… those air balloons?"

Kalaxius seemed not to have heard the soldier's voice at all. A louder sound was echoing in his mind:

The magic beasts of the outer territories have created aircraft! The magic beasts of the outer territories have created aircraft!

While the various races on the continent, who prided themselves on being higher beings, declined century after century, those magic beast tribes had not only completed internal integration, but had even evolved to the point where they could create aircraft!

The soldier did not receive an order, so he repeated: "Sir, may I ask if we should attack…"

"Do not attack!" Kalaxius suddenly shouted, almost screaming, but he immediately realized his gaffe, quickly composed himself, and said lightly, "We'll steer clear of them."