Chapter 1 The Counterattack

Possessing the memories of every bishop for the past ten thousand years, armed with the wisdom accumulated by countless venerable sages and saints, having planned for a millennium, prepared for a millennium, the Pope's counterattack was clearly not a spur-of-the-moment decision.

He had investigated every piece of information he could, his understanding of Lockmarton surpassing that of any mortal. He was even intimately familiar with the Abyss of Oblivion itself.

In this regard, perhaps only the ancient Jailers could compare.

The old bishop was now telling Hao Ren in detail what he knew: "Its main body is on Spiral Hill, hundreds of kilometers from here. On the other side of Spiral Hill lies the 'Chaotic Sea,' filled with primal energy and nightmarish phantoms. It's a boundless fog zone, and 'boundless' is not just a figure of speech—it's literally true. From the outside, the Chaotic Sea only seems to cover a few dozen kilometers, but if you venture inside, the space within is unimaginably vast. You can never pass through the fog. Only by holding a sacred artifact and returning in a straight line along the same path can you hope to survive. Therefore, when fighting Lockmarton, you must avoid that area..."

Gorton, the King of Mountains, nodded. "That is Lockmarton's mindscape. Its thoughts leak out and form that kind of domain. Only demigod-level intellects can move freely within it. Mortals will be forever lost in the endless illusions—because their mental capacity is far below Lockmarton's. They cannot exhaustively break through Lockmarton’s limits. The appearance of the Chaotic Sea indicates that Lockmarton's mental activity has fully recovered. At least on a spiritual level, it has completely broken free."

"Looks like I can operate in that area," Hao Ren nodded. "But it's best to stay far away. You can never out-think a madman."

The old bishop glanced at him and continued, "Second, Lockmarton has no weaknesses, or rather, no decisive weaknesses. Its body is forever between the real and the unreal, a mass of indescribable energy and matter. Each part randomly manifests as either tangible or intangible. And on this body, it has no vital points, no obvious organs, no clear functional divisions, not even any part that cannot regenerate after being destroyed. The feasible solution is to inflict an excessive amount of damage to its entire body in an instant, or to continuously inflict a large amount of damage, forcing it to exhaust its strength in constant regeneration. We initially chose the second approach."

"You were bound to fail," Gorton said in a rumbling voice, speaking bluntly. "I don't doubt that you inflicted effective damage in the initial rounds of attack, but your offensive probably couldn't last for more than a few rounds. It would quickly assimilate you. Whether you look at it, attack it, or merely think of its name or mention its existence within its range of attention, your minds will gradually collapse. This is fatal to mortals. The biggest problem in fighting Lockmarton is the continuous mental breakdown that occurs within you. This is far more terrifying than the evil god's claws you face."

"I can find a way to deal with that," Hao Ren said, looking at the old bishop. "What about other aspects? How large is Lockmarton's main body? Are ordinary physical attacks effective against it?"

"I can answer that," the King of Mountains said. "The part of it that can be observed with the naked eye is about two-thirds the size of the City of the Favored. At the same time, this part is also its 'body' in a relative sense. Outside this body, there is an 'emanating zone' of indeterminate range that cannot be observed with the naked eye. That is its diffused thoughts, which are also part of its body. The Chaotic Sea mentioned earlier is part of this emanating zone. The maximum extent of the emanating zone can extend to the entire planet, but since it has not yet fully escaped, this area should be limited to the range from Spiral Hill to the Chaotic Sea. In Lockmarton's mindscape, things will develop in bizarre directions, and the boundary between illusion and reality will be blurred. Things from the spiritual world will become reality, and things in the real world may be annihilated by a nightmare..."

Another Jailer nodded. "To give two examples—if someone with a weak will enters Lockmarton's mindscape and thinks of a terrifying thing or being because of fear, that terrifying symbol will appear in the real world, completely identical to the nightmare. Conversely, if someone questions or shakes their own existence, they will immediately become an imagined thing and vanish like a dream fading away without anyone noticing."

Such was the bizarre and terrifying power of Lockmarton—and this was when it had been suppressed for ten thousand years, had lost its original physical body, and was being suppressed by the prison's surviving systems!

Faced with such power, the old bishop was not blindly confident, but his tone remained unwavering. "We are prepared to sacrifice ourselves. We will inflict enough damage on it before we are completely annihilated."

"Then there is the most crucial point," Gorton, the King of Mountains, scanned everyone and said slowly, "This concerns whether Lockmarton can truly be completely destroyed—we must ensure that it cannot be resurrected."

"Even if we successfully reach Spiral Hill, successfully break through the legions of chaotic claws, and successfully destroy Lockmarton's form, it will not die so easily. It is a cunning and incredibly resilient fellow. It has been entrenched here for so long that it must have formed a mysterious connection with this space. The Abyss of Oblivion is both its prison and its breeding ground and protective shell. It may have transformed Spiral Hill into a place suitable for survival and hiding—we are fighting on its home turf, so we cannot ensure that we can seal off the possibility of it feigning death and resurrecting."

Izhaks himself was a great demon, and the kind who was often challenged by heroes, who had self-directed and self-acted in the drama of the demon king's return several times. So at this time, he immediately began to use his rich work experience to conceive how to deal with this kind of villainous boss who was good at resurrection and concealment: "It would be good if it could be isolated... or track its soul..."

The people on the scene expressed their opinions. Some were responsible for providing information on Lockmarton, some took out the distribution of the chaotic legions near Spiral Hill, and some were conceiving various combat plans. Hao Ren, however, fell silent amidst this pile of discussions. He stroked his chin with one hand and fell into deep thought.

Vivian was the first to notice this. She gently touched Hao Ren's arm. "What are you thinking about?"

"I have a plan," Hao Ren said.

His voice was not loud, but everyone present was extraordinary and naturally would not miss it, so everyone immediately fell silent.

"First, I want to confirm that the Abyss of Oblivion and the planet Coro in the real world are essentially the front and back sides of the same space. The two are related as the new world and the old world, so they are at the same level in terms of spatial structure, right?"

"That is exactly right."

"So even though this is a closed 'prison,' as long as you master the coordinate mapping and cracking algorithm with the outside universe, you can directly go to the outside universe from here without necessarily having to go through Coro in the real world?"

Gorton hesitated for a moment on this question, but still told the truth. "That is indeed the case. The new world outside is only used to carry the survivors of the disaster back then and to serve as a carrier for the prison system. It does not have the function of sealing the prison itself—the power barrier of the Abyss of Oblivion itself is what undertakes the sealing function."

"Can you tell us the cracking algorithm for this barrier?"

"The prison's cracking algorithm?!" Gorton was shocked and subconsciously wanted to refuse. "That's top secr..."

"To completely eliminate Lockmarton, the best way is to keep it away from its home turf," Hao Ren interrupted Gorton. "Whether it's the Abyss of Oblivion or the real-world Coro, both have been infiltrated by its power for many years, and there are rifts everywhere where nightmares can penetrate. So I need to send it to another battlefield... a battlefield it has never operated on."

"That's too dangerous," the giant was still shaking his head. "The power of nightmares will indeed weaken somewhat in outer space, but Lockmarton will also gain endless opportunities to escape. Space is vast, and with only the power in our hands..."

"Who said we only have this much power at hand?" Hao Ren smiled slightly and continued to poke the data terminal. "Let everyone see the work site photos."

"Just say it, stop poking and poking all day long..."

The data terminal grumbled, but still obediently opened the holographic projection. The scene that made the giant Jailers gasp instantly appeared in the middle of the hall.

That was the current state of the outer universe.

Countless turrets, countless fortresses, countless firepower bases!

Dense space facilities formed a three-dimensional giant image in outer space. Fortress groups and railguns were connected by beams and alloy tracks. They seemed chaotic, but were orderly on a macro level, with ingenious structures. Countless strangely shaped aircraft (drone swarms) shuttled through these space buildings, sending more railguns and fortress-level giant cannons to predetermined locations...

And in the darker space further away, there was more than one similar complex of buildings!

The camera gradually zoomed out, finally showing the full picture of this magnificent structure:

Tens of thousands of firepower platforms were arranged spherically, forming layers of defenses. At the focal point of all these facilities, in the deepest, darkest region of the universe, a huge silver-gray metal ring quietly floated. Inside the ring, various colors of light and shadow swayed like water waves, seeming to reflect the scenery of another world.

"Bishop Collective" and Kalaxius had already been stunned, because they had not understood when Hao Ren and Gorton talked about the "outside universe". What they saw at this moment was even more inexplicable like a dream; Gorton was also stunned, because he knew the world of the stars and seas and could naturally see what this incredible group of space facilities meant; In fact, even Hao Ren himself was stunned, because…

Because he had never imagined that what the data terminal and Nolan, these two workaholics, had created was such a perverted thing! This was even more exaggerated than the scene he had seen last time!

The data terminal explained in the spiritual link: "Didn’t you say last time, partner, that you were worried about insufficient firepower and asked us to move the fortress cannons of the core research station over? This unit thought it made sense, so it pulled over the fortress cannons from all the nearby drone nests and half of the ground attack satellite group from Aioi… You started construction a little early. If you delay it for another half a month, this unit can assemble two Star Destroyers on-site for you…"

Hao Ren: "..."